What took so long?

[MarkG]

sir ralph, jeff is not a pr manager, he is a producer

and if reality pisses you off, i'm sorry, but we live in a capatilistic where companies make games and where the best way to show your disatisfaction of a company's product is to not buy any more products from that company. that's all there is to it

[Harovan]

Sorry about my ignorance about the positions of the Firaxians, I didn't want to disrate anyone, but...

I have worked as office manager before in a company with a staff similar to Firaxis. My job was to work with customers. Not my strength, I admit. But if I ever said to a customer, "we basically produce what we want and if you don't like it, just don't buy it; thanks for your pay check though" (my translation), I would have gotten fired instantly.

[MarkG]

my translation

exactly that. that is your translation. and i'm sorry to say it, but it is a bad one cause that's not at all what jeff meant

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by MarkG

my translation

exactly that. that is your translation. and i'm sorry to say it, but it is a bad one cause that's not at all what jeff meant

And if it WAS what he meant, he'd have said it so we couldn't figure that out.

[MarkG]

yeah, with dan we're puting together a package, to offer companies a developerspeak-to-english translation service

btw, last night was the result of our special free-beers-with-use-of-chat-room offer to game companies. worked, huh?

[MrWhereItsAt]

at Mark.

Nice.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by MarkG
yeah, with dan we're puting together a package, to offer companies a developerspeak-to-english translation service

Good service

What will "no comment" be translated with?

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph

What will "no comment" be translated with?

Wait for the patch.

[Scouse Gits]

Originally posted by Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS
Guys, ... The only real power you have as consumers is to either buy or not buy the game. A 'dear john' mumble here just can't compete with the ‘love letter’ you wrote to us in our royalty checks.

Jeff

Sorry, but semantic analysis is one of my professional skills and the above does seem to be fairly closely equivalent to ...

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
we basically produce what we want and if you don't like it, just don't buy it; thanks for your pay check though

certainly sufficiently close to make your attack look strangely partisan, Markos.

Personally I could not care less - Civ III was IMHO a cynical rip-off and I have taken my bat and ball (read wallet) and gone home.

SG[1]

[MarkG]

perhaps your personal opinion on civ3 messes up your professional skills SG[1]

btw, what attack? i dont think sir ralph felt attacked by my posts...

[Gramphos]

The power you have is to buy or not to buy. However, your opinion on the game might have impact on others. You can probably make a friend to think that a game, of which he knows nothing about, is good, and you can also make him think it is bad. All you have to do is to convince him that you know what you are talking about.

However, on this site most people already have their opinion, and it is mush harder to change an opinion then it is to create a new opinion. The result of trying to affect people with a strong opinion of something can either be that you make them move slightly towards your opinion, or that they think your opinion is so wrong that they will get more stuck to their own. Whatever the case is the effect is small.

Also a company can't create a game as one person wants it. They need to make it in a way that as many people as possible are willing to pay for it.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by MarkG
btw, what attack? i dont think sir ralph felt attacked by my posts...

No, of course. And I appreciate the possibility to say my opinion and respect the opinion of others, as long as they are posted in a civilized way. I also meant no offense to Mr. Morris, I just expressed my displeasure with his mentioned statement. Reading this thread, I can see, that it scored not very high in both camps, "critics" as well as "fanboys".

[TCO]

Originally posted by MarkG

You're supposed to be here being pleasant to us giving us reassurance about the people behind the product.

and i thought developers' job was to.... develop. i now realize their actual job is babysitting fans

Right on Markos. Everybodys says they hate hype and bull. But when they get a straight answer they acted like scared little kittens. And than...to start whining about PR... (The whole "Yin concept" of craving recongnition and hand-holding from the gamning companies.) Oh...gosh the company said something mean to ME! I'm gonna cry and not buy their product! And throw my rattle! BLAAAAA! GRRRR!

[TCO]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph


I'm usually not among of those, who rant at Firaxis, but this one has p*ssed me royally. What a PR disaster! Comes right next to the way Infogrames acts. While I highly appreciate Sorens and Mikes work, I am shocked about this arrogant way to deal with customers. And yes, I will try to show my displeasure in the way Mr. Morris obviously appreciates.

And Mark: No, the developers should not be babysitting fans. But their PR manager also should not try to p*ss them off.

Oh....geez. Argue about the package not the wrapper. (Think about it...)

[TCO]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
Sorry about my ignorance about the positions of the Firaxians, I didn't want to disrate anyone, but...

I have worked as office manager before in a company with a staff similar to Firaxis. My job was to work with customers. Not my strength, I admit. But if I ever said to a customer, "we basically produce what we want and if you don't like it, just don't buy it; thanks for your pay check though" (my translation), I would have gotten fired instantly.

Get off the high horse. Who cares if he does feel that way. The key issue is how good a job he does at making games. Playing PR mommie to sensativfe types is a waste of his energy. Developers should concentrate on their craft...not on making you feel "loved"...

Lots of companies can occasionally benefit from concentrating on production work and not on appeasing hard-to-please customers...

What really pisses you off is that Jeff had the balls to tell the truth...