Korean Officials Raid Blizzard

[soultrain117]

Please watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7OWzcZuF64&feature=g-user-u He sums up blizzards reasoning and made me much less angry (after he talks about the authenticators lol).

 

[Tony2077]

there are only so many servers you can set up they just didn't get enough of them doesn't seem like its something people deserve a refund for. beside server loads are different when you have a lot of people trying to login at one time

And now you even start making excuses for them? They don't need that, you know. Blizzard still made approximately a bazillion dollars off D3 even if the customer rights are enforced as they should. That doesn't change the fact that the product didn't work at launch.

Let's make this simple: law states that customers can get a refund if they want in this scenario, and that's completely reasonable. The pants-analogy someone made earlier fits the scenario pretty well, the only reason anyone would object here is that it's video games instead of pants that we're trading in, and for some reason some people feel that's different. It's not. Get over it.

I'm not trying to make excuses for them there just so much you can do since you can't see the future. so the laws state then if the problem get fixed you can still ask for a refund does that mean you still get access to it as well

 

[Reishadowen]

You'd think Blizzard would be well aware of it's customer base in South Korea of all places...

 

[Naeras]

I'm not trying to make excuses for them there just so much you can do since you can't see the future. so the laws state then if the problem get fixed you can still ask for a refund does that mean you still get access to it as well

Yes, that is making excuses. And it's a bad one, because they had a pretty good idea of what would be coming. It wasn't a question of mere instability or some players not being able to connect, it was a wide-spread case of every Blizzard game on BNet2 falling out of service. They weren't anywhere close to providing the service that they could have reasonably foreseen that they would have to provide. If any other company didn't take reasonable precautions, they'd hear it.

No, of course you don't get access to it if you get a refund. That's the entire point of the refund. If I trade in my pants to get my money back, I don't get to keep the pants. But I can spend my money on something else instead, preferably in a shop where my pants aren't broken.

 

[MonkeyPunch]

this is just as bad as the bullshit about the me3 ending when will it end.

Yeah, people expecting the games they bought for good money to work is outrageous and totally comparable to not liking content that works.

It's like when I buy a new car and it only works some of the time, I'm totally OK with that too.
I don't think I should deserve to get my money back so that I can buy a form a transport that works all the time. That'd be entitled and shit and I sure as hell don't want to come off as entitled.

 

[Elementlmage]

Wait, you mean that legal document they were all forced to agree to ex post facto came back to bite them in the ass?

Fixed!

Also, something tells me that consumer law trumps "contractual" "agreements" in South Korea...as they should everywhere.

 

[Tony2077]

I'm not trying to make excuses for them there just so much you can do since you can't see the future. so the laws state then if the problem get fixed you can still ask for a refund does that mean you still get access to it as well

Yes, that is making excuses. And it's a bad one, because they had a pretty good idea of what would be coming. It wasn't a question of mere instability or some players not being able to connect, it was a wide-spread case of every Blizzard game on BNet2 falling out of service. They weren't anywhere close to providing the service that they could have reasonably foreseen that they would have to provide. If any other company didn't take reasonable precautions, they'd hear it.

No, of course you don't get access to it if you get a refund. That's the entire point of the refund. If I trade in my pants to get my money back, I don't get to keep the pants. But I can spend my money on something else instead, preferably in a shop where my pants aren't broken.

well if they game works and they still want a refund sounds like they get screwed more then if the game doesn't work ever

 

[Something Amyss]

Entitled gamers? Nah, SK just cares to stop BS practices.

Kinda glad the FTC's getting involved, myself. For the same "BS business practices" deal.

 

[Naeras]

well if they game works and they still want a refund sounds like they get screwed more then if the game doesn't work ever

You're making it sound like absolutely everyone asked for a refund, and that Blizzard will have to let off half of their staff because of it. A small portion of the users wanted their money back because their product didn't work. It's not anything more than that. How is that not reasonable?

