On another Thread (before it was locked) frogboy said:
“I realize some people find it hard to believe but game stability was not something we believed was going to be an issue when the game came out. People just seem unable or unwilling to accept that the PC ecosystem of 2010 is a very different animal than it was even 5 years ago when it was all 32-bit Windows XP boxes running either ATI or nVidia with each having a fairly unified driver package.
I look at the check-ins every day and nearly every "bug fix" that addresses a crash is related to working around some API in some video card/OS/driver combo. The Alt-Tab crash issue is the poster child of this. Am I the only one who finds it ridiculous that in 2010 that it should require hundreds of engineering hours to make a video game Alt-Esc successfully on every system? This is why games are migrating to consoles and other platforms. Most companies don't have the budget or justification to spend the necessary resources to create a big brand new IP for the PC.
Just something to observe next time you're a the store noticing that every major PC game coming out this Christmas season is either A: A sequel or B: a FPS using a licensed 3D engine (or both).
I agree, games shouldn't crash. It's unacceptable. But it's also important to understand the underlying causes of them and not just assume it's due to corporate greed or incompetence.“
This makes me very sympathetic. Clearly they are upset, and disappointed with what’s happened. Yet the facts remains they have taken money of their customers for a product that does not work as it should. The result has been dire reviews and angry fans. I’m not speaking from a lack of experience. I myself set up my own business years ago and found that keeping customers happy is tortuous work. Even when it’s not your fault it’s still your fault.
I don’t want to go there again, I hear what frogboy is saying, about the seaming impossibility of getting software to work on endless complexity. So instead I offer what I hope is a helpful suggestion. You need to change the model. Clearly, for a company of your size having a launch date where your game is offered up on mass to anyone and everyone is no longer viable, especially when that includes review sites. Moreover, beta clearly did not work either. Perhaps the creation of ‘Stardock private members club’ a few thousand members, maybe invitee only, maybe some token subscription, but a limited group that the game can be sold to (it must be bought, people need to be annoyed if it doesn’t work) who can get a bit of a discount and play the game earlier by 6 months so.
I don’t know if that is the answer, I do know however, that Stardock cannot operate on the major publishing houses terms, they need to find a way of trickling their products out. Given the fan-base they engender there must be new model they can adopt.
This was also a comment that I also saw that I could not agree with:
“We are already doing everything we are capable of doing to satisfy customers. And no, you don't have the right to bitch on our forums. Take it elsewhere. We are painfully aware of the things that need to be addressed.”
While again I am very sympathetic to the obvious anguish, and I do genuinely believe the sense of painful frustration I’m sorry but be thankful your paying customers are complaining to you. Their money is current sat in a Stardock bank account, they have ample right to bitch unfortunately. It’s when they don’t bother complaining that it is fatal. Spamming lock-thread will only serve to heighten alienation.
