I'm working on a game about IT support in hell. Someone just used the ingame demo feedback form to request real IT help with their vpn.

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Normal-Narwhal0xFF@reddit

I think they just gave you a gift; content for version 2. A self-aware simulator that is trying to jailbreak into the real world.

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

That may or may not already be in the game... 😉

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joerice1979@reddit

The snake has eaten its tail, life has imitated art while imitating life.

The circle is complete.

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

I feel like any moment Alanis Morisette is gonna come busting through my front door with an acoustic guitar to sing ironic to me until I keel over.

The demo is here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4225400/IT_Never_Ends/ - please do not use it to submit it support tickets, I am very small and very tired

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You are gonna get SO many IT tickets now. If you get a ticket asking if turning off my computer monitor could set off the fire alarms in the facility, then I worked up the energy to dig my computer out of the pile of moving boxes.

And yes that's a ticket I got once. No, the computer monitor was unrelated to the alarm. Which, yes, was the result of an ACTUAL FIRE.

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

Hahaha I'm dying. At least the person was considerate enough to hear a firewall and be afraid they might've caused it. I know users who would've simply just made a ticket asking for the fire alarm to be shut off.

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MindlessMage777@reddit

Lol yeah I could definitely see that happening. What makes it a little funnier is I was on the user support team for an accounting program, which had nothing to do with fire alarms OR computer monitors at her company.

She heard the fire alarm after turning off the monitor and I guess just called the first random number that was vaguely support related.

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soberdude@reddit

The building is on fire? Can you remote in and fix it for me?

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MindlessMage777@reddit

Have you tried restarting the building?

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soberdude@reddit

Where's the button for that? Weird, the sprinkler system just came on. Did you do that?

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MindlessMage777@reddit

Here's an instructional video for finding the button. https://youtu.be/--9kqhzQ-8Q?si=9hB2Um5pOwC3mfh3

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soberdude@reddit

Found it! Thanks for your help!

(And thank you for that video!)

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MindlessMage777@reddit

Thank you for calling, if you were happy with your service today please answer the survey at the end of the call.

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Xhelius@reddit

We got one during a building move that said something like "I put my monitor, keyboard, and mouse in the trash bin next to my desk thinking they'd bring it but I guess they threw them out instead. How big of a problem is this?"

You threw away nearly your entire workstation. You tell me.

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nymalous@reddit

You should include the real life tickets. Think of it as research.

If you're particularly devious, suggest some "solutions" that will make things worse. Then you'll get another ticket, and collect more research...

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Atlas-Scrubbed@reddit

I am curious. How did that person remember to breathe?

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Future_Direction5174@reddit

Did you post about this as I read a post yesterday about a professor(?) ringing the Help Desk on how to “switch off the smoke”…?

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bobowhat@reddit

I just had the urge to submit a ticket for technical support with a Stargate.

The urge passed :)

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Tenchworks@reddit

Looked at the steam page, seems interesting and I'll try the demo later but I do wonder how accurate it is... If it has a ticket requesting support for an esoteric ancient antique piece of hardware still in production of which no documentation or vendor support exists (nor has for the past 25+ years), then I'll be sold.

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

Here's one such ticket - directly from the full game code ;)

    {
id: 'legacy-system-demands',
    title: 'The Old System Awakens',
    text: 'The Windows NT server we forgot about has started making demands. It wants fresh RAM and threatens to "release the 1998 backups" if ignored.',
    icon: 'Server',
    category: 'horror',
    author: getCharacter('dave'),
    conditions: {
      entropyMin: 105
    },
    choices: [
      {
        label: 'Negotiate with the server',
        effects: {<redacted>},
        outcome: 'You give it 2GB of RAM. It purrs. The 1998 backups stay buried. Everyone wins. Sort of.'
      },
      {
        label: 'Pull the plug',
        effects: {<redacted>},
        outcome: 'Server decommissioned. Its last message: "I only wanted to help." You feel terrible. But free.'
      }

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joerice1979@reddit

If you're making a game that allows a NT server to purr with 2GB, then I'm playing it.

