Changes that BigPoint need to make

Discussion in 'Users’ Corner' started by Destruction, Jul 6, 2017.

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?

Do you feel that BigPoint need to take this feedback into consideration?

  1. Yes

    93.0%
  2. No

    7.0%
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  1. Destruction

    Destruction Old Hand

    Good afternoon,

    I wanted to take the time to address something that has been an ongoing issue to the Seafight community for years, and that is the way the players are treated by BigPoint. Before I continue I would like to stress that this is not directed at any of the admins or moderators as I appreciate they do not create the rules, just enforce those implemented by the higher powers.

    For years now, the players of Seafight have been treated in an awful manner, and I feel that this needs to change. From ban reasons to incorrectly advertised items, we could write a book on the number of times we as the players have been treated unfairly both individually and as a whole, so lets get started as to what it is that makes me feel this way.

    Communication: It has always been an issue trying to report or explain complicated bugs or issues with the event because the majority of the moderators and admins are unaware of the game mechanics and how it actually operates. I will admit that since the introduction of the Seafight Official Discord server this has become much better as players can communicate directly with the managers and developers to get bugs fixed quickly, however many reports to the support team still go untouched for long periods of time. The automated email states that they will get back to you within 1 business day but in my personal experience this has dropped down to 3-4 days for the average ticket. I am sure there are reasons for this, but if it is not going to be 1 day then do not say 1 day. The response you get often changes depending on who you are speaking to with support. For example, I bought some of the Addon CDs for the Bonus 1 2 and 3 designs on Amazon. I sent the codes in to support and the designs were credited as they should have been. Another player did this around the same time and was told by support that as they were bought through Amazon (despite them being legitimate goods that BigPoint had sold) they could not add them to the account. How is this fair? I honestly feel like I have to send tickets in at different times for the same thing in the hope that I will get the proper response from an admin. I do think that the support team need to know more about the game before they start answering requests on it. Another example was that a player in my guild and I were both banned for 1 week for the names we chose. Admittedly the name was a little controversial so the ban was justified. The other player had his account unbanned the same day when writing to support and offering to change the name. I wrote in the game time and the response I got back was that I was not account banned and that I was only chat banned? No… I was account banned… And was then told the ban will stand. I did manage to get contact to the admin that addressed my guild-mates ticket and had the issue resolved but it further goes to show that it does seem a lot of the responses you get from support are based off assumptions of what they personally feel is the correct response, not a set of rules.

    Additionally with support there have been numerous times for myself, my guild, and I am sure many other players on the game where tickets are closed without the player getting a chance to explain the situation, then meaning they have to start a new ticket which results in this being instantly discarded because it is the same request. This is not customer service. It doesn’t take somebody with any kind of background on the topic to know that customer service means listening to the customer, understanding the situation and coming to a fair conclusion. Even if there is no compensation that can be given, you shouldn’t just close the ticket without giving the player the chance to respond and explain their situation in more detail. The ticket should be left open until either the player does not respond for a week, the player is satisfied with the response, or the conversation is going around in circles and there is nothing you can do, not closed after support send their first response. The way that tickets are dealt with really needs to be revised because as it has been for the last few years I think it is absolutely appalling.

    Compensation and ill-marketing: Now this is something that is less frequent, but something that other companies would be scrutinized by the media for. The compensation given to players that lose out due to BigPoint’s mistakes is sickening. I will give two examples, one from a guild member who I shall keep anonymous, and one from myself.

