GREE and Customer Support

[Ak-Manin]

All:

There are many threads running and much discussion about issues and concerns in game. The1NOnly formed a chat room on Kakao for Guild Leaders and Officers, and again, most of the discussions revolved around the same frustrations. Action plans were discussed, but we decided to first attempt face to face discussions with Gree.

I got the main issues and concerns from the guild leaders in that chat room, and received permission from the guilds there to speak on their behalf.

I spoke with the head of Customer Support at Gree on Wednesday April 24. We went over the top issues raised by the guild leaders, and he was sincere and truly interested in helping us. We agreed during that call to have a conference call with some of the guild leaders, the customer support team, and the lead developers for KA.

I followed up our phone call by emailing him my working notes. By Thursday some of the issues raised were dealt with, and some over the following weekend. Gree sent me an email with an interim report of the status of the issues raised.

I also suggested that Gree form a Customer Focus Group of players to meet with them every other month. This will insure they are aware of our concerns before anger and frustrations reach a fever pitch.

On Friday, April 26th, the folks that volunteered to be on the conference call met. We wanted to get our position agreed on before we met with Gree. Those notes follow:

NOTES FROM 26 April 2013 Guild Leaders Meeting

Participants:
Lord Bell ODK
Awesome FUN
Bryan FK
AK -- DW
Tiki RK
Slick TBC
Nic BKG

Requests:
1. Remove hacker guilds.

2. Remove hackers
GREE RESPONSE: Our teams are working on requests 1 & 2. We now have a policy specialist dedicated to maintaining fair game play for all players. This is important for us because we want our players to enjoy the game.

3. 4 weeks notice of date of wars
GREE RESPONSE: I’ve asked the developers to update the app with the timer to countdown to the start of the war. The time will vary but I believe they are committed to provide as much notice as possible.
4. Break between events
GREE RESPONSE: I’ve shared this feedback with our developers. From your perspective how much time would you recommend between events?

Guild Leaders discussed and agreed on 3 days between events.

5. Take break to resolve programming errors lots of bugs
GREE RESPONSE: Our teams are working on this regularly. We are going to review the best method to resolve bugs.

6. Faster/better response to tickets
GREE response: We definitely had an increase in the time to respond to tickets. It is due to the growth in popularity of our games. That said, we know the current response time is unacceptable. We’ve made significant improvements and will continue to do so until we are at industry leading responses. My team is 100% committed to this.

Guild Leaders Discussed, and agreed to the following:
1. Players need way to escalate ticket if not happy or if emergency.
2. Feedback to person submitting ticket if resolution is going to take awhile
3. General post about response times if backlogged. Set player expectations about when to expect fix.
4. Dedicated staff member on hand during wars to deal with emergency issues reported.

7. Limit wars to 3 days
GREE Response: I’ve shared this feedback with our developers.
8. Restitution to guilds who did not make top 10 due to hacker guilds.
GREE Response: We are going to need to review this further.
9. Members unbanned
GREE Response: I believe this was addressed. Please correct me if I am wrong.
10. Gems:
a. Bonuses not received
GREE Response: Our team is going through email requests to address any missed bonuses. We do recommend sending us an email if the player hasn’t already done so.

Guild Leader Discussions:
AK offered to collect names and player IDs and send as well.
Slick asked if he could have email address of head of customer support.
AK said she would ask if she could share email with group. If yes, she will provide.

b. Bonus purchase plan -
GREE Response: Can you please elaborate on this?
Guild leaders discussed and resolved on the following:

a. want it by determined by volume purchased, not dollar amount
b. want it by itunes ID not kingdom, so that player gets credit for all purchases towards the bonus
c. Players want ability to transfer gems by themselves between accounts/games/kingdoms.
d. want tiering same as previously.
e. no enrollment needed. Bonus should be automatic as soon as volume is achieved.

c. Gem bugs – Guild Leaders discussed:
1. . BUG. Player refills energy with gems. Gets 3 strikes versus 4 stikes. Agreed that each player who used gems should get 1,500 gems as restitution. Since this was a universal complain of everyone using gems, easiest and most fair if GREE gives same restitution to each player who filed complaint if they used gems during the battle.
2. Striking players who were not on-line. This resulted in loss of energy, and loss of gems at same time, plus no gain of CP. Guild leaders agreed to 200 gems per complaint.


3. Purchased Gems won’t download
GREE Response – Along with other developers we are working with Apple on this issue. This issue is one of our top priorities.
Ak-Manin noted that she is now able to download gems, so this may be fixed.


d. Recommended Improvements:
1. Confirm button on any actions that involve gem spends, like vault upgrade or accelerating building.
2. Separate gold and gems on purchase page. Gems at top, gold at bottom. This will prevent accidental purchase of gold when gems were intended.
3. Customer focus group with guild reps…every 2 months. Will insure continued relief value for player group, and better feedback to developers.

[MaximumFun]

Thank you for this summary, Ak-Manin. And thanks to all who participated in this apparently beneficial conference call.

[Spydrax]

Thank you SO MUCH Lady Ak for you incredible, incredible dedication to this game and us. Thank you to all the leaders who gathered and participated in the preliminary discussions and got this agenda developed and moving.

Thank you to all for taking your time away from RL for us here on this game.

[Ak-Manin]

Thanks Spy...my pleasure. It helps everyone, to include me!! LOL.

[Rinkled4]

Thank you for sharing the information about what is happening with the top 10 guild leaders meeting. I do appreciate that you take the time to try to make the game more fun for everyone playing. That is a good goal.
For most of your agenda points I agree that things could potentially improve with what you have suggested.

