This is a tough question really given that unhappy players are more likely to post over and over again that the game sucks or whatever other negative things they can.  You also have the extreme fan boys who light fires with their posts against the haters.

There are still issues with the game, but there are some really great things in this game as well.  Each person has their own opinion and it is important that you take that into account when reading what people post.

There is a post on AionSource.com regarding the reporting of bot.  Sure, we have a feature in game called /AutoReportHunting, but apparently, the only way to really get a bot on the list is to submit a ticket through the official Aion site.  Apparently, one an official ticket is made, you may be contacted by a GM regarding the issue and from there, a friendly one will tell you to email the bot names to them directly.

Now, regarding the comments about NCSoft making money from the bots or RMT companies, the majority of those accounts are being played with stolen CC's or accounts (people who were dumb enough to go to one of the links in regular chat promising gifts from GMs) that were keylogged.

NCSoft has a real problem on their hands and better communication with the community regarding properly effective reporting methods would be a step in the right direction.  They have already cut down on the gold spam in chat, though some creative spammers have found ways around it, for the most part it has been dealt with nicely.

If you're just now starting this game, be aware that there are bot issues and if you want to help improve the game, all players need to work together to report bots.

Yet you'll still have to fight the bots to kill the mobs needed for quests.  Until the bot issue is under control, this does very little to help things along.

Some people's subscriptions renewed on 10/22, give a day or two.  Apparently, my account wasn't one of them, but I had already given in that I would pay for the first billing to give them time to fix some things before leaving.  The bots are completely out of control and until that issue is fixed, this will be the only payment they receive for my account or my husband's.

It's quite a disappointment to see the status on bots.  For those who truly enjoy the game and can tolerate them, best of luck to you.  I don't ever like to see games fail, but it is a reality of this industry.

Originally posted by ThePatriot76

Let me point out that my first paragraph was in response to someone complaining about the cash shop. I essentially said the same thing you did in that you have to pay with real money to considered a customer by the definition of customer. So in essence, my first statement is quite true. His complaint was that spending in game gold for the vendor stones and upgrades was inferior to having bought the same items from the cash shop. Did he spend money for the gold to purchase the items for upgrades? No, he didn't since he used in game gold. Hence, he got what he paid for with real money which is nothing and got an inferior product. If he paid real money for the diamonds to buy the upgrades and they had the failure rates as high as the regular vendor stuff the company wouldn't have very many people spending money for diamonds. In a nutshell, if you have paid nothing then you should expect to not get the same level of product as those that did. You truly get what you paid for.

 

If this is how they decide to operate then they have every right to lock/delete threads they see fit. It is their property. Imagine if you will, a group of people show up at your offices and got as belligerent as some of the threads I've seen. Would you as an the manager/owner of the company allow them to harass your employees and disrupt your business?

Actually, Patriot, I've played a few MMOs with Dryden23. I know for a fact he spent real money on the game.  The gold bought upgrade items are only good to +2 an item.  Any further than that, you're looking at spending money on diamonds (or getting lucky and finding them at a decent price on the AH).  Basically, the failure rate on said items is terrible.  This goes for both types you buy.  If you personally have had great luck with the upgrade items, congratulations.  If you have had luck like me or many others that I know, you would be irritated and disappointed.

With your constant RL references... if you as a paying customer went into a store and said "Hey, I really don't like how your customer service department is handling things.  Would you look into it and see if there's some room for improvement?", and then said company kicked you out of their store, how would you react?

This game has some potential.  As of right now, when you reach max level (currently level 50), it's pretty boring.  Sure, there are some different instances you can do, but there are no formal raids other than the Ant Queen.  To have really good gear, you need to use the cash shop of spend a lot of gold in game to buy diamonds to use in the cash shop.  Now, they have also added some of the upgrading items to the token shop, but at their prices, you're looking at almost two weeks of daily quests in order to afford one Purified Fusion Stone.

If you want to play this game for free, it will take a lot of time to obtain items to improve your character.  If you're willing to spend the cash, you can get your character geared a bit faster.  To build your character, you'll need to find stats which come from lucky drops in instances and if you review the RoM forums, you'll see the chance to get good stats from drops is pretty low.

Enjoy the game as best you can.  If you do decide to spend money on it, be frugal and watch for sales before buying.

Originally posted by ThePatriot76

Originally posted by Dryden23

The cash shop jewels are the biggest ripoff in the entire game. If you want to argue that, just go look up to 20 and 18 page threads that got locked and buried on the forums by Icarii. He knows damn well it's an issue with the players and closes it every time it pops up with the "we are looking into it: nonsense.

In fact, Icarii is quite the moron on the forums. I love how he will lock posts and move them if they have anything negative but stickies the ones with a stupid positive comment. The game won't last anywhere near as long as others have because they are greedy and it's obvious.

