Don't believe everything you read.

From reading the forums, it would appear that Jagex has a customer service problem. I'd hazard a guess though that many people who get their issues sorted out without trouble don't post to the forums. "Hey I had a problem because my account was banned for no reason, but Jagex fixed it for me in 3 hours!!!" is not the sort of message you read often. Even though there might be 10, 20, 100 times more people whose issues and problems are solved than there are who end up complaining to the boards, it's the squeaky wheel that gets noticed.

Now I don't know any of the people at Jagex, but I wouldnÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t be at all surprised if the founders are all youngish guys, and they were probably still working on their undergrad degrees when they came up with RS. Not a bad thing. More power to them. Wish I'd been there and done that and gotten rich from it.

One of the rules of real world Magick is "never summon anything you can't feed" -- if you're going to summon a demon, be very, very careful to make sure that you've got at least twice as much demon kibble as you think you'll need and add a couple of extra bags just in case. Otherwise you'll end up as demon dessert.

Jagex probably never expected RS to take off the way it has. They probably expected a few tens of thousands of players world wide, and maybe a dozen or so servers world wide. That would have made it a very successful game in and of itself. Instead they've found themselves with (my best guess) upwards of 2 million accounts, and with somewhere between 80,000 and 150,000 players on line at any time on well over 100 servers worldwide. TheyÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢ve been successful beyond their wildest dreams and now theyÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢re stuck with a very large demon to feed.

Now despite having a huge amount of money coming in both in the form of our $5/month membership and advertising revenues, they've got huge expenses. Server rental and maintainence, accounts processing, maintenance programming (bug fixing, updates, etc.), and expansions and new quests (they don't appear out of thin air) just to keep the ball rolling -- this is the "demon kibble" aspect of the game. All this has to be kept going on a daily, if not hourly basis. They do a great job. Updates appear weekly, the servers stay on line. It's been a while since I got booted from my home world, though there have been some laggy patches from time to time. Even when they take the game down for an update, it's rarely down long. And there's enough new content to keep me entertained and keep that $5/month on my credit card.

But with 2,000,000 accounts you're going to get a lot of questions. They've gotten smart and set up the forums so that players can help each other (which takes some of the weight off them). They've created player mods who basically work for free. It's a great system, as long as the pmods are reliable and knowledgeable. The one's I'm personally acquainted with are all that and more (especially the ones who give me phr33 5t0ph pl0x!!1!! )

But keeping 2million players in line is like herding 2million cats. It's virtually impossible. There'll always be scammers, rule breakers, rule benders, people who enjoy spoiling other's play. There'll always be cheats and people who'd rather buy success than earn it. That's life. Hence customer service. Their job, poor souls, is to deal with the problems that the low-lifers create in game. They're only human, just like the rest of us. They have only the information they are given, and they sometimes make mistakes. I'd hazard a guess that they're horribly overworked. I can't think of a worse job right now than dealing with some of the stuff that comes up in the forums. I can't imagine a worse job than dealing with hundreds of emails, day after day, filled with angry accusations and l33t-5p34k. I should imagine it's hard to get people to do that job and getting people with knowledge of gaming or the willingness to learn the game (not just play it) to do customer service is probably horribly difficult.

I've done Tech Support -- it's soul-destroying. Spending all day every day listening to people who've done something stupid and as a result are angry (especially when they know they messed up and don't want to admit it), or people who can't follow instructions, or people who think they're entitled to whatever they want, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the situation, will drive even a strong man to drink.

The ones that always get me are those who believe that because they pay $5/month (or whatever the fee for service is in the product I'm supporting) they're entitled to $5,000 worth of service any and every time they call. Tain't so. Entitlement scum are the world's worst.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Jagex doesn't need a corporate overhaul -- get in a few veteran management types to look at their business systems and rebuild them in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. But that's up to Jagex. I don't know how their customer service is run or what their success rate in resolving issues is, so I can't make any suggestions and if I canÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t make any suggestions as to how to improve it, thereÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s not much point in complaining.

Most of us get an extremely good deal for our $5/month. It costs me about $0.10/hour to play RS. Yep. I play about 50 hours/month. It's my primary entertainment, I don't watch TV. And at $0.10/hour it's got to be the cheapest game in town. ItÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s a lot less than cable TV or even dialup internet access.

