Blizzard to offer compensation for patch issues
by David Nelson 
Dec 7th 2006 at 6:30PM
Blizzard recently announced that they will be giving players a 24 hour time extension on all active accounts to make up for the difficulties of the past few days. Good news!Now I know a lot of folks fall into the camp of "Well, it's fifty cents...who cares?" And really, if I think about it, I don't care about fifty cents either. You can't even buy a candy bar or a cup of coffee for that anymore. But, for me anyway, it is more the act of them admitting there was an error and trying to correct it in a manner that costs themselves money. They are basically forking over a days revenue, which is no small thing. While I'd prefer for them to keep my fifty cents and provide a patch that worked 100% of the time, it is nice they are admitting their problems.
Does this make any of you guys a little less annoyed? Or does it simply not matter and you only want to see a fully functioning game?
Filed under: Patches, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Matt Dec 7th 2006 6:36PM
I'm a *little* less annoyed. I'm more annoyed that A) none of my addons work, B) some of my addons will never work again, and C) I have to wait for the next patch for them to actually balance the classes.
Tsel Dec 7th 2006 7:05PM
$0.50 to us... But think about what's it's costing them. 7 million or so subscribers? $3.5 million? I'd say it's quite an overture.
Unkle Dec 7th 2006 7:24PM
L2Play addon noobs.
They're not part of the game, and are cheating IMO, so quit whining.
Condord4myt Dec 7th 2006 7:32PM
i think its more just a gesture of goodwill.
truthfully other than the BG's down for a few hours and a few things that are missing in the patch (arena and is gone and i was told Draenei children were going to be mixed in with the regular ones, though i guess that hardly counts) i have had no game-breaking issues at all.
Justin Dec 8th 2006 11:07AM
I really don't understand people like Unkle. Do you really think it makes you something special if you don't use addons? Personally, I see them as a tool that makes life easier in the game. For instance, I had an addon that automatically sold all my greys when I went to a vendor, rather than make me mouse over every item in my bags, looking for the greys. How the hell is that cheating? It just makes life easier. If I want to bind papers together at work, I use a stapler. Using Unkle's logic, I should shape a piece of steel into a staple and push it through the paper myself.
I guess if not using addons makes you feel better about yourself, do whatever works for you there, buddy.
Seltor Dec 7th 2006 9:05PM
Warsong's Eastern Kingdoms server (if there's separate servers for each continent) went down, no one can log with characters that are currently in the East.
Blizzard managed to F*** up a lot more than usual with this patch, I don't think 24h is enough to compensate for all the problems that have been hapenning (getting stuck in the battlegrounds sucks, and it hapenned to me today).
Prauche Dec 7th 2006 9:31PM
I don't understand how ANYONE thought that the BGs were going to be viable before December 12th. A COMPLETE PvP revamp and you thought you'd be cruising along in the BGs like there weren't any changes? I basically decided that for a week or two after the PvP changes I'd do things OTHER than the BGs.
A 24-hour credit is a nice gesture. I agree with #2 - while it doesn't really put much in MY pocket or YOUR pocket, it certainly takes quite a bit out of Blizz's pocket. Just goes to show you how much $$ they REALLY gross off of us.
Matt Dec 7th 2006 10:41PM
"L2Play addon noobs.
They're not part of the game, and are cheating IMO, so quit whining."
You're right, Blizzard built in support for the Lua programming language and dedicated a forum on their site to addons because they DIDN'T want people to make them. It all makes sense now.
BoohooMatt Dec 7th 2006 10:50PM
Matt is whining again about his mods not working! boohoo! just cus they build it doesn't mean you have to use it. if they really care that much, they would have shipped with some default mods!
I, personally, like the 24 hrs extension seeing how I've decided long before last tuesday that I wasn't going to play for a week or two after the patch hit -- so for me, it's a freebie! I'm not going to fight the network congestion; the loading of mods that don't work; being kicked off the server when they have to patch yet again. I have better things to do -- like making fun of you whiner!!
if you people truly believed that a patch this big is going to work on the first try, email me, i have a bridge that I can sell you.
Face it, Blizzard has bad developers who can't write code properly, and they have worse Q/A people who can't test properly that 1) they need to have a PTR so people can help them test; 2) despite all that lead time, they still can't make it work out of the chute; 3) they have to compensate their subscribers. This is nothing new!
Blizzard has good hardware; but bad programmers!
BoohooMatt Dec 7th 2006 11:01PM
Matt is whining again about his mods not working! boohoo! just cus they build it doesn't mean you have to use it. if they really care that much, they would have shipped with some default mods!
I, personally, like the 24 hrs extension seeing how I've decided long before last tuesday that I wasn't going to play for a week or two after the patch hit -- so for me, it's a freebie! I'm not going to fight the network congestion; the loading of mods that don't work; being kicked off the server when they have to patch yet again. I have better things to do -- like making fun of you whiner!!
if you people truly believed that a patch this big is going to work on the first try, email me, i have a bridge that I can sell you.