I would however offer a different point of view for agenda points 3,4, and 7.
It is potentially better for the health of the entire Kingdom Age game and community to keep a fast pace of events. The more events are offered, the more opportunity exist for more players to enjoy different aspects of the game. Slowing the event schedule, particularly the guild wars, could be perceived as more advantages to a small minority who can regroup and remain entrenched with a hold on the top of the rankings. Although some players seem to play every single event, that is not the pattern of the vast majority of players who still enjoy the game. I recognize the faster pace dissuades money spenders from buying every single event and see that as a good thing for both the individual players and Gree.

[itsaklayton]

Lady Ak, thanks for your commitment to all players of every level. One point to mention, I am still blocked by the password/download bug. I believe many others may be as well.

[Ak-Manin]

good points Rinkled. I have a running log of suggestions and ideas and have added that. AK

[Ak-Manin]

OK. that's the one where you can't download purchased gems, right? They fixed mine. Captured your info here. I'm going to send another email in morning, and will put that on the list.

[mee notyou]

I already sent you my list of issues and recommended improvements (as voiced by my guild and others I regularly associate with). There is one that I forgot though that I think all guild founders would agre upon...can we please get a more streamlined way to build walls. It takes two hours to build 50 high level walls

[Dewsy]

Fantastic stuff AK... and good work everyone involved :) Thank you!

[bigwynk]

Excellent. Thank you so much for taking the initiative and the time to ask questions and express concerns shared by so many of us.

We appreciate it very much.

[Ak-Manin]

I already sent you my list of issues and recommended improvements (as voiced by my guild and others I regularly associate with). There is one that I forgot though that I think all guild founders would agre upon...can we please get a more streamlined way to build walls. It takes two hours to build 50 high level walls

Added to the list! Have your previous list as well. Thanks!

[MindMachine]

All:




d. Recommended Improvements:
1. Confirm button on any actions that involve gem spends, like vault upgrade or accelerating building.


Needed this one because Ive accidentally pressed finished the expanding button just because I am looking for it's time to finish and costs me 202 gems :(

[SOG Will]

Thanks for all the hard work to ensure the players voices are brought to Gree and for everyone's dedication to make the game better.

A suggestion to the gem spending accidently would be to add a code such as 123 that has to be entered to spend gems. This would eliminate even bumping a confirmation button by accident or internet lag and reduce the amount of support tickets sent in.

Thanks for your consideration and for your help.

[Nissen]

I tryed to buy gems the other Day first time i get an error messeges so i try agien, and the deal hos tro, but later thad Day i get my Bill and not only one but 2 , i was billed for the deal i dit not get any gems for cos of the error messege, thad bites,

[phopjon]

great work from everyone who participated in this call. Thanks for working with Gree to improve the game.

[Ak-Manin]

I tryed to buy gems the other Day first time i get an error messeges so i try agien, and the deal hos tro, but later thad Day i get my Bill and not only one but 2 , i was billed for the deal i dit not get any gems for cos of the error messege, thad bites,

Nissen: 1. get iTunes to reverse charges. 2. Submit ticket to GREE. I was unable to download purchased gems for weeks!! But mine is fixed now.

[Quantum]

@Ak-Manin : this isn't a KA issue but, next time you have a chat with GREE, could you please ask them why we haven't had a LTQ in MQ for more than a week please?
Despite repeated requests from my fellow players, there's been NO communications from GREE and everyone is getting frustrated.
On behalf of all the MQ players, many thanks in advance.

[DragCro]

Thanks Ak Manin and all guild leaders for your help

[Paulus]

I am really impressed by the whole process. Opponents getting together to discuss issues that affect the whole KA community and then being able to discuss them with GREE to resolve them for the benefit of all. Nicely done!

[piercemenow1]

This was a great read! Thanks to everyone involved!

[Rawrimabear]

When I first heard that the leaders of the "top guilds " we're meeting with Gree to get some grievances addressed my first reaction was that this would start going the way of the US government, ie: the rich and powerful corporations throw their weight (mostly their money) around and politicians make laws that favor the wealthy and mostly negect everyone else. (Rich get richer and all that.)

I'm glad to see that this wasn't the case here and that the requests made of Gree seem to be universally beneficial to all players.

Good job.

[Shinazueli]

No, the corruption is widespread enough to not allow that to happen here. Also, these guys have something our politicians don't : accountability. If they screwed us over to help themselves we would vote them off the island.

[Teddy Bear]

Appreciate for every guide leaders. :o

So Helpful

[Ak-Manin]

@Ak-Manin : this isn't a KA issue but, next time you have a chat with GREE, could you please ask them why we haven't had a LTQ in MQ for more than a week please?
Despite repeated requests from my fellow players, there's been NO communications from GREE and everyone is getting frustrated.
On behalf of all the MQ players, many thanks in advance.

I've gotten other requests from MW players. Sent suggestion that they have one person to deal with MW requests. I cut and pasted your note and another note I got in my email to the head of customer support. I know he must be crazy busy, but hope that he designates someone just to deal with MW. Thanks. AK

[Jolt]

I will admit I had my doubts that leaders from different guilds could get along well enough to get anything accomplished. Not only have my doubts been laid to rest but the chat room has evolved into a friendly informative place to visit.

I feel I have made new friends that I otherwise wouldn't have. But rest assure come war time I'm still gunna try and pound the hell out of them. ;)

[Quantum]

I've gotten other requests from MW players. Sent suggestion that they have one person to deal with MW requests. I cut and pasted your note and another note I got in my email to the head of customer support. I know he must be crazy busy, but hope that he designates someone just to deal with MW. Thanks. AK

Many thanks AK.

