I was wondering with the new Monetization model, which should provide a more consistent revenue stream, would it be possible to create a more dedicated team of Game Moderators, that would be able to address issues reported by Players in real time?
This would allow GM’s to log-in, and interact with players in game to directly communicate regarding issues.
I think that doing something like this may help to restore some confidence in the Report System, and how rules are enforced. Currently, when bans, or suspensions are issued, there does not seem to be a lot of transparent communication to inform the Player as to why actions were taken.
No model of Customer Service is perfect, but I think if things moved in this direction, it would be an improvement compared to what is in place currently.
Please discuss the merits and shortcomings of this sort of approach.
While I don’t think direct and open come with the players on that server will be a good thing, I do like the idea of using some of the revenue to enhance the moderation. Specifically a more direct and specific feedback to the player(s) what was the infraction that they did and maybe a proactive review of server metrics that would denote abuse in the ToS and focus attentions there while maintaining the reporting system as well.
There is already a form like that and thousands of users enjoy it. It’s called “private servers”. Dispite our disagreements here, there are some STUNING private servers, extremely organized out there and because I was lucky enough to participate to some of them I am extremely greatfull for this experience.
However this is not what you seek @Rollotomozi, you seek official servers with admin live reply. How this could work for free? Why should a company pay so many salaries for us to play for free? So if we want this to work we have to pay for the officials too. By all means how much would you pay monthly to have this service? Because 10€is not enough for 24/7 service, that’s for sure.
With the amount of private servers for PVP, PVE-Conflict and PVE you can find a server with any settings you might want, even vanilla 1.0 on everything with active admins that enforce rules and little to no drama happens unlike official servers because the vast majority of people that play on private (myself included) know that if you break the rules you are gon go bye bye real fast.
Its honestly baffling why people who seem to have so many issues on officials don’t want to try private ones.
Just to point out, privates on consoles require server passwords. Another issue is that they cant be modded. Then you have the fact that population moves around all the time from one to another. Also max population on alot of servers for consoles isnt the standard number, its lower… one final thought: alot of people who seem to run private servers like for their control, it reminds me of how games used to be : let the host live if he drops connections the server goes down( in this case, you get banned, instead of connection loss)
EDIT: consoles anyway its more trouble than its worth, pc might be different, but most console unofficial servers are dead… and over half of players are on console according to funcom.
First.
It’s the regognise. Playing in a server without admins instantly means that you own your belongings, nobody helped you to achieve them.
The funny thing is that we all know that this is a lie!!!
Most of the official players, especially in pve and pvec servers own belongings that they didn’t farm them either have the knowledge how to. A great percentage of players are decay chasers. They go around the map to watch decay timers and loot decayed bases. So the regognise that I did it on my own is gone bye bye. I NEVER loot decayed bases, NEVER!!! Funcom shouldn’t allow this, it’s wrong. People that loot decayed bases loose the essence of the game which is Farm & Build, farming other players bases is not farming, it is stealing and even in pvp servers I didn’t steal or raid. If someone was upsetting me a lot I was skinning his body and use a door to push his bag a bit away to confuse him recover. I don’t say I am right, yet that’s who I am .
Second.
Admin abuse. A lot of pricks created a server and abused their own hospitality. They couldn’t be Alfa in officials, so they payed money to be, by renting their own server. Again Funcom should have a system that players should apply a “score” for each private server. This way, maybe, we would have less admin abuse and not all the privates were “one”, because they aren’t, I give my right arm for this statement.
Third
Security of investment. Players invest a lot of time to what they fix, yet if a private admin decides to close the server their efforts are gone . People that love to build prefer the stability and the security of an official server. No matter if it will take 10 times the effort to fix it. I personally for Humongous builds prefer privates. They are faster and the only person that I need to ask is the admin only, nobody else. In official servers I am responsible for every player that it is present and every player that will come to the server. They are public servers, “FREE”, for everyone, however some players not only abuse this courtesy, but they demand too, yea I know omg.
My fellow exile @Hellebrom, private admins in a lot of servers are heroes, million times thanked them here. Yet officials are, or should be better than they already are, because these servers represent the face of the company. And with this statement I visited the forum some years ago. All I can say about it, is that they constantly working on it, that’s why I disagree to posts like “Funcom does not care”… They do… A lot.
While the private server solution has been championed over and over in these discussions it does not solve all problems as described.
There’s a large selection. Some are great, meet personal criteria and are properly run. Then there’s some that no matter how much you wish it to be fair and enjoyable… it’s like entering the cave of a mountain that is steaming excrement.
The solution suggested tends to be “rent your own”. Others and myself have responded that the price tag may be too much for some people. That is absolutely a fair point.
