q. reese wrote:I agree with you in part. I many of times let the admin here know that when we voice ourselves that he at times is a bit stern. It seems as if he "belittles" us when we are in fact trying to help him.
I'm sorry, q, but you're calling this upon yourself : funny thing is, as I said, people privately praise me for my patience and tact, and to be frank, they told me this
especially about how I deal with you in particular. I think most of rummenigge's attack was based on the fact he thought I was a common user, but now that he knows I am the game creator, he seems to be cool with the way I talk here. So yes, I "belittle" others here, because I made this game and I'm in charge of it, and in the end I'm the one who knows what's going on behind the curtains and ultimately makes the decisions, and takes
full responsibility for them.
Do you think other game creators are less stern in the way they're talking with their users ? Oh sorry, most game creators don't even care conversing with the players. For once, you can directly talk to someone who's making a game you like and he cares enough to answer all inquiries. Don't be too demanding, and don't overuse it.
q. reese wrote:The only critique I have is that the older versions work absolutely fine; but, when he updates it, all of the sudden it is a problem. At most times, he says our computer is the problem?!
What?!
My computer can run Tribes Vengeance with no problem (full antiliasing, etc.). Top Spin 1 and 2 can do the same, as well as Virtua Tennis 1, 3, and 2009. No problem! So, it is not my computer, or most of our computers for our parts, I think it is the tester.
I am not aware of the last time you released a computer video game. Actually, I don't think you ever did. Nonetheless, you keep asserting things and talking as though you know better than me how a game is made. Now, with the sentences I quoted, not only are you accusing me of doing my job wrongly, and releasing bad versions without testing them (
I think it is the tester), you're also accusing me of deliberately lying to try and conceal this alleged incompetence/laziness. In the end of your mail, you're saying positive things again, but I can't accept this kind of accusations.
I already told you in e-mails that I am tired of justifying myself to you, as it deprives me of valuable time to improve the game, but then again, as you're trying to give me a bad name in the public forum, here are a few things :
_ How many games are you aware of that are updated on a regular basis ? Are Tribes Vengeance, Virtua tennis and Top Spin in this case ? I think not. It is way easier not to bring
new problems in a game when you don't make it evolve
at all. When it comes to releasing software, only ones who never have problems are the ones who don't do anything.
_ Are Tribes Vengeance, Virtua tennis and Top Spin developed with OpenGL ? I wouldn't want to have to enforce this kind of knowledge on players, as I think they don't
need to know that, but as you really want me to justify everything... OpenGL is free, as opposed to DirectX, and I realized to my despair over the last year that some card manufacturers really don't put a lot of effort in respecting the OpenGL standard with their drivers, which results in Full Ace not working on several kinds of hardware. Additionally, when I begin using an OpenGL feature that I wasn't using before, this raises issues on hardwares that were working so far. Most games use DirectX and it
seems it raises less problems, but the main point is the following :
_ Big companies have QA divisions, with up to tens of people and different computers to test the game and report problems before they release.
Even with this kind of testing, it is not rare that they have to release several patches for their PC games after release, and even then some problems often remain uncorrected. I guess it is obvious that by no means Full Ace can afford something like that. However, I believe that the level of quality reached on Full Ace over almost one year of existence, in regard to our means, is
admirable, and then again, many people praise it, mostly when they have some experience in software development, but even when not.
_ Doesn't it ring a bell when you have a problem and all (or most) other people don't ? When they keep playing online games and such, without a worry... Doesn't that show you that it depends on the computer running the game ? It is not saying that computers are good or bad, it is saying that one computer doesn't necessarily accept what another computer does.
Even the actual problem this topic is about, you didn't experience,
because you wouldn't have been able to make a single match, at all, if you did.
I would think it is pretty obvious that I have
nothing to gain from releasing versions that don't work. Actually, it makes me mad every time someone tells me the game doesn't work on his computer, because, even if you don't believe it,
I actually do my best so that it wouldn't happen. Do you know what the easy answer to this would be ? Not release any updates and instead release a new version of the game every year or so, make a lot of pre-testing and only update for fixes. But then you would only get upgrades once a year, and guess what ? you'd be paying for them,
each time. Because testing has a
big cost.