Sony shuts down Star Wars Galaxies server over in-game protests

PsyClerk

PsyClerk

CAGiversary!
Now THIS is insane 'customer service.' A guy in the MMORPG Star Wars: Galaxies figured out a way to duplicate in-game money (credits). He then used these ill-gotten funds to pay other players for services. Sony finds out about it and...bans the people this one guy paid. Yet the one dude responsible for the duping is NOT banned.

Did I mention that the bans are permanent?

So, to protest Sony's decision to ban players who did nothing wrong, people assembled in Theed and began an in-game protest, most of them shouting in all caps. In response, Sony threatened to shut down the entire server, which they eventually did.

Read more here, here, and here. The site that had a player doing a role-playing in-character live on the spot news report is down, unfortunately.
 
I played when the game launched and for the first few months this game was just a complete joke with all the bugs and duping. Without the Star Wars name I don't think it would have made it as a MMORPG.
 
[quote name='PsyClerk']Sony finds out about it and...bans the people this one guy paid. Yet the one dude responsible for the duping is NOT banned.[/quote]

The men without power will always take the fall for the one man who has all power...
 
The fact that they were launching some protesters into space boggled my mind.

It's like a modern day civics lesson in the value of our First Amendment.
 
[quote name='BigHow']The fact that they were launching some protesters into space boggled my mind.

It's like a modern day civics lesson in the value of our First Amendment.[/quote]

I wouldn't take it that far. Sony DOES make the rules, so if you choose to play, you are choosing to play by their rules. They have the right to launch protesters into space or even shut down the server. That's not the point. The point is they made a stupendous customer service error.

It's not a civics lesson, more like an economics lesson. "What NOT to do when your customer is unhappy!"
 
[quote name='PsyClerk'][quote name='BigHow']The fact that they were launching some protesters into space boggled my mind.

It's like a modern day civics lesson in the value of our First Amendment.[/quote]

I wouldn't take it that far. Sony DOES make the rules, so if you choose to play, you are choosing to play by their rules. They have the right to launch protesters into space or even shut down the server. That's not the point. The point is they made a stupendous customer service error.

It's not a civics lesson, more like an economics lesson. "What NOT to do when your customer is unhappy!"[/quote]

Heh, fair enough. But I think it also stands as a valuable civics lesson as well. If our government was allowed to take such unilateral action, I'm fairly certain that a lot of speech would be quelled. Not by launching people into space obviously, but in some manner. And this isn't a anti-Republican issue either, particularly if you look at the "Free Speech Zones" created at the DNC.

But, yeah, SOE was pretty dumb with this.
 
[quote name='PsyClerk']
So, to protest Sony's decision to ban players who did nothing wrong, people assembled in Theed and began an in-game protest, most of them shouting in all caps. [/quote]

:rofl:

ok i feel for the people... and sony sicks the big one... but this just...

ahhh man...

:rofl:
 
Well, I was concidering finally getting into the MMORPG scene, and now, if I so choose to do so, will avoid any MMORPG produced by Sony, fuck'em.
 
Was it even against the rules in the first place? If anything the one guy should be banned not the other people. Sucks sony decided to shut down the server though.
 
obviously the guy who cheated didnt get banned because he paid sony off with his credits that he duped.
 
OTOH, if you've ever worked in customer service you have to appreciate the temptation.

"You know, if we fiddle with their coordinate entries we can put them anywhere. I mean anywhere, like in orbit."

"Really? That is incredibly cool but it would be terribly inappropriate. They believe they have a real complaint and the boss made a really weird ruling."

"Yeah, but we gotta do something and we don't have the power to make anything they'll be happy about, like lifting the ban on those players."

"True. So lets fuck with 'em."

"Yeah. Alright, that Greedo wannabe over there. I'm giving him a free vacation to the see the local gas giant up close."

"Will they burn up on re-entry if we place them in a low enough orbit."

"I don't think we have the code written for that."

"Damn."
 
I'd be pretty miffed if this happened to me. Of course I'm not dumb enough to sign on for a game like Star wars Galaxies. All I've ever heard from players was that this game blows.
 
[quote name='evilpenguin9000']I'd be pretty miffed if this happened to me. Of course I'm not dumb enough to sign on for a game like Star wars Galaxies. All I've ever heard from players was that this game blows.[/quote]

Ha, I'm sure there won't be very many other people signing up now either. They really needed this incident to completely squelch any interest for this game. I feel sorry for the people who weren't even protesting and got bumped.

Sony really knows how to demonstrate a complete and total lack of common sense. I actually was thinking about trying it but now there's no way in hell I'd put a penny into this one.
 
[quote name='evilpenguin9000']I'd be pretty miffed if this happened to me. Of course I'm not dumb enough to sign on for a game like Star wars Galaxies. All I've ever heard from players was that this game blows.[/quote]

Yeah I've heard that too and I thought Galaxies wasn't doing that well too? Which makes it that much odder, hmmm let's ban lots of paying users instead of just one. Then for an encore we will piss off what few paying customers we have left. Simply astounding.
 
[quote name='bmulligan']Ha, I'm sure there won't be very many other people signing up now either. They really needed this incident to completely squelch any interest for this game.[/quote]

I hear rumors that because the game population is dwindling, they will be consolodating servers soon.

Of course, dwindling pops is pretty much a given in today's MMORPG market.
 
And millions and millions of star war geeks we were running around there one bedroom apartment above the local bowling alley.

*not meaning to offend anyone.* =D
 
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