I will echo Kiri's post and add ... that I agree that we can share our perspectives and frustrations, but do it constructively, and without all the unnecessary rudeness and bashing that is going on in this thread. It's been said more than once that John is not a part of the design or coding team, and therefore, not responsible for the issues that many are experiencing.
We never said John is responsible for the code. John is a representative of the company, and he is asking us for something that we feel is completely unreasonable given the current state of things. We are tired, frustrated, and angry. It's not meant at you personally, John. But you're the one talking, you're the one who can call these guys on the phone at night and say "Hey, you're all acting like douchebags, they're pissed. Do something before we lose our customers." I'm sure you'd rather see this than to have us all just quit because we decided no one would listen. We wouldn't be giving you this feedback unless we thought you would be.
[John is ... marketing and advertising, and in the course of his responsibilities, he seeks venues that are most conducive to promoting and putting Entropia on the map. There is much forethought, and extensive planning that goes into an undertaking such as what will take place at SXSW. He has proposed some valid topics of interest for discussion that has potential to be quite beneficial for all of us in a ripple effect if you will.
That's great that John is seeking new venues. We don't care right now. In fact, the more options they have, the less they have to rely on, and therefore listen to us. Let's focus on getting things right for the players that are here before we think about adding another 100,000 new ones. I'm sure his topics are very valid, but a far more valid point, but a magnitude of a million is the fact that the customers that have made this game work, and paid John's salary as well as everyone elses at MA are totally unsatisfied, and if we are drowned out by another 100,000 voices who don't know any better, how will we ever affect change?
[
The fact is ... (and as stated in my
thread) ... SXSW may not be until March 12th - 16th, 2010, but ... the proposals for consideration on the conference agenda had to be submitted between June 1st and July 10th, and ... SXSW has put into place the voting process on all proposals submitted. There is a short deadline within which the voting takes place, and ends on Sep 4th.
All the better. A deadline. Finally one we know they want to keep. Seems like there is another unspoken deadline for many customers here who are getting to the point of giving up. Seems like a more important deadline to worry about. After all, marketing doesn't end when you get the customer. There's a great old saying that you have to do the same things to keep her as you did to get her.
[Thing is ... if you don't want to vote and support these topics getting on the program, then you may choose not to, but to come into this thread and attack John the way some have, certainly doesn't promote a good level of interaction as representatives of this community. Your opinions about how things are, or have been approached by the developer should be kept in perspective, and addressed appropriately and constructively.
Again, John, nothing personal, and I think you realize that it's nothing personal about you, even if MS9 doesn't. Fact is, you asked for our help. We're telling you what you've got to do to get it. I hate this idiotic, childish idea that you can only voice your opinion in this little box, but not in the other one. Happily, you have not complained about this like a little kid, so I give you credit there. Good man. You understand that as a salesman you've gotta have broad shoulders (I'm a salesman too, I hear much much worse). But the fact is, you want our help, there are some things we want first, and if we're gonna do something, we want to mean it. We just don't mean it right now if we voted for this. We want help first. We've put in the hard yards, and the cash to have earned it. Quid pro quo Clarice.
[Yes ... many in the community have continuing issues with this VU, and I totally agree that this should take priority, but ... we are witnessing this taking place, and it might do us more good to ask questions of John in hopes of getting a response, rather than being accusatory and totally rude as some have been toward him. I know him to be a rather open and forthcoming individual (due to working with him on bonus content for the news, as well as other things), and he is most willing to respond to the community when opportunity presents itself, because he genuinely cares.
We've been
asking plenty. Asking gets us nowhere apparently. Time for some telling. Now we have been presented with something where Mindark actually wants to listen to us, so we're telling while we've got the chance. It won't last long. Every time we ask we're told "the issue has been forwarded to this other team that will sit on it, sh*tcan it, wrap it up, regift it to their mother's in laws, and then close the support case". That process has been going on for years, and that is way more rude than anything we've said here, by far, period. So, a bunch of frustrated, tired customers get someone who doesn't say this, guess what, we bring out all the old stuff that is sitting on the floor of the office being used as liners for parrot cages. So we got one, maybe two guys that care at MA. This one is listening. No one else is. He's gonna hear it all. There's nothing unfair about that except between the rest of Mindark and John. They shouldn't have done that to him.
[
However ... I don't blame him for taking the position he has in this thread in response to the rudeness. If we want more of a two-way street when it comes to communication, this is surely a poor way of going about it.
Poor or not, it's the only way we've got right now. Nothing else has gotten us diddly squat. Who's fault is that for not providing us with a better venue? Surely you're not suggesting it's ours?
[
Can we ... give the guy some slack and take our frustrations to the source that needs to hear them? No pushing, no shoving ... line up please and take a number.
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I give John all the slack in the world. We don't think he's responsible for coding the game, or giving us bad loot. But he's with them. Again, he can call them on the phone at night, and tell them they've got their heads shoved up their asses. He needs to do this. We've taken a number, and taken a number, and taken a number, and the accumulated tickets submitted would burst the servers on this forum. Luckily for Mindark's servers, they are automatically deleted apparently. This outlet has been needed for much longer than just the last two weeks, and John has opened it up. The dam has busted and the flood is coming. Just how it goes. We're not allowed to address MA in an open forum on our own without them first opening one up (I know because 711 actually modified my thread about an issue that is still plaguing miners). We can't get anything done through support cases apparently, because they just don't care in that office. So John, you're the guy. You didn't ask to be, but you are. You want help? Get some for us. Change things. I know you can.