Some Food For Thought (While you wait for the game to improve.)

At least they didn't shut the game down like, tabula rasa, APB,and Hellgate London. Now that was a wast of money.

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Originally Posted by Mack

Do your customers pay $80 at the door to walk in?

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No, but they also do not leave with a disc full of $80 worth of files. Whether or not you see their value as being that high is irrelevant. That was their worth at the time that you bought the game.

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Originally Posted by cerrad

At least they didn't shut the game down like, tabula rasa, APB,and Hellgate London. Now that was a wast of money.

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Please toss some salt over your shoulder. There is no guarantee that this fate does not yet wait for XIV.

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Originally Posted by Alastor

No, but they also do not leave with a disc full of $80 worth of files. Whether or not you see their value as being that high is irrelevant. That was their worth at the time that you bought the game.

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You know what its not even about the money for me, hell I hardly play the game and I'm not fretting over $80 I spent 7 months ago, I've done much worse with my spending habits, but its the fact that I want to complain that I complain...free or otherwise. I think your analogy is bad because the people are getting free chips as complementary food and they're are dbags for complaining but a better analogy would be this: people order food at your restaurant, you give it to them cold and not so tasty so they complain and you refund their money...those people would probably never walk back into that restaurant.

Ehm...last I checked Gamestop doesn't deal in second hand MMOs. The whole CD-key/accounts with personal info are huge no goes in terms of resale. Granted there are other methods for getting rid of an MMO account, but they're frowned upon by the developers and community at large. No one likes a scrub with a bought account. So yes, you are stuck with this once you've bought it.

This isn't a restaurant scenario, this is more of a theme park scenario. They charge you to get in the door, and the goal is to coax more money out of you by showing you a good time so you don't mind picking up over priced theme park swag. Think of the game's content and amusement factor as the sights and rides, and the over priced swag as your subscription fee. This game is a theme park with few awaeome sights and a bunch of rides that are under (re) construction. Yea, they could charge for the swag. But the reality of it is this, without the entertainment no one buys the swag. A lot of people won't even want the free handouts, just a refund on their entry fee.

To put it bluntly, I paid 50 bucks for this game. Which is close to what a ticket to Busch Gardens costs if you're a local resident. If I didn't enjoy my stay there the last time I went, you can bet everything you own that I would let people know why I would never return to Busch Gardens. The same applies for this game. Complaints may be annoying to the employees and die hard fanboys that think the company can do no wrong. But it's legitimate regardless of whether or not you like it. I hesitate to use the phrase the customer is always right, because sometimes they aren't, but I will say this: If the customer ain't happy, you ain't happy. That holds true regardless of what industry you work in.

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Originally Posted by Mack

people order food at your restaurant, you give it to them cold and tasteless and they complain so you refund their money...those people would probably never walk back into that restaurant.

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I completely agree. That is why, when someone does make a complaint, we do our best to rectify our mistake. That is good business, but not a requirement.

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Originally Posted by Alastor

I completely agree. That is why, when someone does make a complaint, we do our best to rectify our mistake. That is good business, but not a requirement.

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So I guess, what you are saying is, that like the people complaining to SE about XIV, those people who got the bad meal should shut their mouths and eat their free chips because the restaurant is attempting to rectify the situation when it was totally not required on their part to do so?

Yeah... I dunno.

Here's the real reason businesses try to rectify bad experiences of their customers. Customer not only doesn't come back, they tell everyone they know about their bad experience making others think twice before using that business services. Then those people tell others about their friend who had a bad experience. Word of mouth is a very powerful thing.

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Originally Posted by Alastor

I must stress that no business is ever forced to give you something in return for your complaints. It is only in the pursuit of GOOD business that Square Enix is giving you the game for free while they work on it.

None of us are entitled to anything here. You may feel that way, and SE has certainly decided to get on their knees for us, but it is certainly within Square Enix's rights to suddenly throw this game to the wind, as much as it is their right to change the name of the game to "Invisible Fire-Breathing Buffalo Invaders."

[Edit:]And furthermore, I should have been more discreet in my word choice, but there are undoubtedly cases of users acting like children in their posts. It was not a blanket statement for every complaint uttered on these forums.

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Thats my point. That they are not doing this out of the goodness of their heart its purely because of business. My other point is let people complain if they want, they should be allowed to vent their displeasure. However, they should do it in a civil manner which is one of the points your were making. With that said the main issue I had with your post is that you are trying to imply that SE is being kind or nice to gamers when in reality they are not. Its all with the intentions to make money in the end; and I don't fault them for that not even in the slightest.

I wouldn't quite say they are giving us a free meal... It is more like us ordering a basket of chips, and then they hand us a warm basket of flour while they go and get the rest of the ingredients. If you like eating flour that's fine... but it's probably better with other ingredients

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Originally Posted by Alastor

I completely agree. That is why, when someone does make a complaint, we do our best to rectify our mistake. That is good business, but not a requirement.

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Precisely, and until you make it up to them you will hear them complain about it or forget about you completely....which is what we're all doing in essence.