Conrad Max Owned... oh and bug report

According to this topic:

This bug was first reported 1st July 2010 and continues to be frequently experienced by users inside the Midway space.

Description: During a "Free Play" session, Midway often deducts a ticket from the player when it shouldn't.

Players who have purchased the Green Ticket report that they often lose a ticket during Free Play. Players whose token counter already reads "0" report seeing the counter become -1 (negative value). The bug appears to originate with a combination of latency effects (10 to 12+ seconds), occasionally truncated play time (lasting less than the 1 minute duration and related to a game queue crash), and the necessary completion of a queued user's play *after* the Free Play minute has officially "ended."

I have seen the bug specifically occur with Frog Flinger, Darla's Darts and Miz Fortune but it appears all the games are susceptible.

Persistence of this error is repeatable, especially with a slow network connection. I estimate paying players who participate in Free Plays over 8 hours will lose about 12-16 tickets out of 50 to this bug. It results in a significant loss of tickets. Please look into this. Thanks.

Pretty clear bug report. In fact, this is one of the most exceptionally clear bug reports I've seen on this dead forum. And of course Conrad_Max stops in with his usual sage-like advice.

When I realised that this was happening, after two or three games, I just wouldn't play the free games while I still had tickets on me. I just wait until I run out of tickets.

Which the reply was... delicious. This is one of the most awesome and honest ownings I have ever been witnessed:

With reference to the previous Reported Error mentioned above:

Conrad_Max 07-02-2010 01:43 AM (link: Re: Midway Carnival Rip off)

[...] I did purchase the tickets and I won many prizes. We don't have to buy the tickets, but it sure speeds things up. The atmosphere in The Midway was very much like a carnival.

After the space was fully loaded, everything seemed to run smoothly. I had no issues with the space other than when a free game was avauilable, I ended up using some of my tickets. A minor problem and one I can easily avoid. The games were fun and even challenging. Just like a videogame. [...]

I find the disingenuous nature of that response, and other comments along the lines of "Just buy a ticket, it's only a dollar and sure speeds thing up," to be highly disturbing. It is disturbing given you yourself noticed the ticket-loss error at the time, but still claimed that it was "not an error" and that there were "no tech issues to hamper my enjoyment of the games in the space."

Hello?? Only the most contorted logic can explain away this bug as a 'feature' that "works as advertised."

Avoiding the free plays while in possession of tickets is an obvious user-based solution, yes. But that does NOT excuse the existence of this error, which is a serious bug given that I have seen it occur in about 25-50% of my free plays. If we are in the space and see a flashing Free Play notification occur for a game right beside us, should we not reasonably expect that the game will actually be free?

Penalizing those who have actually invested in the space by buying tickets is not good business.

The matter is all the more significant given that some users say they have already spent $20+ in Midway but won only about 40 of the available rewards. This happens while playing both paid AND Free Plays.

Completing Midway requires a dedicated investment in both time and money, so an attrition (ticket loss) rate of even 25% of one's purchase is a serious problem for a lesser-skilled player. The Free Plays would have been an excellent way to manage and extend one's budget... *IF* they were actually free.

Strategically, there are certain games with such a difficult learning curve (Ball Squeezer, Rebound) that I had no intention of ever using tickets on them. Rather my intent was to use the Free Plays in order to figure them out-- and to be pleasantly surprised if I did manage to beat a level. The fact that I now have to avoid these games entirely while in the space is not acceptable. The fact that I cannot actually save my tickets to strategically spend them only on certain levels (for example, on levels 1-3, 8-9 of High Roller which require angled power shots) is likewise not a desirable situation.

Ouch. Perhaps Conrad will resist the urge to hover around the tech support graveyard looking for chances to save Home's shitty credibility. I doubt it, but I can dream. Conrad_Max hangs off Home's cock like a third nut.