UPDATE! What’s with making the suggested buy-in amount 50 Big Blinds?
March 5th, 2008UPDATE March 6: The automatically suggested buy-in/rebuy amount is now 100BB on all NL, PL and FL tables.
You will find the initial statement from yesterday below this update….
One of the good things about being an Ombudsman is that you have the privilege of poking people in the eye and ask WTF when something is clearly not pleasing the gaming community.
So that’s what we’ve spent the day doing. The good news is that you can expect this change to be revoked in the near future. The bad news is that we don’t yet know when. But since no one seems particularly comfortable with having our fingers stuck in their eyes we doubt it will take long.
Now, for the reason why this sudden change came to pass, it, as is often the case, a little more complicated than Ongame Network sitting down and deciding to do the exact opposite of what is perceived to be the wish of the gaming community and the Ongame Network partner sites. And that basically goes for some of the related complaints that have been voiced as well. “Working on it” is about the lamest term in the universe, but that’s what’s happening.
We can only assure you that we keep poking eyes and keep making sure these voiced complaints are heard.
Thanks for taking the time to post your complaints and by doing so providing us with the ammunition we need.
Respectfully,
Ombudsman
Ongame Network
The opinions of the Ongame Network Ombudsman may not necessarily reflect those of Ongame Network Ltd.
Original Statement dated 2008-02-20:
We’ve received some inquiries during the day concerning a recent change in the poker software we supply 25 of the world’s top gaming brands with. One effect of the change is that the auto buy-in amount is now set at 50 Big Blinds regardless of game type (Nl/Pl/Fl) instead of the previous 100 Big Blinds for Nl/Pl and entire bankroll for Fixed Limit.
Please await a full statement about the change that will be published here in the Zone tomorrow.
Ombudsman
Ongame Network
February 20th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
This is by far the worst move i have ever seen from Ongame and if it stays that way, im leaving.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Couldnt do much worse, same as rok, if it stays this way, im leaving.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Ring cash is DEEP STACK game not some min stack game. 100bb should be min buy-in to the table. These lately updates does nothing but harm. First 8X bonus limit and next this…Do the network make this in purpose to drive away players??
February 20th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
How is this even possible? Do you think through your ideas before you add them on to the software? This update sucks! Why do you want more short stack players? This really is a downgrade of the software!
February 20th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Who ever came up with this deserves the ass-hat of the week. Instead they should change the minimum bi to 50%. Reloading tables just became even bigger pain in the ass than it already was.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
This is such a bullsh*t. There were enough short-stack-allin-or-fold-suckers already before the update. Now it’s even more harder to find proper “deep” stack tables.
And reloading your stack…How hard can it be?…It was hard enough before while you had to do it quickly between hands. Now players should be able to do the same thing PLUS use their keyboard to put in correct amount of stack (100bb). Everyone can try how that is going to work while multitabling with 9+ tables.
I really have to consider moving my bankroll to some other network, if they don’t change this back to normal.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Well done. You’ve managed to do something I thought was impossible. To make the already retarded reload system even more retarded. Looks like Ongame wants to get rid of all the multitablers, the players who rake the most.
I’ve waited and waited for Ongame to fix that reload system. And when they finally decide to change the system, they make it even more retarded.
I mean W T F?!
That’s it. I’m leaving Ongame.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:21 am
Hello,
I think you’re only half-way through. You should put the max, buy-in to 0bb, and thus make sure that this illegal, purely luck-based shit ends.
I’ll be watching you!
February 21st, 2008 at 12:40 am
I think it should be impossible to rebuy at a cash game. I mean, winning players don’t need it (they’re winning players), and this way losing players would stay with the site longer and thus rake more. Hoping to see this update soon.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:47 am
^ lol
February 21st, 2008 at 4:01 am
This is very bad update. If you change the reload system, it would be great if you could at least be able to reload more chips without sitting out (get chips button!). And if you are going to keep the automatic 50bb buyin, please let players choose their own “favourite” automatic buyin from the options.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:13 am
If this will not be fixed, most probably many megaraking 8+ table multitablers will leave ongame pretty soon. I will be one of those.
February 21st, 2008 at 11:27 am
This 50bb reload is horrible. Ongame has had worst reload allways (= you have to sit-out to be able to reload), but this change to 50bb make it unbeareable. If you dont change it back I will be playing in some other network.
