Crown Crates no longer giftable?
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Wow✭✭✭✭✭Will next crown crates be ungiftable as well?I'm a Godot Engine and GameMaker enthusiast from the most populated island on earth, Java, Indonesia. Coffee is my staple fuel, and durian is my favourite fruit. I'm currently building a Visual Novel.0 -
Destai✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Hi all, we know many of you have been asking for an explanation regarding the Crown Crate gifting issue. This has been and continues to be a delicate process as there is sensitive information involved. With that, we’ve been working on a high-level overview of the current issue, which is that we’ve discovered some fraudulent behavior related to Crown Crate gifting, primarily on the PC platform.
We have been working diligently to find a resolution to this and put a stop to the fraudulent behavior. We want players who are not violating our Terms of Service by engaging in fraudulent behavior to be able to continue to use gifting in ESO. We also cannot allow this fraudulent behavior to continue. As you know, we noted that our original fix resolved part of the problem, however, we discovered another related issue in the process. We are continuing to work on a long-term resolution for that issue and, unfortunately, this means PC Crown Crate gifting in-game will remain unavailable until we do..
In the meantime, we are working on a more immediate temporary solution with our Customer Support team to aid in facilitating Crown Crate gifting transactions. We’ll have more to share on that soon. We hope this gives some insight into why PC Crown Crate gifting continues to be unavailable. As always, thank you for your continued patience and understanding.
Thank you, Kevin. Hopefully this is a good lessons-learned for you guys. People expect context out of the gate, so hopefully you guys take that to heart and don't let something spiral out of control much like here and the update 35 debacle. Thanks for the weekly updates and this explanation.Edited by Destai on June 19, 2023 3:04PM5 -
Aka_✭✭✭✭✭A_Cats_Tail wrote: »These new crates will be around for 3 months, I'm sure this bug will be resolved by then
oops1 -
muscle_witch✭✭✭✭A timeline of the bug/ZOS response, for anyone who'd like a tl;dr-ish compilation (now with formatting!) ((with my apologies for the hiatus, I got a little burnt out on covering this thread))
March 2023March 3/Start of thread:ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »Hi everyone! We are aware and investigating. Thank you.
March 5:Greetings,
This thread has been moved to the Crown Store & ESO Plus section, as it is better suited there.
Thank you for your understanding.
March 13:Hi all, we are aware and continuing to investigate this. There are some differences between the platforms that makes our investigation a little more complex. Thank you for your patience.
March 17:Hi all, just here to follow up on my post from Monday. This issue is still being investigated. So no change has been made regarding enabling gifting. As stated before, there are some differences between the platforms that makes our investigation a little more complex. When this is resolved, we will let everyone know when gifting will be enabled again. Thank you for your patience.
March 24:oversleeps wrote: »@ZOS_Kevin
with still no info people are beginning to think this is on purpose, to get rid of crate gifting. Can you at least confirm or deny this if you cannot give an ETA?
We are not getting rid of crate gifting. As stated before, the issue our team is working to solve is a bit complex. So it is taking a bit of time to get through. We still do not have an ETA to share, but the team is working towards solving this solution as soon as they can.
March 29:We checked in with the team this morning and they are still working out the bug here. We understand this is frustrating, especially with a new crate. They are hoping to have this resolved soon, but once we get a solid ETA, we will let everyone know.
March 30:Hello!
We've removed some posts from this thread as they violated our rules on conspiracy theories and bashing. We do not permit the bashing of individuals (including ZeniMax employees), groups, or other companies on our forums. We believe that doing so is neither constructive nor in spirit of our game and community. We understand that everyone has their own opinions they want to express, but we also want the forums to be a constructive platform for ESO and its community.
Thank you for your understanding, and please keep the Community Rules in mind when posting on the forums.
April 2023April 3:The_one_i_seek wrote: »any news please? @ZOS_Kevin
Unfortunately, no new updates. Still waiting to hear back when the team has a fix ready and when it will be ready to be deployed.
April 5:Hi All, this was posted in another thread today, but we wanted to share it here as well.Gadamlub14_ESO wrote: »@ZOS_Kevin Hey man sorry to ping you, but we really need updates on the crate gifting and Gem deconstruction bugs.
