Bug reports, how seriously are they beging taken?

[CallakDW]

I've worked support before, a full 9 years of support, a good part of it was dealing with a ticket management system like what VI is using now. When I worked tech support, those tickets were not allowed to be closed untill the issue was resolved.

Now, recently I noticed all my unresolved tickes were closed, without further comment or further resolution. This has also occured on a random basis before this, but not on a massive scope like this. I also spoke with a friend, and all his open tickets were closed, including some active ones he was working on. It is my understanding that VI wants to keep up communication with thier players. As such, I would expect that unresolved support tickets should be kept open if they are not fixed, and updates supplied to the progress of repair of those problems.

I've been citizin of Istaria for a very long time, some of the bugs I have reported are ancient (years old) and still unresolved. VI, if you have decided you cant fix them or won't fix them, then tell me and close the ticket, but don't sweep the issue under the rug by mass closing all tickets in the system. I've been struggling with this since well before VI, please don't carry on the tradition.

[Vandalin]

This happened with my ticket too. I'm thinking the bugs got into the CS management system maybe. Hey, it could happen.

[CallakDW]

Fine if it was a bug, so be it, but not all the closings I have seen in the past were an accident to my knowledge. It seems like I get about a 50% chance of having my ticket closed after it is addressed, but not resolved, after I originally open it.

[Kumu Honua]

My guess is there's an auto close on tickets with no responses after X days.

[CallakDW]

The tickets I'm referring to were not requireing a response on my behalf, they just state that it was "Recorded in our system" or "Submitted to the live team". Then often closed.

I also notice that they are left open only if I specifically request that they are left open untill resolution.

[Takora Drakan]

All of my tickets also got closed suddely, maybe someone pressed the red button? =P

[GalemThawn]

I had to check mine. Yep, they are all closed. And the Flaming Weapon tech causing a hard crash has DEFINATELY not been fixed.

[Amarie Ancalimon]

I would like to direct everyone to this post, explaining the closing of tickets
http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=18804

As mentioned in that post, we do ask that if you feel your ticket was closed with no resolution or response then please let us know.

Although we are working very hard to make Istaria a pleasant and interesting experience for everyone, sometimes issues are placed later in line on our infinite list of "things to do".

A friendly reminder on your issue or concern is always welcomed

[CallakDW]

Amarie, thank you for your response.

However, I have many tickets that are very very old and have yet to be corrected, and have seen so many tickets unrepaired from ages ago, that I don't feel confident that they are being addressed unless I have some indication on my end that somthing says that they are still out there and a problem. For me this indicator is an open ticket. If I don't see that they are open, and need fixing, I don't have any reason to believe that they aren't just being dismissed. We, as players can't see your internal system, and that there is actually somthing there. I've been through a lot of bad experiences with the companies running HZ, and I do not honestly trust that things are being addressed unless I can see it for myself. I feel I have a better chance of making sure they are fixed if somthing is out there that I can see red flagging the problem.

[Adwene]

Some people *hate* having things left open like tickets. Some people like it, it acts as a prompt to them. Basically, I'm guessing the person thats in charge of that, acts on them, makes sure the relevant person is aware there is a problem then once its on a list somewhere, they close the ticket as there isn't much more they can do. Basically, if I was you, if you have a record of old tickets, is put a 6 month check on them, and resubmit them if they aren't actioned. Mention your old ticket.

Forcing the person thats montoring tickets to keep them open when there is nothing they can action, is counter productive. They'll constantly be rechecking old tickets and wasting time that could be spent elsewhere.

[CallakDW]

Forcing the person thats montoring tickets to keep them open when there is nothing they can action, is counter productive. They'll constantly be rechecking old tickets and wasting time that could be spent elsewhere.

I have tickets that are years old. I feel that these need to be addressed, I'm paying to have these addressed, and I'm pushing for them to be addressed. I also feel that having the tickets open is like haveing a burr in their foot. Its unpleasant, but at least they know it's there, and this way I know they know it's there. Solution- remove the problem, and it stops being irritating. I don't feel I'm being unreasonable with this, considering how old some of these problems are that havn't been dealt with. They need to fix these old problems before they move on to making new stuff that is likely to introduce new problems.

[Amarie Ancalimon]

If you would like to make a list of issues from the past that you have submitted tickets for and feel they have gone unnoticed I can check in to them again and see what can be done. There is no guarantee that every issue may be resolved immediately, but in the least I can create new comments stating your concerns and see what responses I receive from them (and then pass those responses on to you).

Like I stated before, sometimes we just need a friendly nudge to remind us of what is still on our overflowing plates.

[Vandalin]

I would like to just see a message saying "There is nothing we can do about it now. If you can continue playing please do so." At least for certain things that would work (like the quest bug) as I don't know whether to wait for a fix or just continue as if there was no bug (and my work was never done). "Sent to the Live Team" doesn't help me much unless I know what they are doing with it.

[Amarie Ancalimon]

I will make sure to make our support agents aware of that
We just try to avoid being so blunt.

Generally when the response says "sent to live team" it means the issue might not be solvable right then and there, so those that are capable of fixing the issue (like programmers, developers, etc) are aware of it and will look at it when possible.

If it is ever an issue that you can continue on in game with, although it may be frustrating, confusing, or down right annoying, then of course we want you to continue on.

