ANet/NcSoft Public Relations: How do you see it?

With all the issues over the years, and many recent ones still unresolved, I'm wondering how the community perceives the job ANet/NcSoft does as far as communication/relations with the player base.

Here are the choices:
1. I've always had fast/coureouse responses whenever I've had a problem.
2. My experiences have been mostly positive, very few letdowns.
3. It's been a mixed bag for me, with quick resolutions and long waits.
4. More often than not, I'm waiting quite a while for an answer.
5. I've never had a positive resolution/quick response.
6. Don't know/Never had an issue.

If you feel they do a poor job, what could they realistically do that would give you a more positive feeling about the company?

For me, my experience has been in the 3 range. My biggest issue with ANet/NcSoft is that I can go literally months without any update from them.

My suggestion would be more communication from the company when there are any outstanding issues. If you have an open ticket with support, it would be nice to receive periodic updates from them, even if it's just to say "we're still working on it, we haven't forgotten about you". I would also suggest they add a forum to the official site, so there'd be a one-stop place for official communication from them.

I guess my hope in creating this thread is to identify a problem (if it exists) and provide solutions so that this company can improve. Ultimately if the player base feels valued by ANet/NcSoft I believe Guild Wars will continue to thrive, and Guild Wars 2 will grow beyond everyone's expectations.

I'd really like to see this as a poll, pretty please.

Edit for clarity:
Actually I'm talking about any and all communications between company and customer. One-way or two-way. So while technical support is a big part of it, the PR portion is important too.

And I really don't want to lump in the release of information about GW2. when I talk PR, it's more along the lines of the release of information regarding the XTH update, account security, patch notes (which have become so short they wouldn't pass the 12 char min on guru), and the disappearance of the monthly newsletter. I see support as the one-on-one conversations and the PR as their way of addressing issues that affect us all.

I hope that clarifies my thread topic for you.

Results List:
Lvl of satisfaction | Number of votes
-----------------------------------
1.......................| 10
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2.......................| 10
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3.......................| 05
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4.......................| 02
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5.......................| 06
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6.......................| 02
-----------------------------------

Unfortunately this is not as accurate as a real poll. Some have not left a number, so I had to decide where they fit based on their choice of words. One gave two different grades (one for pr one for support, which is fine because it more accurately describes where he sees a problem) so I averaged the two scores. Full disclosure and all that.

You need an additional option: "I've never needed to open a support ticket".
Or something like that.

I've only had to contact support once and the longest I ever has to wait while resolving that problem was 24 hours, usually getting a response within 3 or 4.
The responses were always courteous and I believe they made an effort and tried every trick in the book in attempt to fix my problem, which as they later identified, was out of their hands.

The only thing that annoyed me was having to repeat some information twice, and a few other minor hiccups, which were mainly due to my inexperience with the area the issue related to.

I'd choose option 1 and rate NCsoft support 9/10.

NCSoft support and GM team suck.

Both with GW and Aion it took me at least 3-4 days before they managed to answer.

GMs in Aion? After what, 6 weeks? 7 weeks?

Option 5.

Q:ANet/NcSoft Public Relations: How do you see it?
A:With a very, very powerful telescope.

Heh, to be honest, I've never had any problems. All my account issues have been dealt with quickly and efficiently and I have had several "issues", believe you me!

I'd have to go with option 2.

2. My experiences have been mostly positive, very few letdowns.

I only had one unresolved issue that took a while. When i complained about it it was handed to another GM and got sorted. So yes there are some GM's that do not have the players interest at heart.

I have had to contact support about 4 times in the last 4 years so not bad really.
8/10

What they really need is an International toll free phone support number (I haven't found one anyway)
Especially if you have an immediate problem like a hacked account or Credit Card problem from the in-game store.
Emails take up to 24 hours to get a reply at the best of times and your sitting there wondering how
much is being deleted or passed to another account ETC.
Yes i know this would cost a lot of $ in a game that doesn't charge a monthly fee so can't see it happening.

When you say 'Public Relations' I assume you mean community relations, but your post seems to imply you are talking about customer service.

If so: Option 2. I've dealt with them a few times, and whilst it's never been great, it's always been at least satisfactory.

Did you mix up PR with Support?

Edit:
It seems JR thought the same thing. Just 2 minutes faster.

Option 1.

I only had to deal with them once, and they responded within 48 hours.