-Millman
February 21st, 2008 at 11:41 am
I’ve been playin in Ongame because of the quality of the games even though the software has always been in my opinion worst of all major networks. I kinda expected that the retarded reloadsystem would be fixed in some update since there has been so much talk about it in poker community. Well, you did the opposite and made it even worse. Unbelievable and leavin me no other option than leave.
February 21st, 2008 at 11:49 am
Hi Everyone,
As mentioned yesterday, you can expect some information later today…
/Ombudsman
February 21st, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Bad bad for PL/NL. And entire bankroll for fixed limit games? Now I don’t play fixed limit but why would you want to bring your entire bankroll unless you have like $2.40 in your account? Who decides these “improvements”?
February 21st, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Sorry, my bad for fixed, good you fixed it =) But as for NL/PL, no good..
February 21st, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Thank you this is a clear change to better, could it be possible to also limit the amount of money people can play daily?
February 21st, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Improvement suggestions to Cash Games:
* Autorebuy -option between deals, if the stack goes below 100bb. (Like in B2B network)
* Player must buy-in with minimum of 50bb to the table. If he has not enough money, he can go lower tables.
February 21st, 2008 at 3:20 pm
And would you please fix the “randomly disappearing tables” feature? It isn’t hardware/OS-related as it happens on different setups. There is a bug in your software.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:01 pm
“And would you please fix the “randomly disappearing tables” feature? It isn’t hardware/OS-related as it happens on different setups. There is a bug in your software.”
Same here! And support does nothing to this problem.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:08 pm
if you wont change it back im leaving..
February 21st, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Idea of 50bb reload is so silly that I am terribly anxious to see your excuses for making this retarded update to already the industry’s worst reload system.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:07 pm
If this isn’t fixed back to normal when I clear my current bonus I will be withdrawaling all my money from ongame. Your software has always sucked, but this made it unbearable.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Ongame has the worst software I’ve ever seen, and now it is even worse than before. I don’t think I’m ever going to play at ongame, because this kind of change proves that the people behind the software have no clue about poker. And I really don’t feel too secure about playing on poker site, if the people behind the site “can’t even spell poker”.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Still waiting for the statement…
February 21st, 2008 at 9:15 pm
If someone would have told me yesterday that Ongame is going to make it’s reload system worse, I would have laughed my ass off and said that’s impossible. Now I am crying.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Is the statement coming?
February 21st, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Quess they are still reloading it.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:29 pm
what difference could a statement possibly make. theyll give some retarded reason for the idiotic changes they made, and it will never be changed back no matter how many ppl complain. weve been complaining about the reload system, the lobby system, the resource hogging, etc etc etc for years and the only change they make is the opposite of what the rake paying customers want. what makes anyone think they will listen now?
February 21st, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I’m one step away from leaving Ongame, I’ve had enough with a network that definitely doesn’t understand what makes the Online Poker World go round.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:29 am
u have ’til the end of the month. period.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:39 am
Are you there Ongame? I guess you are not.
But you know what. I have been playing in your site for a long time. Thousands of hours. During that time, you have not made any improvements I have asked for. For example:
- to be able to reload without sitting out and without missing an orbit. Now you made me hand-write the industry standard buy-in amount 100 BB
- to be able to browse through the tables in the lobby WITHOUT the selection all the time jumping up and down as if somebody else somewhere were remote-controlling the client
So you are going to revoke the “feature” nobody asked for. And then what? Back to square zero again.
But no stress. I will go to another network that listens what their customers want. And bring my rake there, day after day, month after month.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:23 am
well, it looks this mistake will be corrected. What about reloading without having to sit out? HOW LONG until this idiot thing is fixed?
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:44 am
You better fix this now, not “when you can”. If you care about your clients and business, you will fix it now, otherwise you will loose members. Statements like “The bad news is that we don’t yet know when.” are unprofessional and dumb.
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 am
Well,
“Statements like “The bad news is that we don’t yet know when.” are unprofessional and dumb”
And Ombudsman’s role is hardly to play the corporate fiddle. So instead of waiting until every detail is set and can be presented in a neat little package, we prefer to get you players in the loop right away.
