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Update Regarding 18+ Chat

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Feb 23, 2010
11
Survivor
May 08, 2010
11
wanda59 wrote:
This is ridiculous that we have to pay for open chat still! You should change it to anyone over at leavst 30+ gets open chat. This disapoints me majorly.


calm down, geez they made open chat for people who pay only becuz they need to verify that they are actually 18+. KI works so hard on making this great game so quit complaining and enjoy it, how do you think the company pays their employees? the money doesnt come from no where, so dont be selfish

Explorer
May 15, 2009
55
Thank you Kings Isle. It appears you've found a perfect middle ground. Allowing paying players to verify their accounts using a credit card is a perfect solution. Your doing a great job. That goes for devs, management, and everyone above, between, and below. Don't work to hard. *smile*

Survivor
Jan 13, 2009
18
Thank you so very very much for this. Your swift response indeed shows that you value us and that we do matter! I actually cried reading your words and just feel absolutely great now. LOL It may seem a small thing to some people but to me to actually feel like you care is very important and again I can't thank you enough! :-o

Survivor
Apr 24, 2010
4
Defender
Aug 13, 2010
182
I know I am glad to hear this :)
I'd rather do the pay as you go thing, anyway...I am terrible with deadlines.

Thanks for making this change for the better, good Headmaster!

Survivor
Jan 11, 2010
14
checker27 wrote:
Some people can afford a credit sub all the time :(


That's why you buy the annual sub instead. It costs less and its only one time.
I'm on welfare right now, so I had to that in order to keep playing... well, before I had to give up my credit cards.

Survivor
Aug 10, 2010
1
Thank you guys for listening to us and finding a result that should satisfy us all. I really appreciate your effort and the fact that you fixed this gives me an even better reason to keep my acct. open. Since my age has been verified with a c.c. i can rest assured that i will always have open chat. Thank you so very very very much! It has been very hard and very iritating trying to communicate with all my friends of late. Now that this is fixed I can't wait to talk with them all again without stress. Thanks again.

Survivor
Feb 17, 2009
5
Thank you so much for listening to the masses. I have many adult friends who are crown players and I appreciate your decision to let me talk to them unrestricted.

Community Leader
Thank you Kingsisle for listening and taking the time to help your community.

Survivor
Mar 01, 2009
2
Thank you all of our friends were quitting i said they fixed it and they came back on ALSO this has nothing to do with the chat if you read this add a shield to the inventory PLEASE ITS A GOOD IDEA

Survivor
Feb 21, 2009
10
wanda59 wrote:
This is ridiculous that we have to pay for open chat still! You should change it to anyone over at leavst 30+ gets open chat. This disapoints me majorly.


Well think about it: Kingsisle needs money to upgrade ( put new stuff in like worlds,pets,clothes etc) Wizard101. So thats means if they just give it out to everyone it means no more money which means no more Wizard101. So if you think about it. It's a better and SAFTER way of using a credit card. Thanks! :)

Survivor
Oct 06, 2008
1
Thank you KingsIsle I know I was many of the angry customers you got an email from. I am very glad to know that you did listen to us. I thank you for that, and I know next time to be more kinder with my emails to KingsIsle's staff. That eventhough a change might anger me, to just keep in consideration that KingsIsle is just trying to improve the game. I do wish next time that you would give us more notification before making a major change; it wasn't even on the home page, it was just all the sudden gone.

Survivor
May 23, 2009
3
Songbird25 wrote:
I would like to bring up a concern, that has involved the Wizard101 community. Many people playing the game are associating themselves in an inappropriate manner! I have seen most players asking, "Do you like me?" "Does anyone need a girl? a boy?" I find it disrespectful for these players to be talking to others, as if they are in a dating site. Would someone please inform this and make a change somewhere? I would really appreciate it! Considering the fact that this is a family game, I do not find it appropriate for younger children, to be associated with these conducts! I love the game, it is fun to play and I would like to make this issue known!