Another reason why your logic is flawed is that if they didn't fix anything, they'd get their pants sued off. That is, after they got forced to give everyone their money back as well.

 

[Tony2077]

well if they game works and they still want a refund sounds like they get screwed more then if the game doesn't work ever

You're making it sound like absolutely everyone asked for a refund, and that Blizzard will have to let off half of their staff because of it. A small portion of the users wanted their money back because their product didn't work. It's not anything more than that. How is that not reasonable?

Another reason why your logic is flawed is that if they didn't fix anything, they'd get their pants sued off. That is, after they got forced to give everyone their money back as well.

i'm talking about the players who the game works for but then they still want a refund if this goes through that is

 

[Twilight_guy]

Oh god. You know what this means don't you? The first step towards the government listening to enraged gamers and the end of gaming. I sure as hell hope this doesn't happen very often or its going to end badly for everyone. If you think the idea of designed by committee is bad imagine gamers being able to threaten companies into doing what they want, every idiot in the world potentially ruining a company's project with their stupid, insane, and impossible ideas.

 

[Beryl77]

It's good to see this, companies in the gaming industry get away with way too much bullshit. Consumers don't stand up for themselves enough and when they do, they get labeled as whiny, entitled brats. I really like Blizzard but it gets no sympathy from me on this one.

 

[CrystalShadow]

this is just as bad as the bullshit about the me3 ending when will it end.

Except this actually protects consumer rights as opposed to trying to make a game ending not suck.

the right to be assholes are the only rights i see being protected these days

That is a right just like any other but if you buy something than you fucken expect it to work so they have every right to complain about this and if you don't agree then you shouldn't complain about their complaining.

so if i don't agree with bullshit i should just stick my head in the ground?

How is wanting a game to work bullshit?

the thing is the game does work just because you live where there is a lousy connection doesn't change that basic

Actually south Korea has better internet speed and coverage then we do here in the states, the argument from the story isn't about personal connection speed or anything, its about an investigation into if blizzard purposely didn't buy enough servers to accommodate most of the people wanting to play.

so blizzard gets screwed because people are butthurt about the lack of servers

Yes... Because gamers are 'entitled' for wanting their stuff to work, but a giant multinational corporation can do whatever the hell it wants with no consequence.

The business people that run these kinds of companies must be laughing themselves to death to see how eager so many gamers seem to be to actively defend anti-consumer business practices.

It almost starts to look like stockholm syndrome sometimes.

 

[Tony2077]

this is just as bad as the bullshit about the me3 ending when will it end.

Except this actually protects consumer rights as opposed to trying to make a game ending not suck.

the right to be assholes are the only rights i see being protected these days

That is a right just like any other but if you buy something than you fucken expect it to work so they have every right to complain about this and if you don't agree then you shouldn't complain about their complaining.

so if i don't agree with bullshit i should just stick my head in the ground?

How is wanting a game to work bullshit?

the thing is the game does work just because you live where there is a lousy connection doesn't change that basic

Actually south Korea has better internet speed and coverage then we do here in the states, the argument from the story isn't about personal connection speed or anything, its about an investigation into if blizzard purposely didn't buy enough servers to accommodate most of the people wanting to play.

so blizzard gets screwed because people are butthurt about the lack of servers

Yes... Because gamers are 'entitled' for wanting their stuff to work, but a giant multinational corporation can do whatever the hell it wants with no consequence.

The business people that run these kinds of companies must be laughing themselves to death to see how eager so many gamers seem to be to actively defend anti-consumer business practices.

It almost starts to look like stockholm syndrome sometimes.

can't please anyone i suppose damned if i do damned if i don't so why do i even bother

 

[GeneralFungi]

Oh god. You know what this means don't you? The first step towards the government listening to enraged gamers and the end of gaming. I sure as hell hope this doesn't happen very often or its going to end badly for everyone. If you think the idea of designed by committee is bad imagine gamers being able to threaten companies into doing what they want, every idiot in the world potentially ruining a company's project with their stupid, insane, and impossible ideas.

