Dear Rockstar: Support Site Down

Dear Rockstar, With everything wrong with Red Dead, we can't even report it now?

 

So with all the bugs that came with the new Moonshine Update; combat mechanics issues, new exploits, moonshine delivery bugs, infinite moonshine mission load screens, connection/connecting issues, animal spawns, and so many, many more; we can't even submit tickets about the issues because your website is crap.

Nice. Not.

Why did you drop this update on a Friday? Is it so we, the dedicated community who have suffered through a year of BETA, Spring Update Issues, Summer Update Issues and more could suffer all weekend without the ability to reach out to you?

And why did you think it was a good idea to drop this update the day after the GTA Casino Heist/Arcade update; which also has its own problems.

I mean, I was able to submit a ticket on Friday morning about my first lost moonshine delivery... but the support site has been down since Saturday morning when I tried to submit another ticket regarding another lost moonshine delivery.

And your response to my first ticket was priceless.

My Original Ticket

Rockstar's Response

My Response Back

First, outside of the initial response, all other interactions were done via email, because your site is not responding to submitting responses.

Second, why was your first response not simply an apology and a compensation offer? Instead your support person, Helen S. (likely not his/her real name) basically told me, in really bad grammar, that you are aware of the issue, and failed to offer any compensation.

"I would like to inform you that we are known for this issue and we are investigating at the moment."

Maybe the grammar wasn't so far wrong after all. Because in the end, you, Rockstar, are "known for this issue" and issues like this. As a result of this bug I lost 20 bottles of moonshine (the delivery payload) and when I tried a delivery again on Saturday, I lost another full delivery for the exact same reason; infinite black loading screen. I would submit another ticket, but alas, your support site is broken. Furthermore, I have lost considerable ROLE XP, which enables me to level up the Role, purchasing upgraded equipment, which allows me to to make better, stronger, Moonshine, and therefore more profit; if I could get a delivery to work.

So anything less that 4000 Role XP and RDO$500 is unacceptable at this point. But I won't hear from you. I will be granted RDO$100 and you will close the ticket. Because that's what you are known for.

Why? I want to know why you can't compensate for all losses; RDO$, XP, Role XP, Gold?

Sincerely,

Extremely Frustrated Former Supporter

Update:

Rockstar, you responded to my response...

First let me address, SophIa R.'s addressing me; my gamer tag is not MangoMy. Where the hell did that come from? In searching for an Xbox player with the gamer tag MangoMy, one does not exist.

Second, as predicted, because you, Rockstar, are "known for this issue", I have been promised compensation of RDO$100, which I did not get, I suspect because my gamer tag isn't MangoMy.. nobody's gamer tag is MangoMy.

This is frustrating Rockstar. Still waiting to hear back from you... it's Monday... four days after the update and four days after I submitted my ticket.

Sincerely,

Even More Extremely Frustrated and Less Supporting Former Supporter.

Dear Rockstar: Animal Spawns

Dear Rockstar,

When are you going to begin addressing the long term, rampant lack of animal spawns in any lobby with over 19 players populated in it.




A major component to engagement in Red Dead Redemption is hunting. From food sources, to dailies objectives, to fulfilling the requirements of the trader role, animals play a key component to this otherwise limited engagement land of Player vs. Player.

This issue appears to be limited to lobbies with 19 or more players loaded in; hit 19 players or more in a lobby animals begin to reduce or stop spawning. And when I say "stop spawning", I mean completely stop... you can ride from Tumbleweed to Annesburg and not see a single bird, deer, elk, cougar rat or bat.

When a lobby drops below 19 players, especially if you are lucky to get a lobby to crash around you and end up with 10 or less players, or the infamous (bounty hunter solo lobby) the animals spawn in with crazy numbers; ten to fifteen deer, coyote, alligators, etc. at a time.