EDIT: whoops, I tought it was support. Going from the options. How the hell do you "deal" with PR. PR is supposed to be PUBLIC, so how can one individually deal with it? Either way, my bad. I'll BOLD the PR part in this post.

4.

I remember sending in alot of tickets in my early days asking game-specific questions, such as how much health has XX NPC (cuz it wasn't on wiki), and stuff like that. I remember waiting weeks, or getting the "we're too busy" replies pretty much every time.

Then during my early PvP days, I asked more in-depth PvP questions, regarding the exact rules of Tie-breakers, VoD, HA, etc (Once again, if I dind't find it on the wiki) I actually remember, I think I have it saved, a GM mailing me back after about 2 weeks with: "I don't know". I was speechless, cuz it's not like he even TRIED to forward it to someone who DID knew what GW was and what it did. He simply said: "I have no clue how the game I'm supposed to support work, but I cba helping you out, so pz". (Over-exaggeration)

Then about a year ago, I asked a question regarding some PvE-related stuff. I wanted to know wether or not it was illegal to do certain stuff. (NOT including 3th party programs) After about a week, I got replied back with an indefinate: "I don't know".
A few days later, Gaile Gray herself (she also counts as support, I gues), made a public announcement that the thing in question was NOT a bannable offence.

6 Months later (I know, 6 months?) I got banned for said thing, permed. Ever since then, I've been trying to fight it out with support. I think I've send over 50 emails (Honestly, 50 different, personally typed, over 20 lines long emails) asking for an unban. The first 2 emails got replied to with: "It's your own fault, you shouldn't have broken that rule". The next 2 emails, after I redirected them to Gaile Gray's OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT, they "changed" the reason for my perm ban to "Offensive Names". Even tough I dind't make an offensive name at the time (So it was out of the blue), and I had stopped doing so since my last ban.

Then my next 40 emails got ignored, and I mean ignored. I went on wiki to email Gaile Gray herself, saying she tricked me into getting banned, and how it's one of the dirtiest strategies I've ever seen to make people buy more games. (Get them banned, so they're forced to buy a new game) -I said it nicely -
She couldn't help me either, even tough she got me banned -but atleast she tried a bit, so I have no hard feelings towards her-. I've send emails to Regina. I've made 2 new playNC acounts, just so I could send emails from a different alias, regarding a unblocking of my other email. (To take of the global ignore-list)

So all-in-all, GW support left me with:

-False information regarding in-game rules
-3 Years of in-game achievements wasted for nothing
-6 Months of intensive emailing (atleast twice a week)
-A banned acount AFTER ASKING WETHER OR NOT IT WAS BANNABLE
-A malicious reason for banning me (They changed the reason after I directed him to Gaile saying it wasn't illegal)
-5 Months of being fully ignored
-Still being banned

So yeah, All-in-All, Gaile's wrongly posted interpretation of the rules got me banned. I gues this is an extreme case tough, but it happened non-the-less: Getting banned after they specificly say it isn't bannable.

Option 2, I've had to use them oh about 40 times.

37 of them turned out well so that speaks for itself. Now the fact everyon is getting their account and needing to use support is another issue....

Much like Guild Wars itself, it has diminished over time.

they refused to give me back my hacked account even though i provided the CD key (the email i used got deleted so i couldnt use that to get it back) ...

#2
It seems to me that people who don't get the answers they want are the ones that do the most complaining about support or "lack of communication".

Nobody running an online game is going to be perfect but the job Anet does compaired to most if not all of the others out there is exceptional.

NCSoft: Ok, maybe not always good, but not the worst.

Arenanet: Great year guys! You succeeded in adding good stuff to pve/pvp this year and the communication with the community deserves B+! Keep it going!

I have a personal opinion spectrum on the game developers I've had experience with. I looks like this:

NCSoft<-------Everyone Else---------------------->VALVE

With all of the bitching and moaning, all of my experieces with them have been very positive. All of my issues were resolved in a reasonable timeframe.

In theory, if your talking about game support, any experience with them would have to be negative because if everything was going well, you wouldn't need to have an experience with them to begin with.

I've never heard of someone with a positive issue that needed resolved.

Thats why I like Valve so much. I play their games much more than I do any other games, and I've never needed to contact support.

The support you don't ever have to use is the best support of all.

Everything is smooth as glass, no problems, no BS.

Technical issues can be fixed automatically on the user end with their steam validation utility. zip, zip, auto-repair, and your back in the saddle.

Content updates happen automatically before you get in game .... you never get kicked out for an update.

