What the response from the devs should have looked like -imo

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

Alright seeing as the odds of the developers actually writing this are pretty slim, I decided to put myself in their shoes, pretend your all my customers and offer what I feel would be a valid response. Please ignore any grammatical or spelling issues, still working on my first coffee.

Attention valued customer,

We realize the recent roll-out of the Ultron event did not go as smoothly as we had hoped and many of you were frustrated with the overall experience. We had high hopes this event would provide a varied and interesting experience for you are valued customers but in the end; in our excitement to get this release out it’s clear we missed the mark and there is definitely a lot of room for improvement. We appreciate the feedback (both positive and negative) we have received over the last week and are certainly going to be looking into improving the reliability of this event going forward.

We further understand there has been a lot of negative feedback regarding some recent changes we have made to characters and PVP. We are still in the process of evaluating how these changes have impacted the overall game experience and will certainly be looking for ways to improve this going forward.

In regards to the Ultron event we have identified a number of ways in which players progression had been negatively impacted

  • Alliance unable to finish round due to server downtime towards the end of round 1, possibly missing out on Scarlet Witch covers
  • Players who had not finished unlocked Ultron Prime events due to server downtime, possibly missing out on Quicksilver covers and Ultron packs
  • Players not receiving points under specific circumstances for certain Ultron missions.
  • Players not being able to complete nodes in round 2 due to Scarlet Witch not being rewarded in round 1.
  • Excessive point requirements in round 2

We are unable to efficiently determine the exact rewards a player missed out on due to server issues, as a result we’ve decided to provide everyone with a token of our appreciation for their patience during this event.

  • 1 Quicksilver cover
  • 1 Scarlet Witch cover
  • 1 Hulk Buster cover
  • 10 pack Ultron Covers

We feel this should certainly offset any potential loss of progression rewards during the event and will be rolling these rewards out shortly. Should you feel the rewards do not offset your personal losses, do not accept the rewards when they arrive, and please contact support. We will address these cases on a case by case basis.

Thank you again for your patience.

Just to explain my approach.

First I think its important to take ownership of the problem. Let them know you understand the problem, apologize for the customers inconvenience and assure them that their concern is your concern.

Second of all you’ll notice I was not thrifty with the rewards. The primary reason in this case is its a really easy way to help the customer look past the problem, by offering the 10 pack as well it also gives customers a potential possibility to actually end up better off then had the server issues not occur, which would certainly go a long way toward mitigating frustration. The secondary reason is these items carry no monetary cost , it does not impact the bottom line negatively at all. If anything it prevents the type of customer frustration that could affect by bottom line negatively.

Lastly I give customers an option to address their issues on a case by cases base, this is not an option likely to exercised by the vast majority of the customers however, due to my generosity in the rewards. My generic approach also means I would have to spend less time trying to figure out exactly what each customer missed out on, so the cost in man hours spent should be significantly less as well.

Now some of you may disagree and thats all good, I’m simply outlining the approach I would personally take.

2

I like free stuff, so your response is nice. Maybe they should hire you? =p

But I’m not expecting anything so I don’t get my hopes up.

3

Although I think your compensation is way more than I would expect, I’m really disappointed in what D3 is offering now, what should have been a great event got ruined because of server issues and now I know people who are quitting because they believe D3 is a really cheap company and really doesn’t care about their player base.

4

A Hulkbuster is asking a lot but other stuff I think is quite reasonable. Though they can just do a Hulkbuster black for everyone to cover both the server outage and that it looks like round 8 is only mathematically possible if you’ve some D3 approved instant win hacks on all 20 players.

5

When compared to other mobile games, this is actually the expected response. That’s another part that just compounds the frustration. This company is in the bottom percentile when it comes to handling problems. I have been on many other games’ forums, and this is easily the most negative one.

6

Accountability would be great, and I’m hoping to see something of substance from the devs in this regard. I must admit to finding this experience odd as compared to others I’ve had with developers over the years.

Especially considering they decided to offer players the opportunity to communicate via the forum and/or PMs, etc., it’s nice to have them meaningfully engage. I obviously don’t think they are (or should be) obligated to respond to rage posts, but comments that are respectful and reasonable should be given some thoughtful attention.

As for rewards/compensation, a couple comments:

First, while I understand the difficulty in determining what players “should” have gotten (Ultron nodes, refreshes, PVP finishes, etc.), the O:H PVE progression reward (SRCA redflag.png
) should be considered, because it was a simple matter of time spent, and when the servers went down, players lost an opportunity that relied solely on them, the player. IE, if a player ended up with 41213 progression points, it would be hard not to assume they could have made 45000 without the downtime.

[*Full disclosure-I ended up miraculously getting mine at the last moment (thus I would not qualify for recompense, and I’m fine with that), but I know how I felt to be so close in the final hours and feel like, “If only I had that day of grinding back. Those single node refreshes would have been the difference.” It would be a significant boost to my confidence in D3 to see them offer SRCA cards to players who cleared the 40000 reward, because one more round of node refreshes would arguably have been the difference.]

Finally, I actually got a (an?) SW card last night. It is now sitting down there with She-Hulk and two other 3*s until I sell them for ISO, because I don’t have roster space. Speaking only for myself (obviously), I’d rather not end up with 10-15 other cards I don’t have space for. I guess I’m tired of receiving “gifts” that ultimately mean I’ll need to spend more money. Not saying I’d turn down some tokens, but they wouldn’t mean much to me in relation to recent events, and I’d honestly rather they just hang on to them.

Frankly, it would be great to see some kind of HP rewards from D3. I realize and accept that’s unlikely, but then that’s a whole other topic.

DBC

7

I think the 10-pack would be pushing it (though I wouldn’t complain), but I agree that they should award all the covers. Even if your alliance DID manage to go through and finish off Primes, it was still more difficult than it should, plus dealing with the outages and interference with other events—everyone should get something, and not just a heroic token that is going to give you a Moonstone.

Man up D3, admit the event got screwed up. Admit you overdid the numbers on Ultron round 2, and compensate accordingly.

8

Although the 10 pack is costly it’s value to most players is really not that high. It’s certainly a lot less valuable than say a single Hulkbuster cover unless you’re super lucky.

9

Historical evidence points towards them not being wrong.

Just saying…

10

No Phantron, a single 4* cover is not “a lot.” It’s only a significant reward in the crazy world of mpq where players are expected to pay almost 20 US dollars for 1/13 of a playable 4*, not counting leveling costs (and even that purchase is only possible if they have already acquired a starter cover).

That pricing model is just not reasonable, especially in a game where 4 different 4*s have been released in the past 4 months. (whether or not people will pay it is a different question).

On top of that, the monetization system for this game is such that giving everyone a single 4* cover may actually generate some revenue in that players will now be tempted to roster the shiny new 4*. And once they have rostered that 4*, they will be more likely to buy more covers (or packs) so that they can actually USE that 4*. Obviously, I don’t have the internal numbers and can’t prove that this strategy would be profitable, but even if giving out that many covers is a net-loss, shouldn’t some value be attached to customer goodwill. Demiurge clearly takes a “too much is better than too little” approach when it comes to nerfing characters, why not take the same approach with compensation after a technically challenged rollout? surely a single, over-generous response looks better than having to do multiple waves of compensation?