 

There's an applicable adage from business that fits here which is, "You get what you pay for." If you paid no real money then what are you complaining about? The company isn't obligated to serve you since you're not, by definition, a customer. A customer spends real money and a company makes every effort to ensure their customers are valued.

On a company forum, the company is the one that sets what is acceptable or not to their corporate image. If negative comments aren't constructive and serve to fuel a flame war then I'd expect them to lock the threads. Your opinion about the contents of said threads is entirely subjective and not shared by everyone which makes them subjective. Also, you do not have the right to expression on private property. The right is only applicable when you are on your own property, public, or government property in the United States. If someone was in my house talking like I've seen some of the flame threads on Frogster's forum you can bet your bottom dollar someone is going to be kicked out. I can guarantee you it won't be me.

Considering many people buy diamonds with real money in order to buy the upgrade items, they are paying customers.  So, in essence, your first statement holds no merit.

Regarding the moderation on forums, the stress level of the customers has risen over time to the point of being hostile due to the lack of any real communication from the company.  RoM's forums are their property, however, they have given registered members access to these forums to express their views.  Even when solid suggestions are given, many times, the threads are closed and get burried.  So, from your stand point, how are the paying customers supposed to let the company know that there are issues?

Originally posted by TdogSkal

So someone got banned for speaking there mind on a gaming forum.   OMG I bet that is the first time that ever happen.   Again the company can do anything they want, its their game and their forum.    I agree the poster did nothing wrong but again who cares, its not up to us.  

The only thing that us gamers can control is who we give our money too.   Do not give them your money but do not whine about it.

Actually, it is up to us as customers for these gaming companies.  If people keep letting the companies act this way, we will never see an improvement in the industry.  It is important that players stick to their guns and let the companies know that we are sick of being treated like trash and our pocket books will be the way to show them.

The whole point of this thread was to say "look out, no matter what you do, they don't care.  If you want to play a game that treats you that way, you'll want to stay away from it."

Can I name a game with great customer service?  Not really.  And why can't we find a company that knows how to release a solid product and provide decent customer support?  Well, because we let them get away with it.

Originally posted by l-louse

you spent money, so its not a free game to you, however it is cheaper than other games out there

imo spending money on the game only delays with how long you have to get annoyed with it. from what i have seen on my server, even the people who have put hundreds of dollars into the game have dissapeared, so yeah id say changes need to be made, or else avoid this game actually may become GOOD advice. but if thats the way someone feels about the game, why not leave and stop arguing about it and come back in the future when there is new features, or chat it up with some important people like GMs and see if you can get some changes made to make it so that the game is not an avoidable game instead of other players in the game who do not yet share the same opinion as you (which you eventually will, trust me)

House, you make some very valid points here.  Unfortunately, attempting to post constructive feedback that touches on the GMs comes with warnings and potentially bans.  Also, the majority of suggestions made by the players receives very little attention or at most a "we're looking into it" response.

RoM has some great potential.  It is very Cash Shop dependent and with a level increase planned in the Fall of '09, spending money now to upgrade your character is not a wise decision.

Some points to look at when considering playing this game, either buying diamonds or not:

*Upgrading items in the CS and Token Shop have a large failure rate, this process costs unlucky players a lot of time or money in diamonds.

*Mounts and all other Cash/Token Shop items are character bound.

*Diamonds purchased are on a 30 day waiting period which means you may use them for your own character, but there is no gifting of items from the CS or abiltiy to use them on the AH.

*Game updates are slow to come and even when things are changed, notification of said changes are very late in being provided to the players.

Originally posted by TdogSkal

So your mad that the GM gave you a warning?  So what.  The company can do anything they like with the game.  It is there game, not yours.  You do not have to play it.  You can decided not to give them your money. 

you sound like a whiner.

And you sound like a troll.

Did you read the post that was initially posted?

Did you read the rule that was violated?

Do you not see that there is a severe issue with regards to customer service?

Unless you play the game and have encountered the GMs, you have no reason to call another person a whiner.  You would be better suited to comment on the relevance of the treatment to a games customers.

Better yet, each patch in the game creates more errors and lag than they can find.  Patch notes are never up sooner than 3 hours AFTER the servers come back up.  Many bandaids have been applied to help stop gold spammers: You can't type in public chats more than once every 10 seconds.  Are those examples on top of the ridiculous forum warning enough to justify warning people away from Runes of Magic?

FYI:  Rule 20 that apparently was broken is this:

20. Post constructively.
Negative feedback can be very useful, provided that it is presented in a civil, factual manner. Tell us what you don't like and why and how you feel it could be improved. Posts that are insulting and rude may be deleted, no matter how valid the ideas behind them may be.

After reading the post quoted above, I see no rules being broken according to the rule stated.  Be warned that the GMs in this game are very power hungry and have a complete disregard for paying and non-paying customers.

