SOE Currently Has 'No ETA' on Game ServicesMay 2nd, 2011 at 7:17 PM by Calthine

SOE downtime continues as they work to secure information.

UPDATE, May 4: SOE has answered some common questions about the attack.

As we previously reported, all Sony Online Entertainment services, games, forums and web sites went offline this morning as a result of the recent Playstation Network intrusion. SOE issued an announcement which revealed that personal information had been compromised.  Players were, for the most part, relieved that credit card information was safe, but wanted to know when they could play their games.  The press release only said, "Our teams are working around the clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible."

We shot off a quick e-mail to John "Smed" Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, asking if the servers would be back up tonight, May 2.  He quickly replied with, "They won't be up tonight unfortunately." 

SOE is granting customers 30 days of additional time on their subscriptions, in addition to compensating them one day for each day the system is down.

Tags: News, SOEAttack, SonyOnlineEntertainment

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EQ2 server downtime
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# May 03 2011 at 2:11 AM Rating: Decent
__DEL__1615767708767
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Aye! Thank you SOE for taking the servers down and taking all possible precautions to protect your subscribers. Help the FBI get these punks! As a previous post suggests PLEASE grant us Double XP for the month...)
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Are we there yet?
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# May 03 2011 at 1:54 AM Rating: Decent
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Well it's finally tomorrow on the west coast and already 9am for me so ...should I be hopeful for some fun today?
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Are we there yet?
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# May 03 2011 at 5:00 AM Rating: Decent
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I doubt it. Unless they have learnt anything from the PSN network break-in that speeds things up regarding resetting their security, the downtime is likely to be weeks...

Throw an externally hired security firm into the mix which will add even more time and I doubt that the servers will be up before mid-May. Hope I'm wrong...
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continue with updates
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# May 02 2011 at 11:58 PM Rating: Decent
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Keep the updates coming. Keep us informed!!
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CC check
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# May 02 2011 at 11:50 PM Rating: Decent
Tebben
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Well, just logged onto my credit card to make sure there were no "iffy" charges....nothing but my monthly SOE account charge...had to giggle a bit....all this security stuff going on, big panic, but apparently their billing system is working just fine!!....lol...geez!!
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The real skinny
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# May 02 2011 at 11:30 PM Rating: Decent
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Just in case someone was wondering....Here is a play by play from one of my guild members who was on last night when the decision was made to take it all down.

"If ya must know late last night someone f##### with their systems.....badly. People who logged out couldn't get back in saying something that their password was incorrect at first and then that their parental controls were set to not allow them to log in. At that point if you even tried to switch characters you weren't getting back on. The mail system shut down as is the claim rewards. It became so bad that at the end when someone finally came on to see what was going on. They saw that our server had less than 70 people logged on. Immidiately server shutdown happened within 15 mins of that. That was at 330 server time am wise. Isee it has been fail since then since I cant log in now."
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The real skinny
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# May 03 2011 at 5:05 AM Rating: Decent
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Yep, I was on-line at the time as well and remember seeing that message too. It all seemed to start by someone asking if everyones Station Cash balances were missed. They all were, and missing as in blank not zeroed. The add funds button was greyed out too. I think someone petitioned and about 30 mins after that the servers came dowm at about 12:00 GMT. Might be entirely unrelated but something flaky was going on
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Thank you sony
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# May 02 2011 at 11:23 PM Rating: Decent
__DEL__1654474615028
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Thank you sony. This is the first chance I've had in weeks to shower and get some sleep!
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Hopeing
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# May 02 2011 at 10:58 PM Rating: Decent
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I hope EQ gets up soon but I`d rather wait a bit longer and let SOE get their system straight. I`d sure love a double xp week SOE.
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Finally some real information
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# May 02 2011 at 10:52 PM Rating: Decent
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Every SOE website has had the same security update page with no information as to when the service would be back up. I appreciate the time they are taking to resolve the matter efficiently. It couldn't happen at a better time since I have two final exams tomorrow and still kept trying to log in rather than study. Can't wait to get back in the game though.
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Finally some real information
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# May 02 2011 at 11:41 PM Rating: Excellent
-REDACTED-
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As soon as we know we'll post it :) I promise! In the mean time, hit the honor roll!
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Sony
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# May 02 2011 at 10:38 PM Rating: Decent
Ravenbeauty
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I would like to thank Sony for taking the protection of our information over the inconvienance of being offline for a bit! The hackers that did this were selfish bastards that are only out for themselves. I hope the FBI get them.
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SOE hurry up!
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# May 02 2011 at 10:35 PM Rating: Decent
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so i hear around the mill that people with subscriptions will get extra time on their accounts but what about is people that are only on a bronze or silver level who dont pay a monthly sub?what will we get?is it that only people who pay are going to make out after things are fixed?that doesnt seem right somehow. i think we should at least get 2000 SC and a double xp day for each day that we cant log on.
speaking of logging on how much longer do we have to wait?im kinda miffed that this is twice this week that ive had to wait 8+hours to log on
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SOE hurry up!
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# May 02 2011 at 11:28 PM Rating: Decent
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When you say it like that you make it sound as if silver accounts don't pay. We just have a different pay model. Don't let your word choice devalue your worth.

