How bad can gaming companies go?

[Defender2516]

I don't know if the mods want this in the gaming discussion but its not perticular about any game, but companies who run them in general.

 

 

 

We all play games for entertainment, and the company that develops and runs them is key to a games success. Well, its time to pull out the wagon and see how far a company will go to save money. This isn't to critize companies but I am curious to see if this is status quo, as in, general or does every company have the customers desires at heart.

 

 

 

Well, intill a Mod says otherwise, I won't post the name of this gaming company and its a pretty good game too, but apparently they massed blocked IP's in regions due to autoer's. If you was a innocent chap, then thats too bad. You won't be able to play EVER again as thats for the good of the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for submitting your recent request to _____ Customer Services concerning _____.

 

 

 

Due to high levels of fraud and player support for illegal activity in the game, we have had to take significant measures to maintain the integrity of the _____ service.

 

 

 

We have blocked a number of IP addresses that fall outside of our operating territory. We have also blocked IPs associated with suspicious activity. If you are unable to connect after the last emergency maintenance and are trying to connect from outside our operating territory, you will no longer be able to play the game, unfortunately.

 

 

 

This changes will remain in place for the foreseeable future, and we will not respond to any appeal emails I'm afraid, as these changes are not reversable.

 

 

 

We are very sorry to have been forced into this action, but this action is absolutely necessary. The in-game economy and the commercial viability of the game are both threatened and action has to be taken to protect the future operation of _____.

 

 

 

In the bold parts I just wanted to state that in order for them to protect the game, players who probably spent months or more time get kicked and permatly banned just for living in that area. No other reason.

 

 

 

For discusion, what other games have you found where companies go completely balastic for security measures? I know Asherons Call 2 shut down for some reason, leaving all the players literally in the dark. I don't think you could play it all... was sad to, waste of money for those who got it.

[dsavi]

They will go as far as the law allows them, simply.

[Defender2516]

They will go as far as the law allows them, simply.

 

 

 

So you think that companies will go to the farthest degree in terms of revenue? Maybe not all, but i'm really shocked that this company in particular literally KICKED OUT Legit players for living in a certain area permently. So if you gave these guys money, you would lose it and thats just to bad.

 

 

 

Amazing what companies do these days.

[raylifes]

Well.... I know blizzard north banned whole isp's for diablo 2 due to cheating etc, which sucked...

 

 

 

Anyways, I believe it's different for every company and how big it is. Smaller companies have a far greater chance to really care about the customer, but as they grow bigger, they start caring more about money.

 

 

 

Note: The above is my personal opinion and not based on any facts. :wink:

[dsavi]

They will go as far as the law allows them, simply.

 

 

 

So you think that companies will go to the farthest degree in terms of revenue? Maybe not all, but i'm really shocked that this company in particular literally KICKED OUT Legit players for living in a certain area permently. So if you gave these guys money, you would lose it and thats just to bad.

 

 

 

Amazing what companies do these days.

 

 

 

Of course. If there was no profit, there would be no game companies, obviously.

[Lenin64]

They will go as far as the law allows them, simply.

 

 

This applies to corporations as well as individuals.

[Will H]

They will go as far as the law allows them, simply.

 

 

This applies to corporations as well as individuals.

 

 

 

That's pretty good. I think that Jagex would have resorted in doing this to Runescape if they hadn't demolished RWTers before it got out of hand, so the example of mas IP blocking is closer to home than we might think.

[dsavi]

They will go as far as the law allows them, simply.

 

 

This applies to corporations as well as individuals.

 

 

 

First time a Pearls Before Swine strip has had some relevance.

[Nadril]

You don't happen to live in china or something, do you Defender? That is the only place I would see a company trying to block IP's from.

 

 

 

 

 

We all play games for entertainment, and the company that develops and runs them is key to a games success. Well, its time to pull out the wagon and see how far a company will go to save money. This isn't to critize companies but I am curious to see if this is status quo, as in, general or does every company have the customers desires at heart.

 

 

 

It is true that companies are worried with profits, because with the high cost of creating games today it needs to turn a good profit.

 

 

 

However I really do think several companies out there still truly care about their fan base and their customers. Places such as Blizzard, Valve, Bioware -- ect. are all pretty consistant and try to do what they can for people.

