go1dfish
   |
Posted - 2010.08.18 21:13:00 -
[1]
Wow I am touched and deeply appreciative of your generous gift. But sad to see a great player leave. The PLEX will be very helpful as I have an account coming due in a couple of days.
I don't fly much myself (starting to a bit more though), so the items would be better served to distribute amongst your corp/our alliance as you or someone else sees fit. I'll take any unique shuttles/ships you have for my collection though =)
I agree completely with your sentiment towards CCP. I am a developer myself (python even, but not for CCP of course) and know firsthand the type of situation like what we see currently coming out of CCP.
There is some truth in the fact that polished quality doesn't sell. The problem that the marketing types and suits tend to overlook is that polished quality is what *RETAINS* customers. Now initial sales and user counts are great. But if you are selling a monthly service, I'd argue that retaining customers is much more important than seeking new ones. Especially so when features of the service itself rely on/require the existence of longtime subscribers (due to the way skill training works).
Software development is *hard* and feature-creep is a real problem. Doubly so in a game, espescially a MMO more features are very attractive. The depth of EVE is one of the main reasons I've recently started playing, but depth easily becomes meaningless when things stop working right.
I plan to throw as little as my own money at CCP as possible, for the same reasons, but I realize of course, that leaving fully is the only true way to speak strongly on such an issue.
--- Start of Rant ---
I'm going to speak for all the developers inside CCP (hopefully) begging and pleading the quality case to their managers.
Managers:
Play the ****ing game, if you aren't playing the game, and/or CCP isn't encouraging/paying you to play the ****ing game, something is horribly horribly wrong and nothing good can come of it.
**** Dust. Let the developers refactor the crufty code eve that seems like an insurmountable task now, because it only gets bigger the more you tack on. Your customers and wallet will thank you over time.
Ask your developers what new shiny features you can get in the process of fixing bugs (yes, sometimes features can come for free, or nearly so).
Do your developers get a share of the crazy sales you expect/hope from dust, and the other goose chases you lead them on?
If they don't, don't you think they should?
If they do, don't you think their interests are aligned with yours, and that they are providing just as equally a valid perspective on their knowledge base as you are of yours?
Now to the developers themselves.
Developers:
Play the ****ing game, if you aren't playing the game, and/or CCP isn't encouraging/paying you to play the ****ing game, something is horribly horribly wrong and nothing good can come of it.
The trick to getting to the fixes that you want, that the managers wont go for is to do it as a part of new feature development.
This is not to say that you just lie and make more work for yourself. This means that you find a way to build a new feature that improves the overall whole. A similar tactic, is you have to play up the new features that come for free (or easily) from structural improvements to problem areas.
You have to realize that marketing doesn't understand how development works whatsoever. It's not even just the fact that they think development is like building a house, it's that they think building a skysc****r is like building a house with more stories.
--- End of Rant ---
Thanks again Clovermite. Walk safe.
|