• Acknowledge they made a mistake and that it was against policy as perceived by the customer - Done!
• Correct the specific incidents of damage done to the Unrest server (aka disinfecting it of the transfered characters and whatever materials they brought over with them) - We are waiting.
• Evaluate if punishments are needed for the players that were involved and implement
  
• Look into the allegations of abuse of the test environment and adjust policy if needed - We won't see this if they do it anyway.
• And either adjust the public policy or put in measures to prevent such abuses in the future

Really, there's enough confusion and questions regarding this issue without letting too much rumor, conjecture, and assumption seep in through the cracks.  We should all remain dilligent to keep to the facts here.

Edited.

Really, a Private message to edit my post would have been more appropriate.

We do not all live on here, I read through all the red name posts, and saw no retraction, my bad.  My apologies.

BTW, it's worth considering the ramifications this has on SOE's image globally.

Consider SOE's latest gleaming cash cow, Legends of Norrath. What happens if people at SOE give away tons of free cards, rare cards, entire decks and so on to buddies? Meanwhile, the rest of the poor schmucks out there are buying booster pack after booster pack hoping for a lucky pack.

Is this just a random act of kindness gone awry? And let's not forget, SOE didn't catch or handle this on their own, they're responding because they're caught red-handed. What happens when they don't get caught?

This isn't needless worry or hypothetical sky is falling thoughts, or a conspiracy theory. There's absolutely no reason to think this can't happen, hasn't happened already and won't happen in the future. And what's SOE's response to these worries? "Chill out, they didn't mean any harm."?

The LoN issue is definitely a concern for me too, I paid for my cards fairly.

BTW, it's worth considering the ramifications this has on SOE's image globally.

Consider SOE's latest gleaming cash cow, Legends of Norrath. What happens if people at SOE give away tons of free cards, rare cards, entire decks and so on to buddies? Meanwhile, the rest of the poor schmucks out there are buying booster pack after booster pack hoping for a lucky pack.

Is this just a random act of kindness gone awry? And let's not forget, SOE didn't catch or handle this on their own, they're responding because they're caught red-handed. What happens when they don't get caught?

This isn't needless worry or hypothetical sky is falling thoughts, or a conspiracy theory. There's absolutely no reason to think this can't happen, hasn't happened already and won't happen in the future. And what's SOE's response to these worries? "Chill out, they didn't mean any harm."?

BTW, it's worth considering the ramifications this has on SOE's image globally.

Consider SOE's latest gleaming cash cow, Legends of Norrath. What happens if people at SOE give away tons of free cards, rare cards, entire decks and so on to buddies? Meanwhile, the rest of the poor schmucks out there are buying booster pack after booster pack hoping for a lucky pack.

Is this just a random act of kindness gone awry? And let's not forget, SOE didn't catch or handle this on their own, they're responding because they're caught red-handed. What happens when they don't get caught?

This isn't needless worry or hypothetical sky is falling thoughts, or a conspiracy theory. There's absolutely no reason to think this can't happen, hasn't happened already and won't happen in the future. And what's SOE's response to these worries? "Chill out, they didn't mean any harm."?

Kendricke wrote:

Really, there's enough confusion and questions regarding this issue without letting too much rumor, conjecture, and assumption seep in through the cracks.  We should all remain dilligent to keep to the facts here.

Edited.

Really, a Private message to edit my post would have been more appropriate.

We do not all live on here, I read through all the red name posts, and saw no retraction, my bad.  My apologies.

 

There has been quite a bit of discussion recently about something we were doing to show kindness to some valued members of our testing community who have been working diligently to improve EverQuest II for the last three years.

What we did was take a group of characters from the test server, scrub them by hand of all test gear, and any 'privileged' equipment, titles, etc, and grant their wish to continue to play as a group of friends, on a live server.   

Had we been aware that being a little extra kind to these folks would cause such an uproar, there is no doubt we would not have taken this step. However, due to the current situation, I find myself apologizing to you for allowing this situation to occur.

We are in the process now of removing the characters that we copied to the live servers. Obviously, we overstepped the bounds of kindness in attempting to thank these people for their efforts in testing, and we are working to rectify this situation before the end of the day today.

Thank you,

Bruce "Froech" Ferguson

Senior Producer, EverQuest II

There has been quite a bit of discussion recently about something we were doing to show kindness to some valued members of our testing community who have been working diligently to improve EverQuest II for the last three years.

What we did was take a group of characters from the test server, scrub them by hand of all test gear, and any 'privileged' equipment, titles, etc, and grant their wish to continue to play as a group of friends, on a live server.   

Had we been aware that being a little extra kind to these folks would cause such an uproar, there is no doubt we would not have taken this step. However, due to the current situation, I find myself apologizing to you for allowing this situation to occur.

We are in the process now of removing the characters that we copied to the live servers. Obviously, we overstepped the bounds of kindness in attempting to thank these people for their efforts in testing, and we are working to rectify this situation before the end of the day today.