 

 

 

 

 

I know Asherons Call 2 shut down for some reason, leaving all the players literally in the dark. I don't think you could play it all... was sad to, waste of money for those who got it.

 

 

 

Not the same thing. Asherons Call 2 got shut down because the game was making, seriously, hardly any money. It cost them more to upkeep it then they got from subscriptions and thus it was canceled.

[Defender2516]

No i'm not from China, haha. :D

 

 

 

USA all the way :P

 

 

 

Its just concering though.. that 1 day some company can say "hey, I don't care if we have players who love our game and give us money, we got bigger problems, so lets just wipe everyone out from that area".

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't know AC2 was like that, but I do know it closed down. How long did they let it go before closing? Wasn't it like a month or two? They should have been more prepared IMO.

 

 

 

 

 

Either way, as much as a company says "they care", even gaming companies, its hard to believe because you KNOW the route a gaming company goes by the profit it makes.

 

 

 

Its just sad that the very game the create FOR the gamer isn't FOR the gamer, its for money. I think thats why most games are bad.

 

 

 

I mean what do you think would get a better result, the staff saying "how can we make this better?" or saying "how do we make the money line go up?".

[underu2000]

I'm not seeing where the "companies are immoral, tasteless money-leeches" issue is coming from. I mean if anything, this shows that companies also care about their customers to some degree, in addition to making profits. Unless there was some source of revenue from sacrificing some customers for the good of the others, I fail to see why it's such a bad thing. :boohoo:

 

 

 

It does stink that your account was banned though. But it's not because of some evil motive that whatever-company-that-was had. They had nothing to gain by banning you. :shame:

 

 

 

Instead of saying "How far will these dastardly companies go! Woe!", I can understand complaining about your circumstances and where you live, like "Why does the universe conspire against me!!" :)

[assassin_696]

They will go as far as the law allows them, simply.

 

[imghttp]

 

This applies to corporations as well as individuals.

 

 

 

Don't forget though that the corporations first priority is the consumer, they can only go as far as the consumer will tolerate. Consumers have a massive amount of power in free market societies.

[Nadril]

No i'm not from China, haha. :D

 

 

 

USA all the way :P

 

 

 

Its just concering though.. that 1 day some company can say "hey, I don't care if we have players who love our game and give us money, we got bigger problems, so lets just wipe everyone out from that area".

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't know AC2 was like that, but I do know it closed down. How long did they let it go before closing? Wasn't it like a month or two? They should have been more prepared IMO.

 

 

 

 

 

Either way, as much as a company says "they care", even gaming companies, its hard to believe because you KNOW the route a gaming company goes by the profit it makes.

 

 

 

Its just sad that the very game the create FOR the gamer isn't FOR the gamer, its for money. I think thats why most games are bad.

 

 

 

I mean what do you think would get a better result, the staff saying "how can we make this better?" or saying "how do we make the money line go up?".

 

 

 

Ok, gotcha. That is very strange that a game would block U.S IP's, what game was it?

 

 

 

 

 

And I'm not sure how long AC2 really stayed open, but it was a decent while. They gave people plenty of notice (a couple months time maybe) so they knew what was going to happen.

 

 

 

It had a very rough start and was just never as good as the first AC. It had a small loyal fanbase but sadly they just couldn't keep it up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also you have to remember that, while the head CEO of a gaming company may just be interested in the profits that all of those people working inside the company are probably gamers as well. All of the writers, graphics designers, programmers, ect. all probably love games as much as we do and work their best to bring out a good product. The problem comes from the fact that some companies will overwork their employees or will rush a product out the door (*cough* EA *Cough). The reason why I noted off those companies earlier is that they really do care about the end product.

 

 

 

For example, blizzard. They could probably just [cabbage] in a box and sell it and it would sell -- their name has power behind it. However every time they work hard on creating a great game. You wonder how a company can be so sucessful with so few games? You work with each one until its a work of art, until it is perfected -- which blizzard does. They aren't afraid to delay games.

 

 

 

Valve, as well, knows how to put out a finished product. It took them a good 5 years or more for half life 2, but when it came out -- it was brilliant.

 

 

 

My point is is that you can tell the companies that really care because they will work on making it as clean as possible. The exception of this, of course, are new gaming companies that just don't have the funds. The hellgate: London team, for example, had to release early because they were running out of money to develop. What happened is a buggy mess which they are trying dilligantly to fix right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways that is my take on it, considering I want to be a part of the gaming industry in some way when I am out of college.

