To celebrate the new year, MapleStory Europe recently launched a sale on various cash shop items. Among the discounted items was a series of double experience cards lasting for varying durations, each marked at 15% off the usual price. It wasn't long before players noticed that Nexon had listed the 24-hour double experience card with an expiry time of 90 days instead of of 24 hours. Players flocked to the item shop in droves to take advantage of this amazing deal, many suspecting that the item must have been a mistake. Sure enough, Nexon noticed the mistake after a week and removed the item from the sale.
What followed next has had players in outrage on the MapleStory Europe forums. Nexon removed all of the 90-day double experience cards players had bought in the sale and replaced them with 24-hour versions set to expire the following day. Some players have been voicing their support for the decision, saying that it was obvious that the item had been mis-priced. Others have been less forgiving, pointing out that they wouldn't have bought the item had it not been such a fantastically good deal, and suggesting that Nexon has done this kind of thing before. The game's terms of use agreement has even been cited as an argument that items bought must be honoured up to their purchased due date. Nexon issued an official apology earlier today for the incident but has stood by its decision to remove the offending cards from the game and has not yet issued any refunds for the replaced items.
Reader Comments (26)
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 1:08PM Zerogrifter said
Way to take a steaming dump on your, now ever-shrinking, player base Nexon!
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 1:13PM WonderPenguin said
Wow that's just amazing...I don't see how they could consider not offering a refund, since the blame lies entirely upon themselves. This isn't a simple game exploit, Nexon. This is real money from real people.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 1:18PM DeadlyAccurate said
I don't even see how it could be legal to switch out one item with another. Heck, why not do that with everything? "We don't like the profit margins from selling those 20 healing potions for 15% off. Let's replace them with weak healing potions instead. That's, like, totally what we meant to do anyway."
If they'd removed the items and refunded the money, I'm sure people would complain, but no one would feel like they just got ripped off.
If they'd removed the items and refunded the money, I'm sure people would complain, but no one would feel like they just got ripped off.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 1:25PM kobeathris said
Without getting into whether or not this is legal, the whole premise of a cash shop relies on the players trusting the cash shop owner that whatever they buy will actually be treated as their property in game. Mis-pricing the items didn't cost Nexon anything, as they are only selling virtual goods, but doing this sure costs them a lot of trust.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 3:13PM DancingCow said
@kobeathris
Yeah, this was an incredibly bad decision from a PR / goodwill perspective.
Their best move would have been to give all players one of these 90-day double experience cards.
Reply
Yeah, this was an incredibly bad decision from a PR / goodwill perspective.
Their best move would have been to give all players one of these 90-day double experience cards.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 3:27PM DancingCow said
@DancingCow
No wait, I didn't think that through - that would irritate those who paid.
They should give everyone the opportunity to buy one of these double xp cards.
And that potentially might even result in a net gain for them. Most f2p players never spend any money but a deal that good could get them reaching for their wallets.
Reply
No wait, I didn't think that through - that would irritate those who paid.
They should give everyone the opportunity to buy one of these double xp cards.
And that potentially might even result in a net gain for them. Most f2p players never spend any money but a deal that good could get them reaching for their wallets.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 2:41PM YogiFYG said
I swear I read a press release saying they removed the xp boosts completely because it wasn't needed after Big Bang. Was that just for NA?
Interesting.
Interesting.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 3:24PM UnknownUser said
I've never played Maplestory but assuming it's like all of the other games with cash shops, you pay with a credit card. If the shop isn't providing the item that was purchased, the buyers should contest the charge on their cards.
A more sensible approach would have simply been to remove the offending item and issue a full refund.
A more sensible approach would have simply been to remove the offending item and issue a full refund.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:45PM Seldra said
Nexon has always had a tone-deafness when it comes to it's players. Deleting accounts/characters if a player is inactive or accused of wrong doing. I've met many players who had their characters deleted simply because it was hacked into and used for goldselling. Rather than fix the issue Nexon simply just deletes them.
So this comes as no surprise, I mean why put the effort in fixing this issue the right way when they can take a quick halfassed approach and hope people forget.
So this comes as no surprise, I mean why put the effort in fixing this issue the right way when they can take a quick halfassed approach and hope people forget.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 4:58PM Ryukan said
This must fall under the "Online experience will vary" clause.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 5:31PM real65rcncom said
"Nexon removed all of the 90-day double experience cards players had bought in the sale and replaced them with 24-hour versions set to expire the following day. "
lmao.. funny to me cause I'm not playing this game.
lmao.. funny to me cause I'm not playing this game.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 6:01PM v8dave said
Way to misunderstand what actually happened.
Nexon messed up a "24 hour card" by having the expiry set wrong, there has never been a 90 day card.
The people who purchased the 24 hour card got 8 days for the price of 1. Yeah, such a scam, hope other games companies out there try and scam us by giving us 8 times the value of what we purchase.
Nexon messed up a "24 hour card" by having the expiry set wrong, there has never been a 90 day card.
The people who purchased the 24 hour card got 8 days for the price of 1. Yeah, such a scam, hope other games companies out there try and scam us by giving us 8 times the value of what we purchase.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 7:52PM Brendan Drain said
@v8dave Thanks for the heads up, Dave, I have corrected the article to reflect this.
Reply
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 6:34PM Suhaira said
So nexon made an error, and instead of fixing it and letting players choose between a refund, credit in the store or the exchange, they just changed every card?
Wow way to build player loyalty. Bet a lot of people will think twice before handing over money for a nexon product again.
Wow way to build player loyalty. Bet a lot of people will think twice before handing over money for a nexon product again.
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 6:45PM evanmidnight said
People bought them thinking they were 90 days valid.
Which they were, till nexon fixed em.
A full refund would be the only way to fix that really
Which they were, till nexon fixed em.
A full refund would be the only way to fix that really
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 6:55PM v8dave said
no, no, it very clearly stated...
"This coupon allows users to earn 2x Exp (double experience). The coupon will be activated immediately after purchase for 24 hours."
They got over 192 hours of x2 for the price 24 hours. how exactly would a refund be required!?
The majority of people knew it was a bugged item, people screamed all over the nexon forums that it was a bugged item, and how everyone should rush to buy it. Its the very same people who screaming it was a bugged item, that are shouting about it being unfair.
They "KNEW" outright that it was a bugged item.
"This coupon allows users to earn 2x Exp (double experience). The coupon will be activated immediately after purchase for 24 hours."
They got over 192 hours of x2 for the price 24 hours. how exactly would a refund be required!?
The majority of people knew it was a bugged item, people screamed all over the nexon forums that it was a bugged item, and how everyone should rush to buy it. Its the very same people who screaming it was a bugged item, that are shouting about it being unfair.
They "KNEW" outright that it was a bugged item.
Posted: Jan 18th 2011 3:13PM StClair said
@v8dave: Exactly. Anyone with an ounce of sense should have known this was not Working As Intended. Those who did, and bought anyway, should have known there was a good chance it was going to be undone/fixed.
"If it looks too good to be true, it probably is."
Reply
"If it looks too good to be true, it probably is."
Posted: Jan 13th 2011 7:43PM YogiFYG said
@v8dave Whaat? This article needs to be fixed if that is the case. Horribly misleading. I was wondering about 90 days... Had not seen those before.









