An Anecdote Which I Hope Helps Supercell

I rather enjoy this game, and I post often here. But, all these complaining threads about loot, heroes, level glitch, etc, with an impending rollback (ETA, who knows) makes me recall what happened with another company. And, I'm usually the one defending the game, as you all know...

So, let me share the story, Rauta, Marika, et al. And while the facts and circumstances differ, there are some underlying similarities. Again no names and I hope this story helps. Well, that company had phenomenal initial success as an iOS app. And, in that game as well, hacks were not supposed to be possible.

I was a player named "Illustris" there (hehe, go figure) and had spent $3,000 or so as I enjoyed that game. Things were fine. Then out of the blue, a hack appeared, first from a hacker and then right after, using fake Chinese iTune gift cards. Supposedly impossible. More and more threads started appearing on their forums with folks complaining. Weeks passed. With poor, to no, communication from the company. They went into a trench and hid rather than address the allegation directly with professional communication. They did not learn the "Tylenol" crisis management case study from business school (if you get the reference).

Anyways, after 2-3 weeks, they just arbitrarily rolled everyone back. Which infuriated a lot of players. OK, completely separate story. But, the end conclusion for them was horrible, thousands of players left (myself included)... without a thought as to their investment.

Hacks (in their case), and mistakes/glitches (in your case) occur. It's OK. But, communication (particularly in Official Announcements, rather than making us scroll through all these repetitive, user-driven threads) is very key. And, impending rollbacks are just demoralizing. Seeing Shady at level 590 is just embarrassing. Like a war balloon popped by an arch tower. Not good.

Again, different facts and circumstances. But, it was sad to see such a successful company implode so quickly after 9 months-12 months due to poor communication and a rollback. My entire group and affiliated alliance groups there all left en masse. I really, really, hope you all do better... again, as Marika's slide presentation emphasized, communication is key.

Illustris the Helpful

P.S. Forgive the duplicative post in Clan Talk, duh, didn't realize I was in a subfolder...

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Originally Posted by Illustris

I rather enjoy this game, and I post often here. But, all these complaining threads about loot, heroes, level glitch, etc, with an impending rollback (ETA, who knows) makes me recall what happened with another company. And, I'm usually the one defending the game, as you all know...

So, let me share the story, Rauta, Marika, et al. And while the facts and circumstances differ, there are some underlying similarities. Again no names and I hope this story helps. Well, that company had phenomenal initial success as an iOS app. And, in that game as well, hacks were not supposed to be possible.

I was a player named "Illustris" there (hehe, go figure) and had spent $3,000 or so as I enjoyed that game. Things were fine. Then out of the blue, a hack appeared, first from a hacker and then right after, using fake Chinese iTune gift cards. Supposedly impossible. More and more threads started appearing on their forums with folks complaining. Weeks passed. With poor, to no, communication from the company. They went into a trench and hid rather than address the allegation directly with professional communication. They did not learn the "Tylenol" crisis management case study from business school (if you get the reference).

Anyways, after 2-3 weeks, they just arbitrarily rolled everyone back. Which infuriated a lot of players. OK, completely separate story. But, the end conclusion for them was horrible, thousands of players left (myself included)... without a thought as to their investment.

Hacks (in their case), and mistakes/glitches (in your case) occur. It's OK. But, communication (particularly in Official Announcements, rather than making us scroll through all these repetitive, user-driven threads) is very key. And, impending rollbacks are just demoralizing. Seeing Shady at level 590 is just embarrassing. Like a war balloon popped by an arch tower. Not good.

Again, different facts and circumstances. But, it was sad to see such a successful company implode so quickly after 9 months-12 months due to poor communication and a rollback. My entire group and affiliated alliance groups there all left en masse. I really, really, hope you all do better... again, as Marika's slide presentation emphasized, communication is key.

Illustris the Helpful

P.S. Forgive the duplicative post in Clan Talk, duh, didn't realize I was in a subfolder...

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Come on tell us, what game are you talking about? ;)

Heh, twins should know better... but, I tried writing a heart-felt note to the Devs... Hope it comes across the way I meant it...

Probably what set me off is defending the company non-stop on these forums, yet having to scroll through all these duplicative, silly threads, without an Official Announcement.

Illustris the Beta Tester

A good article worth reading

Thank you Illustris on creating this thread. One main thing that keeps a lot of customers is great customer support and communication. I've gone through tons of games, especially MMORPGs under subscription and buy to play, they have lost a lot of customers due to not listening and poor communication. In the end, needing to put their game under a free to play method. Gaming companies as of late tend to give out a lot of promises and it turns out to be something very different down the road.

What happens to a free to play game when it doesn't cut it for the customers? It shuts down. This game has great potential and have attracted even my most closest friends here, you can do it supercell.

This sounds suspiciously like a whine...

Heh, touchee... But, maybe, it's not what you say, it's how you say it...

Illustris the Ever Smiling

+1 to that excellent note and pretty much every other post Illustris has made on here.

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Originally Posted by Growler

This sounds suspiciously like a whine...

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Hmm - I didn't get that at all. It seemed like a warning, not a whine.

Thanks for a good article Illustris of many trades!

One question, why do they want to do a rollback?

I have played this game loads in last couple of days and upgraded a lot. Will this mean that all those millions of gold will be gone? And all time waited for upgrades to finish as well?

This i REALLY hope not! I would not play this game for a long time if this would happen.

//Zerono2 of not so many trades