Thanks for your input Kawaiku, and duly noted.
My interest with BFC and the new CMx2 Normandy is more "Puck-ish" than anything... I from time to time post deliberately juicy and asinine little threads with cool names to attract everyone in to look at it, and then wind up the BFC bashing brigade.
It's a cruel thing to do, but I am a shallow, bored man with little else to amuse myself at the moment. Please hold your scorn/sympathy for later though:
I am NOT a detractor of BFC, and while I choose the option of being a bit playful and mischevious on these boards to stir up the dust every now and then, I support BFC and very much wish for them to be successful. That being said, it has already been pointed out that gamers like us, are a very very very very minute and perfunctory concern for BFC, and this has often been stated with great derision by the staff and hangers on of the staff at BFC.
I also see their point of view: you can't please everyone... and their disaffection with a certain group of gamers is perhaps easily explainable, yet on a branding/marketing/PR axis, extremely disappointing at times, and bereft of any real rationale other than frustration, impatience and personal bias.
I think everyone here would love to see a working Cmx2 and play it and enjoy it. But you see, there is a rift if you will, in time and space, that allows BFC to continue on its path in an often bellicose and ascerbic manner that some people just do not pander to, and thus turn them off, or make them disgruntled and post their frustrations, wants, and advice for BFC here... out of the LOS of fire so to say.
As a guy who teaches business strategy for a living, especially in the high tech/innovation areas where software is such a big sector, I understand that the dilemnas faced by BFC are wholly representative of the sector: one case in point, software companies OFTEN release buggy and incomplete programs to their customers, as it is a great way for them to generate cash flow to keep the fires burning, and to have mass testing and feedback in order to improve the game (and with many programs, this customer relationship after release DOES bring value to both customer and company, and a better game or software is produced... but in mass consumer markets, these relationship are not easily controlled or communicated and thus must be treated extremely carefully by the releasing company). But the strategies and models differ. For instance, BFC was very candid about the buggy state that they released the game CMSF in, stating after (long after) its release, that they knew it but had no choice but to run with it.
Some people would say that this is a bad marketing and branding move, and it HAS frustrated a lot of people. If they would have come out and released it as a "demo" game, I doubt a lot of people would have paid for it. So their are some ethical concerns to raise, and perhaps rightly so, no matter what the true position of BFC was at the time, or even if they had a position.
This lack of communication, or obfuscation of it, has been part of the business model for some time now... I would state that the bubble went up shortly after CMBO and they have been on the defensive ever since.
Only a trusted group of people who are "yes men" in public, but may actual defray and criticize in private are on the team, and the feedback received on the website is not really even a minor source of their game design activities.
Other companies (matrix comes to mind, and is bandied about but there are others) play in the same sandbox, with the same pissy grogs, twitchers and serious hardcore gamers, and do a better job with the "image and feedback" area of their companies, and thus have greater success, or at least perceived greater success than BFC.
Personally, I am looking for an era that sees the softening of the
- "you don't get it",
- "your opinion is worthless"
- "tow the line or eat the dime"
- "you don't likey da game... hmmm... I KEEEL YOU!"
smug rhetoric that often accompanies the chatter on the web community pages at BFC. But hey, listen, they are sticking to their business model, battle plan, and feel that they can systematically cauterize a swollen few hundred to thousand gamers (but perhaps only dozens or so true posters) that are naysayers/criticizers, frustrated wish listers, and open toed gumboot useful dissenters.
It is their game and their business model.
Most of the people here wish to discuss the new game, and perhaps even the business model and actions of BFC and the community as open points of frustration.
Sure, it would be nice if everyone could just... get along. But it ain't gonna happen I suspect.
So posting of this nature will continue into the foreseeable future (avec continuing satire and hyperbole, I suspect), and I would wager, well after the release of CMx2 Normandy... that will most likely be delivered on a plate of pay for it now, we'll fix it later philosophy (they are a small shop, so this is a valid tactic). At the end of the day, I think most of us would be happy if they came out and stated their intentions as best as they could along the way and gave us as much information as possible, whether or not they act on any feedback.
You may now activate scorn/sympathy for Leto mode. I know almost everyone else does at this point.
*please now play "Sympathy for the Devil", by the Rolling Stones as end credits music... it is now an anthem that you should all automatically play in your minds each time you finish reading one of my posts.
So if you meet me
Feel free to have no courtesy
No sympathy, or no taste
Don't use all your well-learned politesse
Or Ill lay your message board... to waste, um yeah
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, (It's Leto btw) um yeah
But whats puzzling you
Is the nature of my arseholish game, um mean it, get down
Woo, who
Oh yeah, get on down
Oh yeah
Oh yeah!
Tell me baby, whats my name
Tell me honey, can ya guess my name
Tell me baby, CALL ME names
I tell you one time, I'M ALWAYS to BLAME (yeah blame, Leto... get down!)
Ooo, who
Ooo, who
Ooo, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Cheers!
Leto