    Example 1: The Euro 2016 Event
    During this event, a package was released for £40 and advertised the Anemoi, Championship and all 2016 Euro designs. I bought this along with some other players as the gems from all the ships would work out a little better than those from Emperor’s Booty Bags. When bought, the package actually gave the designs from the 2012 Euro Event. When we explained this to support we were told that it was an error with the post and that we did in fact receive the intended items. To be honest I don’t really care what it was supposed to be, we bought the package with real money and were given something that we did not pay for. After various reports the compensation that was decided was to give the players who bought it the designs of the two finalist teams of the Euro and the winner being made gold. The gold design was never given, and when it was all over we essentially were not given 22 designs that we paid for. If another company that was bigger in the public eye had done this then it would be making press headlines. It is simply not okay and actually breaks the Consumer Credit Act 2006, which lays out the rules and regulations with regards to clarity as to what the customer is buying. If BigPoint did not intend to give these designs out and it was an error then fair enough, but either admit to the mistake and give us what we paid for, give us compensation that is worth the money we spend, or refund the money. The fact that the final compensation was just to tell players “Sorry, we’re only going to give you 4 of the 26 designs you bought” is not okay.

    Example 2: The VIP Black Market
    Back in April, the VIP Black Market was opened for players that bought the package with real money. In this VIP Black Market was the option to buy 14 Days of Queen’s Legacy 14 times. This is a total of 196 Days of Queen’s Legacy which is really nice. A player in my guild spent money to open the Black Market solely to buy the Queen’s Legacy. 2 days later the Queen’s Legacy was removed apart from 14 days, and the corresponding amount of pearls were refunded. This seems like fair compensation if it was a free black market, but the fact that players spent money to access it to then have what they effectively paid for taken away is really unreasonable. BigPoint need to just accept when they make a mistake and learn to fully check what they are advertising before opening it up to players.

    Botting: I’m not going to go into huge details about botting because there are thousands of posts in the forum about it and I would just be wasting my breath, but an additional point I would like to make is that BigPoint seem to bring it on themselves by not actually playing their game and knowing how it works, what player do daily etc. It is BigPoint’s expectation that every player will be able to do their Vovoi Daily Quest, Level 21+ Daily Quests and Event Daily Quests every day, while also trying to keep their HP, Queen’s Legacy, Damages and Boosters all up to date. For players that work a standard working week of 9:00-17:00 Monday to Friday, which is the majority of this game, simply do not have time to do this. You have added so many features that have to be constantly catered for, which just drives people more and more into botting, and those that do not want to bot just get pushed even further behind. Back in 2010 when the game was really at its peak all you had to do was make sure you kept your scroll HP and Cannon Damage. I am all for new features and especially long-term goals such as castles and skills, but adding more daily requirements to a bot-ridden game is just going to increase the number of people that bot and drive away those that do not. If you are serious about banning players for bots then all you are doing here is encouraging more people to get themselves banned or quit the game, which doesn’t seem like the greatest business model if you ask me.

    Payment Support: This is a lesser problem that those mentioned above, but the Payment Support page really needs changing. At present there is no way to actually explain what your problem is apart from using dropdown boxes, and every time I have ever contacted them the option I need is not there. To explain what your situation is you have to write it out in a word document, then take a screenshot of it, save it as a picture and attach it. This makes no sense to me at all and I am sure there are many people who have not figured this out. Payment Support needs to have a section where players can write out the full case of their complaint. I am aware that the team communicate with Payment Support about cases but this information is not known to the vast majority of the game.

    Summary:
    All in all, the way that BigPoint manage the game really needs a revamp. There are 3-line forum posts out there that just say it needs sorting out but nothing is ever in detail. I will be posting this into Discord as well when I see a member of the Seafight Team speaking in there to make sure it does not go unnoticed. So the admin that reads this, please could you ensure it is forwarded to the team when the poll has closed in 7 days.

    While talking polls, please take the time to cast your vote at the top of this page, leave your thoughts in the comments section, add any feedback or additional information that you feel I have missed. Feel free to be as comprehensive or vague as you wish.

    Many thanks,

    ~Des
     
  2. HMS-Indefatigable

    HMS-Indefatigable Someday Author

    Destruction the 30 day chat ban on my big boat last night was the last straw for me. The ban was like lets just pick a reason being any reason for a ban. Still no word from support with me covering every base and was even proactive to this but they simply do not car. Bottom line they do not care! They have milked this game money wise and are just coasting until they sell it off or shut it down. If they sell it do not have false hope. Came back to this game in May and regret that I did but it could of been much worse and spent even more years wasted playing this game which I do not believe will last much longer. My background is sales & customer service and I have always been amazed at just how badly Bigpoint treats their customers.

