Hello and Goodbye Ubisoft/BlueByte

[Arnoir]

bricks527, thanks for your reply. While you believe this thread serves no purpose in furthering the game or helping players, I would point out that it may help the staff involved in public relations understand that not all people are motivated by virtual items, and may also help the people who have met me within the game environment understand why I will no longer be playing it on a regular basis. So while you may personally find this thread to be of no value, the same may not hold true for everyone else.

Speaking of inaccurate information, The original post was not "simply an attack on a BB (who is the frontman to the incompetent people that left him twisting in the wind during a period of crisis)". As the title indicates, the post is directed towards Ubisoft and BlueByte which are both companies. It does not single out, or point the finger of blame at any individual person.

As for this thread being "started by a player that has already left the game??yet continues to respond to the thread??? I would like to direct you to the line in my original post where I clearly state "I may pop back from time to time to see how things progress, and possibly find some entertainment value in those visits." I continue to respond to the thread because people are questioning what I have posted, and more importantly because I said that I would. Spending a little time answering those questions, admitting my errors and accepting responsibility for them seems appropriate to me, as that is essentially what I was asking of Ubisoft and BlueByte.

Arnoir

P.S. I'm beginning to think I should have posted the much longer 'book' version.

[Arnoir]

Bystander, you may have gotten part of my point but not the whole thing. As I stated in my response to Mystica, "The main point of my post was time, its value, and illustrating how both have been wasted." Yes I think community management was seriously lacking, but it goes far beyond that small portion of the two companies.

At no point have I asked for an "up to the minute play-by-play", what I asked for is the information that I was told I would receive on a specific day. Realistically Bystander, I waited for Ubi/BB to deliver what they offered, at the time and place they specified, and they didn't deliver. I gave them additional time, and they still didn't deliver. Some patience has been given already. They set the terms, not me, and then they failed to meet their own terms.

While you think they did an OK job with what they had, I disagree. Just to give you an idea of how large Ubisoft actually is, they have offices or subsidiaries in 26 countries, and their Ubisoft Montreal studio alone has over two thousand people on staff. Finding more than twenty staff members to work on this problem isn't an issue. Although a commercial server may be bigger and more expensive than your average PC, they follow the same pattern in creation. Assemble the hardware, configure the firmware, install the software, configure software settings. They didn't even need someone capable of putting a PC together. Two test servers had been proven capable of hosting the game at that time, so they already had the hardware to put Zeus back online. The server rollback has proven that they had binary and data backups, so they had the software to put Zeus back online.

Perhaps at this point you might consider that I came here as a game player looking for a little entertainment, not to provide professional consultation in a public forum. However, you have asked for suggestions so here you go.

In addition to the hardware and software they already had, they needed a plan. Backup the binaries and data from one of the two 'test' servers prior to installing the backed up binaries and data from Zeus onto the selected 'test' server. A rough estimate of the time needed to complete the entire process could be derived by doubling the time it takes the backup process to run, and add server configuration time to that. Post the estimated time to the website while the software is being moved, and provide an update if the process is taking longer than expected. When that is done, put Zeus back online, apologise, offer a small compensation, and rebuild the test server behind the scenes. Worst case, Zeus is back online using the 'test' server that had been configured for the 'Zeus Test Server' event, and Ubi/BB is forced to delay or cancel the event due to the machine being used as a replacement Zeus server. Ubisoft has been a part of the industry almost as long as I have, and they should have learned by now to have a plan in place to deal with events like this. There is no need to put a 'spin' of any type on it, as that's just a waste of time.

When you say "This game is under development.", I really hope you're joking. According to ISO/IEC 12207, Development results in a software product ready to be sold to the customer. When development ceases, the software proceeds to the phase of operation and maintenance. According to the less formal, software release life cycle, software development occurs in the Pre-alpha stage, which is followed by the Alpha (in-house) and Beta (closed and/or open) testing stages. Release candidates are taken from the most stable Beta tests and may become the release product which is sold to customers. So, if this game is really still under development, at best they are offering Alpha level software in a Beta level environment as a commercial release.

Arnoir

P.S. Right now we are all probably wishing it was possible for me to compress posts like these into snappy one-liners without losing any meaning.

[Spleeter]

Well, I for one miss you Arnoir, but I also don't blame you. And the people belittling your thread are in fact the very idiots they claim you to be. You were a great guildie, an great helper, and made the game more fun when you were around. Even BB can't seem to make the game fun, in fact their idiotic compensation package has done the opposite, at least for me. I didn't want a pile of free stuff, I wanted my old stuff back. Since that wasn't possible, I big apology and all the bugs fixed and let's move on, but all the bugs aren't fixed, some of my friends still can't even log on, our guild leader may or may not be one of them we don't even know, the Zeus server sucks as a result. That's what they could have done for compensation - offered to move people to a different server, with all their stuff. Let me know what game you have found Arnoir, I'll come join you. BB/Ubi will never receive a dime from me for any game on any platform in any possible version of the future they can imagine. Time for some other company to get the limelight.

[Arnoir]

Hiyas Spleeter! I'm really sorry for the delayed response. I hope you're doing well. I have found entertainment elsewhere as I said, and I've been enjoying it. I just decided it was time to pop back and see how you all were doing, as well as share a tidbit from my travels.

First off, take a look at this example of how another game company deals with issues.

WARNING: I provide these links to an external site for reference purposes only, to help illustrate my point. They are not in any way an endorsement for someone elses product or services.

http://forum.r2games.com/showthread....kill-Point-Bug
http://wartune.r2games.com/news/view/?id=338

Basically, players notice a bug (timing issue) on one day, and start posting it in the forums the next day. The company reports news of the bug, indicates how it occurs and how to avoid it, issues immediate compensation to minimize impact, and announce the plan to fix the bug along with details of further compensation. They even put it in the news on their main page for the game. Check the times and dates for yourselves.

Note: I was playing on their 40th server (out of 46), and they were in the process of adding another on the day when all this occured. I never experienced the issue, but I was given the compensation even though I did not need it.

What do I see? Prompt customer service and a problem effectively being dealt with.
What don't I see? Any attempt to 'explain the problem away' or to 'put a spin' on it.


As for letting you know what game(s) I have found Spleeter, as I indicated earlier in this post I do not want to provide an endorsement for someone elses product or services on this site. I don't personally feel that it would be constructive, so I'm sending you a seperate message and will try to get online to chat with you. You are missed!

Arnoir

P.S. I just managed to log onto the test server and I have to wonder... who is the 'genius' that came up with the idea of a survey that asks questions about gameplay that you have not had the opportunity to experience yet? No wonder they have problems.

[Fishnets]

i just started this week, but over all its a fun game plus its free

[Arnoir]

Good to hear that you're having fun Fishnets. There are a lot of nice people who play this game (and some trolls too ). Hopefully you will have a chance to meet a lot of them (I mean the nice people, not the trolls )

Arnoir

P.S. It would be nice if players never experience another problem with the server , but the odds are against that. My hope is that Ubi/BB does a better job of addressing problems in the future.