No squad of ban nazis running around looking for excuses to shut people down, you just login and have fun. The essence of gaming.

Valve and Blizzard make ArenaNet like a bunch of morons.

Just saying.

Stopped reading there. Sorry

And Turbine makes ANet look like carebear. I had issue once in GW and they`ve responded promptly and professionally.

Have to go with number 1 here
I contacted them when the free storage tab came out as I had forgotten all details of the plaync account login and pw.

Over the next few days several emails passed between us, both of us remaining courteous.

They asked for more information and I gave it or replied that it was unavailable and why.
I received all the information I needed it did take a full 7 days probably because of working hours in the different time zones.

On the two occasions that I required support, they were prompt with responses and the information they provided resolved my issues.
So #1 is my response.

I've had to use NCSoft's "support" about 4 times in just over 2 years. In each case they were unable to assist me and basically told me my issues weren't their problem (or simply that there was nothing they could do about them). So as far as I'm concerned they are pretty bad (it often seemed the people contacting me barely knew they game they were trying to support... I had to send like 3 e-mails one time just to explain the existence of the XTH for example).

As For anet's CR/Support, I'd say Gaile used to (and still kinda does) do a great job. Regina, for as much flak as she's taken, seems to at least try to stay in touch with the community and does a reasonably good job in my opinion. The problem in the last several months seems like Regina is just about the only one we hear from anymore, despite being promised a more open relationship with the Live team. Over the past year or 2 we've been promised a lot of necessary and exciting changes, only to have most of them delayed or scrapped completely. Sure, anet is devoting its resources to GW2, but I'm starting to think they don't realize that how they continue to support GW1 (or not) would strongly affect consumer confidence for future purchases. Its gotten to the point where they're removing content because they can't get it working correctly, and letting unbalanced skill abuse run rampant for years at a time. By making drastically over-powered skills and then leaving them that way long enough for people to become dependent on them, they only encourage players to quit when those skills finally get nerfed.

In short, I'm underwhelmed with the quality of support for both Anet and NCSoft.

I'm number two. I haven't had many troubles with support.

Earlier in the year my account was permabanned for, "Threatening to Hack." I said, and I quote (To my own boyfriend), "im in ur c0mputrz haxx0ring ur pr0n."

Someone reported me for it.

My only issues are --

A: Some GM actually banned me for that.
B: It took four days to get it reversed, and without an apology.

Everything else I've needed to contact support for has gotten through without a hitch.

LOL, maybe your boyfriend did it out of fear for his porn library.

I rolled some guy in RA once and he started ranting at me. I told him he could tell them all about it back on the beach.

30 seconds later my game shut down, I was banned for 72 hours for inappropriate character name for the name Perforated Condom.

I e-mailed support to find out why that was so offensive. I get a reply from a GM four days later, after the ban was already up. Here is a synopsis of the e-mails:

Me: What is so offensive about that name that it warrants a 3-day ban?

GM: The word condom is offensive because it implies bodily functions and drug abuse.

Me: DRUG ABUSE??? Please enlighten me.

GM: Condoms are use to mule drugs.

Me: Are you out of your friggin mind?

Then they went into my account and ban flagged me again for inappropriate name for the word Hoochies on a character that hadn't been played in a month.

Thats some pretty full-contact game support there. The kind you would expect from someone dealing 3-card monte on a street corner.

4. More often than not, I'm waiting quite a while for an answer.
5. I've never had a positive resolution/quick response.
6. they are complete idiots except for gaile

after getting my account banned for two days because they thought i was a gold seller/buyer i will never believe in them again. and all i got from them was oppsie our mistake here's your account back. no sorry from them. unlike others who had their accounts banned by mistake all i wanted was a sorry. but that's to much work fromthem i guess. i can only hope gw2 will be better with this stuff.

They are very fast in responding to support tickets and they only give out information when they feel they need to.

If they wanted they could use the technique the creators of Half Life use on releasing information but we are fortunate enough that they give us some info.

Valve doesn't make MMOs. Unless you are implying First Person Shooters would need anywhere near as much support.

Actually I'm talking about any and all communications between company and customer. One-way or two-way. So while technical support is a big part of it, the PR portion is important too.

And I really don't want to lump in the release of information about GW2. when I talk PR, it's more along the lines of the release of information regarding the XTH update, account security, patch notes (which have become so short they wouldn't pass the 12 char min on guru), and the disappearance of the monthly newsletter. I see support as the one-on-one conversations and the PR as their way of addressing issues that affect us all.

