People with accout problems, and Reakktor, read here.

[cronuss]

Before I get to the helpful info, I want to say something to Reakktor.

I've only played your game for a day... the graphics are a bit outdated, the game is a tad clunky and not all that user friendly. BUT... I'm liking it so far. This is the kind of game that can really build a strong community of scifi/cyberpunk fans. Games like WWIIOL... they fill a niche market, but their fans are devoted and strong, and ever-growing. I see this same environment with Neocron. HOWEVER...

I spent almost a week just trying to get an account created. During this time, I also have received quite a few Private Messages from people saying, "help! I can't make an account either, and I can't even post on the forums like you can!" I think 3 people in the past 2 days have PMd me explaining they can't make an account.

With a game like this, where every customer (I would think) is important, and you want to establish a COMMUNITY... this is a deadly problem. Who knows how many other people download the 10 day trial and never past the account creation process and thus give up and never even try the game?

In fact, I know literally 7-8 people right now who are interested in the game, and are asking my opinion on it. It doesn't bode well when I explain to them, "well, it's been 4 days and still can't even create an ACCOUNT."

You guys have a pretty good game on your hands, I don't want to see it fail due to some technicality involving account creation.

Maybe if you post an official help bulletin or something similar on the main and newbie forums for people having problems? Or update your account creation page saying, "if you have problems please email account@nercron.com".

Even worse is that if I didn't have a CD key, I would have been even more out of luck.

YOU GUYS NEED TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR PEOPLE TRY TRY YOUR *FREE* TRIAL OF THE GAME! Free trials are a gateway to new customers and a stronger community!

Guys, please, just put up a message admitting you are having problems. Leaving this quiet will just result in newcomers getting frustrated and giving up. I know paypal is a pain, and this is mostly their fault... but you guys have to lend a helping hand to those out there who are seeking to try your game. A free trial should be easier to obtain than this. I really hope you realize the impact this could have on your user base and you do something about it.

Anyway... for you people having problems:

I just went through a painful process of trying to play this game, and I want to help all those people who are having the same problems.

I struggled for 3-4 days, went through three account creations, 2 paypal account creations, two credit cards, a checking account routing number, a paybycash service, etc. None of this worked.

The ONLY way I was able to enter the world of Neocron, was to obtain a real CD key and then bypass the payment options and do the following:

Email account@neocron.com with:

First Name
Last Name
Address
Email
Desired Account Name
Desired Account Name Choice 2
Choice 3 (in case 1 or 2 are taken)
CD Key

2 days later, I got an email back with my account name and password... and viola! I was logging into Neocron to play my 30 day free trial.

If you want to do a 10 day trial and are having problems, I don't have a solution for you... but I suppose you could try sending the same email as above but for CD key you can put "10 day trial account" or something.

I'm hoping Reakktor makes this easier in the future for newcomers. They are losing business.

Good luck, and maybe I'll see you in Neocron.

[unreal]

Who knows how many other people download the 10 day trial and never past the account creation process and thus give up and never even try the game?Pretty big problem indeed, one that I don't see being resolved any time soon. :( I've just done a quick search on Google for the Neocron 2.2 client and checked the available download counts on the various mirrors.

filefront: 1,688
fileshack: 720
fileplanet: 71,224
gamearena.com.au: 80
xfire: 1,324

Which gives you a grand total of 75036 downloads from those 5 locations alone since 2.2 was released. There were another 8 from a torrent and god knows how many from the other official mirrors. The population on Terra rarely goes above 280, and no doubt the same for Mars. Clearly then, apart from the ex and current subscribers downloading the 2.2 client, a lot of potential subscribers are turned away because of these kinds of problems before they even start playing.

Perhaps one of the next efforts should be towards resolving issues with account creation itself. Also, maybe the system could be updated so that people have the option to create trial accounts at ease, but have those particular trial accounts automatically deleted once the trial is over, unless of course they decide to subscribe. Sure, people could abuse it in various ways, but isn't that the reason Game Moderators exist? At least they would finally have something they're able to do. ;)

Going slightly off-topic now but another problem is the newbie MC5 area. There hasn't been a long steady stream of new players entering the game as there were when Neocron 2 was released (when I started playing) so now the newbie MC5 is nearly always empty, meaning new players will be that bit more clueless and even think that those few sectors are what Neocron really is. Perhaps they should now spawn in their primary apartments instead?

[Nixon]

Spawning in your cozy and safe apartment would be great, rather than zoning your way thru 2 rooms, then wandering around in some desert, totally clueless. There is no function in mc5 other than rp'ish "what the hell happened to me" -thing, which sucks anyway.

The account creation is a major pain in the ass. There are already a couple of good examples on how to handle these things, namely WoW and EVE. Would it be too much of an effort for KK to kick PBC and other silly companies on the nads and revamp the system so that new players can actually try the game, rather than losing 90% of your potential customers due to shitty account creation methods?

Well I guess it's a bit more complicated than that, but atleast they know the problem. I hope Reakktor solves this issue.

[Napalm82]

What I'd like to see was that the Trial account would be easier to obtain (Like enter your e-mail on the main-page and you get a random account name + random password for 10 days) without having to go through all the payment options, then if people got hooked they'd have to manually upgrade their account to a real account and change username / password.

I cant really think of any other MMO where you have to go through a lot of payment plans just for the free trial (Mind you i havent had any problems meself)

Stuff like this will probably let more noobs enter, how many will stay is up to them i guess (And the payment optons) but i think we can all agree that the current system is a bit "off".

