Accounts that have been removed/ban due to inactivity - Rust

The problem I have is that "you'll get the game when it releases" was an official statement by the developer and I know it's not legally binding but it's just the "right thing to do". I mean, in my case in particular, I was one of the first 200-300 people to ever register back in April/May and I have logged 100+ hours since and I have participated in the threads and reported bugs. None of us broke any rules. We didn't get banned or anything like that. We weren't hacking or stealing accounts and I know I certainly didn't sell anyone accounts. We went inactive for 30 days (which has been known to happen, especially when the game is THIS early in development) and there are infinite legitimate reasons for people to go inactive for such a time. There was no clause stating that accounts would be deleted and randomly deleting accounts is unheard of throughout my 10+ years of testing games so I'm really hoping this will get fixed because a lot of the wrong people got screwed over here and even if we were to lose access, we should still receive the benefits of testing the game because there is no clause stating otherwise.

[QUOTE=Alex_DeLarge;41866791]we should still receive the benefits of testing the game because there is no clause stating otherwise.[/QUOTE] Unfortunately, I doubt this will happen since the accounts themselves and associated emails were probably deleted. There's probably no way to backtrack at this point unless there was a backup.

[QUOTE=Alex_DeLarge;41866791]The problem I have is that "you'll get the game when it releases" was an official statement by the developer and I know it's not legally binding but it's just the "right thing to do". I mean, in my case in particular, I was one of the first 200-300 people to ever register back in April/May and I have logged 100+ hours since and I have participated in the threads and reported bugs. None of us broke any rules. We didn't get banned or anything like that. We weren't hacking or stealing accounts and I know I certainly didn't sell anyone accounts. We went inactive for 30 days (which has been known to happen, especially when the game is THIS early in development) and there are infinite legitimate reasons for people to go inactive for such a time. There was no clause stating that accounts would be deleted and randomly deleting accounts is unheard of throughout my 10+ years of testing games so I'm really hoping this will get fixed because a lot of the wrong people got screwed over here and even if we were to lose access, we should still receive the benefits of testing the game because there is no clause stating otherwise.[/QUOTE] Your problem is that you lost your account because you weren't using it. Testers get to keep the game - not people that made an account and didn't use it. Yeah it sucks for you - but you should have probably bothered to play the game.

[QUOTE=garry;41868322]Your problem is that you lost your account because you weren't using it. Testers get to keep the game - not people that made an account and didn't use it. Yeah it sucks for you - but you should have probably bothered to play the game.[/QUOTE] I just think that's a pretty shitty thing to do to users that have been there from the start and have logged hundreds of hours. It's easy to say that when it's your passion project and you're working on it day after day after day but others of us have jobs, social lives, other games to play and other shit to do overall. It's summer and people go on vacation, myself included so if that's why I lost my privileges to the game, that's a pretty shitty reason and that's a pretty shitty thing to do to people. You fucked over the wrong people with that wipe.

[QUOTE=Alex_DeLarge;41868354]You fucked over the wrong people with that wipe.[/QUOTE] Who's responsible for exploits?

[QUOTE=Alex_DeLarge;41868354]I just think that's a pretty shitty thing to do to users that have been there from the start and have logged hundreds of hours. It's easy to say that when it's your passion project and you're working on it day after day after day but others of us have jobs, social lives, other games to play and other shit to do overall. It's summer and people go on vacation, myself included so if that's why I lost my privileges to the game, that's a pretty shitty reason and that's a pretty shitty thing to do to people. You fucked over the wrong people with that wipe.[/QUOTE] I think that's garry's cue to stop. Not that I disagree with you - I think there could have been a better way to go about this - but the facts are as follows: 1. The game is early enough in development that garry's doing a lot of things that make his life easier. Instead of evaluating accounts one by one, he just got rid of the ones that met that basic "haven't played for a month" criteria. 2. Part of me is asking if you were legitimately away for a month - and even if you were, how would garry validate that? 3. There's probably going to be more Rust keys in the future. Just relax, find a new key, and play the game.

[QUOTE=Bladezor;41868531]Who's responsible for exploits?[/QUOTE] Illegitimate users that break the rules are responsible. Not people who weren't around for 30+ days. Either way, I'm just saying that wiping hundreds of accounts without warning is unheard of and uncalled for, I've tested at least a hundred games over the past ten years (extremely closed and extremely open) and I've never seen a wipe for inactivity, ever, except for Ultima Online which came out in 1997 and they wanted to get people back into the game. Who cares if they were alts? Who cares if they were being sold? It's against the rules and anyone who got caught should have been banned and anyone who complained about being scammed out of money in exchange for one of the aforementioned alts could have been told to "piss off, not our problem". There was a million different ways to deal with the situation at hand and this was the worst possible. All this did was alienate early adopters and made no concessions to people who were some of the first to test and some of the more valuable testers that are active throughout the forums and posted bug reports while they still played the game in favor of people who just got access to the game and haven't gotten bored/frustrated by the lack of content and client stability. Maybe it did get rid of some alts but I'm still seeing plenty pop up for sale from the usual suspects. [QUOTE=wauterboi;41868727] Just relax, find a new key, and play the game.[/QUOTE] It's not that simple and you know it. Thanks to the 12 year olds and redditors constantly begging, it's nearly impossible to get a key legitimately.

