X-Fire Thanks you now just go away!

[whiteknut]

Hi everyone,
I'm in contact with Xfire and will receive an updated list of who should have won. Then I will make sure that everyone is compensated.
Regards
Frank

So i still have hope ! (Unless search system fails again )
+Rep to Frank And Jod!

 

[jod]

Thank you for your reply Frank.
It is encouraging to find that at least someone is listening and willing to do the right thing.

I have sent a support case which I have to say didn't get the reply I was looking for and I have replied to that again however since I see you are personally looking into it I'm happy to have that support case closed or amended however you see fit.

I'm sure many in the community as I do appreciate this type of response and it can only help to boost faith in how Mindark will handle these types of issues with partners.

Thank you again.

 

[Wody]

I'm still waiting for any compensation on the interview that xfire organised, that I was invited to and never even got to participate in. And, for the spam that xfire send me, after I had cancelled my account there weeks earlier.

 

[Gandolf]

Nice work Frank--one quick question though--how the hell do you get X-fire to work with Vista? I have asked tech support, X-fire forums, and searched these forums and nobody seems to know how to get X-fire to work with Vista for in-game chat, screenpics, or video capture. The few final responses I have gotten have been "MA does not support EU for Vista so until they do we cannot offer technical support, sorry for the lack of content and hopefully we will be able to resolve these issues in the near future" Granted this response comes after a few failed attempts and trying to get it to work.

Anyway-sorry for the hijack and nice work setting it straight!!

 

[Norbert]

Nice one Frank hope Jod gets his gift that he should have got. X-fires not for me personally, but if it brings people into EU then it's all good.

 

[Valcor]

I to hope you get your gift theres nothing quite as annoying to do a load of work and then not be at least appreciated for what you done.

You obviously put a lot of effort into there community only to be repayed with what at this point looks like underhandedness and deceit.

I cant believe they have the audacity to say "Yeah well you won but.. "

I'm sure they will quickly see the error of there ways and sort you out soon.

I registered at x-fire and left a reply in your thread too.
I doubt I'll be downloading the software though any time soon.

 

[archman]

Nice work Frank--one quick question though--how the hell do you get X-fire to work with Vista? I have asked tech support, X-fire forums, and searched these forums and nobody seems to know how to get X-fire to work with Vista for in-game chat, screenpics, or video capture. The few final responses I have gotten have been "MA does not support EU for Vista so until they do we cannot offer technical support, sorry for the lack of content and hopefully we will be able to resolve these issues in the near future" Granted this response comes after a few failed attempts and trying to get it to work.

Anyway-sorry for the hijack and nice work setting it straight!!

You have to run x-fire as the administrator.

 

[Etopia]

Finally, I think we all have the right to expect that these competitions are run correctly according to the rules stated. When errors do occur (and we are all just human - what about the time the whole of Calypso ended up in an avatars inventory) we must accept our responsibility to set things right for our customers.

That is what we will now do.

Regards
Frank

I think thats all what we all whanted to read , and to be done.
I just hope , when things will be sorted out , that an official info will be posted , with name of the the "new" winer , to show MA can be fair , and want run competition in best condition

 

[Commodore]

Nice one Frank hope Jod gets his gift that he should have got. X-fires not for me personally, but if it brings people into EU then it's all good.

Yes, same here. But more importantly it gives the whole community confidence, shows the apathetic people of the X-Fire community that while they might get stuffed, they can enjoy Entropia Universe and experience something different. It also means that next (and I'm sure many ventures will come) 1. Partners are not scared of getting a bad name, 2. We wont be pre-dispossed to thinking 'oh no another...'.

Rep

 

[Returns_Again]

Personally, I think working with Xfire has been good for us from a marketing point of view, as we've received quite a few Xfire user accounts coming into EU to check it out.

Agreed: Anything that brings people into EU is a good thing.

Finally, I think we all have the right to expect that these competitions are run correctly according to the rules stated. When errors do occur (and we are all just human - what about the time the whole of Calypso ended up in an avatars inventory) we must accept our responsibility to set things right for our customers.
That is what we will now do.

Regards
Frank

Nicely handled.

