A class action lawsuit has been waged against Scopely Inc. by users claiming that the online video game company decreased the value of virtual goods purchased on the video game Star Trek Fleet Command (STFC).
Plaintiff Vernon Ackies says that he purchased virtual goods on the Star Trek video game and found out that Scopely decreased the value and the effectiveness of the goods after he bought them.
“Simply stated, Scopely took advantage of, and defrauded, its players through numerous unconscionable commercial practices and fraudulent acts to extract as much money as possible from them,” the Star Trek video game class action lawsuit notes.
The plaintiff states that Star Trek Fleet Command is a multiplayer online game, or “MMO,” which allows players to participate at the same time over the internet. STFC is free to play, but players can buy virtual goods with real money to enhance their abilities compared to other players on the game.
The Star Trek Fleet Command class action states that, for as high as $99.99 players can purchase “resources,” “materials,” “character cards,” “faction credits,” and “ship blueprints.” In addition, the plaintiff notes that game players can purchase “packs,” like “Master Station Upgrade Pack” and “Ultra Ship Power Pack,” which encompass tokens which are used to upgrade a player’s character, space station or space ship.
“Making upgrades to a player’s space station and space ship through the purchase of virtual goods is an important function in STFC. Without making these upgrades, which cost real money, competitive players are unable to advance far in STFC and are easily defeated by other players who have made such purchases and upgrades,” the Scopely class action lawsuit states.
In addition, the plaintiff claims that the defendant represents the importance of upgrading a player’s space station and space ship.
The Scopely class action lawsuit alleges that STFC misrepresents to players the cost of Star Trek Fleet Command’s virtual goods. The plaintiff claims that STFC subtracted more in-game currencies from a player’s balance than the stated cost prior to purchase.
The plaintiff also claims that players pay for virtual goods that had stated benefits and capabilities at the time of the purchase, but that the players did not get those benefits and capabilities that they paid for.
The Star Trek Fleet Command class action lawsuit also claims that in February 2019, after complaints from STFC players, Scopely released an “update” to the game, which was supposed to fix parts of the software that was causing issues.
The plaintiff claims that these updates made changes to the “rules” of STFC, which had an effect on the “in-game economy and cost structure.”
“The February 2019 update, as well as a series of subsequent updates, substantially changed the rules of STFC and the in-game economy, effectively devaluing all prior purchases made by paying players,” the Scopely class action lawsuit alleges.
The plaintiff also alleges that Scopely makes it hard for Star Trek Fleet Command players to file complaints and refuses to issue refunds to players who have lost purchased virtual goods bought with real-world money.
“Refunds are not issued even if the virtual good was lost through no fault of the player…or if a virtual good does not operate as represented,” the Scopely class action lawsuit states.
The plaintiff has filed this action under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, conversion, unjust enrichment, and legal fraud.
Did you purchase virtual goods while playing Star Trek Fleet Command? Leave a message in the comments section below.
The plaintiff is represented by Bob Kasolas and Mark E. Critchley of Brach Eichler LLC.
The Scopely Star Trek Fleet Command In Game Purchase Class Action Lawsuit is Ackies v. Scopely, Inc. Case No. 2:19-cv-19247, in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey.
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513 thoughts onStar Trek Fleet Command Players Lose Virtual Goods, Class Action Says
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Hi all,
I’m reached lvl 43 (so far) without spending a penny on this game.
So saying that you cannot achieve in this game without spending a lot is false.
Of course, I cannot compete with big spenders who are already in the level 50+ with much bigger ships, much bigger power. But that’s their choice, their way of playing (i.e. get the easy path of paying to get resources)
Over time, Scopely is making the game easier (easier meaning easier to get enough resources to keep going up and build more and more costly buildings, ships, researches) so that “free-2-play” players like me stays in and motivated.
Clearly, you do not play the game competitively. I have miners out 24/7. The list of resources includes 1-, 2-, and 3-start isogen; 3-star crystal, gas, and ore; corrupted data; decided data; and latinum. All of that is done daily in order to refine it for a ridiculous fraction of what you need for your station, ships, and research. At level 43, you should be
doing all of the above PLUS 4-star gas, 4-star crystal, and 4-star ore. Also, concentrated latinum. For your ships you have to hit hostiles to get broken pieces, which also need refined, in order to upgrade them. I have not even begun to talk about the officers and amount of shards you need. You honestly believe Scopely is making it easier?