I'm only really seeing one person that feels alienated by it.

[QUOTE=garry;41869922]I'm only really seeing one person that feels alienated by it.[/QUOTE] There's probably a few except most aren't arsing themselves to complain as they know how ruthless you are.

[QUOTE=garry;41869922]I'm only really seeing one person that feels alienated by it.[/QUOTE] It's really shitty, but after years of being on this forum I know it's unlikely that you'll change your mind, so I just don't bother because I don't have a good reason why you should change your mind.

[QUOTE=Alex_DeLarge;41869393]Illegitimate users that break the rules are responsible.[/QUOTE] Wrong answer, I write financial software on a daily basis. If I had a rounding error exploit who do you think is to blame? Me. Sure people could've exploited it, but ultimately I was responsible for it being in there in the first place. I'd be the one out of a job. Exploits happen because of negligence by the developer to some degree.

[QUOTE=wauterboi;41868727] Just relax, find a new key, and play the game.[/QUOTE] You are saying like getting a new key is just a button away...

I found out about Rust in January, someone (I think it was Helk) registered an account named "rust" to the Neocron forums and made a thread to tell us about this new game in very early development. He gave away 8 keys, I used one and registered an account. I remember at this time in early development there was a different map and the only thing you could do was run around searching boxes for items, crafting and shooting zombies! There was often no one logged in at all and it used to average around 4-10 players online, even at peak times. Given the small amount of testers people were friendly and there were very few murderers. I played for a small period of about 3 weeks, reported a couple bugs and have funny memories of some kind of flare cult starting up, people were just hanging around some buildings, throwing flares everywhere and jumping around always holding a lighted flare in their hand. After a little while things quieted down (yes even quieter than 4-10 players) and there really wasn't anything to do without other players on, there also weren't any updates for a while so I logged on less and less often, eventually stopping altogether. I had mostly forgotten about Rust until I found a thread on survival games at a gaming forum I go to yesterday. I remembered Rust and decided to check up on it, tried logging on and of course my account had been deleted. I didn't know how or why my account was gone so I checked the forum and here I am, I read this entire thread so I know I won't get my account back. I'm just a little surprised the team felt the need to delete inactive accounts like that. I had no idea about the deal that testers would get the game for free, it happened while I was inactive of course and now I kind of wish they never made that deal. Maybe they wouldn't have decided to delete inactive accounts if it wasn't for that. I know I didn't make some great contribution, I only played for a few weeks and found a couple bugs but I do agree with Alex and others who've said this was a shitty thing to do, it really wasn't the best way of dealing with things. I mostly just feel bad for those that had put in tons of hours playtesting who just happened to go inactive for a month. Of the 4000 odd acounts that remain it's a certainty that a pretty big chunk of them had been inactive for a month or more at other times, they're just lucky the arbitrary decision to cull accounts didn't happen during their inactivity.

[QUOTE=Hamidinator;41875211]I found out about Rust in January, someone (I think it was Helk) registered an account named "rust" to the Neocron forums and made a thread to tell us about this new game in very early development. He gave away 8 keys, I used one and registered an account. I remember at this time in early development there was a different map and the only thing you could do was run around searching boxes for items, crafting and shooting zombies![/QUOTE] The first time I played there was no one on (about a year ago?), there were no keys. There was one building, a warehouse, a few zombies, no crafting, you didn't have health packs, you'd use bandages to stop bleeding and blood packs to replenish your health afterwards. There was no way anyone could stay "active" at this point in time. I'd check back every week to see if there were any new changes. Later on it got more active, the map was expanded and keys were implemented, but like you said there was barely anyone on and there were numerous occasions where I'd be on the server completely alone. I don't think it's been active until the past few months, correct me if I'm wrong.

I see a lot of people complaining about losing their account for not playing, think about this, you buy a car, you don't pay for it all at once, instead you make payments, you stop making your payments, and the car will be repossessed after a certain amount of time, if you make payments, you keep the car, now how does this relate to rust, you get a key, you register, and you play, but you stop playing after a few days(for whatever reason) a month later you go to play the game again, oh it's not there, here is the point, by not playing or paying, you lose the privileges that you feel entitled to, you are not entitled to anything if you don't make payments or play the game

This is a terrible analogy, when you buy a [b]new[/b] car you sign a contract and if you [i]are[/i] late on your payment you get several warnings, are charged late fees, and harassed before your car is finally repossessed. They don't take your car away immediately after not paying. Furthermore, Rust is alpha so I wouldn't compare it to a new car, which has gone through several iterations of r&d and testing before becoming a polished product.

