Blizzard's Seoul Offices Raided by Korean FTC

[zerogear]

They should've just labeled this game MMORPG and save themselves (and everyone else) the headache. If this was labeled as a MMORPG (which it is, don't kid yourself), no one would be complaining about the always on DRM.

 

[Holler]

To raid an office for an outage seems a little extreme. Blizzard bends over backwards for the Korean consumer more then most publishers. A raid seems a bit drastic and a touch arrogant, no? Users are bound to the SLA, and I highly doubt blizzard excluded service outages lol.

 

[rchiu]

I don't know why some people here keep giving Blizzard a pass on D3 failure. We fulfilled our end of bargain, paid $60 to Blizzard for the game and we expect to play it when we want to. If Blizzard cannot fulfill their end of bargain, it is not unreasonable for people to expect a refund.

It is a simple principle and it is pretty wide spread practice in the US. I see lesser reason for asking for refund in local Walmart stores. I don't understand why some people feel it's okay just because it's Blizzard. Fanboy mentality?

 

[flexy]

If i see the three letters D,R,M one time more in a D3 related thread i am starting to throw up.

We're in 2012 for god's sake, there is broadband internet for a few bucks/month even if you live in Bumblefruck. Everyone knew that D3 would have an online requirements anyway. Retards.

How long will we have those complains and threads about "how blizzard failed" to keep servers up and similar...which lasted, wait, like some hours at ONE (the first day) of release? Is this a criteria to evaluate this game?

"Hey blizzard, i want my money back because i couldn't connect at 0:01 at release day" or "i couldn't connect on Tuesday because you had maintenance or patch problems". Seriously, starting to rage about the stupidity of people....

 

[flexy]

If Blizzard cannot fulfill their end of bargain, it is not unreasonable for people to expect a refund.

Yes it IS unreasonable, if this is not unreasonable, what else is?

You want a refund because you couldn't connect on one specific, single day the launch day of one of the most anticipated games, ever?

Wow...big deal. On the other hand i hope blizzard would refund and cancel all those people, would mean less aholes playing the game. Let them spend their $60 on something else "useful" while the other people have fun with D3, RAGRDLESS of that one, single day where there was technical problems.

 

[flexy]

They should've just labeled this game MMORPG and save themselves (and everyone else) the headache. If this was labeled as a MMORPG (which it is, don't kid yourself), no one would be complaining about the always on DRM.

Ok, let's complain that i need internet to be on this forum? I am going to sue Anand because i need fricking internet for this! Cheezus.

(And by the way, if we're at it...let's also complain that we need to use electricity and computers as well, they're also a requirement to play D3)

/facepalm

 

[rchiu]

Yes it IS unreasonable, if this is not unreasonable, what else is?

You want a refund because you couldn't connect on one specific, single day the launch day of one of the most anticipated games, ever?

Wow...big deal. On the other hand i hope blizzard would refund and cancel all those people, would mean less aholes playing the game. Let them spend their $60 on something else "useful" while the other people have fun with D3, RAGRDLESS of that one, single day where there was technical problems.

One single day of problem? Seriously? I was unable to play just a couple of days ago, 2 weeks after the launch. Before that, was kicked off of the server several times. Error code 33/37 several time. And bunch of people got their account hacked. And unlike some jobless fanboys who have the whole day to wait to play the game, I only got 1~2 hrs a day to play because I got job and family. I cann't get on the server, that day of the playing time is gone.

Yeah it's simple. Blizzard can refund my money and I will be more than happy to leave this sorry excuse of a game and play something else.

 

[Elcs]

I havent had one moment of outage since launch day :\

EU servers have been down multiple times for long stretches as well as the AH having it's own long outages, bugs and a wide variety of people being hacked.

Asking for a refund is not the way forward but I'm certainly not happy with Blizzard's handling of the game. Delay it a few more weeks and get stuff like this sorted out... it's not like we haven't waited a few years for it already.

 

[Grooveriding]

To my mind, the Korean FTC may have issue on the simple predication that you are selling a game and if someone cannot play that game, you are not delivering the product. Seems straight forward to me.

Now I'm sure the EULA you agree to has some stipulation to get Blizzard out of that, but you don't agree to a EULA at point of purchase and EULAs (if you don't know) are not legally binding and are worthless outside of the relationship between you the licensee and Blizzard - or any other EULA issuer.

Blizzard/Activision is certainly a different company today, much more about margins than games. I'm sure they'll settle this by issuing refunds or fighting it in court, whichever is more cost effective. :awe:

Either way, this is more tarnish on the reputation of a company that used to be pretty blemish free.

 

[gladiatorua]

The problem is not in outages. Blizzard refused to provide refunds for those who found the service unsatisfactory.
Blizzard's fault.

 

[Qbah]

EULA in US and AP says there's offline mode...

Duration of the "On-line" Component.
The Game is capable of both offline and online player modes, both of which require that you obtain authorized access to the Service. You understand and agree that the Service is provided by Blizzard at its discretion and may be terminated or otherwise discontinued by Blizzard pursuant to the Terms of Use.

