Let's try this once more, as the first thread disappeared...I wanted to confess that I am Staalker (and that's not just stalker with two a's). Anyone from way back in the closed beta days will know who that is. If you don't, then no sense reading any further.
For those who always wondered, I was banned because I was in the private testing group and was speaking about something that wasn't yet "public knowledge" to someone else who was also in the private testing group. When I was pinged for it, and explained that I was speaking in private messages to another private group tester, Ryolnir scolded me and told me that "no speaking outside the test server means just that". I apologized and then Doomsaw decided to not let me in the group anymore.
So, later I told the friend I had been speaking with that whole time I had been removed and Ryolnir told me that if I spoke about any of it again I'd be banned. When the friend messaged me about how he thought it was unfair to be so harsh about it, I responded that I wasn't allowed to talk about it because I didn't want to get banned.
Ryolnir was reading all my private messages at this point, and when I came back from vacation I was banned. I emailed and contacted him and Doomsaw both...no one would respond to me.
I contacted support and my tickets were immediately closed.
Finally, a few months later I managed to submit a ticket under a new account and was very honest about who I was and that I wanted to play the game again. Mind you, I had purchased the Ultimate Pack, the one with the black animated Spider Man costume and Iron Man 3 that were never made available again.
I had spent a massive amount of money on the game, and asked them to let me play again.
I was told that I wouldn't get any compensation for what I had purchased, but if I had a new account and didn't cause any harm and kept my old ID secret, they wouldn't have any reason to prevent me from playing. I took a while to decide if I wanted to start all over. Eventually I did. The game kept calling to me regardless.
I never felt good about the behind the scenes business of Gazillion. I adore some of the team that made this game work, the artists and writers especially, but the business guys are losers. There are tons of things that the average gamer knows nothing about, that some of us old school testers got to see. They hated being criticized for decisions they made, bad press was just not something they would accept. They promised and lied to anyone they could to get people to say nice things, and they didn't care to be fair to people who had genuine complaints. The made a change and reversed it the next day if enough people on the forum raged. They never took a stand and held to their decisions. That is at least one thing the new group had, they rarely budged when they decided to do something.
Sadly, the company was in trouble long before the BUE and the newest people in charge came along.
I won't bash people, they did their job, and the ideas they were using came from the top. I only kept going because I truly saw such a great game waiting underneath the crap. I love Marvel and I spent thousands of hours in this game, I couldn't just quit because they got mad at me. I won't forget the time I spent with the game, the people I met (some of which I play with elsewhere that don't know I came back to this game), and I remember back when the game was flawed but felt poised to be great. Before the complainers and the like made them change what they were doing.
I doubt I will return to read any comments, but I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and all the best for whatever game you move on to. Thanks for the good times, and I wish all the people who lost their jobs the best of luck and hope you land on your feet.
Thanks for listening,
Michelle
