Two days ago, Turbine announced a new way of earning Turbine Points. We'd heard hints of this new method back at PAX East, and several of us at Massively were curious to see how it would work out.
Well, we have our answer. The launch of the DDO Offer Wall was met with a pretty heated response -- a large portion of the Dungeons and Dragons Online fanbase was extremely displeased, to say the least. The problem was not with the Offer Wall itself, but the release of information associated with the Wall.
The outcry kept the Turbine team hopping for the past few days as they attempted to do damage control, investigate the problems, and maintain communication with fans all at once. Two significant updates came down yesterday: the first scaling back the available offers on the wall, and the second removing it temporarily while Turbine looks into things.
Today's update sparked another outcry from fans, but this one of thanks: "Overall it was a poor user experience that was not up to our standards, and for this we apologize. Based on your feedback, we're stepping away from the 'Offer' category for now."
That's right, the Offer Wall is gone. Take a look at the full post as well as player feedback on this decision, and keep an eye out for tomorrow's Exploring Eberron as we look at the issue in depth.
Finally, thanks to the Turbine team for the quick response to community feedback.
Reader Comments (29)
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 6:18PM Wisdomandlore said
I didn't think the Offer Wall was a big deal (once they removed the spyware infested and misleading ones). But actions like this show how Turbine is one of the few companies that actually cares about their customers. Kudos to them.
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 5:02PM (Unverified) said
F2P, slippery slope, told you so, blah blah.
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 6:17PM wjowski said
How far Turbine has fallen.
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 6:36PM (Unverified) said
I think it goes to show why Turbine is a superior MMO developer. They care and it shows. When something doesn't work well enough, they own up, apologize and move on rather than keep the system in place and ignore the user base... I am looking at you Cryptic. Most users expect some problems, missteps and other bumps in the road but the good companies know how to treat their customer base and adjust in an appropriate manner.
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 8:05PM Nandini said
It's disappointing that the account login was used as the unique identifier for this system, instead of creating a new anonymous identifier specifically for this system.
The fact that Turbine trusts this third party and feels safe relying on this third party for confidentiality based on their contract isn't really important to me, since this identifier was never intended to be used in such a way. Its intended use should be to log into the game and the account management site.
Turbine won't even let me log into its own forums or my.ddo.com with my account login and password, yet they've just handed half of that information off to a third party.
That's 50% of my login security right there, and it happens to be the 50% I cannot change.
The fact that Turbine trusts this third party and feels safe relying on this third party for confidentiality based on their contract isn't really important to me, since this identifier was never intended to be used in such a way. Its intended use should be to log into the game and the account management site.
Turbine won't even let me log into its own forums or my.ddo.com with my account login and password, yet they've just handed half of that information off to a third party.
That's 50% of my login security right there, and it happens to be the 50% I cannot change.
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 10:58PM MrDiamondJ said
Props to Turbine for actually listening to its userbase, and just giving a crap in general.
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 11:49PM (Unverified) said
Agreed!
-1 Points for a poorly planned campaign, but +2 Points for making it right.
GG Turbine (in the end). =)
Reply
-1 Points for a poorly planned campaign, but +2 Points for making it right.
GG Turbine (in the end). =)
Posted: Apr 15th 2010 1:28AM (Unverified) said
Hooray for Turbine - resubbed LotRO today, but -
Why any company would want their name associated with companies like "Super Rewards" is beyond me - the entire planet knows about spam and malware and how you get it. Its not like Turbine is a daft innocent hoodwinked by the slick talking "Super Rewards" in this situation either. I think Turbine needs to take a good hard look at themselves as a company, revisit their values and ask how anything like this ever made it past the brainstorming stage at all. Contrary to popular belief, some companies do have values beyond profit, profit, profit - judging by their care and handling of LotRO and its customer base I thought they were one.
Turbine - put back on your Wizard hat and look in the mirror for a sec.
Why any company would want their name associated with companies like "Super Rewards" is beyond me - the entire planet knows about spam and malware and how you get it. Its not like Turbine is a daft innocent hoodwinked by the slick talking "Super Rewards" in this situation either. I think Turbine needs to take a good hard look at themselves as a company, revisit their values and ask how anything like this ever made it past the brainstorming stage at all. Contrary to popular belief, some companies do have values beyond profit, profit, profit - judging by their care and handling of LotRO and its customer base I thought they were one.
Turbine - put back on your Wizard hat and look in the mirror for a sec.








