The longer this goes on, the more it feels like an out of season April fools joke.
I mean there’s no communication, they’ve corralled and locked us in this giant ever-expanding pit of a thread, pinned in the general forums for all to see and be looked down upon. And here we are condemned to stay until we slowly lose all hope, or simply give up after getting harassed to death by gleeful trolls.
We all know how it started. New expansion and new features, cross-realm guilds and warbanks. Ultimately kicking off with a huge bug that slowly deleted untold millions of items from across unknown thousands of guilds. Nobody panicked at first, most weren’t even aware of the problem, and even then we trusted Blizzard with our data. No launch is perfect after all, there’s always hiccups and bugs, but everything gets ironed out in the end. Except not this time. This time the damage remained. And we alone were left with the consequences of actions and errors not our own, and to pick up the pieces of our shattered guild banks, if there was anything left at all.
Why are we upset? Because this ordeal has been nothing but a cascading series of failures.
First failure. At the very start, before implementing cross realm guilds there should have been a backup of guild data, including banks. Consideration of how this data would merge, or fail to merge, should also have been factored beforehand. Honestly it should have been tested before implementation, which can only be done by devs since players can’t transfer guilds to the PTR to see how the process functions.
Second failure. The first reports of guild banks getting wiped out should have sent up GIANT RED FLAGS to the entire dev team to ROLLBACK IMMEDIATELY because that is the only option when dealing with bugs causing CATASTROPHIC DATA LOSS of such magnitude. Instead they chose to stay the course and ram those icebergs ensuring data loss greater in size, scope, and difficulty to ever repair easily. They could have rolled back and players would have lost a day, and been easily compensated for that day. Instead players have lost decades of work and it’s far too late for mass rollbacks now.
Third failure. They chose to remain silent while it all happened, leaving most unaware their banks were in danger of this bug until it was far too late to save anything. Additionally there was misinformation at first that items were simply becoming invisible, which also made people not worry about clearing out their banks themselves to save what they could. I mean our items were was still there, or so we thought, why panic. Now we know they were talking about warbanks, which were also eating items, and are still eating items today though its mostly currency. Again a stunning lack of communication making bad problems worse.
Fourth failure. Rather than go on damage control to try and restore items, they went on PR control instead. They downplayed the issue as a minor bug, with mostly some tradeskill materials lost and implied restorations on the way for most and a maybe a few items missing for some players. They are still sticking by this statement, both publicly and even in GM tickets, which is super messed up because we know better. Telling the victims they didn’t lose anything important and that most people got everything back is AN OUTRIGHT LIE directly to the faces of those afflicted.
Fifth failure. As mentioned above, and as we are all aware, there were no actual restorations for anyone. And no, mailing a handful of players a handful of netherweave and some holiday items is not a restoration. It’s a joke at best and an insult for most. It’s like if someone’s car got totaled and their insurance sent them a used rearview mirror and some seatcovers and called it their replacement. Some seem to consider the insulting pittance received actually worse than getting nothing back at all. Many players relied on guild banks for long term storage of legacy materials and valuables. Sometimes in populated guilds where such things were awarded onto their members. And probably more frequently players had their own private guild banks to keep and organize items because banks are small and we never got player housing or other viable mass storage options. Losing most or all of these items is devastating for everyone involved.
Sixth failure. Washing their hands of the matter and calling it resolved. Now its unconfirmed if this is the official developer stance, but it does seem to be the preferred statement by customer service/support. They’re closing bug reports, deleting customer service posts, and as many of us have found out, threatening to ban people who make GM tickets. The matter is “resolved” they say, and the outcome may be a “little disappointing for some”. I believe I can speak for EVERYONE here when I say, no one is satisfied with the “resolution” by Blizzard. Not one single player afflicted by this bug is happy or content with the result. Not one person had their items restored. Not one person, out of the ten thousand plus guilds (conservative estimate) hit by this bug is satisfied with any level of the response by Blizzard.
When no one is satisfied with the result of your actions, then it is not a “resolution”, it is by very definition a “failure”. Data loss is not a “reason”, it is an “excuse”. And I very much doubt anyone here believes that there isn’t a single data snapshot or backup over the last 20 years to fall back on to restore at least some things.
Now you’d think all these failures would be as low as it gets, but wait, it gets worse. Because some of the hardest hit by all this are some of the most long subscribed seasoned veterans of this game. And all the while this has been happening, Blizzard has been shamelessly promoting their 20th anniversary celebration. And really nothing rubs salt in the wound, of losing 20 years worth of memories and treasures, more than a giant celebratory reminder of all the years and decades of past events, friends, loot, and achievements. It makes us remember these past 20 years with a sour note, which is sad because we would have celebrated it otherwise.
Overall this has been a giant failure by Blizzard at every level, from start to finish. And let me be clear, we are not as upset with Blizzard’s multiple failures in this entire ordeal, as we are upset and incredibly let down by their decision to give up. To decide that we’re not worth the trouble to fix what they broke. They do not value our time, effort, or dedication to Warcraft. We’re not even worth a real apology, though downplaying and avoiding the problem to this degree makes any apology disingenuous at best, and openly insulting at worst. And how do you even apologize now after so many layers upon layers of disrespect.
No other game company treats their players this bad. With data loss half as severe as this they’d be bending over backwards to restore everything possible, regardless of dupes or the economy, and compensate the Helheim out of everyone. Even comcast treats their customers better than this, eventually. Really it could not have been handled worse. The only thing left to do now is close this thread and ban everyone who posted in it, ensuring this debacle to be mostly forgotten in time. Sure its wrong, unfair, definately unethical, but entirely legal. They own the game, they own the time and effort we put into it, they even own the things we bought directly. The only thing we are left with is a betrayal of trust, loyalty, effort, and enjoyment of the game.
To summarize. All of this is the result of Blizzard’s accidental action of letting this bug happen through their own recklessness. Followed by their inaction to rollback servers or raise alarm over a catastrophic bug. And then finally their deliberate action to give up and silently declare it a lost cause. Dooming us all to suffer for their mistakes, to be punished for actions they alone committed, and finally to be met with nothing with cold blank faced apathy as we cry out here into the void.
In the end it honestly just feels like they’re just mocking us at this point. Making us the butts of their unfunny, out of season, April fools joke.
“Just get over it guys, buy more wow tokens, do you guys not have credit cards?”
R.I.P. Magic Rooster Egg
As a side note. I have had a small orc statue on my desk for 10 years now. It was awarded to loyal players who played since launch and subscribed for the first 10 years of the game. On the underside it reads: “The orc statue is a constant presence in our life at Blizzard entertainment. It’s where we meet to talk, to eat, to celebrate. As we celebrate ten years of World of Warcraft, we present this token of appreciation to you, stalwart adventurer. Thank you for being a constant presence in our lives as we adventure together.” For 10 years since received it has brought me some small joy as I’ve played Warcraft. Perhaps content with the knowledge I was playing a game that valued me as a player and fan. For these past few months I have looked upon the statue and questioned that stance. I know it is a game, but it has been a constant in my life for nearly half my life. After all this, I can hardly find the desire to even log in. We deserved better than this Blizzard.