[Ak-Manin]

I feel I have made new friends that I otherwise wouldn't have. But rest assure come war time I'm still gunna try and pound the hell out of them. ;)

Jolt honey...we feel the same way!!! Look out!! LOL. AK

[Shinazueli]

Lol @ Weezy.

[Crash*]

I had an issue with the April Fool event. I completed both rounds and it started for a third time. It awarded all but the last Castle Heroic drops and didn't award the April Fool main prize?!

I have contacted GREE many times about this but get no response?

Did anyone have a similar experience with this event?!

I spent a lot of GEMs at the end to complete and am frustrated that I don't even have the unit to show for it...
...at this point I feel like the April Fool

Any suggestion or contact info would be appreciated

[itsaklayton]

I had similar experience and the ignored the issue, wrote the soothing thank you and sorry for your trouble, which is doublespeak for s.o.l. Followup emails are ignored, they send the ticket closed, and have the nerve to ask me to rate their customer service. Unfrickin believeable.

[Crash*]

I can't believe there is not a phone number for contact?!

[Jolt]

Sadly the chat room members are getting along so well that the the real issues seem to get lost.

Please get back to topic and stay focused. Gree get on the conference call as proposed and give all of us some resolution to at least some of the major issues and concerns both paying and free players have. Excuses don't resolve issues they only cause more.

Thank you.

[itsaklayton]

Lady Ak, where do we stand with conference call and other tactics? Stalling and silence from Gree is SOP. We need to move things along.

[LordB]

The action needs to be taken to the next level, for the next war after Dwarven Mines. With or without the cooperation of "the royal knights".

[itsaklayton]

I agree LordB, but why wait until after Dwarven Mine. I say go for this one.

[[DW] Black Adder]

Jolt, you would attack me? Lol swoosh!!!

[wrex]

I have noticed that I keep losing allies.. I keep my armor and weapons stocked so that all my allies are equipped with some form of both, but when I use gems to re-energize my allies go down.

I have a quest called "Fortress" which i need 450 allies to complete. I just checked and it has fon from
400 to 335. this is the 2nd time this has happened. I have used gems to become a VIP multiple time and should have over 500 allies. Has anybody else experienced this happening to them? I am on an Ipad if that makes a difference.

[Kjctnorris]

Stalling and silence from Gree is SOP.the elephant in the room.

[itsaklayton]

...and a hush fell over the room.

[Ak-Manin]

I regret to say that Gree said in an email that they feared that having conference call with 8 of the guild leaders might convey to all players that they were showing favoritism. I countered that I had posted the guild leader agreement and that it seemed to have almost universal appeal.

They found my forum post and got upset, saying I should not have reported out their interim report to me...and they were really upset that people assumed that Gree had agreed to the terms listed in the notes and were now submitting tickets.

I have twice tried since to re-engage them in discussions, but so far they have not responded to me.

I will continue to try and get them to the table to talk, but my sense is they are overwhelmed and wary now. I think we need this pow wow as much as they do.

AK

[willb125]

The #1 thing many were looking for from Gree was transparency. Your transparency regarding communications upset them. Hmmm. Me thinks transparency is a pipe dream.

[Battle Mage]

Cheers for the update Lady AK. At least someone is letting the players know what's been going on.
More than a bit of a shame it's not Gree/CJ....

I actually hold a bit of hope for some decent resolutions of these issues of concern, if for no other reason than Gree might face a significant loss of income when those who have had agreements broken or suffer unacceptable service leave the game and take their wallets with them.
I just wish it was done already!

[Shinazueli]

So wait they got upset when a forum member came to them because the forum is a hotbed of rage after this last event, and came to the forum with the results of that conversation? Yeah, I wouldn't have seen that one coming. Nope.

It's not even like you guys are like the rest of us(read : poor), and it's hilarious that they don't want to be seen showing "favoritism" to a group that represents 40% of their revenue. It's not like we don't think they favor the big spenders in all but name anyway, with the way the game is designed to only be competitive with a mortgage payment to Gree every month.

[LordB]

Looks like they tried to stonewall by any means possible... first by saying that this was showing favouritism to the top guilds' interests, then by saying that you weren't helping them keep their shortcomings secret when you explained the widespread support. I think the conclusion is that we have progressed as far as is possible without escalation.

[The_Legend_Shall_Live_On]

...They found my forum post and got upset, saying I should not have reported out their interim report to me...and they were really upset that people assumed that Gree had agreed to the terms listed in the notes and were now submitting tickets. ...
AK

Sounds to me like they inundated with request tickets because some people may have misinterpreted your original and subsequent posts to mean, "All resolved. Every send in your ticket(s) for gems compensation for your troubles," or something of that nature.

While I see others' points about Gree's transparency (or their lacking), I read this thread and understood it completely and only as minutes and information, not that anything has been reconciled. Because others jumped to conclusion, it assisted in causing an upset and again, a set-back.

Kind of sucks; let me know if there's any help you need on the matter, AK.

[VileDoom]

Line up sheep with your wallets open, the wolf is hungry once again and Friday is just around the corner.

