"Black Monday" has come and gone.

Honestly, I don't believe that grab bags, lack of advertising, or the inability to fix bugs is the core reason for all the hostility over the weekend. This all stems from there being no proper place to send opinions about a game we all love to play.

Where do we channel our frustrations? Let's look at our options:

1. In game GMs. I don't see this being a viable option. I spoke to a GM last week about a mission in Lamuria Crisis that was glitched. The response I was given by the GM was to change instances. For those of you that play the game may know, changing instances in any crisis is not an option. Secondly, I translated what I was being told by the GM as "We will not fix the bug, fix it yourself or work around it." I have no faith that talking to a GM about any of the issues that came up over the weekend forums will reach anyone of note.

2. Forums. This option has been explored over the past week or so and multiple people have been punished due to both civil and non civil disobedience. Entire threads have been taken down pertaining to opinions on Cryptic's performance of late and customer dissatisfaction. This action has left players like myself who enjoy using the forums a bit nervous to state opinions about the game. Stating opinions in the forums is no longer an option.

3. Suggestion Box Thread I looked over this forum today and it seemed like a wasteland for travel power ideas and thoughts on costume pieces. Nothing pertaining to dissatisfaction or complaints. This does not seem to be the place to state these opinions either.

I have seen no customer service hotline or email address to contact Cryptic.

If either a CM or a player can point all of us in the correct direction to channel any of these types of ideas, frustrations or opinions, please do so. It will spare all the regular forum viewers from what we have seen this weekend and I think we all desperately need this outlet for the betterment of the game community as a whole. I don't think airing our dirty laundry for new players to see is winning any subscriptions.

Thanks in advance for any productive commentary or answers.

You have to understand that this isn't really the type of game that you can expect direct email or phone support for. Everything is going to be handled electronically. I'm not saying that the current systems for support don't need improvement, but you can't expect them to maintain a call center or such...

The sad thing is that they used to have one. I had to use it for a few different account issues, but they got rid of it a while back.

True, but I would much rather feel more satisfied sending an email to an address that isn't even checked by Cryptic's staff then posting here on the forums and risk loosing my privilege.

The question is "Is there a correct way to voice opinions about the game without risking a forum ban?"

I think I speak for most parties involved when I say the threads being removed wasn't the problem. They'd long turned sour by the time the mods took them down.

I know of one that was sour before it even got out of the gate that could had been easily avoided if players knew where to direct thoughts, comments, and unsatisfied opinions.

Again, blasting public forums is not winning us any new players and I would think a proper outlet would spare us all the grief and trouble that those types of threads bring.

There certainly is - follow the forum rules and guidelines.

Maintain a calm and appropriate demeanor in your posts, avoid inflammatory language, and you should be fine.

The language of the rules and guidelines is left somewhat vague in case there are edge cases that need to be acted upon - but you needn't live in fear regarding posting concerns or critiques about the game. While Cryptic does have total control over what remains on the forums and who does or does not get banned, they aren't some fascist regime intent on quelling any less-than-flattering opinions regarding their game...

Aye. This was a bad weekend, but you shouldn't get into trouble for voicing your concerns if you do so in a way that conforms to the forum rules.

One of the biggest Problems is that we actual have no really Community Representative, the only one that comes
near to that is Tumerboy, and it is not his job, and he is not allowed to answer most questions.

So .. Cryptic .. PLEASE SPEAK TO US, if you don't want further uproar.

Just closing/deleting posts is not really the answer, as long as of course your only answer is : We don't
answer to your questions :o

Well, we can't really expect every question to be answered, and things like business decisions aren't going to be disclosed to us players. The only thing we might get would be "We decided to go ahead with the Grab Bags" and that's it, which is pretty self explanatory due to, well, their propagation...