Kabam is defrauding us, and refusing compensation. Please change this policy now!

As has become very VERY apparent to some who play this game lately, MCOC has become absolutely OVERRUN with cheaters recently. I don't know or care to find out how this occurred. If anyone in my alliance mentions these mods we tell them to stop and if they don't they are immediately banned. I'm sure every one of my guys is a legit player. I had NO IDEA the extent of the problem until recently when I started looking in to it.

I never spent much money on my first account on MCOC. I got $5 in units one time because it was helpful. I got $30 in units another time because it gave me a gifting badge. But then about a month ago I decided after six months of playing I was enjoying this game so much I would spend more. First I spent about $35 or $40 finishing Realm of Legends. Then those great offers in the unit store came along and I bought a Tony Stark's briefcase. And then... I thought... hey... since I'm spending money now.. I could start a new account. And with some cash infusion.. I could get a big leg up on the competition. And probably even win a Stark Enhanced Spider-man when he came to arenas!

I knew that this wouldn't be easy. You need 3 four star champions to compete. And getting even 3 four star champions, let alone a roster of them, is VERY difficult in your first month when you are in Beginner. But I also knew, because it is so difficult, this means it would be EASY to make top 50 if I spent enough money and resources doing it! I was excited!!

So I made a new account. To zip through early content I spent $15 getting the 2* and 3* Deadpools. Then I bought another Stark briefcase which gave me a special crystal where I got 4* Punisher 2099. I had to get 2 more four stars... so... I spent more money. Got an Ultimate Spider-verse bundle which gave me X-23 4*. So... up to $65 total and I had a lot of units now. Awesome. Just needed one more. So I grinded arenas and got a 4* Joe Fixit. Perfect.

I spent many hours and resources and over 800 units grinding the next Spider-man arena. I got over a million points. In beginner bracket that is a huge accomplishment!! I SHOULD have had Spider-man, sure thing. Top 50 guys got him and I did the math and there were maybe as few as 150 even competing. I was golden.

But... then I ended up 53rd. Okay. I was disappointed. But... that's life, right? Apparently 52 other people just wanted him that much more and put in the hard work and effort and maybe spent more money than I did on units and crystals.

Or so I thought. Then I started looking at who actually was on the leaderboard, and I saw... account after account after account after account of CHEATERS. OBVIOUS CHEATERS. People playing less than a month who had MULTIPLE duped 5*s. People level 35 who had 100% completed Labyrinth of Legends and gotten Ultron Classic. I contacted some of them and they admitted to me that they were cheating. 80-90% of those in the top 50 are CHEATERS. If you remove all of them I would have finished 15th!!!!!!!! Not 53rd.

I contacted Kabam customer support, multiple times... and this is the **** answer I got:

"we understand how frustrating this might be. and we'll look in to those player accounts and take appropriate action. Unfortunately there's no option to compensate you for the rewards you may have lost out on."

What. the. HELL???

I spent $65 of REAL money... lots of time, effort, energy, based on the PROMISE that the top 50 REAL players would be rewarded. I was one of the top 50 REAL players. But I didn't get my rewards. You gave them instead to clear, obvious, admitted cheaters!!! And many of these accounts are still active so why would I even bother grinding again? Why would I ever spend anything on this stupid game again?

I want a refund or I want my damn Spiderman! I earned it!

You will not see me spend another CENT on this game until you fix this issue. Banning the cheating accounts DOES NOT FIX THE ISSUE. It's only ONE step. You also need to compensate those in arenas who were cheated out of prizes they deserved.

Comments

Hulk_77

I have a lot of sympathy for you. I'm very glad Kabam has FINALLY started removing all of these cheaters. But I think the impact on non-cheaters, and particularly on paying customers, needs to be addressed.

Clearly you were robbed of your 4* Stark Spidey. Countless others have been robbed of higher tier AQ rewards, AW rewards, various arena rewards, etc.

