Anyone who plays a mobile game long enough will hear the term: Devs.
The term is short for "developer" but who are they? They are the people who make your game run, right? Nerds, sitting behind some terminal, squinting at lines of code that determine your comings and goings ... all those inter-workings that trigger once you tap the screen in a certain place on a certain screen at a certain time. They built your game, they keep it running ... you can talk to them and get your game experience rectified if something goes awry. They are the symbol of neutrality and everything good in your game's world, right? ALL HAIL THE DEVS!
Wrong. at least by the standard of MZ, creators of Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire.
MZ "devs" are digital snake oil salesmen.
They are more cunning than the biggest guild-master, more cunning than the worst of rogue players. They can be your guild neighbor, your worst enemy ...
or ... they can literally take a side and ensure that you will NEVER win.
I am a FFXVANE player. I have been playing since September of last year. I finally decided to give it a go because of another app that gave me points toward gift cards (yeah, it's THE thing now). I waited almost a year to play this game ... I've been into the franchise since FFVII (the first RPG I ENJOYED playing) and it has grown to be a comfort of sorts. I had never played a mobile MMORPG of this style, previously I was into Legacy of Discord.
So I get in ... I'm noticing that these pack prices are like kinda ... insane. I go "nah, I don't need that" ... and I keep playing. But it dawns on me, "the more awesome I get, that means that everyone else is 100x more awesome". I buy my first pack. I start a few farms ... I play the game, do the events ... people say I'm coming along nicely. I buy another pack, and another, and another. I'm beginning to catch up. I am able to participate more and more in the game. Events get better, prizes get better ... and I consider giving MZ a commendation for actually solving the level gap and leveling the playing field.
I log into the game yesterday ... and get the news.
According to MZ (this email was released today to players who have been writing tickets for a 48hr period, after refunds started flowing like a freshly tapped keg) the items in question (long story short, the ability to decimate any and everyone who has been playing this game no matter the length of time or purchasing power) were ACCIDENTALLY sent to "random" players, and they are working on a fix. Perhaps they will fix in-game chat so that words like "boycott", "fraud", and "refund" (your message will NOT be sent if you use these words) are treated the same as words like "unfair", "advantage", and "cheat". Perhaps favoritism will be fixed too. I learned for the first time yesterday that there is a membership / subscription element to the game where if you "spend enough", THEY contact YOU. Nah, nothing seems wrong with this at all.
Why is this wrong?
Take the lottery. The odds of you winning are based not on how much money you spend, but how many people buy tickets. The prices of the tickets don't change and neither do the odds. But what if ... the more lottery tickets you bought put you in separate drawings where ONLY THE PEOPLE WHO SPENT A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF MONEY were entered into the drawing. So now your odds of winning INCREASE because of the AMOUNT OF MONEY YOU SPEND. This is economic discrimination.
So what can you do? You can call Google, Apple, and Android ... you can call your financial institution.
But you can't call or email MZ ... because they don't answer ... and they don't care. New players to the game now get bonuses that veteran players have spent time, money, and effort to PREPARE to get.
This is how class action lawsuits start.
CREDIT: J.R. Caufield
It appears to me that this company has a very different opinion of how business is conducted. If you can throw away huge money on a game then there is no reason to cater to you.
ReplyDeleteThey already have more money then they could have hoped for and a golden goose doesn't live for ever.
They act like Chinese businesses .
Machine Zone has been running this same bait and switch scam under various bogus developer names and app titles since 2014. They employ and insert numerous “pretend to be a fool” shills into all of their scam apps to try and influence the uninformed and weak minded into thinking its normal to spend huge sums of money on their unstable, bug riddled, low quality scam apps by befriending the uninformed and weak minds and making them feel smart and popular if they just become a loser to the scam. Those who succum to the shills influence almost become cult like followers and will recite all the MZ talking points as excuses and justifications such as, this is an addiction, they are there and remain because of the people they have met, it’s a personal choice to spend money and no one should be dictating or criticizing other people’s choices, etc... it goes on and on... when truth is, it’s just a run of the mill bait and switch scam with all the signs of it being that in plain sight. Along with the MZ internal employees acting as shills within the apps, they also use outside contractors such as “gamerspeak”, “socially powerful” and others to run and operate the line/discord chat rooms and title specific websites and produce the YouTube videos. They also manage many of the internal chat rooms within the apps themselves. All the shills pretend to just be game enthusiasts, but truth be told they are paid for accomplices to the MZ scams.
ReplyDeleteMZ now has 5 scams running concurrently. Game of War which is listed under their original name; Mobile Strike which uses the bogus dev name as Epic War, Final Fantasy XV A New Empire which uses the bogus dev name Epic Action, World War Rising which uses the bogus dev name Mobile War, and their soon to be released Crystalborne: Heroes of Fate which is using the bogus dev name of Arena of Stars.
MZ only openly associates itself with the first 3 titles, even though 2 of them don’t bear their company name.. the other two MZ has gone to great lengths to conceal their involvement. Ask yourself, why a legitimate company with legitimate product would try and hide their association? That alone should tell you their agenda.
The best weapon against these shysters is knowledge, and the more of it you share with others the less these shysters are able to rip people off for. This info should be communicated in all the in-game chat rooms, Reddit’s, and external chat rooms such as line/discord... the shills can’t control and muffle everyone! Do your part! Don’t just sit back and watch as more and more uninformed people get ripped off.. Knowledge is Power! Something MZ hopes you don’t have or get.
I have always felt like I was getting no where. I have spent $8853.93 on this game since September 2017. I should be a badass, right? Nope! I am only ranked 25th in realm power the last time I checked, and the packs I have bought are now being given out for free or at a significant discounted rate to other players. Then Dark World came out and it basically nullified all your ladt purchases because your old troops and heros cannot do anything to dark troops. I felt I was being forced to get on board to save what I have spent. Now, I just feel unsatisfied, and that I have been victimized somehow. I cannot put it all to words.
ReplyDelete