- Napalm

[cronuss]

Just for the record, the 6th person who's had the same problem THIS WEEK:


person: i wonder how many f*ckt*rds they lose to this process
me: i KNOW!!!
person: if i wasnt bored
person: no way id put up with this sh*t


See what I mean?

Reaaktor:


YOU ARE LOSING CUSTOMERS!!

I want this game to succede! I'm enjoying it!

FIX THE ACCOUNT CREATION PROCESS, PLEASE!

[Dogface]

person: i wonder how many f*ckt*rds they lose to this process
me: i KNOW!!!
person: if i wasnt bored
person: no way id put up with this sh*t


Sums up my playtime as of tonight, I just got the most savage bug in all of NC.

:(

[SnowCrash]

We are doing our best to get the PayPal issue solved quickly. Unfortunately the problem lies on PayPals side, so we have no direct influence on it.

[cronuss]

I understand, snowcrash.

I just think you guys need to put some messages up on your site and on your ACCOUNT PAGE to let customers know that there is an issue and it's being worked on... and that they should email account@neocron.com if they are having trouble with account creation.

Just for the record, here is one of the many PMs I've received:



Thank you for helping being a voice for us that cannot join. It has been 4 days for me and I refuse to give them money until I try it. I am also about ready to give up. If you wouldn't mind post this in one of your messages on the forum so they can see just how bad some of us want to play and experience this for ourselves but cant. I've sent PM's to 2 or 3 different moderators and also have sent a detailed recommendation for a fix on the account problems to Nidhogg. This is the reason why I would want you to post this directly in the forum. Maybe someone with some kind of control can do something about it.

1. Setup PayPal to charge $0.01 for your trial accounts. This will eliminate the issue (if there is one) of PayPal not accepting accounts for $0.00.

2. PayPal has advised me that this is a "cookie," "cache," or "temporary internet file" issue. As an IT professional I could see that as plausable if and only if it didn't do the same thing with every possible browser I could try and use. Please tell them to stop misleading those that are less tech-savy to thinking they are doing something wrong.

3. Allow customers for trials and new signups alike, to send you a payment via PayPal directly instead of relying on the launcher script (if there is one) to process the payment for you. All you would need to do is provide the email address you would like the payment and account information sent to. The company is listed at PayPal as Reakktor Media GmbH. Just issue the address that processes your account to potential customers and have them send you a payment of $0.01 or whatever directly, and have them give you their requested account information in the comments section when the payment is made. Seems really easy for me.


Thanks again Cronuss and when the day comes that we can meet in game I will thank you personally.

Best Regards,
Potential Running-Mate
Chris "Ocman" (I REMOVED HIS LAST NAME -Cronuss)

[cronuss]

Here's another one.

I don't have time to play customer support for all these people, so I'm going to post some of them here and maybe some of the other community members and/or Reakktor people can help.


Hey,
I am having problems creating an account with paypal as well. I have contacted paypal to no avail and have contacted support here with no real result other than being told to keep trying with paypal. When you bought the game I was wondering where you got a copy and is it just the "Neocron" game or is there a new box for the 2.2 version? I know this may seem a silly question but I have had a bit of trouble finding a retail version of the game for sale at all and I am not sure at this point if what I am finding is even the correct thing. I have found a few copies of "Neocron" on the Amazon.com marketplace but that is the only place I have found anything. So I was hoping you could confirm that this is indeed the item that I should be purchasing in order to get the free trial.
I actually even asked in the support email if they could just create a ten day trial account bypassing the paypal and they said no. Just so you are aware as I saw that you suggested such a thing in your post.
I am one of those people who cannot seem to post by the way even though I made a forum account and confirmed it with the email and everything. All I seem to be able to do is read threads and PM people. Otherwise I would have just posted in your thread. I really wanted to post in that thread actually because I was hoping to ask for other people having the paypal issue to post about their problems in there. Paypal claims that noone else has called with an issue relating to the one I am having but the support people here say that there have been others who even got the problem resolved through paypal. Just finding out if indeed anyone did get a fix from a tech at paypal and if so what was done would be greatly helpful I am sure to others with the same problem. According to support here the issue seems to be restricted to USA users. My problem is that I go through all steps of the account creation process up until signing into paypal in order to complete the transaction and then upon logging in the transaction is just aborted and in my paypal window are two links one saying "click here to retry" and the other saying "to return to the homepage".
I am not sure if this is precisely what others have been experiencing and would very much like to find out. perhaps you could add a blurb on the subject in your thread and encourage people to post who are having this or a possibly related issue? I know it is a lot to ask but as you posted the thread on the subject originally I am hoping you might be willing to help further.
I appreciate your time and help should you be able to offer it. Thank you,
Wiccad

[ocman1]

Just giving props to Cronuss for being our voice!!! I was able to complete the trial registration via PayPal today with 0 errors!!!

See you all in-game,

Ocman

[Danae]

The paypal issue has been resolved for those who were affected by the inability to create accounts.

[TWOK]

How come when I try to re-acctivate my account (freeplay is almost up and I like what KK have done)...I get the same old shite. 14.99 euro Licence fee on an account that's already paid it...and no sign of paypal in the payment options.

bleh. I've paid the licence fee TWICE on the same account...I won't be doing it again.

[Danae]

Please email your account name and specific issue to account@neocron.com

[Neally]

I sent 2 mails to account@ by the way, also at helpdesk@, been busy these days ? Never got a reply

[Odin]

I sent 2 mails to account@ by the way, also at helpdesk@, been busy these days ? Never got a reply

Like always if you don't hear back after a while PM me the ticket #'s and I'll look into it.

[Neally]

On a side note, I don't really need helpdesk anymore hahahaha, funny.