Curzon Dax
Caldari
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Posted - 2006.09.12 16:06:00 -
[1]
Let me preface with this:
First, I'm not a "fanboy." I've largely kept away from the forums.
Second, all of you whiners REALLY need to read the dev blog. I've seen a lot of posts on this thread that "the devs owe us a response!" Well, if you were to read the dev blog, there IS your response. They said that they read the forums, they have no doubt read this one, but if they spent their time answering the duplicitous requests of players, they would simply have no time to actually get any work done. Very occasionally they post, but that's it. In fact, the dev blog even worked out the proportion of time spent on the forums to the rest of their working day. I think it was about an hour of forum time?
Third, I keep seeing "Fix content before creating new content!" How many times do the devs have to say that those are COMPLETELY and SEPARATE teams? There is no link between the content developers and the bug fixers; it wouldn't do any good to stop content development to bug fix.
Fourth, that's my point for CCP, should anyone read this. There's an inherent problem in your approach to content development. The very fact that you DO have separate teams. Your right hand is making plans for the left hand to execute without communicating intent back and forth. For all we know, your bug-fixing team is paying off your content development team to continue creating crappy code so they stay in a job. The folks posting here are right, even if they communicate it wrong.
Yes, we get that you have different teams for content and bug-fixing. The problem is simple:
The content team is creating and implementing erroneous code proportionally faster than the bug-team can fix them.
Hence, problems are increasingly cropping up. It is *not* business-savvy to have two independent departments working on the same end-product.
The solution: Tell the content coders to shape up or ship out. Delivering a sub-standard product is simply unacceptable. Alternatively, take them off of content development and MERGE TEAMS. Yeah, we get it. You have different teams. However, the point "Fix what we have before you implement new stuff" is a valid point, even if you don't agree with its presentation.
When months and years old issues get fixed.when mechanics work as intended.when I can count on the game doing what its supposed to do.THEN turn around and surprise us with new material. Take an example from WoW. Or EQ2. Or any other MMO.
What part of the game works the best? The low end stuff, and the server itself. High end content is always going to be buggy and in development, but the percentage of players "playing and testing it" will always be a minority. What NEEDS to work is basic mechanics. Potential customers show up to the game, take a peek around, get a feel for the basics, meet their first player contacts, do a couple missions, make some ISK, and decide whether to upgrade to a real account. They MUST have a good playing experience to stay. Right now, they are logging into loading screens, getting stuck, seeing local full of angry lagfest talk, and promptly uninstalling Eve. We NEED them. Who cares if 5 years down the road they scream and gripe that their Tech2 Titan turns like a fat cow and can't insta-warp to blah blah. You've got them hooked after that kind of investment. You need BASIC serviceability to grab and hold new people's attention.
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