Blizzard explains, apologizes for PVP Season 10 gear debacle

In a rare moment of humility, Blizzard has taken to the official forums to address the pair of what the company is calling "mistakes." Specifically, Community Manager Zarhym (who looks adorable when posed next to a lifesized wyvern) had this to say:
Before getting into it, I want you all to know that we've maintained an open dialog with our developers over the past 24 hours regarding the way in which the PvP season transition went down since patch 4.2 (this includes relaying a lot of the feedback we've seen on the forums to them). We agree that the mistakes made were very unfortunate and unfair to a lot of players. We're currently exploring some options to try and alleviate some of the misfortune many of you experienced while purchasing PvP gear in the last week.
The full post, which is available after the break, gives a pretty good summary of the facts behind the case, and perhaps more importantly, what Blizzard intended to happen for the start of this and subsequent new arena seasons. In short: After an arena season ends, that season's PVP tier, previously available only via spending conquest points, will be available for purchase with honor points to give players one last opportunity to spend excess HP before the impending conquest-to-honor conversion (essentially, a one-week-only sale). When a new season begins, the old, sale-priced PVP tier will be taken off the market in lieu of new, better, current season gear.
Thanks for making a clear-cut thread summarizing why this is a big issue within the PvP community, Tauranewone. To keep communication on this as clear as possible, I'll try and clarify what has happened with the transition between Seasons 9 and 10, as well as give you our take. For everyone reading along, please do not create new threads on this issue. We'll be primarily watching this one and would prefer to keep our forums as easy to read as possible.
Before getting into it, I want you all to know that we've maintained an open dialog with our developers over the past 24 hours regarding the way in which the PvP season transition went down since patch 4.2 (this includes relaying a lot of the feedback we've seen on the forums to them). We agree that the mistakes made were very unfortunate and unfair to a lot of players. We're currently exploring some options to try and alleviate some of the misfortune many of you experienced while purchasing PvP gear in the last week.
First off, to be clear, we made two mistakes which led to the primary cause of frustration for players:
1) We noted that Conquest Points were going to be converted into Honor Points above the 4,000 cap with the release of patch 4.2, giving players one week to spend these excess points before the start of Season 10, at which point the 4,000 point cap would go into effect. Instead, the Honor Point cap intended to be enforced yesterday was applied at the same time Conquest Points were converted to Honor Points with patch 4.2. This led many players who saved Conquest Points up for the season transition to receive gold for any Honor Points above 4,000, rather than points above that cap. There wasn't a feasible solution for correcting the fact that the calculations had been run a week early.
2) We didn't notify players that we made a slight change to the way PvP gear is introduced each season. The change simply wasn't communicated among all of the other patch 4.2 changes, which was a big oversight on our part.
These two errors compounded each other. Players were left with no more than 4,000 Honor Points after patch 4.2, which led many players to farm more HP to buy Season 9 gear. Then, when Season 10 hit yesterday, Season 9 (ilvl 365) items were replaced with an HP tier of Season 10 (ilvl 371) items. Since players didn't know this would happen, many of you farmed HP and spent it on the Season 9 items prior to yesterday's maintenance.
Obviously most of you already know what happened and are very frustrated by it, but I just want to clarify the nature of the unrest, as well as the intended way this season transition was to happen. This is the way it should have worked, and how it should work going forward:
1) During any season, a low tier of current-season items will be available for purchase with Honor Points.
2) During any season, a high tier of current-season items will be available for purchase with Conquest Points.
3) At the end of any season, any remaining Conquest Points will be converted into Honor Points above the 4,000 cap.
4) In between seasons, the previous high tier of items become available for purchase with Honor Points, allowing anyone who could not previously afford them with CP one last chance to buy them using the excess Honor Points.
5) The new season begins. Honor Points are capped at 4,000 again. The previous season's sets are removed and replaced with current-season HP and CP items.
We've seen a lot of players ask what the purpose is of having Season 9 items available for purchase with Honor Points for a week, before replacing them with better items. The purpose was for people to spend their excess Honor Points on any leftover items, as once the next season starts players can't keep more than 4,000 HP to spend. Now, the reason why this intent wasn't evident to most players is because we capped HP a week too early, which made spending any Honor Points last week less than ideal. The reality is players would have been better off saving 4,000 HP for the start of Season 10 when ilvl 371 gear was released. But they had no way of knowing that.
That is about all of the information I have to share on this subject at the moment, but I want to remind you that the issues with this season transition are well on our radar. We know we messed up in multiple ways. This not only made our intentions very unclear, but led players to make choices to spend their Honor Points they otherwise probably would not have made.
If everything went according to plan, you probably would've spent any HP over the 4,000 cap last week on any remaining Season 9 items you maybe didn't have. You then would have saved 4,000 HP to get started on the low tier Season 10 items. This is the way we're looking at it and will let you know if and when we have more information to share
Before getting into it, I want you all to know that we've maintained an open dialog with our developers over the past 24 hours regarding the way in which the PvP season transition went down since patch 4.2 (this includes relaying a lot of the feedback we've seen on the forums to them). We agree that the mistakes made were very unfortunate and unfair to a lot of players. We're currently exploring some options to try and alleviate some of the misfortune many of you experienced while purchasing PvP gear in the last week.
