NCSoft / Anet needs real customer service...

Does anyone else feel that NCSoft / Anet needs real customer support?

If you read through the email, then you will find that after the email exchanges, they still have not answered my original question...

---- MY POST TO NCSOFT ----
hi:

I've been tracking the trader purchase price for various materials (common and rare) over the past week or so. It seems increasingly the case that the material purchase price from the traders are detached from the market fluctuations.

The difference in price used to be ~50%, however, recently, i've seen traders buying at 1/8 the price that he is selling someting.

Is this intentional or is there a bug in this?

---- NCSOFT REPLY (supposedly from a real person) ----

Hello,

We have received your question about Guild Wars gameplay.

We are not able to respond to individual gameplay questions. We do, however, offer an extensive online manual (http://www.guildwars.com/manual/default.html) that provides answers to questions about how to play the game and about how the various facets of the game function. This document changes periodically and grows to better serve your needs. We would also like to suggest that you ask questions of a gameplay nature on one of our many excellent fansite forums, listed on this link: http://www.guildwars.com/community/default.html. The fans playing Guild Wars are usually more than happy to answer questions and provide other players with gameplay suggestions and advice, and many of them are active in one or more of the forums listed. And, during gameplay, you may find that the fastest means to an answer is to ask the question in the game itself.

We look forward to providing a great future resource for Guild Wars in our online manual, and we thank you for your interest in the game.

Regards,

---- MY REPLY ----

1. online manual -- please point out where on the
online manual is the relationship between the trader
selling price and buying price mentioned. otherwise,
referral to it is pointless.

2. yes, I have already went onto the fansites and look
on this subject matter. many players have the same
exact question and feel as I do.

3. just out of curioiusity, are you actually reading
the email or just responding by sending me a
standardized form? i can see how your response
would be the same exact thing had i asked a completely
different question of, say: "how come i cannot skydive
in Ascalon?"

4. if you are not allowed to answer Gameplay
questions, why is there an option on the website to
ask gameplay questions?

5. once again, is this a bug (and something that
perhaps you guys should look into and report
accordingly), or intentional? (Seems like this is a
straight-forward: "Yes / No" question to me). please
answer the question.

---- NCSOFT's REPLY ----

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Guild Wars Support.

In order to better assist you with this matter, I will transfer this question to our Quality Assurance Department. If they require any further information, they will be sure to ask you.

If you have any further questions, please let us know and we will gladly assist you!

Kind regards,

Both replies sound like standard letters sent out to all emailers. Given the number of people around here that are emailing them on a daily basis, you will be sent a form letter unless they seem to think your email deserves more.

NCSoft is a huge corporation. I'm sure they don't give a rip. The developer is the one who can change these things and, knowing how small they are, it's unlikely that you will get the personal response you wish.

They also need better damn technical support too, there's tons of major game problems which aren't fixed, even though plenty of people have complained to them.

....now you know why you pay $15 per month for an MMORPG ...., we pay nothing for GW.

If you played Halo or Freelancer or Dungeon Siege and starts to wonder why it's not making coffee as well and you sent Microsoft an email about it, guess what their response will be? [if they even do respond].

They are useing the same type system that Activison uses.

You were issued standard replies spit out by computers...big deal. If you ask me, they shouldn't care if you think the trading prices are absurd. They made the functions that manage prices, and apparently they don't see a problem with those functions. If they did, they'd change them. Don't whine about how you're insignificant calculations mean the world will end due to absurd trading prices. If you don't think the prices are fair, go find the items. NONE of the materials, rare or common, are hard to find, or salvage. In short...get over it. They offer you an awesome game, no ppm charges, and you whine about a price you're not satisfied with...get over it...please...

You said you emailed to NCSoft. Wrong course of action. Email straight to ANet through the address on the GW site, and you should get through fine, though for something like that they may not give you a good response, though I think that it is worth it anyway just to show that people are concerned about the problem. I actually sent in a tech support question to ANet, and they were able to provide daily responses to my issue, and they were very helpful and friendly. All these complaints about too many errors I think are a bit unfounded, because first of all, GW still is probably the persistant online game that has the lowest number of them, and with any game at all, online or offline, a good number of the errors come from people doing stupid things like not updating their graphics drivers, and considering GW's spectacular graphics, there are probably more possible things that could go wrong on the user's computer that aren't ANet's fault.

They know about peoples concerns because they read most of the threads on these forums.
Emails are a waste of time unless it's a personal account problem, a bug, a botter/exploiter or an abusive person.

Save the complaints for the forums so everyone can contribute and discuss it. That way, ArenaNet can get a picture of the whole communities feelings on such matters.

Just my $0.02

1. There was a name in each email. I removed it so that the discussion can occur in a generic fashion (instead of pointedly on some poor support person at NCSoft who was only trying to make a living).

2. Well, if you go to the ATM and ask to withdraw $100 and it spits out $50 (but deducts $100 from your account). The bank probably don't have a problem with it unless you complain, right?

3. People who says that "oh they wrote it that way and that's what they want, and if you don't like it, then you're whining." really missed the point.

The point is: if you have a problem, you should mention it, how else would they know? (it's not like the developer's characters would be short of gold).

The other point is: unless some player feedback is actually sent to the developers, then we can expect the future of this game to be more and more deviate further from what you want the game to be.

Finally, as per the subject line -- this thread is NOT about the trade prices. it is about the lack of actual customer support.

I asked the question: "Is this a bug?"
I will be happy with the answer "No, this is intentional."

So far, the replies I got ranges from:
1. RTFM (read the ****ing manual)
2. Ask around (but don't ask us)
3. We are not allowed to tell you
4. Your question has been forwarded to someone else

None of which actually answers the question...
To be honest, I find the whole thing a hilarious joke.

Next time, I will ask a question like: "How come you can't sky-dive in Ascalon?" instead.