If there are bonus points for having the product key for Office 2000 still taking up space in my brain, then that's a massive bonus. Just a thought.

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

to be absolutely clear you're giving the thing 2 GB EXTRA ram which, in today's economy, is roughly 900 billion dollars

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joerice1979@reddit

I'm fine with that; have to look after the elders.

This comes from an IT person who once felt like a boss for giving a 2003 server VM 8GB.

An x86 2003 server, that is.

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Tenchworks@reddit

Welp, there we have it folks, another game on my backlog that I will purchase and wonder when (if ever) will I get to play it...

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Langager90@reddit

Subject: Computer too big.

Closed: Subject too small.

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Snowenn_@reddit

But, your demo doesn't work! My OS is borked so I can't start any apps. I demand you fix my problem! /s

We had a customer once who insisted our app was broken and wouldn't start. I used an RDP to check, and it started fine for me. So I asked what errors were shown. Got no reply. So I asked for a screenshot of the situation. I got a photo of a windows login screen, with an "authentication failed" message.

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BlitzAceSamy@reddit

Dear OP,

I am trying to open an attachment in the report but I have observed this error message.

[screenshot of an authentication error]

For your assistance please.

(Jokes aside this is an actual real ticket I got this week that I still need to take a look at 🤣)

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joerice1979@reddit

Submit support tickets? No, Barbara Streisand would never do that, I'm sure :-)

Thank you, shall have a look!

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Actual_Ad4903@reddit

Wish listed 👍🏻

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Subjekt_91@reddit

But who is going to fix my computer problems then? 🥺 Pls im Not Tech savvy qwq

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Raz0rking@reddit

Uroburos!

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Warrlock608@reddit

Edit: not sure if it's against rules, but can you link to the demo?

Yeah hook us up! I can use it to desensistize myself to end user nonsense!

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Ordinary_Band1665@reddit

Would this game also be available on MacBooks?

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

I'm actually working on a MacBook build of the demo right now 🙏

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Ordinary_Band1665@reddit

I have got a mid 2012 MacBook that runs Catalina. If possible, make sure it’s available to run on that version and up.

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trro16p@reddit

i just thought of a minigame (I don't think you have it yet).

IT has just received a new supply of mice/keyboards/monitors that were requested by {dept}. The rest of the office found out and are trying to take one of the items for themselves. You need to stop them long enough to deploy the items to the {dept}.

it looks like a top down/isometric cubicle area where you fight(kill!) the office drones before they get to the IT entrance.

Weapons that you can find (also on ranged you need to find ammo):

Melee: IBM 101 keyboard (circa 1990), CAT5 o-nine tales flail Ranged: RAM Stick throwing knives, Nerf guns.

You start unarmed (bare fist)

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dustojnikhummer@reddit

RAM Stick throwing knives

In today's economy?

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trro16p@reddit

I'm talking about the old 30 pin SIMMS sticks. I bet every IT office still has a box of these in storage when they started strippiing parts from computers when they were decommissioned.

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dustojnikhummer@reddit

We had a bunch of DDR3 ECC sticks but we threw those out during last cleanup. Damnit.

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

Do I love it? Yes Do I have the skill to implement it? Remains to be seen!

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rhoduhhh@reddit

Users are strange creatures.

I fuckin hate troubleshooting VPN issues because it's like:

Authentication failed means you either fucked up your username/password (or the password has expired), your company revoked your VPN access, your MFA/2FA is broken or you've not even set it up, or a whole plethora of company specific things that random strangers on the internet most likely aren't gonna be familiar with. 🫠

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MindlessMage777@reddit

I work from home now, and had a password change only partially sync on my computer. It kicked me out of my computer and I couldn't log back in because the VPN hadn't caught the new password. There was a corporate VPN migration happening that week, and apparently they hadn't accounted for the fact that 75% of the company was still WFH.

I had to drive an hour or two to the nearest site with a corporate network and plug into ethernet, just to enter my password and then drive back home.

Back when I worked in support, every customer had their own VPN with its own software that each had their own VM to access it, and own unique nightmarish issues.

I hate VPNs.

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EFMFMG@reddit

Admin couldn’t remotely connect, get on vpn, switch to your account, and have you change password??

