The unfairly locked accounts should have been addressed privately.

Punches_Below_Belt

Just as disciplinary actions are handled. ZOS should have reached out to the individuals and proposed any compensation individually. Even if the locked accounts share similar issues, making this issue fodder for public discussion has not served those with locked accounts nor the continued health of the game.

I’m afraid in an attempt to get out in front of a PR nightmare, ZOS has actually exacerbated this situation and everyone is going to suffer as a result

Soarora

People getting too much compensation is a non-issue. If they hadn’t been public about it, then the media (and most of us) would believe they’ve done nothing to remedy the situation (or given them a non-combat pet or exp scrolls, which is what many people expected was going to happen).

metheglyn

The exacerbation is solely at the hands of those complaining about the compensation. ZOS communicated in a clear and timely manner about the matter, which is what many people have been asking them to do for ages now.

MasterSpatula

No. This only matters to a small number of people who are somehow unashamed of behaving shamefully.

Seraphayel

Punches_Below_Belt wrote: »

Just as disciplinary actions are handled. ZOS should have reached out to the individuals and proposed any compensation individually. Even if the locked accounts share similar issues, making this issue fodder for public discussion has not served those with locked accounts nor the continued health of the game.

I’m afraid in an attempt to get out in front of a PR nightmare, ZOS has actually exacerbated this situation and everyone is going to suffer as a result

And you think wrongfully banned players would have been silent and not stormed the forums and talked about the ban or the compensation? Come on.

Elvenheart

Seraphayel wrote: »

Punches_Below_Belt wrote: »

Just as disciplinary actions are handled. ZOS should have reached out to the individuals and proposed any compensation individually. Even if the locked accounts share similar issues, making this issue fodder for public discussion has not served those with locked accounts nor the continued health of the game.

I’m afraid in an attempt to get out in front of a PR nightmare, ZOS has actually exacerbated this situation and everyone is going to suffer as a result

And you think wrongfully banned players would have been silent and not stormed the forums and talked about the ban or the compensation? Come on.

This. And if I had been one of the unfairly banned players, after they notified me about the compensation I would’ve had no qualms about sharing it with the world to show everyone how generous ZOS was in this instance. And if they had made me sign a nondisclosure agreement, I would have said “I can’t say what the compensation is because of an NDA, but boy, it’s a doozy!”

Veesk

Punches_Below_Belt wrote: »

Just as disciplinary actions are handled. ZOS should have reached out to the individuals and proposed any compensation individually. Even if the locked accounts share similar issues, making this issue fodder for public discussion has not served those with locked accounts nor the continued health of the game.

I’m afraid in an attempt to get out in front of a PR nightmare, ZOS has actually exacerbated this situation and everyone is going to suffer as a result

I had thought about this too (even wondering about NDAs keeping the compensation from leaking) but I think the bigger issue is that they don't want to deter people from using the PTS and this is showing publicly that they are taking care of players who were affected by the original issue. If people didn't see that, it could have hurt potential PTS player numbers going forward.

If they had done this privately without NDAs, as others have said, it would have just come out anyway.

With NDAs not only are people not seeing how ZOS handled the situation with transparency, but it would probably also make people wary to see players affected by a major issue and then not allowed to talk about it. Even with some players having a negative reaction to the compensation, transparency from a company is much better than trying to silence or keep things hidden.

spartaxoxo

I disagree. Although I am on console, my faith in ZOS for such a serious matter depended on good communication and just compensation for the players affected. If they said nothing, I likely wouldn't trust them any longer and had canceled my ESO+. This is one of the most serious issues players have ever faced, so even those of not affected were watching closely.

Jaraal

I'm not one of the directly affected individuals, but I think the stated compensation is fair for those whose locked accounts have already been restored. However, those who will still be locked out past Monday and beyond should receive more for their continuing lost game time, lost in-game income, inability to farm the lucrative limited time event boxes, and the valuable items that are being lost in expiring mails, and so forth.

xclassgaming

Jaraal wrote: »

I'm not one of the directly affected individuals, but I think the stated compensation is fair for those whose locked accounts have already been restored. However, those who will still be locked out past Monday and beyond should receive more for their continuing lost game time, lost in-game income, inability to farm the lucrative limited time event boxes, and the valuable items that are being lost in expiring mails, and so forth.

I just want my costume..i have certainly missed it now.

Shara_Wynn

Punches_Below_Belt wrote: »

Just as disciplinary actions are handled. ZOS should have reached out to the individuals and proposed any compensation individually. Even if the locked accounts share similar issues, making this issue fodder for public discussion has not served those with locked accounts nor the continued health of the game.

I’m afraid in an attempt to get out in front of a PR nightmare, ZOS has actually exacerbated this situation and everyone is going to suffer as a result

Absolutely this! Perfect solution!

Shara_Wynn

Seraphayel wrote: »

Punches_Below_Belt wrote: »

Just as disciplinary actions are handled. ZOS should have reached out to the individuals and proposed any compensation individually. Even if the locked accounts share similar issues, making this issue fodder for public discussion has not served those with locked accounts nor the continued health of the game.