    What one must be careful is that they trap themselves mentally in that they can not walk away from a bad situation because they feel they have too much invested. Stockholm syndrome can occur also. I'd say walk away from the game. Much better options out there where the companies are customer focused and strive to have a quality product. Nothing changed years ago when myself and others quit and some players were exploring a class action lawsuit against Bigpoint and nothing will change from whatever you post in the idea/customer feedback section. Life is too short! It is summer time in the Northern Hemisphere. Walk away from the game. Within a day or two my pammo will be gone shooting and boarding bots and then I will be celebrating and relieved. Good luck!
     
    Riker(NZL) and Grand-mariner™ like this.
  3. Grand-mariner™

    Grand-mariner™ Forum Veteran

    Well said, Des!

    This is all good constructive criticism, which if addressed responsibly and put into practice can only serve to improve the game for the better by making it customer friendly. This will help create more much needed goodwill and transparency between the customers and the company, whilst at the same time also easing the constant tirade of justifiable complaints which this company has to face.
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2017
  4. Destruction

    Destruction Old Hand

    Sorry to hear it's pushed you to the edge, it really is a shame when the team producing the game and their ultimate actions are the reason behind leaving. Make sure you drop in your vote though and it may well be that things change in due course and bring you back to the game.

    All the best,

    ~Des
     
  5. Destruction

    Destruction Old Hand


    That's exactly it. This is for the benefit of both the players and the team, and can only go to cause improvements to a game that has needed it for so long.
     
  6. Alvaro*

    Alvaro* Forum Apprentice

    Very well written. In addition,
    1. They should reduce to the maximum the number of temporary items in the game (buffs, mascot trainers, ...). For those who can not play daily / weekly this is not good.
    2. Instead of arranging strategies to make us spend more money, it would be good to invest in strategies to bring new players into the game. Since 2012 I do not see a single new player.
    3. Servers are empty especially when there are no events. One of the main reasons is the huge imbalance that exists between paying and non-paying players. It does not make sense that we only have matede of firepower than a paying player.
    4. The game has 4 types of war cannons, but incredible as it seems none of them are available for purchase by the game currency. You want us to stop playing? We're tired of serving as a ping pong ball.
     
    Destruction likes this.
  7. Cataclysm

    Cataclysm Forum Greenhorn

    Good bro this game always more money and admin not help players. thank you for write this
     
  8. frankthetank1974

    frankthetank1974 Board Analyst

    I would have to agreed with most of what you have stated ,very few people both to write to support theses days as they deem it to be a waste of time ,no pun intended at the support team .
    as for:-
    "Another example was that a player in my guild and I were both banned for 1 week for the names we chose. Admittedly the name was a little controversial so the ban was justified."

    personally I think name changing to abuse insult or harass others in anyway shape or form ,or to constantly harass others in chat should be a main account ban , or any other name which may give offence .

    also the poor or incorrect advertising needs fixing asap
     
    =308Marksman= likes this.
  9. Destruction

    Destruction Old Hand

    Thanks for the feedback Frank, make sure to put your vote in as well to show the developers how many people feel this way when it is sent off to them.

    Regarding the name change, as I said I understand the name was inappropriate and a mockery which evidently did not last forever :/

    Thanks,

    ~Des
     
  10. A-R-K-Y

    A-R-K-Y Forum Overlooker

    Everyone knows I am a player who defends most of BigPoints updates, the mod team etc. However, even I have to admit that every point except one is an issue which not only I have seen happen to others, but have also been effected by.

