Happy July Everyone!

Even though it’s the lazy days of summer, things are quite busy around
the studio.  The coming months promise to be very exciting and to kick
things off Stuart Zissu (Producer, Dark Age of Camelot), Andy Belford,
and myself will be making our way across the pond to GamesCom: Cologne.
While in Germany we’ll be talking about the future of WAR and DAoC so be
sure to stay tuned for coverage from the event, which takes place
between August 18th and August 22nd. While in Cologne, we’ll be looking
to get together and meet up with the players, so watch for updates on
the Forums, the Herald and Twitter (http://twitter.com/WARHerald) for
where to hang out with us on the road!

Hello everyone,

Two weeks ago, a serious event occurred which resulted in the unintended billing of some of our customers. For this and any difficulties the event caused, we are truly sorry and today we wish to explain what happened, and to make a renewed commitment to your trust and security. We have taken this very seriously. In our 15 year history, trust has been the foundation of our relationship with the gaming community and we intend to rebuild that trust.

Between March 18 and April 7, our payment gateway, experienced a processing flaw that was beyond the scope of our control. Instead of being submitted for processing once, some transactions were submitted multiple times, resulting in some people being charged multiple times.  On April 8, we determined what had happened and acted with urgency to arrange for bulk reversal of all erroneous charges. The majority of players saw the refund within 2-3 business days.  Some banks did not post refunds until a few days later, a delay that was contingent on the banking institution. We worked quickly to inform affected players of the situation and understand the frustration this waiting period may have caused.

As a result of this event, we significantly increased customer service staffing who have been working with all impacted subscribers to waive any overdraft fees. The majority of the banks have waived these fees as they recognize the unusual nature of this event. In the rare cases that the banks have not reversed the charges, EA is covering the fee.

Once the corrective action was completed, we turned our attention to analyzing the problem in more detail.  We determined the root cause, developed a definitive fix and implemented monitoring precautions that will allow us to prevent similar situations from reoccurring. These steps have been in place since April 13 with no further issues.

To be clear, at no point during this event was there a security breach or was subscriber account information compromised.

As of today, we believe we have resolved the issue. However, we remain committed to assisting anyone who has been financially affected in ways we are not aware.  For any players still in need of assistance, please contact our Billing Support department by calling 650-628-1001 from 10:00 AM EDT - 10:00 PM EDT, 7 days a week. For those outside of the U.S. who do not wish to make an international call, please create an in-game appeal; for instructions on how to file an appeal click here.

Over the past 15 years we have always strived to do what’s best for our players. We are truly sorry, and want to work to make things right and restore our relationship.  We hope you will accept this small token of our appreciation for your continued commitment to our games:

For starters all players will earn 100% bonus experience and renown when killing enemies and monsters for two weeks. As well, during this time we’ll be hard at work designing and implementing a special vendor. This vendor will only accept special tokens that will be sent to your mailbox, using these two tokens each of your characters will be able to receive two of the following items:

• Bottomless Chaos Black Dye
  
• Bottomless Skull White Dye
  
• Imperial Griffon Mount (Order)
  
• Enslaved Manticore Mount (Destruction)
  
• WAR Tract – earn a free level
  
• Choose from any of these pets – Order: Imperial Hunting Hound or Dwarf Keg Handler; Destruction: Warlord’s Fell Hound or the Goblin Bar-Back.
  
• Change your appearance with any of these illusion items: Skaven Skin Cloak (skaven), Kossar’s Helm (bear), or the Signet of the Cursed Company (skeleton)

Please accept this gesture as a step towards rebuilding our relationship. From all of us at Mythic, we thank you for your time, your commitment, and your trust that helps us to make great games year after year.

Thank you,

Jeff Hickman
Studio Executive Producer, Mythic Entertainment

Customer Service has received requests for assistance with the Invader
Insignia Tome unlock issue that has impacted some of you. Though we
implemented a solution yesterday, we have implemented another this
afternoon. With this new change, players who possess the original
weapon but could not equip it, are now able to resolve the issue on
their own. To accomplish this, simply open a buy window with any
merchant that has a buy back tab, sell the weapon, select the buy back
tab on the merchant window, and then buy back the weapon.

(please read on for more important details…)

Hey
Fellow Waaaghers,

Just
wanted to drop a few lines to follow up where our fearless leader, Mr. Hickman,
left off reaffirm that our support and dedication to making WAR the best RvR
experience in the market has not changed.  We’re just a few weeks past the
launch of 1.3.2 and heavily testing 1.3.3 as we speak to get it ready for PTS.

1.3.3
brings with it a focus on continued polish and bug fixes, enhancements to RvR
as well as other features to improve the quality and enjoyment of your
experience. We’ll be sprucing up graphics with improved lighting options and bloom
to make the skies pop to life and create some spectacular sights, in addition
over the course of 1.3.3 you’ll get to enjoy three live events including the
return of the Battlebrew Backpack in Keg End and the much beloved Night of
Murder event in addition to an all new event in the new year…yarrrr. We’re
anything but bored as you can see and we can’t wait to open the gates on PTS to
hear your feedback. Your feedback is vital to ensuring 1.3.3 is a hit so make
sure you share it!

Till then, we are continuing to actively
monitor how the RvR campaign is playing out across the servers and making
adjustments as we develop the Underdog system which we look forward to sharing the
details about with you soon.

In
case you haven’t heard the news we’ve now made WAR more accessible than ever!
We’ve brought RvR to the Mac for the first time ever so you don’t even need Boot
Camp to play (It made me a Mac user!). Additionally your friends and family can play the intense, fast
paced action of Tier 1 forever with
the new Endless Trial and Windows users only need a quick 1GB download to get
into the action while the rest of the game downloads as you play. PQ’s are
full, scenarios are popping and there are plenty of players scouring the RvR
lakes looking for revenge – so why are you still reading?

See
you on the battlefield,

Jeff
Skalski

Well the topic of this developer diary is a naughty word—the H word—H
****** - er… hacking.  It’s something we at Mythic don’t often talk
about openly, but we do take very seriously.  It’s a very interesting
subject that I’d love to talk in-depth about; it has many challenges
and curiosities that make for an interesting discussion.  I get a sense
of joy when I know we’ve ruined a hacker’s day. Unfortunately,
“fighting the good fight” is very cloak-and-daggers stuff, going back
and forth, with the hackers and cheaters—so, to talk about it in great
detail also gives information to the very people we’re attempting to
thwart.  Here’s my best shot at showing you a glimpse behind the
curtain about how we handle hacking and cheaters without giving away
too many of our secrets!