I don't know if they can go and give you a Stark Spidey. It would probably be too much of a lift to find out what each non-cheating account got cheated out of by cheaters taking their place. With all of the arenas, alliance events, solo events, wars, and AQs multiplied by the number of legit paying customers... that would be a staggering amount to go back through and try and fix. That being said, what Kabam CAN do is acknowledge that their slow reaction cost us, the paying customer, plenty. And in so doing, compensate us. There should be a game-wide gift that goes to all non-cheating accounts. A serious gift of meaningful resources since these cheaters deprived us of meaningful resources. Otherwise, these bannings feel like a band aid. It had been over a year since the last mass banning for cheating. Obviously, Kabam could be doing a better job of policing its game. And if that is not how they choose to use their limited manpower resources, at the very least they should throw the non-cheating players a bone or three.

Fel_95

Ivanka_Humpalot wrote: »

People level 35 who had 100% completed Labyrinth of Legends

Stop speaking ****. you can't access LoL until level 40. And the cheaters got banned just today (or yesterday depending on timezone)

When you buy a crystal, you don't have a guarantee result, even if you spent 100$ on those. You knew you did bet, don't cry if you lose.

Ever seen someone complaining about casino and slot machines if they don't win? same thing, you can't expect to win just because you spent a lot. Next time don't spend on crystals.

Hulk_77

Fel_95 wrote: »

Ivanka_Humpalot wrote: »

People level 35 who had 100% completed Labyrinth of Legends

Stop speaking ****. you can't access LoL until level 40. And the cheaters got banned just today (or yesterday depending on timezone)

When you buy a crystal, you don't have a guarantee result, even if you spent 100$ on those. You knew you did bet, don't cry if you lose.

Ever seen someone complaining about casino and slot machines if they don't win? same thing, you can't expect to win just because you spent a lot. Next time don't spend on crystals.

He's not speaking ****. If the top 50 ranks get the top reward, and 38 of them are cheaters, he should get the reward. He earned it, not the cheaters who cheated their way ahead of him.

Idontinkso

I can take a fair loss in the arena, NP, but I know I have felt cheated missing a 2nd cutoff before after knowing very close what the 1st Total was and making the number I knew I needed to get and then some. Seemed like the cutoff number had been artificially inflated. Not to mention service interruptions probably from these same jokers DDOSing on the last day. it took 3 tickets to get kabams attention but they dismissed it as typical sour grapes and told be to not believe what you read on the projections. I questioned their integrity, but it probably was just these cheaters taking the prizes away and mucking up connectivity on the last push. I still feel cheated and I don't have faith the arena system is administered fairly and this probably explains why I just knew in my gut something was very wrong.

unknown

This content has been removed.

Idontinkso

It would be fair if Kabam went back and pulled all the cheaters data out of the arena calculations and awarded it to those who should have won.

WorkingAsIntended

I completely agree. They need to compensate all the legit players who didn't hack or mod. You did good today kabam. For once I can actually say the bans were much needed. Now after feeling how cheated and screwed I was. They definitely used these cheats in other content as well. This would be a great time to do compensation.

Ivanka

Fel_95 wrote: »

Ivanka_Humpalot wrote: »

People level 35 who had 100% completed Labyrinth of Legends

Stop speaking ****. you can't access LoL until level 40. And the cheaters got banned just today (or yesterday depending on timezone)

When you buy a crystal, you don't have a guarantee result, even if you spent 100$ on those. You knew you did bet, don't cry if you lose.

Ever seen someone complaining about casino and slot machines if they don't win? same thing, you can't expect to win just because you spent a lot. Next time don't spend on crystals.

Okay maybe those guys were level 40 not 35. They were obvious cheaters, that's the point. Their accounts are 100% mathematically impossible even if they spent $100,000 on units and crystals. And finishing LoL when you're at level 40 with a **** roster, while not technically impossible, it's 99.9% unlikely to happen. They are cheaters. Hands down. You're missing the point.

