Knowing When and How to Petition

The Sony Online Entertainment Station home is a great place to find information regarding scheduled downtimes, patch notes, known issues and general policies and rules. Even so, there are still times when problems arise that require the personal help of a CSR (Customer Service Representative). Here, the basic help functions found in most SOE games are explained in a bit more detail:

Bug
Contrary to popular belief, /bug doesn't dump text into a black hole. While typically bug reports are not personally responded to, rest assured that your comments do find their way to a dedicated department that can correct a variety of issues. While /reporting or /petitioning a bug may get a CSR's attention, it in no way ensures that a developer will see or read it. The /bug feature is a viable tool for making sure bugs are brought to the attention of those who can remedy them.

Feedback
The /feedback function allows players to instantly submit their ideas or suggestions while in game. Feedback isn't a free-for-all venue to complain, but instead it serves as a way players can submit their valued input. Although the feedback feature isn't available in all games, SOE still encourages ideas and opinions to be expressed. Here you can find links to each of the specific game forums, where a variety of engaging topics are being discussed.

If you find that your spelling skills are superior to that of the design team, feel free to utilize the /typo bug and include any necessary corrections. (If this feature is not currently available in your game, /bug will do the trick.)

Report
The /report function is useful when detailing harassment or inappropriate behavior. It's important to also petition when using the report command, since report alone does not identify the problem. For those players who aren't exactly breaking the rules, but are bending your nerves, there's the ever popular /ignore command which works extremely well in all SOE games.

Petition
For the most part, using your own discretion is best when deciding if to petition. Bad names, stuck characters, NPCs that cannot be looted and missing corpses are all petition-worthy. Disappearing items should also be petitioned (unless of course they are No Rent items, which in that case you should not petition. I learned that years ago the embarrassing way.)

DO NOT petition for quest information or spoilers. There are plenty of Fan Sites that contain detailed information on a variety of game-related topics. If you value your Station account, you'll refrain from spam and/or group petitioning. Not only does it make for disgruntled CSRs, but it also slows up the process making it more difficult to respond in a timely fashion.

No matter which SOE game you are in, once you've petitioned a browser window will open and you'll be connected to the Knowledge Base, which is a great tool for finding answers!

First, you choose your game (and expansion if necessary). Next, enter any text you wish to search. The knowledge base is bursting with information that is updated daily. How soon is 'soon'? It knows the answer to that as well!

If you're still stumped, you can click on the In-Game Support tab, which will prompt you to login with your Station name and password. (Periodically, you'll be asked to update your email address. Once you submit your email address, you'll continue on to the support system.) You should now be at a page that asks for detailed character information and a description of your question. A lot of these fields are conveniently filled in for you.

Petition response depends heavily on the number of petitions received at any given time. You can check on the status of your petition in the Service History tab.

If you find that you still need help, you can always click on the far right Help tab, which is within the help window!