NwN Server and security update

[Legacy_Throkwatt]

               All I know is this experience totally soured my opinion of Bioware's name ina  big way. Big enough that I totally stayed away from SWToR even though I am a huge Star Wars fanboi and used to be a huge Bioware fan as well ( this has not stopped me from buying some of their older classic games off of GoG.com though).

  They seriously fumbled the ball on the CS side of this.For me, it was never about " this is an old game", it was about communication to the community that Bioware ( of old) built up and customer service.
  For me personally they didn't just ****** off someone who is a fan of an old game, they lost a customer who at one time would buy almost everything with the Bioware brand on it.

  The last new Bioware game I bought was Dragon Age. I had planned on picking up the sequel eventually even though it didn't exactly get stellar reviews, and I had been very excited about more Mass Effect games and of course SW:ToR, but after this I have no desire in even trying out anything of theirs.

  I guess the bottom line is this is a very small community and it doesn't matter if  a few thousand people don't buy their new game which will probably sell a million copies anyway.
 
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Throkwatt, 21 décembre 2011 - 01:54 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               Really sad thing is that 2,000 sales of an $80-140 game is the same as the salary of one employee for them. (assuming they get 50% of the sale price which is standard.)  

And you are not the only person by a long shot that has stopped purchasing new Bioware concepts.  EA is not a pleasant company to deal with, I hate to say that they are almost as bad as Atari was and In some cases, worse.

Simple communication, even just a "We are still working on it" OR "We have been told to not bother anymore" etc...  Either of which would likely have kept more of their fans around.

Bioware DID warn the community that the old website would not be around forever.. but they could have given us at least a month's warning on the final shutoff date so that folks here could have scrambled to save as much as possible.  

They continue to sell the game via Gog and other resources, and as a consumer, I would expect the package to actually include what is stated on the box... "Online authentication is required" thus meaning that their online authentication server would be up and running.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_UrkOfGreyhawk]

               Actually a lost customer costs them a LOT more than that where SWTOR is concerned. Once you add in the cost of the game purchase and the subscription fee each lost customer costs what? like $220? And my hunch is they'll find other ways to monetize the game selling eye patches, server transfers, advanced characters, special ship skins... whatever.

2000 EA boycotters that might otherwise have played the game (and I think that number's WAY low if you step outside the Bio community and look at Star Wars fans as a whole) would, I suspect, result in a loss of almost a half million dollars in revenue per year.

EA has a rude awakening coming. MMO's have to be particularly sensitive about customer suppport. Even if TOR takes off it will only be a matter of time before EA's "F-off and die" support tradition tears the game down.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par UrkOfGreyhawk, 21 décembre 2011 - 05:58 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               Lately, every time I deal with EA or Bioware I feel like a sponge - no matter how hard I try to keep it in, they keep wringing money out of me...
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Pstemarie, 21 décembre 2011 - 06:58 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Chris Priestly]

               Ok this seems to have degenerated into a "bash EA" thread. If this keeps up, this will be closed.

3 things:

1 - EA didn't make NwN. BioWare developed it and Atari published it. Why EA is now somehow at fault is completely off topic. BioWare is fixing these issues as best we can. No, this is not a priority, but we continue to work on it and will until it is fixed as best we can. Compared to SWTOR or Mass Effect or whatever MANY companies would have just abandoned this. It is going on a decade since this we released and it would have been MUCH easier to just say "contact Atari. They are the publisher. It is their responsibility to the NwN fans." However, BioWare cares about our fans and we will not abandon them. If you do not feel this is being resolved fast enough, you are welcome to go to Atari and see what help you can get there while we continue to work on things.

2 - You can authenticate copies of NwN and have been able to for months now. If you cannot, please contact Atari customer support.

3 - We are still working on oustanding problems and when we have information we will let you know.




               
               

               

                     Modifié par Chris Priestly, 21 décembre 2011 - 07:09 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               Thanks for the update Chris.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Throkwatt]

               And we're back to this.
When  I click on multiplayer I still get the message "could not connect to master server, player name could not be authenticated.Some multiplayer services may not be available" or some such. I may be paraphrasing.
All I ever needed to know is this issue going to eventually be fixed? Is it one of the problems that you guys are still working on as best you can, or is the answer "nope, this is a 10 yr old game, and honestly we're not planning to devote resources to cobble together another Master Server for an old game that will only benefit a small number of folks.Sorry".
And that's it. I'd be dissapointed but could see your position, and could respect that.
The PW I frequent worked out a way to authenticate their players ( thus protecting their user names) within a couple weeks of the MS going down, and I know other server admins in the community have cludged workarounds too.
That's not really the point. All the flames of Bioware/EA/Atari/ Baby Jesus,Elvis and the gods of Olympus could have been stopped by a simple Yes or No or even "I don't know" to this one thing.

CS is a crappy job, I know.It's hard not to develop a me vs them attitude when you've got irate people yelling at you, or people so upset ( or stupid ) that commoon sense seems to elude them.
"Hey, your POS computer arrived today and the D@mn thing won't even start!"
"Sir, is it plugged in?"
 "Of course it is, you think I'm some kind of Dumba-......Oh..Never mind, thanks"
But, that's the job.

