[Update] Gachapon Ticket Bundle Pricing Error

http://maplestory.nexon.net/news//3980/

Dear Maplers,

Earlier today an error was made in the Cash Shop update related to the Gachapon Ticket (11) bundle where it was mistakenly priced at 1,500 NX instead of 10,000 NX.

The price has since been corrected. Prior to this correction a number of players purchased the item at the vastly reduced price. We intend to honor these purchases so players who purchased bundles during this time get them at the reduced 1,500 NX price.

As standard practice the Maple team investigated the impact of this occurrence on the game economy. We concluded that this event has had no major impact.

We are also immediately removing the temporary restrictions put in place on players while we investigated the issue.Â* We would like to apologize to players for any inconvenience caused.

Thank you for your patience while we addressed this issue.

-The Maple Team

Â*

All this does is promote glitch abuse. Once again showing there are no repercussions for taking advantage of obvious in-game bugs. Impact on economy is irrelevant. Nexon had the PERFECT opportunity to punish those who abused this with a minor 4-day ban and instill fear into some people, given how widespread this abuse was.

What are the rewards for not cheating? Oh yeah, nothing. Again.


Although this is a bit convoluted since it involved the cash shop. I wonder if there were any potential legal repercussions to Nexon if they didn't honor the purchases? Who knows, their legal team is probably too busy with... uhh.. another issue

All this does is promote glitch abuse. Once again showing there are no repercussions for taking advantage of obvious in-game bugs. Impact on economy is irrelevant. Nexon had the PERFECT opportunity to punish those who abused this with a minor 4-day ban and instill fear into some people, given how widespread this abuse was.

What are the rewards for not cheating? Oh yeah, nothing. Again.


Although this is a bit convoluted since it involved the cash shop. I wonder if there were any potential legal repercussions to Nexon if they didn't honor the purchases? Who knows, their legal team is probably too busy with... uhh.. another issue

I believe legal repercussions were indeed a factor in this, as Artasi refuses to respond to any posts regarding why there is no punishment for the abusers.

But they may just delete the stuff in the patch anyway. We'll see.

I believe legal repercussions were indeed a factor in this, as Artasi refuses to respond to any posts regarding why there is no punishment for the abusers.

I'm thinking about it this way: what would happen if a site like Amazon accidentally sold something like TVs for 10% of their intended price? I don't actually know.


I see two options:

1) "Sorry, misprice, everyone has been refunded"

2) Honor as many of the purchases as they can, based on current supply (highly doubt this one)

But they wouldn't block people from Amazon in either case. Hm.


I don't know. Nexon is just very inconsistent with issues like this. They've said, multiple times, if something is priced "too good to be true" it probably is, and I think this falls in that category.

Yeah I'm not 100% sure myself, I mean I've seen walmart cancel orders on mispriced goods (whether that was due to lack of stock or not is not known to me) but I'm not sure if something like this really fits that kind of situation. I think Nexon is just covering their asses and wants to avoid that kind of legal situation altogether.

I'm thinking about it this way: what would happen if a site like Amazon accidentally sold something like TVs for 10% of their intended price? I don't actually know.

I see two options:

1) "Sorry, misprice, everyone has been refunded"

2) Honor as many of the purchases as they can, based on current supply (highly doubt this one)

But they wouldn't block people from Amazon in either case. Hm.

TVs and gachapon tickets shouldn't really be compared directly like that because digital supply can be duplicated infinitely at no marginal cost, so it's possible to do option 2 and not really lose too much (only losing the potential for more purchases of gachapon tickets in the future). TVs does cost money to make and if Amazon does sell for less than what it cost them to get, that's real money loss there.

I'm thinking about it this way: what would happen if a site like Amazon accidentally sold something like TVs for 10% of their intended price? I don't actually know.


I see two options:

1) "Sorry, misprice, everyone has been refunded"

2) Honor as many of the purchases as they can, based on current supply (highly doubt this one)

But they wouldn't block people from Amazon in either case. Hm.


I don't know. Nexon is just very inconsistent with issues like this. They've said, multiple times, if something is priced "too good to be true" it probably is, and I think this falls in that category.

There's a lengthy thread in the official forums (if it hasn't been deleted yet) in which one person repeatedly argued that California law required Nexon to honor the published price, even though it was in error, and other people kept insisting that virtual goods bought with virtual currency are not the same as actual merchandize bought with dollars. (So, Amazon would be required to let people keep the TVs they got for cheap, but Nexon could delete unused gach tickets and also the items people got from the used ones, without reprecussions). The one person says he complained to the FTC and they made Nexon retract their planned course of action. Could be.

I guess this issue gets way too complicated since it involved money. Maybe Nexon made the right move, or had no other choice -- unfortunately for them it still promotes glitch abuse (which is my main complaint).

It's definitely not a healthy error for the game. They can't afford mistakes like this. Or maybe they just don't care, and want to keep the money they made in the short-term.

I guess this issue gets way too complicated since it involved money. Maybe Nexon made the right move, or had no other choice -- unfortunately for them it still promotes glitch abuse (which is my main complaint).

It's definitely not a healthy error for the game. They can't afford mistakes like this. Or maybe they just don't care, and want to keep the money they made in the short-term.

I agree that this sends entirely the wrong message.
Most people can't tell money-type glitches from purely in-game glitches, so they'll abuse whatever comes along thinking this precedent makes them safe.
Not that Nexon has ever been very good at punishing glitch abuse. Even the recent Bounty Hunter abusers were given a "second chance" in the end.

