To the Mafia Wars Community,
As General Manager of Mafia Wars, I feel the need to communicate directly with you about some issues that I’ve been hearing a lot about over the last few weeks. We’re seeing some common themes in the feedback from our game community, including complaints about third parties who are selling reward points or loot, cheaters who take advantage of game exploits, players who use automated “bots,” some negative effects from feature changes that we’ve made, and a perception that our customer service team is favoring certain players. I’d like to discuss each of these issues in turn and then share our plan for addressing the problems.
Before I begin, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank you for playing the game that my team and I have spent countless hours developing. Your dedication to and passion for our work is beyond our wildest expectations. We feel incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to be a part of your lives and help you connect with your friends on a daily basis.
Now onto the issues:
1. Issue: Reward points and loot sellers – There are third-party groups that have been selling Mafia Wars reward points at extremely discounted rates.
Response – Zynga is well aware of these illegal point sellers. These sites are not affiliated with Zynga and our legal team is actively seeking out and taking action against those who violate our Terms of Service and break the law. To date, we have shut down more than 40 such individuals and/or sites. If you see evidence that someone is illegally selling reward points or loot, please let us know – we will go after them.
2. Issue: Bots – There is a minority of players that use bots to gain an unfair advantage in the game or harass other players.
Response – I personally have a strong distaste for bots. If you’re going to use a bot, why are you even playing?
For those that don’t use bots, understand that my engineers are constantly implementing measures to stop bots. The botters then spend time modifying their bots to circumvent the security measures we put in place to stop them. It’s a never-ending battle. We are currently working on some initiatives to make botting much more difficult and will continue to do whatever we can to improve the experience for those who play fairly.
3. Issue: Cheaters/Exploiters – From time to time, bugs in our code open up cheats or exploits in the game that unethical players take advantage of to get ahead.
Response – First of all, we have to acknowledge that bugs happen. There have been and there will continue to be exploits released into our game. We haven’t always done the best job at cleaning them up, but we’re learning from our mistakes. We are getting better and we will continue to improve over time.
That said, I’m pleased to announce that, moving forward, we’ll be taking much more aggressive action against cheaters. We are going to start freezing and suspending players that exploit the system to gain an unfair advantage in the game. It’s just not fair to the folks that have invested time and/or money into the game to be at any sort of disadvantage to cheaters.
4. Issue: Negative effects from feature changes/removals – Features in the game are sometimes removed or adjusted, so that they produce different results than they may have previously.
Response – This is a live game. We are constantly evolving it to make the user experience as good as it can be for all players. I understand that people get upset when we change the rules and think we’re just doing it to make more money. We’ve never changed or removed a feature for the sole purpose of making money. We ask ourselves, “What creates the best experience for all users?” In an attempt to make things fair, we’re going to be rolling out a feature that will allow players to reallocate their skill points. I don’t have an estimate on the exact date that this will go live.
5. Issue: A perception that Zynga doesn’t treat all customers equally – There is a belief among some players that Zynga has a bias towards some customers and gives free handouts of reward points and items.
Response – Our Customer Service team is growing larger all the time in order to be able to respond to our millions of players. We acknowledge that sometimes a new employee will make a mistake (unintentionally violating our internal policy) and give out items or points that they shouldn’t. News of such an action then spreads through the community (for example, “ person X got 1000 free points just for complaining”). If and when you hear something to that effect, please remember: (1) We don’t give away free points just for complaining. Points or items have only ever been awarded when there is a legitimate issue that affects a customer in a serious way. 2) When we make a mistake and give out a disproportionately large reward, we very often correct that mistake and restore balance. The Zynga Customer Service team strives to treat all customers fairly.
I hope this helps provide clarity to a lot of the concerns that you’ve raised. The team and I all recognize that we wouldn’t be able to make games if you weren’t there to play them. We sincerely appreciate your past, present, and future support.
Justin C.
General Manager – Mafia Wars
0 comments:
Post a Comment