BigPoint, Vivox Games Announces Voice Chat on Social Games

Posted by Neil Vidyarthi on February 10th, 2010 2:39 PM

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In a first for the social gaming scene, BigPoint is announcing that they will be partnering with Vivox to release Voice Chat over their suite of social games at bigpoint.com. This comes only a week after Vivox raised $7 million from IDG Ventures, and their statement that “Voice is an essential part of the explosive growth of the social web.” BigPoint games is a massive gaming community, boasting over 100,000,000 registered users and a wide variety of games across many genres.

While BigPoint.com has typically not been considered as falling under the ’social games’ banner, their emphasis on that label highlights a few interesting ideas. Typically, social games have referred to games on social networks, but looking at their stable of titles and features, we do see games that have all the elements of popular Facebook games.

bigpointscreen One look at a BigPoint Games gamer page tells you this is a social network of its own. Statuses, messages, wall posts, recent games played and friends lists round out the social features of the site. Combine that with games like Sea Wars that have a vast array of players in its world, over 30,000 guilds and entirely customizable experiences and a new social gaming world is realized.

The question of whether a game like Sea Wars would succeed on Facebook is surely a difficult one, but the game thrives on BigPoint.com, and the addition of voice chat to the gameplay would be very similar to seeing voice chat on a game like Gangster City on Facebook. The success of Vivox on BigPoint may determine whether we see this option for Social Networking games in the future.

Vivox, who powers the voice chat for huge developers like NCSoft (Eve Online), Sony Online Entertainment and others, has steadily been applying fun social elements to their voice offering, and with the BigPoint release comes voice fonts, voice mailboxes and phone numbers designed to link offline users to the online community. It’s an angle that we haven’t seen in social games so far, and is interesting to consider. Could you imagine a game like Farmville allowing voice chat between the players who are online?

Vlado

My experience with Bigpoint is very bad. You can read it at: http://www.mydarkorbitexperience.com/
xotitanox

That's just the way things are with bigpoint, everything is messed up, not just the games, but the payments etc.
I have purchased virtual items that have never been delivered and told by support that I did nothing of the kind.
There is no way of receiving what is rightfully yours.
But hey, if they attempt to take anyone to court, this will all be brought to the public eye.
xotitanox

That's just the way things are with bigpoint, everything is messed up, not just the games, but the payments etc.
I have purchased virtual items that have never been delivered and told by support that I did nothing of the kind.
There is no way of receiving what is rightfully yours.
But hey, if they attempt to take anyone to court, this will all be brought to the public eye.
CrazyMephistosCrow

I have spent about $450.00 on that site in the first month, but because of billing issues concerning bonuses on time sensitive offers despite their advertisement that ANY payment method was valid, I purchased a pre-approved credit card!

Do you know how they work ? you pay a fee and deposit money in an account.
You use the card and if you have the funds to cover the purchase, it goes through, if not , it gets refused . simple isn’t it !

Well I made purchases ( and made sure the funds were in that account) and my purchases were accepted , but for some reason BigPoint cancelled one I made.

I did not get any warnings , any e-mails , any type of communication at all apart from trying to login one day and being locked out of my account .
“You’re account has been suspended “ is the only notice you get!

If there was a problem why then did that purchase go through?
If there was a problem why did 3 other purchases made after the fact go through ?
And if there was a problem , why did I not get an e-mail ??

All very good questions! But apparently BigPoint doesn’t think so because none of these were answered ! Either that or this is a common practice for them.

So now I’m out about $800.00 , 2 ½ months and can no longer play with my niece or nephew ( which is why I started playing to begin with! ) .

I have sent them the statement I received from MasterCard both to their billing and customer care and still I’m liable for it! No discussion , no one contacting by e-mail from their billing , no manager contacting me to try to resolve this, just locked out!

So my main complaint is this company has unethical practices , imagine if this was done to a child!
To me this is extortion !

Since that time there has been another instance of a cancelled transaction!
So if I would have been able to pay ( which I couldn’t because they can’t provide me with the needed information ) my account would have been locked out again! And again I would have had to pay! Meanwhile it takes 16 days for the money to be returned to my pre-paid Credit Card account!