[RandomUser]

I can't say I'm surprised, but I am disappointed. It's hard to believe a company as big as GREE has such poor customer relations. Smart companies spend millions of dollars every year listening closely to their customers wants and concerns. Ak-Manin represents a large group of concerned customers, co-ordinates a conference call with the higher-ups at GREE to address these concerns, and then they panic and shut the dialogue down. Their flimsy excuse is they don't want to cater to the top guilds because that might imply favoritism? They haven't opened a dialogue with ANY customers, as far as I can tell, so really, what they seem be saying is. We'll treat you all the same - like what comes out of a dog when it squats.

Abominable customer service. Thanks for listening, GREE.

[Rastlin]

I regret to say that Gree said in an email that they feared that having conference call with 8 of the guild leaders might convey to all players that they were showing favoritism. I countered that I had posted the guild leader agreement and that it seemed to have almost universal appeal.

They found my forum post and got upset, saying I should not have reported out their interim report to me...and they were really upset that people assumed that Gree had agreed to the terms listed in the notes and were now submitting tickets.

I have twice tried since to re-engage them in discussions, but so far they have not responded to me.

I will continue to try and get them to the table to talk, but my sense is they are overwhelmed and wary now. I think we need this pow wow as much as they do.

AK
I am not surprised. I had a feeling the newest update was to get everyone to forget about all of this, and instead say, "Ohhh shinny new thing!"

[Rastlin]

Smart companies spend millions of dollars every year listening closely to their customers wants and concerns. .
Yes companies are spending millions on CRM programs, and upset at the time they take to implement (after the programs are in place, their next biggest hurdle is they have is figuring out how to get the customer to want give them information). GREE has it easy with the forum, and having customers wanting even begging to be heard.

[itsaklayton]

It is all a feint to take the forum away from talk of boycotting gem purchases by all players regardless of level. I say boycott.

[Kjctnorris]

I can't say I'm surprised, but I am disappointed. It's hard to believe a company as big as GREE has such poor customer relations. Smart companies spend millions of dollars every year listening closely to their customers wants and concerns. Ak-Manin represents a large group of concerned customers, co-ordinates a conference call with the higher-ups at GREE to address these concerns, and then they panic and shut the dialogue down. Their flimsy excuse is they don't want to cater to the top guilds because that might imply favoritism? They haven't opened a dialogue with ANY customers, as far as I can tell, so really, what they seem be saying is. We'll treat you all the same - like what comes out of a dog when it squats.

Abominable customer service. Thanks for listening, GREE.
The number of players who have the willpower and desire to go through with the boycott will likely not be significant enough. GREE is banking on that.

[Rastlin]

The number of players who have the willpower and desire to go through with the boycott will likely not be significant enough. GREE is banking on that.
You are correct. GREE knows that FUN, RK, and TBC, along with the Top10 will never boycott as they will lose their rankings due to the guilds in Top25 and Top50 never hearing about it.

[VileDoom]

You are correct. GREE knows that FUN, RK, and TBC, along with the Top10 will never boycott as they will lose their rankings due to the guilds in Top25 and Top50 never hearing about it.

Cutting off your finger is a much better idea than just removing the splinter.

[mee notyou]

I regret to say that Gree said in an email that they feared that having conference call with 8 of the guild leaders might convey to all players that they were showing favoritism. I countered that I had posted the guild leader agreement and that it seemed to have almost universal appeal.

They found my forum post and got upset, saying I should not have reported out their interim report to me...and they were really upset that people assumed that Gree had agreed to the terms listed in the notes and were now submitting tickets.

I have twice tried since to re-engage them in discussions, but so far they have not responded to me.

I will continue to try and get them to the table to talk, but my sense is they are overwhelmed and wary now. I think we need this pow wow as much as they do.

AK

Am I the only one who finds it funny that they hadn't seen this forum post, that has been on their site, controlled by their moderators, for about a week.

[michealdee]

I can not receive gems after purchasing them. I get a message saying that i need to download them but how?
All:

There are many threads running and much discussion about issues and concerns in game. The1NOnly formed a chat room on Kakao for Guild Leaders and Officers, and again, most of the discussions revolved around the same frustrations. Action plans were discussed, but we decided to first attempt face to face discussions with Gree.

I got the main issues and concerns from the guild leaders in that chat room, and received permission from the guilds there to speak on their behalf.

I spoke with the head of Customer Support at Gree on Wednesday April 24. We went over the top issues raised by the guild leaders, and he was sincere and truly interested in helping us. We agreed during that call to have a conference call with some of the guild leaders, the customer support team, and the lead developers for KA.

I followed up our phone call by emailing him my working notes. By Thursday some of the issues raised were dealt with, and some over the following weekend. Gree sent me an email with an interim report of the status of the issues raised.

I also suggested that Gree form a Customer Focus Group of players to meet with them every other month. This will insure they are aware of our concerns before anger and frustrations reach a fever pitch.

On Friday, April 26th, the folks that volunteered to be on the conference call met. We wanted to get our position agreed on before we met with Gree. Those notes follow:

NOTES FROM 26 April 2013 Guild Leaders Meeting

Participants:
Lord Bell ODK
Awesome FUN
Bryan FK
AK -- DW
Tiki RK
Slick TBC
Nic BKG

Requests:
1. Remove hacker guilds.

2. Remove hackers
GREE RESPONSE: Our teams are working on requests 1 & 2. We now have a policy specialist dedicated to maintaining fair game play for all players. This is important for us because we want our players to enjoy the game.

3. 4 weeks notice of date of wars
GREE RESPONSE: I’ve asked the developers to update the app with the timer to countdown to the start of the war. The time will vary but I believe they are committed to provide as much notice as possible.
4. Break between events
GREE RESPONSE: I’ve shared this feedback with our developers. From your perspective how much time would you recommend between events?

