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Opium Pulses Points Disabled in Store [UPDATE]
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UPDATE

Earlier this year we made a very hard decision… allow us to elaborate…


Since our store opened to the public in 2014, we’ve been constantly hit with fraudulent activity, not just real money fraud but multi-account point farming too, meaning our store stock was being bled dry by fraudsters who had no intention of paying for the products they claimed. We tried every method under the sun to balance this so we could take the hit without affecting our genuine and loyal customers, but earlier this year we were brought to breaking point and were left with two simple choices; shut down the store or make some tough changes. After 5 years of hard work, our small but proud team painstakingly debated and eventually agreed on the decision to remove points purchases from the store entirely.


This meant points were reserved for just trove stock, which was a much more casual area of our website to acquire games and clearly diminished both the value of points and the time of users visiting our website. Our aim very early on was to allow anyone around the world to get any game they wanted, whether they had the funds or not, and this was quickly slipping away from us and our users.


We spent a few months dealing with the aftermath but the feedback was always very loud and clear; our users wanted more product choices and more options to gain points. We discussed various different ways to bring back what our users wanted without encouraging more fraud and finally came up with a plan! We began work right away to take hundreds of low risk but higher quality games from the store and put them up for sale in the trove.


WHERE ARE WE NOW?

As I am typing, we have just under 1,000 titles in the Trove, which is nearly x10 the number of Trove games featured this time 6 months ago.


Since the changes we’ve taken a well-deserved sledge hammer to our fraud numbers and as a result become a lot more stable, allowing us to implement more security measures and site improvements.


If you’ve stuck with us throughout these hard times then we want to send you a massive THANK YOU and hope you’ll join us on the journeys that await us in years to come!




ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT

We're very sad to announce that as of today Opium Pulses Loyalty Points have been disabled for purchasing games and software in the store due to the intense pressure we receive from users who increasingly and consistently commit acts of fraud against us, which in turn drains our funds and regularly halts positive development of our services.


Loyalty Points for the foreseeable future will only be valid to spend in the Treasure Trove and to enter Giveaways, while PayPal and account credit remain standard payment methods for the store.


We have been fighting this decision for many months and have always considered it an absolute last resort, but the latest bout of fraud brought us to breaking point and unfortunately the decision had to be made.


We continue to strive for the best possible experience for legitimate members and customers and apologise to any that this news has disappointed.

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Comments
  • Shadowfehler
    October 09, 2018

    Sad to hear this news but I respect your decisions. I would suggest banning those members if possible.  Are you negotiating the idea of reverting this change if and when things get better? Although a new member, I am here to support this site. Keep up the good work!

  • Residents evil
    October 09, 2018

    So now that I had just enough to get what I wanted, obviously the option gets removed. Great.

    No previous warning or nothing, just rip people out of their objectives with their points. Thanks a bunch...
    (I quite literally was going to buy the game with points today. Seriously my timing....)

    • WTF! I log in everyday for this? R.I.P. My precious time. This is basically a scam   

  • CJDance1
    October 10, 2018

    It's a real shame the actions of a selfish and greedy minority have effected the vast majority of our loyal users who do not abuse our services and respect what we are trying to build. 


    Unfortunately this was a do or die decision that we've been forced into. We hope to bring back store points at some point in the future when we can better tackle these attacks. In the meantime we're going to be moving over hundreds of games from the main Store to the Trove to enable point purchases on many more titles. This should hopefully help most people find a game they would like with the points they have earned. 


    The alternative option was to close down OP completely, so we hope you will agree this is the best option all round for everyone.  

  • KEN10
    October 10, 2018

    sad news for Loyal users 

    sad users for Loyal news

  • daedalus007
    October 10, 2018

    Time to make OP only available to access from US & EU.  Fuck the rest.

    Sorry Japan/China/Korea/etc, get your shit together first and clean your toilets :P

  • Alamar
    October 12, 2018

    If i knew points might became unusable i would look and use them for some game, why normal users are losing their points it is not fair, verify users and give them chance to use points.

    • You're not the only one who would have used all their points at once given some warning, so would thousands of fraudsters and thousands of legitimate users, all at the same time, this would have killed our service and OP would be no longer, please understand that this decision was not about making more money, it was about keeping OP alive.

      No users have lost their points and everyone still has the option to spend them, it just has to be on games in the trove and not in the store.

  • Alamar
    October 12, 2018

    Well nm i used my points on game in trove so it is not so terrible ;]

  • matto
    October 14, 2018

    Can you move all the store bundles (which mostly contain only trove games) to the trove for points like they used to be?  I was going to pick up one of the store bundles, but can't now, and it's almost twice as many points to buy them individually in the trove.


    On that note, does anyone know if the bundles give a single code for all the games included or individual codes? Thanks.

    • Hi Matto,


      You're absolutely right all of these should have been moved to the trove, I've now done this. To answer your second question, all bundles deliver single keys.

  • Azanagant
    October 14, 2018

    I was going to get my first game with points tomorrow, I was missing 5 points...  