Thank you for your time! :)


I agree. As an parent, I find instances like these very uncomfortable.

Survivor
Jul 27, 2010
4
Headmaster Ambrose wrote:
To the Wizard101 Community,

Recently we made a change to our chat system that left a number of people in our community frustrated -- or some cases, even angry. The feedback has been signficant, and I wanted to write you a quick note to let you know that, as always, we are listening.

First off, a quick apology. We did a very poor job of notifying you, our customer community, that this change was coming. To make matters worse, we completely failed to explain the reasons behind this decision. Please accept our apology for that, and allow me the opportunity to provide that explanation now.

A large portion of our effort here at KingsIsle is spent polishing our game, and all the related subsystems. It may not be apparent on the outside, but maintaining a virtual world with 15 million players can be pretty challenging. Operational systems, customer support, registration and billing, the website -- there are hundreds of individual pieces that have to fit together perfectly to keep Wizard101 running all day, every day. Our team is constantly changing these systems, improving them, polishing them, trying to make them better for you.

Sometimes when we make changes, we also make mistakes. A few weeks ago, we found that we had made an error: the explanation for how our 18+ Chat feature worked, as described on the website, didn't match the rules set that turned this Chat Filter off. The result was that a number of players -- all of them over 18 years of age, mind you -- were able to keep Open Chat working, even when their subscription expired.

Oops. Our original intention was to restrict this type of chat to active members only. We thought requiring a current, active credit card would be the safest, easiest way to ensure that 18+ chat remained exactly that -- a restricted feature meant only for our more mature players.

When we found that error, we put it on the schedule, and a short time later it was "fixed." The issue, of course, is that a number of our customers -- like those who have migrated from a subscription account to buying areas with crowns -- found themselves suddenly unable to use a feature they had grown accustomed to. This wasn't a problem before; in fact, when we added 18+ Chat, game cards were a pretty small part of our business. Now we sell them in almost fifty thousand retail locations.

Our intention was to fix an issue with our chat system -- not to alienate a portion of our community! We value our pay-as-you-go customers just as much as our monthly subscribers -- but by making this change, it certainly didn't look that way.

So the question now is: how do we resolve this going forward?

After much discussion, we have decided to move the system back to the way it was before -- and fix the messaging to accurately reflect this. As before, we will still require the use of a credit card to verify that an account holder is 18 or older -- this is not just the right thing to do, it is actually a legal requirement. This is not open to debate. But we can drop the restriction that you must have an active subscription. Once an account is verified as being over 18 years old, that account will remain verified, whether they continue to pay us or not.

We're going to make this change immediately, and I sincerely hope that this will address the situation to everyone's satisfaction. That said, player safety is (and must be) our first priority, and we will continue to review and revise our policies and rules to keep Wizard101 both safe and appropriate for all ages . We reserve the right to change things as we deem necessary, even if those changes are unpopular.

Please understand that we consider our player community to be our most important asset... We are listening, and we do care about your opinions. Thank you again for playing, and I hope to see you in Ravenwood.

Regards,

J Todd Coleman
"Headmaster Ambrose"
Director, Wizard101

ps. one final note about feedback. We promise to continue listening... but only to opinions that are stated in a courteous, respectful manner. Profanity, insults or threats towards our customer support team absolutely will not be tolerated. Those who have acted in a discourteous or disrepectful manner -- in game, on our forums, or via email -- can expect their accounts to be immediately sanctioned or banned.


well i have meet en alot of people that started to sai shot op and lots other things like that! so can you make it possible to not beable to sai shot op in a row?