Guild Leaders discussed and agreed on 3 days between events.

5. Take break to resolve programming errors lots of bugs
GREE RESPONSE: Our teams are working on this regularly. We are going to review the best method to resolve bugs.

6. Faster/better response to tickets
GREE response: We definitely had an increase in the time to respond to tickets. It is due to the growth in popularity of our games. That said, we know the current response time is unacceptable. We’ve made significant improvements and will continue to do so until we are at industry leading responses. My team is 100% committed to this.

Guild Leaders Discussed, and agreed to the following:
1. Players need way to escalate ticket if not happy or if emergency.
2. Feedback to person submitting ticket if resolution is going to take awhile
3. General post about response times if backlogged. Set player expectations about when to expect fix.
4. Dedicated staff member on hand during wars to deal with emergency issues reported.

7. Limit wars to 3 days
GREE Response: I’ve shared this feedback with our developers.
8. Restitution to guilds who did not make top 10 due to hacker guilds.
GREE Response: We are going to need to review this further.
9. Members unbanned
GREE Response: I believe this was addressed. Please correct me if I am wrong.
10. Gems:
a. Bonuses not received
GREE Response: Our team is going through email requests to address any missed bonuses. We do recommend sending us an email if the player hasn’t already done so.

Guild Leader Discussions:
AK offered to collect names and player IDs and send as well.
Slick asked if he could have email address of head of customer support.
AK said she would ask if she could share email with group. If yes, she will provide.

b. Bonus purchase plan -
GREE Response: Can you please elaborate on this?
Guild leaders discussed and resolved on the following:

a. want it by determined by volume purchased, not dollar amount
b. want it by itunes ID not kingdom, so that player gets credit for all purchases towards the bonus
c. Players want ability to transfer gems by themselves between accounts/games/kingdoms.
d. want tiering same as previously.
e. no enrollment needed. Bonus should be automatic as soon as volume is achieved.

c. Gem bugs – Guild Leaders discussed:
1. . BUG. Player refills energy with gems. Gets 3 strikes versus 4 stikes. Agreed that each player who used gems should get 1,500 gems as restitution. Since this was a universal complain of everyone using gems, easiest and most fair if GREE gives same restitution to each player who filed complaint if they used gems during the battle.
2. Striking players who were not on-line. This resulted in loss of energy, and loss of gems at same time, plus no gain of CP. Guild leaders agreed to 200 gems per complaint.


3. Purchased Gems won’t download
GREE Response – Along with other developers we are working with Apple on this issue. This issue is one of our top priorities.
Ak-Manin noted that she is now able to download gems, so this may be fixed.


d. Recommended Improvements:
1. Confirm button on any actions that involve gem spends, like vault upgrade or accelerating building.
2. Separate gold and gems on purchase page. Gems at top, gold at bottom. This will prevent accidental purchase of gold when gems were intended.
3. Customer focus group with guild reps…every 2 months. Will insure continued relief value for player group, and better feedback to developers.

[Kjctnorris]

Cutting off your finger is a much better idea than just removing the splinter.

I doubt Raistlin disagrees with what you are getting at, but do you think many will follow through? Lets say FUN went through with the boycott, other guilds will be tripping all over each other to do what they had to do to take that top spot. GREE knows it, we all know it.

I've resigned to playing free again. There's a lack of action on hackers because it forces players who play by the rules to spend more money in order to keep pace.

While it's easy to say players will quit if this continues, GREE is banking on the fact that most of those players have invested too much that they feel they can't just walk away and will continue to spend more. Once another lull hits, they'll release more units, hackers will hack them, and the cycle will continue.

I'd love to be proven wrong on all this and I'll gladly be the first one to come back here and eat crow (cannibalism?). I just don't see that happening though. So, I'll just enjoy the game as I originally played it, as a casual free player.

Good luck to all of you who choose otherwise.

[Crusader Shout]

Overall, our guild has been happy with Gree, though timing can be improved.

Eventually there is a response, though sometimes it just takes too long, though I can imagine the myriad of issues.

One big concern is the lack of communication on dates, and the intensity of the game. We don't have many members leaving to join other guilds, but since the last war we have lost quite a few members that just got fed up with the intensity of the game.

The five day was way too long. The wars occur too frequently. Building walls is a big job.

There should be the ability for guild leaders to reward good guild members.

The game is improving, and the recent update was a big step forward - checking units easily.

Thanks Gree for listening!

Shout (Guild Leader) - The Crusaders
www.the.crusaders.info
"Where the Strong Play for Fun"

[Jean marc]

As the leader of the Paladin Warriors, I would like to thank you in the name of the members of my guild for all your effort in getting this game going forward. Gree did give me my missing gems that I bought, however some members of my guild are still experiencing trouble buying gems, they do not received them.

What you and the leader of the other top team are doing is really appreciated from every one. I will pass all the info to my guild members this should boost their moral, knowing that something is being done.

Sorry for the translation English is not my primary language, but I think you get what I mean.

Jean-Marc

[lisawarrior]

well I for one are happy that the uk government at least, is investigating companies like gree for over the top in app purchases. After the customer support I have had from them, I am only too happy to help. The game is full of bugs, but what come back do you have when things go wrong? Nothing at all. Who do you go to when Gree refuse to answer tickets? Stuff boycotting gems, its a start, but not everyone will sadly, so it will not work. People in the uk need to write to their mps and complain, so that people do not continue to get ripped off. For goodness sake, 12 year olds are playing this game, and who is protecting them from being addicted to a game and wasting a ton of money on the chance of winning one unit. its crazy!! At least playing fruit machines there is a chance of getting more out than you put in. Albeit a small one, yet you have to be licensed and regulated to let people gamble. not on Apple. Mark my words, companies like gree better enjoy it while it lasts. Regulations will stop them charging silly amounts of money for nothing in the end. Yes I have bought gems myself, but there have been bugs that left me disadvantaged, yet gree dont give a rats behind. They just keep collecting, and people keep paying. The game is playable free. the egos will keep lining grees pocket though.

