Another Glitch Story...
So I recently subscribed to a new streaming platform called Massive (kind of like Netflix), with an exclusive show called the Division. It’s about a bunch of bad-*** Spec Ops type soldiers fighting to save the the world in a dystopian post-COVID future. I saw the trailer and everything I read on their website looked incredible. It was on its second season, and all the reviews I read made it seem like the first season went through some dry spells but ended strong. This was my kind of show, so I was hooked. I had to pay the annual subscription fee upfront to access the show, but the platform promised a whole bunch of perks (early access to episodes, free gifts, etc.) that it seemed worth it. So I bought the 4K UHD package, paid upfront, and went into binge-watching mode.
The first couple of episodes were amazing. Everything I wanted in a TV show. By the third episode though, some annoying things started happening. The plot started repeating itself, got a little bit redundant and unbelievably hard to understand, and then everything started to turn to sh**. Instead of 4K UHD, the stream started looking like it was playing on an old VHS tape. Then the stream started to lag or cut-off mid episode, would give me some kind of crazy “DELTA” error, and then force me to watch the episode from the beginning again. And then then the controls wouldn’t work. I’d press “pause” and it wouldn’t work or would kick me out of the episode, which (you guessed it) I had to then start from the beginning again. On top of all of that, it started to take forever to start the episodes — I mean, it would get stuck at 09% buffered all the time. FFS right? But I was pot-committed to the characters and story, and I had to know how the season ended.
So like any normal consumer nowadays, I reached out to their customer service. I mean, this was not the experience they promised when I bought the subscription. There was a guy there named Hamish — good chap, solid dude. He let me know he understood, was letting everyone know on at his company what the issues were, and let me know that things would get fixed. OK, fine. Things got a tiny bit better along the way, so I kept trudging through the episodes, despite all the issues. F***, I paid up anyway, might as well try to enjoy what it is.
But then, a few episodes later, all the annoying sh** started getting worse. Hamish was texting me once a week by that point, telling me they were trying to get a handle on things and that they understood my perspective and that they were working on things. Again, solid dude that Hamish, and nothing against him because he’s just front-line customer service, but man, how many times was I going to have to deal with this sh**. So I went online to see how other subscribers were dealing with these issues. And then I came across some crazy content at the top of my recommended videos on YouTube — apparently there was a secret code you could input into your remote to access all of the last episodes in perfect 4K UHD, even the ones that were restricted until I had re-watched all of the old ones. Holy sh**, right?
Now, I’m not the kind of guy that downloads pirated videos. I mean, I don’t even share my Netflix username and password with my family/friends, which everyone does, right? And it wasn’t really like I was downloading a pirated video or sharing a password, since I had already paid for it, and it was just for me, right? But still, it didn’t seem like the right thing to do to Hamish and his buddies who were texting me. I mean, those guys were probably royally pi**ed that this sh** was all over YouTube. BUT, I was getting REALLY F***ING ANNOYED that I was being forced to deal with these service issues over and over again. And it’s not like I’m robbing a bank or cheating on my wife, right? I know I’m breaking their subscription rules, but this is just a TV show. Who’s it really hurting if I do this? What’s the worst Massive could do? Kick me off the platform? At this point, who cares?
So I listened to the devil on my shoulder, and punched in the secret code into my remote. And man, I had a ton of fun watching in 4K UHD again. But, as I had suspected, the remaining episodes, especially the finale, were straight garbage. Not just repetitive and completely ridiculous plots, but new “exotic” characters that were more poorly developed than the “named” characters. I mean, I would’ve been pi**ed off if i had been forced to re-watch all those old episodes, with all of the quality issues, just to get to this kind of finale. I mean PI**ED.
So what happened then? Massive figured out what I was doing, and yup, they penalized me. As expected. Funny thing though, they didn’t penalize everyone who did it, including my next door neighbor (who’s a complete *******). Guess that makes sense though — the whole plot of Division’s story is about getting lucky, something the writers call “RNG”. Guess RNG was on his side. Good for him though, as I’m sure he was just as annoyed at the issues as I was, and I’m pretty sure he needs some sort of joy in life given he has to live his life being, well him.
Anyway, given all of the toxicity I’ve seen in this community lately, I thought this story might help put some context on things. Funniest (but probably the most non-surprising) thing of all? Massive’s penalty for me was that I had to take a time-out and then would have to watch re-runs again in VHS format again. Time outs and reruns seem to be what they’re really good at. Still, I hear they’re rewriting the finale again to make it better. What do you guys think, should I try to stick it out, even though I’m pretty sure they still don’t understand what the issues are? Uhhhm, nah. Sorry Hamish, you’re good peoples and all, but I’m just tired of this sh**.
TLDR:
For all the glitchers that got caught and are upset: You broke the rules. Man up and move on. Hamish is not a nazi, and it’s not the end of the world. For all the non-glitchers that are spewing hate and ridicule: Calm the f*** down. Nobody robbed a bank or slept with someone’s wife — it’s like you’re trying to ****-shame people for using their buddy’s Netflix password to watch an adult movie. For Massive: This is a learning moment. Learn from it. A lot of your customers who did the glitch have never done anything like that before and love the game’s potential. They were not out to destroy you or the game. They did not do this to go into PVP and be a d***. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes, and make the game that they want, not the game you want. And if you’re going to punish people for breaking the rules, punish EVERYONE who broke the rules, and make damn sure you’re punishing NO ONE who is innocent.
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