to be frank, if they can't restore his character, they should refund all money that the person has spent on the game on that account.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Good morning, everyone. We want to take some time to provide an update on this thread. First and foremost, thank you to everyone who voiced concern on behalf of @Yormula and their account. We understand the concern comes from a place of care for Yormula's account, and also player account safety overall. We want to stress how seriously the ZOS team takes these concerns. We hope giving context to this specific case will help ease your concerns and show the steps we are taking to ensure account integrity.

As the original post stated, we were assisting in a specific achievement-related issue Yormula had. We attempted a very complicated manual fix that is rarely done to make the character whole. This fix failed due to a human error using very complex tools. The result left the character in an unplayable state.

With that, we would like to highlight a few clarifying details:

• Yormula's character is currently in an unplayable state due to the error, not deleted. The character data still exists. For those worried about character deletion, we want to reassure you this is not what happened in this case.
• We have identified the error which left the character unplayable and have updated our process to ensure that this type of error is prevented in the future.
• Lastly, we are personally updating Yormula as we continue the process to resolve this for them. This particular situation is complex and will take some time, and we are committed to doing everything in our power to make this right.

We hope this helps assure you that we have taken appropriate measures to prevent this error moving forward and also that we are taking steps to make this right for Yormula. We will continue communication with Yormula about this until the issue is resolved. Thank you.

Good on you for making an official reply. The whole process has taken too long, but well, better late then never...maybe?

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Good morning, everyone. We want to take some time to provide an update on this thread. First and foremost, thank you to everyone who voiced concern on behalf of @Yormula and their account. We understand the concern comes from a place of care for Yormula's account, and also player account safety overall. We want to stress how seriously the ZOS team takes these concerns. We hope giving context to this specific case will help ease your concerns and show the steps we are taking to ensure account integrity.

As the original post stated, we were assisting in a specific achievement-related issue Yormula had. We attempted a very complicated manual fix that is rarely done to make the character whole. This fix failed due to a human error using very complex tools. The result left the character in an unplayable state.

With that, we would like to highlight a few clarifying details:

• Yormula's character is currently in an unplayable state due to the error, not deleted. The character data still exists. For those worried about character deletion, we want to reassure you this is not what happened in this case.
• We have identified the error which left the character unplayable and have updated our process to ensure that this type of error is prevented in the future.
• Lastly, we are personally updating Yormula as we continue the process to resolve this for them. This particular situation is complex and will take some time, and we are committed to doing everything in our power to make this right.

We hope this helps assure you that we have taken appropriate measures to prevent this error moving forward and also that we are taking steps to make this right for Yormula. We will continue communication with Yormula about this until the issue is resolved. Thank you.

This... This is exactly the stuff that we need to see. Thanks @ZOS_Kevin!

OutLaw_Nynx wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Good morning, everyone. We want to take some time to provide an update on this thread. First and foremost, thank you to everyone who voiced concern on behalf of @Yormula and their account. We understand the concern comes from a place of care for Yormula's account, and also player account safety overall. We want to stress how seriously the ZOS team takes these concerns. We hope giving context to this specific case will help ease your concerns and show the steps we are taking to ensure account integrity.

As the original post stated, we were assisting in a specific achievement-related issue Yormula had. We attempted a very complicated manual fix that is rarely done to make the character whole. This fix failed due to a human error using very complex tools. The result left the character in an unplayable state.

With that, we would like to highlight a few clarifying details:

• Yormula's character is currently in an unplayable state due to the error, not deleted. The character data still exists. For those worried about character deletion, we want to reassure you this is not what happened in this case.
• We have identified the error which left the character unplayable and have updated our process to ensure that this type of error is prevented in the future.
• Lastly, we are personally updating Yormula as we continue the process to resolve this for them. This particular situation is complex and will take some time, and we are committed to doing everything in our power to make this right.

We hope this helps assure you that we have taken appropriate measures to prevent this error moving forward and also that we are taking steps to make this right for Yormula. We will continue communication with Yormula about this until the issue is resolved. Thank you.

“ Yormula's character is currently in an unplayable state due to the error, not deleted. The character data still exists. For those worried about character deletion, we want to reassure you this is not what happened in this case.”

This is so good to read. Thank you for posting this information, Kevin.

I agree. Even though it's 10 months in and took a month for an official reply once it went public, it's nice to see some new administration here and @ZOS_Kevin is doing it right setting a new bar -- which is quiet refreshing to see. More of this type of communication and interaction with the community, please. It goes such a long way past just these forums.

@Yormula, please keep us updated as you can. Even with the positive verbal reassurance from ZOS, it would be great to know what the final resolution and outcome of all this is. All the best.
.

@scorpius2k1

Yeah, I agree as well. I hope they continue to communicate within reason with us.

Now that is something I like to see. Thank you for the update, @ZOS_Kevin!