No need to apologize. We're trying to get more information to relay. However, the team wants to be confident in the date for a fix before letting everyone know. In both cases, the issue has been found and the team is working toward a solution. For the gem deconstruction, we did post current next steps until the fix is live. You can see that here. Once we have a more solid timeline for a fix, we'll be sure to let everyone know.
April 6:We wanted to provide an update on the issue where Crown Crates are not currently giftable in-game on PC. We have identified the issue and are working on a fix that we hope to roll out in the next couple weeks. We appreciate everyone's patience. Once we have a date for the fix, or if it will take longer than a couple weeks, we will let you know.
April 13:Hello!
We've removed some posts from this thread for violating our rules on Bashing and Conspiracy Theories. As stated by Kevin, a fix will be coming in the next couple weeks.
We encourage you to share feedback, suggestions, and requests with us, but we expect all of our community members to refrain from resorting to insults. Thank you for your understanding, and please keep the Community Rules in mind when posting on the forums.
April 20:Hello!
We've removed some posts from this thread as they violated our rules on bashing and conspiracy theories. We understand that everyone has their own opinions they want to express, but we also want the forums to be a constructive platform for ESO and its community.
Thank you for your understanding, and please keep the Community Rules in mind when posting on the forums.Hi All,
Sorry for the delay here. I was going for the ESO celebrations and have been catching up on a lot of messages.
We are still working on getting a roll out plan for this issue. We still have a few issues pending on our end before we can issue out a date for a fix. In the meantime, we have raised the increased concern from all of you about this issue to our team working on this. We'll continue to follow up and check with the team so that we can provide an ETA as soon as we can. Thanks for your patience on this issue as we continue to work toward a solution.
April 22:Greetings,
We have recently removed some unnecessary back and forth from this thread. This is a reminder to keep the discussion civil and constructive. Please keep our Community Rules in mind moving forward.
Thank you for your understanding.
April 25:Hi all, we have an update on Crown Crate gifting. Currently, the team is working on testing a few more fixes to address the issues going on with Crown Crate gifting. These tests will take a few days to complete and review. We will follow back up on Wednesday, May 3, with an update on where we are regarding a fix. As always, thank you for your patience regarding this topic.
April 26:ZOS_Phoenix wrote: »Greetings everyone!
We've removed a few posts from this thread as they violated our rules regarding conspiracy theories and discussing disciplinary action. We understand that everyone has their own opinions that they want to express, especially around ongoing issues, but we also want the forums to be a constructive platform for ESO and its community.
Thank you for your understanding, and please keep the Community Rules in mind when posting on the forums.
Best regards,
ZOS_Phoenix
April 27:Hello!
We've removed some posts from this thread as they violated our community rules on conspiracy theories and baiting. It’s okay and very normal to disagree with others, and even to debate, but provoking conflict, baiting, inciting, mocking, etc. is never acceptable in the official The Elder Scrolls Online community. If you do not have something constructive or meaningful to add to a discussion, we strongly recommend you refrain from posting in that thread, and find another discussion to participate in instead.
Thank you for your understanding, and please keep the Community Rules in mind when posting on the forums.Hi all. As some of you have pointed out, gifting was briefly turned back on for PC NA while we were doing some testing. It was not intentional to remain on and has since been disabled again. We'll let everyone know when gifting is back on and officially available for everyone.
May 2023May 3:Hi All. As noted previously, we want to provide an update on the next steps toward getting Crown Crate gifting back online on PC. We currently have a prospective fix currently being tested. Once testing concludes, we will schedule a date for the fix's deploy ASAP. This fix will also include a configuration change that lowers the login timer when switching between NA and EU (or EU and NA) realms back to what it used to be. We will follow up with an update next week to update on our progress here. Thank you for your continued patience.
May 5:Greetings,
We have removed some baiting comments as well as some back and forth that was disruptive. Please ensure you are treating others with respect on the forums even when they have views that differ from your own. If there may be any questions in regards to the rules, please feel free to review them here.
Thank you for your understanding.
