MyVegas This Joker on facebook is mad at Playstudios

Because he foolishly spent more on chips than he got back in comps. I can't believe how ignorant people can be.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/myvegasguides/permalink/500954569961916/

 

i dont see any thing

 

He is the casino's ideal customer.

 

Whoops. Cliffs on it are:
This guy, his wife, and friend spent probably over $3,000 on chips.
They cashed in maybe $2,500 in comp value for their trip.
He's been writing nasty emails to playstudios claiming everything from rigging bonuses to purposely giving him bad chip package deals.
Playstudios tells him that it's all in their TOS, they couldn't find the issues, etc, so he gets really irate and posts a gigantic thing on this page that leads to fighting, insults, and bowling smack.

Lesson here is: he didn't do his research and got burned. Don't buy chips expecting it to be a good value, and don't expect regulated casino odds on these games.

 

Cliffs notes: You should read the post before ragging on him.

He's talking about bugs in the system. This is software with available microtransactions that is still in beta. If you are selling online currency and cannot be sure of the stability of your software, the problem is not in the hands of the consumer.

MyVegas has numerous issues of chip values not returning the expected, odd bugs in display and other such nonsense. I never buy online currency of any kind, but it's incredibly unethical to do it when your software is still in beta and then resort to the "Sorry, it's in our TOS when you get screwed because of bugs" line.

 

Really? We're gonna call MyVegas chips an "online currency"? Currencies can buy things. Even the LPs only get rewards that are entirely at the game provider's discretion.

 

This is commonly used in the game industry to refer to real money buying points to be spent in game though I could have said "game currency" and meant the same thing.

 

Can I pay for things in bitcoins?

 

Just wanted to clear that up as to me, a big part of a currency is being able to exchange it, and transfer it. And afaik there is no way to trade or sell LPs or chips, just buy them.

I can understand the guy being miffed about the games not working properly, and about not hearing back. But the email he considered terrible customer service is just really pretty standard troubleshooting. And its worth noting that he basically followed none of the advice and just said "my computer is awesome, it should not be my problem".

I think they could have treated him better. I think they could have handed him some free chips by way of apology. But I'm still kind of flabbergasted that someone would pay that much playing these games.

 

Maybe.
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/28881/kim-dotcom-wants-to-create-a-bitcoin-credit-card-would-you-want-a-megacard-/index.html

Currency is the exchange of an item representative of value for an item of value. People buy chips and loyalty points and they can exchange those loyalty points for real value comps.

The MyVegas thing is a brilliant idea. I'm just never a fan of microtransactions in buggy software. If you're gonna charge, it needs to be rock solid.

And you would be even more flabbergasted to look at how much some people spend on Farmville and other online facebook games. It's a huge industry now.

 

I can't understand why anyone would spend $3,000 on MyVegas virtual chips. Personally I think it is not practical to spend any amount of money on MyVegas chips. It is far worse than chasing comps in a real casino, because at least in a brick and mortar casino you can actually earn tier credits and at least get some benefit for spending all that money.

$3000 to play a virtual game so that you can win "free" passes to a buffet or Cirque du Soleil show? For $3,000 he could have made reservations for the same hotel room, shows and dining offered on MyVegas and still have had plenty of money left over to gamble with. I have played religiously since September and have redeemed three decent rewards for my upcoming trip. I am thrilled because they actually are 100% free, since I earned the loyalty points through play with the chips I earn through the game.

 

Well, there are a few problems with this interpretation.

First, what you buy. You're actually buying the chips, which cannot be exchanged for anything of value. All the deals pretty clearly state that the LPs you get are a bonus thrown into the transaction ... in other words, there is no direct LP exchange.

Second, the only way you can attain anything of value is in redeeming for rewards, and the type and number of rewards available to be attained this way are subject to change at any time and completely at the game provider's discretion.

And then we get to the complaints about the transactions. I have not heard about any bugs in actual chip purchase. Whenever this guy purchased chips, he got exactly the number of the deal he clicked on. Likewise, his LP's (which are the things you are calling currency) are not disappearing, not are his complaints about being able to spend them.

He is complaining about lost chips due to crashed bonuses, and those chips have no redemption option to exchange them for items of value.

So while that may be a customer relations black eye and not reflect well on them, it isn't quite the "bilking people in microtransactions" spin you are putting on it.

 

You're arguing semantics. What is occuring is a business charging money in an otherwise free to play game which makes the transaction optional. Clearly a buyer beware situation. The game has real world rewards attached to it which in turn means that money spent has real world value attached and whether it's chips or LP's is irrelevant. The game is still beta software and bugs are causing loss of value to the customer. I'm not upset or angry because I'm having fun playing for free. However that doesn't change the ethics of the situation. (Though my GF did point out that they charge double for chips if you're Canadian. We had a good laugh at that one because it's painfully overpricedas it is.)

My issue with microtransactions comes from elsewhere and is a generalization of my dislike for companies who use paying customers to beta test their software which is what MyVegas is doing. It's commonly done in free to play games to fund the last lap of game development.

The issue I raised here was that the complaint is based on bugs in the game which do cause loss of value to the customer. The OP painted him as a whiny player of a freebie game rather than an angry customer. I am merely pointing out the error.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the game moved out of the beta stage sometime in January, about the time they changed the redemption rules.