The last time I played was about 4 days ago. Yet my account was deleted. Eh, hopefully there will be more keys when Rust goes into beta.

Was my account deactivated? I was on vacation for a couple of months. I can't seem to connect to the server.

[QUOTE=Zombie man70;41876387]Was my account deactivated? I was on vacation for a couple of months. I can't seem to connect to the server.[/QUOTE] It got deleted after [B]one[/B] of those months of inactivity.

[QUOTE=gk99;41876413]It got deleted after [B]one[/B] of those months of inactivity.[/QUOTE] I can still sign in though? [editline]17th August 2013[/editline] I'm going to be pissed if I can't play... :suicide: [editline]17th August 2013[/editline] I'm fucking killing myself for not bringing my laptop.

[QUOTE=to12143;41875730]I see a lot of people complaining about losing their account for not playing, think about this, you buy a car, you don't pay for it all at once, instead you make payments, you stop making your payments, and the car will be repossessed after a certain amount of time, if you make payments, you keep the car, now how does this relate to rust, you get a key, you register, and you play, but you stop playing after a few days(for whatever reason) a month later you go to play the game again, oh it's not there, here is the point, by not playing or paying, you lose the privileges that you feel entitled to, you are not entitled to anything if you don't make payments or play the game[/QUOTE] A car company doesn't repossess your car after 30 days.

[QUOTE=Alex_DeLarge;41876527]A car company doesn't repossess your car after 30 days.[/QUOTE] I do find it a little unfair especially because I played a lot. I want to enjoy some time with my family and that cost me my account. It was one of the first accounts on the site, too.

[QUOTE=Zombie man70;41876451]I can still sign in though? [editline]17th August 2013[/editline] I'm going to be pissed if I can't play... :suicide: [editline]17th August 2013[/editline] I'm fucking killing myself for not bringing my laptop.[/QUOTE] The server is Down. that's why you cant connect.

[QUOTE=flapstik1;41876569]The server is Down. that's why you cant connect.[/QUOTE] I signed on during my vacation, so lets hope it's that!

Damn, garry :( I would really like to play this game again, guess I never will :(

[QUOTE=Alex_DeLarge;41876527]A car company doesn't repossess your car after 30 days.[/QUOTE] What if the car company gives you a car for free and asks you to test it and then looks at the car and see that it hasn't been started up for 30 days, would they take it from you then?

[QUOTE=MyNameisJason;41876993]Damn, garry :( I would really like to play this game again, guess I never will :([/QUOTE] Buy it when it's released.

[QUOTE=Bladezor;41875521]I don't think it's been active until the past few months, correct me if I'm wrong.[/QUOTE] I've been playing on and off for about a month now and the first week was intense, most nights you would see 80-120 online, which was more than enough for it to feel alive. But after that week or so it became less and less inactive to the point of maybe 30-40. It's tailing off again, basically.

[QUOTE=garry;41878143]What if the car company gives you a car for free and asks you to test it and then looks at the car and see that it hasn't been started up for 30 days, would they take it from you then?[/QUOTE] Well that's a bit different because people would use that car for going on vacation, going to work, going to school, going to buy other games. It's a mode of transportation and I'm sure they'd have a clause in the agreement that states you must use it as your main method of transportation before they gave it to you.

[QUOTE=Alex_DeLarge;41858277]I guess I understand why you guys removed the accounts but it's still a shitty move to delete thousands of accounts simply because they were too busy to log in for a month because there's a chance that the account was being used as an alt to sell/scam other users. As I said before, it was a really great move to give testers access to the full game. What happens to the early adopters that supported the development by testing and reporting bugs? I mean there wasn't any clauses to what was said. None of us broke the rules or anything like that. It just stated that if you were in the alpha, you get to keep the full game when it releases. It was definitely reasonable to expect our accounts to exist regardless of whether we logged in within 30 days or not.[/QUOTE] Do you know what a pain it is to read all of the posts of users that are crying that they got 'banned', it makes it even worse when you're one of the persons that didnt get a key. As a beta-tester you are supposed to play the game, test it, and if possible report bugs and not wait till you get a free copy of the game, which brings me to my next point: you only seem to care about getting the game for free. You cry that 30 days isnt much? Did you ever play DayZ Origins? Your houses are gone after 16 days not interacting with them, if your pissed about that I would understand. But logging in once in a month shouldnt be to much huh? You could have given me your account, I would have happely played with it, every day. But instead you 'waste' it by thinking: "Fuck dat shit, ima wait till the games released, ill get my free copy anyways." And dont come with stuff like social life, holidays and I have to go to work, the only thing the Devs could have done better is writing something like an email. Although that would probably just made 50% of the players login for a sec and forget about it. You have to accept that its your own fault, if you really like the game, buy it when its released.