Mythic makes a small gesture

[Nebu]

We will be taking all servers down tomorrow, Friday, September 2 at 8:00 AM. We expect them to return by 12:00 PM EDT (probably sooner, of course). Why?

We’ve all got friends and family down south, and there’s a big player community down there as well. Like many of you, we’re struggling to find some small way that we can help besides the basic and obvious “donate to the Red Cross” stuff. We went through the game systems, looking for stuff that people could lose if they are unable to log in for awhile, and paying rent on the in-game houses is fortunately the only thing. We can’t suspend in-game house rent by billing address, so we’re just suspending house rent across the board for the whole game. We have to take the servers down to do it, though.

Right now we’re planning to reinstate in-game rent when we put up the Darkness Rising patch, currently scheduled for early October. We’ll see how things are when the time comes and let you know if that plan changes. Thanks in advance for your patience.

It's not huge, it's barely even significant, but it's a thought.  For that, I appreciate the move.  Creating a way for the many people without power to be able to return to the game in a few weeks and not have to chase their tails in a circle over where their stuff went to. 

Not big news, but was a nice enough gesture that I thought I'd pass it along.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, it's a small thing, but sometimes it's the small things that matter. Very cool.

[kaid]

Its a good idea its not like it costs them much to do it and its a decent thing to do for the player base. Its kinda hard to suspsend your account when you are living at the superdome.

kaid

[Yegolev]

This is pretty big, I think.  Anything that helps people who have lost everything to get back to some sort of normalcy is huge.

[Rasix]

Didn't UO do something similar with 9/11?

[WindupAtheist]

They shut off housing decay and claimed it was because of 9/11.  Then they left it off for like a full year, because in reality it was just broken.

[ahoythematey]

Far better than Blizzard's cockgobbling dogshit.

[Strazos]

They must be too busy color-coordinating money hats to care.

[ahoythematey]

At the least, though, Blizzard subscribers are generally used to them not caring.

[Llava]

Wow, that's pretty fucking lame of Blizzard.  People can't contact their relatives to tell them "Hey, I'm alive" but they're supposed to call Billing & Support to shut off their accounts.  Nice.

[Trippy]

Wow, that's pretty fucking lame of Blizzard.  People can't contact their relatives to tell them "Hey, I'm alive" but they're supposed to call Billing & Support to shut off their accounts.  Nice.

Yup that's fucking bullshit especially since Blizzard can easily search through their database and find the vast majority of the potentially affected Gulf coast accounts by city, area code, or ZIP code.

Edit: Actually Mythic/SquareEnix/etc. can all do this to so I guess it's not really fair to harsh on Blizzard alone (though of course they presumably have more Gulf Coast subscribers than all the rest of the combined).

Edit2: Took SOE off the above list (see below)

Edit3: Took NCsoft off the above list

[MrHat]

Perhaps they're planning to make rafts out of hundred dollar bills and go rescue people.



Cash money beotch!

[MrHat]

www.blizzard.com :

Help the Red Cross! - Ordinn on 9/1/05
Our heartfelt condolences go out to the individuals and families affected by Hurricane Katrina. We encourage everyone to assist the federal, state, and local organizations doing vital work on the ground by making a donation to the relief efforts. The Department of Homeland Security has asked that donations be made in the form of financial contributions, rather than supplies, which are difficult to get into the affected areas at this time. If you would like to make a donation to the relief efforts, please contact the American Red Cross: www.redcross.org; 1-800-HELP NOW (1-800-4357-669).

[Malderi]

A better thing for a company with a gazillion subscribers would be to offer a deal: donate money to Red Cross or something through Blizzard, get a cool in-game item. It may not do anything, but just something that looks really, really damn cool, and you can only get it through this. I wonder how much money they could raise, even if the donation was like $10. Probably a lot.

Props, though, to Mythic for the good gestures.

[WindupAtheist]

I doubt anyone down there gives a shit right now.  May as well find out what Burger King is doing to help hurricane victims, and get all worked up over that.

[Raph]

Kudos to Mythic.

We have done the same for the 13,000+ players we have in the affected areas, and we have also suspended billing those people until they are able to log in again.

We also added a /donate to EQ2 that goes to the American Red Cross site. Yes, it uses the /pizza code. For players in other games, we ask that you please go here directly:

https://secure2.convio.net/arc/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=1161

The situation there is very bad, as you know. Any amount would help.

[Trippy]

Kudos to Mythic.

We have done the same for the 13,000+ players we have in the affected areas, and we have also suspended billing those people until they are able to log in again.

Wow! You guys are awesome! 

[Nebu]

We have done the same for the 13,000+ players we have in the affected areas, and we have also suspended billing those people until they are able to log in again.

We also added a /donate to EQ2 that goes to the American Red Cross site.

A class move.  Thanks for the update and the link.

[Llava]

A very good move, Raph.

A lot of other companies seem content to link to charities.

[Roac]

Thumbs up to Mythic and Sony.  Dissapointed in Blizzard, since I would expect larger companies (for the MMOG service at least) to have an easier time bringing resources to bear to assist their crippled customers. 

