Are LotRO GMs Ignoring Legitimate Bug Complaints?

[vansau]

Are LotRO GMs Ignoring Legitimate Bug Complaints?

Players in LotRO have been complaining about the same issue for approximately a month, but administrators keep on saying it's not a known issue.

Anyone who's spent time playing MMOs has encountered a glitch or two during their time online. And, most likely, we all know what the proper course of action is: Report the problem via the forums, get the issue resolved, and enjoy the silky smooth gameplay that follows. Unfortunately, this isn't the case in Lord of the Rings Online, where a problem that's repeatedly been reported by gamers seems to be being ignored by Turbine's GMs.

It turns out that for roughly the past month, LotRO players engaged in Tier 2 Challenge Mode quests have been been getting the proverbial shaft when it comes to loot. Here's how said quests work: They're designed for skilled players who are willing to risk extreme difficulty for an extra reward chest, which includes bonus loot like second tokens for teal armor pieces, a <a href=http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Item:Symbol_of_the_Elder_King>First Age Symbol, and/or additional gold and teal items. According to James McCoy, the user who contacted The Escapist via email, though, "...for the past 3 or 4 weeks, that has not always been the case."

Here's the detailed explanation:
It has been reported when doing some Tier 2 Challenge Modes that the second chest is not dropping. This was happening when you first released the raid. At that time you acknowledged this problem and gave us a fix. This time however, since Update 3, this is not the case. Your in game GM's are getting the tickets and we all seem to be getting a cut and paste response of, "This is not a known issue.." and the ticket is closed. If it's not a known issue, why is it being talked about so much on your forums? I am a IT manager and my first response to a paying customers is never "This is not a known issue, sorry I can not help you" If I did, I would not have a job.

You can read McCoy's letter in its entirety over in the LotRO forums. While it might be tempting to dismiss these complaints as just those of an irate gamer, a little investigation shows that his accusations of GM indifference seem pretty well-founded. You can see repeated posts about the issue <a href=http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?396776-BUG-Ivar-Challenge-spawns-only-one-chest>here, <a href=http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?394291-OST-DUNHOTH-Please-fix-the-BUGS-devs/page3>here, <a href=http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?400531-Challenge-Mode-chest-on-Fear-Wing-bugged>here, <a href=http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?400642-Fear-tier-2-challenge-mode-chest-did-not-spawn>here, <a href-http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?396776-BUG-Ivar-Challenge-spawns-only-one-chest>here, <a href=http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?401144-Ivar-bugged>here, <a href=http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?401691-Ivar-Tier2-HM-No-Second-Chest>here, and <a href=http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?402946-Ivar-Tier-2-HM....-One-chest-only>here.

So far, this whole situation looks pretty damning for Turbine. When you have this many complaints about the same issue on your hands, the least you could do is investigate the issue and actually make your users feel like they're being listened to.

Source: <a href=http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?403681-To-Kate-Paiz-Executive-Producer-of-The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Online>LotRO Forums

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[Omega Pirate]

If I played this game I would be pissed too. I mean when you do an extreme difficulty dungeon you expect an equal reward.

 

[Lashus]

In all my years of playing MMO's I have never come across a GM that would just deny the problem exists. Even if they couldn't fix what went wrong they would at least admit there was a bug.

 

[oldtaku]

We have never been at war with EastAsia.

 

[Eri]

In all my years of playing MMO's I have never come across a GM that would just deny the problem exists. Even if they couldn't fix what went wrong they would at least admit there was a bug.

Clearly you've not played as much as you think then. Even in WoW they do this, especially with regards to goldsellers.

 

[Lyri]

Welcome to the F2P market.

 

[samsonguy920]

Count this as a bad mark against Turbine. And here I was all set to try out the F2P end of the game. No point now if people are just going to start quitting since the GM's don't seem to give a shit.

In all my years of playing MMO's I have never come across a GM that would just deny the problem exists. Even if they couldn't fix what went wrong they would at least admit there was a bug.

Clearly you've not played as much as you think then. Even in WoW they do this, especially with regards to goldsellers.

Actually I haven't had a single problem with WoW's GM's. I have put in my share of tickets, and every one of them, when they did get their turn(which can take awhile after a patch or expansion comes online), I got courteous and full attention to the problem. Those I could follow up on I found the issue to be addressed within a fair amount of time. Many of the GM's crack me up as well with their playful rping. I never felt I was talking to a bored desk jockey or robot.
Goldsellers you can bet WoW takes very serious. You read Blizzard's timeline that was featured on the Escapist here, you will find they took several goldseller companies to court for large amounts. I would imagine that the small fry that people report, Blizzard follow up on to find out who and where they are working from so they can have a solid case to take them to court and to the cleaners.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Never played LOTRO but DDO is good. Turbine is notorious for having harsh and relatively useless GMs who will ban people at the drop of a hat without a meaningful appeal process.