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MindlessMage777@reddit

Nope, asked two different people.

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dustojnikhummer@reddit

every customer had their own VPN

I have almost every VPN client under the sun on my work PC for our clients. GlobalProtect, FortiClient, AnyConnect, OpenVPN, Wireguard, Cato, Checkpoint... and that's what I can remember off the top of my head.

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dustojnikhummer@reddit

I fucking love troubleshooting IPSec or IKE connections. Like, why is the IKE service randomly stopped today?? What do you mean "no ipsec policy found"???

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lord_teaspoon@reddit

My company's VPN is tied to an authenticator app, and nothing happens on screen to tell you that it's waiting for you to approve the request in the authenticator app. Even our support manager and network engineer have complained about the scenario where you ignore the ding from you're phone because you're trying to focus on work and then only realise when you get the authentication failure that responding to the ding was necessary to get that work started.

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Lurk3rAtTheThreshold@reddit

Probably using the MFA plugin for a Windows Network Policy Server. There's no response from the radius server while it reaches out so send the MFA request, it just waits. It just looks like a timeout if you don't know what's happening.

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RememberCitadel@reddit

What I actually really hate lately is that apps that aren't used often get notifications removed on iOS. This means people who seldom use VPNs and use 2FA won't get the prompt and will submit a ticket.

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Terrible_Shirt6018@reddit

On android you can set which apps are protected from having the permissions removed. I'm sure Apple has a similar setting somewhere.

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RememberCitadel@reddit

Oh sure, you absolutely can, but that part is as many steps as setting up the whole app is. Not ideal for users setting it up on their own from a guide.

Seems to me like there should be some sort of logic that says "app hasn't sent any notifications except when it was used, maybe let's leave the notifications alone.

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rhoduhhh@reddit

Ours at least says "We have sent a prompt to your device!"

Or throws authentication error call IT if you haven't set up MFA yet 🤪

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skiing123@reddit

Or your Internet isn't good and that can cause issues. I remember helping someone who had issues connecting and honestly forgot how I solved it or if I even did. But I did a speed test and it returned a full gig up and down. I laughed and told the user how they have better Internet than me

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iamdan1@reddit

Yeah I have a user that gets weird authentication failure errors on the vpn every once in a while, and restarting their router fixes the issue. They do have a really really old router, so that is probably the problem, but they also always forget thats what fixes it.

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rhoduhhh@reddit

Mannn, I had one user who literally had 1.5mbps down and like 500kbps up. Had to explain to her that she could not work from home on those speeds. In 2022. 😬

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commentsrnice2@reddit

My former roommate only wanted to pay for 30mb bandwidth so each device was only pulling about 10-12 on a good day, sometimes as low as 7

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rosseloh@reddit

I fuckin hate troubleshooting VPN issues

Oh man, ours sucks for this. No useful logging on the PC or in the control console, and the most you'll get for a visual error is "VPN Connection is Down". If you're paying attention to the app while it tries you might at least get to see what percentage number it stops at before failing, but while under the hood I know that correlates to various steps in the authentication process, there is no documentation to do that correlation.

And the solution is usually either to have them try again later, or redeploy the client app to their PC (which fortunately can be done without the VPN active). It's extremely frustrating.

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Hydramy@reddit

My partners company has strange VPN issues.

Most things work fine, but there is one piece of software that will not work if the laptop is plugged in via ethernet. They have to use Wi-Fi or it refuses to work.

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WhenSummerIsGone@reddit

i had a weird problem connecting, and it turned out that it was because i needed to click an icon that was in the bar at the top of my screen, except it was hidden behrnd the "cutout" where the camera is. Apple sucks.

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lord_teaspoon@reddit

The notch was never a good idea. Neither is the camera hole. Just accept that some not-screen components belong in the front of the device and house them in a sensible bezel. My wife had a HTC One back in the day where the top and bottom bezels had grilles for the forward-firing speakers and the sound was so good. Never forget what they took from us.

