Wednesday 19 August 2009

Hypocrisy at Zynga - Hands up if you're surprised...

Here are the revised Rules for Zynga Games...

I've read through them and I'm still missing the rule which I am banned for...

In-Game Rules

Scamming:
It is nearly impossible to commit a legitimate scam in Vampire Wars. There is no official way to trade, no mailing system, and no drops for players to pick up. There is, however, a "gifting" system. Entering into any agreement with someone based on the promise that they will "gift" you something can be a mistake. If you do this and the other party does not keep their end of the agreement, you are out of luck. That being said, players that go out of their way to scam as many people as possible will be considered to be disrupting the gaming experience for other users and appropriate action will be taken.

Panto mode on boys and girls: "OH NO IT WON'T!"

Hacking/Botting:
Any attempts at “hacking” or “botting” will result in a permanent ban, regardless of your status in the community. (This includes scripts and macros.)

Panto mode again (so soon?) boys and girls: "OH NO IT WON'T!"

Duping:
Using any method to duplicate or attempt to duplicate items, characters, accounts, etc. will result in a ban, regardless of your status in the community.

Hahaha! At least there's a slight reference to the banned players... "regardless of your status in the community" But... OH NO IT WON'T!


Exploiting:
Taking advantage of any flaw in the game systems to gain an advantage over other users will result in a ban. The ban may or may not be permanent (depending on the severity of the violation).

Taking advantage of the ineptitude and incompetence of the Zynga Devs is seen to be cruel and unkind and pointing out the flaws in their capabilities WILL be seen as bullying! No matter what you all think so there! :p

False Reports:
Intentionally filing any kind of false report will result in a ban. The ban may or may not be permanent (depending on the severity of the violation).

We don't want those Mods being overworked over there, do we? They may find out that the job is actually harder than they thought with less benefits and they might just quit and Brainwashing new wanna-be mods is getting very expensive these days and there's a recession on... soon Zynga will have to put a charge on for anyone that wants to be a Mod - especially if they're going to be banning people that pay to play the game...

Tooling:
Tooling is considered using the mention of any Zynga staff member (or Moderator) to threaten or otherwise harass other players. Saying anything similar to "My friend works for Zynga and will ban you" or "I'll get Zynga to ban you" will be considered “Tooling” and will result in a ban.

Saying anyone actually works at Zynga should be punishable by law anyway... the new phrase "It's not just broken, it's totally Zynga'd" is working it's way into the English Language as we speak and should soon see an official recognition of the phrase in the New English Dictionary Book of Popular Sayings very soon. Although it's an ironic reference to Count Chocular who called the Zynga Staff 'Tools!' on a regular basis...

Harassment:
Making a deliberate attempt to negatively impact another player’s gaming experience is considered harassment. Harassment of other players is unacceptable and can result in bans of varying lengths (depending on the severity of the violation).

I'd like to make a complaint about Zynga then... since Feb 14th everything they've done has had negative impact on everyone's gaming experience...

Inappropriate Language:
Words that qualify as “inappropriate language” include but are not limited to obscenities, racial epithets, and personal insults. Ultimately, inappropriate language is anything considered unfit by Zynga staff members (or Moderators).
Anyone engaging in the use of inappropriate language while using a Zynga service will receive a formal warning. Repeatedly violating this rule will result in a ban.
Remember:
Implying obscenities is considered the same as using obscenities.
If you have to misspell something to get away with saying it, don’t say it.
Just because it's not blocked by the chat filter does not mean it is OK to say.

Panto mode on boys and girls: "OH NO IT WON'T!" And neither will threats of violence, threats to find out your address, threats against family members - including your children - and sexually explicit threats (including violence) will NOT be taken seriously and will NEVER be investigated or have action taken against the person making the vile and disgusting comments. As examples: george666, eyebitehard, weretiger - and many many more!

