Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-11590835-20130724050540

Folks, friends, fellow game players,



I wanted to post a recent experience with the game we all know and (love?) to try to communicate to the forum, the chat buddies, and anyone interested in this game as it stands now. My intent is not to call for an embargo against Mobage, or rally the troops against them, or anything else. I simply believe that clear disclosure and communication is important to all, and a human right of all. Corporations try to keep information from being shared as long as it increases their bottom line by their nature.



A little about me if you don’t know me or have not seen me in the game. I’m StarscreamG1. I started the game in the episode “Countdown to Extinction” which ran from the 24th to the 31st of May of this year. I placed in the 3rd tier there, coming in late to the event and not understanding the game much at all. From that point on, I have placed in the top tier for all events from “Day of the Dinobots” to the recent “Road to Ruin” – Almost always in the top page, and on “The Bee Team”, 1st place.



So first disclosure – getting in the top tier means laying out money. This game is the definition of “pay to win” more than any game I’ve ever played. Don’t get me wrong – the time and effort involved in placing at the top is massive – farm cube days for the top players are double digit hours of work a day, and maintaining point totals means around 3-4 hours a day in the middle of the episodes. The heart of so many of the top players is huge too – I’ve seen them time and time again sacrificing their own cubes to help others get into the top tier. Don’t hate the top players – thank them for making this game a “free to play” game for the rest. If you want to be one of the top people of the top tier and helping others, it means way bigger money. No one kid anyone here – it will cost on average easily $200+ an event to place this high – sometimes more to get the more rare T5 raid cards, sometimes a little less, as well as cubes you need to win. Is this excessive on Mobages part…are they too greedy…how much profit do they need to make this game happen? I don’t know, but it does seem excessive. I’ve called for, time and time again, to be able to buy one of each raid card just for collectors in the game…all they have done is put the middle card in a package for that (and priced it at $30), and put one lower raid card in the point rewards. Also, because of unlimited space bridge runs the “pay to win” concept is put into an extreme. There’s no fairness in someone that works their ass off only spending a little money, and someone that works less and spends a whole lot.



But, point being…I have paid a lot in time and money to be where I am now and have the collection of cards that I do.



Now, with that disclosed, let me get to the part you all need to know. The last update of the game itself (1.5.5) has some nasty bugs – bugs that Mobage is not talking about and not reporting on. Check the iTunes app store and read the reviews on 1.5.5…they are littered with complains about cards that went missing. Yes- that’s right…a game that is charging hundreds of dollars for virtual cards is making very little effort to even protect customer accounts against the loss of those cards. My wife, Emmerl00, lost 2 Bee Team card sets (Huffer and Gears, plus weapons). Mobage still has not rectified that situation. Shortly after that, and before this latest event started, I logged in to see that I had a large amount of free space in my base – and as it turns out 17 fully upgraded “4” weapons vanished from my account. 12 were elite weapons, 5 are episode weapons (all reward ones, no raid ones).



I happily emailed Mobage with all the information on the cards I lost, as I’ve had some issues with some of the problems within the game before – but nothing like this. After some time, I got a response: “ Our records do not show you having ever owned these cards. In the interest of fairness for all players, we are unable to credit an individual with cards.”   In spite of my cyberdeck showing   I once owned these cards, and in spite of me even placing first on “The Bee Team” event of which some of the missing episode weapons came from, in effect they told me… I was making it up.



At this point I emailed them a screen shot of my cyberdeck and said they had some serious issues with the game and that this was no way to treat a customer. I got no response back. My wife at this same time got the cards she lost reissued, but again, a set of them disappeared as soon as she accepted the rewards. I re-emailed the same email again. The next day a different Mobage person responded. “We're not able to add the individual weapons to your account. However, as compensation I've credited your account with some battle cubes (100). I've also let our developers know about the issue.”



So, for Mobage’s error, I got about $20 in battle cubes, and a nod that the developers need to know there’s a serious issue going on. (Hint – they already have to have known at this point). As you all know, 17 fully upgraded level 4 weapons collected over months of work spending hundreds of dollars to get, including 5 episode weapons that are not replaceable, is not at all worth $20 in expendable battle cubes. I was not happy.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">I emailed them back again saying these things, saying that I understand that bugs happen, and saying that I have been paying a whole lot into this game…and that they were being unreasonable. (I also, of course, know that Mobage can in fact issue weapons and episode cards out, as they did with my wife). I asked for 1 of 3 things. 1. Take the time to put the weapons back into my account, 2. give me an equivalent value of Mobage coins to compensate me (as you know, that would a lot to compensate – but they would be out next to nothing here….Mobage coins are rather free for them to ‘make’), or 3. refund the money that I’ve spend on the game and I’d walk away closing off my account.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">The value to me, and I’m sure a lot of you, is the collection of the cards/weapons. If they cannot guarantee that you get to keep them, what is the point? I also mentioned that if they were unwilling to accept one of these choices, that I’d post my story in the Wiki, as well as open a complaint to Apple about one of their app store companies not delivering to paying customers. Considering you are reading this, you know the outcome – no reply.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">From that point forward, I have re-sent the email 2 times, no response. Very unprofessional.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">So I wanted you all to understand…at least at this point, and assuming that Mobage doesn’t step up and realize how poor their customer service has been here – Your cards and weapons are not guaranteed. You can lose them at any time.   Mobage may, or may not fix the problem if you lose them. All the money that you spend on their game could be for nothing more than time playing the game and hanging out with the good people that play the game (this is not mobages value, this is the value of you folks being so good). I want everyone that plays this game to understand that. As long as you understand that risk, play on, and buy on. But know that this could happen to you.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">If anything else happens in this situation, I will be sure to post here about it. I would love nothing more than for Mobage to step up and go out of their way to make this right for me (and I’m sure some others with this problem).

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">Until then…roll out.

<p class="MsoNormal">StarscreamG1

<p class="MsoNormal"> <ac_metadata title="Warning for consideration to all Transformers Legends Players : Please read this."> </ac_metadata>