Originally posted by Cochran1

Originally posted by Enigma

Originally posted by Cochran1

Renown gear is actually pretty cheap and it's only green gear, it's perfectly matched for his rank. asides from a little more armor it's really not that much better than the stuff you'd get from a PQ or mob drop.

 

my rank 6 renown armor was twice as better as the chapter 4 Public Quests armors (i got my armor in Chapter 3).

However, my axe I got from winning first place in a Public Quest. That sucker was purple and made my jaw drop staring at the stats

 

That proves my point if you actually work on PQ's you can get better rewards than you can from a renown vendor, simply because you have the chance to get blue and purple items. Other than better armor and resistance the stats aren't  a whole scale off from most green drops you get like they are in WoW.

The gear from Renown Vendors is good.  However, for RvR, the gear there has more resists for those types of encounters.  After this weekend, I actually carried my RvR gear and my PvE gear and would switch it out depending on what I was doing.  I got owned continuously until I found out about the gear that I could buy at the Keep.  Once I had that gear on, I took a lot less damage and had a ton of fun.

BTW, funniest thing is the message in the resurrection box "You have died!  Don't worry, it's part of the game!" (something along those lines).  I thought that was great and smiled at each death.  Not to mention, you actually get a title from dying...

Anyway, there is no reason to complain about gear.  I had a blast earning different pieces of gear from the PQs and RvR.  If I was being overpowered in RvR, I'd simply back off and use a new tactic.  It isn't just gear that makes a character great, it's the player running it.  Focus more on your playstyle, maybe you just need to change it up a bit.  Oh, and get that gear when you hit the required ranks (it looks nice too!).

Yes, I will be playing the retail version of WAR.  Admittedly, when I first logged on, the graphics put me off.  I played for about an hour disecting every little thing I could about what I thought was wrong with the game.  Later, I logged in again and pretty soon, the graphics didn't phase me at all.  Then, the global cooldowns on skills started to not be an issue either.  It became an interesting game to play.

Never was I out of stuff to do.  If I didn't feel like questing, I'd take part in a public quest.  If I wanted something more to do, I'd head to an RvR area and have some fun.  My time in the game was greatly enjoyed and time flew because of it.  I foresee myself enjoying WAR for a long time.

If you missed out on the preview weekend, I'm sorry.  It was a great chance to get in and check things out.  I hope to see many playing at release!

You have just as much chance at getting hacked if you use Yahoo! or MSN Messenger systems and chat with people there.  As long as you do not give out your information or use a credit card, you're safe as safe can be these days.

As someone esle said, buy the game yourself.  Of course, I would tell your mom that you want this game and that you are willing to pay for it yourself.  Showing respect to your parents will get you much further with requests than going behind their backs on it.  Also, have you showed her the World of Warcraft website?  Perhaps let her see what Bizzard says about their own game and security measures.

I played in Beta, bought it retail, quit, went back to it and quit again.  I would go back if they added some new races and the rating system was tweaked a bit better.  Also, I let my oldest play a character of her own when my husband and I were there to help her.  It's a safe enough game for you IMO.

Good Luck!

---

Originally posted by Chonicles

Well hate to say it but if you don't like pvp then this game might not be for you. The way i understand it is yes the are small epic pve type thangs to do, but the main goal is to rule the mines witch are done with wars ever 8 hours. It's a RvRvR game pvp is wht it is all about.

I cou;d be wrong but this is my understanding of it.

---

So you haven't actually played the game yourself yet?  That's cool.  At least someone added what they think of the game.

Sounds a bit like DAoC then with the RvR aspect.  Three rhelms and all three fight against each other... I actually liked that part of DAoC.  However, unless you were in "contested" territory, there was no PvP/RvR to worry about (unless you played on a full PvP server).  So, is there enough space to do PvE on RF?

Any further information would be greatly appreciated! 

Yes as the other posters have asked, I too would really like to know if this game is any good?  I've played plenty of MMO's that have awesome graphics, yet lack in content.  It seems that if a game is going to work on fantastic visuals, they forget all about the playability and longevity of the game.

So, anyone able to give us some feedback on this question?

So, you're quitting or have quit already because of a slight visual bug?  I mean it's not like your screen is turning black and you can't see where you're going.

There must be another reason to leave the game.

The only thing I have found released yesterday (2/24/05) was that they are offering a free 14 day trial for the 2 expansions.  Therefor, if you were to sign up for it, mostlikely you would have to enter your credit card information so they could charge after the 14 days.

Sorry, that email appears to be very misleading...

BTW, my source is the News Room here on MMORPG.com.

The longest I stay in the newbie lands is until level three.  Just long enough to get the hang of your character and get a few credits for any small purchases.  When I leave the new area, the first thing I buy is a lock pick.  After I have that, it's straight to doing missions.  Rarely do I start exploring the world outside of the towns until level 13-15.

Hope that helps, and welcome to the game guys.