My statement is available for anyone to view ! They have several copies of that file.
It doesn’t correspond with what I have received from MasterCard, They wont explain it and keep insisting I made a purchase on the 12th of April yet my statement clearly shows the 11th and also clearly shows they took 19.06 and then tried for another 103.88 for the same transaction!
They took my money and tried taking out more , but I didn’t account for an extra $19.00 so I believe this is what caused the issue , yet they refuse to even accept responsibility or partial responsibility.
I purchased the card based on a recommendation made by their support team!

BigPoint are extortionists, how else would you explain accepting a purchase and then canceling it , without warning or notice and then demand you pay funds to a collection agency , Now after this time I went to the site to see what I now owed ( according to them) and am now being accused of fraud if I don’t pay!

How can a pre-approved credit card be fraudulent ???
They are most unethical and I believe borderline criminal business practices and people this could happen to you too
Miguelsantiago35

Im having a similar problem I keep getting charged for the same old transaction back in June!!!! I have paid them twice for it just so i could pay I also have bank statements to make it worse they keep locking my account and they have no number for their payable department. I dont know what else to do i tried contacting them via support E-Mail because the payment section does Not give you an option to explain your situation and all I get back is a message directing me to express my concerns to the support payment option wich as I said earlier cannot be done. and my account remains locked.....
CrazyMephistosCrow

The only thing you can do is go to the support site and click on MISC , then type out your message and if you have any proof of payment include it. Otherwise they will not help you.
They have a problem with their system. In my case even if I would have been able to pay , they would have locked my account again 1 week later because another transaction was refused ( same scenario ), and this after I spoke to their tech support requesting if there was anymore issues.
I even translated a letter to 2 of Bigpoints execs in German!!! But because Matthew Milligan and Etienne Belmar are the highest ranking english speaking reps they have on Gobal America 2 server I was still stuck in the same situation. I dont blame the above mentioned persons even though they were the ones that suggested I get a prepaid card. I blame the company.
As far as I'm concerned I'm done with this site. If anyone is taking legal actions agaisnt this company please post it here and I will try to contact you with the proof of how they screwed me out of almost $1,000.00 so your lawyers may have additional information on how this company works to present to whichever courts will handle this. Good luck because from what I understand you would need to file your law suit in Germany!
I'm now researching if I can bring thsi to small claims court in Canada. But so far I found nothing that will allow me to do this.

So I'm doing the only thing I can, warning people where ever I can. Good luck with your situation Miguel. Warn your friends. I was a full elite goliath level 16 ( yeah I spent a lot of time and money and suddenly locked out! )
xotitanox

Yeah! Yeah! After all the talking they've been doing lately about bigpoint's success, and they want to sell up.
All because the games and the coding are messed up, and the support team are nasty.
They won't tell potential buyers about that stuff, they won't tell the buyers that the paying customers are very tired of it all lately, and many long time players have left.
Bigpoint is dying and I will help to hasten the fall of the evil-empire.
"Bigpoint GmbH may list shares or sell the company. Chief Executive Officer of the company, Heiko Hubertz stated that the sales of the company sales more than doubled in 2009 and operating profit rose tenfold. He added that this growth may eventually prompt General Electric Co. and GMT Communications Partners LLP to exit. He stated: “The investors are positioned to make an exit one day.” He added: “Whether the exit will take the form of an IPO or a sale or whatever else, will have to be considered.” According to him the company is worth a “good middle triple- digit-million-euro amount.” He stated that he may be willing to stick around with the buyer. He said: “It depends on the buyer, if the buyer wants to split the company apart, then I don’t necessarily want to stay. If the buyer wants to work with me on the strategy, then I can imagine keeping a stake.” He added: “If someone is prepared to pay the price, we could start discussions, and if not, then we still have a successful company that continues to grow and we’ll see what happens next.”
"may list shares". Sell it off bit by bit they mean, if they can't sell it in one lump.
xotitanox

