Quote:
Originally posted by Miles Jacobson:
Tubzinho - People will always vote with their wallets. With everything that's been said on the forums in the last few weeks, you'd thinks sales would have dropped through the floor - they haven't. FM08 is our fastest selling game in virtually every country where we release, in some cases by hundreds of percent.
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We would like nothing more to release a game without any major bugs in it, but we're realistic enough to know that if something slips through the net, we are prepared to work very hard to get them fixed which is a lot more than many other developers are prepared to do. The game is huge in parameters, as things like the Scottish league issue show- it only happens if saved during a small window of time, and exited, and re-loaded, and we do as much as we can to ensure the quality of the game before release.
We're not proud of the issues, and have not ever claimed to be, so please don't put words in our mouths. The game, not fixed, is head and shoulders above the competition, but that does not mean we are happy or rest on our laurels despite this, but strive for perfection.
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I have been giving the whole FM issue a serios thinkink for quite some time now, and after taking some time to read trough the SI forum and see where the game is heading towards and what the SI strategy might be,I shall try and put pen to papper (in this case just type) here my conclusions, maybe this way some of you folks might wake up a bit.
I will start with you Miles, btw have you seen (thank you for smoking, the movie ?)
You do a great job, I have to give you that, but do you agree with what you do?
I mean, don't get me wrong, I like reading sotries about how a game is created and how different teams work for different areas of the game. How hard working man struggle to fix x and y bug but by doing that, they create a z one and how the game business is not that simple because even though you struggle to do your best, and you are passionate about your game, it is humane to make errors.
What I don't like, is PR
ppl trying to divert the customer's attention towards something else than the issue in question. I know some of the readers, including you Miles, will say that I am another moaner and that I am taking it all on SI and you might be right. I am taking in on the SI, but not in the way you thought about it untill now.
I used to enjoy the game every year. I used to enjoy the game even though it had major bugs. I didn't care about those major bugs because SI (and Eidos back in the days) used to do a great job with the game.
This year though I've seen a big change in the game and not the kind of changes seen untill now.
I've read somewhere that SI wants to bring about 100 changes to the game from one year to the next. I say that's wonderfull, but this is not the issue here. Changes in the actual game are not the issue.
My issue is (and i want you all to think about this one) the strategy that comes along with the game.
Why was the game released so early if the list of bugs looks more like a novel than an actual list.
The demo came out only 2 weeks before tha game was released. and the demo was nowhere near acceptable by my standards. Last year's demo was top notch compared to this one.
If so the case, why did you release the game so early? Why couldn't SI keep the full game into the testing phase longer until they had everything sorted out, or al least most of the bugs? My answer would be the quote with which I've started the post but I would like to hear what Miles says about this one. You pride yourself so much on the "respect our comunity" issue. Looks more to me like taking the **** this year.
Miles, you keep on talking about the testing team, but are there more than 5
ppl on the testing team?
I mean come on, I came to see that my GK was at the centre of the pitch when the match started and that was 10 minutes into my first FM 08 full experience.
My guess is this: the testing team is a handfull of
ppl that do their job when needed, but the real FM testing team is me, and the other "veteran" custommers that buy the game every year and then they post their findings on the SI community forum as they are "encouraged" to do by some who keep on bragging about usefull and unusefull posts.
To kind of sum up everything I've said: SI came to the conclusion that instead of paying so much on a REAL testing team, a team that could have got the job done (like they did until now) They could use that money to develope and bring more changes to the game, changes that could attract more custommers
and they have come to realise that the real testing of the game could be done by those same cusstomers. What more could you want then to have CUSTOMMERS THAT ARE ACTUALY PAYING to test your product? How would you feel if you were to buy a car that would go off the road because it would have steering "bugs"? I'm not saying a game is the same with a car, but the decision to get the product on the shelf (be it a car or a game) is the same.
And I see a lot of guys saying stuff in here about "the competition". What is the competition I ask you. Is is CM, is it EA's manager? Lol, this isn't competition, just how many of you would go playing those games if something would go wrong with the game (as I think, something did go wrong this year) ? See, that's my point, this is not a competition, this is a monopoly more or less. And if I come to realise this m so did the management of SI and rest assured (if I may say so) but they will to everything they can to profit from this. The first proof being the profits"by hundreds of percent" as Miles just said.
P.S. - I have nothing against the game development team, those guys are probably doing their job and I recon they are working hard to do it.
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