By the way, I have 232 greek boxes. Will they be recycled?? :p

[Jeshu]

All:

There are many threads running and much discussion about issues and concerns in game. The1NOnly formed a chat room on Kakao for Guild Leaders and Officers, and again, most of the discussions revolved around the same frustrations. Action plans were discussed, but we decided to first attempt face to face discussions with Gree.

I got the main issues and concerns from the guild leaders in that chat room, and received permission from the guilds there to speak on their behalf.

I spoke with the head of Customer Support at Gree on Wednesday April 24. We went over the top issues raised by the guild leaders, and he was sincere and truly interested in helping us. We agreed during that call to have a conference call with some of the guild leaders, the customer support team, and the lead developers for KA.

I followed up our phone call by emailing him my working notes. By Thursday some of the issues raised were dealt with, and some over the following weekend. Gree sent me an email with an interim report of the status of the issues raised.

I also suggested that Gree form a Customer Focus Group of players to meet with them every other month. This will insure they are aware of our concerns before anger and frustrations reach a fever pitch.

On Friday, April 26th, the folks that volunteered to be on the conference call met. We wanted to get our position agreed on before we met with Gree. Those notes follow:

NOTES FROM 26 April 2013 Guild Leaders Meeting

Participants:
Lord Bell ODK
Awesome FUN
Bryan FK
AK -- DW
Tiki RK
Slick TBC
Nic BKG

Requests:
1. Remove hacker guilds.

2. Remove hackers
GREE RESPONSE: Our teams are working on requests 1 & 2. We now have a policy specialist dedicated to maintaining fair game play for all players. This is important for us because we want our players to enjoy the game.

3. 4 weeks notice of date of wars
GREE RESPONSE: I’ve asked the developers to update the app with the timer to countdown to the start of the war. The time will vary but I believe they are committed to provide as much notice as possible.
4. Break between events
GREE RESPONSE: I’ve shared this feedback with our developers. From your perspective how much time would you recommend between events?

Guild Leaders discussed and agreed on 3 days between events.

5. Take break to resolve programming errors lots of bugs
GREE RESPONSE: Our teams are working on this regularly. We are going to review the best method to resolve bugs.

6. Faster/better response to tickets
GREE response: We definitely had an increase in the time to respond to tickets. It is due to the growth in popularity of our games. That said, we know the current response time is unacceptable. We’ve made significant improvements and will continue to do so until we are at industry leading responses. My team is 100% committed to this.

Guild Leaders Discussed, and agreed to the following:
1. Players need way to escalate ticket if not happy or if emergency.
2. Feedback to person submitting ticket if resolution is going to take awhile
3. General post about response times if backlogged. Set player expectations about when to expect fix.
4. Dedicated staff member on hand during wars to deal with emergency issues reported.

7. Limit wars to 3 days
GREE Response: I’ve shared this feedback with our developers.
8. Restitution to guilds who did not make top 10 due to hacker guilds.
GREE Response: We are going to need to review this further.
9. Members unbanned
GREE Response: I believe this was addressed. Please correct me if I am wrong.
10. Gems:
a. Bonuses not received
GREE Response: Our team is going through email requests to address any missed bonuses. We do recommend sending us an email if the player hasn’t already done so.

Guild Leader Discussions:
AK offered to collect names and player IDs and send as well.
Slick asked if he could have email address of head of customer support.
AK said she would ask if she could share email with group. If yes, she will provide.

b. Bonus purchase plan -
GREE Response: Can you please elaborate on this?
Guild leaders discussed and resolved on the following:

a. want it by determined by volume purchased, not dollar amount
b. want it by itunes ID not kingdom, so that player gets credit for all purchases towards the bonus
c. Players want ability to transfer gems by themselves between accounts/games/kingdoms.
d. want tiering same as previously.
e. no enrollment needed. Bonus should be automatic as soon as volume is achieved.

c. Gem bugs – Guild Leaders discussed:
1. . BUG. Player refills energy with gems. Gets 3 strikes versus 4 stikes. Agreed that each player who used gems should get 1,500 gems as restitution. Since this was a universal complain of everyone using gems, easiest and most fair if GREE gives same restitution to each player who filed complaint if they used gems during the battle.
2. Striking players who were not on-line. This resulted in loss of energy, and loss of gems at same time, plus no gain of CP. Guild leaders agreed to 200 gems per complaint.


3. Purchased Gems won’t download
GREE Response – Along with other developers we are working with Apple on this issue. This issue is one of our top priorities.
Ak-Manin noted that she is now able to download gems, so this may be fixed.


d. Recommended Improvements:
1. Confirm button on any actions that involve gem spends, like vault upgrade or accelerating building.
2. Separate gold and gems on purchase page. Gems at top, gold at bottom. This will prevent accidental purchase of gold when gems were intended.
3. Customer focus group with guild reps…every 2 months. Will insure continued relief value for player group, and better feedback to developers.

Clearly they didn't listen... They are doing the opposite by having the next war in less than 2 weeks...