I’m afraid in an attempt to get out in front of a PR nightmare, ZOS has actually exacerbated this situation and everyone is going to suffer as a result

And you think wrongfully banned players would have been silent and not stormed the forums and talked about the ban or the compensation? Come on.

Well ZOS could have made it so they couldn't do that. Or if they did that, they would loose their compensation. Bit like a non-disclosure on an out-of-court settlement. Or any settlement for that matter.

DerAlleinTiger

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

Punches_Below_Belt wrote: »

Just as disciplinary actions are handled. ZOS should have reached out to the individuals and proposed any compensation individually. Even if the locked accounts share similar issues, making this issue fodder for public discussion has not served those with locked accounts nor the continued health of the game.

I’m afraid in an attempt to get out in front of a PR nightmare, ZOS has actually exacerbated this situation and everyone is going to suffer as a result

And you think wrongfully banned players would have been silent and not stormed the forums and talked about the ban or the compensation? Come on.

Well ZOS could have made it so they couldn't do that. Or if they did that, they would loose their compensation. Bit like a non-disclosure on an out-of-court settlement. Or any settlement for that matter.

Ah, yes. Nothing says "Sorry we unfairly locked out your account" quite like holding the compensation for ransom via NDA. I'm sure that would instill a lot of good will.

Would it actually change anything if people still got the exact same compensation but you just didn't know about it? And do you think that absolutely no one would ever let it slip even to friends that they just got 16K endeavor seals? All it would take is one single incident of someone having low seals and expressing that they want a crown crate item to friends before the lock-out only to suddenly get a radiant mount without buying any crown crates for their friends to go "Uh... where'd you get that from?" and the cat's out of the bag.

And let's be honest, if ZOS tried to cover it up and it inevitably got out, people would be mad at them for doing it 'in secret' and still say it's some kind of 'second class citizen' sort of thing. There was no winning and they took the most honest route they could.

Vulkunne

Seraphayel wrote: »

Punches_Below_Belt wrote: »

Just as disciplinary actions are handled. ZOS should have reached out to the individuals and proposed any compensation individually. Even if the locked accounts share similar issues, making this issue fodder for public discussion has not served those with locked accounts nor the continued health of the game.

I’m afraid in an attempt to get out in front of a PR nightmare, ZOS has actually exacerbated this situation and everyone is going to suffer as a result

And you think wrongfully banned players would have been silent and not stormed the forums and talked about the ban or the compensation? Come on.

Correct and everyone else would want a piece of it. That's right.

Shara_Wynn

DerAlleinTiger wrote: »

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

Punches_Below_Belt wrote: »

Just as disciplinary actions are handled. ZOS should have reached out to the individuals and proposed any compensation individually. Even if the locked accounts share similar issues, making this issue fodder for public discussion has not served those with locked accounts nor the continued health of the game.

I’m afraid in an attempt to get out in front of a PR nightmare, ZOS has actually exacerbated this situation and everyone is going to suffer as a result

And you think wrongfully banned players would have been silent and not stormed the forums and talked about the ban or the compensation? Come on.

Well ZOS could have made it so they couldn't do that. Or if they did that, they would loose their compensation. Bit like a non-disclosure on an out-of-court settlement. Or any settlement for that matter.

Ah, yes. Nothing says "Sorry we unfairly locked out your account" quite like holding the compensation for ransom via NDA. I'm sure that would instill a lot of good will.

Would it actually change anything if people still got the exact same compensation but you just didn't know about it? And do you think that absolutely no one would ever let it slip even to friends that they just got 16K endeavor seals? All it would take is one single incident of someone having low seals and expressing that they want a crown crate item to friends before the lock-out only to suddenly get a radiant mount without buying any crown crates for their friends to go "Uh... where'd you get that from?" and the cat's out of the bag.

And let's be honest, if ZOS tried to cover it up and it inevitably got out, people would be mad at them for doing it 'in secret' and still say it's some kind of 'second class citizen' sort of thing. There was no winning and they took the most honest route they could.

Oh my, people love a good conspiracy thought right? Lets hope it doesn't get leaked on 4CHAN.

kevkj

I don't think the compensation has really generated a PR nightmare, it's just a few individuals who would sink in pool of mercury failing a basic test of character.

Tandor

If there is a criticism to be made of ZOS, in my view it's not to do with being transparent about the compensation, it's more to do with the fact that when the forum really needed to be kept in line there was little to no moderation. Where were the "closing this thread as there's already one on this subject" type posts? I think ZOS handled the situation in the game very well, not so sure about the situation on the forum. There are still too many threads on this, none of them really saying anything new, and some of them being quite inappropriate.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

I prefer the transparency; I’d be suspicious if ZOS had tried to sweep everything under the rug.

(Side note to ZOS: on the occasions you do sweep things under the rug, I am suspicious!)

