Splinter Cell: Black List was the last correct one Faction Game, and unfortunately I have to remind myself that it was eight years ago. Even so, it still has some fans who have banded together enough to Yes, really Trouble with Ubisoft’s customer support.
The game’s multiplayer servers are down at the time of this writing and have been for a while. Ubisoft is aware of this and has little interest in fixing it since the game is so old, but that hasn’t stopped fans from constantly asking about it anyway.
The special thing about this case (since this has to happen all the time in classic games) is that Blacklist Fans appear to be spamming Ubisoft customer support with requests to fix the issue, to the point where a company representative posted that in response to this, Ubisoft will begin banning players from submitting support tickets through the servers.
In a post titled “Regarding Online Connectivity Issues,” the head of the Ubisoft Customer Relationship Center writes (Emphasis placed on theirs):
Hello Splinter Cell Blacklist fans,
My name is Tara Reichley and I am the head of the Ubisoft Customer Relationship Center. One of our team leaders here at Ubisoft Customer Support, Casey Blackwood, made me aware that many users have reported problems connecting to the Splinter Cell Blacklist services when trying to access the multiplayer or cooperative features of the game.
Rest assured, we are aware of the problem. However, given the age of the game in question and its relatively inactive player base, the game team has decided not to devote any further resources to addressing this issue.
For this reason, I have to ask you, our loyal players, not to open any further support tickets on this matter. My team and I have no control over the game teams’ decision-making process, and by continuing to burden the support team with known and unsolvable problems is only to ensure that other innocent players get the quick fix they deserve.
All support tickets submitted in the future on this topic will be treated with a 7-day ban. During this time, you will not be able to make purchases from the Ubisoft Store, log into Ubisoft websites, log into your Ubisoft account, or play using the Ubisoft Connect client. However, you can still play offline. Customer support cannot lift this ban.
Further violations are punished with a permanent ban.
In addition, any user who intentionally uses an earlier version of Ubisoft Connect or Uplay launchers will be banned as a workaround. Older versions of Ubisoft Connect are no longer secure and continued use may lead to security breaches in your Ubisoft account or in Ubisoft as a whole.
Thank you for your understanding on this matter.
You see, as someone who works for a video game website, I am as compassionate as anyone here for the plight of the Ubisoft support team. If one corner of the internet decides to shower you with news, it can be a huge nuisance from an administrative standpoint (as the post says, in this case, it distracts people’s time from more actionable requests).
but to forbid Fans for seven days? And then threaten them with continuous Bans that would exclude you not only from the store but from all online components of all other Ubisoft titles? I get it, Blacklist is eight years old and nobody really played it, but that’s bullshit.
If the support team really “has no control over the game teams decision making process” then hopefully the game teams can see this now and, if they never fix it, Just turn off the servers and save everyone involved a lot of grief.
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