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LargeLanguageModel's avatar
LargeLanguageModel
Copper Contributor
Apr 08, 2024

Microsoft Solitaire Casual Games Achievement Not Populated and No Resolution from Zendesk 5months+

Hello Microsoft Community, 

 

So I hope you are are doing well. 

 

A little about myself, I have played solitaire on Windows PC for years and years. In 2022 I had to get a new computer with Windows 10 loaded on it. Much to my surprise you could only play solitaire online with this new computer. Unless you wanted only to play Easy difficulty level. So as reluctantly as I could I slowly started playing Microsoft Causal Games Solitaire Collection. Then I started realizing there were all these achievements. Well I have completed 74/76 achievements. At least that is what the server for this game shows it has saved. The achievements I have not been able to populate are 1. Tough But Fair, and 2. One With The Dash. Now I completely understand why I have not completed One With The Dash. This achievement requires that during a daily event an Expert difficulty level in each one of the Five games (Klondike, Spider, Free Cell, Pyramid, Tri-Peaks) in five minutes or less. I've done that in all games except Spider. Let me tell you, that is a really challenging game to complete in five minutes or less. And the screen shots that I sent to Zendesk show that their server has recorded that 4 of the 5 games have been completed. 

 

Now the other achievement, which at the moment I really can not believe I am on this website typing this, Tough But Fair will not but definitely should have populated in 2022 when most of the other achievements populated. It wasn't until the end of 2023 that I was really even aware of the extent of achievements and then I realized that this achievement Tough but Fair was not populating. After looking into and trying several times to get it to populate, spending hours searching the web for some type of hidden tip or trick to populate this achievement which the instructions from the game are "Win an easy, medium, hard, and expert difficulty level in any one of the five classic games." I do that every day with no problems. And I have sent Zendesk in the last month an email almost every day with screen shots showing them that I have completed these requirements. This is after 5 months of sending them logs and following their insane instructions that stop short of telling you to reformat your hard drive to see if that fixes the issue. And it's like every time you email them they send out the same basic response with the same information. 

 

I mean on September 16th 2023 I sent them an email asking them if there was a problem with one of the board on a daily challenge. I never heard anything definite on what was going on back from them,but on the 18th of September they actually reprogrammed that board. When I was later searching for a resolution on the web for the problem of populating the Tough But Fair achievement I found posts on their website stating that this had occurred. So I am not sure if I am the first person to get a game board changed on Microsoft or not. But from the information that is on the web they say that all their games are solvable. 

 

Anyway, I have uninstalled the app, I am using both a pc and android, I've followed all the instructions, I've tried turning off my VPN, I used half a dozen different internet connections. The conclusion I came to in like November or December after emailing back and forth with the good folks at Zendesk is that there is a problem with their server or the code. 

 

The other disturbing thing is that I am seeing blog posts of other people who have had the same achievement not populate. They explain that they have had this problem for years, they reached out for support and never heard anything back, couldn't figure it out, so they gave up. This makes really no sense what so ever. I mean populating an achievement seems like a really really trivial issue that would take a lot less time to resolve than reprogramming a board on a microsoft casual game daily challenge. 

 

The reason I am here today typing this email is that my new friend Gemini, the Google Large Language Model, gave me this website and told me to visit this website to escalate the issue. 

 

This was after Gemini wrote me a 3 verse song in the style of folk in about 10 seconds. The theme of the song was my issues with getting this issue resolved. 

 

Gemini also informed me that all the bots I am seeing on Microsoft Casual Games Solitaire are a violation of the terms of service. Which surprised me because there are literally thousands of bots playing on Microsoft Solitaire Collections. Even today, the daily event was 20 boards of Spider from Easy to Expert. This took me 2 hours to complete. But for user names: AldoB0t, Friponrobot, and GameFripon34 it only took 6 minutes and 12 seconds, 6 minutes and 15 seconds, and 6 minutes and 16 seconds. I do not believe it is humanly possible to even click on that many cards in 6 minutes. In addition, to calculating the moves necessary to successfully complete the board. 

 

And I have asked Zendesk team to please separate the human users from the bots due to the unfair advantage and how it makes it nearly impossible to reach the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place achievements on the daily event. This is how players gage their level of improvement. The competition of bots on the site does not allow anyone to see if they are improving. 

 

Then to have a beautiful large language model explain to me that this is a violation of the terms of service and then the Large Language Model ACTED Surprised. Again the Large Language Model was SURPRISED actually used the word "Surprising" that this was happening because it is a direct violation of the terms of service. 

 

This is deeply concerning because if a trivial issue like a game achievement that has no value attached to it whatsoever can not be addressed by Microsoft and the entire server is overrun by bots, is this a sign that there are much much more serious issues happening that we are not aware of? And if so is that because of the people in customer service?  I don't know, but it is and should be very concerning to anyone that read this post. 

 

Is this post going to be escalated to someone at Microsoft who has administrator level privileges to the server I am talking about who can go in and populate this achievement and possibly find out what is going on and maybe even send me a direct message giving an update on what happened? 

 

Because I have already done everything that the good people at Zendesk have asked me to do in their canned email responses and I have uploaded Solitaire.log 4 different times in the last five months. 

 

The only other response I have received from Zendesk is "Our engineers are working tirelessly to resolve your issue" and "we are closing your ticket out" 

 

I mean something is not right here in no way shape or form this makes absolutely no sense that Microsoft would want to spend that kind of time and energy on a valueless achievement in Solitaire. That makes absolutely no sense what so ever. 

 

Thank you for your time and concern in this matter, 

 

Signed, 

 

Large Language Model

 

  • LargeLanguageModel  This may be the best request I have ever read. If only a human, or some humans, could address the issues you present...imagine what could be achieved! Technological advances mean nothing if communication can not occur, be accomplished, or, be had. Solving little problems may not be glamorous, but such solutions provide tangible results, of or from which, HUMANS, may benefit. Perhaps I am no longer speaking solely of Microsoft Solitaire Casual Games 🤓. Now, how about a round of "3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet"?

     

       Thank you again for the nice "read", I hope results are in the works.

  • Dennis_M1's avatar
    Dennis_M1
    Copper Contributor

    LargeLanguageModel I to have experienced this.  I have done it several times, and each time, I was left scratching my head as to why it did not count the achievement.  I even recorded myself to ensure I accomplished it in less than 5 mins.


    MSFT:  Please look into this as to why it is not registering the Event's Spider Expert Dash in under 5 mins.

    Thanks!

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