[Lenin64]

Adding to the companies wanting a good game, I recently read about some guys making a game called "Dead Space", and how it was something they;d dreamed about for years, and wanted to make it as awesome as possible. Great for their own satsifaction and the people who'll play it (hopefully me, it sounded great :D ). They want to make the scariest, greatest game ever, and it sounds like they are. They're working long and hard on it, it won;t be released for a long while I think. So while airplaneseatreclineology does apply to companies, it isn't ruling with an iron fist. People still care about the product and the people.

[baron8000]

This isn't about the company at all - its the one person making the decision, if that person cares more about revenue, stockholders and shares then he/she will make that call. If the CEO is an avid gamer who loves his product and wants it to be everywhere at the cost of profit then he will go in the other direction.

 

 

 

The "company" does not exist as a separate entity - its the people at its head, be they a Samaritan or an asshat, that will make the difference.

[eggzs]

is this game maplestory, cause my friend who plays it told me that the company who were running the global version of the game blocked ip's of countries who had their own dedicated servers

[1_man_army]

 

 

 

Don't forget though that the corporations first priority is the consumer, they can only go as far as the consumer will tolerate. Consumers have a massive amount of power in free market societies.

 

 

 

While thats true and perfectly valid, it's also dependent on consumers joining together en masse to boycott the the brand/product which is a rarity. It's also dependent on the attention span of the consumers in question, often big brands can wait out and weather the storm of public backlash long enough for the issue to be forgotten about; an example being the GAP child labour affair(s).

 

 

 

At the time there was uproar, condemnation and talk of boycotting, now it's been superseded by numerous other events and it's off of the cultural radar which allows GAP to continue to make profit.

[llamster]

 

And I'm not sure how long AC2 really stayed open, but it was a decent while. They gave people plenty of notice (a couple months time maybe) so they knew what was going to happen.

 

 

 

 

Three years, from 2002 to 2005. Turbine was hoping that this expansion pack would bring profits up, but it didn't, so it was closed.

 

 

 

I agree with you. Gaming companies can and do care about their consumers.

[Unoalexi]

 

 

 

In the bold parts I just wanted to state that in order for them to protect the game, players who probably spent months or more time get kicked and permatly banned just for living in that area. No other reason.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest, IP bans are absolutely useless anyway. Anybody with half a brain and Internet access can easily change their IP.. Considering that most macroers have a good knowledge of how computers work, they probably change their IP on a regular basis anyway..

 

 

 

But that's beside the point.

 

They will go as far as the law allows them, simply

 

No. A company will instead go as far as their customers tolerate their behavior and thus still pay for their products/services.

 

 

 

Did many players living in areas not IP banned quit because the gaming company was biased to a group of players living in a certain region? Probably not, right? Thus, the players still paying tolerated the company's behavior, and the company was allowed to IP ban this region without repercussions to their pocketbooks.

[adam_ross0]

The companies will go as far as they can before the players will start getting mad. They're gonna go right up to the line, but not past it. They'll get as close as they can. It's just the way business works.

[Defender2516]

No my account didn't get banned at all. Im just saying that a company would literally kick out legit players who probably even paid them money somewhere down the line for a game they enjoy can no longer play it all just because of autoers.

 

 

 

We are talking about entire regions being IP banned, not just a few players. Patchs themselfs take literally months and thats for small bugs.

 

 

 

I won't mention the game for obvious reasons, but if you send their customer support a ticket, they have the right to literally take a item from your charater in game if they feel you wasted their time with the ticket, and they usually take the best item too! wtf.

 

 

 

I honestly don't believe that a majority of gaming companies care due to the fact that everytime they turn around want to change something, its always the gamer who gets the bad end of the stick for their profits, not the gamers.

 

 

 

Like Runescape, we all have to suffer through balance trading just to get rid of autoers. Pking was literally taken out for bounty hunter. Its these kind of changes i'm talking about and the one above, that are extreeme measures to save a dollar.

 

 

 

Not every gaming company is like this, but I believe most are. As why be a company if the goal is not the pursuit of profit? Thats what most companies have in their head.. not "how do we make the best awesome game ever.."

[llamster]

The RuneScape updates were made for the purpose of destroying a serious threat towards the game. Jagex lost money by implementing it, but they were willing to do so in order to improve their game.