Survivor
Jul 26, 2009
3
True not many other games actually "LISTEN" to the people playing it they just add stuff as they plz. Plus a world without wizard101 is unimaginable to me and that means i would be in hell. Still i do think the being over 18+ just to say numbwers and have typoes is a bit much. at least add numbers to the text chat it is a bit annoying of not being able just to say numbers in term of how much something costs or your lvl and health ana stuff ( yes thats in mune chat but still is is a little annoying)

Survivor
Jan 08, 2010
1
Thank you for doing this it is greatly appreciated, if I may make a small suggestion. As an adult get very little time to play what would be helpful and greatly appreciated is if you could make it that we could sell our items right from our chest. It takes to much time running back and forth to the Baazar can leave the Baazar open for buying things but selling items not wanted stright from our chest would save so much time. Again suggestion would be greatly appreciated if can check into this. 8)

Explorer
Nov 02, 2008
97
I quote my post from Wizard101Central:

THANK YOU.

You guys have not only proven that you listen to player feedback, but that you CARE about us in the first place. I personally don't have Open Chat but I know a lot of people do, and as a matter of a fact I feel very happy that they have what they deserve.

But, of course, there are still trolls and just plain idiots out there who are too selfish to share this feature with crowns players and refuse to "take it anymore." Therefore they quit because of something that is as insignificant as Open Chat, when, if the situation comes up again, they should be angered about content.

Can I admit something? I DON'T EVEN HAVE TEXT CHAT. I am so happy with Celestia and the future of this game that I don't even care about Open Chat, Text Chat, or Menu Chat, AT ALL.

You trolls out there that are mad about crowns players being able to have Open Chat along with you should take this post into SERIOUS consideration.

Thank you Kingsisle, that you've truly proven that you listen to us.

Survivor
Mar 04, 2010
1
Survivor
Jan 16, 2010
6
KI,

I did not have a problem with the change in the first place... I actually liked it. There are so many kids out there that have open chat because there parent or grandparents subscribed one, than they abuse the privilege by cussing or trying to do something like online dating. I have recently started to report pretty much EVERY single person i just see randomly cussing, it upsets me more than it used to. As all of you have seen almost everyone has been complaining and some people even quit due to all the complainers, thats just sad. Text chat is fine, it improves spelling for teens there is no problem to that. Thx for listening to players feedback though. If i post my characters name I would probably loose a bunch of names so i am gonna list this post a anonymous.

-Anonymous author

Mastermind
Jun 25, 2009
312
Headmaster Ambrose wrote:
To the Wizard101 Community,

Recently we made a change to our chat system that left a number of people in our community frustrated -- or some cases, even angry. The feedback has been signficant, and I wanted to write you a quick note to let you know that, as always, we are listening.

First off, a quick apology. We did a very poor job of notifying you, our customer community, that this change was coming. To make matters worse, we completely failed to explain the reasons behind this decision. Please accept our apology for that, and allow me the opportunity to provide that explanation now.

A large portion of our effort here at KingsIsle is spent polishing our game, and all the related subsystems. It may not be apparent on the outside, but maintaining a virtual world with 15 million players can be pretty challenging. Operational systems, customer support, registration and billing, the website -- there are hundreds of individual pieces that have to fit together perfectly to keep Wizard101 running all day, every day. Our team is constantly changing these systems, improving them, polishing them, trying to make them better for you.

Sometimes when we make changes, we also make mistakes. A few weeks ago, we found that we had made an error: the explanation for how our 18+ Chat feature worked, as described on the website, didn't match the rules set that turned this Chat Filter off. The result was that a number of players -- all of them over 18 years of age, mind you -- were able to keep Open Chat working, even when their subscription expired.

Oops. Our original intention was to restrict this type of chat to active members only. We thought requiring a current, active credit card would be the safest, easiest way to ensure that 18+ chat remained exactly that -- a restricted feature meant only for our more mature players.

When we found that error, we put it on the schedule, and a short time later it was "fixed." The issue, of course, is that a number of our customers -- like those who have migrated from a subscription account to buying areas with crowns -- found themselves suddenly unable to use a feature they had grown accustomed to. This wasn't a problem before; in fact, when we added 18+ Chat, game cards were a pretty small part of our business. Now we sell them in almost fifty thousand retail locations.