May 10:Hi all. We have an update regarding Crown Crate gifting and where we are in the process outlined last week. Yesterday, we deployed a fix related to the ongoing Crown Crate gifting issue. We are currently evaluating if the fix fully resolved the issue, and reviewing results as quickly as possible. We will have another update for you no later than Monday, May 15.Greetings,
As we had to remove some additional quitting and non-constructive comments from this thread, we would like to ask everyone to keep posts on the subject at hand, as well as keeping things civil and constructive.
Thank you for your understanding.
May 15:Thank you once again for your patience while we work on the issue with Crown Crate gifting. As a reminder, on May 9 we pushed a back-end update to all six realms during maintenance. While initial results look good, we are still monitoring. We will share our next update and more details with you on Monday, May 22.ZOS_Hadeostry wrote: »Greetings,
After removing some unnecessary back and forth from this thread, we would like everyone to keep posts on the subject at hand, civil, and constructive.
If there may be any questions in regards to the rules, please feel free to review them here
May 17:Hi.
There have been a few more baiting and bashing comments that had to be removed from this discussion. We understand your frustrations with the Crown Crates gifting issue however any discussion on the subject must remain civil, constructive, and within the rules.
Please feel free to check out the Dev Tracker, as you can see every update post we have on this issue.
Thank you for your understanding.
May 22:Hi, everyone.
We’re here to provide our weekly update on the Crown Crate gifting issue. While the fix we implemented is working as intended, we have identified an additional issue that our teams are working to resolve. This issue will take some time to investigate and resolve, so unfortunately Crown Crate gifting will remain unavailable for the foreseeable future as we work on a long-term solution.
In the meantime, we are working on a limited, temporary solution for Crown Crate gifting. We hope to have that solution in place and full details to share with you in the coming weeks. Thanks again for your continued patience as we work to resolve this issue.Hello!
We've removed some posts from this thread as they violated our rules on baiting and conspiracy theories. We understand that everyone has their own opinions they want to express, but we also want the forums to be a constructive platform for ESO and its community. We do not permit the bashing of individuals (including ZeniMax employees), groups, or other companies on our forums. We believe that doing so is neither constructive nor in spirit of our game and community.
Thank you for your understanding, and please keep the Community Rules in mind when posting on the forums.
May 23:Hello!
We would like to remind everyone that while it's understandable to be frustrated or upset, we do ask that you keep all disagreements civil, constructive, and on-topic. We do not permit the bashing of individuals (including ZeniMax employees), groups, or other companies on our forums. We've gone ahead and removed these posts as they violated our Community Rules.
We also do not allow "quitting" posts, as these generally aren't constructive and add nothing to the conversation.
Thank you for your understanding, and please keep the Community Rules in mind when posting on the forums.
May 24:Hello!
Once again, we would like to remind those participating in this thread that we expect all messages to follow our Community Rules. It’s okay to disagree and debate, but we do ask that you keep all disagreements civil, constructive, and on-topic. If a discussion gets heated and turns into a debate, remember that you should stick to debating the post and/or thread topic. It is never appropriate to resort to personal comments or jabs about those participating in the thread discussion.
Thank you for your understanding, and please keep the Community Rules in mind when posting on the forums.
May 30:Hi, everyone. At this time, we have no major updates regarding Crown Crate Gifting. We are actively working on the temporary solution to the Crown Crate gifting. We are also exploring our options for a more permanent fix. We'll follow up on the week of June 12th with more information. As always, thank you for your continued patience.
June 2023June 16:Hi, everyone. At this time, we have no major updates regarding Crown Crate Gifting. We are actively working on the temporary solution to the Crown Crate gifting. We are also exploring our options for a more permanent fix. We'll follow up on the week of June 12th with more information. As always, thank you for your continued patience.
June 18:Greetings,
We have removed some insulting back and forth that was disruptive. Please ensure you are treating others with respect on the forums even when they have views that differ from your own.Edited by muscle_witch on June 20, 2023 6:41AM13 -
Red99✭✭✭I don't know about you but I feel cheated, first they were investigating, then they said it was a bug, and finally now they say they want to stop the fraudolent crate giftingEdited by Red99 on June 20, 2023 7:58AM13
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VaranisArano✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭[snip]
Seriously worried that they are being involved as part of the solution. They frequently only make situations worse and do not understand core aspects of the game. There is a reason they don't have any surveys for people...[/quote]
This is a guess, but one method of gifting Crown Store items prior to actual gifting was to talk to Customer Support to facilitate the gift. ZOS pretty much shut that down when it turned out that a group of people were using Support to trade account-bound crown crate rewards.