On Dec 13th, Rockstar dropped the big update, Moonshine. Since we had the "Spring" and "Summer" update, is the most recent Moonshine content the "Fall Update"? With this update, in the notes, Rockstar claimed to have solved the "ambient wildlife frequency" problem. Yet the above video, shot on Dec 13th and 14th show a completely different result.

So what gives Rockstar? Do you not beta test your code before releasing it? I mean in the release notes you clearly state that you understood the problem; "...reduce the frequency of problems with ambient wildlife populations in large Red Dead Online sessions". Yet, your understanding of the problem did not translate to understanding how to fix it and led to a false claim of resolution.

More importantly, when you are you going to provide a fix. When are animals going to spawn in regularly regardless of a lobby's player population? Giving players an option for solo or invite only lobbies, where the population of animals thrive, would provide a much needed to fix to your game; you know like you have provided for players in GTA.

When it still takes 17 lobby hops and three cache clears to only have to get the bounty hunter solo lobby to find two western toads for a daily challenge; you have clearly not fixed the animal spawn problem.

Rockstar is really making and keeping this game unplayable for players who want something more than non-stop PVP.

Sincerely,

Very Frustrated Gamers.

Dear Rockstar: Cheaters

Dear Rockstar,

When are you going to begin addressing the rampant cheating that happens in your game?

A study by Irdeto surveyed 9,436 online gamers in China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, UK, and the US. The results were staggering. According to the survey, a total of 37% of gamers openly admitted to cheating (3% "always", 9% "often", 13% "sometimes", and 12% "rarely"). And given there is no incentive on being honest with themselves, let alone a survey for that matter, and the fact that cheaters know cheating is wrong, yet, cheat anyways so lying would not be outside of the realm of reasonable possibility, these results are likely to be considerably higher, like in the 90% range, in reality.

Day after day, week after week, month after month, my friends and I come across and report cheaters on a near daily basis in Red Dead Redemtion 2 Online. From people being invisible on the map, to being absolutely unkillable while their ability cards are set to damage builds, to people teleporting across the map, always just out of range, yet never dying.

We frequently find that after reporting, even with video evidence, these cheaters fail to be punished, still the in the game the next day, still up to there their same cheating way, day after day, week after week, year after year. Many of the reports are never responded to by Rockstar, even to inform us that they have really looked at it.

One particularly vile cheat is players hijacking IP addresses of other players and using that to boot them from a lobby... What The Actual Fuck Is That? This could be a joint problem between Rockstar and Microsoft... but it is a real problem.

According to a Forbes article, "Of the online gamers, only 12% have never had their multiplayer gaming experience negatively impacted by other players cheating. In other words, about 9 in 10 players have had a negative experience because of cheaters." And 76% of the Irdeto respondents also stated that it is important for them that multiplayer games online are secured against players with unfair advantages. “Gamers across the globe clearly feel that they are not being sufficiently protected against cheating and malicious plugins.” said Rory O’Connor, Irdeto's Senior VP of Cybersecurity Services.

So why should Rockstar care?

If cheaters are allowed to succeed and continue circumventing the game's expected performance, mechanics and rewards to gain unfair advantages over other players, this can lead to players moving on to games with lower rates of cheating. This lowers game traffic and subsequent decreased engagement leads to a decline in profits for the particular game. In other words, the games where cheating goes completely unchallenged, like Red Dead Redemption, begin to fail.

And this is where Rockstar needs to note.

Read Dead Online is still in its infancy. At a year old, the game has included only one major update that included content that was more than just an expansion on PVP mechanics, a mechanic of play where cheating is rampant (as can be seen in the example video above).

So, Rockstar, what is your game plan here?

You have been free with the ban hammer and other punishments for cheating in Los Santos, when are you going to begin bringing that level of justice to the Five States? When are valid reports of cheating, especially with supporting video evidence (like above) going to properly dealt with?

Honest gamers really want to know.

Because in the end, responses to reporting players through the support page, like this one...

"For the Players are exploiting you have to report to the players ."

... these responses are not cutting it.

Sincerely,

All Honest Gamers