  • Domojaxx
    October 17, 2018

    Thank you for the announcement.

    I have been with this site for almost 3 years, but even longer with Opium Pulses (even before their first site called sGs which was a collaboration with some other party). I have the utmost respect for OP Staff members as they always take the time to listen to the little guy (we, the users). They try their best to deliver good content, games, etc.


    I now know that this measure has been the only way out of a nasty situation, caused by fraud authors.


    We should support OP staff and their communities more than ever, instead of ranting and giving negative "feedback" (I speak from past experience). They are very decent people and deserve positivity, especially now. Before writing - keep in mind that you don't really lose anything and the functionality may get back in some way in the future, but even if it isn't - I am sure that OP didn't want to remove it just as much as us (the user-base).


    Best Regards to all who read and also to all other OP members,

    Domojaxx

  • daedalus007
    October 21, 2018

    Two factor authentication that requires an actual mobile phone number.

    There, you just eliminated your fraud instead of being a pidgeon to your entire (legit) userbase.

    But ok then, keep justifying anti-gamer practices.  People were getting too many points too easily so ya had to scrap it; I get it.  Just be honest instead of this 'but FRAUD' stuff.

  • daedalus007
    October 27, 2018

    If the 'Giveaways' section had actual good games instead of 'removed Steam Page due to violations' trash "games" then I wouldn't mind this site so much.

    Contact the devs of those games and see if you can get more than one 'winner' per week.  Otherwise it is pure tedium and a waste of time.  Working minimum wage in that time would get you enough to buy every single giveaway game and have money still left over.

  • daedalus007
    October 31, 2018

    A giveaway is won (first one in months) and I get the 'keys may not work' disclaimer thing.

    Why would the keys not work? Why give out duplicate keys?  Why would OP waste our time with that?

    I thought OP was legitimately sourcing keys instead of obtaining them from dubious sources.  If they can't obtain legit keys then don't permit that kind of giveaway.

  • daedalus007
    October 31, 2018

    What is even more disheartening is that both keys 'did not work' so I wonder where they came from.  Why is OP permitting giveaways of non-legit keys?

    • Hello daedalus007

      Please allow me to quote from the giveaway page itself:

      "WE'RE GIVING AWAY LEFT OVER TROVE KEYS FOR CRACKHEAD ON STEAM AS THE DEVELOPER WITHDREW ON OUR DISTRIBUTION DEAL AND WE CAN NO LONGER RELY ON THE STOCK.
      WE'RE MAKING SURE EVERYONE WHO ENTERS GETS TWO KEYS TO INCREASE THEIR CHANCES OF GETTING A WORKING KEY, BUT WE'RE WARNING YOU NOW...


      >>> YOUR KEY MIGHT NOT WORK, IT IS POT LUCK! <<<"


      Information of a similar nature was also communicated within emails and in any announcements made about the giveaways.


      All keys were bought directly from the developer, however, we have no control over whether the developer keeps to their end of the deal. The giveaway was put in place in order to attempt to make the most of a bad situation. 


      We apologize for this situation, although we have attempted to make it very clear as to why keys in these particular giveaways may not work. 

  • zoberman
    December 03, 2018

    So  I wasted 3 years of my life with everyday login to have nothing to spend my points on, but useless troves and now when I finally have points and i'm close to 5000 giveaways achievment you removed the games for points. Good job! Also doing giveaways for games which keys are already a duplicate isn't any good! So overall there's nothing left here, neither giveaways nor games that I can spend my points on... And your prices are not as good as you think..  So who's gonna bring me my 3 years back?

  • killdesire
    December 16, 2018

    motherfuckers

  • korakora
    May 30, 2019

    Did you take away the achievements points too? i didn't get my points for 3 years achievements 

  • anirudh403
    June 30, 2019

    I've been waiting for almost a year to collect these much points so that i can redeem the game i want, but now i just cant? I do not have any multi account or alt account. How about you guys implement a security option where we can identify using our selfie+id proof+OP full name written on peice of paper and after that we can use these points to claim games? doesnt this sound fair? I waited so long to get a game which is around 15k points but now am stuck with points and not to mention i didnt get any warning that this will happen so use your points early.

  • gblade2
    March 26, 2020

    There's conspiracy theories that say Russia and Asia (china) employ very large teams to undermine all sorts western economies/businesses in any way they can ,online and offline.


    There is some truth in it ,evidence does turn up every now and then.


    Sure there's some good people from that part of the world but the cost is now looking too high.


    I'd ban all connections coming from those countries if it was me in control.


    Look at the price the world is paying right now for allowing access to our markets/economies.


    All those cheap imports are not looking so cheap now.


    Here's hoping western countries and big business finally wake up.


    Though i fear the rush for a quick buck will continue unabated when the current crisis dies down

    and not forgetting ,sadly, our wildlife will continue being slaughtered.


  • gubgub1
    April 25, 2022

    Can't login with HTTPS ,only HTTP unsecure login.