http://www.fiercegamebiz.com/top-video-gam...ce15/k2-network
WTF is up with that?! I've written an e-mail to the editor of the site:
Take a hit, it's Free2PlayOriginally posted by My E-mail
Hi Nathan,
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On the 18th September you announced K2 Network as one of the winners of your Fierce 15 awards for its innovative "Free2Play" gaming model. *You stated "If this innovative model takes off, expect the rest of the industry to follow." From a business side it sounds like a great method to draw in users, and as such expand your potential customer base. *However from the players side, this model has left K2 Network extremely badly poised to keep to it's slogan of "Gamers First".
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The problem with having literally thousands of "freeloaders" is Customer Support. *K2 have specified on their KnightOnline website (www.knightonlineworld.com) that Premium Members support questions will be answered in 24 hours. *They specify no time-line for dealing with non-premium members complaints and questions... Indeed the "general issue" option on the Customer Support website does not work for non-paying members.
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There is a huge feeling in the KnightOnline community which runs along the lines of "Love KO, Hate K2". *The other one which is commonly heard is "Free2Play, Pay to Login", in reference to the constantly full servers meaning only premium members can login.
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The awful customer experience from the staff at K2 Networks has been documented by it's rating at the Better Business Bureau website:
http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business...D=100018034&sm= *It's been rated "F"; the lowest possible rating.
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A typical example would be on the 21st September they suffered a server crash, which admittedly could happen to anyone running an online game. *Everyone who was online at the time got all their character information, inventory, and storage rolled back to when they last logged in. *Those who were offline, didn't. *This lead to large numbers of complaints about people who has lost 8hrs of work in the game, and caused a large number of items to get duped. *These duped items get tagged as being duped and you can't move them, delete them or do anything with them - you need help from customer support. * K2 Networks have no option in their customer support for "accidental duped items", which means you need to submit a general enquiry, which as already noted can only be done with premium membership. *There was no announcement made, no apology made, in fact K2 Networks didn't seem to even acknowledge it happened. *And there were probably thousands of items duped which will get deleted next time there is server maintenance, so any free-playing gamer just lost items he might have worked extremely hard to get.
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So rather than seeing K2 Networks get awards from you, i'd like to see an expose into how poorly they treat their customers. *Now that would be an article worth reading.
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Yours faithfully,
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