White Owlbear, a 100$ Charge Reward, Got Its Bind Status Stealth Changed

Well, here we go again. It seems like Neverwinter adds to its history of promotional hiccups. Already back in February players reported that a certain promotional item, the White Owlbear, suddenly changed its bind status. The Owlbear was handed out in a charge reward promo back in November 2016 and the blog article still states that “The White Owlbear is Bind on Equip!”. The more surprising it was for players to realize that the mount suddenly changed to bind in pickup.

While this is not really an issue to all those that already used the item on one of their characters, it can be majorly annoying in other cases. Let’s say you stored the once BoE item on a storage alt for future use, which is a common practice. Now the mount is stuck on a character that most likely won’t have any use for it. Or maybe you’ve bought up Owlbears as investment back then? Too bad you won’t be able to sell them now, right? In any case the promotion listed the item as bind on equip, and shouldn’t be changed afterwards, much less silently.

Players that inquired support about the issue got confirmation that it was an intentional change by the way. It also unfortunately doesn’t look like they are willing to help in this matter.

White Owlbear Only Latest of Many Promotional Hiccups

It’s needless to say that something like this shouldn’t happen. If you promote an item as bind on equip, and people pay 100$ for it, then the status shouldn’t change. What makes matters worse is that it happened completely unannounced, leaving players without any chance to sell mounts or move them away from alts.

The mods in the thread suggested that it might have been a stealth change to counter a possible exploit. Apparently the promo was reclaimable, which allowed players to obtain the item more often than intended. That would indeed explain the change, but now players that legitimately took part in the promo might still have no reward to show for it. That’s not acceptable!

It’s not the first time PWE messed up one of their promotions by the way. In 2015 a Bonus Companion Reward Promotion promised account-unlocked rewards, but the delivered ones were only one-time claimable versions. A year later, internal miscommunication lead to a misleading blog article about the Black Friday Charge Bonus and in 2017 claiming the Holiday Charge Rewards initially didn’t work at all. It sure feels like they can’t get through a full year without on of these, right?

Make Your Voice Heard!

In case you’re affected by this mess-up, you should make your voice heard. Contact support and let them know that you want the Owlbear’s bind status to be changed back to BoE. Simultaneously we’d strongly recommend messaging Community Manager nitocris83 on the official message board, on Discord, or through the official community mail community@crypticstudios.com. She won’t be able to resolve the issue, but letting her know about your displeasure is still important.

You could also try to reach out to other devs or members of the community team. The more people are bugged with this, the more likely it gets that they will actually do something about it or at least act differently in the future. We certainly hope that the devs will reconsider the change, but wouldn’t bet on it. At least those players that are now stuck with the Owlbear on characters that can’t really utilize the mount should get help.


Are you affected by the bind change to the White Owlbear? What’s your take on the whole issue? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or the corresponding thread on our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 40,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

NWO_Unblogged

We are always looking for people that contribute to this blog. For more information contact us via blog@nwo-uncensored.com or check the forum.

14 thoughts on “White Owlbear, a 100$ Charge Reward, Got Its Bind Status Stealth Changed

  • May 8, 2018 at 7:23 am
    Permalink

    This is why they’re not worth anyone’s cash. This is completely unacceptable. In any other industry it would be Full Cash Refund, Guaranteed, No Questions Asked. They breached the contract and advertised falsely.

    Again!

    Other items are claimable once per account and remain BoE. Why were these claimable multiple times and so made BoP? What are the Community Managers actually doing? Sitting on their Fat Arses and stuffing their faces with pizza and jam doughnuts while everything falls to shit around them??

    >:8o

  • May 9, 2018 at 1:54 am
    Permalink

    The question is do they, PWE, have the right to do this? And I think the answer is yes, otherwise they would not have done it explicitly that way. We therefore have no rights to enforce a fix about such issue, but of course players are humans and this change can be morally disputable.