Anyway, I'm done.Good luck with your future games.Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, but especially NWN were/are totally kickass games that I still love to play.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_SHOVA]

               For me, NWN is it. I will not buy another game to get my D&D fix. NWN is it. It does everything I was looking for in a D&D computer game. It has its flaws, in my opinion, the 3.whatever ruleset, I prefer 1st and 2nd ed rules, but I can live with 3rd ed ones. It allows me to build my own mods, It allows me to play with others. It can be changed to do whatever I can script, or what others can script too. Bio Ware did  an amazing job, not only designing the game, not only expanding it, twice, not only patching as it needed it all along, but supporting the multi-play with the master server. Bio-Ware did all of that, while dealing with Atari, and WotC, and eventually EA. Thank you Bio Ware for years of fun. Thank you for the work you have done, and the support you gave to NWN. and most importantly, thank you for continuing to work on the master server issue. It is because of your great effort with NWN, that I have bought your other titles. BG, BG2, Dragon Age. When I do look at purchasing other game titles, I first look at who they are by. I know when I see Bio Ware on the package, the game is well worth the money, even if it is not a genre I play.

To the part of our community that is getting upset by the master server verification, I think its time you tried another 10 year old game,by another company. Go ahead and see if it is being supported as well as NWN. See if that community made a fix for their master server. See if their manufacturer is still working on it, and posting about it at least quarterly. See if they even support forums for you to complain about it. The Master Server Verification may not come back. We may need to be prepared for that. In my opinion, I spent, less than $100.00, for 10 years of support, patches, and forums. I know I got my monies worth. You did to, though you may be over looking it.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               

Throkwatt wrote...

And we're back to this.
When  I click on multiplayer I still get the message "could not connect to master server, player name could not be authenticated.Some multiplayer services may not be available" or some such. I may be paraphrasing.
All I ever needed to know is this issue going to eventually be fixed? Is it one of the problems that you guys are still working on as best you can, or is the answer "nope, this is a 10 yr old game, and honestly we're not planning to devote resources to cobble together another Master Server for an old game that will only benefit a small number of folks.Sorry".
And that's it. I'd be dissapointed but could see your position, and could respect that.

Did you even read the post Chris made? I'll mark the part in bold you obviously missed...

Chris Priestly wrote...

- EA didn't make NwN. BioWare developed it and Atari published it. Why EA is now somehow at fault is completely off topic. BioWare is fixing these issues as best we can. No, this is not a priority, but we continueto work on it and will until it is fixed as best we can. Compared to SWTOR or Mass Effect or whatever MANY companies would have just abandoned this. It is going on a decade since this we released and it would have been MUCH easier to just say "contact Atari. They are the publisher. It is their responsibility to the NwN fans." However, BioWarecares about our fans and we will not abandon them. If you do not feel this is being resolved fast enough, you are welcome to go to Atari and see what help you can get there while we continue to work on things.

               
               

               

                     Modifié par Pstemarie, 21 décembre 2011 - 06:55 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_UrkOfGreyhawk]

               Throkwatt, You do NOT need master server authentication to use the multiplayer client. Go ahead and connect. It may take a while but just be patient. Eventually you will connect to the gamespy server and you'll be able to play normally.

There are issues with having the server down, but they won't affect you as a player. The biggest disadvantage is that without server authentication it's easy for other players to log in using your username and hijack your accounts, but the community has found ways to prevent this.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_pmdci]

               Hi everybody,

What happened to the product keys we had on stored against our profiles? I wonder if I lost them forever or something?

I do have the originals stored safely... At another continent across the Atlantic ocean '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               

pmdci wrote...

Hi everybody,

What happened to the product keys we had on stored against our profiles? I wonder if I lost them forever or something?

I do have the originals stored safely... At another continent across the Atlantic ocean '>

Those product keys were not linked to your account here, they were linked to your account on the old Bioware forums.  Those forums are gone.  Bioware claims to be attempting to restore them, but they deliberately removed all access to those accounts when the account server got hacked.

Likely they will not be restored, but we keep hoping that Bioware will be able to pull a rabit out of the hat at some point.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_old sailor1]

               Promises broken , games abandoned is this the future??
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Knight_Shield]

                


I went to old forums last week ..*moisture builds in eye * The info there and the memories.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ultima03]

               

Chris Priestly wrote...

Ok this seems to have degenerated into a "bash EA" thread. If this keeps up, this will be closed.

3 things:

1 - EA didn't make NwN. BioWare developed it and Atari published it. Why EA is now somehow at fault is completely off topic. BioWare is fixing these issues as best we can. No, this is not a priority, but we continue to work on it and will until it is fixed as best we can. Compared to SWTOR or Mass Effect or whatever MANY companies would have just abandoned this. It is going on a decade since this we released and it would have been MUCH easier to just say "contact Atari. They are the publisher. It is their responsibility to the NwN fans." However, BioWare cares about our fans and we will not abandon them. If you do not feel this is being resolved fast enough, you are welcome to go to Atari and see what help you can get there while we continue to work on things.

2 - You can authenticate copies of NwN and have been able to for months now. If you cannot, please contact Atari customer support.

3 - We are still working on oustanding problems and when we have information we will let you know.

I'm not sure for how long this thing is down but there is a security breach for all servers

1 - Anyone can enter any account without knowing the password
2 - Inside the account they can delete the character if the server offer the option
3 - They can delevel - relevel if the server offers the option
4 - They can impersonate
5 - They can mess with the purchased items (sell them) and also mess with quicklots

Some server offers the option to protect their character with an in-game password, and thats another security problem :

1 - We don't know if they encrypt password
2 - No notice to prevent people from using a password that's used for an email or other importants things.

Putting
a password in-game only protect against server options (delete/relvel)
if coded properly, it won't protect from selling all items,
impersonating, etc.

It is therefore critical that the master
server authentification comes back as fast as possible. It has been away
too long and that caused a lof of torouble, character wipes, and vault
wipes.

Please take this into serious consideration