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Deep Silver Volition Shut Down The Agents of Mayhem Servers Without Any Notice

APOEERA

APOEERA

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,064
So apparently Volition did this:




What this means? Basically if you care about the Platinum or the 100% for the game, it is now unobtainable since the servers were tied to the "Contract Thriller" trophy/achievement. The requirements for that trophy/achievement were to complete 15 connected contracts. Even if you don't care about trophies/achievements, it's poor form to not have more of a notice for a shutdown. No one minds that servers are shutting down (it happens with frequency) but when you don't announce it or give enough of a notice, that's when people get mad.

The kicker is people have reached out to Deep Silver Volition for weeks through Koch Media support tickets or Twitter about the status of the servers and have gotten no response until now.

If Deep Silver Volition wants to piss off a fanbase with their actions and make sure people cancel their pre-orders for the next Saints Row, this is a GREAT way to do it. I cancelled mine immediately after finding this out.
 
SirKai

SirKai

Member
Dec 28, 2017
7,378
Washington
I agree it's shitty for DS/Volition to do this, but if they risk Agents of Mayhem players not buying their next game... that's probably a very small audience to begin with.
 
Hero_of_the_Day

Hero_of_the_Day

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
17,346
If everyone who played Agents of Mayhem cancelled their Saints Row preorders, somehow the preorder numbers would actually increase.
 
Freezasaurus

Freezasaurus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
57,000
I played it at release. It was enjoyable. Not so much as the SR games, though.

I was toying around with the idea of possibly replaying it recently. BLAST! FOILED!
 
CrocodileGrin

CrocodileGrin

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
3,155
Got my plat years ago. A shame an unobtainable trophy/achievement might turn people away from giving it a try. It was a fun game.

I think what I find more baffling about that tweet is them saying AoM has co-op, which it doesn't.
 
OP
OP
APOEERA

APOEERA

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,064
SirKai said:
I agree it's shitty for DS/Volition to do this, but if they risk Agents of Mayhem players not buying their next game... that's probably a very small audience to begin with.
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You'd be surprised with trophy/achievement hunters. Some of them willingly bought Agents of Mayhem just to earn the Platinum (albeit not immediate at purchase, just when they got around to it). Doing this will make them think twice about supporting Volition in the future.

I realize that trophy/achievement hunters aren't that big of a number anyway and may not have as much of an effect sales-wise, but it has to be pointed out.
 
Clowns

Clowns

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,868
CrocodileGrin said:
Got my plat years ago. A shame an unobtainable trophy/achievement might turn people away from giving it a try. It was a fun game.

I think what I find more baffling about that tweet is them saying AoM has co-op, which it doesn't.
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wait what LOL

I guess they're technically right that it doesn't effect co-op, then.
 
Aangster

Aangster

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,616
Even with the disastrous player numbers, Volition should've communicated the shutdown beforehand.
 
John Rabbit

John Rabbit

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,104
It's outright embarrassing how hypocritical this forum is about shitty business practices. The least, the literal least, Volition could have done is give a notice that servers were going down.
 
zulux21

zulux21

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,370
CrocodileGrin said:
Got my plat years ago. A shame an unobtainable trophy/achievement might turn people away from giving it a try. It was a fun game.

I think what I find more baffling about that tweet is them saying AoM has co-op, which it doesn't.
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heh. I was like when did the game add co op... that was the main reason I never played the game. I loved playing saints row with my friend, but I had no interest in a game from them that I couldn't play with my friend.

as for the shut down, it is poopy they shut it down without notice, they should at least announce it, but yeah if you are averaging 8 people a month, that's not really a big deal. Could've announced it in game and just no one noticed.
 
CloakBass

CloakBass

Member
Dec 10, 2017
174
I was never the audience for this game but you'd think they could at least give people notice.
 
Nax

Nax

Hero of Bowerstone
Member
Oct 10, 2018
6,674
It has been standard for a company to give plenty of notice for server shutdowns. Almost always speaking directly to the achievement/trophy hunting communities.

It's why I hate any achievements tied to online functionality.
 
Smash-It Stan

Smash-It Stan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,275
You guys know they turned the servers off in October right? Or are we purposely not reading the date of the artic- I mean tweet?
 
EvilChameleon

EvilChameleon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,793
Ohio
John Rabbit said:
It's outright embarrassing how hypocritical this forum is about shitty business practices.
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Embarrassing? This is a forum, not a senate hearing. The thoughts and opinions posted here aren't being put on display for millions of people to see. The idea that anyone should be embarrassed by anything they post on a forum of 50,000 people is laughable.
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
38,501
Ibis Island
Unobtainable Online trophies are like the biggest flaw in these systems and yet no one has bothered with any sort of solution.

Personally, I think it's poor form to make online achievements that don't have some form of alternative unlocking measure in situations like this.
 
