This action is the result of one of our players proposals.

At Dura we value transparency and integrity of play and therefore all future refunds will be recorded publicly for the sake of those two principles.


Background:

We consider Dura a product which people pay for. As such if the product is faulty or has flaws we consider it our responsibility to make the customer whole and give fair resolution and compensation to that customer. Therefore our policy when it comes to anything that is outside the player's control or is considered by actual law criminal deserves refund. An example of outside player's control is: debugging client failure resulting in a death of character. An example of criminality per a countries laws is: DDOS sabotage upon a player who plays our game, or product.

Dura's game is radically innovative on many levels. That level of innovation comes with trials of errors because we try new things to expand gameplay, which results in risks of design. These risks manifest in bugs, these bugs cause player discomfort or faulty product. It has long been our belief that in time all of this would be stabilized. That is over time we would solve near all bugs and other complications that lead to a faulty product. Now even though this is largely true, as everyday we become more stabilized in our performance and eventually will be near 99% as most other seasoned games we now recognize that even once stabilized there will still be errors, as this is the nature of game expansion, which cause a desert of refund. Therefore we choose now to change our policy of refund to a more ongoing and public record.

Up till now we have always been private with these refunds because we believed it would only be a matter of time before we no longer had to do them because our game/product would be stabilized. This is the primary explanation why we were not public about them in the past, we saw no need, that perspective has changed.
 
As well up until now we have not given refunds out all at once but spread over time. The reason for doing this is to not raise alarm throughout the community, i.e. if someone saw another person receive a level for example while standing in the depot of a town, or saw him jump on the highscores it would immediately cause confusion and outrage. They would then, as they did when Staff first started giving refunds, message Gamemasters or Gods or Official Support with questions and accusations of corruption. Each and every time the Staff member would provide the evidence of the situation proving a refund would be just and thus alleviating the situation of doubt and thoughts of unfair play.
To circumvent this and use Staff time efficiently we thought it best to do dispense these refunds over time so it would be less noticeable. However, per the player's proposal above, we now recognize the best solution for both efficiency of Staff time and integrity is to have everything 100% public so it can be handled promptly as well as ethically.

Process:
This channel, https://discord.com/channels/665957535412649994/826452557081608193/826458872192434224, shows every single refund Dura officially makes to a given player. It will display the reason for the refund, to whom it is given, what the refund itself consists of, and when it occurred. Refunds are given on Dura by Official Staff for anything that is considered Dura's responsibility. This includes but is not limited to debug client failures, global server failures, bugs of varying degrees a player encounters, and DDOS sabotage. Ultimately the discretion of a Gamemaster is what determines a refund. However there are some common prerequisites for such which are Video, Picture, or a Trackable story, and our logs as evidence. We encourage you for example if you encounter a bug to take a picture of it, or send the error report upon login. Only with evidence will refunds be given. Trying to submit a false case to gain a refund one does not deserve, i.e. lying with fabrication to try to have Staff issue a refund for a false report will result in Account Deletion.

As a matter of record: On Dura we estimate we have given over 1000+ refunds to over uniquely 300+ players at a minimum. For any players who have played any decent amount of time on Dura they will know this because they themselves or their friends will have received these refunds. For those who have not yet experienced this I hope nothing more in the world than you will never have to. But at least for another month or two we predict these types of cause for refund will be present, dated March 30th 2021, and therefore they will be logged here.

Regards,
Dura Staff