Seems like the only dude out there still willing to speak up about this bs.
Kudos to him.
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WOW OMG: Steam is refunding No Man's Sky even if you played more then 2 hours
- Thread starter Tony Iron Man Stark
- Start date
Seems like the only dude out there still willing to speak up about this bs.
Kudos to him.
Tranqueris
Banned
Hello Games are definitely surpassing expectations in a way. I did not think we would be here a few weeks ago.
VlaudTheImpaler
tl;dr
QisTopTier
XisBannedTier
One of the pros of being an independent journalist
Just woke up after my sick nap,
Was this you?
My god. Are people allowed to just spam good reviews for the express purpose of upping an average rating? What site is this from??
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
Totally agreed with Jim, if the rules allow you to play a game for over 50 hours and get a refund then you just exercised your rights.
Personally, I do not think that refunds are really entitled to people who have played a non THAT much of a broken game for such a long period of time, but it gets trickier if you get the issue of misleading advertising into the mix.
cleveridea
Member
Presumably metacritic
Whats good about steam user reviews is that people can vote on good quality reviews, thereby making high quality reviews count a lot more than spammed nonsense
So if you look at steam page for NMS, although the review average is "mixed" every single "most helpful" reviews that are shown by default are negative, since they have been verified by large amounts of people as accurate and representative reviews.
In other words, by default if you navigate to steam NMS page and scroll down, every single review shown on the main page content is negative with detailed commentary as to why. Tons of people have posted positive reviews since the game launched (and was rated "mostly negative") but the way steam works is that users see the vetted reviews on the page (which are 100% negative, red thumb downs)
Probably more and more refund requests will be rejected as time goes on, as more and more people will take advantage of it and, quite obviously, nor Valve or Sony or anyone else can approve thousands of refunds (I guess we are around the thousand by now).
That being said, if I have to be 100% honest, I think Sahid had a point. Sure, calling you thiefs isn't very polite but let's be real: we gamers have accepted in the past every kind of scum from big devs, be it absurd microtransactions, extreme poor content at $60, broken games, lies, servers closed way too soon, DLC on disk and even true endings sold separately as DLC. None of these actions led to a thread that later would go "viral", if I can use this term, creating a mass of people asking for refunds. I find it ironic that's the little team of 12 who has to pay the price while the big ones can always get away with everything.
Please believe me when I say I'm not defending HG, they shipped a lie and I never liked NMS to begin with, but I have to say, most of you could've avoided this game by waiting few days. Preorders have their risk and dealing with a shitty, broken game is one. But ehi who knows, HG could fix it.. or so I thought before this gigantic backslash. I just think this situation is getting a little out of hand and this silence from HG / Sean / Sony sounds like a very bad signal.
That being said, if I have to be 100% honest, I think Sahid had a point. Sure, calling you thiefs isn't very polite but let's be real: we gamers have accepted in the past every kind of scum from big devs, be it absurd microtransactions, extreme poor content at $60, broken games, lies, servers closed way too soon, DLC on disk and even true endings sold separately as DLC. None of these actions led to a thread that later would go "viral", if I can use this term, creating a mass of people asking for refunds. I find it ironic that's the little team of 12 who has to pay the price while the big ones can always get away with everything.
Please believe me when I say I'm not defending HG, they shipped a lie and I never liked NMS to begin with, but I have to say, most of you could've avoided this game by waiting few days. Preorders have their risk and dealing with a shitty, broken game is one. But ehi who knows, HG could fix it.. or so I thought before this gigantic backslash. I just think this situation is getting a little out of hand and this silence from HG / Sean / Sony sounds like a very bad signal.
VlaudTheImpaler
tl;dr
Um, I know you are a smart guy so you have to know that when most people say the bolded, while not something I would say personally, they mean that these people will literally come to the games defense and try to tell the people who are trying to voice their anger at the state of things towards HG that there is no problem. And they do. Even in this thread there are many people who are basically shaming people who are getting refunds. All of that to us makes it seem like there are some crazy people who defend the game blindly. A lot of them are hit and runs.
What I haven't seen is people outright attacking or upset at those who are enjoying the game and trying to stop them. That is the accusation that was lobbed that I was talking about in my post. That there was a tone from the people who are against HG and the way they handled this of being angry that others where enjoying the game. I believe even the term "big ol fart cloud thrown their way" by the NMS threads was even used. I don't see that and I have been in and read pretty much all of them except the OT because I just wanted the people who are enjoying the game to be able to have a place to do so away from this situation if that's what they want.
HyperCubed4
Member
"More Helpful" reviews don't impact the overall average any more than less helpful ones, do they?
Tony Iron Man Stark
Banned
Hmm, would have gotten NMS if I'd have known it was going to be a free rental.
