Gner Dechast
Gallente
Flashman Services
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Posted - 2007.12.13 02:57:00 -
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I would have tons to write about this subject, but I will suffice to say that I am worried how devs in the FanFest were painting dreamy pictures of the future - that's pretty much all that was talked not including current game economics...
I fear that CCP are becoming oblivious to the fact that their future is paid NOW, by customers that play the game NOW and based on their consumer experience make the decisions to subscribe NOW.
I am not ranting for flawless game, but I am believer of certain level of user acceptance that has to be retained inorder not to hurt revenue and more importantly the reputation (word of mouth) that goes around far and wide (as well as game magazine/site articles to a degree as well).
Mind boggling incident like the boot.ini hurt the reputation and traveled rather and louder than the knowledge that CCP did set up help desks to call into to get help... damage control doesn't repair PR damages usually, and PR campaigning after an incident usually has negative impact looking like desperate smokescreen attempt (fortunately haven't seen CCP get into that ever).
But the same applies to an extent to the quality of releases  QA has failed miserably, customers are annoyed, there are virtually no communications to the community to inform of order of priority, progress or even if most of the protested matters are acknowledged. Has Kieron burned out? Was the lesson learned last year already forgotten about community relations? Does anyone remember the dev blog where the new QA manager introduced himself? What does he has to say? Why haven't we heard a peep from him since that blog?
All those questions are still tertiary to the one, will anything be learned this time around? Is being late really worse than annoying thousands of players over their christmas holidays when they have more time to play? Does this kind of release not bind devs into work instead of them spending holidays as much as possible with their loved ones - and if it doesn't are you aware it sounds like "dump it out and let them sweat with it until we get back to work after holidays"? (you can't answer satisfactorily to that question, which should suggest to you that this release schedule makes no sense)
meh, still long post 
In short, better quality, happier customers
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