[WayAbvPar]

Yes, it uses the /pizza code.

I never thought I would see the day that I was glad something like that was implemented  :-D

Good to hear that some companies are sensitive to both the situation and their image. Apparently Blizzard is obllivious to both.

[HaemishM]

Yes, it uses the /pizza code.

I never thought I would see the day that I was glad something like that was implemented  :-D 

Ditto. Glad to know some good can come out of EQ2. /rimshot

Also, a big fuck you to Blizzard for responding to that post with "Have the homeless refugees call Blizzard on their non-existent magic fairy phones to keep us from charging their cards for a service we aren't rendering."

Foreskins.

[Roac]

Ditto. Glad to know some good can come out of EQ2. /rimshot

Also, a big fuck you to Blizzard for responding to that post with "Have the homeless refugees call Blizzard on their non-existent magic fairy phones to keep us from charging their cards for a service we aren't rendering."

It isn't so much about the service.  Far as I can tell, the DAoC people are still getting billed, but they won't lose in-game items because they can't get in to refresh them.  Sony won't bill them, partly (in order ?) to preserve in-game property.  It looks to be for all their games, btw, not just EQ2.  Really, the part that matters from a gamer POV isn't so much that you're going to get billed for $10-15, it's that you might lose stuff because you can't access your account.  I'm not that familiar with the economies in those other games, but I assume they are similar to UO where property is extremely valuable relative to most anything else you are likely to own.  What would really hurt isn't getting a $15 bill, it's finally getting some semblance of my life back together, log into my favorite game, and having lost stuff that took weeks or months of work to gather.

I don't think there's any refreshable content in WoW, and if not it's a somewhat moot point.  That was a somewhat assanine response by Blizzard (yeah, you can call us to cancel if you want), but certainly not intended that way.  Other games that lack refreshable content would be in the same boat.  Waiving monthly fees would be nice, but that's not really the real issue from the gamer POV.

[Llava]

I don't think there's any refreshable content in WoW, and if not it's a somewhat moot point.

If they have an item in their mailbox, it will be deleted if they don't take it out within a given period of time.  It's like 30 days if you haven't viewed the letter yet, 3 days (I believe) if you have.  Goes for gold, too.

[Raph]

Given the amount of monetary loss that the victims have suffered, I think that not getting a $15 bill actually DOES matter.

[Nebu]

Given the amount of monetary loss that the victims have suffered, I think that not getting a $15 bill actually DOES matter.

I agree.  Would be a nice gesture for other monthly subscription games follow your lead.     

[Furiously]

Given the amount of monetary loss that the victims have suffered, I think that not getting a $15 bill actually DOES matter.

Classy move by SOE. Glad to see them putting the important things in life as a priority.

[Azazel]

Kudos to both SoE and Mythic for the classy moves here.

[HaemishM]

Given the amount of monetary loss that the victims have suffered, I think that not getting a $15 bill actually DOES matter.

You are correct, that one is the bestest.

I think my outrage at Blizzard was just the callous, unthinking attitude that said, "Yeah, call us to cancel, bitches. Phone service? Who needs phone service? Just call us WITH YOUR MIND."

[Llava]

Effective immediately, NCsoft will be stopping billing on active accounts held by our customers in areas severely affected by Katrina. This policy will be evaluated periodically based on the situation in severely affected areas, but is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

Thanks,

Tisirin

[Trippy]

Effective immediately, NCsoft will be stopping billing on active accounts held by our customers in areas severely affected by Katrina. This policy will be evaluated periodically based on the situation in severely affected areas, but is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

Thanks,

Tisirin

Glad to see somebody else has finally followed SOE's lead. I hope they are doing this retroactively since it's already been over a week now but otherwise good for NCsoft.

[Margalis]

It's no surprise that Blizzard isn't following suit, and you can't really blame them, given their razor-thin margins and all. 

[Ironwood]

Ouch.

[Roac]

Given the amount of monetary loss that the victims have suffered, I think that not getting a $15 bill actually DOES matter.

When did anyone say that a $15 bill DOESN'T matter? 

[Alkiera]

Given the amount of monetary loss that the victims have suffered, I think that not getting a $15 bill actually DOES matter.

When did anyone say that a $15 bill DOESN'T matter?

Roac did, more or less.  At least, his post caused Raph's response.

Really, the part that matters from a gamer POV isn't so much that you're going to get billed for $10-15, it's that you might lose stuff because you can't access your account.  I'm not that familiar with the economies in those other games, but I assume they are similar to UO where property is extremely valuable relative to most anything else you are likely to own.  What would really hurt isn't getting a $15 bill, it's finally getting some semblance of my life back together, log into my favorite game, and having lost stuff that took weeks or months of work to gather.

I don't think there's any refreshable content in WoW, and if not it's a somewhat moot point.  That was a somewhat assanine response by Blizzard (yeah, you can call us to cancel if you want), but certainly not intended that way.  Other games that lack refreshable content would be in the same boat.  Waiving monthly fees would be nice, but that's not really the real issue from the gamer POV.

Alkiera