shop claim command after merge? -want official answer

[Macrosun]

Although I'm pretty sure that anyone who petitioned this already got our "official reply", I am going to post this anyway:

The data from the old shop system is no longer available, and therefor the claim command will no longer function. A determination was made that the time required to migrate the data during server merge outweighed the gain. Technical issues and the fact that a huge percentage of it belonged to inactive players were the main deciding factors.

Technical issues aside, there was also a "grace period" of over a year between the merge and when the shop system was replaced. We felt that anyone actively playing should have been able to get their things during that time, and the old shops were never intended to stay around as long time storage of old stuff.

Yes, this could all have been communicated better, and I don't know what went wrong in that department (and I doubt I ever will). We're sorry for any lost items that happened due to the communication issues. On the upside, this allows us to completely remove the old shop system, which was causing a lot of lag issues because of how it was implemented.

[Berim]

You are right. It could have communicated a way better. In fact your way was an example of how not to do it. I wasn't playing but my account was active during most of that year. I took time to read any updates that came into community corner. This wasn't in any of them.

Thank you for the answer though.

[Liwa]

As I recall the GMI replaced the old GMS in June 2012 with the 18.5 (?) patch and the server merge was this past February. I suppose 8 months should have been enough time for active players to claim their GMS-shop items.

It sounds like from Macrosun's post that at least the significant lack in communication on this decision to not keep this data available even thru petitions to a GM has been acknowledged and hopefully will not happen again. I know GM's do have access to some pre-merge data as they have been able to restore items "lost" from the mail system because of the merge.

Unfortunately, 8 months was not enough time for all the players that were not actively playing for whatever the reason ... or waiting for the new engine, the merge, or ?

Thankfully Funcom did communicate via emails, etc. that the option of 12 character slots vs 10 slots required an active account as of merge-day.

Thank you for your post Macrosun.

Liwa

[xstyggax]

ty for reply

[Lordaegis]

So you guys deleted most of my items,money,perfs and a lot of my toons names

it took me long years to farm them, You guys disappointed us

Thank you for making me poor ingame again .. you guys doing a great job with AO

Keep the good work.

[Pennypacker]

So you guys deleted most of my items,money,perfs and a lot of my toons names

it took me long years to farm them, You guys disappointed us

Thank you for making me poor ingame again .. you guys doing a great job with AO

Keep the good work.

Boo freaking hoo

[Mastablasta]

lol a year's grace period...

[Anarrina]

People, any concerns you have with exploits needs to go to the Report an Exploit forum. Posting them in public will only get them removed and incur infractions.

[byteflush]

lol a year's grace period...

lol nobody told us that there was a grace period.

[Mastablasta]

lol nobody told us that there was a grace period.

It says in the EULA that they will delete your characters after 6 months of inactivity...

[Vits]

...and the fact that a huge percentage of it belonged to inactive players were the main deciding factors.

AO is/was an MMO with a dwindling population, why on earth would you be writing off inactive players instead of trying to tempt them back? An email explaining that the merge was about to wipe everything from our shops would have brought more than a few subscriptions and saved all of the time and resources you're now having to spend on customer service answering (eventually) all the people wondering where their stuff has gone.

Also, all the data was deleted with no thought of archiving it? Are you just placating us with bs or did somebody there seriously think that was a reasonable course of action?

[Liwa]

It says in the EULA that they will delete your characters after 6 months of inactivity...

Since this rule has never been used ... as far as I know, based on players returning after way more than 6 months ... it no longer applies.

If funcom was to start deleting characters or accounts after 6 months of in-activity they would be required to notify customers that they were going to Start enforcing this old forgotten rule.

And Yes, a simple email to all customer accounts, particularly unpaid/frozen accounts, indicating that all the old player shop data/items/credits would be lost as part of the server merge should have been sent at least a month in advance and/or whenever the decision was made to not port the data over to the new server. Unfortunately, the baby was already thrown out with the bath water ... I have no clue if anything could be done now, assuming resources are even available to tackle this issue.

Liwa

[Manaas]

should just delete everything that's not nodrop including creds

i would love to see how people wouldnt adapt ;D

[perky]

So the "reward" for us that actually reactivated BECAUSE of the server merge was to delete our items and credits "stored" in the shops. A single notification through email that warned about this would've solved a lot of headache and frustration for many former (and I guess they will remain former) players. Well, I know which company that will never ever get another dime from me again...