They also constantly tell people to file bug reports when you tell them about problems. Hey genius I'm paying to play a game not getting paid to be a software tester. I'll help you reproduce the problem YOU file the paperwork champ.

Other than things like occasionally resetting quests when a script goes bad they are entirely useless.

 

[JMeganSnow]

*Snort* it took them half a dozen updates to fix the Suulomades chest not dropping properly in Tower of Despair in Dungeons and Dragons Online. Not to mention the fact that after one update the spells Recitation, Prayer, and Rage were BROKEN (as in, they'd only hit one target instead of everyone in the area of effect) for TWO MONTHS.

Turbine gets to stuff when they get to it.

 

[samsonguy920]

Welcome to the F2P market.

Ehhh, I wouldn't judge it on that merit. You have to pay to play the harder content on LOTRO, which would include Tier 2 Challenge Mode quests. The F2P content is all the easier leveling. This makes it all the more serious since Turbine is basically ignoring their paying customers. Bad business.
I would expect many of those players have already suspended their subscriptions, and either moved on to something else or just perusing the F2P end to see if Turbine finally caves in.

 

[JMeganSnow]

Other than things like occasionally resetting quests when a script goes bad they are entirely useless.

I've had to appeal to the GM's twice in DDO, and both times they were helpful and professional. However they are VERY strict about not handing out stuff. They're good about opening doors that get fubared though.

 

[Korten12]

Welcome to the F2P market.

Eh... I have seen F2P that get bug fixes more often and fix major ones. Most times if a bug is posted on the forum of most mmo's, it would be fixed in the upcoming or next patch. This is just the fault of the company.

 

[JMeganSnow]

Welcome to the F2P market.

This makes it all the more serious since Turbine is basically ignoring their paying customers. Bad business.

I think you may misunderstand what it means when something "isn't a known issue". It means that they haven't been able to reproduce whatever's causing the chest not to drop, so with lack of data they pretty much have to assume things are working. The GM's, who are basically help desk staff and not Turbine devs, don't have the authority do just force-pop extra chests for people. They simply won't do stuff like this unless they've been ordered to by their superiors.

People can complain all they want. If you want to make it a known issue, do video capture to prove that you did the quest properly and you didn't get the chest.

I don't know that much about LotRO, but DDO is a HUGE game with a lot of odd quirks in places. They've been gradually going back and cleaning up some of the worst of it, but it takes time and some of it you just have to live with until they get around to doing cleanup.

 

[monken8]

wait i played that game for ages and i never recieved any reward for doing those nor did i i know that there was one so in other words i got ripped off
(as well as always dieing on one section whenever i try to climb whether top and i just clip through the floor to my death

 

[RvLeshrac]

Welcome to the F2P market.

This makes it all the more serious since Turbine is basically ignoring their paying customers. Bad business.

I think you may misunderstand what it means when something "isn't a known issue". It means that they haven't been able to reproduce whatever's causing the chest not to drop, so with lack of data they pretty much have to assume things are working. The GM's, who are basically help desk staff and not Turbine devs, don't have the authority do just force-pop extra chests for people. They simply won't do stuff like this unless they've been ordered to by their superiors.

People can complain all they want. If you want to make it a known issue, do video capture to prove that you did the quest properly and you didn't get the chest.

I don't know that much about LotRO, but DDO is a HUGE game with a lot of odd quirks in places. They've been gradually going back and cleaning up some of the worst of it, but it takes time and some of it you just have to live with until they get around to doing cleanup.

No, "Unable to duplicate" means they were unable to duplicate it. "Not a known issue" means that it isn't listed in the current patch "Known Issues."

There are plenty of readily-duplicated bugs that aren't "known issues."

 

[Omechron]

Meh, I'm not terribly concerned. I mean, it's not like I'm trapped in a box with only this game to play.

 

[vansau]

Meh, I'm not terribly concerned. I mean, it's not like I'm trapped in a box with only this game to play.

I see what you did there...

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Unfortunately, this has been a staple of the MMO market.

Everquest Ships (Teleporter Gnomes), City of Heroes GDN/DE, Star Wars NGE, Everquest 2's Simon Says Combos and loss of Refuge Island, DCUOs Uberhenchmen, Conan's Barbarian Nerfs : Updates that make the game more FUN - while crippling user enjoyment, forcing cookie-cutter builds and generally ridding yourself of the hard core players that are the foundation of most MMOs. Sure, new blood is good to bring in, but not at the cost of people who'll still be playing in 6 months.

There's nothing as disheartening as seeing new players get given something you've worked for hours for, for free. Ask Shamus about the Pie carrying in LotRo sometime.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Color me shocked about Turbine. I lost faith in them when they released DDO. I paid 50 bucks for a game that was almost completely broken. It may have been a long time ago, but that doesn't mean that I've forgiven them.