 

[Jake Rogue]

We must accept our responsibility to set things right for our customers.

That is what we will now do.

Regards
Frank

+Rep for doing the right thing!

It's actions such as these that preserve and retain our faith and trust in MindArk, and Entropia Universe as a whole.

 

[Ludvig|MindArk]

what about the time the whole of Calypso ended up in an avatars inventory)

lol yeah the first time I heard that I was laughing very hard

I heard that it once dropped 1000x more of some armorpart... shadow I think... than was planned to?

 

[Alaxan]

Jod,

Let us know how this turns out. I'm sure a lot of people are watching this and would like to know what the resolution winds up being. Good luck!

 

[Harvest]

This is becoming far to common in life.

No accountability.

+Rep for posting this thread.

 

[Hally]

Xfire is ze joke, now move on theyre bussy with hellokitty this week

 

[jod]

Jod,

Let us know how this turns out. I'm sure a lot of people are watching this and would like to know what the resolution winds up being. Good luck!

As soon as i know I'll post

 

[Sunab Naverith]

noo but he said that xfire is incapable of causing those issues

(was on vacation for a week, so, sorry for the late response)

Let's check this out then - are you running as an administrator?
Windows... what version? (Some versions you need special settings to run xfire... just like many other programs)
Running an AV program? (Norton doesn't like Xfire and WILL cause slowdowns... just like it does with Hamachi and a couple (hundred) other programs)
Adware blocker? (Occasionally some adware blockers will, instead of reading & blocking the ad window within xfire, will block xfire itself, and cause a looping memory lockup)
Using IE or Firefox? (IE is crap, but has a damned good popup blocker - and firefox is decent too. Sometimes if you have some basic browser hijackers on your computer, they tend to try to use the adwindow in xfire, but since loading anything else isn't allowed within the window, it can cause a perpetual argument within the system)
What service pack are you running? (I remember SP2 *USED* to cause problems. I can only imagine that SP3 is having issues with a lot of programs/ports due to the "enhanced security")
Do you have hardware graphics acceleration set to at least 50%? (biggest problem for most, as if it's not set high enough, it won't allow for graphical overlay - as the xfire window itself is a multi-layer graphical interface. Even causes problems with XIG not working in a lot of games, if it's not turned up enough {Side note here - old games such as SC, Diablo series, etc - turn accel down to ~25% and XIG works ingame})
And the last thing I can think of at this moment to ask is, did you make sure you have your ports opened, and your firewall (software & hardware) isn't blocking or constricting the communication flow?

I'll reiterate again, there hasn't been a single friend of mine, in over 4 years, that I DIDN'T find something else causing the problem, which I wasn't able to fix and make xfire work (exception being if they tried loading it on a Windows 3.1 system, or a linux system, lol).

You are not wrong at all. It happens and even to people with loads of experience on software and computers. Sunab is just too far into xfire lol

I've been using Xfire for almost 5 years now. Just like the fanbois of anything else that's been in it for that long, you tend to be defensive when people bash it, especially when they are ignorant or unaware of simple fixes or reasons for something happening.

And to it happening to those with "loads of experience"... I realistically ask this question without it being an attack - whom? I used to run a handful of game servers, and a made a number of friends amongst the techs, and they never had a problem finding a way for xfire to run - even after having the same problems I read that other people have here.

 

[TegyeLe]

(was on vacation for a week, so, sorry for the late response)

Let's check this out then - are you running as an administrator?
Windows... what version? (Some versions you need special settings to run xfire... just like many other programs)
Running an AV program? (Norton doesn't like Xfire and WILL cause slowdowns... just like it does with Hamachi and a couple (hundred) other programs)
Adware blocker? (Occasionally some adware blockers will, instead of reading & blocking the ad window within xfire, will block xfire itself, and cause a looping memory lockup)
Using IE or Firefox? (IE is crap, but has a damned good popup blocker - and firefox is decent too. Sometimes if you have some basic browser hijackers on your computer, they tend to try to use the adwindow in xfire, but since loading anything else isn't allowed within the window, it can cause a perpetual argument within the system)
What service pack are you running? (I remember SP2 *USED* to cause problems. I can only imagine that SP3 is having issues with a lot of programs/ports due to the "enhanced security")
Do you have hardware graphics acceleration set to at least 50%? (biggest problem for most, as if it's not set high enough, it won't allow for graphical overlay - as the xfire window itself is a multi-layer graphical interface. Even causes problems with XIG not working in a lot of games, if it's not turned up enough {Side note here - old games such as SC, Diablo series, etc - turn accel down to ~25% and XIG works ingame})
And the last thing I can think of at this moment to ask is, did you make sure you have your ports opened, and your firewall (software & hardware) isn't blocking or constricting the communication flow?

