If It Aint Broke — Wait, It Is
by FEMAELSTROM, HSM team writer
Is there anything more frustrating than an item or game that is broken in our beloved Home?
With few exceptions, I have to say that the items that go ‘wonky,’ as some call it, is at the top of some very short lists of aggravating things here in Home.
Currently a friend of mine is not receiving the virtual items that they are paying for. The store notes that the item is purchased and they have the email receipt, and that it should be in the given inventory, but it is not and Sony (because it is a Sony item) is slow to aid a customer that has paid real money on a virtual item by way of a PSN card. This is disappointing.
The other day, I gifted some items from the Lockwood gift machine, and the recipient has not received them. They are also marked so that the recipient cannot not get them from somebody else, much less an alternate account. This is disappointing.
Then there is one of the recent issues that has affected many, and I believe there ought to be fixes to these issues, especially when they involve or include real money: Cutthroats.
The Cutthroats game in Home is severely broken, and needs to be examined. The reason there has to be some attention is simple: this is one of those cases where the Home user has often has paid real money for the experience of playing this game, which is a fun and enjoyable experience, but is not receiving the virtual commodities in exchange for the real money.
These ships wait, often empty because the space is broken.
Let’s face it: when we play a game that we don’t pay for, like nDreams’ “Trap-O-Matic,” we really cannot complain if something goes wrong. After all, the winnings there are handed out for free to whomever comes and checks the trap. In fact there have been times that I have gone and the game glitches, but I am not paying and thus the importance to take a stand is lessened.
Cutthroats, though, is a totally different picture. I know people (including myself) that have paid for ammunition packs and others that have bought the coats that give those same ammunition packs to one permanently, and have lost it all.
This is cause for concern. Yes, Home is a beta, and yes, things are not expected to work perfectly — but the moment real money from the consumer enters the equation, the importance of having a properly debugged commerce system is critical.
When one enters the place, they can go from kiosk to kiosk and collect free coins that are dispensed and if one waits on those – they can really add up. My first real dabbling in this game came on the backs of those free coins and that is where I found it to be so much fun. Then, after I had obtained a certain level in the game, I decided to buy some ammunition packs that would help me. I wanted to give the game a good try, and was really enjoying it — less some social issues, but those are not the fault of any developers involved, just a mutation of the social interactions of some bad eggs. I was considering buying the coats, and thought to really jump deep into this fun game.
Then the bottom fell out.
My first indicator was that the kiosks did not dispense the daily free coins. I will not make an issue of this as they were free. I enjoyed the free perks and had segued into the game where I paid for the better armament. But when I went to see what level I was at, I saw that I was not at the level 11 or 12 that I had labored to, but in fact at the very beginning. That means a big fat zero. This I could deal with too, as that would make the game a level playing field, though I do feel the pain of those that worked so hard to gain the higher levels only to see all that progress gone. I know I would feel as though I had wasted all that time on an endeavor that lead to the game glitching and zeroing me out of my experience. The worst part by far though is this, and it is simple: people that play the game have bought in-game perks with real money off of PSN cards. This means they paid as much as $4.99 for the power ups that are just gone. No answers from anyone in positions to help. Just gone. So we are left with the feeling of having been cheated and robbed, and a further feeling that nobody is looking into rectifying the issue.
Too much is broken here.
Home has a great model of business and has loyal followers that love the games and pay real money to play well-designed games, but also know that sometimes places in Home go abandoned and forgotten. I hope that this is not one of those places that sits in the still waters of forgotten time, never to be fixed, condemned to remain a vague memory of an old, great game.
Derelict. But it can be brought back. The choice is Sony’s to make.
To those that are in charge: a remedy would go far here to instill confidence in the consumers that are looking to Sony and the developers to make this right, via either a fix or refund. Don’t let this place go the way of some before that were broken, never to see a repairman’s shadow darken the doorstep. Cutthroats is a fun game — it really is. And so let’s hope that Sony will help its supporters and fix this so that those that lost real money can play again with confidence. If it were indeed fixed, even I would run back and enjoy what it was.
Sony does make great games just like all the developers do and that is certainly a plus for the user base here, but when a game goes bad, there does need to be some attention paid to it too.