Paying customers on EQ2X deserve to be treated the same as paying customers on eq2. I have transactions to show that I pay just as much.
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Facebook "Like" button
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# May 02 2011 at 10:04 PM Rating: Decent
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I noticed that 36 people clicked the Facebook "Like" button next to the headline SOE Games Will Not Be Online Tonight Must have been the wives, husbands, significant others of SOE players.
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Facebook "Like" button
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# May 03 2011 at 4:14 AM Rating: Default
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Merf wrote:
I noticed that 36 people clicked the Facebook "Like" button next to the headline SOE Games Will Not Be Online Tonight Must have been the wives, husbands, significant others of SOE players.


or it is people that actual care about the simple fact that their personal information was stolen by thieves and are applauding that SOE is taking the time to make sure tings are being done correctly. If SOE contracted out to a 3rd party security firm - the security firm decides when the systems come back online - they are the ones driving the investigation at this time not SOE.

Peresonally do not care if they kep them down for a week, as long as the security hole is corrected by the firm driving the investigation, being able to play a game is a lot less important then identity theft and loss of personal information
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Facebook
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# May 03 2011 at 12:28 PM Rating: Decent
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That was meant as a joke eq2ctplayer. I'm sorry you failed to understand the humor. Of course our security is of upmost importance.
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Facebook "Like" button
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# May 02 2011 at 10:37 PM Rating: Good
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Merf wrote:
I noticed that 36 people clicked the Facebook "Like" button next to the headline SOE Games Will Not Be Online Tonight Must have been the wives, husbands, significant others of SOE players.

Ty Merf I needed a grin on my face with a laugh before i hug my pillow for the night. Good comment :) I think my b/f might have been one of the 36...
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Sweet!!! Go ZAM
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# May 02 2011 at 10:01 PM Rating: Decent
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Well....bummed at recent developements. But I'd rather Sony take the time they need and lock the system down tight. These thing happen, and will happen again and again...no system is safe...

I can only express my sadness at not being able to play EQ...but hey thats me...as for all of us...follow the posted advise that Sony laid out and everybody should know...start checking your credit reports, keep an eye on the bank accounts and all that jazz.

Comeon people....lets "take the high road" in this and let Sony do what needs to be done and let us get back to the games we all love.

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this is not right
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# May 02 2011 at 9:51 PM Rating: Decent
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The company said it would offer "welcome back" freebies such as complimentary downloads and 30 days of free service to PlayStation customers around the world to show remorse and appreciation.

I just read this in the paper and the way I see it the 30days is only for the PS3 players not the online people with PCs. this is wrong Song has to make this right for everyone equal.
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this is not right
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# May 03 2011 at 12:54 PM Rating: Default
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Quote:
I just read this in the paper and the way I see it the 30days is only for the PS3 players not the online people with PCs. this is wrong Song has to make this right for everyone equal.

Marsar, you should learn to read the headline of the article you are posting to. If you had, you would have seen this:
Quote:
SOE is granting customers 30 days of additional time on their subscriptions, in addition to compensating them one day for each day the system is down.
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Info compromised
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# May 02 2011 at 9:11 PM Rating: Decent
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I have gotten 2 emails from sites I subscribe to, gmail.com and amazon.com, or they tried to look as though they were, telling me my accounts were frozen and I need to fill out an attached form to change my password to reactivate my accounts. But when I went to the sites everything was just fine. So the hackers who hit Sony are phishing. Beware, do not fill out any attached forms you get in the email. No site will send you such emails asking for confidential info such as passwords.