HOTSPUR

HOTSPUR

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,869
Hero_of_the_Day said:
If everyone who played Agents of Mayhem cancelled their Saints Row preorders, somehow the preorder numbers would actually increase.
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Lmfao yeah. I actually thought about replaying this game as well as I realized I own it on every system it was released on somehow (I think I got it on a steam bundle and got it on Xbox from a friend, bought on ps4 from redbox like 2 months after launch for super cheap) and I could care less. Game sold like shit and as shitty as it is that they tied trophies to online stuff (a practice I fucking hate) I'm totally not surprised they did this.


I won't be pre-ordering saints regardless even though I've been waiting since 2013 for another entry.
 
Kupo Kupopo

Kupo Kupopo

Member
Jul 6, 2019
2,959
APOEERA said:
You'd be surprised with trophy/achievement hunters. Some of them willingly bought Agents of Mayhem just to earn the Platinum (albeit not immediate at purchase, just when they got around to it). Doing this will make them think twice about supporting Volition in the future.

I realize that trophy/achievement hunters aren't that big of a number anyway and may not have as much of an effect sales-wise, but it has to be pointed out.
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well, then i guess that it also has to be pointed out to trophy/achievement hunters that maybe this's just one of the hazards of not being that big of a number?...
 
grand

grand

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,973
I mean, the fact that this is a December thread based on a October tweet about servers being turned off even earlier than that, tells me that no one actually cares. Even the subreddit has almost no comments on this.

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

If a server is turned off and no one is around to comment, was anyone going to platinum it?
 
JaseC64

JaseC64

Enlightened
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
11,008
Strong Island NY
How about these companies stop with bullshit online only trophies? Why put them uo if they have a ticking time clock waiting to nuke the platinum?
 
BBboy20

BBboy20

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,010
PSA: Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars servers are shutting down around 9 hours from now.
 
Man Called Aerodynamics

Man Called Aerodynamics

Member
Oct 29, 2017
7,500
This sucks too because the connected contracts achievement was a real grind. There are probably people who already put days/weeks of effort into the achievement and now can't get it. If they had announced a closure date in advance, at least people could have either made sure to finish, or not bothered to start.

That said... This is an achievement that 0.35% of players unlocked. I think it's overkill to write off the game entirely just because this aspect is turned off.
 
SirNinja

SirNinja

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
8,227
Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States
I mean, it is generally a really bad practice to shut servers down with no warning, but the fact that we're only just finding out about this now really says a lot.

The tweet itself is almost two months old, and Volition clarified they shut the servers off "a while ago" before then. And barely anyone realized. No news articles about it, no forum chatter about it before today...it all speaks volumes about how utterly unplayed that game was and is.

A tree fell in the forest over two months ago, and we just now stumbled across the decaying trunk.
 
thetrin

thetrin

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,652
Atlanta, GA
It sucks for those 9 people playing but like...are we really going to get angry that they shut down the servers for a game NINE PEOPLE were playing?
 
BlackheartVinyl

BlackheartVinyl

Member
Jun 15, 2020
7,125
"Doesn't effect co-op"??? Whaaaa?

I think I would have really enjoyed this game as mindless time waster if it had co-op.
 
RoboPlato

RoboPlato

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,808
The fact this happened months ago and no one even noticed until now is a plot twist I didn't see coming
 
PuppetMinion

PuppetMinion

The Fallen
Nov 1, 2017
2,298
thetrin said:
It sucks for those 9 people playing but like...are we really going to get angry that they shut down the servers for a game NINE PEOPLE were playing?
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Why are you ignoring the actual complaints people have? They did not announce anything, pulled the plug, ignored people for a few weeks before deigning to come out with an statement. If they came out and announced this an couple of months before pulling the plug, there would have been much less push back.


I don't give a shit they shut down the servers, I bought the game on a sale, had fun in the single player before getting bored with how repetitive the game was.

But things like this, sets an standard.
 
Springy

Springy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,213
I played through the game a couple months ago and was a bit confused that the connected contracts stuff didn't seem to work. I even googled if the servers had been shut off. In the end I just assumed I was missing something about how they worked/activating them. Now I know, I guess.
 
BlackLagoon

BlackLagoon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,763
I suppose the bigger question is why a pure single-player game needs a online server connection in the first place. Like, all it seems to add is some generic ass filler side-missions, and games have been doing that just fine while offline for a long time.
 
Skyebaron

Skyebaron

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
4,416
That shitty game can still be played in single player and coop. No harm done. If there were thousands playing, id be concerning. This is a non issue for the person that knows that a server based game will always shut down.
 
zashga

zashga

Losing is fun
Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,200
Poor form for sure, but it's pretty telling that this happened in October and no one even noticed. Even the engagement on that tweet is pathetic. Two likes and zero replies?

Do platform holders (Sony, MS, etc.) have any standards regarding server shutdowns for online games? Are they required to notify players or keep the servers running for any length of time?
 
Xiofire

Xiofire

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,137
Most will laugh at this and call it no big deal, but it really says a lot about the state of the medium when these things aren't even announced before they happen.

It should be the default position to announce when things like this are happening. I don't care if 2 people in the world are playing the game, give everyone the information. They would have seen a playerbase spike if they'd announced the server closure.
 
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