**UPDATES TO ENLISTMENT GIFTING EVENT:**
To prevent exploitation, we will prevent new Accounts from being able to Gift enlistment crystals. We will also be taking action on those who are using 3rd Party Sellers, Bots and other farms to gift themselves mass amounts of Enlistment Crystals. Lastly, we will be adding an expiration timer to Enlistment Crystals. All unopened Enlistment Crystals will expire on Oct 18 @ 17:00 UTC. For more information, please see this post: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/346104/updates-to-enlistment-gifting-event
To prevent exploitation, we will prevent new Accounts from being able to Gift enlistment crystals. We will also be taking action on those who are using 3rd Party Sellers, Bots and other farms to gift themselves mass amounts of Enlistment Crystals. Lastly, we will be adding an expiration timer to Enlistment Crystals. All unopened Enlistment Crystals will expire on Oct 18 @ 17:00 UTC. For more information, please see this post: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/346104/updates-to-enlistment-gifting-event
**KNOWN ISSUE**
We have adjusted the node placement of the new AW maps to better allow path traversal. As a result, defender placements have been reset. Please, take a moment to re-place your defender setup. We will be pushing out a message in-game shortly.
We have adjusted the node placement of the new AW maps to better allow path traversal. As a result, defender placements have been reset. Please, take a moment to re-place your defender setup. We will be pushing out a message in-game shortly.
Gifting Badge Discussion [Merged Threads]
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
I'm sure the Kabam team has brainstormed on various solutions but i would like to throw out two, mainly because I paid for and enjoy using the gifting badge to help progress my account and help my alliance mates when they are in need. I totally understand the removal of the badge to prevent fraud but there has to be viable solutions that can be implemented to keep it around.
1. Put a timer on the units when purchased. After so X days/weeks, units accumulated, whether paid for via the store or grinded out via Arena or Questing are allowed to be gifted. Until that specified time passes, the units can only be used for personal account items. After the specified time has passed, the units can also be used to gift items. This basically gives you two unit balances, 1 balance is your total that can be used for just your account and the 2nd balance is a portion of the personal balance that can be used for gifting to others. The X days/week time frame would be however long Kabam would need to be able to identify fraudulent purchases and take action before they were laundered off.
2. Allow gifting to alliance members (within the same alliance) where both in the gift exchange have been in the same alliance for a X days/weeks? My understanding that most of the fraud is coming from fake, newly made up accounts. While being in an alliance isn't going to completely lock all possible fraudulent activity down, many who want to succeed and play the End Game want to be in a competitive alliance and this will prevent hopping to other fake alliances to get gifts. Having a specified amount of time with a fellow alliance mate will reduce the risk of random accounts from fraudulent gifting. It also puts an added benefit to being in an alliance long-term (whatever X might be).
Thanks for your consideration
The fundamental hurdle to overcome is this: you don't just have the right to play the game just because it is free to play. Kabam has the right to limit the players of the game to only those people who agree to their terms. People get hung up on the notion that the EULA or the TOS isn't "legal" or "enforceable" but that's completely irrelevant. If you don't accept those terms, you have no legal contract to play the game. It now becomes the *player* that is stealing the service, because they are deliberately playing a game they have no right to play, because they refuse to accept the terms of the contract that allows them to play. Everything they accuse the game operator of past that point becomes impossible to get to stick.
That's what makes this so difficult to pursue legally. If you manage to strike the EULA or TOS, you literally prove yourself to be a thief in court. That is not a good legal strategy. Somehow you have to prove that you're a legal player, and Kabam therefore had certain obligations to you, and those legal obligations superceded their rights under their own terms of service which both parties voluntarily agreed to. That's a really high hurdle, as evidenced by the fact that no MMO player that I'm aware of has managed to overcome it anywhere in the western world.
You had no other way to get the badge except to buy units. Nor was it necessary to give you such a method. The badge was an incentive to encourage people to buy units. Giving you a way to get it without buying units would defeat the purpose of the badge being an incentive to buy units.
What Kabam decided to do is rather than investigating and prosecuting the majority of the violators (in the case of this very simple exercise), they decided to ban baseball bats for everyone. I'm not happy with this solution, as gifting was literally the only lifeline I have to certain Alliance members (it's a skill level thing, and while they love the game, the skill just isn't there. Not being able to send revives will be sorely missed). No, mine isn't a hardcore Alliance, but it was a fun, casual Alliance, and I will miss those that wander off to easier pastures.
That being said, I expect Kabam simply lacked the manpower to execute an investigation of such a broad scope in the time they allotted themselves to address the specter of fraud. So I will choke on my 300 credits and keep playing my most beloved/despised game/hobby. I grind my teeth at being refunded 300 of the 850 credits that $30 is worth, especially since I know awarding that extra 550 isn't going to do much at all to their bottom line and would go a long way toward building goodwill with a battered and weary honest player base.
It's times like these I like to remember what William "Canada Bill" Jones once said: "I know it's crooked, but it's the only game in town."
It's bad enough you've taken to reducing gold in rewards, you don't want to even impart 1 full Tier 3 Class catalyst if you do all of the hard level on most days, blocked 4 star champions from entering Act 6, continually change the value of rewards from events, made insane changes to the mini and final bosses of quests and wars, but this removal of the gifting badge is truly thoughtless on your part.
The gifting badge could have been limited in a multitude of ways to ensure the major reasons of the cheating were removed.
I am not made of money. The rewards (both in game rewards or in game mental yay moments) have gotten so few it is losing my interest.
You work hard to develop events and such but you've lost touch with the regular players in a major way.
What a shame. I used to enjoy the game...
You go to use the TV with the Antenna and decide to return the Antenna, but you want a full refund, so you have to also return the TV.
In other words we should have the option to return the entire thing, 850 units plus gifting badge for a full refund.
This is a lot like that.
But the top allies in war & AQ should receive great rewards but the mid level tier rewards need an upgrade. Everyone wants to get into the master, platinum allies and will do whatever it takes to limit kos or get ahead.