I want more of this kind of thing in my customer relations...

[The Coil]

I think if BF dealt with more criticisms in the manner Kwazydog in this thread...

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=97696&page=2

...they'd have a lot less annoyed customers. Just a simple "Yep, we wish it was better, too. We're going to try to make it better."

Didn't ridicule anyone, or tell them the UI actually was better than CMx1's, or whatever else. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

[BlitzCanuck]

yeah, more Kwazydog and less Steve would be a winning formula.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I have said here for years that Kwazydog is the absolute best one on that forum as far as being a gentleman and outstanding ambassador for that company. Without fail.

 

[British Tommy]

He gets my vote as well.

 

[thewood]

Steve could save himself a lot of time and his customers a lot of aggravation if he posted more like Kdog. In fact, in that very same thread later on, Steve manages to insult some customers with some valid suggestions and criticisms.

 

[Tanker]

Yeah, they should take Steve's KB away.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Steve could save himself a lot of time and his customers a lot of aggravation if he posted more like Kdog. In fact, in that very same thread later on, Steve manages to insult some customers with some valid suggestions and criticisms.

Just read through the entire thread, having a day at home sick. Unbelievable. I like where the doctor calls Steve on his shouting obscenities onto the forum, and suggests he takes a day off.

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1275471&postcount=58

As a physician, I find that patients have the same groundless worries and suggestions time after time. But I don't express my frustrations to them (and try not to vent on my family.....I....kill things in CM2). The last sentence I am quoting above sounds as though someone should take a few days off.

 

[thewood]

The part I love is beta brigaders piling on about how hard BFC works to give us a game. I mean come on, I think a lot of us work long hours and weekends in our jobs. We pay BFC money; it's not like they are doing this for free.

 

[The Coil]

Before I got bored and stopped reading the rest of that thread, Steve's argument seemed to be:

1) The UI isn't perfect, although it is not imperfect in any specific way that he has mentioned
2) All the suggestions made by "the customers" are dumb and wouldn't be workable
3) We've already thought the UI through a lot with our super game-designer minds and anything anyone thinks is wrong with it is in fact a feature that you'd cry about if it wasn't there
4) Anyway, we've already redesigned the UI incorporating many of the features the customers have been suggesting

I'm just a customer, but it seems to me that those 4 points don't all go together.

 

[Tanker]

Just read through the entire thread, having a day at home sick. Unbelievable. I like where the doctor calls Steve on his shouting obscenities onto the forum, and suggests he takes a day off.

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1275471&postcount=58

That was a choice one.

 

[[hirr]Leto]

Yikes. I am actually going to use this in my small business courses as "what not to do" with respect to marketing, customer relations and incorporating customer feedback into your product.

Seriously. I am. It has that many learning points to it.

Cheers!

Leto

 

[Jeph]

3) We've already thought the UI through a lot with our super game-designer minds and anything anyone thinks is wrong with it is in fact a feature that you'd cry about if it wasn't there

lol

4567

 

[Patrocles]

yeah, more Kwazydog and less Steve would be a winning formula.

+1

such a style of reply puts BFC above the the fray, so to speak, compared to when Steve and the beta-testers mock and ridicule legit and whiney complaints. (imho,ymmv)

 

[junk2drive]

It's been hard to keep up with the forum over there so I stick to a couple of threads, one by gautrek and one by Steiner14 about the UI. McAulliffe and a few other names from the past have chimed in about the dislike for the UI. The CMSF crowd (joined in 2007 or later) poo poos WEGO and target lines and command lines and anything else. Confusion is part of war is the mantra.

I had to copy and paste part of one of Steve's replies. Sig material in here. The first line.

Enjoyable or not, that's a different issue and it must be remembered that very few people out there enjoy anything we make.

Now for the last one...

That's right... URC caught me. I'm lying. The 8x8m Action Spot grid is nothing but a scam. It offers no advantages over the CMx1 20x20m grid. In fact, it is worse because the CMx1 20x20m grid was superior because you could click your mouse on any pixel you wanted. All my energies in trying to convince him of the contrary were far easier to do than admit the truth... CMx2 is built on a lie, a scam, a complete false foundation that was intended to deceive and harm the CMx1 faithful.