Scopely, specifically STFC, has ruined me. They trick people into purchasing packs for insane amounts of money, not only for advancement, but any event that offers decent reward are unachievable due to the spending players. Scopely makes you believe you’re getting something valuable, in reality, it all a scam… I wish I could have back the thousands I spent, thinking I would enjoy my position in the game.. In fact, it has made me depressed and ashamed!!!
Even now in Oct 2022, many of the above issues continue including the bullying to force players to spend money to protect themselves and reclaim lost/stolen items, scopely changing the game, mechanics, output, devices, officer abilities and other changes without notification impacting the game, cost, community, gameply, and much more. we recently had officer ability completely disabled so scopely could draw more cash from players with their newest round of “features.” The packs, resources, refinery, game mechanics, change based on your spending and as you spend more, you get locked into only being able to purchase $99 dollar packs and now Scopely is pushing $199.99 packs (as someone said + tax) to get more people spending. The Pay-to-win coupled with gambling tactics for all players including minors playing should be illegal and banned or age restrictions and verifications should be put in place. Multiple times refunds were not honored. Scopely says you bought, its yours. I had to go to my bank a few times and was denied refunds. Support is so poor there is no reason to ever even open a ticket via their chat/website as min wait time is 24 hrs and i have waited more than 3 days for responses, which were always, “nothing we can do, thats the game.” the list goes on with exploits, bullying, gambling tactics, changing of game mechanics monthly to force players to buy again since their product is outdated in a month. The newest release of officers basically destroys all officers on the ships before it, so if you dont buy it, you just lose, over and over. if you dont buy and stay current with the monthly pushes, you become a hermit, or quit, or both, and lose the 1,000s upon 1,000s spent. I’ve been told buy other “whales” that they have spent more than $15,000 for their current bases, ships, officers, upgrades, and feel like, they have no choice but to keep spending. Scopely also decided to unlock lv 40 during a cash event, allowing all of the whales to spend 1000s in a couple of days to destroy your placement on leaderboards and making all your time, energy, and real money spent to be worthless. Spending $500 for a 1st place is already ridiculous, but having whales come in and spend $2,000 a day destroys any chance of you ever winning and effectively makes all of your purchases moot. unlocking ascenion so whales could buy out the market and continue the tactics of bullying, while scopely rakes in money during a “live-money-leaderboard” in itself is clear signs of using the system intentionally to force players into horrible positions of pay or be destroyed and with new ship capabilities + officers, your years worth of work can be destroyed and drained in a few short hours. Please feel free to message me for details, screenshots, money spent, receipts, issues, etc. Good luck with the lawsuit. I do hope scopely is forced to refund players and correct many of their racketeering and gambling tactics.
Please after a big update I went to the online store to see if any big new packs and I saw a pack with a extra research tab I already had 4 and thought they added a 5th one so I purchased it then found out when I got on the game that I got most of the pack but the extra tab. I found out that it was a glitch in the store and even though I didn’t get the 5th tab the system still consumed the tab token upon purchase making it non refundable or exchange able. So I had to contact Capital One to get them to refund the charges. The only upside was I got use of the other stuff in the pack but it didn’t balance out the almost week long fight with Scopely’s customer service after waiting who knows how many days before they contacted me
Well let me start by saying I’ve been playing STFC for several years. I have two accounts. Recently many players have quit the game due to actions of the developer. Connection issues through Apple ios , and the ever growing cost. I have basically been ripped off by Scopely several times. ” as we like to say we love the game but hate Scopely “. Their biggest fraud committed against myself was summer 2022. The game released a new ship, the ” Mantis ” with series of competitive events for players.
I purchased two sets of the ship blue prints , one for each of my accounts. And packs to do research and make upgrades on this ship. With in a couple hours Scopely apologized online, on Discord, in game, to the players due to the ships abilities did not work. I asked for an immediate refund. It was denied , the reason given was , the product i did receive. Although the materials and resources that were waisted attempting to use the ability that this ship had advertised, was used by me. Well yes no one knew the system was broken. So by the time the apology was posted everything was gone.
Secondly on more than one occasion when a player makes a purchase, it may come with a gift for the members of the alliance that player is part of. These gifts were never received. Making the entire agreement apon transaction void. Yet no refunds.
Active user, this is an accurate representation of Scopely’s handling of accounts and relationship with their users.