Spamming:
Spamming is defined as “repeatedly chatting or posting outside of a reasonable amount”. Ultimately, what is considered “reasonable” will be decided by members of the Zynga staff (or Moderators). Anyone found guilty of spamming while using a Zynga service will receive a formal warning. Repeatedly violating this rule will result in a ban.

And one for the road... Panto mode on boys and girls: "OH NO IT WON'T!" Case in point: eyebitehard, his 'girlfriend', and many many more... (sigh) - The only way action will be taken is if you annoy/upset/make a fool out of the Mods in the Forum.

Notes:
There is no 3-Hit rule.

No, perhaps not, but you're saying this too late to save some of the better players that you lost Zynga. Maybe you should have supported them when they were saying the very same thing in your forums - instead of allowing a few Mods who didn't have the patience or skills to play the game and achieve goals - such as the Leaderboard - to decide that their mode of playing was 'too nasty' for the Twilight Tweenies to cope with and banned them from the game.


You do not need a reason to hitlist someone.

The only reason you need for a hitlist is that you're unable to win a fight against the person so you pay for others to do your dirty work for you. Out in the real world, behaviour like that is illegal, in the child-world it's bullying. Back when you were able to self-claim your hit, the players managed the bullies very well - they had to, Zynga didn't do a damned thing. Since the self-claim was removed, the game has had 'wars' which got so nasty that people have quit the game and second accounts made JUST to Hitlist players and ruin their game. The only moderation that Zynga practice is in their forums, everything else is too much hassle to be bothered with.

Attacking someone several times in a row is not harassment.

This is the ONLY thing I agree with Zynga. Well done on being consistent...

Then you have their Devs...

http://apps.facebook.com/vampiresgame/stats.php?user=1737832443

Lvl 69 with 38 Clan... easy pickings for the lvl 70 Gauntlet... so you might think. The stats say differently...

Stats
Skill Ranking 5,443
Missions Completed 801
Fights Won 3,858
Fights Lost 2,710
Death 3
Kills 28

I'll leave it to you to find out what they're equipped with... and whether you get your stats put back to how they were before you attacked...

Erzebet

5 comments:

  1. I think Zynga should just save themselves and all their customers a pile of issues and time and reinstate all the banned accounts. Then perhaps they can put these unwritten rules, upon which they are using to ban accounts, into the TOS so that we, the players are actually aware when we are infringing on the TOS and facing a potential ban.

    When you use a glitch as a way to advance in the game, why is it you can be banned for it, that I don't get..Everyone is using it simply as it is there, so you are not gaining an unfair advantage over other players. No one person should be banned for it when ALL players are getting the same advantage from the glitch....and since the glitch is the fault of the programmer in the first place, isn't that kinda like spanking the child for an adults mistake...makes no sense to me. Give all accouts back to the banned players and start fresh. Show your customers that you DO actually give a care....but I don't see that happening either...

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  2. Well said Karen. I agree with you on everything but I'm afraid that Zynga will never admit they made mistakes. No, it is down to the players to point out the exploitable glitches - but they must do it without being critical... otherwise they face a ban.

    The players who are, of course, far more knowledgeable about the game (and the programming of it) than the developers because from the looks of things over there, it certainly does not appear that the Vampire Wars Devs have ever actually played the game so why would they care what happens to it?

    There's a new word in the urban dictionary... when something is "Zynga'd" it's FUBAR'd...

    Erzebet

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  3. How do they justify banning people for speaking the truth about their mistakes? I fail to understand why instead they simply do not rely on the players to TELL them when something is not right so that they may fix it. IMHO that is what I would prefer, a good relationship with the players will get you so much further...and well..word of mouth can make or break any business eventually. If the game ends up so bad that even new players won't bother with it, then where will Zynga be??

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  4. Here's the new stats of that dev vamp you posted above:

    level 52 Primeval Vampire
    Stats
    Skill Ranking 8,125
    Missions Completed 1,365
    Fights Won 634
    Fights Lost 0
    Death 0
    Kills 6

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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