We could easily slip a projected date out there to look good, but since we certainly understand that it may take a day or two to plan the process of resetting the particular change, we decided to write what we did.
Doesn’t make the actual impact of the change any better, but at least it removes all the BS.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm
These updates takes just couple of hours work, under 1 day.
And when you do the reload update back to 100bb, can you make same time min buy-in to 50bb? NO SHORTSTACK HIT&RUNNERS
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Ongame developers could make questions how to improve their software. Now you make updates without asking from the players. Particulary you should ask improvement suggestions from regular players who plays almost every day.
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:01 pm
What is wrong with u people! Fix this soon. When i start playing is ok, but then when i loose 10bb i forget its not auto reloud to MAX and then evrthing goes wrong and i miss the Dealer button usualy. This is costing me a money!
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:07 pm
“The bad news is that we don’t yet know when”, Could we get some kind of estimate on this? Is it going to be few days, few weeks, few months or few years? If its just few days i can wait, or if its longer i can start playing on other site until its fixed.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
“These updates takes just couple of hours work, under 1 day.”
It’s a bit more complex than that, but things are moving quickly. days/week somewhere in that region is what we’ve been told - off the record.
Our partners are very good at reporting sub-optimal functionality and requesting new features. Our team knows what they have to do. And we as Ombudsmen do what we can to speed things up.
Many of the things you may love about the network we operate are also why certain functionality isn’t as easy to “fix” as one would like. They may seem unconnected but they aren’t.
“Now you make updates without asking from the players. Particulary you should ask improvement suggestions from regular players who plays almost every day.”
This whole site, which is still in its infancy, is a good example of how we intend to increase the opportunity for the knowledgeable poker playing community to impact the development of new and current generation poker software.
We’ll keep updating this thread as we learn more.
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:31 pm
I just wanted to thank the Ombudsman for getting on this issue right away. It’s very relieving to hear that it will be fixed soon.
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
So you just make critical updates without planning them, and fixing the problems takes ages. When asked WTF, you tell stupid stories about poking fingers to someones eyes. Nobody explains why the stupid update was done, “somebody” just did something very complicated you say. Bravo.
You have the very worst software of the major networks, and seems that your support is on the same level.
February 25th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
When will the correction be made?
February 25th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
So what is the official explanation for this crappy “upgrade”? We’re still waiting. Im raking thousands a month for you and you just decide to piss on my face.
February 26th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Hope you are having a blast poking each others into eyes while players are moving to a better run network.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Any news on this?
February 28th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Of course not. It’s only been 7 days.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:37 pm
“Many of the things you may love about the network we operate are also why certain functionality isn’t as easy to “fix” as one would like.”
LOL.
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:48 am
Its never going to be fixed, right? F this, im going to play in some other network that listens their players.
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
Could Ongame give direct statement of this? How long fixing will still take? Project has project plan document, what is the estimated time of complete.
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
This is never happening, maybe in few months when all players leave the network.
March 4th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I’m pleased to announce that it’s changed to 100 BB by now. It’s even better than before, because the default buy-in is 100 BB in fixed limit as well.
You still have a lot to do even with the reload issue. Players shouldn’t sit out to reload and players should be able to save their preferred default buy-in in the preferences window (there must be somebody who loved the 50 BB or the full bankroll default ).
Other issues I will address in a separate letter to you. I highly encourage also the other players to do that.
One more thing I would like to mention here is that the development is still too far away from the players. We would like to see reports, interviews with the development team. Also we would like to see their development plan. What is in their mind, what are they workig on, what is in their next upgrade, when will it be realised. I don’t think you will have a disadvantage with this, as your software - while it has some nice features - is way behind the pack.
March 4th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I forgot one thing: you could have a team of professional players, who you ask before you launch something. Or you could ask them, how should you improve the interface of your software.
You don’t have to pay them. I for one would be glad to be paid by implementing my ideas.
March 5th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
The 100bb is back! Thank you!
March 6th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Thank you! Now the previously awkward reloading system feels really smooth :). My suggestions for next improvement is time bank that can be activated when facing a tough decision. Turbo tables would not need to have time bank feature. Second improvement would be making the reloading less awkward. There is no reason to sit out for reloading. Also, it’s too easy to accidentally press the leave-button and get thrown out of the table without confirmation when you are just trying to reload your stack.