I played this game for for over two years and spent close to $5000, then they gave me a life ban without reason so I complained to apple then my bank submitted a very detailed pdf on the fraud they commit and the bank won in my favour and refunded me the full amount! Eat sh*t and die scopely shame on u for cheating everyone, and everyone NEEDS to do as I did so they actually learn
Does everyone realize there is no winning this game. Some players work for/are associated with Scopely. I’ve noticed players I was well ahead of in level and power have either caught up or passed me in level and power which I find curious considering the time needed to advance, resources needed to collect to advance and not to mention the amount of money needed to be spent in order to advance as quickly as they have advanced. Once Scopely identifies you as a paying player it seems they start to make you pay for everything and anything that you will need to advance in the game. Not only do they charge for everything/anything, items purchased have minimal impact to increasing your power in the game. I noticed after spending a considerable amount of money on the game that I was falling behind to players that I was previously stronger than. It is obvious that the game is rigged to make paying players pay more but also to protect/watch out for friends of Scopely.
I’ve been playing Star Trek Fleet Command for almost 3 years now and from the very beginning I saw what was going on after I paid for 2 packs at first it was cheap until I reached lvl 15 and all hell broke out the price of the game went from 10 dollars to 100 hundred dollars or 50 dollars and in these packs were Gas Ore and Crystal to upgrade ships and other stuff but to upgrade the Ships it would need 800 hundred in Ore and the 100 dollar packs only gave you 200 hundred in Ore so to upgrade just One Ship you have to buy 4 packs and if you needed 900 hundred in Ore you are now buying 5 packs for 1000 thousand dollars just to upgrade One Ship so I play for FREE and for 2 years now I went from lvl 30 to lvl 33 Two Years and I am still on lvl 33 I’m had enough of this game thanks. Now Scopely also has Looney Tunes World of Mayhem and the same thing is going on here as well and in this game I bought some items to upgrade my game and they just took the items back that I paid for raise the price and gave me 2/3 of it back they Stole from me right in front of my face and just about said oh well to bad for you Scopely is a very large Fraud and Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers knows of the fraud from Scopely and don’t intervene at all because of all the cash they are getting I hope I can be added to the Lawsuit against Scopely PLEASE Thank You Very Much. Jeffrey Waterman
I have spent a total of almost 5000 dollars and my ships are still lacking in this game. I am glad scopely is being sued. They need to be shown they shouldn’t do this kind of stuff to good people. Scopely also claims all ship research and functions are working properly. I have found this to be untrue. And after over a 1000 complaints they still haven’t fixed the issues.
I can’t belive that I have spent $3000 plus on a mobile game but there it is.
Like others I get caught where I cannot advance anymore without laying down real world dollars and suddenly like magic a pack becomes available to “help” me advance for a mere $99 USD (which is more like $108 after taxes).
Then you find out that pack only does half of what is promised so you either stay stuck or suck it up and buy ANOTHER and then ANOTHER. If this is what gambling addiction is like then I feel for those who blow everything in casinos. But at least they have a better chance of coming out ahead then you do with Scopely and their never ending stream of glitches, or as our alliance refers to them: “features”.
The shield dropping “bug” conveniently seems to happen a LOT right after you have made a purchase and have a stockpile of goods to steal. I have yet to hear of it happening to someone with low resources. Makes you wonder how the raiding players seem to know you are flush just at that point in time…?
When it happened to me I wrote Dope-ly, sorry Scopely, and simply asked for the resources I lost to a KNOWN glitch be returned, nothing more. In response I was asked for screen shots. I provided them, then they wanted RECORDINGS! There are not even features to record the game like other games I’ve played so how I was supposed to provide those is beyond me. I even had a witness, another player, that actually saw the glitch happen and they just blew that off. Their exact response was “our records do not match what you are reporting” even with screen shots staring them in the face!
I have loved Star Trek since I was a kid and first saw it on our B&W TV back in 1969. But this game has perverted it for me, to make it worse the caretakers of the franchise, CBS licensing, do not seem to care as long as they get their share. I want to walk away but after all this investment I cannot see how.
It sucks HORRIBLY that so many people that I have made strong friendships with all feel trapped and abused by something that they shared a love of. All for the sake of squeezing the almighty dollar out of as many of us as they can ensnare while turning a blind eye and deaf ear to the thousands of complaints they receive.
I sincerely hope this lawsuit accomplishes something, but I fear it will just be another slap on Scopely’s wrist. They will just write it off as an operating loss and continue to gouge/cheat players as much as they can knowing any retribution from the courts costs less than changing for the better. Hell, it would not surprise me if they actually have these suits factored into their budget.