Edited, May 2nd 2011 11:28pm by rickcarufel
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wrong
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# May 02 2011 at 8:48 PM Rating: Decent
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As I said, XmoneenX:

Quote:
Actually, double XP isn't exactly fair. Subscription based users are getting a $15 value for free. At best non-subscription based users will get a double SC weekend so that they have to pay out money to gain access to the compensation.

We are paying customers too, and in fact I personally pay $15 / month for station cash. The exact same as sub based users. I just prefer the other payment model because it feels like I'm buying and not renting.

I have no problem with no compensation at all, but if you're going to compensate one group you compensate all groups equivalently. Thus the only fair thing to do is to give 1500 SC to the (paying) eq2x customers.

It'd probably just be easier to just give 1500 SC to all paying users in lieu of the 30-day extension. Same value. Doesn't tell one group of customers they're worth less than another.


If you want to argue that one group of people should get compensated and the other shouldn't, then you are simply wrong.

Quote:
Let them focus on the real problem compared to forcing them to think of better ways to appease the whiners.


Aww, you think that their community managers are hard at work improving the security of their network??? -pinches cheek- How cuuuute.

In case you don't speak sarcasm, let me reiterate in idiot: The people fixing the problem have nothing to do with PR. They're not stopping by to see how the community is doing. The THIRD PARTY FIRM that is responsible for fixing their network code is probably not calling the shots on what to do to "appease the whiners." Not that requesting fair treatment nearly qualifies one for the title.

Edited, May 2nd 2011 10:50pm by Jlad
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WoW and Allakhazam
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# May 02 2011 at 8:44 PM Rating: Decent
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I am seriously re-thinking my WoW experience and thinking I didn't give it enough of a chance. Plus my subscript to Allak will work with WoW too, so, not losing out there,,,
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WoW and Allakhazam
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# May 03 2011 at 4:10 AM Rating: Decent
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RoninWare wrote:
I am seriously re-thinking my WoW experience and thinking I didn't give it enough of a chance. Plus my subscript to Allak will work with WoW too, so, not losing out there,,,


the door is behind you, don't slam it when you leave.
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How do you say Death of Sony?
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# May 02 2011 at 8:39 PM Rating: Default
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First off Many of the SOE PC games are hanging on by the skin of there teeth anyway, planetside is a 20$ graveyard of people, and i can only imagine what the other P2P games look like, i have no hatred towards SONY for something they cant control, but now is a time to really think about surrvival, every minnute that SOE games are down, they loose countless people to other games, attempting to find something to fill the void of there SOE game. Instead of sticking up for SOE perhaps more of you should be concerned about having someone to play with when the game comes back up! or if SONY will even be able to survive this ordeal with the MASSIVE amounts of money they are going to loose handing out all these refunds and free game time subscipts. Has anyone even been paying attention to how BROKE sony has been in the past 3 years!?!?! they have let most of there games die out due to lack of population, i havent seen a free trial for one of there games in 3 years!!!! so lets hope SOE decides to put the nose to the grindstone becuase, in the time it's taken me to type this 10 people that normaly play EQ or CoH or SWG, have downloaded the free trial of World of Warcraft and been hooked! as a loyal fan of sony, HURRY UP BEFORE YOU MASTERMIND YOUR OWN DEMISE!!!!
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Priorities
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# May 02 2011 at 8:38 PM Rating: Default
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33 posts
All posts are opinions, but this one is very opinionated.

This is all about priorities.

Sony is not putting enough effort into resolving this.

If THEIR financials were on a server and it suddenly because inaccessible, it would not be two or more weeks before that server was up. It would be up in a matter of hours, regardless of the complexity.

They are choosing not to make this a priority, and are doing cosmetic things to make it look like they are doing something. What good does bringing down the servers do, or at least making them inaccessible to the outside world do, when the original attack happened almost two weeks ago?

They need to do a better job at communication too. Not giving us an ETA or even a SWAG at when the servers are going to be back up is asking to be deserted. People, as a general rule, do not like to be left in the dark. It makes them feel ignored and unwanted.
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Priorities
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# May 03 2011 at 6:38 AM Rating: Decent
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spacklewoof wrote:
All posts are opinions, but this one is very opinionated.