About your very dumb casino analogy:

I would happily accept not getting the rewards if what I bought was what I got. But it was not. To use your casino metaphor... if I pay a slot machine that says it pays out 1 in 20 times. And I pay for 100 entries... I would expect to get payouts approximately 5 times. Give or take. If I got payouts zero times... well... **** happens. That would be fine. It's possible. Just like I said in my post...

However.. if.. after the fact.. I find out that the casino is lying, and the payout for those slot machines is really only 1 in 1000... then I want my money back.

That's what happened here. They did not award the top 50 players. They awarded the top 5 or 10 players. Plus 40 cheaters. I should be compensated, along with all the other non-cheating players who finished below me because of cheaters.

Ivanka

I could post literally dozens of snapshots of accounts less than one month old under level 50 who have Ultron Classic. But Kabam said not to do that.

Solswerd

I have a ton of sympathy for this, but that would then raise the question of how many weeks back should Kabam be expected to go?

Thawnim

I get your frustration @Ivanka_Humpalot but honestly the hacking and cheating hurt everyone, not just you. If Kabam wants to try to make things right then chances are they will address it through something sooner or later to everyone. And it probably will not be free 4* Stark Spideys for everyone. So be patient and be reasonable. Spamming the forums will do nothing but get you banned from here.

Ivanka

Hulk_77 wrote: »

I have a lot of sympathy for you. I'm very glad Kabam has FINALLY started removing all of these cheaters. But I think the impact on non-cheaters, and particularly on paying customers, needs to be addressed.

Clearly you were robbed of your 4* Stark Spidey. Countless others have been robbed of higher tier AQ rewards, AW rewards, various arena rewards, etc.

I don't know if they can go and give you a Stark Spidey. It would probably be too much of a lift to find out what each non-cheating account got cheated out of by cheaters taking their place. With all of the arenas, alliance events, solo events, wars, and AQs multiplied by the number of legit paying customers... that would be a staggering amount to go back through and try and fix. That being said, what Kabam CAN do is acknowledge that their slow reaction cost us, the paying customer, plenty. And in so doing, compensate us. There should be a game-wide gift that goes to all non-cheating accounts. A serious gift of meaningful resources since these cheaters deprived us of meaningful resources. Otherwise, these bannings feel like a band aid. It had been over a year since the last mass banning for cheating. Obviously, Kabam could be doing a better job of policing its game. And if that is not how they choose to use their limited manpower resources, at the very least they should throw the non-cheating players a bone or three.

I can see some of your point. But the arenas would be a VERY easy thing to fix. Just... look at the standings... delete the cheaters from them... and pay out to everyone based on the new standings.

Rewards for lost wars and other events etc would be much harder to figure out, I get it. A general compensation paid out to everyone not cheating I think would work in that case. It's kind of apples and oranges. If you lose a war... so what.. you miss out on a couple hundred shards. But being pushed out of the top 50 spots in a featured arena? That's a much bigger deal. I won't have a chance to grind for that champion for another six months, and then when I do, it will take 3 solid days of effort to get him. It's a much bigger deal than war rewards.

wray1976

Fel_95 wrote: »

Ivanka_Humpalot wrote: »

People level 35 who had 100% completed Labyrinth of Legends

Stop speaking ****. you can't access LoL until level 40. And the cheaters got banned just today (or yesterday depending on timezone)

When you buy a crystal, you don't have a guarantee result, even if you spent 100$ on those. You knew you did bet, don't cry if you lose.

Ever seen someone complaining about casino and slot machines if they don't win? same thing, you can't expect to win just because you spent a lot. Next time don't spend on crystals.

He's talking about arena not crystals. Read.