..
xotitanox

I can prove all of the following statement in a court of law by using emails and people.
Bigpoint is a con, the people at the top are ignorant, greedy and very selfish.
I am tired of them conning me time and again and I have only been associated with them for nine months.
The support team never seem interested in anything the paying customers have to say, they just sweep our complaints under the carpet. I have been unable to play the game on 3 occasions because of coding errors and have dropped in rank by what cost me roughly over £100 and hard work to attain. Not once did I receive an apology or any compensation. Therefore, I have wasted money on their game. I call it being robbed.
And the support team constantly accused me of being a cheat which was later proven to be another coding error. I was told by a support member that even if I attempt to go higher with this that any email will end up back with them, that’s how obnoxious they are. “Fine, any communication in english gets back to the english supporters anyway, nevermind where you sent it”
All complaints are swept under the carpet. Their site has a gold premium package that costs £35 for 12 months use, they are giving people 9 months use in the hope that people won't notice, seeing as it continues to the next year if not cancelled. I unexpectedly cancelled mine which they didn't notice, and a month later my premium ended after only 9 months of use. When I noticed this and enquired about it to their so-called support team, they blocked my account. And that is after I have spent hundreds of pounds on their site. They didn't like the fact that I discovered their scam and have covered their tracks by messing with my account.
DarkOrbit is running one big scam and their coders are useless, maybe the people at the top at bigpoint did or didn’t know about this but, I believe they do. I suggested they look into this, although, I know it will all be denied.
Their support team keep telling me to go away and get a lawyer, they know how difficult it will be for me to prove anything.
They have no respect for people whatsoever and whine like babies when we lose our temper with them.
How can a site that is so big and popular be so nasty to people?
I am very disappointed with this site, and it has made me very discouraged about joining any other sites.
Please don't waste your time and money on this con of a site.
The people at DarkOrbit are running a con and I'm sure Bigpoint know about this seeing as the so-called support team are linked to Bigpoint.
The people at the top ignore all contact I make with them, they are not interested in the slightest. They are ignorant little robbers.
You can't get any satisfaction with that company, the people at the top will have nothing to do with your disputes and will either delete or forward it to support who will then either ignore it or attempt to make you feel small.
The people at the top are only interested in emails coming from supporters of the company.
It's only a matter of time before this is all revealed.
It's all to do with money, they don't care about customer satisfaction.
Why do you think they have won so many awards?
They hide all the complaints away, people are not seeing the truth but, hopefully it will all come out in time.
CrazyMephistosCrow

I have spent about $450.00 on that site in the first month, but because of billing issues concerning bonuses on time sensitive offers despite their advertisement that ANY payment method was valid, I purchased a pre-approved credit card!

Do you know how they work ? you pay a fee and deposit money in an account.
You use the card and if you have the funds to cover the purchase, it goes through, if not , it gets refused . simple isn’t it !

Well I made purchases ( and made sure the funds were in that account) and my purchases were accepted , but for some reason BigPoint cancelled one I made.

I did not get any warnings , any e-mails , any type of communication at all apart from trying to login one day and being locked out of my account .
“You’re account has been suspended “ is the only notice you get!

If there was a problem why then did that purchase go through?
If there was a problem why did 3 other purchases made after the fact go through ?
And if there was a problem , why did I not get an e-mail ??

All very good questions! But apparently BigPoint doesn’t think so because none of these were answered ! Either that or this is a common practice for them.

So now I’m out about $800.00 , 2 ½ months and can no longer play with my niece or nephew ( which is why I started playing to begin with! ) .

I have sent them the statement I received from MasterCard both to their billing and customer care and still I’m liable for it! No discussion , no one contacting by e-mail from their billing , no manager contacting me to try to resolve this, just locked out!

So my main complaint is this company has unethical practices , imagine if this was done to a child!
To me this is extortion !

Since that time there has been another instance of a cancelled transaction!
So if I would have been able to pay ( which I couldn’t because they can’t provide me with the needed information ) my account would have been locked out again! And again I would have had to pay! Meanwhile it takes 16 days for the money to be returned to my pre-paid Credit Card account!

My statement is available for anyone to view ! They have several copies of that file.
It doesn’t correspond with what I have received from MasterCard, They wont explain it and keep insisting I made a purchase on the 12th of April yet my statement clearly shows the 11th and also clearly shows they took 19.06 and then tried for another 103.88 for the same transaction!
They took my money and tried taking out more , but I didn’t account for an extra $19.00 so I believe this is what caused the issue , yet they refuse to even accept responsibility or partial responsibility.
I purchased the card based on a recommendation made by their support team!

BigPoint are extortionists, how else would you explain accepting a purchase and then canceling it , without warning or notice and then demand you pay funds to a collection agency , Now after this time I went to the site to see what I now owed ( according to them) and am now being accused of fraud if I don’t pay!

How can a pre-approved credit card be fraudulent ???
They are most unethical and I believe borderline criminal business practices and people this could happen to you too
xotitanox

:(