I waited until today to compose this article after a weekend of heartache.
Long before the hinting and promotions of a major update coming to NetherRealm Studio’s popular Injustice: Gods Among Us game app, rumors and debate over a multi-player mode seemed to dominate player conversation.
Imagine the leap in mobile gaming that would be! A live player-vs-player fighting game from the makers of Mortal Kombat.
Then, the day came and it was… not so much.
PvP, Yes. Live, Um… No.
Part of deflating letdown for the thousands of iOS players was that the multi-player aspect is, in effect, not really multi-player. It fits the definition in that your hand-picked team of DC Comic heroes and villains do battle with another player’s team, but you are the only active player. You are playing their team, controlled by the system’s AI.
So, as a player on the defending side, you only have control of team selection and order of entry. But, there’s no real strategy choices that I can see. The AI simply will NOT play the way I do.
For instance, I love Insurgency Batman. I’ve fully leveled his Lunge Kick because it is simply devastating and can be a one-hit kill even against Gold Level opponents, but it’s a 2nd tier attack. The AI tends to use 1st tier attacks more often, especially when the going gets rough. But, I’m willing to take a beating knowing that when I unleash it – KA-POW!
This also means you will want to be sure and have your multi-player team set to the best defense option before shutting the game down. So far, I’ve only played a little (43 matches) and won all 25 matches I actively played. My team has yet to win defensively. Bad luck, bad strategy, or is this a whole other concern?
The Slade… Slate Wiped Clean
Then came Friday morning. Black Friday I’m going to call it. A day that will live in infamy.
I picked up my iPhone after having tried the new Injustice update the night before. The game started just dandy until…
My entire collection of characters, boosts, etc. was gone! All of them! The game had completely reset my profile. Countless hours of grinding Story Matches and Challenge Modes negated. My roster was now just the original starting bronze characters.
Needless to say, the Amazon did not take it well.
(Just mentioning, this pic was NOT from my account.)
I popped onto Facebook and began checking the various game fan sites I follow. It turns out I was far from being alone in this horrific discovery.
Thousands of players had their rosters reset, characters deleted, cards removed etc. I scrolled through tale after tragic tale.
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Others discovered messages that their profiles were banned due to game tampering. While some admitted their guilt, many others swore they had never altered or hacked their game.
Who Watches the Watchmen?
The cries went out loud and furious in the aftermath. Quickly, the developers at NetherRealm Studios offered an explanation, but also an apology.
In their efforts to curb potential hacking and fraud in their multi-player mode, the game company shifted many of their files to use iCloud, and be dependent upon the user’s WBID profile. This does make sense as a matter of trying to maintain control by comparing the player’s .bin save file to ensure it’s not been altered in any way. As well as protect players from losing precious save data should their device crash.
(Piece of advice, if you see this screen – say NO!)
However, their proactive steps seems to have gone too far and a lot of players were caught in the net or rather their rosters were caught and flushed down the toilet. Perhaps a case of too little, too late on giving players a heads-up on what was changing, they posted a statement indicating what had happened and how players could protect themselves from a catastrophe.
The solution? Restore your game’s progress from your iCloud backup. If you have one.
Great! An excellent solution! If I had only bothered to set up my iCloud profile and activated it. Which in the months I’ve had my iPhone I never bothered to do. I use Skydrive which actively backs up my media files and maintains all of my music and writing. I never had a use for iCloud. Did anyone think to warn us ahead of time to back up our game before the update? Maybe I missed it.
So, all of my hard-fought for Gold Level characters and won Challenge Mode roster members are long gone. Possibly, forever. And I’m sure I’m not alone.
The question is, will players depart unless this problem can be fixed?
