OMG Cryptic ahahaha I remember like it was yesterday that people were singing the praises of Champions Online because Cryptic knew how to make a superhero mmo with deep customization Now just half a year later, their name has become synonymous with slimy immoral business practices and horrible game design/customer service Aaaaand meanwhile Funcom, most hated MMO developer of all time thanks to AO's launch and AoC as a whole, has come out of nowhere to be a ****ing awesome company and completely turned AoC around for the better I love this industry
I love this post. I was kinda thinking the same. Even though AO is old as dirt, and AoC still is not living up to the original hype both are still going and doing well. We need to find some clever name to call Cryptic Studios like "Failcom" and "Flagshipped."
Now when people are ripped off they can say someone STO'd from them.
I think ATARDED...or ATARAPED would be more fitting and reflective of where the problem truly lies.
The point is they are perfectlly within their rigths to say it was not part of the deal if infact it was published ( the add) by mistake. They can then retract the offer and remove the adds. They would cliam that as soon as it was brought to their attention they removed them. Their options to the customers who purhcased under the 'mistaken offer" is to either refund their full purchase price or agree to live up to the agreement for those limited customers only. They woudl win in court as long as the court aggreed that they corrected the add in a timely manner and dealt with their customers in either of the aformentioned ways. Now seeing how just last week they refunded the prepaid lifetimes and yearly sub fees to any who claeed before the weekend I would tend to give them the benifit of the doubt that there was an error made. Is it bad PR yes.
No they can't. This is called "false advertising" and is completely illegal. They have to honour what they advertised at the time, no matter what. They can end the sale early and no longer offer it after they ended the sale, but as long as it's published they have to honour the advertised sale price.
If WalMart prints a flyer that mistakenly offers Playstation 3s for $29.99 they have to sell people those Playstation 3s for thirty bucks.
This is the blatant knee-jerking I knew would pop up. This is certainly NOT a case of false advertisement as first you have to prove that the defendant is trying to deceive customers into buying something that they already know they will NOT deliver on. And since we all know now that:
The offer was identified as an error and pulled as soon as possible
A notice was posted stating the offer (in it's mistaken form) in question should have never been made available
Customers are being compensated by offering refunds
You cannot prove in a US court of law that it was a malicious attempt to deceive consumers nor was it a case of blatant fraud. This is what I was trying to get at in my original post. Gamers work themselves up in a mindless frenzy every time something fails to go their way. Is the situation irritating? Yes. Does it point out miscommunication between publishers and developers? Yes. Does that mean that every time a mistake is made customers will get their choice in compensation? Not really.
And for the record if Walmart had a flyer listing PS3s for $29.99 and EVERYONE truly knows that they are never that cheap, you can bet on seeing a small sign taped on the display posting that the ad for PS3s in that weeks flyer was a mistake and not Walmart nor any other retailer would ever take a hit on a snafu that big. And obviously giving away 90 days of free gametime is a snafu Atari is not willing to swallow.
What you can prove or not prove in a court of law is not as relevant as the PR impacts this stunt will have. Are Cryptic/Atari withint their rights to do what they did? No idea, Im not a lawyer.
Do I as a customer feel like this is a PR disaster? Yes I do.
All the people who bought the life-time subs must be so happy right now... I'll be amazed if any of them are still logging in 18 months from now.
Most of the lifetime and yearly sub people i knew ingame all took advantage of the offer last week to have their accounts switched to a monthly and have recieved a refund.
Magic is impressive, but now Minsc leads! Swords for everyone!
The entire debate - both here and on STO forums- reminds me of the famous scene in the movie "all the president's men " where Bernstein makes a call to the White House librarian about Howard Hunt . Denial in the face of solid proof doesn't work - it sure didn't work with Woodstein .
Comments
I love this post. I was kinda thinking the same. Even though AO is old as dirt, and AoC still is not living up to the original hype both are still going and doing well. We need to find some clever name to call Cryptic Studios like "Failcom" and "Flagshipped."
Now when people are ripped off they can say someone STO'd from them.
I think ATARDED...or ATARAPED would be more fitting and reflective of where the problem truly lies.
No they can't. This is called "false advertising" and is completely illegal. They have to honour what they advertised at the time, no matter what. They can end the sale early and no longer offer it after they ended the sale, but as long as it's published they have to honour the advertised sale price.
If WalMart prints a flyer that mistakenly offers Playstation 3s for $29.99 they have to sell people those Playstation 3s for thirty bucks.
This is the blatant knee-jerking I knew would pop up. This is certainly NOT a case of false advertisement as first you have to prove that the defendant is trying to deceive customers into buying something that they already know they will NOT deliver on. And since we all know now that:
You cannot prove in a US court of law that it was a malicious attempt to deceive consumers nor was it a case of blatant fraud. This is what I was trying to get at in my original post. Gamers work themselves up in a mindless frenzy every time something fails to go their way. Is the situation irritating? Yes. Does it point out miscommunication between publishers and developers? Yes. Does that mean that every time a mistake is made customers will get their choice in compensation? Not really.
And for the record if Walmart had a flyer listing PS3s for $29.99 and EVERYONE truly knows that they are never that cheap, you can bet on seeing a small sign taped on the display posting that the ad for PS3s in that weeks flyer was a mistake and not Walmart nor any other retailer would ever take a hit on a snafu that big. And obviously giving away 90 days of free gametime is a snafu Atari is not willing to swallow.
What you can prove or not prove in a court of law is not as relevant as the PR impacts this stunt will have. Are Cryptic/Atari withint their rights to do what they did? No idea, Im not a lawyer.
Do I as a customer feel like this is a PR disaster? Yes I do.
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All the people who bought the life-time subs must be so happy right now... I'll be amazed if any of them are still logging in 18 months from now.
Most of the lifetime and yearly sub people i knew ingame all took advantage of the offer last week to have their accounts switched to a monthly and have recieved a refund.
Magic is impressive, but now Minsc leads! Swords for everyone!
The entire debate - both here and on STO forums- reminds me of the famous scene in the movie "all the president's men " where Bernstein makes a call to the White House librarian about Howard Hunt . Denial in the face of solid proof doesn't work - it sure didn't work with Woodstein
.
All I can is... Glad I canceled my STO account.