While these solutions exist they are currently still OPTIONS. For myself and friends who enjoy PVP in particular, we’re not interested in playing private servers for many of the reasons listed above.
We’ve already paid the fair asking price for the game and that includes official servers.
It’s ultimately going to be up to Funcom how they are going to divvy up their resources, and us talking about it likely won’t influence it. Just remember, its a give and take. You take more resources, and something else suffers. Its already happened when it went from zero moderation on official servers to moderation. And then happened again when the turn around time wasn’t fast enough for you all.
At this point I don’t think official server players will be happy unless they have their own personal GM on speed dial. People who pay a monthly service fee in MMOs don’t even have instant on-demand GM access, and you all think the majority of resources coming from the monetization changes should go towards that? (because that’s what it would take to meet your expectations)
And remember, you’re all not the only ones who “paid the fair asking price for the game.”
Just to say though, I’m totally happy with Officials how they were and how they are now. All my concerns are based on potential in relation to idealism. Potential goods and potential evils vs. my sense of ethics and ideals. But personally I never experience any of it and am just happy to play the game no matter if there are some massive mega bases on the server which have been there forever, or if everyone on the server is getting banned. It’s no sweat for me - but I’m more than willing to express my idealistic concerns and opinions - etc.
I’m not going to argue your point because I honestly have not experienced what you have, not in the slightest. I do not say you are wrong, but my personal experience has been the exact opposite.
The most and I mean MOST grief I’ve seen in the private servers I played was massive land grab, basically spamming foundations (got taken down after a few days by the server admin and didn’t happen again) and that was it. You mention toxic server administrators, but I have yet to meet “1” of those. As for owning my own stuff, I don’t ask for help from anyone, hell I don’t even ask for help from other players in the server… I do try to barter from time to time but that’s it. But that’s my journey alone, I guess some can get along with an admin and get free stuff but that defeats the point of the game (in my view)
I can somewhat relate to your third point, its always been a sort of worry for me to log in one day and find out the server gone, it hasn’t happened yet, but there is never a guarantee that it won’t. But if it were to happen, I’ll start over, I honestly don’t have a problem with that. I do understand that for some the time invested means they won’t tolerate losing a base/character but for me it’s not that big a deal. I like to min-max everything, from building projects to character build/gearing and if I lose my character geared to the gills with the best out there… I can do it again.
Back on topic, most if not all the private servers I’ve tried have been very stable with no issues.
@Hellebrom I am really happy for you m8, please share the name of your private server too, the admins there deserve at least this for the excellent work they do , again I am really happy for you. @Multigun, I think after the battle pass release I will see posts here asking for a free pizza because they play on officials .
No.
most Private server admins are the worst, they invent rules out of nowhere just to screw you or if you raid their friends or the people who donates them they will ban you.
i have played this game for almost 3 years and out of like 30 privates server i have found, just 2 were with good admins. and of course those 2 admins don’t play anymore.
and most of their rules are idiotic things like “no horse, no axe, no lance, 20 min raid time per week” ect.
i still prefer official server rules if applied correctly.
At least they don’t tell you “you can’t use this thing that is it in game”
is like in shooting games you ban the use of AK 47 because “is too good” and force you to use knife in a war.
When Funcom decides to offer premium subscription servers with dedicated admins
And even then, people will complain about “lazy Funcom” because their case didn’t get processed fast enough, or about “incompetent Funcom” or “evil money-grubbing Funcom” because Funcom didn’t resolve the case exactly how they wanted.
But you know that’s part of the human nature, right?
That being said, I’m not against Funcom implementing what @Rollotomozi suggested to some degree. There’s still some actual uncertainty about the extent of some rules, coming from people with legitimate questions and good intentions. And there’s still not enough transparency and feedback in the process.
I don’t agree that there needs to be GMs on speed dial, not at all.
I am not asking for game changes. I am asking for clarification, reasoning and fair implementation of the process in regard to Zendesk.
I may be a part of this forum post conversation but that doesn’t mean I agree with the OP necessarily.
What I AM saying is in response to the “jUSt plAY PriVATE” crowd. It is one solution of many
Like you described, we cannot decide for Funcom what they choose to spend their time on. I respect that to a degree.
However, at this point in time they are still offering official servers. I want and like this choice, this is the one I CHOOSE. If they want to do away with it, fine, it is their company. My purchase agreement with them included the right for them to make changes to the game. I respect that. If they ever do remove officials then I need to make decisions on what I want to spend my time on.