The only hope is that at least some people will decide the nerve-wracking hours while they thought they were perma'ed or their tickets would be taken away are too much of a punishment to risk again.

http://maplestory.nexon.net/community/#%...st12105359

Looks like Artasi is on full damage control now, even threatened the guy with a ban if he doesnt shut up lol. I get the feeling the full reversal on this WAS actually legally related, but they don't want to give players the mindset that they can threaten legal action and get away with things, SO. None of us will ever really know in the end, but there really isn't much other explanation.

All this does is promote glitch abuse. Once again showing there are no repercussions for taking advantage of obvious in-game bugs. Impact on economy is irrelevant. Nexon had the PERFECT opportunity to punish those who abused this with a minor 4-day ban and instill fear into some people, given how widespread this abuse was.

What are the rewards for not cheating? Oh yeah, nothing. Again.


Although this is a bit convoluted since it involved the cash shop. I wonder if there were any potential legal repercussions to Nexon if they didn't honor the purchases? Who knows, their legal team is probably too busy with... uhh.. another issue

Was the price change just the showing up as 1,500, or was there some kind of method that had to be done in order to get the lower price? If it's just in the store as 1,500, I don't really see it as glitch abuse and more so Nexon just being stupid.

Was the price change just the showing up as 1,500, or was there some kind of method that had to be done in order to get the lower price? If it's just in the store as 1,500, I don't really see it as glitch abuse and more so Nexon just being stupid.

It was in the store at 1,500, with a big flashing "SALE" and "85% ↓" on it. I assume those last two are automatically generated by the Cash Shop UI when it sees a "current price" which is different from the "regular price".

It comes under the heading of "too good to be true". Nexon never sells anything at such a deep discount with no purchase limit and no announcement on the website. So anyone with any sense would know it was a mistake. People rushed to buy as many as they could because they knew it wouldn't last. They knew it would be fixed as soon as Nexon found out.
The ToS says we're not supposed to take advantage of bugs in the code (i.e., Nexon being stupid).

Nexon was stupid, but they were also stupid to make Bigfoot poisonable, and they were stupid to make potion shop NPCs sell potions for less meso than they'd buy them back for (remember that one?), and they were stupid to make Hob pq not let you out of the boss room but give you "clear" exp every time you tried to exit the portal, and -
You get the point. They make dumb mistakes all the time. If players are routinely allowed to take advantage of such mistakes, anarchy can't be too far away.

[MENTION=4093]SaptaZapta[/MENTION];

Playing devil's advocate here (I completely agree with your viewpoint) but there have been a number of times where we've had events or sales pop up that were not remotely announced and were... quite a bit too good to be true, and yet Nexon just rolled with it. Those welcome back boxes with maple points and wolf familiars to name one big one.

The inconsistencies with how these things are handled just does no one any favors. If nothing else, blame Nexon's incompetence to actually convey these things to us as the root of the problem. People have gotten away with blatant glitch and event abuse for years, so the reinforcement of that mindset will probably never go away, and this incident only keeps that going even stronger.

SaptaZapta;

Playing devil's advocate here (I completely agree with your viewpoint) but there have been a number of times where we've had events or sales pop up that were not remotely announced and were... quite a bit too good to be true, and yet Nexon just rolled with it. Those welcome back boxes with maple points and wolf familiars to name one big one.

The inconsistencies with how these things are handled just does no one any favors. If nothing else, blame Nexon's incompetence to actually convey these things to us as the root of the problem. People have gotten away with blatant glitch and event abuse for years, so the reinforcement of that mindset will probably never go away, and this incident only keeps that going even stronger.

The welcome back packs were accompanied by emails describing the contents.

But yes, Nexon's inconsistency with handling all sorts of abuses (up to and including actual hacking) does nothing to create a healthy mindset in the community.

I'm thinking about it this way: what would happen if a site like Amazon accidentally sold something like TVs for 10% of their intended price? I don't actually know.


I see two options:

1) "Sorry, misprice, everyone has been refunded"

2) Honor as many of the purchases as they can, based on current supply (highly doubt this one)

But they wouldn't block people from Amazon in either case. Hm.


I don't know. Nexon is just very inconsistent with issues like this. They've said, multiple times, if something is priced "too good to be true" it probably is, and I think this falls in that category.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/d...eId=508088
Ctrl+F "misprice"

Basically once money has changed hands (i.e. once shipping has begun or when virtual products are available for download), the sale is final. Any refund would would be renegging on it's advertised price. Things could easily be different for Nexon since you only "buy" the NX pts not the actual items.

My thoughts on this:

Nexon handled this exactly the way they were supposed to, and I don't think there was any 'abuse' as many of you call it. It was taking advantage of a misprice.

You see misprices all the time in the fm, where someone doesn't put another 0 and its suddenly 90% less than it should be. Once its sold, its sold. Tough luck you didn't catch it (or lucky you if you took advantage). You see it occasionally in real life as well, companies marking down something a lot that they didn't intend to markdown. It's the same thing though, once you sell it, you can't do anything about it.

Nexon definately considered the possibly of taking back the tickets people bought, and I think that's a reasonable thing for them to consider. Whether it was legal or not to perform such an action is beyond me.

This is fundamentally different than various forms of abuse, such as bug or glitch exploits, where mechanics in the game do things they aren't supposed to do, and people exploit them to gain an advantage. Yes, people did take advantage of cheap tickets Nexon accidently priced incorrectly. However, players didn't deviate from the normal process of purchasing an nx item to get them, and I think that's the biggest distinction.

Edit:

People also go crazy and buy ridiculous amounts of things in real life when they hear its on sale or cheaper than usual. That's just human nature. People exploiting bugs and glitches is another issue, and should be treated differently because of it.