compensation
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YouPlayorWePay under "reconstruction"
This could be the end of the strange story of YouPlayorWePay.com -- or a new beginning. We posted about the site when it first appeared, and even interviewed the founders, but apparently they've decided to make some major adjustments to the site, as it's now down for "reconstruction." A forum post by George Tung says that they are not only redesigning the site, but "re-doing our whole concept." One of our tipsters suggests that Blizzard legal may have gotten involved, but that seems unlikely -- Tung also posts that "when we are done, there will not be any more concerns about our service not being worth or if what we are doing is legal."So there you have it. We'll have to see what they've got in store for us (though, of course, there's a chance the site may not return at all). Lots of people have had questions and concerns about the concept behind this site from the beginning, and we remain curious to see how this "reconstruction" will answer them.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Blizzard gives out a day of compensation for the downtime
Blizzard's been on shaky footing this week with all the downtime, from their forum issues to in-game mail problems, and even their main site has had trouble. But there's good news for those affected by the outages (everybody?): we're all getting an extra day of playtime. Tyren says that they believe the problems are now fixed, and that players will recieve a free day of gameplay sometime within the next two weeks.Personally, I wasn't affected much, but free gametime is free gametime. The real test will be this evening and this weekend -- if Blizzard can keep their realms up even under the pressure of so many people checking out the expansion, it'll be a feat. But odds are that, considering how many players are likely to try checking out Northrend in the next few days, the shakiness is not quite over.
3 day credit for NA, EU customers
When patch 3.0.2 hit, we had a very long maintenance, shading towards 24 hours for some realms. And since then we haven't always had the best of realm stability; I know my own realm has had plenty of restarts, downed instance servers, and lag spikes in the past few weeks. It would have made raiding pretty hard if they hadn't nerfed the pants off it.Blizzard knows about the realm problems as well as anybody, and as is their tendency, they're compensating for it by giving us all playtime credits. This time it's a full three days, for anyone with an active account on US, Oceanic, Latin American, European, and Russian realms (so basically everyone except Asia; the Asian realms have a different payment structure). That's one thing I really like about Blizzard. They may mess up, but at least they try to fix it. Now can I have a Squashling, please?
Playtime credit for Bloodlust realms
Playtime credits: they're not just for European realms anymore! Blizzard must have been reading the comment thread for my post on the Bloodlust battlegroup's problems yesterday because, clearly in direct response to the demands of commenters Todd and oniwah, they are issuing a one-day credit to the accounts of anyone with characters on the affected realms. Once more, those realms are: Aman'Thul, Barthilas, Blackrock, Caelestrasz, Dath'Remar, Dreadmaul, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Khaz'goroth, Kil'Jaeden, Kilrogg, Nagrand, Ner'zhul, Proudmoore, Sen'Jin, Silver Hand, Thaurissan, Tichondrius, and Vek'nilash. So if you've got a character on one of those servers, perhaps $0.50 worth of playtime will help make up for your troubles. Did they ever fix the latency/disconnect issues, by the way?
Some EU realms get a free day
A bit over a month ago, all the realms in the European battlegroups Crueldad, Hinterhalt, Némésis, and Nightfall suffered some extra downtime, and players on them received a credit for a free day of playtime to compensate. Looks like it's happened again. In exchange for for six hours of downtime on April 6, members on those battlegroups will once again get a free day. Here's a list of the affected realms: Crueldad: C'Thun, Dun Modr, Los Errantes, Minahonda, Shen'dralar, Tyrande, Uldum, Zul'Jin Hinterhalt: Arygos, Der Mithrilorden, Dethecus, Forscherliga, Norgannon, Teldrassil, Todeswache, Un'Goro Némésis: Arak-arahm, Confrérie du Thorium, Eitrigg, Garona, La Croisade écarlate, Medivh, Uldaman, Vol'jin Nightfall: Alonsus, Anachronos, Bronze Dragonflight, Burning Steppes, Darkmoon Faire, Darkspear, Kor'gall, Lightbringer, Molten Core Enjoy your free day, folks. I'm just glad I get to use my "1up" image again.
Extended PotBS downtime yields player compensation
A recent period of extended downtime in Pirates of the Burning Sea, caused by an issue with the latest patch, has left a mob of very angry pirates to placate. Thankfully, most pirates will forget why they were angry if you can toss them a handful of doubloons, and so Flying Lab Software has dug up a few treasure chests in order to give compensation for the lost play time.Players will be receiving 6 Bonus Loot Books, which give a 20% chance to get double loot from enemies for two real-time hours, and 6 Bonus Experience Books, granting a 20% experience boost for two hours. These goodies will be put straight into player's inventories when they log in, after a small patch this Wednesday.
Blue Notes: Compensation and soulbinding
As we had all hoped, players with characters on the realms that received the 48-hour maintenance earlier this week will have a two-day playtime credit applied to their accounts:To compensate players for any inconvenience caused by the downtime experienced as a result of this week's 48 hour extended maintenance, we will be issuing a 48-hour time extension to all players who have accounts that are currently active on the following realms.Aggramar, Argent Dawn, Arthas, Azgalor, Bleeding Hollow, Bloodhoof, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Durotan, Earthen Ring, Elune, Eonar, Eredar, Gilneas, Gorefiend, Kargath, Laughing Skull, Lihgning's Blade, Llane, Lothar, Madoran, Magtheridon, Malygos, Mannoroth, Medivh, Shadowmoon, Shattered Hand, Skullcrusher, Stormrage, Thunderhorn, Thunderlord, Trollbane, Warsong, Zul'jinAlways good to see Blizzard doing the right thing. In other news, a few items are going to become BoP in patch 2.2; existing instances of them will be soulbound to whoever has them when the patch hits. From Eyonix:In the next major content patch the following items will be flagged as Bind on Pick-up (BoP). They are currently not bound at all. If you possess one of these items, be sure it's on the character of your preference. Felbane Slugs Recipe: Elixir of Major Agility Formula: Enchant Bracer - Superior Healing Hellfire Shot So make sure you transfer those to whoever you want to have them as soon as possible. The background downloader being active, it's possible the patch could hit as early as next Tuesday (though I doubt it).
Jobs total compensation a bit more than $1 per year
Steve Jobs' $1 per year salary is famous, but as everybody already knew that's hardly the whole story. According to Forbes, Jobs was the highest-paid CEO in 2006 in terms of "total compensation," taking home approximately $646 million (which is almost double number two on the list)! This was apparently mostly by way of some of those (in)famous stock options, which is pretty much standard for executives these days.[via MacNN]
Downtime Compensation for Select Realms
If you've been on the forums at all lately, you understand that a number of realms - including two brand new realms - have been offline recently due to hardware failure. While the servers are now online and functioning, uptime has been spotty since Wednesday afternoon. As compensation for the downtime, however, Blizzard is crediting all players with accounts on these servers with an extra day's play-time. So if you have characters on any of the following realms, expect a credit on your account: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Onyxia, Sentinels, Uldaman, and Venture Co.