[Loreal]

I started to notice a couple of days ago that whenever I defeat monsters in any of the game areas gold pieces mysteriously disappear, both when I change area, press the protect button in my vault or just every couple of seconds while defeating more monsters. I have been cheated out of at least several thousand gold pieces this way in the last two days alone. I sent an email to support about this, but apparently it will take a while before they can reply. I also noticed that at irregular intervals a couple of experience points get subtracted from my total number earned, like 3 or 4 at a time. Has anyone else experienced the same thing? If so, do you know how to stop it? Have I been hacked? I'm thinking of leaving this game, because of this issue. I will definitely no longer buy gems until this issue has been resolved.

[Rinkled4]

There have been some good suggestions to improve the KA app. Some suggestions however directed at Gree could be seen as faults of some players. I fail to see how it is a good suggestion to spread out events further. On one hand you read complaints about the gap between free and gem players. To spread the events out only widens the gap. Have so many events that even the biggest gem spenders can't keep up then the door opens for others to achieve more stats/units. It is a fault of some players to presume that if they have difficulty completing every single event that it is a problem with Gree.

[osuljj84]

Silly question (and I may have already missed it somewhere along the way, apologies if i did..), but have people tried reporting issues regarding IAP to Apple directly? I believe there's a way to report that type of stuff regarding apps to Apple and then be sure.. a resolution will likely come - especially for those quitting the game due to not receiving IAPs and such (you can get refunds from Apple by reporting those things).

I believe there was a situation in Clash of clans last year where they made significant changes to the way you got matched in battles against other players (their system is SOMEWHAT like KAs) and people started exiting the game in mass and actually wrote to Apple to get refunds based on this major change... I believe Clash of Clans eventually re-tweaked their system and got their act together since Apple was in fact processing the refund requests... That's the way you get these companies to listen.

In fact - I'd be interested in seeing how Apple would respond to a moderate (perhaps high?) gem spender quitting the game on grounds of negligence on Gree's behalf of not taking actions to limit hackers and requesting a refund.. perhaps an experiment for the next group of people considering leaving?

[MattThomas08]

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?54598-GREE-A-Message-From-the-United-Syndicates-of-Crime-City

With some of your inspiration, this idea has spread in many ways to CC. We look forward to working with you all toward progressing the games to be fair and fun for all participants.

[Ak-Manin]

I heard from Gree Friday, and they will let me know what they working on to improve the game and address the concerns. They are open to the idea of customer focus group from across the span of users. Hopefully I'll learn more and can share that here.

[itsaklayton]

Thanks for the update, Ak

[Jailbroken<TNW>]

Hey just wanted to say. I finally got my Gems from a failed purchase. Took 2 weeks and 3-4 emails to GREE. But they did finally credit it to my account. I threatened to call ITunes for a refund and I had to send them screen shots of my purchase. Hopefully they are trying to work this out with everyone... Think they should have waited to start this next event though. Wayyy to many bugs... Other guild members still waiting on a reply from them. So we will see.

JB
Kingdom Killers. We just placed 34th Dwarven Mines.

Current bonuses:
Casualty Rate: +14%
Upgrade Cost: +22%
Upgrade Time: +22%
Member Increase: +24

Guild invite code 364-118-223

[Rastlin]

I heard from Gree Friday, and they will let me know what they working on to improve the game and address the concerns. They are open to the idea of customer focus group from across the span of users. Hopefully I'll learn more and can share that here.
Glad to hear they might come back to the table and talk.

[Xiaoge99]

GREE do great than most of game companies I have saw.They can aways find the key of solution.

[procsyzarc]

In fact - I'd be interested in seeing how Apple would respond to a moderate (perhaps high?) gem spender quitting the game on grounds of negligence on Gree's behalf of not taking actions to limit hackers and requesting a refund.. perhaps an experiment for the next group of people considering leaving?

I am very close to testing this in monster quest. For those who don't know there is a battle list bug where players over L130 can only see players who are L60 most of which are dead accounts since people hit L60 and are all of a sudden hit by players 100 levels higher with 30 times their stats think stuff this and quit as their army is destroyed. This has been going on for 7 months 100's of people have sent tickets to Gree and 1000's more have quit but the only resonse we get is "our engineers are aware of the issue".

After 7 months and they still haven't fixed it this will be a good test to see if apple will refund all purchases since the game hasn't worked since day one.

Will also be a good test to see what Gree does to an account after it gets refunded

[Kusa]

Half y'all say we want time between events then half y'all can't wait seems pretty split on that issue.
Honestly i love the events not split in time gives free users a chance to pass gem spenders up in stats.

[Rastlin]

H
free users a chance to pass gem spenders up in stats.
That is 100% impossible.

[New Guy]

GREE do great than most of game companies I have saw.They can aways find the key of solution.

Only a Gree implant would say this!!!

[Xiaoge99]

So many bad games,so I am here playing KA for one year.they make a great progress for 1.2 to 1,7,until 1.82

[LordB]

We booted xiaoge from our guild before the last war event. She joined and then 2 days later 1200 voracious abominations mysteriously appeared in her account. The reason she thinks that gree is better than other game companies is that other game companies take action against hackers, while gree don't.

[Xiaoge99]

In fact,I like the 1.2 ver more,even though I am only have hundreds of machines at that time.
sadly ,so many allies(also some level 200)sold all their building to quit,you can not understand.

[Xiaoge99]

How many units there now?you can check twice!
You harm the people called"hacker",then tell more details nobody knows about what you find.
The only result is more people find the method they just heard , that is the reason GREE not deal with the hacker.
The more you do, the more they are,do you understand.you top 10 use so many tricks others not know,why you call yourself hacker?
If I hack ,I do not need to pay more gems in this games,but i spend money too, as you did.
Can you share the tricks,LodB?

