Oh what a difference a few days make

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: carnifex

^^^^^ this!

When I change my ISP I just laugh at their attempt to provide me with an email address.

Yep - never use em

[planner 3]

FWIW: I have complained about the fact that whenever we change ISP's, on this otherwise fine forum, we can never seem to get our old ID back. I have no probs with 2 other forums I utilize, not to mention many Favorites on my cheapo machine. Even with Eric's assistance I/we were not able to cure it. FWIW only. Planner 3 (aka Chief)

[Jeffrey H.]

ORIGINAL: wsvbus@verizon.net

By the way, after going through the members list, I see that my old username was william64. I guess the crazy thing for me is that we have to have an ID and a password for this site, the membership site, and even for the advanced tactics community site. Anyway, I will stop running around these sites so that I don't accidentally make things worse.

You should check out Decisive Campaigns, it's the latest from Vic. Start fresh, besides, AT Gold is coming out in a few months.

[Zakhal]

If my computer crashed Id be more angry about the computer than som 20 bucks game that I bought years back. I dont have matrix games on CD either but I do have them on two internal and one external harddrives. The only way I could loose them was if my apartment burned down and then they would be the least of my problems. But good luck getting your game back. 

[wsvbus@verizon.net]

I can appreciate what most of you are saying and truth be it known I am sure this problem will be worked out eventually. I just honestly don't believe that these type of issues should require over 10 e-mails to customer service. Just my opinion I guess

By the way, does anyone know how to change your password for this forum site?

[Obsolete]

Well, it's definitely better that only ONE person is irate, and the situation can finally be resolved at one point... than someone starting another Braveheart thread, getting a hundred English, Scottish and Irish all screaming irate and bashing one another.... while the Americans sit on the side-lines and wonder what all the fuss is all about

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: Jeffrey H.

ORIGINAL: wsvbus@verizon.net

By the way, after going through the members list, I see that my old username was william64. I guess the crazy thing for me is that we have to have an ID and a password for this site, the membership site, and even for the advanced tactics community site. Anyway, I will stop running around these sites so that I don't accidentally make things worse.

You should check out Decisive Campaigns, it's the latest from Vic. Start fresh, besides, AT Gold is coming out in a few months.

I never got on with AT - but Decisive Campaigns is a great game.

[wsvbus@verizon.net]

At this point it's not even about the game anymore. These people now have my order number, the original e-mail address that I made the order under, my current new e-mail address which are actually identical with the exception of the isp, my phone number, my address, my name, both my old and new matrix forum ID and my serial code number.

So now it's no longer about a game, its about how much thought was actually put into the system for dealing with such problems. A stronger more robust database could easily have dealt with this by now as could other policies that would have been designed to deal with the what ifs that happen in this life.

So now, the real issue isn't about a single game. The real issue is about trust. I really need to know will I be able to ever trust this company again if anything else should ever go wrong. It is easy to say that I should have done this and I should have done that. I really thought I was doing enough by paying a company to keep a backup of my text files. Silly me I thought thatI could do that and just keep the serial code number and I would be fine. It never occurred to me that the game file would be unavailable to everyone but members.

By the way I am a member and their database will be glad to send me my password to the e-mail address that I had when I placed the order. Its a shame that I don't use that ISP anymore.

So bottom line there is more that I could have done, but I honestly can't put a ton of thought and care into preparing to recover every piece of software that I own in case of a computer crash. At a certain point I have to trust that a company will be willing to meet me at least half way to reconcile the ton of information and proof that I did pay for the game with the information in their databases and the actual desired resources.

It just isn't practical for me to have to put this much thought into what each company's software might want for proof of ownership. Think about it.

[JudgeDredd]

The upshot is, it is not Matrix fault you don't have the game installed. It was your system crash. It was you who failed to burn the file to disk. If you had lost a CD of a game you bought from another company, how would your situation be any different.

It sounds harsh - but that's the reality really. You are one of the very, very few people on these boards that does not trust this company. I'm no fanboy...I'm saying it like it is. The company pretty much bends over backwards to accomodate customers.

Even as you post and talk about trust - even NOW - Erik has asked you for information and will be looking into it.

AFAIK Matrix has never guaranteed future downloads of their bought products. I'm not 100% on that, but that's what I understand. I have been able to in the past, but I always thought I was lucky as opposed to it was my right to be able to re-download a year or more after purchase. Isn't that why DR had the Extended Download feature??

Anyway - it's getting looked into I'm sure. I think your thoughts are mis-placed. There are many, many more companys that deserve your suspicions...Matrix really isn't one of them.