I think a lot of the customer service problems arise from the huge number of young people playing the game. They get swept up in the play, they don't really take notice of the rules and then when the rules jump up and bite them, they make a fuss. They get scammed because they don't remember the basic safety rules (don't give out your password, read the second trade screen before accepting, etc.). They get greedy so they try macroing, then complain when they get banned. Older players with a bit more real world experience tend not to suffer that way so much -- if only because theyÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢ve been burned that way elsewhere. And are perhaps more willing to admit that they messed up.

There again, IÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢m sure that a lot of the traffic that deluges JagexÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢ customer support staff is furious emails from angry parents whose children have been ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬ÅcheatedÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬ÃâÃ

Well put, and very true. Inherently we see all these negative posts about Jagex. But of course you don't get to see the flipside of that, because who posts they got unbanned with no trouble?

We all need to play by the rules, keep our complaints on trivial issues to a minimum and take some anti-jagex rants with a grain of salt. We also need to recognize that Runescape doesn't run itself, Jagex does a wonderful job keeping this game going. Keep things in perspective and appreciate this fantastic game we get to play thanks to the good people at Jagex.

Thank god, man. You really hit home on the $5 a month vs. $5k not entitled to you. It saddens and worries me to hear people refer to Jagex as tyrants or oppressive. It makes me uneasy, I suppose, because it hints at a deeper personal problem dealing with the player having free choice not to pay Jagex any further if they're truly not satisfied.

Very nice and well written post :D . I too have grown tired of all of the complaining on the boards and I agree with your post 100%. I'm not saying that Jagex customer support is perfect, every company makes mistakes, but I think most people forget that they also are offering their game for free with a large number of free servers to play on. Theres not many games left out there anymore that offer such a fun game to play for free.

I said in another post that Jagex could just cut the number of f2p servers they have or even cut f2p all together, cutting alot of the expenses they have (although i'm not sure how much they make with advertising on f2p servers). But it seems to me that by doing that they would have alittle more money to expand their customer service. I don't know about everyone else's opinion, but I prefer having so many free servers to play on.

nicely put

that was such a long post i hardly got through it

Well, when i read this i see lots of myself in this complaining part, i've been very angry at Jagex sometimes, but.. Well, basicaly(sp?) all you say is true.

Wow, nicely put. Mostly now you only hear ppl bashing jagex's customer support and the company in general. Its not easy managing somthing that huge succesfully like andrew and the team have done. Like you pointed out they have a very, very full plate. I think the article meant well and was well written but it was one sided. Hopefully whoever wrote it wont stop giving us articles over this incident.

One thing that would be nice though is if there was more in game interaction between jagex and their players. Ive been playing for almost a year and have never seen an official jagex staff member ( only a few mods here and there). Andrew used to interact in game with quite a few people back in the classic days. Of course that was much easier with only several hundered accounts vs 2 million now. But it might help to lighten the load on customer support if they had staff members playing the game along with the mods (getting feedback, ideas, ect). The mods were definitly a great idea but i think the ratio of mods to players is too small, and scince the population explosion more mods sure couldnt hurt.

First off, great post man.

I have to agree fully with you as well. Customer support is a very tough job, however like you said, jagex needs to figure it out. They need to mostly prioritize their messages, for example, I would reply to ones about accounts first, and than worry about scammers / other stuff.

Excellent post Hugh. You've hit the nail on the head.

People seem to feel they are entitled to so much in life. Usually those people are kids, and mostly because of the way they are brought up. The message out there these days is you should have whatever you want, without working for it, and if someone has something you want, you should go take it from them. This mindset does nothing to prepare people for real life, and is not a good thing.

As for Jagex, I've only been a member for a short time, but even in my free days I've submitted bugs and gotten real people responding to me. As a member I've gotten real-person feedback many times. Customer service is a terrible job. You are the target for the caller's frustrations.

Why would Jagex purposefully do the things that so many ranting posters claim? I read them and thing along the lines of the Jerry Springer show... you watch it and sincerely hope that they are not serious in their thoughts or actions. Why would a company ban customers (and lose the money) just to spite people? That makes no business sense.

I've seen it first hand with younger family members who play. They were complaining to me about getting "hacked" and "scammed" and how the game isn't fair, but when the truth came out, they told someone their password, of tried to download a macro, or tried scamming someone themselves.

I tend to believe that Jagex will do their best to respond to intelligently written questions and concerns. If the messages and/or calls they get are anything like some of the rant posts on tip.it, then how can one expect them to treat them seriously?

well said!

you're right, we don't hear enough about the good side and about the people whose problems were fixed quickly.

Honestly can't fault this post, it's all true, and it's all more or less my standpoint on the matter.