    As to your examples of Communication, I also have one I would like to share. About a year ago I tried to report a bug to Support; the Weapons Mate was purchasing cannonballs without including the Guild Island Discount, so instead of being charged 3000 pearls for 10000 Explosive Ammo, you were being charged 3500 pearls. Now, having used the Weapons Mate for a long time, I knew that it used to include the Island Discount. Upon reporting this bug to Support I was told by the Supporter that it is not a bug and is infact intended to be this way. Obviously I protested and asked the question, why does it take into account the Discount and Premium but not Island Discount? The response I got was that because you need to pay more for his service. As you can guess, the response I gave was I understand I need to pay for his service, hence why I spent pearls to acquire him - I have already paid for the service. The ticket was closed and any further tickets relating to the matter were closed immediately, and if I continued I would of been issued an account ban. Fast forward to today, anyone want to guess what the price is when a Weapons Mate buys 10k ammo? 3000 Pearls. Thats right, the issue I reported was infact a bug, and has infact been fixed - with no help from Support.
    This is an example of the problems I personally feel with Support. At times Support does not listen to the players, or read their queries correctly. It seems like they are more interested in answering the ticket and closing the ticket asap instead of investing a little more time to look into the problem, or ask someone higher up about it, and actually give a valid, thoughtful, read through reply, which in the end will improve community relations and would stop players feeling like they need to open more and more tickets to get the help they deserve.

    As I said Destruction, the only point I disagree with you is in regards to the botting section. The addition of daily quests in my opinion is a good addition and a welcomed one. This game is an old game, and the draws which kept players playing for so long are not as strong as years ago. Within any type of game you have a vast array of gamers who all like different things. A lot of players really do like daily quests, or PvE, which previously they could only get from Events. To create a long lasting game there needs to be end of level content, that is for sure. When there are no events, players are bored and hardly play - that is a fact within our guild as you know, and I am sure most other guilds. By creating daily quests, this draws people to play the game when an event is not active. It also provides PvE players with something to do in the game on a daily basis which can be used to break up other gameplay features such as the Raid, or Scrolls.
    I feel that blaming new content for the increased bot presence is absurd to be quite honest with you. I bet you that the majority of players who bot were botting well before the introduction of daily quests a year and a half ago, or even with the introduction of trainers. As for players who don't bot leaving the game because of the new features, again I think thats absurd as well. No player has to do daily quests every day, if you want to remain competitive you simply need HP and Agility Trainer. Boosters can be gained very easily every event if the players play it, as a person who spends a lot of time on Seafight, in most events I can get all 20 days of my boosters within the first day, players who can not spend the whole can have the whole event to get them Boosters.

    Enough ranting from me,
    -Arky
     
    MAMMOTH^JACK and Ɗяєɗɗєɗ like this.
  11. Ɗяєɗɗєɗ

    Ɗяєɗɗєɗ Padavan

    I totally agree with Arky and i agree with everything else you said des. I also had a problem a few weeks ago..

    A VIP market was introduced which i bought into and stupidly i traded away from of my level 2 doom hammers into level 2 firestorms because i clicked the wrong button. Yes it was my fault and maybe i should be more careful next time but here is how support dealt with my request.

    "unfortunately we cannot reverse cannons that have been upgraded" and with that any further communications was closed.

    Now as great customer service representative would of reversed the cannons since i pay £54 for the cannons i lost so i felt cheated.

    Cannons should not be able to be traded away with a simple 1 click done action, it should require a second "Are you sure you wish to make this trade".

    As players the only reason we are stressing so much to bigpoint to address these issues is because we care about the game, we have invested thousands of pounds into the game and we don't want to see it go under but there is only so much we can do...

    Fix up and take note.

    - Blitzen.
     
  12. frankthetank1974

    frankthetank1974 Board Analyst

    prime example the black Friday offer on upgrading doom hammers was not announced , mod`s can only post info bigpoint pass on to them ,atm the way this is running does not work !
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2017
  13. _RATTY_.

    _RATTY_. Exceptional Talent

    100% agree with you guys .. I could not say more!
     
  14. HMS-Indefatigable

    HMS-Indefatigable Someday Author

    Here is a another perfect example of how worse things are with Bigpoint since I came back to play in May.