Face it, Blizzard has bad developers who can't write code properly, and they have worse Q/A people who can't test properly that 1) they need to have a PTR so people can help them test; 2) despite all that lead time, they still can't make it work out of the chute; 3) they have to compensate their subscribers. This is nothing new!
Blizzard has good hardware; but bad programmers!
Arv Dec 7th 2006 11:56PM
Personally I'd prefer another free respec
Matt Dec 8th 2006 12:34AM
Wow, that's pretty clever, I see what you did there, with the name, and the Boohoo.
Anyway, I'm happy that they gave us the 24 hr extension.
I have to ask you though, why would they build an addon function if nobody's supposed to use it, by your logic?
Duggie Dec 8th 2006 4:19AM
IMO theres addons and then there's cheats.
Gatherer, auctioner, the rogue poison thing, and the one mentioned above (selling greys) are fine, if you into that sort of thing.
However, mods that change the way the game works in combat are cheats. Anything that casts for you or tells you to cast is a cheat, in the same way as auto head shot in CS. The standard UI provides you with everything you need to play properly. If you want to modify your UI thats fine, IMO thats what the mod function is for.
Personally I play on a Pve and RPPVP server. On the PVE i use gatherer and the rouge posion thing. On the RPPVP i use nothing as it adds to the RP experience.
Duggie Dec 8th 2006 5:30AM
Sorry went off topic then. A free day is cool. Mainly as its an admission that the patch wasn't perfect. I also agree with Prauche, 3.5 million is a lot off cash.
Zzap64 Dec 8th 2006 7:55AM
"Matt is whining again about his mods not working! boohoo! just cus they build it doesn't mean you have to use it."
Clutching at straws mate.
Just cos they built an auction house doesnt mean I have to use it? Just because you can repair your gear doesnt mean you should? l2play without repairs?
How the hell do you play? Naked and using only your fists?
After all, just beacuse they made loot doesnt mean you have to use it....
leave the addon topic alone. We all know its popular to yell "l2play without addons" but lets say the only addon I use is one that moves my hotbars about. l2play without it? What, clicking an icon 2 inches from where I would have it with the addon? Yeah, its sooo hard to adjust and it really means I cheat at WoW and I suck and I cant play the game cos I like to group all my buttons on the bottom right of the screen and scale the size down? Pathetic mate, pathetic. Go back to playing your own game instead of trying to pass judgement like your any better than someone who uses basic addons to accomadate for the areas blizzard didnt pull through with the UI.
l2think noob. l2not run with the 1.General chat spam crowd.... take your hate crimes elsewhere.
Shadowforge Dec 8th 2006 8:00AM
I like the fact that they are acknowledging their problems, but I don't like they way they offer compensation. I would rather they reduce my monthly fee by the refund amount instead of just postponing the day they charge me. It just doesn't feel like I'm getting compensation when I am paying the same amount every month.
Halvar Dec 8th 2006 9:05AM
I believe that it is a good gesture. I personally was frustraded when I got done with work and ran home to try out the new patch. Once home I found out that the server time was moved back and back. Finally, later that night I got on and it was laggy and finally it locked up. My characters were locked up till the next day, which was disappointing. The free day does shows me that they are sorry for the delay and patch problems, and here is a token of "our bad." Thanks Blizzard I will take the extra day and be ok with the problems I went through.
Karnifex Dec 8th 2006 9:41AM
I was beginning to think that I was going to get through all of those posts and not see anyone say what #16 said.
You're still billed once a month, regardless of the day. Bliz didn't suffer themselves out of less money. They still made every penny of it. They're in business to make money, and they're doing really well with it.
To the anti-addon militants: It was said above, Bliz implemented a system that allows for their customers to modify (to a certain degree and within legal means) the experience of their product. If you want to take advantage of that, go ahead. If not, then don't. Nuff said. Yall are goin at each other like it's anabolic steroids.
I use add-ons *GASP!!1!one* and it's great.
Swiftlydead Dec 8th 2006 10:09AM
PATCH DAYS RULE! GET OVER ALL THE FUCKING WHINING, TARDS!
daxstyles Dec 8th 2006 10:16AM
"L2Play addon noobs.
They're not part of the game, and are cheating IMO, so quit whining."
Posted at 7:24PM on Dec 7th 2006 by Unkle
If it were cheating, Blizzard would ban them outright. If it weren't for mods, several little additions to the game would probably not exist, like their version of Scroling Combat Text, the new auto loot option, etc.
I imagine that you are one of those people who have no idea how to install an addon so you hide your ignorance behind a wall of out-of-the-box elitism. If you don't like mods, don't use them, but don't fault those who do.
,.i..