A little run in I had with the Zork people

So my Zork account was recently suspended suddenly without much of a warning if any, and honestly, I had no idea why. When I found out that it was due to my battle taunt being offensive, I was surprised, because I didn't even realize I had made one. Now, they have every right to ask me not to use foul language in my battle taunt, and I would have gladly obliged, but the way they handled it was pretty disrespectful I have to say. I would like to share the email conversation I had with one of the Legends of Zork employees, but I want to ask persmission first because of the language (there is only offensive language when my battle taunt is quoted, otherwise there is none). I will put *'s for the words in question, which I believe are stated approximately 6 times, but I still wanted to make sure its ok with everybody and if this is even the right place for it.

Let me know, I won't continue unless I get permission.

Please continue. Permission granted.

Ok, so a little back story first. I created a LoZ account not knowing anything about it. I heard "Free Browser MMO" from a person at GameSpot and I was down, plus I figured I would enter the contest because it takes no effort. Now, I use offensive language every day, I am a 21 year old male from NY, and my roommates and I use the F word in regular conversation to induce humor. We watch R rated movies like many Americans, and stand up comedians as well who often curse like it's their job. So when I first created the account, it was harmless for me to make the "battle taunt," which I had no idea what it was, to be "F*** you and your mother!" Now I understand that this is extremely offensive, and I apologize if anyone is hurt by it, but is it not 2010? I suppose it isn't clear that it is a joke in text, but I still don't see the harm in words. I have seen and heard the most deragatory statements on Xbox Live or World of Warcraft, so I assumed, like an idiot, that there was no need for censorship in this game. I understand it is against the rules, and I have no problem with my account being banned for a few hours because of it, that made sense, it is a ridiculous battle taunt and should have been changed sooner, but just the way they handled me as a paying customer left a bad taste in my mouth. Enjoy (it's in chronological order):

Quote :

Legends of Zork Account Suspended Wednesday, June 2, 2010 4:49 PMFrom: "FrobozzCo Express" <mailman@legendsofzork.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: jstandfast@yahoo.com

Dear jstandfast@yahoo.com,

Your Legends of Zork account has been suspended.

The reason given for this suspension was: Offensive battle taunt.

If you have questions or queries regarding this suspension or feel you have been suspended in error please contact the support team at the
following address: zork@support.joltonline.com

Quote :

Offensive Battle Taunt? Wednesday, June 2, 2010 8:05 PM From: "Jason Standfast" <jstandfast@yahoo.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: zork@support.joltonline.com

I didn't even know I had a battle taunt, let alone an offensive one! How do I change it?! Also, how do I get my account unsuspended?

Quote :

[LoZ Support #7448]: Offensive Battle Taunt?Wednesday, June 2, 2010 8:14 PMFrom: "LoZ Support" <zork@support.joltonline.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: jstandfast@yahoo.comHey:

You didn't know your battle taunt for Gravitola is :

"F*** you and your mother!" ?

You know that's not going to be allowed... this isn't that type of game.

Mickster
Game Moderator
Jolt Online Gaming

Quote :

Re: [LoZ Support #7448]: Offensive Battle Taunt?Wednesday, June 2, 2010 8:20 PMFrom: "Jason Standfast" <jstandfast@yahoo.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: zork@support.joltonline.com

I got a message a while ago telling me to change it, but I looked for how to change it all over the website and couldn't find anything so I though they were joking. Based on other people's taunts I figured it was randomly made up by people at zork. I must of made that one when I first created the account, I was just messing around, and it wasn't specific as to where that would be said. So how do I fix this?

Quote :

[LoZ Support #7448]: Offensive Battle Taunt?Wednesday, June 2, 2010 8:28 PMFrom: "LoZ Support" <zork@support.joltonline.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: jstandfast@yahoo.comWhat???

"...figured it was randomly made up by people at zork. "

Really? You really thought we would randomly put in to a player's profile "F*** you and your mother!" ?

I'm not that stupid to even THINK that you mean that. Please. Don't insult us.