I'm not entirely sure why ZOS didn't just go back to this method earlier. Possibly because of their investigations? Possibly because the volume of gift requests is more than Support can reasonably handle on top of their normal caseload? I dunno.
[edited to remove quote]Edited by ZOS_Lunar on June 22, 2023 5:34PM1 -
FantasticFreddie✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Wow. The transition from "this is a bug we are investigating" to "we had to turn it off because exploits" is wild.
If they always knew it was an exploit and they turned it off, why act like it was a bug they were fixing?20 -
AlasthornSoul ShrivenHi all, we know many of you have been asking for an explanation regarding the Crown Crate gifting issue. This has been and continues to be a delicate process as there is sensitive information involved. With that, we’ve been working on a high-level overview of the current issue, which is that we’ve discovered some fraudulent behavior related to Crown Crate gifting, primarily on the PC platform.
We have been working diligently to find a resolution to this and put a stop to the fraudulent behavior. We want players who are not violating our Terms of Service by engaging in fraudulent behavior to be able to continue to use gifting in ESO. We also cannot allow this fraudulent behavior to continue. As you know, we noted that our original fix resolved part of the problem, however, we discovered another related issue in the process. We are continuing to work on a long-term resolution for that issue and, unfortunately, this means PC Crown Crate gifting in-game will remain unavailable until we do..
In the meantime, we are working on a more immediate temporary solution with our Customer Support team to aid in facilitating Crown Crate gifting transactions. We’ll have more to share on that soon. We hope this gives some insight into why PC Crown Crate gifting continues to be unavailable. As always, thank you for your continued patience and understanding.
Thanks @ZOS_Kevin for the clarification...
Already to answer the previous messages of others players, which wonder if the goal of ZoS is to:
1) Fight against LootBox purchases in countries that block them
Or
2) Fight against purchases via other currencies.
I'm thinking 1) instead, because 2) would imply blocking gifts on ALL Crown Store items and not just Crown Crates...
As for the problem:
- ZOS blocks access to the purchase of crown boxes in certain countries because it is the local legislation that requires it.
For example, I'm French (baguette, yes
) and in France, no restrictions. On the other hand, I have Belgian friends (who are French-speaking neighbors) and in Belgium, LootBox sales are prohibited.
So, no Crown Crate in ESO for the Belgians...
(Well already I find it ridiculous in itself to infantilize people who are adults but hey, it's the law there, okay...)
So ZoS respects the legislation of the country in question
But, if a Belgian player, buys crates via gifts to someone outside Belgium (which happens regularly to talk about it with them) --can ZoS be held legally responsible?--
Zos does not give direct access to crown crates, ZoS does not encourage consumption because they do not appear at all in the shop...
The person therefore makes the "effort" to circumvent the system to buy the boxes, so it is a thoughtful purchase and not an "impulse" purchase (which is precisely what the legislation is fighting, I suppose)
so to me that would be like saying it's the car manufacturer's fault if the driver speeds (we had to build a car that can't go over the limit)
For a final comment regarding the management of this problem, what I deplore the most is ZoS's poor communication... And that on most of the topics covered... it's a shame because this studio has the tools available to communicate correctly, and the news proves to us that studios that communicate transparently are rather well perceived, and keep their players...
In short... more communication, more messages... even if they are messages that tell us "we have a problem, sorry but wait", rather than a frustrating silence...Edited by Alasthorn on June 20, 2023 1:27PM5 -
tsaescishoeshiner✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭FantasticFreddie wrote: »Wow. The transition from "this is a bug we are investigating" to "we had to turn it off because exploits" is wild.
If they always knew it was an exploit and they turned it off, why act like it was a bug they were fixing?