It is reassuring to know that the error that caused Yormula's predicament in the first place has been fixed. Still, I think in exceptional circumstances of characters being rendered unplayable for any reason, there should be a quicker response, and those cases being marked as important. After all, this isn't a simple fix - it's not like me getting reimbursed for a crafting survey that disappeared from my bank.

Situations like this won't be 100% preventable with a game as complex as this. They will be very rare (ideally on the order of 1 in 100 million, so maybe 99.999999% preventable), but when they do happen, it shouldn't take 10 months and a forum thread with 13 pages and nearly 60,000 views for a resolution to materialize. So in the unfortunate event that something like this happens again, the player posts a thread thanking support for getting their character back in action.

For now, we are all pining for a happy ending for Yormula here.

I'm glad to see an official reply indicating progress, but I'm still extremely disappointed that ZOS was willing to sit on this issue for nearly a year and only stepped up when the problem became too public (on the forums, at least) for them to continue sweeping under the rug. It's too similar to what happened a year ago, when ZOS ignored reports with proof that one of their Stream Team members was doxxing people including minors, and only took action against him when the situation was made public by the frustrated abuse-reporters and started to be picked up on by external outlets. It's why a few people actually quit the Stream Team last year; they were angry at the lack of proper action taken until it was forced. I still love the game and have friends on the dev team, but part of being a good friend is having the courage to tell someone you care about that they're really putting their foot in it.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Good morning, everyone. We want to take some time to provide an update on this thread. First and foremost, thank you to everyone who voiced concern on behalf of @Yormula and their account. We understand the concern comes from a place of care for Yormula's account, and also player account safety overall. We want to stress how seriously the ZOS team takes these concerns. We hope giving context to this specific case will help ease your concerns and show the steps we are taking to ensure account integrity.

As the original post stated, we were assisting in a specific achievement-related issue Yormula had. We attempted a very complicated manual fix that is rarely done to make the character whole. This fix failed due to a human error using very complex tools. The result left the character in an unplayable state.

With that, we would like to highlight a few clarifying details:

• Yormula's character is currently in an unplayable state due to the error, not deleted. The character data still exists. For those worried about character deletion, we want to reassure you this is not what happened in this case.
• We have identified the error which left the character unplayable and have updated our process to ensure that this type of error is prevented in the future.
• Lastly, we are personally updating Yormula as we continue the process to resolve this for them. This particular situation is complex and will take some time, and we are committed to doing everything in our power to make this right.

We hope this helps assure you that we have taken appropriate measures to prevent this error moving forward and also that we are taking steps to make this right for Yormula. We will continue communication with Yormula about this until the issue is resolved. Thank you.

Wow @ZOS_Kevin absolutely amazing update!!!!

Thank you for the detailed update. Great to see positive response

I know that the devs probably have a gag order against certain things and can't tell us what's going on behind the curtain, but the fact that just taking the time to explain things to us, the customers, made the majority of us extremely excited should speak volumes to the company that they need to be more transparent with things the community have issues with.

Again, good luck OP, I sincerely hope they manage to fix the error and restore your character to a playable state soon, so that you may enjoy your time in the game once more.

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

Its good to see the goodwill being propagated from the interaction people have been asking for. The fact that ZOS has made this happen deserves a lot of recognition in light of the criticism they get.

I really hope the goodwill lasts beyond the point where communication starts to also bring disappointment, because the insight we get from these responses is really invaluable and appreciated. I think that's on the community to meet this goodwill half-way and to answer it with respect. We'll see!

It's great that we finally got a detailed response that addressed a lot of the points that were being raised here, and a big thank you to @ZOS_Kevin for delivering that message to us, and for anyone behind the scenes that helped to champion it.

That being said, I think most would agree that it shouldn't have taken that long for this type of communication to happen (or at least it would have been nice to have it sooner) - the criticism ZOS has received (the constructive kind) has been well-deserved, and one step in that right direction doesn't change or take away from that. Hopefully we see more of this going forward.

As for goodwill, it's important to remember how this relationship works - this isn't a communal friendship, this is a business relationship. The community (or customers) really don't owe ZOS anything.

You could argue that ZOS doesn't owe the community anything either, except that they do want us to continue to buy their products - as a business they depend on that - and in general, building up goodwill with customers helps in that regard. The onus is on ZOS to foster goodwill through their repeated actions and interactions - this is not the customer's responsibility.

That being said, while the customer shouldn't have to win over the business, it doesn't mean that we can't be respectful, helpful, and kind with our interactions, even when we're upset - this is something I think most of us can get behind.

After all, ZOS is made up of people, people like Kevin (and all those unnamed behind the recent communication) that seem to genuinely want to help. And while the actions and policies of the company don't necessarily reflect the actions or mindsets of those working for the company, the opposite is also true.

Regardless, thanks again for the update @ZOS_Kevin, actions and transparency like this can really go a long way, and as you can see, it's been very well received by the community here! @Yormula - let's hope we see a resolution of some sort sooner than later, the whole community is rooting for a happy ending here - whatever that may look like!