Mickster
Game Moderator
Jolt Online Gaming

Quote :

Re: [LoZ Support #7448]: Offensive Battle Taunt?Wednesday, June 2, 2010 8:48 PMFrom: "Jason Standfast" <jstandfast@yahoo.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: zork@support.joltonline.com

Ok, buddy, you obviously like to read things out of context. What I said was: based on OTHER PEOPLE'S TAUNTS I thought the system made random ones. I had never seen my own after I made it because I had never battled myself, I'm pretty sure you can't do that. I also told you very clearly that I searched the website and did not find any way to change it, and I couldn't even find out what it was. Great navigation you guys have. Now, let's move on to what you said to me earlier, "You know that's not going to be allowed... this isn't that type of game." Ok, listen, I made an account at first to get enter in the GameSpot contest, I had no idea what "type" of game it was, and quite frankly, I thought it was pretty silly. I now enjoy the game, play every day and even paid real money for coconuts, making me a paying customer (who said it is good business practice to treat customers with respect anyway?). And by the way, when I play online games I always use swear words, I figured I would have that right or the system would politely stop me from continuing. So when I made the account and had no idea what Legends of Zork was about, I put an off-color comment as a battle taunt that I had no idea what effect it would have on anything. I am sorry you guys don't have the technology to censor curse words, but if I was warned about this in a realistic and respectful way, I would have been glad to help you change it. Now, are you going to help me get my account back, or will you let me talk to someone who doesn't have a rude attitude please?

Quote :

[LoZ Support #7448]: Offensive Battle Taunt?Wednesday, June 2, 2010 9:09 PMFrom: "LoZ Support" <zork@support.joltonline.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: jstandfast@yahoo.com

If you would have bothered to look, you would have seen I removed your ban.

And I lost all respect for you when you went so far as to purposely put in "F*** you and your mother!" Why you thought you could get away with that is beyond me.


If you can't figure out the navigation, that's not our fault. It's right there in front of you. All you had to do is look for it.

Next time you have a question that you can't seem to find the answer to, look here:

http://forums.joltonline.com/forumdisplay.php?1586-Legends-of-Zork



Mickster
Game Moderator
Jolt Online Gaming

Quote :

Re: [LoZ Support #7448]: Offensive Battle Taunt?Wednesday, June 2, 2010 9:30 PMFrom: "Jason Standfast" <jstandfast@yahoo.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: zork@support.joltonline.com

Wow, just wow. I completely lost all respect for you and your company when you continue to treat a paying customer with an attitude and utter unproffessionalism. I don't know where your from, and I don't claim to know what your culture is, but I do consider myself tolerant of others' viewpoints, but there is no excuse for your blatent disrespect. Here in the United States, the F word is dropped constantly, and "your mother" jokes are considered immature, but not distasteful. Like I said, I had no clue what Zork was, what was allowed, and what your rules are, and I really didn't care to read up on a free browser game. It was some harmless humor that could have been taken in many different ways. If you guys frown upon it so dreadfully, why was I able to battle hundreds of people with that taunt uncontested? Oh and by the way, poor web design is your fault. I design websites for a living, and it is very obvious when and amateur makes a mistake. Do you have a manager or someone I can speak with? I would prefer a phone call, but I would appreciate any opportunity to talk to anyone in your company who actually understands the employee - customer relationship. I honestly lost interest in the banned account nonsense. I would have asked for a refund, and I certainly will not buy any more coconuts ever, but not because of the suspension, because of your personal unproffessionalism.

Quote :

Flag this message[LoZ Support #7448]: Offensive Battle Taunt?Wednesday, June 2, 2010 9:38 PMFrom: "LoZ Support" <zork@support.joltonline.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: jstandfast@yahoo.comFYI:

I live in Lexington, Ky. I don't drop the "F Bomb" constantly. I don't make "Mother Jokes".

I'll be more than happy to forward this to a Community Manager - Actually I'll forward it to the ones that originally banned you.

They live in Ireland and England, so it may take a bit for them to get back to you.