I hope that clarifies my thread topic for you.

That was the funny thing. I was going to hack him to put porn on his computer.


Maybe they're afraid that you can use condoms to huff paint?

Well, I would't say that 'A' FPS games requires the same level of support as a MMORPG ... but ..

How many online games does Valve run and support simultaneously? Over a dozen?

How many does Anet run and support simultaneously? one?

A single MMO like Warcraft or GW has alot more bit and pieces and "moving parts" than multiple shooters. The scales are completely different.

2. My experiences have been mostly positive, very few letdowns.

I've contacted support 3 times.

#1. Scammer notification with screen shots. Player was banned within an hour.
#2. Scammer notification with screen shots. This happened on the weekend, and player was banned within 3ish days.

So those were positive

#3. I was suffering a period of Jade Quarry addiction. I was sick and tired of the turtles and juggs getting stuck in the base. (Fellow JQ addicts know exactly what I'm talking about.) After maybe 2 months of this aggravation, I sent support a question about it, explaining the problem, and asking the following: Is this an intentional aspect of the game? Is this something you are aware of? Is this something you are working on fixing?

After needing a series of email exchanges to explain the problem, they said (paraphrase) "We were unaware of this problem. We will begin trying to solve this problem. We will keep you updated. Thanks."

For starters, there is NO WAY that I was the first person to bring this to support's attention. NO BLEEPING WAY.

I have not received any feedback on the issue since, and this occurred maybe 10 months ago.

This problem still exists. Part of me thinks it is some intentional part of the game. But I maxed my lux and kurz title, don't play JQ anymore, and really stopped caring a long time ago.

While I have not had my account hacked, I am paranoid about it after having a good friend have his hacked, and after reading the many stories here. I really want/need to buy an extra character slot right now, but I'm too paranoid to do it. I have read some people speculate that the problem is with ncsoft, and I'm not touching anything having to do with that site until all this hacker stuff gets sorted out.

I'm going to assume you're talking about support, not PR

It's not too hard to keep things clean in chat, nor is it to think twice about any "too good to be true" deals.

By no means at all does Anet have the best support and public relations, and god forbid they be compared to the tyrannical rampaging, king Blizzard.


However, I certainly can't say they've done bad either and I've mainly had good experiences with them.

Overall, I would give them a B in rating if I had to.
They`re doing the job just fine in my opinion and experiences. It could be better, but I won't delve into to that. They're doing fine.

I really do enjoy having to waste a week sending back 4-5 responses to bots before getting a live human to talk down to me while Anet stealth fixes server problems, denies they had a problem, and then tries to tell me it was my own fault.

NCSoft does PR?





Since when?

For my personal customer service contacts with them I would have to say better than choice 2 but not quite a perfect 1.

I've submitted tickets about 4 times total, and every time they have responded very swiftly; and tried to help as best as they can. Once I reported a bugged gate in factions shortly after release and they did a fix update about 2 days later, they fixed my xth points pretty quickly when they switched to the new setup and almost everyone's points bugged out, and I reported a bot with screens once long before the /report command, fairly sure they were banned a day or 2 later.

The time I had trouble was when I tried to get them to change the login email account for my game account 'cause I don't use it anymore and they refused; but support had their reasons for not doing so and I understand why they wouldn't change it.

As for general PR, overall I would rate them as a 1. Sure lately they have become much more vague in what information they openly release to us, but I blame the community for that not Anet. Gaile used to login and have her sessions fairly often, and she has taken alot of bs and flak from the community. People scold anet and whine over the tiniest of things, and over and over people have flipped out if anet varies from any slight thing they say before it happened. Everytime i sat in on a pr session, there was always a few jagoff's saying rude remarks etc just to try push peoples buttons, showing no respect.

Personally I think the community is way to critical of anet and their PR. I know there are many people who do appreciate their community relations like me, but there's has always been more greivers than people giving thank you's. Anet has always listened to the guildwars community very well with the requests and opinions we have made and tries to follow through to the best of their ability. Many of the things that have been implemented over the years simply wouldn't be there if they didn't talk to the community; most other game companies just say 'my way or the highway' as far as relation to their customers go.

For better or worse, they have done a great job in molding the game to what the players wanted/requested as best as possible. And frankly to be honest if I were regina I wouldn't want to login and try to talk to the players if I knew I was going to have to read people cussing and slandering me either, even if it is just a few out of the masses that would do so.