This is all about priorities.

Sony is not putting enough effort into resolving this.

If THEIR financials were on a server and it suddenly because inaccessible, it would not be two or more weeks before that server was up. It would be up in a matter of hours, regardless of the complexity.

They are choosing not to make this a priority, and are doing cosmetic things to make it look like they are doing something. What good does bringing down the servers do, or at least making them inaccessible to the outside world do, when the original attack happened almost two weeks ago?

They need to do a better job at communication too. Not giving us an ETA or even a SWAG at when the servers are going to be back up is asking to be deserted. People, as a general rule, do not like to be left in the dark. It makes them feel ignored and unwanted.


Please get real.. contrary to what you think it takes time for computer foresnic experts to dig through things. You are proven wrong by the simple fact the service is still down while they dig through things.

You maybe additcted to the game and going through withdrawels because you can't play, but bottom line this is not a 911 system, when it gets back up it gets back up. They have a 3rd party security firm driving the bus on this - that company will not allow the systems back up until they are sure things are secure - even if they did give a swag or a eta people will take it as gospel and 3 milliseconds after the stated eta has passed they will be on the forums posting about how SOE is the pits and cannot do anything right.

What exactly do you want them to tell you? They ar working on it, that is all that is needed to know.
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Priorities
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# May 02 2011 at 9:06 PM Rating: Decent
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A few points from the peanut gallery.

As an IT guy there are situations that require more than a magic wand to fix. This is one of them. Performing serious problem diagnosis and then making any necessary code, system and other related changes take time. Add in some testing and a post code drop retest to confirm that stuff works as intended just adds to the wall clock time needed.

Secondly it seems that some of you seem addicted to computer gaming as you are talking about how its time to move to another game. If you are unable to take some unexpected down time from EQ2 without going bat *** crazy then you need to consider a 12 step plan.

Don't you think the other games are just as vulnerable to hackers?

The battle between hackers and the good guys never ends. Last month it was some big email site that banks were using, this month its Sony. Next month it might be your grocery store.

What are you going to do? Live in a cabin and grow your own food? Go all barter ?

Am heading back to watch come TV while I wait to get paged for work. Will change my password as soon as the site it back online and then continue working on getting to lvl 90, new gear and redoing my AA tree.

/afk
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Priorities
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# May 03 2011 at 2:56 AM Rating: Decent
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Listen to this person, the truth is being told here. If you need a 12 step program, look up Celebrate Recovery. What ever your issue, there's a class for that. I commend SOE for doing what they can to protect their business and their customers. A little inconvienience is more than worth the hassle of what might happen if SOE did nothing to inconvienience you and just kept things status quo. You would be going to Velious and your bank account would be going to the Caman Islands.
Give SOE a break. They still have the best MMO around.
I cant conceive that there will not be some form of compensation. Fair and equitable would be nice. They can't make everyone happy, too many people are after something for nothing. Look at the HACKERS, trying to get something for nothing. Personally I hope that the something they get is a man or woman with a Glock and wearing a Brooks Brother's suit knocking at their door soon.

Look at things for how they are, not as how you want them to be.
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Priorities
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# May 03 2011 at 8:07 PM Rating: Decent
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I'm an IT guy too. I've worked for the biggest bank, the biggest automaker and the biggest computer supplier in the world.

I have little patience for the drivel that is being fed to us as "Status".

I pay to play. If I can't play, I expect to be kept informed, as would anyone who pays for any service.

ASAP is not an acceptable answer.

Tell that to your wife the next time she asks when you will be ready to go to dinner and see what kind of response you get.

Tell that to your boss the next time he wants status on a down server and see what kind of response you get.

It's a smart *** answer from a smug company that feels they have nothing to prove to anyone.

I hope most of Sony's customers feel like you and not like me. I don't want to see EQ2 die. I have been playing since rollout on the shadowhaven server, now known as "The Bazaar"

Communication can save this. Unfortunately, even though most companies promote it as a strong, desirable value internally, they /epicfail on communications to customers.

It would not take but 5 mins to post an update to a website once an hour or once every two hours saying they are still working on it. My supervisors asked it of me, and it went a long way towards soothing the nerves of people who knew nothing of me, but knew everything of the crisis I was attending to.
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hmm.
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# May 02 2011 at 8:29 PM Rating: Decent
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Ok. So i like free stuff just as much as the next guy, but cmon lol.