[CallakDW]

If you would like to make a list of issues from the past that you have submitted tickets for and feel they have gone unnoticed I can check in to them again and see what can be done. There is no guarantee that every issue may be resolved immediately, but in the least I can create new comments stating your concerns and see what responses I receive from them (and then pass those responses on to you).

Like I stated before, sometimes we just need a friendly nudge to remind us of what is still on our overflowing plates.

These are the oldest and the worst, most obvious of the issues I've reported:

Female satyer low LOD problem ID: FUY-93957-490

This is the second oldest unresolved bug I have ever reported, must be going on 3 or 4 years since it was first reported I think.

Ever since they were implemented, female satyers have had a scrambled low Level Of Detail model. Best way to see this currently is to examine Darsenia at the gnomekindle town from a small distance. This problem also effects femals satyer charactors, making them hard to follow.

Invisible letters in chat entry box. ID: CTV-48817-717

I've noticed quite often that when chatting in any channel that sometimes the first and second letters of text you type in the entry box become invisible, making it very difficult to tell what you are typing. The spacing is there for the letters, but they don't appear. This seems to happen after much backspacing.

Finned dragon head neck coloring problem. ID: GLM-51498-714

It is my opinion this was a bad model design flaw on the finned head of the adult and ancient dragons, but I'm not really asking for a fix to the game for this.

When I designed my dragon all those years ago when I first bought Horizons, I didn't know that once he grew up he would have this neck issue as an adult or ancient because it frankly doesn't show on hatchlings using this head. But I was wondering if there is any chance that my Callak Deathwing charactor can be adjusted so that his underchin scale color and pattern matches the rest of his neck. The problem is that the head, which is not colored as the belly also becomes part of the neck, making the coloring stop laving a "hangedman smile" where the coloring stops.

Dragon nasty after kutit transform. ID: MPR-55063-971

This is the oldest unresolved bug I have ever reported, must be going on 4 or 5 years since it was first reported.

There is an ugly bug that was introduced immediately after the withered scales were implemented in the game where if a dragon transformed to kutit and back, all other players would se him overlayed with what appears to be a withered scale skin and model, resulting in a really nasty looking dirty dark colored dragon. If that dragon didn't have earfins before, he gains them. Example images have been included.

Note: This is not visible to yourself on your own dragon. If the dragon goes far enough out of sight from the players that saw him transform, and returns, the model fixes itself.

LVL 96 Kuellen Berzerkers VS 107. ID: HOT-68628-191

These two levels of Kuellen berzerkers seem to be swapped in difficulty. The 107 has about 7k HP and the 96 has 13k and deals damage like mad.
----
On further examination it appears that the duifficulty to level curve for this entire monster group is upside down.

Dual window problem. ID: ZQP-30582-965

If one opens a storage structure, and accidently or purposely opens a second window then closes it, the items listed in the first window dissapear.

[GalemThawn]

For the Flaming Weapon Tech crash:
After 4 consecutive posts over 2 months simply asking,
"do you need more info or logs from other players?"

"Asking again. Do the devs need more logs or info on this bug?"

"Should I continue to send in crash logs for this bug? Not asking if it's being worked on or a solution found yet."

"Need more logs? I'm sure we could scout up enough people to submit a lot of logs if needed. Or is this something that is on the back burner and not likely to even get looked at anytime soon."

Amon's response was, "No and we know where to go for more. Thank you"

Two months later, no word on this. Not a "that's not a priority issue". Not a "that would require client changes, which we can't do now". Just simply, 'We have enough logs and information to track the bug down, now please don't bother us about it again.'


Should I reopen a ticket and start submitting logs again to remind them of this issue? It would nice to at least know the status of your trouble tickets, not just "we are aware of it" after several months are even years for some issues.

[Velea]

Here's the thing, Callak and Galem both...

Once someone in customer service reports something to the live team, that's the end of someone looking at the ticket.

So your theories of it being a "burr in (the developers') side just doesn't wash. What we see is the internal ticket created by the CS (be it Reyem, Amarie or one of us helping them out). Opening new tickets, bumping old ones, or otherwise rehashing an already reported issue is good for one thing and one thing only... wasting someone's time. The response you get from CS saying "forwarded to the live team" means "heard you, thank you, it will be prioritized by the appropriate developer".

To answer the original question, all reports are taken with equal seriousness.

[Drevar]

The thing is they only need a single instance of a bug or problem in their to do list, not once for every single person who submits the exact same bug. It would be a total waste of time to go back and reply to each the 50 people that have an open ticket regarding a typo in a quest, etc. Once they reply that it has been forwarded to the appropriate team, the ticket itself, being a bug report, is resolved: it has been acknowledged and recorded.

A closed ticket is a closed ticket. It is not a closed issue. Just because the ticket is closed means they are blowing you off. The only times they are obligated to personally respond to a ticket and keep you apprised of progress are on problems with accounts, billing, corrupt characters, broken plots that you own, etc. For everything else, just watch Delta notes and see if your bug got fixed this time around.

Drev

[Adwene]

Drevar said it much better than me

[CallakDW]

If that is the case, why do I have tickets 4 and 5 years old? Older even than the current reporting system? I'm a very old very frusterated HZ gamer that feels like most of the time my submissions are taken, and pigeonholed, essentially ignored.