Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Consumer Alert: Blizzard Entertainment
A little over a month ago, several addon sites for the World of Warcraft game produced by Blizzard Entertainment were found to have keyloggers as a part of their addons. This, of course, produced a high level of insecurity in several thousand user accounts related to the game. One of those accounts belonged to a friend of mine. He had spent months leveling his character all the way up to ~57 when a keylogger stole his information. The malicious individual wound up selling everything he had, and transferring his 300 gold to another account. Having faith in Blizzard's integrity system, he submitted a ticket.

8,000,000 people give Blizzard $15 a month to play this game.

It took over a month for my buddy to receive ANY contact from Blizzard, despite several attempts to reach them. 1 full month of receiving $15 from 8 million individuals. When they did finally grace him with a response, this is the form letter he received:

Greetings ******,

Thank you for contacting the World of Warcraft Game Master Department.

Account Name: ********
Realm: *******
Character Names: ******, ******, *******

Unfortunately, we were unable to verify the loss of the reported character assets. In order to assist you in continuing with normal play, a basic set of Bind on Equip items have been provided for the above listed characters. These items are not bound. They are for you to use, sell or equip as you deem necessary. The upcoming Burning Crusades will afford you and your character new content that will improve your overall gaming experience.

We sincerely apologize for any frustration you may have experienced as a result of this situation, and hope that this will assist you to return to enjoying the game as quickly as possible.

Please remember that restoration is not always guaranteed. While we make every effort to verify your loss there are times where restoration is not possible.

For further information please check our Restoration Policy located at *********************.

Thank you again for contacting us. We hope you continue to enjoy your experience in World of Warcraft!

*** Please do not respond to this email as all conversations on this matter would be best handled online. ***

Regards,
********
Specialist
Blizzard Entertainment
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

Customer satisfaction is a top priority here at Blizzard Entertainment,
and we would like your feedback on the level of service you have received.
Please feel free to provide such feedback at the following web address: ***********


Blizzard, you may never see this, but if you do I hope you understand that as a gaming software company you have now jumped the shark. It's a "minor" incident like this that begins the tarnishing of a once stellar reputation. I know of at least 10 individuals who would consider cancelling their accounts as a result of this flippant response to a sincere concern. To those not paying attention, the letter clearly states that Blizzard Entertainment, despite having full control over every transaction in the game and logging most of them to control cheating, could not find the time or energy to research this issue and wound up costing an individual several months of play time due to their own apathy toward their customers.

$120,000,000 a month goes to Blizzard Entertainment from individuals such as my friend and myself.

Update (01/22/07):

Thanks to Tom for the heads-up, put too many zeroes on the post above. Fixed.

Update (01/25/07):

Bizzyblog's great post on this.

Also, WD's great post on personal decisions and choices.

An article from Curse Gaming, originally thought to be the source of many keylogger addons.

Another great article with screenshots of what happens when you decide to "press the issue."

Labels:

Comments on "Consumer Alert: Blizzard Entertainment"

 

Blogger Mmatters said ... (7:32 AM) : 

It's 8 million people, not billion, but I still want to be in that business, where I can collect my monthly income and not serve customers. Each one is so small that the negative consequences are probably low, unless a class-action lawyer figures something out.

My kid opted out of Warcraft the moment they started asking for monthly fees. What a load, esp at $15.

 

Blogger Chucko said ... (1:01 PM) : 

You're absolutely right... it's a huge pity. I advised my buddy to report them to the BBB, which does have some consequences, but I don't think he's going to do it. WoW is still an incredibly fun game, but it's sad to see a great company like Blizzard go down the drain like this.

 

Blogger wd said ... (3:54 PM) : 

Thanks for the commment on the Jack Bauer picture on my blog. As I feel that I headed down the wrong bear trail over at bizzyblog, I have said so there ... and wanted to say so here. The more I looked at what was written, while I still think my ideas are sound, a little (lot) more needs to be said. Plus, I think my tone came across as something I didn't intend. However, what's written can't be unread, and what's said can't be unheard.

If you or your buddy don't mind, I'm going to post on this tomorrow afternoon. Perhaps getting the blogsphere involved will help. My little corner of cyberspace doesn't get a lot of hits - but perhaps others will pick up and run with it!!

By the way, I REALLY like your blog!!

b

 

Blogger Chucko said ... (10:29 AM) : 

Thanks for your comment WD! It's kind of a pity... my friend doesn't seem to have the motivation to really pursue this (I suppose having about 10 friends locally that also play the game that helped him gear back up and contributed a ton of gold doesn't help). Your commentary on personal choices is really fantastic.

 

Blogger wd said ... (2:31 PM) : 

Thank you for the kind words ... it actually was encouraging at just the right time ...
I have just published my 2 copper worth ... it may be a little long, but there was a lot to cover!

Let me know what you think. I can't do much, but felt I needed to do what I could.
Feel free to pass it around .. :)
...b

 

Blogger I don't know said ... (3:44 PM) : 

Does anybody know how to get in contact with their billing department? All I have is a technical support number?

help

 

post a comment

Go to the source!