First off, to be clear, we made two mistakes which led to the primary cause of frustration for players:
1) We noted that Conquest Points were going to be converted into Honor Points above the 4,000 cap with the release of patch 4.2, giving players one week to spend these excess points before the start of Season 10, at which point the 4,000 point cap would go into effect. Instead, the Honor Point cap intended to be enforced yesterday was applied at the same time Conquest Points were converted to Honor Points with patch 4.2. This led many players who saved Conquest Points up for the season transition to receive gold for any Honor Points above 4,000, rather than points above that cap. There wasn't a feasible solution for correcting the fact that the calculations had been run a week early.
2) We didn't notify players that we made a slight change to the way PvP gear is introduced each season. The change simply wasn't communicated among all of the other patch 4.2 changes, which was a big oversight on our part.
These two errors compounded each other. Players were left with no more than 4,000 Honor Points after patch 4.2, which led many players to farm more HP to buy Season 9 gear. Then, when Season 10 hit yesterday, Season 9 (ilvl 365) items were replaced with an HP tier of Season 10 (ilvl 371) items. Since players didn't know this would happen, many of you farmed HP and spent it on the Season 9 items prior to yesterday's maintenance.
Obviously most of you already know what happened and are very frustrated by it, but I just want to clarify the nature of the unrest, as well as the intended way this season transition was to happen. This is the way it should have worked, and how it should work going forward:
1) During any season, a low tier of current-season items will be available for purchase with Honor Points.
2) During any season, a high tier of current-season items will be available for purchase with Conquest Points.
3) At the end of any season, any remaining Conquest Points will be converted into Honor Points above the 4,000 cap.
4) In between seasons, the previous high tier of items become available for purchase with Honor Points, allowing anyone who could not previously afford them with CP one last chance to buy them using the excess Honor Points.
5) The new season begins. Honor Points are capped at 4,000 again. The previous season's sets are removed and replaced with current-season HP and CP items.
We've seen a lot of players ask what the purpose is of having Season 9 items available for purchase with Honor Points for a week, before replacing them with better items. The purpose was for people to spend their excess Honor Points on any leftover items, as once the next season starts players can't keep more than 4,000 HP to spend. Now, the reason why this intent wasn't evident to most players is because we capped HP a week too early, which made spending any Honor Points last week less than ideal. The reality is players would have been better off saving 4,000 HP for the start of Season 10 when ilvl 371 gear was released. But they had no way of knowing that.
That is about all of the information I have to share on this subject at the moment, but I want to remind you that the issues with this season transition are well on our radar. We know we messed up in multiple ways. This not only made our intentions very unclear, but led players to make choices to spend their Honor Points they otherwise probably would not have made.
If everything went according to plan, you probably would've spent any HP over the 4,000 cap last week on any remaining Season 9 items you maybe didn't have. You then would have saved 4,000 HP to get started on the low tier Season 10 items. This is the way we're looking at it and will let you know if and when we have more information to share
For some of you, I'm sure this is all "too little, too late." Still, it's nice to hear a company own up to its mistakes and explain the process.
Was one of your characters adversely affected by either of these two mistakes? And if so, does this response take the edge off the pain?
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new tier 12 armor!Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP), The Art of War(craft) (PvP), Cataclysm






Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
Antiquity Jul 8th 2011 10:40AM
For some of you, I'm sure this is all "too little, too late." Still, it's nice to hear a company own up to its mistakes and explain the process.
I would hardly call it owning up. They still came off as complete aholes.
A bunch of us quit after this fiasco. It's a continual theme with Blizzard the last 1.5 years and I'm not paying these guys anymore $$$ so they can do as they please.
The only way to make them listen is with $$$. And they got the message when 600K+ quit already with their crappy xpac.
GW2 looks like the place to go. Wish it was out already...
Ziberious Jul 9th 2011 8:14PM
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=39911&pageNumber=1&searchQuery=Season+9+Vicious+Gear+Reimbursements
Looks like we're not getting anything back *sigh* Way to turn me off from PvP. And apparently S9 is just as good at the start of S10.
bradstuff74 Jul 8th 2011 1:26PM
During this transition time, my arena partner and I opened 3 tickets each to express our displeasure with this mistake. Each time, the customer service representatives for Blizzard said exactly the same thing. It was not a mistake but occurred as intended. They even produced revised patch notes that supported this position.
Mistakes happen, it's how they are handled that makes the difference between a customer driven company and one that is out of touch.
It's nice to see them get their act together.
jlhealy Jul 8th 2011 4:15PM
I'm kinda bummed, myself. I've had full vicious for a few months now, and I don't really want to devote a weekend to farming up honor/gems/enchants for an entire new set just to be at the base level again. I did that at the release of Cata, and I would have figured that earning the gear through arena would be my reward for participating - I'd be able to hop right into the next season...apparently I'm at ground 0 again, anyways. :(
Also, Zarhym is kinda cute. ;)
freebeatfly Jul 9th 2011 3:36AM
Lets hope they make this (and more?) happen, my guild has been farming and buying all the S9 pvp gear in preparation for the new season of rated BGs... >.
Big Shoe Jul 9th 2011 6:23AM
However this pans out, it's nice to see Blizzard trying to make things right. I didn't expect much more than a canned apology, so I'm happy to give credit where it's due. Good show, Blizzard!
HiwaSumpa Jul 12th 2011 3:59AM
WoW is like real life. It's not fair. Thank you for teaching us Blizzard. Onward!