The logical counter-argument, in such a situation, is that games sit broken because they weren’t profitable to begin with, and thus why throw good money after a bad investment? Perhaps that’s true. However, this is a bit like throwing away an entire car just because the tires ran flat. Even if we take consumer sentiment out of the equation, you can never truly know what sort of long-term monetization a game might have if the consumer is blatantly given reasons to not participate and monetize to begin with.
I look forward to the day I can don my pirate garb and again take to the seas that were so much fun.
November 10th, 2013 by FEMAELSTROM | 7 comments
FEMAELSTROM came to Home in June 2011 and never wanted to leave, even at weekly maintenance when he usually gets booted. The sand box environment appeals to the explorer in him and often is out and about as he ‘geeks’ out dressed like some sort of sci-fi character, while he people watches in popular public spaces. An artist and writer, FEMAELSTROM loves making friends and meeting people. He loves sci-fi and decorating Home estates and loves to respond “here” when people ask “where are you from?” in public places.
Share
| Tweet |
Cutthroats has never worked for me/ Ever since the beginning of the game every time I play and leave the space and return it sets me back to level 1. It always as done this so I never went back, now it seems to have spread to everyone. There are other games in Home that are broken as well. I can’t see the broom game in Pottermore at all, it won’t even show up as a target I can click on.
Charms is a part of the new challenges in Home but when I did the three levels the challenge required I didn’t get any credit for it at all.
It is things like this that can put people off of a game even the new challenge system is flawed.
Great read Strom, they really should do something about this. I went to the forums support area and told them about the Cutthroats issue months ago but it was never fixed for me.
I was reading an article about home the other day, but it wasnt the article that caught my eye it was the comments from PS3 users that was with it. There were about 80 comments and the general theme of those comments were tried it once and it was broken, slow, or crashed. So most of these 80 PSN users will never use home again and couldnt care whether stays or goes. There were a few comments trying to defend home but they couldnt because what was being said in the rest of the comments was fact either in the past or even worse it still is fact today. Just said it in another post, games that dont fully work should be removed and any money spent on them refunded. Because ultimately poor quality like this will cause users to try and not come back.
I have an idea why Cutthroats is broken. But it really does not matter what is wrong with it if there is no will to fix it. If I am right, it would not be a trivial fix for me or anyone else. The reality is that the business model failed enough that they are not willing to put back resources to regain the revenue stream. That is the real issue. It remains a warning sign for anyone wanting to create a free-to-play game on a free-to-play platform.
While I liked some of the enhancements, others went counter to the original game design. It became exactly the pay-to-win game I wanted to avoid.
And they never did release the Kraken.
I wasn’t a big CT player but I did enjoy early week-end mornig battles. Bought both a coat and a hat. And then… “it” happens.
The worst was not be left in the dark.
The worst was being told “everything works fine on our end”.
After months of complaining and , in lack of a better word, lies. Few weeks ago we we’re told some serious work will be done but a fix should not be expected before probably .. 3 MONTHS!
There’s still one question we never got an answer to.
How come a perfectly working game sudenly stop working and need so much works?
Should I add other Sony games “brokes” at the same time. RC rally among them. Games wich we’re still listed in featured games for months.
… No wonders there’s a bunch of whinners out there.
I try to stay positive and look at the bright side of things. But Cuthroats is one of the many things wich push me to restrain my spending on Home.
Free to play has more of responsibility for the brand to be right first time as people will keep a full priced game and wait for it to be repaired, even forgetting the fact the game before in the series had major issues they will still buy the next one. Free to play game users try it once and if it has an issue they dont come back for a long time if ever again.
One of the chief issues I have with this all is that people spend real money here. If the game had dispensed the free coins and that had glitched, oh well, it simply is a disservice to Sony, but people have spent real money here, and the game is still open and on the market for people to go play and try, and there is no stopping if people go to buy the add-ons, (if they even can). I think that Sony and everyone (minus the consumers) have a real obligation to remedy the issue. At least with games like Granzella they tell the user it is a limited time game that requires a special suit…you are aware it is a limited time, so you can buy the costumes with that in mind, at CT, we were never told that it was limited time as it was not, so people bought, and people lost real investments and that can only serve to weaken faith in Sony, plus it is just the right thing to do.
Couldn’t agree more, but more than weaken faith in Sony its weakens homes position making it less viable in the future. Home is only as good as its worse part as that is what home is judged by, in a world where first impressions count