I'll reiterate again, there hasn't been a single friend of mine, in over 4 years, that I DIDN'T find something else causing the problem, which I wasn't able to fix and make xfire work (exception being if they tried loading it on a Windows 3.1 system, or a linux system, lol).




I've been using Xfire for almost 5 years now. Just like the fanbois of anything else that's been in it for that long, you tend to be defensive when people bash it, especially when they are ignorant or unaware of simple fixes or reasons for something happening.

And to it happening to those with "loads of experience"... I realistically ask this question without it being an attack - whom? I used to run a handful of game servers, and a made a number of friends amongst the techs, and they never had a problem finding a way for xfire to run - even after having the same problems I read that other people have here.

What about the slowdown during connection to Xfire? I have only that case, it slows my whole system (XP SP2) down to hell, then everything is fine.

 

[whiteknut]

hmm any update?

 

[Ron24]

hmm any update?

Yeah any news atm?

 

[Alaxan]

I've been using Xfire for almost 5 years now. Just like the fanbois of anything else that's been in it for that long, you tend to be defensive when people bash it, especially when they are ignorant or unaware of simple fixes or reasons for something happening.

And to it happening to those with "loads of experience"... I realistically ask this question without it being an attack - whom? I used to run a handful of game servers, and a made a number of friends amongst the techs, and they never had a problem finding a way for xfire to run - even after having the same problems I read that other people have here.

That's just it you are a fanboi. You are willing to take time to work around and "make it work". Not everyone is so willing or even capable and with a very simple program like x-fire. Why bother when there are other programs just as capable of providing a good quality voice server? I've utilized ventrilo for going on 7-8yrs now. I've not once had a problem with it under any circumstance. When i've had a friend that had a problem with it, I helped get it straight and it was normally user error. X-fire on the other hand, goes beyond just user error and needs some technical experience to tweak and setup just right so it does work "as it should" out of the box.

I own a fairly succesful PC company. I have been around computers since I was 6yrs old, software and hardware wise. I installed x-fire on my own system, which btw is a clean install of windows vista ultimate 64-bit w/ all drivers updated, and I could not get the video functionality to work at all. I tried one or two fixes before deciding it just wasn't worth my time. I don't have any friends on x-fire and if I really want to use voice I already have ventrilo. I'm sure it would have worked with enough time and effort on it, but my point is... not everyone wants to take the time to fix something that comes out of the box not working as advertised. X-fire is that something in the discussion here... sorry fanboi.

 

[Commodore]

That's just it you are a fanboi. You are willing to take time to work around and "make it work". Not everyone is so willing or even capable and with a very simple program like x-fire. Why bother when there are other programs just as capable of providing a good quality voice server? I've utilized ventrilo for going on 7-8yrs now. I've not once had a problem with it under any circumstance. When i've had a friend that had a problem with it, I helped get it straight and it was normally user error. X-fire on the other hand, goes beyond just user error and needs some technical experience to tweak and setup just right so it does work "as it should" out of the box.

I own a fairly succesful PC company. I have been around computers since I was 6yrs old, software and hardware wise. I installed x-fire on my own system, which btw is a clean install of windows vista ultimate 64-bit w/ all drivers updated, and I could not get the video functionality to work at all. I tried one or two fixes before deciding it just wasn't worth my time. I don't have any friends on x-fire and if I really want to use voice I already have ventrilo. I'm sure it would have worked with enough time and effort on it, but my point is... not everyone wants to take the time to fix something that comes out of the box not working as advertised. X-fire is that something in the discussion here... sorry fanboi.