Mickster
Game Moderator
Jolt Online Gaming

Quote :

Re: [LoZ Support #7448]: Offensive Battle Taunt?Wednesday, June 2, 2010 9:48 PMFrom: "Jason Standfast" <jstandfast@yahoo.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: zork@support.joltonline.com

Thank you, I understand that where you are from there is clearly a more strict regulation of language. The United States as a whole though, is about freedom of speech, sir, and that produces movies, music, games and other media loaded with sex, violence, and most of all, mature language. If you do not indulge in these forms of medium, that is your choice, but it is known worldwide that this is a major part of our culture as Americans. What I am trying to say is that it is not meant in disrespect to anyone, and if I knew it would be viewable by people without their consent, I never would have made such a bold remark. I suggest you explore more of our culture, and you will really find out what is going on in this country currently. I am sorry if we don't see eye to eye, but I am certain we can agree to disagree if not come to terms.

This morning the person who actually banned me emailed me. Although she was nice, she still has a strange attitude. I just don't understand what these people are thinking when they email customers...

Quote :

[LoZ Support #7448]: Offensive Battle Taunt?Thursday, June 3, 2010 7:18 AMFrom: "LoZ Support" <zork@support.joltonline.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: jstandfast@yahoo.com

Hi Jason, my name is Rhona and it was myself who originally applied the suspension to your account yesterday.

I carried out this action because another player reported your offensive comment (which is sent in the battle report message every time you PvP).

Yes, our system has a severe and lamented limitation in not filtering curse words on entry and believe me we as a support team have requested that this be implemented. We spend many hours searching the system but it's a laborious method and to be honest we rely on reports from other players.

I was not aware you had been warned and asked to change it before. It's difficult for me to accept that you couldn't find the place to edit your taunt as it's not hard to locate but also your responsibility then was to get in touch and ask us how to do it (or to do it for you, which we would have gladly done).

Our Terms & Conditions http://joltonline.com/terms_and_conditions are linked to on the footer of every page of LoZ. Please note Point 8 under Conduct of Registered Users and Visitors. Your use of the site implies your acceptance of these Terms, as is standard.

It's of regret that your discussion with my colleague took a personal turn when it should be clear that we're just doing a job here and acting on the instructions of our superiors. Of course I am sorry that any customer feels dissatisfied with our service.




Rhona Lorimer
Game Moderator
Jolt Online Gaming

Quote :

Re: [LoZ Support #7448]: Offensive Battle Taunt?Thursday, June 3, 2010 9:32 AMFrom: "Jason Standfast" <jstandfast@yahoo.com>Add sender to ContactsTo: zork@support.joltonline.com

I wasn't warned by a LoZ employee, or if I was, they didn't specify. Regardless, that has nothing to do with my problem with LoZ. But listen, I am done explaining myself, I didn't mean to cause trouble, but I am really dissapointed at how this was handled. I am sure you guys don't care at all about your customers by the way you treat them, and even the constant theme of doubt that is going on. Why would I lie? How does that help me? I am being honest because I am trying to communicate to you as a human being. All I get in return is a discredit, it's really quite displeasing. If this happened at my job, the employees would be reprimanded, and I think Disney knows a thing or two about business. And the entire time I was emailing the fellow from Kentucky, I asked him for help several times and he never gave me a clue! And now you tell me it is easy to find the edit battle taunt page, well I still don't see it! I searched every link on the Base tab, I clicked my name and explored. The part that says "Gravitola is" is blank, and I honestly can't find it anywhere else. Why isn't it in the Battle tab? Can you just tell me where it is, or erase my battle taunt for me? I am upset that several hundred people had to see that before something was done, and I honestly didn't know. Believe me or not, it really doesn't matter, but I suggest you guys get your act together or you are going to lose more customers

I'm really sorry guys, I know it is a lot of reading, and I don't expect anyone to actually listen. I don't know any of you really but stuff like this gets my blood boiling, and since it has to do with the thing that brought us together I wanted to share this to get it off my chest. I just don't understand how people can be intolerant like that, it blows my mind, and even that an employee is allowed to attack my personality is just lame. All in all, just the circumstances and the employees' attitudes really turned me off to Legends of Zork. Maybe I'm too sensitive, Idk. Thanks anyways guys.

