Caleb Paine
Infinite Technologies
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Posted - 2006.08.30 12:47:00 -
[1]
Edited by: Caleb Paine on 30/08/2006 12:48:49
I'm normally not someone who cries foul all the time or starts whining when he feels things might change for the worse but this whole thing... I dunno... I have faith the in the effort and honest intent of CCP staff but I'm not blind to what has been happening.
I can understand that with the whole increased workload due to the new China server (you can't tell me it did not increase the pressure on CCP one bit), server upgrades, new patches, a fekking HUGE backlog on petitions (although that's not neccesarily CCP's fault, idiots will petition anything), the whole Kali thing, fanfests, EVE-TV and the huge increase in playerbase and all the problems stemming from that things are kinda hectic atm.
Ofcourse one of the problems comes from the phased introduction of Kali, they HAD to move to the new code BUT not everything is ready for the next step. This means that when problems arise from that code they can't just mend it easily, they're using a roadmap and that roadmap just doesn't allow for serious mishaps, that's inherit to a phased long term introduction, might sound illogical but think of it as chaos theory; one little thing goes wrong somewhere at the start and that creates a whole crapload of problems later on. You can't just simply change stuff but you have to wait for the next step to happen because it might hold the solution for the imminent problems. That's why you see the "small fix which will be followed by an actual fix at a later date" thing.
I envision CCP staff frantically trying to run from problem to problem to try and keep their attention on what's important, doing their best but not quite making it. I read on the fact that they're hiring more people atm and that can only be a good thing. It's like being in an ER and they're doing their best to keep a fataly wounded patient alive, but atm it seems like they're using chainsaws to try and operate on the patient hoping to save his leg while they fail to acknowledge more dangerous problems like an imminent heart failure.
I can't look into how CCP are doing things and what effort they put in (I KNOW they put in tons of effort, I just don't know if it's focussed effort atm) so it's a bit easy for anyone to comment on it but what I DO know that any business in such a situation needs a firm hand, harsh but thought out decisions and a clear view of where they need to go. To me, the best thing right now is for the senior manager to step up and just put things straight.
- Just put everything not directly related to the game itself in the freezer, don't implement any new steps until you're back on track (contracts and all that, great stuff but right now it's NOT what the game needs atm).
- On the whole petition thing; It's not something that will go away, if you allow for people to petition the wierdest stuff they WILL make use of it. Best thing IMO; Just make it official that ANY and ALL shiploss petitions will not be handled at all and will even be removed. All petitions involving ingame scamming (non GTC/account) will be removed. Put up a point system where anyone filing a number of petitions that are removed due to those reasons will result is some action. Not sure what but that might keep people from petitioning crap stuff.
- Stop the trial accounts for a while, it won't hurt your wallet a whole lot and one thing that EVE doesn't need atm is more players.
Harsh decisions... yes, will you meet opposition to them... hell yes! BUT it's a clear statement and it frees up manhours for things that are a problem RIGHT NOW. I'd rather have those harsh decisions and feel the pain of those for a little while BUT at the same time having a more focussed CCP staff working on REAL problems.
Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back. |