    With my first 30 day chat ban I was accused of showing players how to cheat or something. When really I shared with them what maps to find NPC bots without accusing anyone but we all knew what they were. Why shoot our own gold when we can steal from the cheaters and their actions themselves make them targets plus part of it is just minimizing their gains from cheating and sinking their boats as a punitive action by players. Bottom line BP has never done anything other than symbolic action in all these years and lost control of the game.

    3 days after my first 30 day ban took affect I simply posted on chat that I was going to hunt taxis and collect fares. Evidently from my American friends the new code word for bots so we do not get banned and when I say fares you are darn right I am going to hammer and plunder them to get as much benefit as I can from them sink points and load up with gold. Immediately after I posted that it came across on the chat that I was banned for trading. selling or sharing accounts. I am like what? First. I asked support and told them everything I would do so I would never be accused of that all within the game rules and "playing my own game and not pushing"

    Then I get a response from support after challenging them on why I was banned.

    Taxi mean bot/cheat, so therefore did you got banned for " Talking about how to cheat "
    The banned will stand!

    Sincerely

    So evidently we are not supposed to sink and plunder bots because they cheat and now we are cheaters since we are supposedly gaining from it?

    #1 they obviously do not care to dig further and try to work on resolution to see what really happened.

    #2 There is a language barrier and they are unwilling to do the work to see what really happened.

    #3 I highly suspect and right away after coming back that there is a chat mod who is botting. I observed his bot running for a while back right after I started but did not go to sink and cap it since this person was friendly but someone else did with a lesser boat and this mods boat did not even put up a fight or try to evade. You get to know various programs and how sophisticated they are by watching and trying to sink them. This mod who is botting may not like that an old time aggressive anti-cheater is back and sinking and capping his alliance in which botting is very common. This happened years ago with Bigpoint and it would not surprise me again being another dirty little secret.

    Will anything happen with me posting this even if all my claims are true? No! Nothing will change. It is the same corrupt "Cheatfight" we left years ago but only worse. Even for those who do not spend money logging into one of their games enables and supports Bigpoints behavior.

    Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result ;)
     
  15. HMS-Indefatigable

    HMS-Indefatigable Someday Author

    My pearl ammo is gone, I came out and said what I long suspected and fairly certain a Global 6 mod who is botting is responsible for both of my almost back to back 30 day chat bans which previously years ago I was rarely ever banned and am pretty sure the my friends and a few played with me on old US West years ago being the major American anti-cheat guild know who I am talking about and is backed up by support. Why even try to dispute it? Working with customer service at Big Point is like calling an empty phone booth in the middle of the desert in regards to resolution and being reasonable. It is not worth the time and aggravation. Done! Finished! Kaput! Best Wishes everyone! :)
     
    frankthetank1974 likes this.
  16. Riker(NZL)

    Riker(NZL) Forum Apprentice

    couldnt agree more with all of the above
     
  17. Grand-mariner™

    Grand-mariner™ Forum Veteran

    Summary so far.

    Taking into account the No votes which must be treated with respect however foolhardy they may appear, the overwhelming vote for this thread title to be acted upon is a resounding, Yes.

    As this suggestion thread has been allowed to run so long and come to a majority result, would someone from the Bigpoint management team now have the decency or the expected common courtesy to add their own input into this thread and inform their customers what, or if anything, they now intend to do to address and remedy this sad situation?
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2017
    Destruction likes this.
  18. Riker(NZL)

    Riker(NZL) Forum Apprentice

    Has anyone read the reviews about seafight in any of the websites its all bad reviews i dont see how any new players would start playing this game plus when they first come to global chat everyone recommends they quit now or sink 5k into the game just to get up to speed bp needs to start responding to its players now
     
  19. Grand-mariner™

    Grand-mariner™ Forum Veteran

    Would Bigpoint care to make any statement in reply to this issue?

    That would go some way towards showing customers that the company are actually reading these threads and taking feedback seriously, or they are prepared to act in the appropriate manner as indeed any company should to treat it's customers with some respect.
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2017
    Destruction likes this.
  20. Satan_Himself

    Satan_Himself Forum Baron

    They were just trolling.
     
    Grand-mariner™ likes this.
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