RitingFool
05-31-2005, 06:41 PM
I received two responses to my letter regarding the industry-wide policy of "release now, patch later.
The first was from Blizzard. I think the responder might have been confused, in that she thought my letter was specifically about World of Warcraft. She spent about a page and a half on how complicated and in-depth WOW is, and how bugs will surely pop up, both in intial release and as more players join the world. The most relevant section with regard to my letter is this paragraph:
"Prior to releasing World of Warcraft, we did extensive testing. During our beta testing phases, we received feedback from multiple public testers that World of Warcraft was a more complete game than other companies games were when they were released. As you have mentioned in your letter, any game is bound to have bugs. As more players join the game, there are more possibilities for bugs to be found. We do attempt to resolve all bugs as they are found."
The second letter was from Activision, which is both more on point, and more in line with my "industry-wide" concept. Here is the letter in its entirety (except for the "thank you" closing paragraph):
"Thank you for your interest and support of Activision products. Our gola is to achieve complete satisfaction among our customers and we appreciated your effort to communicate with us.
With respect to your inquiry, your voice has been heard. I do indeed understand exactly what you are saying. I also took the time to stop by the website and check things out for myself. I too am an avid gamer and can honestly see exactly what you mean by the statement, 'Release now, Patch later'. And it does happen. Speaking of games, gaming platforms, even food ideas for that matter, I feel many times "We the people" are indeed subject to exposing the flaws and/or corrections that will improve the product. Believe me when I tell you that the titles we work on at Activision, Inc., are put through rigorous testing, to ensure the quality of the game for the people prior to the release date. Hopefully we can continue to do this and keep our customers happy. The difference between the PC and console versions of games is the fact that you can patch problems after the initial release of the game. I understand and agree that releasing a game with KNOWN issues is unacceptable. This is not a practice here at Activision, Inc."
Feedback on these two letters is welcome! If I receive any other letters, I'll post them in this space.
Regards,
Michael
P.S. I left the petition open (which is here: http://www.petitiononline.com/DunLord/petition.html), and it currently has 331 signatures (not including duplicates or inappropriate ones I deleted).
The first was from Blizzard. I think the responder might have been confused, in that she thought my letter was specifically about World of Warcraft. She spent about a page and a half on how complicated and in-depth WOW is, and how bugs will surely pop up, both in intial release and as more players join the world. The most relevant section with regard to my letter is this paragraph:
"Prior to releasing World of Warcraft, we did extensive testing. During our beta testing phases, we received feedback from multiple public testers that World of Warcraft was a more complete game than other companies games were when they were released. As you have mentioned in your letter, any game is bound to have bugs. As more players join the game, there are more possibilities for bugs to be found. We do attempt to resolve all bugs as they are found."
The second letter was from Activision, which is both more on point, and more in line with my "industry-wide" concept. Here is the letter in its entirety (except for the "thank you" closing paragraph):
"Thank you for your interest and support of Activision products. Our gola is to achieve complete satisfaction among our customers and we appreciated your effort to communicate with us.
With respect to your inquiry, your voice has been heard. I do indeed understand exactly what you are saying. I also took the time to stop by the website and check things out for myself. I too am an avid gamer and can honestly see exactly what you mean by the statement, 'Release now, Patch later'. And it does happen. Speaking of games, gaming platforms, even food ideas for that matter, I feel many times "We the people" are indeed subject to exposing the flaws and/or corrections that will improve the product. Believe me when I tell you that the titles we work on at Activision, Inc., are put through rigorous testing, to ensure the quality of the game for the people prior to the release date. Hopefully we can continue to do this and keep our customers happy. The difference between the PC and console versions of games is the fact that you can patch problems after the initial release of the game. I understand and agree that releasing a game with KNOWN issues is unacceptable. This is not a practice here at Activision, Inc."
Feedback on these two letters is welcome! If I receive any other letters, I'll post them in this space.
Regards,
Michael
P.S. I left the petition open (which is here: http://www.petitiononline.com/DunLord/petition.html), and it currently has 331 signatures (not including duplicates or inappropriate ones I deleted).