[Xiaoge99]

Don't aways use you money make others to do something for you.money is only money!
GREE fixed so many bugs.some you used,some you sold to them....we are all players.
If I can hack, I hack your guild and del it,but it seems impossible:)

You top 10 can not stand by justice,and can not aways be top 10, I saw so many level 200 leave the game.you are only a player like me,one day will quit .....

[Xiaoge99]

I dare speak here, what can you do with me?

[Xiaoge99]

I advertise the Moc ,but will not advertise lordB

[Xiaoge99]

Maybe I want more people know the tricks and bugs there exist, and let them find everywhere for the hack?
So stupid you are ,lord
You can not control GREE or the hack!
we are all common person have to pay money to GREE,consumer!

[Ak-Manin]

May I ask that you folks take your disagreement off-line? This thread really is to talk about GREE customer support, and to try and gather information to help the players...and to try and let folks know what the players are doing to get Gree's attention. Thanks for understanding.

[Liethe]

Why on earth would an entire tread about a massive call about abstinence from buying gems ( i dont dare calling it a boycot in any way anymore ) be removed from the forums?
You send a message to gree and they do nothing for weeks you post on forums and in no time whole treads can be removed, draw your own conclusion i would say
And administrator before you remove this pls read the freedom of speech in the universal human rights act
I no way i violated Any of your forum rules as i only State facts here.

[Dirt road Joe]

I advertise the Moc ,but will not advertise lordB

Xiaoge99 as a member of MoC I ask you to stop flaunting our guild around. We would like to be seen in a positive manner here on the forums (for the most part). Your spamming and low maturity level is not how we would like to be represented. I ask you not to refer to our Guild in your posts as you are not a member and we didn't ask you to advertise our guild.

Secondly, for all those people who question why our guild went from top 10, to top 25, and finally to top 50. This is not because "we lost hackers" but simply because our views towards vesting money in Gree has changed. We don't want to buy into something that does nothing in return for us. Our relationship in our guild is much more important than the money we can throw at a game. The friendship that we have made as a guild will carry over to other games and even in person. We strive to have fun, not be "FUN".

Back on topic. The customer service many of our guild members have received has been great the past week or two. Some of us still don't get responses, while most of us are answered within the day we submit the ticket. Overall we are pleased with the effort Gree is putting into fixing issues. Even though we are pleased we are still scared from the damage that has already been done. Many have lost interest in the game, but are slowly coming back around as Gree continues to improve. Everything takes time. We just have to let them have a little time. I see things getting better in the near future, but not perfect.

[Spydrax]

Xiaoge99 as a member of MoC I ask you to stop flaunting our guild around. We would like to be seen in a positive manner here on the forums (for the most part). Your spamming and low maturity level is not how we would like to be represented. I ask you not to refer to our Guild in your posts as you are not a member and we didn't ask you to advertise our guild.

Secondly, for all those people who question why our guild went from top 10, to top 25, and finally to top 50. This is not because "we lost hackers" but simply because our views towards vesting money in Gree has changed. We don't want to buy into something that does nothing in return for us. Our relationship in our guild is much more important than the money we can throw at a game. The friendship that we have made as a guild will carry over to other games and even in person. We strive to have fun, not be "FUN".

Back on topic. The customer service many of our guild members have received has been great the past week or two. Some of us still don't get responses, while most of us are answered within the day we submit the ticket. Overall we are pleased with the effort Gree is putting into fixing issues. Even though we are pleased we are still scared from the damage that has already been done. Many have lost interest in the game, but are slowly coming back around as Gree continues to improve. Everything takes time. We just have to let them have a little time. I see things getting better in the near future, but not perfect.

Dirt Road Joe, I, a Dragon Warrior, hold the MoC in nothing but the highest regard and nothing any one person says in this forum will change that. The actions of your clan as a whole as well as so many of your individuals, has spoken volumes.

On topic:
Any company will have it's growing pains. I'm not tooting the horn for GREE, as I'm a person who's had a technical ticket into them for several weeks now with only a 'are you still experiencing this problem' response, however, also, as a person who understands business and men (leaving women out (don't understand them)) :), GREE is possibly, POSSIBLY, experiencing growing pains and trying to work through them systematically. While this may not be seen by everyone as improvement, to me, I look for little changes, to gage my opinion.

We were speaking in many threads about how useless the honor shields were; how useless it was for having a Colosseum upgrade, why buy machines? I started a thread asking if LTQ units were the way of the future, killing dragons, etc... If you review those issues, GREE listened and added and made the whole kingdom valuable now. Sure, there's going to be a dominate unit, has to be, but everything has value now.

It would SEEM that they're trying. Programming, for whoever has never done it, takes time. There's a lot of work to generate so many new units and work within a fluid game such as we play. They just can't have an immediate solution for every issue we have.

Some issues though, should be dealt with immediately and take precedence. I think that's where most of our grip is pointed at.

[Spydrax]

I posted a debate and then subsequently opened a poll to my guild early Friday morning asking if they wished to sit this war out due to the war being scheduled for the USA Memorial Day weekend. Our members voted unanimously to abstain out of respect for our nations protectors.

This abstinence is not related in any way to the KA boycott request recently seen being spread around, only due to the aforementioned reasoning.

The Dragon Warriors Fighting Guild #2 will stand down in honor of not only our, but all nations, defenders and their families.