Speaking of notches, my home workstation monitor setup has a 32" 2560×1440 landscape in the middle between a pair of 24" 1920×1200 portraits (so in a |-| shape). 1440 is obviously a bit shorter that 1920 so if I take a screenshot there's a blanked-out 2560×480 block across the top, which I refer to as "the notch" to make the one or two Apple-preferrers I work with cringe and squirm.

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GlitteryCakeHuman@reddit

Lapsed certificate?

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rhoduhhh@reddit

I don't like the reminder that this can be a cause 🥲

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shadow_kittencorn@reddit

Or they are actually trying to access their emails, thinking it is the VPN….

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to-display@reddit

Hell on Earth

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L0rdLogan@reddit

Not a lot of necessary info on the problem, this guy is indeed a user

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MidowWine@reddit

Oh my god, you poor soul. This has me in tears laughing. Game looks interesting. I wishlisted it and may be checking out the demo.

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

Thank you, I appreciate the support but please - and I cannot stress this enough - do not use the ingame demo feedback form to submit help requests about your vpn connection

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beatenmeat@reddit

I have to ask: did you help them?

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Ayeohx@reddit

My VPN is fine. However, Windows 11 keeps giving me a Stop x0A code. Don't worry though, I know the proper way to submit a ticket to you.

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herrmanmerrman@reddit

And they included a realistic lack of details or screenshots, so the only info you have to go off of is it seems like a VPN issue to a user lmao

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

to be absolutely fair the ingame demo feedback form is not in any, way shape or form conducive to send any kind of help request and I am almost impressed that this person thought to do so

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dustojnikhummer@reddit

The Feedback prompt should look like a ticket lol

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

It literally kind of does.

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dustojnikhummer@reddit

In that case I think you should include a warning "This message will be posted into a public discord channel". You already have one instance of someone sharing their personal data. But yeah, it is still funny lol.

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Iskelderon@reddit

Supporting users is already hell, you'd just be changing the desktop theme.

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shadnat@reddit

Could have least provided their vpn client info.. not much to go on is it palto?...

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L4rgo117@reddit

Behold, you've come full circle

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federicoaa@reddit

Open your window and look outside, maybe you are in hell and didn't realize

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zikktle@reddit

The fact that I didn't see this demo and found it here of all places has me sprinting to get it. I have to give that user credit for submitting a ticket in multiple somewheres LOL. Better than my 5:30 PM call on a Friday for troubleshooting something that was not urgent (I didn't get a ticket - just a frantic call from another IT team that should have known better). Tech on Tech Crime tbh.

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way22@reddit

I've been following your posts and played the demo.

However, this is absolute peak comedy, 10/10. My stomach hurts now

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emi98338@reddit

I hope to see this game in a r/jacksepticeye video someday lol this is hilarious

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JNSapakoh@reddit

As a tech support worker in a cursed office, I will be installing your demo when I get home

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

You have the best flair man - thanks for trying out the demo! If you have a minute be sure to fill out the feedback form but please for the love of god do not put in your real life email and ask me about computer stuff

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JNSapakoh@reddit

Ok, but before I go I just need to fix this production printer. You wouldn't happen to know anything about Ricoh would you?

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

I have been advised not to answer this

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alwaysaboutthebutt@reddit

Did you call the number?

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

it was an email - truth be told I can't even recall what it was, I hurriedly deleted the post off of discord and replaced it with the screenshot above after somebody smarter than me reminded me that it's probably not a great idea to have people's email addresses floating around.

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dustojnikhummer@reddit

Wait the guy really submitted his work email? I guess you should have a 4th wall break warning about the feedback being public.

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UristImiknorris@reddit

So you're definitely adding a ticket about one of your eldritch company's clients being unable to access their own systems, right?

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Tchrspest@reddit

hilarious and wishlisted <3

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kimjongunderdog@reddit

IF you build it, they will come.

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strugglz@reddit

The real question is, were you able to help solve his issue?

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AlexisFR@reddit

Hello, their VPN account password, or domain joined account is expired, there is nothing an external tech can do!