Also as someone who regularly engages with the PTS and only narrowly avoided getting caught in the lockout net, this reassures me that they are taking the problem seriously. (Also that my assistance on the PTS is valued, which I admit I’d wondered.) Assuming everyone gets their accounts back intact and in reasonably short order, I feel the people impacted were adequately compensated, and in general I think ZOS did as well as they could under the circumstances.

Tandor wrote: »

If there is a criticism to be made of ZOS, in my view it's not to do with being transparent about the compensation, it's more to do with the fact that when the forum really needed to be kept in line there was little to no moderation. Where were the "closing this thread as there's already one on this subject" type posts? I think ZOS handled the situation in the game very well, not so sure about the situation on the forum. There are still too many threads on this, none of them really saying anything new, and some of them being quite inappropriate.

I think they wanted to allow people to vent on the subject. And probably didn’t want to punish people who were understandably upset about being locked out of the game on top of the accidental lock out. It’d be like ‘Oh your car broke down? Well the spot it died in isn’t a valid parking spot, so here’s a parking ticket!’ Insult to injury and all that.

oldbobdude

Why in the world are folks who weren’t impacted so concerned with what the compensation is for those who were impacted. C’mon people, get a grip.

thinkaboutit

Whats funny is the brand of player that would play on PTS probably cares more about having their account unlocked so they can play the game with their peers rather than any compensation or so called 'overcompensation'

katanagirl1

This was really about two things, the number of seals and the style pages, for different reasons in each group of people. The extremely low drop rate for the style pages made those who weren’t affected by the lockout jealous that those who were affected did get them in the compensation.

People were already quite upset about the drop rate and then this happened. It was bad enough before but this was the icing on the cake (pun intended) and soured the anniversary celebration further. I hope something can be learned from this whole experience on how to have a celebratory event and find a way to make players who participate in the event - some of them for many, many hours - be able to get the rewards.

I think there would have been a lot less complaining if people had been able to get the style pages and really enjoy the event, instead of mindless, repetitive hours of grinding the same thing and getting nothing in some cases.

Braffin

Publicly announcing the compensation for their mistake was the right thing to do.

Zos isn't (directly) responsible for the toxic and envious trashtalk brought up by some.

ADarklore

Well, I hope they also discuss openly what they did to the accounts who actually tried to benefit from this situation, by buying things from the guild traders and giving stuff to friends, in an attempt to make use of their ill-gotten gains; knowing full well it was not intended.

Muizer

Braffin wrote: »

Publicly announcing the compensation for their mistake was the right thing to do.

Zos isn't (directly) responsible for the toxic and envious trashtalk brought up by some.

No. Not directly. But their development and monetization strategy has enabled a section of the player base's unhealthy dependency on rewards. That we now have people complaining about rewards others are getting is just a new low in a deleterious trend that's been going on for years now.

Lady_Galadhiel

Nah, it is great they made it public, this way every ban wave,where people will get wrongly banned in the future, will have a right to ask for compensation.
Zos did choose to open Pandora's box for PR reasons, now let them deal with it every time they screw something up.

Vrienda

Stay quiet and let everyone think the PTS is compromised and you're screwed if something bad ever happens? That's a terrible idea.

licenturion

Still weird how people are upset and thinking we are all compensated way too much or the whole case should have been silent

Tomorrow marks 7 days I cannot play ESO on my EU account.

Missed login rewards, 100s of missed even reward boxes, missed and expired sale mails from all my guild slots, missed fun actually solo playing at a very busy time of year when you can easily finish completing zones, missed playing and catching up with some friends, missed out on so many mats, missed out on thieves guild stuff, missed 21 event tickets for my indrik, etc

And people are jealous because we get 1 radiant mount, a game code with stuff I already had and a few style pages I wasn't really interested in to begin with.

I am jealous at the people who actually got to play the 10th anniversary of ESO, which is forever ruined for a bunch of us.

Dahveed

I'm way late to this party, what exactly happened to begin with? A bunch of people's accounts got accidentally banned somehow?

Is there a place I can check out the timeline on this? I'm curious now.

Anachronian

Dahveed wrote: »

I'm way late to this party, what exactly happened to begin with? A bunch of people's accounts got accidentally banned somehow?

Is there a place I can check out the timeline on this? I'm curious now.

Pretty much, anyone that touched the PTS during the initial opening on Monday had their accounts locked. This is because PTS and Live were still connecting, meaning that character creations/deletions and items in the PTS could transfer to Live.

I.E. PTS Template maxed characters with everything were copied to live.

They locked accounts to protect the game and to work on a way to rollback the accounts.

The issue was that the last backup to rollback to seems to have been 9:30AM on that Monday.

We've been locked out since then. Some have been unlocked due to being reviewed and not needing to be rolled back, while many are still locked.

Those that were still locked were given the Necrom Deluxe Collection Key, to allow us to continue playing somewhat, and allow us to test in the PTS.

They announced a compensation package for those affected, though this was written as though it would be restored last week, not this week. It will likely be adjusted further.