I signed up for a browser-based game called SolarFleet a little over a week ago. SolarFleet is made by a company called Hunted Cow Studios, based in Europe. They make a few browser-based games, including SolarFleet, Gothador, and Fallen Sword. The game seemed to have a great deal of promise, so I went ahead and paid for a 1-month subscription.

Unfortunately, the promise did not hold out. The game was rife with flaws and bugs - flaws that make it horribly newbie-unfriendly, and bugs that make playing it difficult. Some of these flaws have gone unfixed for over 6 months - I saw posts in their forums dated over 6 months ago that mention the issues that I had problems with. And then there are the show-stopper bugs.

Hunted Cow implemented a new feature on Friday. This feature broke some of the core game mechanics, making it so that no new spawns showed up, and no research or construction took place - in other words, it was functionally impossible to progress in any fashion. The Studio employees went home for their weekend, oblivious to the flaws, so the problem went unaddressed all weekend - and it's still not fixed.

I posted a complaint thread in their forum, discussing all of the problems I saw with the game. Despite being a rational, non-flamish complaint thread, it was deleted within 20 minutes. I noted which Moderator was online, and sent him mail asking why it was deleted. I waited for a response for over an hour (and he WAS online in that time frame). The response came over three hours later, pointing out a section of the Terms of Service which states that people can be banned for, "actions that are disruptive to the game community."

That was the last straw for me. I sent an email asking politely that I be refunded. After several mails back and forth, I was told bluntly that their Terms of Service says that they don't have to give refunds, and don't guarantee the stability or playability of their games.

What kind of horsecrap is this? Is this any way to run a game company?

Judging by their responses in the Fallen Sword forum when issues come up, it seems that they only actively support their newest pet project - older games don't get the kind of support that they should.