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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 5, 2019 9:18:34 GMT -6
exo has iOS and fortunately isn't effected directly - but he and I play the same game and he's seeing the chaos in the community right now. Google Play removed Ire: Blood Memory, Animus Stand Alone, Animus Harbinger. Well that sucks.... ...but Google Play Protect removed both Animus games from many of our devices. Uh. We PAID for these games. The developers (10birds) have been bombarded by messages from their customers (they stated that their Facebook "buckled" because it couldn't load all the incoming messages), but they're as much in the dark about all of this as we are. Google removed their games. Google froze their developer accounts. NO EXPLANATION WAS GIVEN TO THEM. We don't know if our Ire character accounts are on Google anymore. The devs don't either. How is this not theft? Google digitally mugged us. So mad and sad bros. For days now.... </rant>
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Post by Borndead on Mar 5, 2019 10:24:34 GMT -6
Sorry to hear that but it doesn´t surprise me at all, they´ve destroyed youtube a few years ago. So, they just continue their rampage.
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Post by nocturnaliridescence on Mar 5, 2019 11:28:05 GMT -6
Google are the absolute worst, and it baffles me how they got to where they are. They destroy everything they touch -- and I SWEAR they do it intentionally. They're as bad with personal information as Facebook. What reasonable people would have done, if they found a problem with Ire like (speaking hypothetically) a virus or something, they would give you a warning about it ("Are you sure you want to run this?" or at worst, "We found a serious problem with this and have disabled it for your safety") and if necessary, refund the money.
But Google are Google, the people who run YouTube by pulling ideas out of a hat and then expecting their employees to be mind-readers and time travelers and adjust all their content accordingly, so I'm not surprised in the least that they would just remove something without notice and throw the user experience out the window.
Spiting users and ignoring their feelings are the only things Google are good at.
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Post by Deepfriar on Mar 5, 2019 12:08:22 GMT -6
OMG are you serious?? I always come back to Ire b/c it's the best action RPG on mobile (and was actually considering playing again soon)... this really sucks...
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 6, 2019 8:37:29 GMT -6
What reasonable people would have done, if they found a problem with Ire like (speaking hypothetically) a virus or something, they would give you a warning about it ("Are you sure you want to run this?" or at worst, "We found a serious problem with this and have disabled it for your safety") and if necessary, refund the money. I agree. I wouldn't be raising hell with them if they wouldn't have deleted games off my phone that I paid for. It's also suspicious that I had these apps on my phone for months - no issues. ...and 2 days after they're pulled from the store, they're deleted off my phone without my permission. The customer support from Google is just GOOFY. I spent 40 minutes on the phone with them Friday explaining what happened. 1) I bought these games 2) Google deleted them off my phone 3) I can't download them from the store anymore. Those 3 puzzle pieces make the problem I'm talking about. The guy I talked to was nice, he tried to find "an answer" on the phone for me (put me on hold) but he asked for an email to follow up with me. The follow up email I got was essentially "here's a list of reasons why your apps may not be on the store anymore". I emailed them back saying, that's a good answer to a question I didn't ask. Again, I explain the problem - threw the big 3 at them. They responded with "We don't know what apps you're talking about. Here's a list of things to try if you're not seeing the apps you bought in the store." 3rd email, last night. I told them I don't need instructions on how to download apps that are no longer on the store. I sent them my GPAs of the 2 Animus games. I sent them a screenshot of the Play Protect delete confirmation of the 2 Animus games. I pointed out the games are no longer on the store. (again...) I also pointed out to them that I HAVE contacted the devs on this. They filed an appeal March 1st on why their apps were removed and why their developer accounts were frozen. They have not heard from Google at all. No response. Totally ghosted. I also turned up the heat and threw the M word at them. (Manager) This whole thing is shifty AF if you ask me....
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Post by Deepfriar on Mar 6, 2019 9:13:42 GMT -6
What a mess. Makes me hesitant to EVER spend any $$$ on apps to be honest... if Google can just take them away any time they want.
You can disable Play Protect by the way... it's somewhere in settings of the Play Store app I think... I had to disable it to install an application that is designed to 'hack' mobile games. If you disable it, it won't automatically 'remove' apps that it considers a 'threat'.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 6, 2019 9:19:25 GMT -6
If you disable it, it won't automatically 'remove' apps that it considers a 'threat'. Oh how I wish this was correct my friend. Here's a screen posted on Ire Discord of someone who had Google Play Protect DISABLED - and it still deleted their games.