It's not a free rental. Many here are denied refunds. For some of us, it took many tried to get a helpful Support agent.
Message by you on Sat, Aug 27 2016 15:21
I would like to request a refund for No Man's Sky that I recently purchased. I know Steam has a policy of 2 hours of playtime, and I have approximately 4 hours of playtime. The initial hours of this game were spent fighting massive frame rate issues, crashes, and servers just not working. There were several aspects of this game advertised and we were led to believe was in the game, but they are missing. In fact, tons of what Sean at Hello Games advertised is just simply not true. There are numerous videos of him claiming yes or no to many things and then they just do not exist in the game.
I have had a Steam account for many years and have hundreds of games in my collection. This is the first and only game I've requested a refund on. There is a thread on Reddit that had at least 30 different claims that turned out to be straight false. I feel so lied to about this game that I was extremely excited about.
I wanted to give the game an honest chance, but the more I learned about it, the more I regretted my purchase and realized it is a shell of the game we were promised.
I would greatly appreciate a refund for this game: back onto my credit card, please.
Thank you for your time.
Message by Support Tech Chuck on Mon, Aug 29 2016 11:19
Thank you for inquiring about a refund for No Mans Sky. There has been some recent confusion in the community about Steam refunds for this title. Our standard refund policy continues to apply to No Mans Sky, and playtime continues to matter when refunding the product.
Weve reviewed your playtime and unfortunately you do not qualify for a refund.
Please review our refund policy here:
http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/
I would like to request a refund for No Man's Sky that I recently purchased. I know Steam has a policy of 2 hours of playtime, and I have approximately 4 hours of playtime. The initial hours of this game were spent fighting massive frame rate issues, crashes, and servers just not working. There were several aspects of this game advertised and we were led to believe was in the game, but they are missing. In fact, tons of what Sean at Hello Games advertised is just simply not true. There are numerous videos of him claiming yes or no to many things and then they just do not exist in the game.
I have had a Steam account for many years and have hundreds of games in my collection. This is the first and only game I've requested a refund on. There is a thread on Reddit that had at least 30 different claims that turned out to be straight false. I feel so lied to about this game that I was extremely excited about.
I wanted to give the game an honest chance, but the more I learned about it, the more I regretted my purchase and realized it is a shell of the game we were promised.
I would greatly appreciate a refund for this game: back onto my credit card, please.
Thank you for your time.
Message by Support Tech Chuck on Mon, Aug 29 2016 11:19
Thank you for inquiring about a refund for No Mans Sky. There has been some recent confusion in the community about Steam refunds for this title. Our standard refund policy continues to apply to No Mans Sky, and playtime continues to matter when refunding the product.
Weve reviewed your playtime and unfortunately you do not qualify for a refund.
Please review our refund policy here:
http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/
Suzushiiro
Banned
Pretty much. I mean, yeah, there are people who will "abuse" an unconditional refund policy and exercise it not because they felt they were falsely advertised to or otherwise were unhappy with the game but just because they were done with it and wanted the money. But the solution to that isn't to shame the people in the latter group or deny the people in the former group their right to a refund, it's to not fuck up so bad that you have to offer unconditional refunds in the first place.
VlaudTheImpaler
tl;dr
Something tells me that some people are literally just looking at playtime and nothing more...
Steam is letting me down here. Sony has a big one up on them here in my book. At least in the US... :/
I would still keep trying though, and if you live in the UK then try posting this along with it. http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act
If you are in AUS then mention the ACCC lawsuit. Someone did that and got a refund when they initially weren't going to.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
You should have kept your refund request strictly to technical issues honestly. The bolded and underlined of your post are the issues that should not have been mentioned as it dilutes the real issue which was the technical problems you were experiencing.
He said she said type of reasons are easier to brush off than actual technical issues preventing one from partaking in a product they paid for.
In the US and no luck.
Maybe, but Steam really just seems like they want to shove their finger in my ass at this point. Very unhappy with them.
Don't want to single you out, the bolded is repeated by some here even though it doesn't apply.
Meanwhile the E3 2014 trailer on the Steam page is still proudly advertising features that are not in the game proper.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
If that is how you felt about Steam and their customer support, then even more so you should not have thrown in any reasons for them to decline your request.
As you can imagine that right now every tom dick and harry are going to be trying to use the OMGZTHEYLIEDTOME excuse in order to get a free ride now that the news has gotten around the internet. Rather than folks who have had an actual issue such as yourself with poor performance / crashing.
Exactly. Technical problems. Missing features. Tried the game multiple times after crashes which led to the playtime on record.
Keep it simple. Keep it clean.
