Musician Archive

The problems associated with placing a skill tape in a piece of clothing were recently experienced by yours truly. I had a +8 Musical Enhancement Skill Tape placed in a pair of gloves. I was able to acquire a +14 Musical Enhancement tape off the forums at a price of 25 million credits. I have been playing SWG one month after launch and would consider myself a veteran player. After more that a year of playing, this was my first experience with skill tapes. As you probably have assumed I placed the new +14 Musical Enhancement Tape in the gloves that already had the +8 Musical Enhancement and low and behold only the +14 Musical Enhancement took. Everyone knows that there will be bugs in the system, and I believe this is one of them. If this is by design than a WARNING message should pop up when you drop the tape in the clothing, confirming you want to do this. A warning of this nature would have prevented much grief.

In an effort to help the DEV's see the importance of this I would like to give you a brief synopsis of the effects that the loss of this skill tape has had on me, even though it may seemly be a very small issue.

Since I began playing I have mastered all of the crafting professions except BE and DE. I have several accounts and enjoy crafting and selling these items to other players. Over the course of a year I was able to acquire a savings of a little more that 50 million credit. I have been very frugal with my money only spending it on items I felt necessary to purchase.

I decided to make the biggest purchase I have every made since loot is so hard to come by, 25 Million credits for a skill tape. In my mind it was well worth it because not only would it benefit my combat player, but my entire guild. You can not imagine the excitement that I experienced once I made the exchange for the tape.

At the moment that I went from having a potential of a +22 Musical Enhancement to only a +14 crushed my spirits. I said to myself "Self, I will write a ticket to a CSR they will be able to fix the problem, this is a bug." As I learned, the CSR's are in no way able to determine that I actually possessed the original +8 Musical Enhancement tape. I went to every means possible to correct the problem. I was told that there is nothing they could do. In my last attempt I was able to correspond with a CSR supervisor. She was very helpful. For the first time I felt as if I was talking to a real person and not someone just copying and pasting company policy into an open ticket.

I stated to the CSR supervisor that I feel that I am powerless and the only possible recourse I can do to show my frustration is to cancel my account with SOE.

When you do not give the CSR's the ability to verify these loses and/or reimburse players, we are backed into the corner. And it's not SOE that is the loser it's the players. It's a bad place to be.

I'm taking the time to calm down and really think this through. The CSR supervisor did say "that a well thought out, direct, and well worded post on the forums will often make a huge impact on the Developers and Designers." I hope I accomplish this today.