How is an exploit not a bug they need to fix? I think that's the same thing. They often seem to not mention exploits until they're fixed, which usually makes sense because they can fix it before too many people noticePC-NA
in-game: @tsaescishoeshiner4 -
Finedaible✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭I wonder if many of these issues could have been mitigated had they actually implemented crowns into the trading UI back when they sanctioned using the gifting option to sell crowns for gold in the first place. Probably not, but other games allow you to trade for 'premium' currencies; I would assume such systems would allow for better tracking logs of crown movement anyway but what do I know.3 -
FantasticFreddie✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »FantasticFreddie wrote: »Wow. The transition from "this is a bug we are investigating" to "we had to turn it off because exploits" is wild.
If they always knew it was an exploit and they turned it off, why act like it was a bug they were fixing?
How is an exploit not a bug they need to fix? I think that's the same thing. They often seem to not mention exploits until they're fixed, which usually makes sense because they can fix it before too many people notice
Look at the language. It's implied that Zos doesn't know how crown gifting has been disabled, that it's a bug they are investigating.
What they COULD have said, in an actual proper announcement when they turned it off, was that they had temporarily disabled crown crate gifting due to some internal anomalies, they would let us know when it would be back on but the problem was complex and they are still working on discovering the scope of the issue. No worries, any crates that expire while gifting was disabled would be brought back around once they had it up and running.
They did not do that. Instead, they acted like the bug reports was the first they were hearing about gifting being disabled, and we've had "fix" timeliness get longer and longer, and no word at all about if they will bring back expired crates.7 -
Rageypoo✭✭✭✭✭I gotta say, I'm extremely disappointed at how this is being handled. Customer service doesn't seem to help or have any sympathy for the situation either, ignoring tickets for months, but if you check in with another ticket to ask about why they haven't responded in a few months, they're able to mark that ticket as a duplicate, while leaving the original unanswered. Really breaks my confidence with this game.12
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Maitsukas✭✭✭✭✭
✭FantasticFreddie wrote: »Wow. The transition from "this is a bug we are investigating" to "we had to turn it off because exploits" is wild.
If they always knew it was an exploit and they turned it off, why act like it was a bug they were fixing?
In my opinion, any bug that gets a spike in it's usage for malicious intent is called an exploit.
If those players were running multiple PC clients to quickly switch megaservers instead of logging out to the login screen, then that is a really major issue, especially if the Crowns would not reduce immediately from their accounts. This may well be a reason for the cooldown time we had to have a few months ago.PC-EU @maitsukas
Posting the Infinite Archive and Imperial City Weekly Vendor updates.
Also trying out new Main Quests, Companions, ToT decks, Events and Styles on PTS.5 -
new cratess season tomorrow, and guess what? once again anyone who doesn't open a wallet and spend their money will be left out of this fun that is opening crates, and so far we don't have any solution to this problem, just silence....4 -
WiseSky✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭I have messaged Customer Support
I made a replied right away within the 96 hours mark and did not get a reply from the team.
Not even a Automated One...
[snip]
[edited for baiting]Edited by ZOS_Lunar on June 22, 2023 5:37PM3 -
ZOS_LunaradminHi there!
After some review, we would like to remind everyone that all posts should be kept civil, constructive, and within the guidelines of the community rules we have in place. It’s okay to disagree and debate on the official ESO forums, but we do ask that you keep all disagreements civil, constructive, and on-topic. If a discussion gets heated and turns into a debate, remember that you should stick to debating the post and/or thread topic. It is never appropriate to resort to personal comments or jabs about those participating in the thread discussion.
Thank you for your understanding, and please keep the Community Rules in mind when posting on the forums.The Elder Scrolls Online - ZeniMax Online Studios
Forum Rules | Code of Conduct | Terms of Service | Home Page | Help Site0 -
Asmelia✭✭✭I have a solution for you zenimax, if crown crate gifting arent working then increase the endeavor that is working to buy stuff of crown crate increase it like that regular endeavor give you 2000 endeavor and weekly give 8000 endeavor the time it get fixed so at least people can get things. And why so hight endeavor given, it would be because of all the trouble people got in with that situation. So would be fair enough for people for the long await for a fix and at least could buy things ingame without any issue for anyone.4 -
Alchimiste1✭✭✭✭✭Damn that's crazy, I'm starting to think that maybe just maybe buying 200+ crates / spending 450 USD for a Chance at some random radiant mount might not be worth it.