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/d3_eula.html


The EU version has this part conveniently removed.

For me it sounds like a contradiction though (offline that requires access to battle.net).

So the Koreans have another point to refer to?

 

[AMDZen]

Good for Korea, can't believe I'm saying that.

Would love if someone here would do something about this mess over here. I have a feeling a class action lawsuit will come along eventually.

Frankly, some kind of compensation should be had for those of us who have limited time to play this game, and have found that a lot of the times we have to play it we cannot.

I found out yesterday that Tuesday's are like the "maintenance day" and that I shouldn't expect to be able to play it on Tuesdays. Seriously? That is the best day for me to be able to play based on my schedule and now I have to modify my week and my day to day life in order to play a fucking single player game? I have no desire to play with other people, and I could understand if the Auction House didn't work unless you were online or if other things didn't work, but to take the whole thing down is inexcusable.

For those on WoW who pay monthly fees, were you given pro-rated refunds on days you couldn't play? I'd be furious if I didn't get that, but I'd also never pay a monthly cost to play a single game.

Luckily I have a life and just move on, but the Koreans have a legitimate complaint IMO. I don't expect our government to "raid" blizzard offices, but there needs to be a complaint setup and Blizzard should do something, even something small to compensate for all of this.

 

[Anubis]

For those on WoW who pay monthly fees, were you given pro-rated refunds on days you couldn't play? I'd be furious if I didn't get that, but I'd also never pay a monthly cost to play a single game.

.

yes they did/do give refunds if the servers are down for some unnatural amount of time

 

[zerogear]

Ok, let's complain that i need internet to be on this forum? I am going to sue Anand because i need fricking internet for this! Cheezus.

(And by the way, if we're at it...let's also complain that we need to use electricity and computers as well, they're also a requirement to play D3)

/facepalm

Apples and oranges, your argument doesn't make much sense/logic.

 

[isekii]

The outages and disconnections on the US servers were some out ridiculous, especially when they had 12 years to get it right.

It's still smoother for me when I connect to the European Servers.

 

[exar333]

I like D3, but if you actually read their EULA it states you do not 'own the game' in any fashion, and are paying to license the software only. Software these days kind of sucks for the end user.

 

[waggy]

EULA in US and AP says there's offline mode...



http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/d3_eula.html


The EU version has this part conveniently removed.

For me it sounds like a contradiction though (offline that requires access to battle.net).

So the Koreans have another point to refer to?

yeah they say you can play off-line...long as you connect to battle.net. WTF thats not offline.

But the game is exactly worth what i paid. NOTHING.

 

[Aikouka]

Wow, you people really get worked up over this.

 

[Bobisuruncle54]

It's good to see that Blizzard's holier-than-thou image is starting to lose its glisten.

 

[Bobisuruncle54]

Wow, you people really get worked up over this.

Yeah I guess people don't really like throwing their money away.

Who'da thunk it...

 

[exar333]

It's good to see that Blizzard's holier-than-thou image is starting to lose its glisten.

That happened when they became Activision/Blizzard a while ago.

I imagine the Activision execs responded with bewilderment and anger when Blizzard explained they made games that a user bought only once, and played online for FREE. 'We can't have that'...they say. RMHA was born.

 

[Anteaus]

Wow, you people really get worked up over this.

You misunderstand. This really isn't just about D3, although this is the game of the moment. This is about something that is slowly changing the entire PC gaming community. You're looking at something that has been brewing for a few years now.

Until now most of the frustration was vented at Ubisoft and EA, but now that Blizzard has also joined suit it becomes apparent that always on DRM is going to become the rule instead of the exception, and also that we are relying on developers to provide stable platforms in order to regulate it. People have alot of respect for Blizzard, and it doesn't bode well when a company that is known for quality is stumbling in this way. If Blizzard is having these types of problems, what type of issues can we expect from lesser companies who don't have as much cash to spare?

Bugs are inevitable, and it is often the case that at release multiplayer servers take some work before they work well, but the in the past people could just play offline while the bugs were worked out. Developers have a track record for dealing with these problems after release, but this practice cannot be allowed to continue.

None of this is really about Diablo 3, though that game will be judged through gamers. This is really all about Battle.net, Steam, Origin and all other similar systems that will follow in their wake.

 

[magomago]

[q]Duration of the "On-line" Component.
The Game is capable of both offline and online player modes, both of which require that you obtain authorized access to the Service. You understand and agree that the Service is provided by Blizzard at its discretion and may be terminated or otherwise discontinued by Blizzard pursuant to the Terms of Use.
[/q]

Hmm that is not very true then. Unless...their definition of 'obtaining authorized access' means that you need to obtain it every 1 second LOL

 

[thespyder]

Wow, you people really get worked up over this.

Wasn't that a direct quote from Abraham Lincoln?

 

[Ferzerp]

I guess you could call the login screen "offline mode".