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Post by Deepfriar on Mar 6, 2019 9:35:26 GMT -6
Oh I see what you mean...
Play Store apps are still scanned I guess, regardless of whether or not you turn Play Protect off...
I was installing a third-party app so when I disabled protection I could install it... but where Animus WAS a PlayStore app... I guess Google giveth and Google taketh away... it's not right when you spent $$$... like your topic says, it's thievery.
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Post by Deepfriar on Mar 6, 2019 9:36:15 GMT -6
At the very least, your money should be refunded if this is Google's final decision.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 6, 2019 9:36:58 GMT -6
What a mess. Makes me hesitant to EVER spend any $$$ on apps to be honest... I still wouldn't be hesitant for the most part, if I get (or keep) what I pay for. My wife and I went to the theater Valentines day. Also, we went out to eat. $20 for 2 movie tickets for less than 2 hours of enjoyment. $20 for 2 meals that were gone in about an hour. Spending $8 for Stand Alone and $4 for Harbinger - two games that I got to enjoy for MONTHS - is a pretty good deal in comparison, IMO. ....but likewise, my being upset because they were effectively STOLEN from me by Google... I would be at a comparable level of upset, perhaps even more upset, if a man wearing a Google t-shirt took the movie tickets and food out of the hands of me and my wife on Valentine's day. That hypothetical isn't actually too different from the actual events. I still paid for something that they took without explanation.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 6, 2019 9:41:16 GMT -6
At the very least, your money should be refunded if this is Google's final decision. I've been consistent in my emails on what I want from Google. GIVE ME BACK THE GAMES YOU TOOK FROM MY PHONE. I'd rather have those games back than the money I paid for them - 10 fold. Perhaps even more than that. A refund and buying the games back later would be better than them just stealing the games and then their customer support doing little more than their "Is this the list you need?" help. ....but I don't believe for 1 second that they don't have copies of those games backed up somewhere that they couldn't just give back to me.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 6, 2019 9:44:32 GMT -6
I was installing a third-party app so when I disabled protection I could install it... but where Animus WAS a PlayStore app... I guess Google giveth and Google taketh away... it's not right when you spent $$$... like your topic says, it's thievery. You may have noticed in that screen that there were 2 "Animus" and 1 "Animus2". Animus is Animus Stand Alone. Animus 2 is Animus Harbinger. After Google stole this person's Animus games from their phone, they went and downloaded a cracked version of Stand Alone. ....which Google Play Protect ALSO removed. Which means that "Full Scanning Turned Off - Only Play Store apps will be checked" behind the red ! shield.... is a complete lie and a total crock.
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Post by Deepfriar on Mar 6, 2019 9:46:05 GMT -6
At the very least, your money should be refunded if this is Google's final decision. I've been consistent in my emails on what I want from Google. GIVE ME BACK THE GAMES YOU TOOK FROM MY PHONE. I'd rather have those games back than the money I paid for them - 10 fold. Perhaps even more than that. A refund and buying the games back later would be better than them just stealing the games and then their customer support doing little more than their "Is this the list you need?" help. ....but I don't believe for 1 second that they don't have copies of those games backed up somewhere that they couldn't just give back to me. I'm sure there's something buried in the Terms of Service somewhere that gives them a right to remove apps that they deem harmful... blah blah, bureaucratic crap... that's why I said they should AT LEAST give your money back.. it's bad enough all the time playing the game will basically be wasted if they don't re-instate the app.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 6, 2019 10:06:06 GMT -6
I'm sure there's something buried in the Terms of Service somewhere that gives them a right to remove apps that they deem harmful... Yes it does state that. ...but I had Google Play Protect scanning and protecting the whole time I had Animus Harbinger on my phone (since September 2018) and Animus Stand Alone (since March 2018). 2 days after they're pulled from the store, NOW Play Protect flags these apps/games as dirty? That's suspicious AF. They should have been flagged as dirty by the store when the devs uploaded the latest version of the apps to Google Play. Nothing has changed in the apps since I downloaded the latest version from the Play Store. On top of that, 3 emails and probably counting, Google hasn't even acknowledged the apps deleted BY GOOGLE from my phone. They've danced around the issue entirely. *Suspicious AF intensifies.* Also... After Google stole this person's Animus games from their phone, they went and downloaded a cracked version of Stand Alone. ....which Google Play Protect ALSO removed. Which means that "Full Scanning Turned Off - Only Play Store apps will be checked" behind the red ! shield.... is a complete lie and a total crock. They're breaking their own terms of service for Play Protect. Exhibit A is that screenshot. Part of the terms state that they remove apps that do what they say they don't do. So... Google Play Protect should have flagged and deleted itself? ("only play store apps will be checked" → a cracked Animus Stand Alone didn't come from the Play Store) *Google hypocrisy intensifies*
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Post by Deepfriar on Mar 6, 2019 10:31:08 GMT -6
Oh wow, seriously? The implications of that (a downloaded app from a third party website) being removed by Google with Protect turned off... something's definitely rotten in the state of Denmark..