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syberfut✭✭✭Ahh, so this fraud issue has finally come to a head. The possibility of fraud was always there, but I suppose this time around it has become bad-bad. There are possible solutions, but each would require time to develop. As a software engineer, I can relate to this.. time/money vs feature.. bleh. I'd hope to see a fix to this as I too am a writ crafter
Notes:- COD: Needs to be tracked and rescindable for the case that the recipient doesn't want to pay it and doesn't want to RTS.
- Returned crown items: Crown items bought need to be able to be refundable. It is too much of a burden for sellers to be on the receiving end of, "I changed my mind."
Some ideas.. without assuming anything.. and each will have their own pros and cons.- Instead of gifting, allow a "Trade" option that would present to the recipient as a COD.
- Instead of gifting, allow a "Buy token" option. This would create a tradeable, sellable, auctionable token in the seller's inventory. People could buy this token and redeem it for the item. This would present a more hands-off approach.
- Add a system to allow people to create purchase orders, attaching their gold.
- Add an item to the crown store to buy a "Crown Certificate" that can be traded, sold, auctioned. People could buy this and redeem it for crowns to their account. This would be similar to the above token suggestion except there is more flexibility.
Meh, just suggestions. I appreciate ZOS for updating us and working to making content safely accessible.4 -
Deathgiggle✭✭✭So people were buying them with stolen credit card numbers from bot accounts and selling the crates online at various websites. When you ordered them, they sent them to your account and they used a stolen credit card. Then the banks reverse the charges and ZoS gets left holding the bag. If they take away said items from your account, then people hate on them and it's bad press that they are taking away gifted items. So they take the ability away from everyone.2 -
Sythen88411✭✭✭✭Deathgiggle wrote: »So people were buying them with stolen credit card numbers from bot accounts and selling the crates online at various websites. When you ordered them, they sent them to your account and they used a stolen credit card. Then the banks reverse the charges and ZoS gets left holding the bag. If they take away said items from your account, then people hate on them and it's bad press that they are taking away gifted items. So they take the ability away from everyone.
Is this a hunch or did you hear this or?3 -
Elsonso✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Sythen88411 wrote: »Deathgiggle wrote: »So people were buying them with stolen credit card numbers from bot accounts and selling the crates online at various websites. When you ordered them, they sent them to your account and they used a stolen credit card. Then the banks reverse the charges and ZoS gets left holding the bag. If they take away said items from your account, then people hate on them and it's bad press that they are taking away gifted items. So they take the ability away from everyone.
Is this a hunch or did you hear this or?
My vote is that this is not an accurate statement. Multiple problems with it that do not fit available information.6 -
Colue✭So they release another create and make it not far for us more, let's start making it far cut grifting off on xbox & psn. Then across all platforms cut the endeavor price by more than half. Than give something to the pc side of the game that's worth the time that the gifting has been off with no real answer as to when and why.0
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ZOS_KevinCommunity ManagerHi all. We wanted to provide a quick update here to close out the week. We are in the final stages of getting the temporary solution for Crown Crate Gifting finalized. We are getting the necessary checks from various teams to make sure the process is ready. Once we clear that hurdle, we will have details for the program and a date for when it will go live.
We are also taking the feedback outlined here regarding communication and relaying those to our teams. Thanks for your continued feedback and patience surrounding this issue.Community Manager for ZeniMax Online Studio and Elder Scrolls OnlineDev Tracker | Service Alerts | ESO Twitter12 -
tsaescishoeshiner✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Hi all. We wanted to provide a quick update here to close out the week. We are in the final stages of getting the temporary solution for Crown Crate Gifting finalized. We are getting the necessary checks from various teams to make sure the process is ready. Once we clear that hurdle, we will have details for the program and a date for when it will go live.
We are also taking the feedback outlined here regarding communication and relaying those to our teams. Thanks for your continued feedback and patience surrounding this issue.
Thanks for the update!PC-NA
in-game: @tsaescishoeshiner0
This discussion has been closed.