 

 

 

And yes, all companies' main goal is to make money. And do you know how to make money if you are a gaming company? They "make the best awesome game ever".

[Nadril]

The RuneScape updates were made for the purpose of destroying a serious threat towards the game. Jagex lost money by implementing it, but they were willing to do so in order to improve their game.

 

 

 

And yes, all companies' main goal is to make money. And do you know how to make money if you are a gaming company? They "make the best awesome game ever".

 

 

 

 

 

Any sort of bots were not a serious problem to the game. I'm sorry but all this time they have been chasing down this problem and really don't care what kind of causalities happen along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

See, there are companies, such as jagex, that really only care about one thing. Some companies care about profits, in Jagex's case they really only care at this point about their revenue and getting these gold farmers out of the game no matter the cost. They don't give a damn on what part of the community they hurt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Defender, not every company is like this. To be honest you are less likely to see this behavior with many 'good' companies such as the ones I listed and many many more.

 

 

 

There are a lot of game companies out there still to bring and devliver an enjoyable experience. Yes, they need to make money doing it. However just like how an artist such as a musician makes money they make it by creating enjoyable content that others will like. Don't let a few bad companies get in your way of thinking every gaming company is 'evil'.

 

 

 

 

 

And if you're currious llamster, I am the same Nadril on MMORPG.com as here

[underu2000]

Companies banning IP's are doing it for the good of their customers. It's merely cleaning up illegal activities that could ruin the name of the game, and the quality that their customers demand. I still fail to see how accidentally banning legit customers along with autoers qualifies them to be some hideous organization of pain and doom.

 

 

 

As for Jagex, I'm sure they're more than money-hungry leeches, as I said before. Again, mass bannings and other drastic measures prove that the company does care about their game and customers. In recent runescape events, Jagex had nothing to gain and was only meant to clear out gold farming in the game, and hurting the community is not in Jagex's interests.

 

 

 

To be honest, I think the entire matter is unwarranted. There's no reason to think any company is evil just because some random mmo had some mass banfest; it doesn't mean either that company, or any other is out to get you. I mean, you said yourself (Defender) you didn't even get banned, you were speaking hypothetically.

[Defender2516]

The RuneScape updates were made for the purpose of destroying a serious threat towards the game. Jagex lost money by implementing it, but they were willing to do so in order to improve their game.

 

 

 

And yes, all companies' main goal is to make money. And do you know how to make money if you are a gaming company? They "make the best awesome game ever".

 

 

 

 

 

Any sort of bots were not a serious problem to the game. I'm sorry but all this time they have been chasing down this problem and really don't care what kind of causalities happen along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

See, there are companies, such as jagex, that really only care about one thing. Some companies care about profits, in Jagex's case they really only care at this point about their revenue and getting these gold farmers out of the game no matter the cost. They don't give a damn on what part of the community they hurt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Defender, not every company is like this. To be honest you are less likely to see this behavior with many 'good' companies such as the ones I listed and many many more.

 

 

 

There are a lot of game companies out there still to bring and devliver an enjoyable experience. Yes, they need to make money doing it. However just like how an artist such as a musician makes money they make it by creating enjoyable content that others will like. Don't let a few bad companies get in your way of thinking every gaming company is 'evil'.

 

 

 

 

 

And if you're currious llamster, I am the same Nadril on MMORPG.com as here

 

 

 

Perhaps your right, but I always seem to see more towards how they screw people over than deliever a enjoyable experience.

 

 

 

Like Crysis for example, the entire game was awesome but my anticipation to go to the ice sphere is what I really wanted and waited for. Guess what, it doesn't happen due to the fact their making the game a 3 way fold series or Trilogy to get extra cash.

 

 

 

I felt so ripped off from a company I thought that cared.. only to have them have only ONE ice level which was a short and quick run n gun mission. You never go back in till part 2, but the problem is, there SHOULDN'T BE a part 2. It only comes with 10 levels on single player aside from multiplayer and I waited forever to get this game. I felt kinda ripped off because I rarely seen any ice at all.

 

 

 

Meh, I guess i'm just a negative towards companies when I always see them screw people so they can worship the dollar. Sure, getting money is 1 thing to stay afloat and perhaps some profit, but just doing it for more money is ridicolous.