Good to see someone taking the time to post it properly though, very well thought out. This stands alongside the "F2P VS P2P" thread in my mind, as being a good reference point for morons that come barging in here to post their latest pile of... well, you know.

-applaudes-

Very good post. I can tell that you thought about this for a while before you posted it. I coulld't have said it better myself. :)

that my friend, is an excellent text you wrote there.

I can fully agree with that!

Thank you for writing that, we needed a level headed explanation for all of this, it was getting out of control. It sounds like you really know what you're talking about and have some experience in it. And although I wish Jagex would of stepped up and said something to this affect, it probably wouldn't be as effective coming from them. Good job.

:D

Its such a great relief to read such a well thought out, original rant. Good Job.

I'd never really thought before about all the blood and sweat that goes into 'Customer Support' - I guess its quite a thankless task.

If youÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢ve never, ever in your life made a mistake or a misjudgement, then maybe youÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢re entitled to criticise Jagex,but the rest of us need to take a chill pill, and get on with playing the game by the rules.

A very good point. I think RS would be a much better place if people payed more attention to their own game and less to others. People need to knuckle down, suck it up, and get back to having some good old fashioned gaming fun :P

-Gid.

Thank you for writing that, we needed a level headed explanation for all of this, it was getting out of control. It sounds like you really know what you're talking about and have some experience in it. And although I wish Jagex would of stepped up and said something to this affect, it probably wouldn't be as effective coming from them. Good job.

Thanks.

I guess you could say I've had some experience in the field... I started programming in 1978 and have done pretty much everything in the field except design and build new components from scratch 8)

As for my gaming experience, well I started with the original Colossal Caves adventure game on mini-computers, along with StarTrek and Wumpus, and later Zork and never looked back.

That may have been the first long post that I've read in a long time that kept me reading. Most of the long posts are just repetitive senteces that they have repeated in a few different ways. Not only is your thread 100% true, but it's also very interesting. Congrats

Well.. i agree that the community pple never learn to praise and only love to complain and rant..

Nice phrase --> "never summon a demon u can't feed"

Anyway, runescape had appear in my country newspaper once.. with a minister in picture playing the game with his kid.. ".. i played so that we (father and son) could enjoy doing something together.. "

If i din remember wrongly, there is another post about a research done on rs.. that online gaming does not necessary reduce a gamer's capability to socialise.. and in fact, he gains the change to plan finances.. come up with strategies.. doing trading and understand the economic philosophy of demand & supply.. and with large part of the game available to players as free.. most pple can juz sign up and experience the good of this game..

Anyway.. thread-starter.. i really hope jagex could have some mods reading this.. and perhaps recruit u as a mod? :o

f i din remember wrongly, there is another post about a research done on rs.. that online gaming does not necessary reduce a gamer's capability to socialise.. and in fact, he gains the change to plan finances.. come up with strategies.. doing trading and understand the economic philosophy of demand & supply.. and with large part of the game available to players as free.. most pple can juz sign up and experience the good of this game..

That's always how I felt. Online MMORPG's are probaly the best way to teach economics, hell, if I were an economics teacher I would probaly work out a deal with an MMO company, and have kid's learn about them through an MMO. (that's where i've preaty much learned what I know about it, i'm taking economics right now because I have to, but it's easy because I know the principles behind it).

A well thought out and educating post, Huge!

Thank you for "ranting the other way around". We, the players, often forget or dont take in to counts,what a frustrating and ungrateful job it must be to run a Customer Service at JaGex' headquarters.

So normally you will read rants about the awful service you get from them. Hopefully your post will not only open a few eyes but also make some changes in peoples minds.

Thank you for a great post!

i actually did make a post saying that an abuse report was taken care of, and it got locked, when i tried to tell the mod that i posted it so that everyone that complains about jagex doing nothing would see that they do...he never messaged me back

Hear-hear! (Good Job) But it's actually more like 6 million accounts.

Nice rant. Definitely true in many aspects. It has changed my mind to some degree about Customer Support, though if they are struggling with staff and the overwhelming number of emails, complaints etc. Than they should hire more staff right?

Yes it's going to cost them more though they are being paid by the members to have continued working customer support for the whole runescape community. And I don't think a paying customer should expect anything less than that.

Very nice post and good arguments

but like u said: "there will always be scammers, hackers...." no matter what jagex does.

and we cant do anything about it to, they will always be there

but the rest of us need to take a chill pill

i tottaly agree