Thank you,

 

Bruce "Froech" Ferguson

Senior Producer, EverQuest II

Thanks Froech - thats the right call.  Regardless of being scrubbed of test gear, those folks were allowed to level at an accelerated rate and thats patently unfair. I , for one, am glad its being reversed.

 Oh , and welcome back to Norrath!

Aphlos@Lucan DLere wrote:

BTW, it's worth considering the ramifications this has on SOE's image globally.

Consider SOE's latest gleaming cash cow, Legends of Norrath. What happens if people at SOE give away tons of free cards, rare cards, entire decks and so on to buddies? Meanwhile, the rest of the poor schmucks out there are buying booster pack after booster pack hoping for a lucky pack.

Is this just a random act of kindness gone awry? And let's not forget, SOE didn't catch or handle this on their own, they're responding because they're caught red-handed. What happens when they don't get caught?

This isn't needless worry or hypothetical sky is falling thoughts, or a conspiracy theory. There's absolutely no reason to think this can't happen, hasn't happened already and won't happen in the future. And what's SOE's response to these worries? "Chill out, they didn't mean any harm."?

Is that why there is a LoN Loot re-roll?

There has been quite a bit of discussion recently about something we were doing to show kindness to some valued members of our testing community who have been working diligently to improve EverQuest II for the last three years.

What we did was take a group of characters from the test server, scrub them by hand of all test gear, and any 'privileged' equipment, titles, etc, and grant their wish to continue to play as a group of friends, on a live server.   

Had we been aware that being a little extra kind to these folks would cause such an uproar, there is no doubt we would not have taken this step. However, due to the current situation, I find myself apologizing to you for allowing this situation to occur.

We are in the process now of removing the characters that we copied to the live servers. Obviously, we overstepped the bounds of kindness in attempting to thank these people for their efforts in testing, and we are working to rectify this situation before the end of the day today.

Thank you,

 

Bruce "Froech" Ferguson

Senior Producer, EverQuest II

There has been quite a bit of discussion recently about something we were doing to show kindness to some valued members of our testing community who have been working diligently to improve EverQuest II for the last three years.

What we did was take a group of characters from the test server, scrub them by hand of all test gear, and any 'privileged' equipment, titles, etc, and grant their wish to continue to play as a group of friends, on a live server.   

Had we been aware that being a little extra kind to these folks would cause such an uproar, there is no doubt we would not have taken this step. However, due to the current situation, I find myself apologizing to you for allowing this situation to occur.

We are in the process now of removing the characters that we copied to the live servers. Obviously, we overstepped the bounds of kindness in attempting to thank these people for their efforts in testing, and we are working to rectify this situation before the end of the day today.

Thank you,

 

Bruce "Froech" Ferguson

Senior Producer, EverQuest II

A GREAT first decision by the new producer. Kudos to you.

Any chance you will be taking a look at control mechanisms so we don't have to worry in the future?

There has been quite a bit of discussion recently about something we were doing to show kindness to some valued members of our testing community who have been working diligently to improve EverQuest II for the last three years.

What we did was take a group of characters from the test server, scrub them by hand of all test gear, and any 'privileged' equipment, titles, etc, and grant their wish to continue to play as a group of friends, on a live server.   

Had we been aware that being a little extra kind to these folks would cause such an uproar, there is no doubt we would not have taken this step. However, due to the current situation, I find myself apologizing to you for allowing this situation to occur.

We are in the process now of removing the characters that we copied to the live servers. Obviously, we overstepped the bounds of kindness in attempting to thank these people for their efforts in testing, and we are working to rectify this situation before the end of the day today.

Thank you,

 

Bruce "Froech" Ferguson

Senior Producer, EverQuest II

Thanks for the official reply, now how about a big round of free transfers for all,either that or could you give us an official word on when you expect to get the servers stable again?

And for what its worth, Welcome home

Yep...that GM response did it. Now you made me reply to this monster...So these valued testers you wished to thank were exclusive to one guild? That's messed up. It wasn't a group of valued testers across the board. It was a group all in one guild...yeah that's interesting.

I don't even play on test and that sounds messed up to me. Expecially after reading about this all day, and the other people who have been on test for years also. Yet it was just one/two guilds consiting of the same group of people who were honored with this charity?

There has been quite a bit of discussion recently about something we were doing to show kindness to some valued members of our testing community who have been working diligently to improve EverQuest II for the last three years.

What we did was take a group of characters from the test server, scrub them by hand of all test gear, and any 'privileged' equipment, titles, etc, and grant their wish to continue to play as a group of friends, on a live server.   

Had we been aware that being a little extra kind to these folks would cause such an uproar, there is no doubt we would not have taken this step. However, due to the current situation, I find myself apologizing to you for allowing this situation to occur.

We are in the process now of removing the characters that we copied to the live servers. Obviously, we overstepped the bounds of kindness in attempting to thank these people for their efforts in testing, and we are working to rectify this situation before the end of the day today.

Thank you,

 

Bruce "Froech" Ferguson

Senior Producer, EverQuest II

Just so ya know,
You ya'll tried to "scrub them clean," you didn't even do very well with that.
There is still a lot of Contested Loot on those characters.
*shrugs*