Ivanka

Idontinkso wrote: »

I can take a fair loss in the arena, NP, but I know I have felt cheated missing a 2nd cutoff before after knowing very close what the 1st Total was and making the number I knew I needed to get and then some. Seemed like the cutoff number had been artificially inflated. Not to mention service interruptions probably from these same jokers DDOSing on the last day. it took 3 tickets to get kabams attention but they dismissed it as typical sour grapes and told be to not believe what you read on the projections. I questioned their integrity, but it probably was just these cheaters taking the prizes away and mucking up connectivity on the last push. I still feel cheated and I don't have faith the arena system is administered fairly and this probably explains why I just knew in my gut something was very wrong.

I don't know if it is this bad in the Veteran bracket, but in the Beginner bracket it is an absolute cesspool of cheating. And I feel the same way as you do... I have no problem taking a fair loss. I mean, I'd be grumpy for a day or two.. but then I would get over it. I wouldn't blame Kabam. I wouldn't post negative reviews for the game. I would just blame myself. But getting pushed out by cheaters, and then getting told by Kabam they'll do nothing about it? That's completely different.
I had no idea just how extensive the problem was until I went poking around myself. Anyone in beginner bracket: look at the leaderboards for any arena. You will see the same things I was seeing. It's ridiculous. And you'll get upset just as I am.

CrusherOfDreams

Fel_95 wrote: »

Ivanka_Humpalot wrote: »

People level 35 who had 100% completed Labyrinth of Legends

Stop speaking ****. you can't access LoL until level 40. And the cheaters got banned just today (or yesterday depending on timezone)

When you buy a crystal, you don't have a guarantee result, even if you spent 100$ on those. You knew you did bet, don't cry if you lose.

Ever seen someone complaining about casino and slot machines if they don't win? same thing, you can't expect to win just because you spent a lot. Next time don't spend on crystals.

You're right, you can't access LOL until you're level 40. Keep in mind that the OP is alleging that they're hackers. Make sense now?

He didn't buy a crystal and lose, he spent time and money for a guaranteed win and got it stolen by obvious hackers. It was a guarantee, not a chance, and he lost it. It'd be like if you logged on after a hard day, and saw an awesome unit store deal about to expire. It had like 30 seconds left to purchase. You bought it with 10 seconds left. You confirmed purchase, put in your password, lost the money from your account, and then the game screen popped back up again. The deal said EXPIRED, and you didn't receive the items you paid and worked for. Then you to say something on the forums and a guy runs in and says "You shoulda known Kabam's game might not work when you buy stuff. It's all chance, dude. Stop whining."

And again. It wasn't a chance. He had the spot secured, but it was overtaken by hackers. If he was whining that he spent real money on crystals and didn't get who he wanted, you'd have a point. But that's not even close to what happened. Don't act like it was.

And to the OP... you got screwed. It would be nigh impossible for Kabam to hunt down every user who got screwed in every arena, in every event, in every legends run, etc etc. I don't know how they could do that, but you do definitely deserve it. I don't really know what you should do at this point. You spent money on something, then didn't get it. That's not fair, but it's also a hard fix for Kabam to do since there were so many things that law-abiding users probably got screwed out of without noticing. But don't be surprised if Kabam closes this thread. It technically violates rule 12, which I personally think is a bogus and moronic rule, but it says you can't publicly share conversations you had with any Kabam workers or moderators or anything. It'll probably get closed, and you'll probably never get your Spidey. It sucks, but that's how Kabam games function sometimes. I'm truly sorry, but there's nothing I can do, otherwise I would.

Ivanka

I was paraphrasing...

CrusherOfDreams

Ivanka_Humpalot wrote: »

I was paraphrasing...

I've seen that get closed down before, too. It's dumb, in my opinion, but they still might shut it down.

Ivanka

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

Ivanka_Humpalot wrote: »

I was paraphrasing...

I've seen that get closed down before, too. It's dumb, in my opinion, but they still might shut it down.

it might be a useful pretext for them to shut down a thread that raises questions they don't want to answer.