Don't feel lonely, I played every day for about two weeks before I found out (from someone else mentioning it, not on my own) that there is an "edit" link that lets you change many things about your character from the character selection screen. When I created my characters I saw that there was supposedly a way to change your battle taunt and your catch phrase (the latter of which I still haven't seen show on any screen, so I'm not sure what purpose it serves), but couldn't figure out where to go to do it.

This reminds me of when I played EVE for a short time -- I wanted to cancel my subscription, and so I logged into my account and went straight to the "subscription" link. Nothing there to cancel it. Nothing at the other links under "Account" on the sidebar. Turns out the _only_ place to cancel your sub is from the welcome page when you first log into your account, and when I overlooked it there I was left frustrated and unhappy with a game company that seemed to be trying to hide how to stop letting them take my money.

As to your specific interaction, I think part of the problem might be that "Mickster" saw "F*** you and your mother", slotted you into his mental cubbyhole of "asshole" and from then on read all your missives in that light, and assumed anything you were saying was just some self-serving BS. I did *love* (as a help desk worker myself) how when you asked how to change your battle taunt, he basically replied "figure it out yourself, jerk."

Haha thanks guys, I didn't expect people to be so nice after dealing with that! Yea, the second person I talked to finally helped me out, it is before you select a character underneath the "Select" button, it says Edit | Delete. Its all so silly, but its really nice to have some support! Thanks again!

WOW, just wow. I work customer service and I do some amature coding and volunteer on various sites getting to know how they run and a bit more about code and how this was handled was just wrong. 1. You don't claim that the person is lying even if you think it is, you only get rude if you are treated rude and that is just to terminate the conversation and protect oneself.

Then if I read things correctly they are having trouble censoring things? I have have trouble believing that. It's a rather simple code. I work for a fic site and the head admin who is a professional coder can censor ANY word with very little effort. It should be the same basic concept at Zork and really if it's a matter that they don't have enough man power to check over things and censor they need more man power.

Basic internet principle you can't trust the member base to report and protect the rest of the base period. There will be some that help but you have to spend hours and have LOTS of people checking over things.

As a last note I have NEVER seen a single battle taunt and I battle all the time.

Wow is the word... As soon as I saw:

"...figured it was randomly made up by people at zork. "

Really? You really thought we would randomly put in to a player's profile "F*** you and your mother!" ?

I'm not that stupid to even THINK that you mean that. Please. Don't insult us.

I was like, that is way out of line. And what happened to giving people a chance?
Though... it only took me a minute or so to find how to edit my character.

Being in Gaming Customer service and being used to using the F word and "Your mother" jokes (hey... I am 26, I am not dead yet) in my spare time, I can just shake my head on their replies. Allthough I kinda wish I'd actually be able to tell some of those things to some of my customers. ^^

I wouldn't give it too much thought though - all came out ok in the end, didn't it?

Oh yea, its no big deal. I just thought a company like Jolt would be all nice and fun based on their reflection through Legends of Zork. I'm not really bothered by it, it definitely caught me off guard and even though they gave my priviliges back super quick, I felt like I had to stand up for myself. Also I wanted some fellow Zork players to witness it and maybe either be more careful while playing or at least gain some perspective on who these people really are. I will keep playing, but as far as buying coconuts to support the developers they lost a customer. Thanks for all the input btw, like Dustin said this really shows how sweet this clan is in several meanings of the word!

Yeah sure.

For me it pretty much looks like what goes on in your mind after some time in customer service really went to the electronic paper there. Which makes it kinda funny. Usually those things go by as "Think it - don't tell it your customer." but well... ^^

My Battle Taunt is more offensive than toast..

"I'm so happy I could just tear out your intestines and strangle you with them!" O o;

Think I'll get called on it?

Naaaah.

Are you sarcasing me? > >

Naaaaah.

Quote: "Oh look. A group about sarcasm - how useful!"

I completely forgot what my battle taunt was too. When I made it I had no idea it would be displayed to anyone except back at me when I won a monster battle. It took me ages to find the edit button. Most of the posts on the (official) forums were no help at all.

They don't seem to realise that when you start you have one character. It stays logged in all the time so there's no need to ever look at the "characters" list.

Funny story, I just battled someone named Douchy McDouch today haha

hahahaha