Advertising Partners
People deal with injustice in different ways. A number of people are choosing to leave the game. As much as I know the loss of my account would be bad for Funcom, much worse would be the loss of their advertising revenue. The point of this isn't to destroy Funcom, it's to force them to re-evaluate their priorities, and improve their customer service.
Each of the following links will have a form e-mail to send, customized for particular Funcom advertising customers, as well as an e-mail address to send the mail. Feel free to customize them however you want.
Mails ready to be sent:
A number of people have been asking about particular problems I see with support aside from the way funcom handled the events this weekend. Here's the response I sent to the first person asking, which I think sums up my feelings:
I think that there are actually many aspects of Customer Support involved in a game like Anarchy Online, and at some of these aspects, Funcom does indeed excell. Their ARK program of volunteers deals with personal attention to a variety of issues that in most games are ignored.
My problem is specifically with the information flow from paid Funcom employees, in particular via the various @anarchy-online.com addresses.
In recent months, the responses that I and other players have received to mails to these addresses have become increasingly hostile, up to the point that now most responses include some form of threat. In two instances, entire organizations of over 100 people have been threatened to be disbanded because of the actions of one or a few members.
In another instance, a player who posted a list of bugs in the official forums was permanently banned from the game. His punishment was only reduced after countless e-mails pointing out how harsh the punishment was. Even in this, the support was draconian, rather than a short response to the continued mails on his behalf, they instead mailed him warning him to have people stop sending mails or anyone who sent another mail would have their account banned.
After these incidents, I myself sent two mails, one to feedback and one to support, pointing out the drastic downslide in customer support, and both mails were ignored.
Last weekend was the catalyst for my mail to you however, as well as a number of other mails you may be receiving in the near future, as a number of people were banned in the game. Whether they were guilty or not remains an open question, but what the event highlighted was Funcom's refusal to give out information, even to those who had been banned.
I truly believe that effective communication flow is the most important hallmark of a good customer service organization, and that is what Funcom has lost along the way.
~ Arrien, Aug '06