VlaudTheImpaler
tl;dr
This is why people should keep trying. You may find the right rep who will read your ticket and give you a refund. Asking for supervisors is also a good idea. Just keep trying.
cleveridea
Member
They are visible on the main page though. To see the other ones, you have to click them to read them in full etc since they are in the margins and just previews.
Normally when I check a new game out that I havent heard of before, I just look at those reviews on the main page (which are the most helpful)
But yeah like you say, doesnt look it makes any difference to the average score. But scrolling down the main page and seeing nothing but red thumbs down is strongly negative even if the average is technically "mixed"
Regarding the refunds--
It's common for companies to become more unified in their responses as time goes by. They were probably taken back by all the intense reaction surrounding this game, and are just now getting a handle on how to respond.
In effect, you'll probably see less and less people getting their refunds.
It's common for companies to become more unified in their responses as time goes by. They were probably taken back by all the intense reaction surrounding this game, and are just now getting a handle on how to respond.
In effect, you'll probably see less and less people getting their refunds.
Saiyan-Rox
Member
VlaudTheImpaler
tl;dr
I'm beginning to think that people may want to start e-mailing Gabe. Is there a way to do that? I seem to remember seeing e-mail responses from him on Reddit and such.
If anything it may make him contact HG and try to get them to at least freaking say something about all of this. But most importantly people having technical issues still should definitely be getting refunds.
If anything it may make him contact HG and try to get them to at least freaking say something about all of this. But most importantly people having technical issues still should definitely be getting refunds.
cleveridea
Member
This. And escalate to supervisors whether it be a videogame product being returned, or an insurance claim being denied or whatever - always ask for a supervisor and if no luck THEIR supervisor. Higher up the chain you go the more they earn and the more discretionary power they have, and the more their time is worth.
VlaudTheImpaler
tl;dr
Yup, this has worked several times in this thread. I had advised someone to do this and if they said no to just try again and again until they get a supervisor who will grant the refund.
They did that and it worked.
cleveridea
Member
I have a feeling Gabe may actually like the game. For all people's problems its actually a highly innovative game thats rare in being 100% procedurally generated and I think by this point gabe is so rich $60 is 0.00000000001% of his personal wealth so I dont think the "its not worth it" resonates.
I'm sure Gabe also likes the E3 2014 trailer still playing on the Steam page.
Seems like this would endanger your account but I could be wrong
You won't be able to buy any more games on that account and it will get suspended.
Don't do it, you'll get banned.
cleveridea
Member
Honestly, I am just going to wait and see on more games. Usually by this point in the year I have at least 3-4 Fall games pre-ordered, but right now I have zero. Instead, I am just enjoying the forgotten joys of my backlog and am thinking about heading back to Gamefly as well. Tired of getting burned.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6687-HJVM-8966
Read it and ask yourself is it worth the risk.
Its a roundabout way of saying we have the legal right to lock your shit if you fuck with our money.
yeah, dont do it
VlaudTheImpaler
tl;dr
I don't know, I feel like Gabe has been pegged as being consumer centric so I was just saying that more voices thrown his way couldn't hurt. Hopefully he would be willing to set aside his personal feelings about the game, if he truly believes that HG handled this correctly which I just find very hard to believe, and at least lend an ear and a helping hand to what the consumers are trying to make a case for here.
Nomad Goat
Banned
Yet they are never taken aback when the money is rolling in...
I put in a refund request ticket on Steam yesterday, with 8 hours play. If Steam stops offering refunds all of a sudden after providing many refunds, I feel like that's a bigger issue than the reason I am asking for a refund. You can't selectively offer refunds for the same issue.
VlaudTheImpaler
tl;dr
I think people where using that because it has worked in the past in this thread. Someone said that all that they put was that the game didn't match the video as the reason for his steam refund and it worked.
But yeah, if they are cracking down on that then maybe it is just safer to put technical issues.
jim-jam bongs
Member
I have had the GOG version for ages and haven't actually downloaded it because of all the reports of problems with the PC version, but I think I'll keep it for now. I'd still like to play it for a while since what was actually delivered still sounds mildly interesting, but not until the game works properly.
Adam_Vania
Banned
for an industry that shafts its customers on the reg, it's extra sad to see everyone jump on a small team of 12 devs while they continue buying up crap from much larger, eviler corporations
Hell, I just told the truth. I said the more I played, the more I saw that it was not what was advertised and it also kept hard locking and blue screening my system. But digital games are treated as opened and used goods, which I find to be quite hilarious. As I can actually open and use a physical item I bought at the store and usually can return it for whatever reason.
Adam_Vania
Banned
yers kudos to the brave man who earns his money complaining about games and promotes taking money away from people that actually make games
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