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MER Community Discussion 1: Showing Grace

Community Discussions are back! One of the things that makes MER so special is the awesome group of listeners that is apart of our community. We want you guys to be a part of our podcast. After listening to this weeks community discussion topic head over to our forums and join in on the conversation. We will discuss this topic in our next episode of MER and include your thoughts and opinions in it as much as possible.

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8 replies on “MER Community Discussion 1: Showing Grace”

I am seeing a lot of people that have received their hard copy early after pre-ordering from online retailers. I went brick-and-mortar store for my copy with the anticipation that there would be no grace period, but I am starting to wonder if I should have just ordered it online.

Do you think BioWare went ahead and authorized early shipping for the major online retailers because they knew there would be no grace period? It doesn’t strike me as something that EA would allow. Any idea what the difference is between those people that have received their copy (in the US), and those that have received estimated shipping dates of, (in some cases), well after launch?

I understand why people are mad about having to wait to play the game….. After being allowed to play the game for up to 7days… For 5$ down payment on a pre order. Come on people, I have been waiting since day one for this game. I pre ordered the first day, ill be picking up the game that day at my local retailer, maybe you should have thought of that before you bought off the net. It stands to reason that the game will not be teleported to your house at 12:00 am 12/20/12. They have us two more days of early access, the least we can do is not throw a total giddy fit when they change a statement they made before we even had a release date

I have a problem with Bioware’s grace period renege on a couple of levels. Steven Reid has known for at least a month that there would be no grace period. They sat on this information, because they knew this would be a very unpopular policy reversal. If they had made this information public a month ago or whenever they decided to can the policy affected players could have made other arrangements to try and insure they would have a box on launch.

They claim they want a smooth launch so they go with the early game access, but doesn’t locking out customers that are waiting on their boxes to arrive potentially throw a huge monkey wrench in that plan? Why are they going out of their way to piss off a nice chunk of their customers?

Personally missing the 2 days or whatever aren’t as big a problem, as whole way they have handle this fiasco. The whole “there is no grace period, get over it” attitude is highly offensive. This isn’t shooting yourself in the foot, this is shooting yourself in the neck. Every single person that bought a CE online has a good chance of being locked out. This is a spectacular PR hit.

Hello Bioware, Hello EA

I am to say the least. Angry. When the game was announced for release I was ecstatic I had been waiting for years to get access to the game, then I was told that I wouldn’t be able to play because I was Australian. I was devastated, further investigation revealed that I could play but that the game wouldn’t be “released” in my territory for a little while longer and that I would need to purchase the game myself. Well ok then! I can do that, and off I totted to Amazon and purchased a Physical CE.

I then started spruiking the game to my mates and getting them to purchase the game online. I was sure that there would be some sort of grace period as MMO’s allow a delivery period and a 30 day free usage. I wasn’t sure so I checked online and sure enough I was directed to post regarding something called a “Grace Period” and directed to check the FAQ. Both a post in the official game forums and the game FAQ assured us that there would be a “Grace Period” it didn’t say how long, but encouraged us to check closer to launch.

Sure enough as launch approached the “Grace Period” topic came up for discussion and were asked to be patient and that Stephen Reid (@rockjaw) would get back to us later that week with a reply.

No Reply
Not to worry Stephen Reid (@rockjaw) will reply by the end of this week
No Reply
We know your waiting but someone will tell you something soon

No Grace Period… at all

I have 12 people who bought the game on my say so, who trusted me and bought something on a promise because I trusted you. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that I’m cancelling my order, because you and I both know I’m not going to do that. You’re the only game in town, unless I want to go back to a failed MMO or play with Kung Fu Panda’s , and I don’t.

So here I am, frustrated, annoyed and yeah more than a little disappointed In total I’m spending $179(AUD – $183.82US) to get the CE as soon as I can, but even then I still probably wont get it till the 24th or the 27th . That’s not even the real problem although its not an insignificant worry. The real problem is that you guys have lied to us and then have acted as if we are the ones who are acting irrationally or wrongly. You’ve left the Community Manager standing in public with this junk on a chopping block without anyway to get him down. How are we supposed to trust anything that is said by you guys now.

So no Bioware / EA, I’m not cancelling my order because I still want to play the game but I certainly wont be recommending it to anymore of my friends.

Brian

I have contacted many fan sites including MER. BTW thanxs Zack for following up here. I’ve also sent emails directed to both Doctors at Bioware as well as tweeted both plus James Ohlen. As an update Ray Muzuyka got back to us via twitter that they are actively addressing this issue so maybe things will break. Please understand that most people are upset because we thought we were covered and at the last minute the game changed(sic). I think the honorable thing to do is for BW to work with the retailers so their loyal fans have our codes to play on Launch Day. I’ve been waiting for 4+ years for this game and this whole “grace period thing” has sucked some of the JOY out of it for me.Who doesn’t want to be there for the opening day party? Having said that, Bioware has time to help us and I really believe they will do what it takes for their fans. Also a shout out to Steven Reid who has been point man on this and has taken a lot of flak for it. We’re still fans Rockjaw! And again thanxs Zack your help is appreciated. See you at Launch *fingers x’sd*

They screwed the pooch on this one.

It would be bad enough to announce at the 11th hour that there will be no grace period (which has been in place for several competitors’ launches), but to do so after having posted that there would be one in the original FAQ, is terrible. Posting an apology that started out with “[w]e are sorry if you were lead to believe…” escalated the whole thing to down right insulting!

It’s great that their CM team is scrambling to try to work with vendors to get game keys into players’ hands before the 20th. But it also belies a major screw up internally at BioWare. The time to start working on that problem would have been months ago when the release date was announced, and presumably the plan to not offer a grace period would have been made.

The big concern many of us have who have loved playing the game (for me, over the last few months in general beta test), isn’t with the game itself: it’s solid. It’s been whether or not BioWare are going to be able to make a smooth transition from being a single player game vendor to managing a live MMO. In all fairness it doesn’t matter so much if I don’t get to play my box copy of Mass Effect 3 until a few days after all of my friends who pre-ordered on Steam. It does matter a great deal if a chunk of my SWToR guild suddenly can’t play for a day(s), after we’ve all be leveling together in the Early Access.

The fact that they’ve screwed this up in the first place is a bit troubling and, to an extent, justifies those concerns. The fact that they haven’t yet posted a “mea culpa” and added a grace period to their plans is what is much more problematic. From a community perspective, there is a simple solution to this problem. But, so far they’ve been unwilling, or worse unable, to embrace that solution.

Only time will tell, but I sincerely hope that this SNAFU hasn’t revealed underlying management problems on the live game team. Because SWToR has the potential to be a fantastic MMO, as long as there is a happy, loyal, community there to support it.

Regarding no grace period:
From my perspective, I think it’s no big deal really. This is just a game not life-support for an elderly aunt. I’ve got other ways to spend my time if I have to miss a few days between the end of early access and getting my code from the physical CE. If days become weeks I might get upset, but it would have to be a more of than a week enforced hiatus to get me upset.

From a business perspective however, I think Bioware/EA is making a pretty big PR blunder by not giving an extended grace period for anyone that registered a pre-order code. After all the real goal is to get $15/month in subscription fees and making consumers wait and jump through hoops is counter productive to that objective. This sort of thing can change a potentially dedicated customer into an enraged former customer.

So, still being stonewalled by Amazon claiming they can’t release till the 20th and that they need permision from EA/BW. No official response from BW as of 5p cst. (12/12/11)from @Rockjaw or Bioware. This is really sucking some of the joy out of EGA and Launch. We would just like to have some info. Please.