An Update on Region Blocking

@orrim Orrim
Sun, 27 Aug 2017 13:19:20 +0000

@orrim wrote:

(Posting on behalf of my regionally-blocked friend)

Hi, fellow duelysts and Stormshade!

I have a lot to say, but I’ll try to say it as short as possible.

I am one of the voices you can’t hear on the forums, because to log in here we need to have a Bandai Namco account. Exactly the thing BNamco forbids us to have.
This is great for business: as little public unrest as possible.
No victims speaking up = no publicity problems.

I do not write this seeking compensations or access to the game in which I’ve put a lot of time and money. What I want is clarity.

BNamco may hire highly polite and decent people such as Stormshade to speak with us and to “be the community’s voice in the company”, but that does not change the company’s goals in this situation.

Their long-term goal is money. Their short-term goal is damage control.
Understandable goals. Bad means.
This is a big and clunky business trying to make itself look better than it is instead of becoming better.
They could choose a higher course. They could do the hard work: settle their inner legal issues, make the game accessible, provide good user support. And they would be more prosperous for it.
But they prefer to solve this problem by the means of obfuscation and segregation.

So, to the people still playing: demand better service.
This is not normal. Look at other companies. If they can be outgoing with their policies, if they can provide service to different countries, if they can plan ahead their resonant changes - what real excuses do BNamco have for their actions?

And to Stormshade - a question.

Let me quote you:
“If anyone is in a blocked region and cannot play the game longer, and wants a refund, they can make a support ticket and we’ll do our best to help them.”

I wish to know if the treatment I’ve received from the Customer Support Team is “your best”.

My support request by the number of 12851 was made on the 1st of August.
I’ve received a meaningful reply (No Refund for you, No Access for you) on the 25th of August, three weeks later. Is this your company’s best?
And that was not just me relaxed and waiting. I had to ask for an update of my request several times after periods of silence from the support. Is this your company’s best?
Lastly, a few quotes from the support e-mails. They show a lack of consistency in company’s decisions:

Aug 2: “…our support staff and community teams aren’t able to comment on the nature of the company’s legal obligations applicable to any particular title…”

Aug 7: “…Currently we’ve been discussing the region ban with the community and development teams. So for now they stated that Russian players with older Duelyst accounts will be allowed into the game but future purchases would be disabled…”

Aug 8: “Our apologies. It would seem that since your last response we’ve learned that we would only allow Russian players who already made a BNEA account into the game but all new account registrations from Russian users would be disabled. We are very sorry for this but it does mean we’ll have to process you for a refund and cannot assist you into the game as there aren’t any ways for us to get around the system.
Again, we do apologize and will make sure to prioritize your refund.”
Aug 25: “We have received word from the finance team and unfortunately based on your last purchase-date, you do not fall under the users eligible for a refund. We do apologize for this news but we will not be offering you a refund.”

Let me ask, are legal obligations and refund policies made on the fly in your company?

So, for the last time: is this your company’s best?
If that’s really your best - I’m ok with that, if you can just confirm it here by your own words.
If that’s not your best - maybe you can discuss this with the company and ask them, why they put you in a situation where you give the community your word and they can’t back it up?
In any case, know that you’ve personally done me nothing wrong and I respect your hard work.

May bad companies shiver and die.
May great games live and prosper.