And I suppose those who have bought a defective car and demanded a refund are just trying to manipulate the automobile industry as well. The government isn't listening to them because they are enraged gamers, they are listening because they are customers who were treated unfairly.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Oh god. You know what this means don't you? The first step towards the government listening to enraged gamers and the end of gaming. I sure as hell hope this doesn't happen very often or its going to end badly for everyone. If you think the idea of designed by committee is bad imagine gamers being able to threaten companies into doing what they want, every idiot in the world potentially ruining a company's project with their stupid, insane, and impossible ideas.

And I suppose those who have bought a defective car and demanded a refund are just trying to manipulate the automobile industry as well. The government isn't listening to them because they are enraged gamers, they are listening because they are customers who were treated unfairly.

Its more like this: You bought a car from a dealer that said "all sales final". You found a defective. You demanded a refund. The dealer didn't give you one citing its policy claim that you might or might not have read. You go to the government and claim there business dealing were underhanded. The government raids the place and you get a refund. Car dealerships now begin to fear government raids if they have a an 'all sales final' policy and have to rethink their business model. One random guy has now affected the entire auto industry because some guy didn't like a policy and the government supported him. (Yes I know this is a slow process that has quiet a few more steps then that and digital goods are different from physical goods but the general argument is the same, this could be the first step towards a dark future because of how the Koren government acted)

 

[Tony2077]

Oh god. You know what this means don't you? The first step towards the government listening to enraged gamers and the end of gaming. I sure as hell hope this doesn't happen very often or its going to end badly for everyone. If you think the idea of designed by committee is bad imagine gamers being able to threaten companies into doing what they want, every idiot in the world potentially ruining a company's project with their stupid, insane, and impossible ideas.

And I suppose those who have bought a defective car and demanded a refund are just trying to manipulate the automobile industry as well. The government isn't listening to them because they are enraged gamers, they are listening because they are customers who were treated unfairly.

Its more like this: You bought a car from a dealer that said "all sales final". You found a defective. You demanded a refund. The dealer didn't give you one citing its policy claim that you might or might not have read. You go to the government and claim there business dealing were underhanded. The government raids the place and you get a refund. Car dealerships now begin to fear government raids if they have a an 'all sales final' policy and have to rethink their business model. One random guy has now affected the entire auto industry because some guy didn't like a policy and the government supported him. (Yes I know this is a slow process that has quiet a few more steps then that and digital goods are different from physical goods but the general argument is the same, this could be the first step towards a dark future because of how the Koren government acted)

the way your saying this reminds me of the episode of the Simpsons where homer designs that car and his brother company goes belly up because of all the stupid things homer wanted in it

 

[darkszero]

How can you be so sure that they knew the servers couldn't handle the load?
Did you know that that load doesn't increase linearly with the number of users? Like how Blizzard found many issues with the open weekend, there easily could've been many more issues hidden, with only the massive retail userbase could've uncovered, making the load much bigger than expected, as much as damage the stability.

There's surely some stupid things happening, like how there's no freaking queue system and instead an Error 37 is thrown if you happen to login at a wrong time.

If the SK does find proof that Blizzard knowingly setup fewer servers than necessary, then massive shame on then.

 

[Frostbite3789]

this is just as bad as the bullshit about the me3 ending when will it end.

Mass Effect 3 was like getting a luxury car then finding out the nice leather seats are actually pleather.

Diablo 3 is like getting a car that stops moving for any and all reasons whenever it feels like it. (For real, I was at a friend's place and decided to take a break from D3, but he wanted to keep playing. He got booted 3-4 times from the D3 server while I was playing LoL and my game didn't drop or discon once).

 

[Lunar Templar]

Did they get good loot, I wonder?

[small]I couldn't help it...[/small]

depends the difficulty of the raid X3.