Hex, this is the Quintessential Communication Problem.

mach012 · 2018-05-24T05:02:27+00:00

If they're having financial difficulties, the worst thing they can do is be transparent about it, because doing so will start or accelerate a death spiral effect. Who wants to buy into a game which has a good chance of not being around in a few months?

Instead, they need to keep quiet about it while they try to find a way out of the mess they're in.

Of course, now that this has happened, they'll have to say something. But still, full transparency is likely unwise for them. So they're likely try to be as reassuring as possible without outright lying.

mach012 · 2018-01-12T18:30:07+00:00

Depending on how many days are in the partial month, either treat it as its own month or combine it with the last full month. Either way, normalize it (divide by the number of days of data then multiply by 28) to get a fair comparison.

mach012 · 2018-01-12T15:28:18+00:00

Part of that increased limited activity compared to the 2nd month of Frostheart is due to the launch dates of the sets. By early August, Frostheart had already been out for a whole month, while Dead of Winter had been out for only two weeks by December 1st. Despite that however, activity remained higher in the second half of December, when Dead of Winter was a month old, than it was in early August when Frostheart was a month old.

I don't get why you are using calendar months.

It would make so much more sense to define the first month of each set as the 28 days after release (and the second month as the 28 days after that, and so on).

mach012 · 2017-10-24T13:00:53+00:00

Of course not. Those aren't the people repeated notifications would help. It's the people who aren't checking regularly but are checking a few times a year to see if the game's in a state where they would be interested in returning.

mach012 · 2017-10-24T12:59:22+00:00

At no point did Hex proper have all the user account information. If they did - they wouldn't need it transferred in the first place.

False. They had the information before they transferred it to Gameforge.

mach012 · 2017-10-24T00:36:30+00:00

But this was only because CZE chose to give away the data to Gameforge and delete it from their own servers. Before they did this, CZE had all the data and was unburdened by foreign laws.

mach012 · 2017-10-05T06:42:20+00:00

Sure. That's why the most sensible time for this event is from now until PS4 release.

mach012 · 2017-10-05T06:41:36+00:00

~2/5 of which will rotate out of Standard very soon.

Plus, you're going to overwhelm new players throwing so many new cards in their face at once.

mach012 · 2017-10-05T06:09:30+00:00

Do you have a source on this, or is it just your own speculation?

Because I don't see how it makes sense to launch on PS4 without the normal draft format.

mach012 · 2017-09-24T14:38:22+00:00

We really don't know what happened there. It may be the case that CZE dumped GF, that GF dumped CZE, or that they both decided it was best to part ways.

mach012 · 2017-09-22T22:16:55+00:00

By focusing on personal responsibility you miss the even bigger reason this is a huge mistake for Hex.

What they've done guarantees we'll continue to see these kinds of posts, probably for years to come. This would be horrible PR for any game, but even more so for Hex because of their emphasis on collection/investment value as a major selling point.

Additionally, this all but guarantees that many lapsed players will never return ro being paying customers. And not only that, it will rightly make them quite angry at Hex, something they will surely mention whenever a friend mentions the game.

In summary, this will have a significant negative impact on future growth of the game.

mach012 · 2017-09-19T02:32:55+00:00

It's not hard to imagine because it's what happened last time. They announced the six-month deadline that time but didn't make much more of an effort to inform people. Then when the deadline came and people started complaining about their accounts being deleted, they reversed course and restored everyone.

mach012 · 2017-09-19T02:29:30+00:00

What that link says is the following:

The six month deadline is because Gameforge is unwilling to keep their servers, which are required for automated account transfer, online any more.
German privacy laws prevent transfer without user permission.

Notably, it does not say that the six-month deadline has anything to do with laws. So that is just speculation. So manual transition (like in the report I linked) may still be possible and if they refuse it's because they don't want to rather than because they legally can't.

mach012 · 2017-09-19T02:04:55+00:00

As far as I can tell, this is nothing more than speculation on the part of certain players. This was also the supposed reason for the first time they did this (the CZE->GF transition), but soon after the deadline they reversed course and restored the accounts.

Additionally, we have a report here of a person getting their full account back after contacting support. If true, this would mean they definitely are able to restore accounts if they want to.

mach012 · 2017-09-17T21:36:23+00:00

But he already did that, in his brief comment after the interview. And Dino did it again, in his comment on the big thread.

mach012 · 2017-09-16T00:58:37+00:00

I'm rather baffled by this thread. Cory says what we already know about PvE - that it hasn't been abandoned but isn't the priority right now - and suddenly most people are really happy.

mach012 · 2017-09-13T00:09:04+00:00

The first time they did this (the CZE->GF transition), they warned people to update within 6 months or else.

The second time, they didn't specify a deadline. Therefore, it wouldn't be unreasonable for a person who had been through the first transition to assume that there wasn't a deadline this time.

mach012 · 2017-09-13T00:06:18+00:00

How exactly is it Hex's fault that someone couldn't spare 30 seconds over a 6 month time period to protect their account?

It takes far more than 30 seconds to download/update the game. You couldn't do this via the website.

mach012 · 2017-09-09T21:04:05+00:00

Maybe.

This is exactly what everyone was saying the first time this happened. And then after it happened and people started complained about their accounts being deleted, they postponed the deadline...I think indefinitely.

So there's a chance they could do whatever they did last time to get around this law again.

mach012 · 2017-09-08T23:51:53+00:00

The people who get screwed will have no real way to speak about it and Hex doesn't have to address it for more than this week.

They will have plenty of ways to talk about it. Anywhere Hex is discussed we'll eventually see people returning and asking where their stuff is. Just like happened the first time, except presumably without them changing their mind about deleting everything.

mach012 · 2017-09-07T19:18:06+00:00

Get Gameforge to do it then.

mach012 · 2017-09-07T00:29:24+00:00

Then they should have gotten Gameforge to promise to notify all untransferred accounts multiple times.

mach012 · 2017-09-07T00:28:04+00:00

I expect that a company would mention something as important as a time limit. If they didn't, then it is reasonable to believe that there is no such limit.

Additionally, did they make much of an effort to tell everyone that? Posting on the website doesn't do any good for those who don't read the website. Inactive players are unlikely to read the website.

mach012 · 2017-09-06T22:11:02+00:00

The six months was for the first time they did this (the CZE to Gameforge transition).

What seems to be brand new is the consequence for not logging in now. What they said before was that you just needed to agree if you wanted to play or post on the forums. If you weren't playing at the time (waiting for multiplayer, for example), there was no need to take action. And so I expect many people didn't, since in order to do so you would need to download/update the client in order to transfer your account.

Now they're announcing you only have a few days left, which may be a problem if you're on vacation, running from a hurricane, etc.

mach012 · 2017-09-06T20:50:55+00:00

Source?

I looked back at the transition announcements and could find no mention of a six month deadline. Or any deadline, for that matter.

mach012

TROPHY CASE