[Titanwarrior89]

The rules didn't change you always make a back up copy.........I understand your frustration but its not all Big M's fault..... Back up your copies and other than that good luck and merry christmas.[;)]

[wsvbus@verizon.net]

Unfortunately for me I wouldn't even have these type of thoughts if it wasn't for the fact that I am an internet technology major in college. One of the things you learn about in database classes is how to link different areas of the database to each other. When dealing with web pages, you really try to think about all the things that can go wrong and try to have either the functionality, the policies, or the flexibility to fix things.

Right now, I have no issue with Erik at all. I am sure that things will eventually work out. My last four or five post have been in response to people who think that I am being unreasonable.

If you were a computer science major, you would see that my real complaint isn't about things not happening for me as fast as I would like. How quickly things get done at this point is almost irrelevant. My real complaint is that the system that currently exist does have a lot of blind spots for dealing with such issues. Since I am aware of that, now I have to ask myself why. I am not making any statements regarding that, but I am curious.

Please remember though that ever since Erik responded to me, my issue regarding matrix has pretty been dealt with. These comments that you are now seeing are for those who want to talk like I should have done this, I should have done that, and I should have done the other. Truth be it known I heavily doubt if any person who wants to make a comment regarding this can say that if something happened to their hard copy of any piece of software that they would be able to provide any company with every piece of information that they could require.

Just something for you boys to think about.

[wsvbus@verizon.net]

Thank God for CDs then. It almost makes you not even want to deal with downloads anymore, just cds

[junk2drive]

After you graduate and spend a few years working in the real world, you will have a whole different opinion of how things work and don't work.

[wsvbus@verizon.net]

I can actually relate to your statement. I actually created my own computer program which was a fighting game and I discovered for every feature I wanted to add to my game it was not so much a matter of adding extra lines of code, as it was a matter of literally multiplying lines of code. I will be the first to say and understand that when dealing with code regarding any type of programming be it HTML or software for a game, everytime you add something you are multiplying lines of code, not just adding.

That said, I really believe I am not the first one to have this exact same problem. Basically it is a matter of a changed ISP and a computer failure. I would like to think that after dealing with me, there might be some added functionality regarding the password feature where you can have the option to send your password to a different e-mail address. I really doubt how that would be a security issue, but if it was, then the customer service reps should be able to accomplish that manually.

[junk2drive]

I started out in 98 on a 14,4 modem and AOL.

My online banking requests a secondary backup email address.

I refuse offers of paperless statements. I may not have internet some day but can get the mail somewhere.

[wsvbus@verizon.net]

A lot of companies ask for back up e-mail addresses which I used to think was an annoyance. Only now do I understand one of the main reasons why they do this.

By the way, here is a good laugh for you. Even if Matrix had required 3 different e-mail addresses I still would have been dead because I would have just simply used my wsvbus@cox.net, wsvpat@cox.net and one of my many other cox.net e-mail addresses and when my ISP changed they would have been wsvbus@verizon.net, wsvpat@verizon.net and of course one of my other verizon.net addresses like my wsvgame@verizon.net address.

Bottom line, since all of the e-mails all would have had the same ISP till I changed to the other ISP, I still would have had the exact same problem.

Now isn't that funny?

[junk2drive]

I had the local cable company with no email, just hotmail and AOL. Then I switched to the local phone company and used their free address. At that time it had better spam filtering and stuff. Went back to the cable company and lost the phone address.

[wsvbus@verizon.net]

It's over. In the past hour I received e-mails from no less than 4 customer service people. One of those 4 actually figured out what I really needed and sent my original password to me. The sad thing is that the password is almost identical to the one I use now. I used to be dumb enough to use my age in my password. A couple of years ago I got smart and finally started using my birth year instead. Unfortunately, I had bought AT 3 years ago while I was still making the mistake of having a password that kept changing every year.

Anyway, it is over. I appreciate all the support as well as advice and even the criticism that I received

[junk2drive]

I hope we see you around talking about games. And as a game designer when you graduate too.

[wsvbus@verizon.net]

Ironically I was around for awhile off and on. Don't forget this is not my original forum ID. This is just an ID that I created since I forgot what my old forum ID was [turned out to be william64].

This is sad, but once I got my game loaded I fought a few quick battles, but then I did some reading about AT Gold which I can hardly wait to buy. Yes I know that sounds crazy considering how I was for awhile, but lets face it, I have been playing wargames ever since Avalon HIll.

Now I actually need to open up a new thread so I can ask some questions about AT Gold so eventhough I may place the question I have on the main matrix site, I will probably be asking questions more on the AT part of this forum site.