Our intention was to fix an issue with our chat system -- not to alienate a portion of our community! We value our pay-as-you-go customers just as much as our monthly subscribers -- but by making this change, it certainly didn't look that way.

So the question now is: how do we resolve this going forward?

After much discussion, we have decided to move the system back to the way it was before -- and fix the messaging to accurately reflect this. As before, we will still require the use of a credit card to verify that an account holder is 18 or older -- this is not just the right thing to do, it is actually a legal requirement. This is not open to debate. But we can drop the restriction that you must have an active subscription. Once an account is verified as being over 18 years old, that account will remain verified, whether they continue to pay us or not.

We're going to make this change immediately, and I sincerely hope that this will address the situation to everyone's satisfaction. That said, player safety is (and must be) our first priority, and we will continue to review and revise our policies and rules to keep Wizard101 both safe and appropriate for all ages . We reserve the right to change things as we deem necessary, even if those changes are unpopular.

Please understand that we consider our player community to be our most important asset... We are listening, and we do care about your opinions. Thank you again for playing, and I hope to see you in Ravenwood.

Regards,

J Todd Coleman
"Headmaster Ambrose"
Director, Wizard101

ps. one final note about feedback. We promise to continue listening... but only to opinions that are stated in a courteous, respectful manner. Profanity, insults or threats towards our customer support team absolutely will not be tolerated. Those who have acted in a discourteous or disrepectful manner -- in game, on our forums, or via email -- can expect their accounts to be immediately sanctioned or banned.




thank you, Kingsilsle this is such a wonderful change, in fact my friend when the update didn't come he told me that some open chat guy was telling another person where he lived his phone number etc. that surprised me now that this change has come it has brought a major part of peace to our commity.

hunter legendwraith level60 moderator necromancer

Delver
Feb 25, 2010
296
Thank you for fixing that. As an 18+ player that plays mostly with gift cards/certs, this open chat thing had me bugging (pun inteneded). I am so pleased that you fixed it! Thank you!

Survivor
Mar 11, 2009
2
Thank you! I never really played a game before that actually listens to players. I don't know how I can survive without Wizard101. Again, thank you!

Survivor
Mar 11, 2009
2
mmhh15 wrote:
wanda59 wrote:
This is ridiculous that we have to pay for open chat still! You should change it to anyone over at leavst 30+ gets open chat. This disapoints me majorly.


calm down, geez they made open chat for people who pay only becuz they need to verify that they are actually 18+. KI works so hard on making this great game so quit complaining and enjoy it, how do you think the company pays their employees? the money doesnt come from no where, so dont be selfish

I agree. KingsIsle worked so hard in making this wonderful game and you're still complaining!? What would you be thinking if there was no Wizard101?

Illuminator
Feb 24, 2009
1357
Your making me satisfied :D Several people are complaining about updates for thinks such as "lvl requirements for worlds" (which i am irritated by, since it would violate subscription although i unlocked them all), but although they act as if they hate the game, the still play it 24/7 (i play 24/6 XD).
Ex:

Person 1: I just HATE wizard101
Person 2:Then why are you playing it...
Person 1: It's fun duh!
Person 2:But you said you just hate it
Person 1: They don't listen to the updates we want!
Person 2:Why are you on the website telling them "thx for listening to you customers KI"
Person 1: Cause... of... er... a... recent update
Person 2:What was it
Person 1: Um... I... forgot...
Person 2:Let me see... I'll read it for you! hmm "thx for admitting your mistake" "thx for adding cl to live" "i love wizard101" ..?
Person 1: Um... oops... typo...
Person 2:Seems that you like wizard101.
Person 1: Ok you win, Wizard101 is awesome.

Just an example of people that think Wizard101 isn't doing any updates :)
Btw I think you should fix one thing...
Make a new snack, and call it Ambrose Cracker, balance school, gives +6 to everything, from the mega-snack pack thingy.