Exactly the same here, saved me typing it. Plenty of experience with computers, but when I smell common dung, it's generally not worth my time.

 

[jod]

hmm any update?

Nope.I havent heard anything since the last reply.

 

[Casay]

X-Fire finally replied to Jod and I in their forum where Jod had posted:

I'm sorry that you guys felt that I wasn't responsive. I wasn't aware that there were this many responses to the event at hand.

You should know:

1) That I wasn't wishing for this to go away. *I* contacted Frank first to let him know of the issue, that I apologized and that I wanted to see if he could provide a few more displays to rectify the situation

2) The reason that I didn't tell *you* this is because I didn't want to promise you a prize that you weren't getting. And I didn't want to make it seem like it would be Mindark's fault if they couldn't provide anymore prizes.

3) I was going to update you when the situation was rectified.

4) I'm sorry, but forum PMs are NOT the best way to contact me, that is why I've provided my e-mail address: lsmith@xfire.com in MANY different sections of this forum.

Again, I'm sorry that you felt unheard. From the first angry comment from JodMC, I talked to my boss about it to figure out the best plan of action to get you what you deserve. I talked to Mindark about it and we're working on it.

--Lisa Smith
end

Jod replied (very well I might add)
start
Thank you for your reply Lisa and its nice to know that something is happening.

I do understand you not wanting to make any promises till you had all the information required although a simple "we are working on it" instead of "We are very sorry but thanks" answer would have saved a lot of this from happening though.

Perhaps its my fault for not looking hard enough but I had no idea you are the person to contact.Had i known this believe me i would have contacted you in the very beginning.

It would also appear from other responses on Entropia Forums that i wasn't the only one to be over looked.In fact from what others have posted it would seem I am not actually the one the prize should be going too after all so if that turns out to be the case I will happily accept that as I just want the rightful winners to be acknowledged whomever they may be.

Thanks again for the communication,It is appreciated.

Regards,
Jodmc
end

So, it's nice the X-fire is also looking into it. As Jod said, it would have been much better if X-Fire had replied that they were looking into as Frank did. They only gave excuses. (see below; X-Fires initial reply). I'd certiainly like them to point out to me where they even hinted that they were going to do something about it at all or just wishing that Jod would drop it.

start
I apologize for your video not being chosen. We unfortunately had to rely on the tagging system which is still in beta. I am sorry that you were slighted in the event, and I still appreciate your video entry.

Also, thank you for bringing this to my attention. Although it is too late for us to do anything for this competition, it really does help us improve the tagging system. And as its one of our first video capture contests it really helps us see what's going wrong so that we can keep improving in the future.

Again, I'm so sorry that your video was overlooked, and I'm going to let our devs know about the issues with our tagging system.

--Xfire Sdaria
end

Again, looks just like Jod put as title of this whole thread was X-Fires initial responce. TY again Frank for looking into it and posting to all of us that at least MA was being the stand up company here without giving excuses.

 

[Konve]

Finally, I think we all have the right to expect that these competitions are run correctly according to the rules stated. When errors do occur (and we are all just human - what about the time the whole of Calypso ended up in an avatars inventory) we must accept our responsibility to set things right for our customers.

That is what we will now do.

Regards
Frank

Which is exactly what X-Fire had as their fullest intention to not ignore and care less about.

Mindark is obviously more concerned/scared about the opinion of the mob then they are (based on what you wrote, as to the last reply by the OP - nothing has happened so far.)

Personally, I think working with Xfire has been good for us from a marketing point of view, as we've received quite a few Xfire user accounts coming into EU to check it out. I'm sorry some of you have had a bad experience with the application but when I run it on my Dell XPS it never gives me a problem. And that's with Vista also.

Considering the behaviour by X-Fire described above (taking a dump on what is right) - I have to say I disagree. X-Fire is only causing distress among the previous participants. Maybe we should file a support case for harassment.

 

[jod]

Nope.I havent heard anything since the last reply.

Sorry I just remembered this is not entirely true.