And it should be evident to all that this is the case, that I'm lying. Because it OBVIOUSLY couldn't be that URC is not understanding the explanations. Lord no... that's an impossible situation to even contemplate. I mean, an end user not understanding the game mechanics, even when painfully explained to him in great detail by one of the two guys who built BOTH systems? No way, never could happen. Ergo, I'm a liar and URC is the truth sayer.

(obviously I've given up trying to explain the same thing 101 different ways and still have it ricochet off URC's head).

Steve

 

[thewood]

Oh brother...Steve really needs to stop posting...hey maybe Elvis can start a thread on that too.

 

[British Tommy]

I'm not shocked by this out burst from the Battlefront PR man. I think a lot of people have grown used to his sarcastic and rude comments. May be Leto could also add this rant to his training course?
Steve just doesn't get it. The customers are not all the same. We don't ask all the same questions and yes, some of them are stupid but you don't humiliate them on the company message board. No doubt (I can't be arsed to read the thread) the fan boyz and some beta testers are jumping in and tearing into this guy.
Bloody shame really, Battlefront could be a good company if Steve learned to shut his mouth.

 

[Geordie]

Ive long said that while interaction with its customers is fine, they should get a couple of Moderators on the Forum, Im not sure they would last long trying to Moderate Steve though!

 

[CMantics]

British Tommy

While I agree that Steve can be a bit 'over the top' with his responses from time to time, I suspect that the guy was severly traumatised by the uproar that preceded and followed the release of CMSF. I genuinely believe that BFC nearly folded after the release of CMSF but that there were just enough new customers that came onboard to prop them up while they fixed the game and get the first module out. Whatever you may have thought of CMSF, those guys poured a lot of their time and energy and love into that project. They all have families and obviously enjoy the independence that running their own company gives them. They took an enormous risk with all that and kudos to them for pulling it off. That took BALLS! I suspect the intolerance that is sometimes on display there is the price we have to pay for the totally unnecessary bashing folks gave him for trying to do something different from what they wanted.

And you don't really want the guy to stop posting, do you? Rude or not, I prefer to be able to have some interaction with the developers and would feel the loss were he to refrain from posting.

 

[Caractacus]

British Tommy

While I agree that Steve can be a bit 'over the top' with his responses from time to time, I suspect that the guy was severly traumatised by the uproar that preceded and followed the release of CMSF. I genuinely believe that BFC nearly folded after the release of CMSF but that there were just enough new customers that came onboard to prop them up while they fixed the game and get the first module out. Whatever you may have thought of CMSF, those guys poured a lot of their time and energy and love into that project. They all have families and obviously enjoy the independence that running their own company gives them. They took an enormous risk with all that and kudos to them for pulling it off. That took BALLS! I suspect the intolerance that is sometimes on display there is the price we have to pay for the totally unnecessary bashing folks gave him for trying to do something different from what they wanted.

And you don't really want the guy to stop posting, do you? Rude or not, I prefer to be able to have some interaction with the developers and would feel the loss were he to refrain from posting.

BFC made a conscious decision to go after a military contract and to assume that their regular customers/muppets would keep the wolf from the door while they did so. It wasn't all an accident. Steve peddles the 'martyr-to-the-cause' line every chance he gets, but it wasn't energy or love, it was hubris and the search for the big-bucks that led them down the CMSF path. If you think their plan deserved 'kudos', and took 'balls', then that's up to you. Personally I think it took 'arrogance' and deserved 'disdain'.

I suspect that very few people have 'bashed' them for trying to do something different to what they wanted. No rational person would think that they can dictate what a games company decides to make. The 'bashing' began when they dropped the massive steaming **** that was CMSF onto the market. An unfinished, morally dubious, and over-hyped Iraq simulator that was panned at release by customers and reviewers. The next wave of 'bashing' occurred when BFC stood by that steaming **** for several years, pointing at it, and insisting that it was a work of genius that everyone 'just didn't get'.

And yes, it would be great if Steve stopped posting, both for his company and for his customers. If he also called off his rabid Beta brigade while he was at it and allowed his customers to talk freely then BFC's reputation could only rise.

 

[thewood]

Not many were bashing him taking a chance with CMSF. He got bashed because of his reaction to how people reacted to CMSF...I still say if had done a nice sensible mea culpa, he would have actually garnered some support. Instead, he might nearly have driven BFC out of business.

He still falls into that mode of denigrating people for little reason. I cringe whenever someone starts a thread about something missing in CM2 from CM1. I know Steve or some lakey of his will eventually show up to completely derail any discussion.