    I was looking in their new Terms of Service and while I couldn’t find exactly where the contract says PWE has the right of such changes, I found some that I find interesting. I’m not a lawyer, or versed in the law, some implications may, and likely, have been overlooked:

    28.1
    (d) You acknowledge that in using the Service and/or Games, you may lose in-game features and/or items. You may not hold PWE responsible for any in-game feature or item loss. We do not guarantee the availability of any in-game items, any Service or any levels to players

    29.1
    (b) PWE AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, PARTNERS AND LICENSORS MAKE NO WARRANTY THAT (i) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; (ii) THE WEBSITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE; OR (iii) ANY ERRORS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED.

    Better not have an angry GM against you, and apparently they give no warranty of fixing software errors, I guess in-game errors too?

    • May 9, 2018 at 6:00 am
      Permalink

      This is why there should be a world-wide #MeTooBoycottZen until they reverse the binding screw up and change the ToS to something more reasonable, such as “make every endeavor to correct errors” and so on.

      But it does not matter what the ToS says. Advertising one thing, selling it, taking the money and then changing it to a different thing is criminal fraud. Pure and Simple. It is just not allowed by law.

      #MeTooClassActionSuePWE

      • May 9, 2018 at 7:10 am
        Permalink

        Haha, im supportive of #metoo but pretty sure their lawyers have thought about it before management made the change to not risk to lose in court in case of a legal action against them. I could be wrong, though.

        • May 9, 2018 at 8:18 am
          Permalink

          @Bert
          Indeed, but it’s more likely they concluded that MMO players are a disorganised rabble that couldn’t find the beer at a party in the brewery. Much like, IIRC, Chrysler sent a memo “It’s cheaper to let them burn” rather than recall the cars where the petrol tank would exp[lode all over the car behind when it was rear-ended. About $6 per car to fix, vs the compensation if they were sued for such an actual accident.

          • May 10, 2018 at 2:24 pm
            Permalink

            I thought it was the Ford Pinto, and $11. Chrysler had a case, too?

  • May 9, 2018 at 2:00 am
    Permalink

    4.12 Please note that regardless of any notice, we reserve the right to discontinue the Service or to terminate or suspend your Account at any time in our sole discretion, for any reason, or for no reason.

    I can’t stress enough this clause, this one is a killer to me.

  • May 9, 2018 at 6:04 am
    Permalink

    PWE and Craptic are terrible companies. This is why I left Neverenter and never looked back. I’m not surprised they pulled some shit. Why else would they be doing “bring a friend” campaigns. Why happened to the “millions” of players. They’re a fucking joke.

    • May 9, 2018 at 9:13 am
      Permalink

      Exactly. Bring a friend is a sure sign they see the writing on the wall.

  • May 9, 2018 at 2:48 pm
    Permalink

    The rage is a little misplaced. People (probably some commenting here) most likely exploited the promo. If there wasn’t a significant problem, they would have invested zero time in changing anything. Yes, the fix was poorly executed and they deserve to be called out for that. People who exploit a mechanic also deserve to be called out. I would have preferred that Cryptic work on new content, or long-overdue bug fixes, or balancing, or about anything else other than dealing with exploiters.

    • May 10, 2018 at 2:09 am
      Permalink

      These are two different aspects imho. Of course they had to react to the exploit first, but there’s no reason to wait 3+ months to come up with a follow-up solution for players that are stuck with the Owlbear. And as always, only the pressure of the community made them look further into it. It wasn’t only “poorly executed”, I doubt they even had plans to deliver a follow-up until the there were extended complaints. It’s not that hard:

      1) Fix the exploit
      2) Announce and explain the fix and promise a follow-up for the Owlbears now stuck on wrong chars
      3) Release the follow-up fix
      4) Win!

      Transparency and communication is key here and Cryptic unfortunately still does a miserable job with both.

  • May 10, 2018 at 3:43 pm
    Permalink

    @Machete
    Yes, you’re right. It was many, many years ago I saw the documentary and I seem to recall Chrysler. As I said, “IIRC”, but I just checked and Google says Ford Pinto.

    Thanks for that fact check.

Comments are closed.