There is the response from Xfire that Casay has posted above which I guess I have no option but to take on face value.
It completely contradicts the first and only response I received from Xfire to that point so I did as much as I felt I needed too.
Seems as if they expected me to read minds or something.
I repeatedly made requests for someone to contact directly at Xfire but they went unanswered.Then I get told more or less that I should have been able to find it myself as apparently this random person (to me anyway) had contact details "In many different sections of their forum".
I only had their one response to go on and it certainly wasn't positive at that point.The difference between the first and second response I received from Xfire certainly doesn't restore any faith in their conflict resolution skills or internal communication.
I'd like to also add that i gave them plenty of time to respond before I posted any of this to the community.

The only other response so far was a warning from MA support about the ad being removed for "breaking the EULA and causing unnecessary frustration"

I agree with the "unnecessary frustration" part but as to the cause I guess MA and I will disagree on that one
I did write a respectful reply saying how given the circumstances I would have to do exactly the same again but it bounced back so I let it go.


Just want to add a little thanks to Casay for your efforts also

 

[PsychoAl]

That sounds more like a rigged event than a bug.
LOL. Bugs in tagging system.
Either lies or amateurs.

First to give a background to whats happened....

Recently X-Fire held their Hours d'Entropia Contest and one part of this competition was to make a short vid and upload it to their site for votes.1st 2nd and 3rd most votes would receive a prize.

Now to cut a long story short i did this but when i looked at the eventual winners i noticed that the 3rd place actually had less votes than i did at the end of the competition and i know this for a fact as i was checking it a few times daily.

I queried this with X-Fire and got the response you can see here...X-fire reply
Now you can also see my reponse was perhaps a little heated and not quite as restrained as i prefer to be but i think i made my point...especially as X-Fire admitted fault.

This thread then recieved no reply for over a week so i sent a pm to the X-Fire rep that responded which has also gone unanswered for a further week.

So basically it seems like they dont care at all anymore....

So I asked the X-fire community if this was normal and how we should expect things to be.....You can see their response here X-fire community response personally its response i will never understand i admit("its free stop complaining"(yeah like Viacom does this out of community spirit and the goodness of their hearts )

As for getting any recourse with X-Fire...Dont even bother!
I cannot find any contact details on their site at all.That leaves you with their forums and pm's which they seem to just ignore.

I want to make it clear though this is nothing to do with the winners of the competition.I wish them all the best with their prizes and if it were judged by X-Fire on content and not votes they would almost certainly have won.

I entered for the competition but i fought on for the principle.

So in summary it looks as if this is normal practice for X-Fire and their community is so used to it they dont care anymore.I can only hope we dont get that level of apathy here.

I'm not writing this to get something done as it seems its too late for that but just to let people make their own decisions with a little more information....

Thanks for taking the time to read it....

Perhaps if you feel strongly enough about it you can let them know by posting your thoughts in the X-Fire forum threads I mentioned earlier.

or vote for this vid
​

Someone is listening!!

See franks reply at post #57 in this thread
And thanks again to everyone that supported this,you have been heard .

 

[mmabigshow]

Matt Gilman, Xfire Marketing Director at 650-853-8800 (ext. 122). (San Francisco)

I would call that number, dont use the extension and ask for someone in their customer service dept and let them patch you through to their best guess as to who can help you resolve this mess.

 

[Casay]

Matt Gilman, Xfire Marketing Director at 650-853-8800 (ext. 122). (San Francisco)

I would call that number, dont use the extension and ask for someone in their customer service dept and let them patch you through to their best guess as to who can help you resolve this mess.

I'm sure Jod thanks you for the info even if a bit late. MA / Frank posted here that they are working with X-Fire to resolve the issue. As stated previously, at least MA was the stand up company here. X-Fire, well.... I'm just not impressed.

 

[jod]

Matt Gilman, Xfire Marketing Director at 650-853-8800 (ext. 122). (San Francisco)

I would call that number, dont use the extension and ask for someone in their customer service dept and let them patch you through to their best guess as to who can help you resolve this mess.

yes thank you for that info.

I could have used it a couple weeks ago but thats not your fault,Hopefully things are getting sorted now anyway.