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 6, 2019 10:49:39 GMT -6
There is some light at the end of the tunnel. Ire: Blood Memory hasn't been removed from my phone. No one else has reported it removed from their phone.
One of the bros in our guild lost his device. Left it at a store and when he went back, it was long gone. He thought his character was GONE since Ire isn't in the play store anymore and even the devs weren't sure if Google still kept Ire character accounts after deleting Ire from their listing...
...but some help from another bro on Discord, he was able to get back to his character account by downloading an Ire v2.5.1 XAPK from another site, and using another Google Play App (APK Installer Pro) to sync it to Google Play Games.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 7, 2019 8:27:59 GMT -6
This appears to be RESOLVED.
After another hour on the phone with Google yesterday, they explained that Google Play protect will bypass user settings and app download source when it comes to apps that have been "flagged". (hence why 3rd party unofficial apps were still deleted by Play Protect, even when it was turned off)
Google gave me a refund for both the apps, plus a little extra "for the inconvenience". I told 10birds, I'll just use that to buy the Animus games again when they're back. XD
Google taketh away, but Google also giveth. Ire Blood Memory is back on Google Play. Both Animus games will be coming back soon.
The CEO of 10birds released a statement on what happened. Here is an excerpt:
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Post by Deepfriar on Mar 7, 2019 9:45:13 GMT -6
Thank goodness, so if a person were to download Ire: Blood Memory again, would the data still be there???.... (because I think I had my account data 'backed up' through Google..) or is it gone..??
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 7, 2019 17:48:09 GMT -6
Thank goodness, so if a person were to download Ire: Blood Memory again, would the data still be there???.... (because I think I had my account data 'backed up' through Google..) or is it gone..?? Here's how I understand it. I think I've got it right. Google Play is the store to download and buy Google Play Protect is app and device security Google Play Games is where achievements and player accounts are stored They're all Google.... but to answer your question, even when Ire was removed from the store, it was still listed as one of my games in the Google Play Games app. I am confident that if you logged "into Google" when you played Ire.... you'll pick up where you left off if you reinstall and log in.
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Post by Deepfriar on Mar 8, 2019 7:59:07 GMT -6
WHEW I re-installed and all my data is there! I killed Prowler this morning, almost flawless victory (got hit once). I still got it apparently lol. Like riding a bike. I'm playing WoW Classic (Vanilla) on free private server (Light's Hope, Northdale) so I'm not dedicating all my gaming time to Ire, but I wanted to at least get it re-installed.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 8, 2019 12:19:47 GMT -6
Deepfriar, if you're going to play Ire, even casually or to log in daily... We got a guild seat open bro. We'd love to have you back.
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Post by Deepfriar on Mar 8, 2019 13:14:47 GMT -6
Deepfriar , if you're going to play Ire, even casually or to log in daily... We got a guild seat open bro. We'd love to have you back. Aight man I'll apply when I log in later. I'll PROBABLY get on every day... at least through the work week, I'll probably get on during lunch or morning coffee..
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Mar 9, 2019 8:11:41 GMT -6
Aight man I'll apply when I log in later. Glad to have you back bro! Pledges make Mot happen and we summon him 3x a week now. Here's our Mot schedule: eversoul.net/scheduleLately, I've been grinding for Forgotten Memory III. Its guaranteed heroic equipment. Got some goodies. Got some duds. Really hoping for something good my next appraisal, which should be today...
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