From my limited experiences I can’t say “most” but I have certainly come across a few - 40% or something like that - out of about 10. And many of them who were not a-holes up front were changing the rules too often or playing favorites with their buddies so I ended up leaving. And as it is now and for the past while, I require a few hours of chat time (group or one on one) with the admins in discord prior to joining or playing much in their servers. Currently I’m active on only 5 private servers and three of those are the run by the same guy. An Excellent fellow named Ferginspud who follows the @Barnes method: Not playing on his own servers.
Yup, I think if they cut officials I would stop playing for the most part. Maybe maintain a base casually on one of the privates with no decay or something but for sure I would start getting into a different game.
I participated in a lot of private pvp servers too. All the admins, but all the admins became friends, even the bad ones. Most of my pvp servers were pvp 24/7. I always choose servers with no raid off and no spawn kill.
For players that like to raid off and kill others when they that cannot react, by all means, officials exist for this reason. Devs will always leave this choise, so new players will have a chance to fight back and I respect their decision.
Yet my dear @Ethel you are missing one point here. If you go in a private server the first thing you must do is “check” the community of the server. People create pvp servers 24/7 yet not always for hardcore pvp, so all you have to do is ask , is hardcore pvp allowed here? The right that you have to jump in on every open server you wish doesn’t mean that it gives you the right to play as you like. Simple as that you don’t go as a guest in a house for the first time in your life and you open their fridge to see what you’ll eat. You sit in the living room, get your treat (tea, coffee) you change some opinions and then you deside if this person deserves your presence and the opposite.
Take a tip.
Serious admins care for the population of their server and the correct flow of it.
So if you want a server on your meters you must search… A lot.
The best hardcore pvp was always in privates, always. Have you ever experienced 12 hours constant raid from 5 different clans in officials? I don’t think so.
So spare me please. There is a really good reason I stopped pvp, I don’t want to do it anymore, I quit, but I enjoy it like a few in this forum. I said a lot of times, I don’t raid, I don’t steal, that doesn’t mean that I won’t defend my self or my team mates, I just ain’t gonna loot the pathetic loot of my opponent and guess what? After awhile in a server, players who knew me, when they were killing me didn’t loot me either. After every fight end we were exchanging opinions and gg ofcurce laughing with our mistakes… Healthy competition my dear, adrenaline rush and laughter at the end. “This” pvp should be like and I lived these days… On privates
I really think more clarity in enforcement would alleviate over 95% of the issues with the players. Stop the canned answer and generate a report of enforcement. It doesnt even have to be long. Just pic evidence, location tagging, and a quick 3 sentence why you broken the rules.
this is my one and only disagreement with you. the game includes a multi license so, sorry we don’t play for free.
It is not the ideas that are lacking, some innovative have been put forward, others left behind, I’m not opposed private servers but they are not the solution, privatization never was… just like communism… we will eventually find solutions when some actors are ready to implement them, and to be honest it will not come only from Funcom because the problem today is systemic.
We simply have to stop putting on dressings and start working on the substance, the substance, which is our economic and social model…
and I continue to hope that Funcom will move in this direction
I have not yet tested and read about the 3.0 update and this game pass but for the moment it makes me think of a dressing…
Because today, if I can summarize the situation, you pay for your equipment, you pay for your game, you pay for your internet subscription, you pay for your multiplayer subscription with your equipment and now you pay for your multiplayer subscription for your game … for what result? empty your wallet without any improvement in the general situation, quitte the contrary…
Very on point. We’ve already paid to play the game, many of us have purchased DLCs and many will still continue to support this company by subscribing to the game pass. $$$
We shouldn’t have to resort to another level of cost to avoid poor communication and overreaching administration! Both on official and private for that matter.
My dearest @Marcospt. I would beg you to read a bit better my post saying that because I play this way or I see some things the way I see them, that doesn’t mean that I am right, it’s just the way I see them .
Now let me share why (?), I believe that this is wrong in pve…
The game does not allow you to have a safe trade system…
The game does not allow you to loot your team mate for protection. (if you need further explanation here I can provide)
Yet It allows you to loot decayed? Why?
Do you know how many bases decayed before their time through a bug? I am over 900 days in here reading the bug section and over 1.000+ days in the game to read hundreds of complains inside here but in chats too form pve players that lost their belongings this way.
Decay chasers exist because the game allows it and it shouldn’t.
Playing in official servers they do not provide safe trade system so you’ll be regognized that you own your s… t. Decay looting brakes this opportunity making this effort a myth .
YES I am proud, I worked my a… to be one years now. I don’t say that this is right, I pay this choice not only in gaming time but in personal life too, but this is me.
I humbly beg your forgiveness about it and hope you’ll accept me the way I am, thank you.
.
, again I am really happy for you.