Sony was hacked. Our personal information was possibly stolen (I haven't quite followed enough to know if it was just PSN or all of sony's subscription info).

People are focusing too much on "what are they gonna give us for our lost gaming time?" Did it come to mind that "hey... maybe those who've hacked in have our credit card/bank card info." That'd give them access to our finances and could possibly make it so we couldn't afford to play anymore past the free time they give us.

I'm all for sony takin their time to make sure they go through the proper steps to make sure this doesnt happen again. Let them focus on the real problem compared to forcing them to think of better ways to appease the whiners.
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hmm.
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# May 03 2011 at 12:40 PM Rating: Default
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As a wise man once said, "You can please some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all of the people anytime" Tell the whiners to go to hell, and just be happy they even care about you at all. I personally am quite happy with Sony's re-imbursement decision, and even more so with the fact they are working to resolve the security risk and discover who the a**wipe is that caused all of this to begin with. As I see it, they didn't HAVE to give you anything for your inconvenience of not being able to play. Everyone here should be happy that Sony intends to re-open for business as usual.
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Ty SOE
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# May 02 2011 at 8:28 PM Rating: Decent
staarlite
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Thank-you for doing all you can, as quickly as possible. I'd rather have this cleared up in a timely manner than, as another poster put it, happy playing while being ripped off. ;-)
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Fair is not fair
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# May 02 2011 at 8:13 PM Rating: Decent
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7 posts
Actually, double XP isn't exactly fair. Subscription based users are getting a $15 value for free. At best non-subscription based users will get a double SC weekend so that they have to pay out money to gain access to the compensation.

We are paying customers too, and in fact I personally pay $15 / month for station cash. The exact same as sub based users. I just prefer the other payment model because it feels like I'm buying and not renting.

I have no problem with no compensation at all, but if you're going to compensate one group you compensate all groups equivalently. Thus the only fair thing to do is to give 1500 SC to the (paying) eq2x customers.

It'd probably just be easier to just give 1500 SC to all paying users in lieu of the 30-day extension. Same value. Doesn't tell one group of customers they're worth less than another.
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Fair is not fair
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# May 02 2011 at 8:26 PM Rating: Decent
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You're looking at it the wrong way.

When you pay 1 month at a time using station cash, you are a subscription customer - you have a 1 month subscription. So when this is over, whatever your time remaining was for your month as of today will be extended by 1 day for each day the servers were down, PLUS another 30 days.

You're not missing out on anything.

Edited, May 2nd 2011 9:31pm by foreverquester
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Fair is not fair
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# May 03 2011 at 11:42 AM Rating: Decent
__DEL__1593375478717
7 posts
I'm not sure if you misunderstood how I spend my "one month" of station cash, or if you're just arguing that a non-time based "subscription" should not be compensated.

If you misunderstood:

I don't spend my $15 month in station cash on time. I spend it on classes, races, etc.

If you're arguing that a non-time based "subscription" shouldn't be compensated:

This would be correct if they weren't already refunding you for every day missed. Since your paid time is thus in stasis, it is irrelevant. The 30 days of free time is an apology. They owe the same apology to all paying customers.

Just because I spend my money on classes, races and unlocks doesn't make me any less inconvenienced than someone who pays for time.
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double post
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# May 02 2011 at 8:12 PM Rating: Decent
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7 posts
double post

Edited, May 2nd 2011 10:14pm by Jlad
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False EMail already
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# May 02 2011 at 8:00 PM Rating: Good
Dracogin
4 posts
Have recieved Mail ,, Tried to Look it up an nothing ,, so Far .
Being Cautious One I won't be opening up ,,(staff@eqbyrequest.com)
NEVERHEARD OF IT
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Canadian Users
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# May 02 2011 at 7:52 PM Rating: Decent
danceswithwolves
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31 posts
I read the SOE response regarding credit protection for their American clients. I am just curious if they will be offering any help to Canadians as well. Given that I believe we use a lot of the same credit reporting agencies.
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Downtime
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# May 02 2011 at 7:46 PM Rating: Decent
__DEL__1649636419953
3 posts
Thank you for getting that information! It is good to know also that SOE will take care of us after this matter is cleared up.
Take Care All, and get some RL things done tonight :)

Spunkie
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BB server
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