Regards,

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GLACIERXKYLE@reddit

Ultimate Flattery Trophy Acquired!!! 🏆🏆🏆🏆

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WildMartin429@reddit

At least the user knows they're being ridiculous they're just desperate at this point. I can't imagine an it department being unable to talk to this guy for 3 days. We had to respond to all tickets same day. Usually it was the customer that wouldn't answer the phone though.

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_NormalHumanStuff@reddit

Downloading the demo on Steam now and definitely trying this!

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Tas42@reddit

Include something about how half of the tickets would not exist if people simply read and followed instructions. I do tech support for students at a tech college. Some of them need me to hold their hand through everything.

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bookseer@reddit

The only answer is to lean in even harder. What would your characters do? Would they barge into IT and start singing (badly) until the problem was resolved? Recommend that.

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Naive_Special349@reddit

Pls tell me you did not reply to that.

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ZirePhiinix@reddit

Real tickets in a simulation. It has gone full circle.

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FunnyAnchor123@reddit

Did you include the double set of documentation? One that contains all of the information & is kept up to date— usually in the form of tribal knowledge — & is available to a clique of the support staff; the second is the one the rest of the group is told to consult, which is incomplete & out of date?

No, I never worked in a group that had two sets of documentation. Every group I worked in was team-oriented, no politics were ever an issue, & everyone supported each other while singing kumbaya.

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trro16p@reddit

something you should add to the demo.

Have a random closet full of keyboards.

Or have a user who thinks they know what they are doing named Ian.

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lord_teaspoon@reddit

None of the keyboards have keys, right?

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rezwrrd@reddit

They're all inexplicably missing one of the little feet on the bottom.

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lord_teaspoon@reddit

They wobble/rock slightly with every keypress, don't they? I only imagined it briefly and it ruined my whole day. You magnificent bastard.

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endiqua@reddit

Or there are some that have keys, but at least one key that doesn’t work. And it will never be an obvious one.

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Ayeohx@reddit

Every 5th one is broken because the other jackasses that you work with keep tossing them in there.

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Ayeohx@reddit

Don't forget about the Cordian Knot of miscellaneous cables.

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According_Ad1940@reddit

This is the reason the IT department hates users

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TechinBellevue@reddit

Love this so much :)

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Internal-Fan-2434@reddit

Real immersion is responding ingame to the ticket with a live link to this Reddit thread.

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

Mind... blown

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Internal-Fan-2434@reddit

If you do do it, stick a credit in for me as soon as e Reddit user.

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Geminii27@reddit

"Rule 1: It's always hell."

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AdreKiseque@reddit

It's especially weird that they were very much aware it was a game feedback form but still decided to go for it

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BlueJaysFeather@reddit

Oh god. That’s hysterical. I’m not sure whether to congratulate you on making a game so immersive it’s attracting real tech support issues or to offer my condolences…

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Maximum_Overdrive@reddit

Was this game inspired by BOFH?

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

No - what is BOFH? Mostly it's inspired by a career in it, Welcome to nightvale, Severance and Reigns :)

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Cyberprog@reddit

The Bastard Operator From Hell. Google it and you'll find the archives and then look on El Reg for the more modern stuff.

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Maximum_Overdrive@reddit

Younglings. Thank you.

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Cyberprog@reddit

Indeed. Tis good humour. I personally subscribe to the brick under the table method of supplier negotiation.

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goretsky@reddit

Hello,

Welcome. There is no escape.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

Ah,yes,

You miss 100% of the tickets you don't send. Wayne Gretzky

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Professional-Emu7786@reddit

How is someone not associated with the company going to fix an 'authentication failed' message? Oh yeah, just hold down the SHIFT and CTRL keys while simultaneously processing A and F. Do that twice in a row. Now run around the outside of your house. Wait, is today's date divisible by two? If it is then prepare a sacrifice...

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rezwrrd@reddit

Try pressing alt-F4 to make the computer go faster. Problem solved!

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BrokenFerrariFan@reddit

You did it. You became the real life protagonist from your game. I don't know what it earns you but you should get something for this amazing feat.

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

I'd settle for not having to do vpn stuff in my spare time haha

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Euphoric-Series-1194@reddit (OP)

they would've probably enjoyed it that 10% more if their VPN had been up and running I guess