A few things just to get off my chest.

[______________Zierow]

I need to go on a little rant here, so bare with me.

For the last month or so I have seen what I can only call a decay in the Funcom/AO management team. There have been many issues that have been either ignored, or putoff, or said to be fixed when not, and I have to just address a couple of them just to make me feel better.

1. ARKs and /petition - Why bother.... Earlier today I loaded up the good ol AO, dl'd the patch and went to work to see what, in fact, has been improved. When I noticed some of the same issued that were *supposedly* fixed I decided to /petition an ARK member to see if it was the same issue or if in fact that's the way it was supposed to be. So being the person that I am I always ask close ended questions, questions that require only a yes or no answer. After filing the petition I saw the information that told me it had been submitted and I was 99 in line to get answered. I thought wow, ok no problem, i'll just continue what i'm doing for a bit and wait and see. I waited for a lil over an hour, I haven't heard from any ARK so I decided to re/petition. When I did I got a message stating along the lines of, "your petition has been updated, still in line with 88 people in front of you". HOLY CRAP!!! At this rate, this means that I will have to wait roughly 9 hours to get an answer on a yes or no question???? Screw that. Having said that, it's not the ARKs fault, they are doing the best they can with what they have. But I can blame the Funcom/AO team.... They are not taking the initiative to make sure there are enough people around to handle the volume of questions that need to be answered. They have never taken a proactive approach to this, only a reactive approach, in the end it's all bad management.

2. Patches- I dunno about you but i'm getting REAL tired of these patch updates that say they have fixed something but in fact they haven't , heck in some cases they've made it even worse. My question is, they have a test server right? These patches are tested right? Do they bother compiling the info on these patches before releasing them onto the main server? Do they even notice if in fact something isn't going to work? Or do they just say to hell with it and release it anyway thinking it might work for the main even though it didn't work on the test? Either way something is screwy here. Someone is either dropping the ball or flat not paying attention to what they are doing. And to me, I get really annoyed when someone tells me somethings been taken care of when it really hasn't. It kind of reminds me of an 8 year old child who says they cleaned thier room only to find out they didn't. Patches are being released to add new material and to fix bugs, but all I see is that the bugs remain, and the new material is only creating more bugs. Again...... Bad management.

3. Keeping the customer informed- This is a big one for me, and if and when I do decide to leave the Funcom/AO experience it will be mainly for this reason. It is in my honest opinion that Funcom/AO's version of keeping the customer informed is "weak at best". First lets start with the forums. I read them daily, sometimes putting in my own input to try and help others or have questions answered. Many of times I see ALOT of the same issues appearing over and over and over again. But RARELY do I seen anyone from the Funcom/AO team address these issues. I do see alot of people trying to help people out and that's great, I myself encourage that. But to just blow off the amount of complaints on the same situation is just flat wrong. Then on the forums this leads to frustration, frustration leads to flaming, and in the end nothing gets solved. Then another thread starts with the same complaint and it starts all over again. Nothing but a vicious cycle. I don't blame the Mod's, I really don't, again I believe they are doing the best they can with what they have. Again I blame the Funcom/AO team managment for this, they are not doing what it take to make sure people are kept informed with what's going on in the game. And if and when they do come on, they tell you what "THEY" want you to know, not what you want to know. Plus I have seen times where they do FINNALY answer and say, "Yes we are aware of this problem and it is being address in the next patch". Then the next patch comes out and what happens? As of late all that I've seen is that the patch makes it worse, doesn't fix it, or isn't even there.

Forums are one thing, getting info of this matter on the web page is a joke. You go into one area, it says they've moved to another area, go there, moved again, finally get to where you need to be and it basically tells you nothing. There are no daily updates pertaining to these constant issues. And i'm getting really really tired of hearing that it's going to be fix and in the end it isn't.

In the end all I want is confirmation. Not this mickey mouse, beat around the bush crap. If it's broken, say it's broken. If it's actually being fixed, say it's being fixed. Hell if you want to tell me that it is in fact NOT broken and that's the way you are going to do it, then fine, at least I know. If it's a bug that you are trying to fix but constantly running into other issues that are keeping you from fixing this bug then FINE. Just say something, anything. More and more I read the forum and I see more people getting frustrated by the deception, lies, and total misinformation that some people have offered.

Don't get me wrong, I want to stick with AO, I don't want to stray away if I don't have to. I do believe in being loyal. But after awhile there is this lil voice in the back of your head that starts saying, "maybe it would be better if we try somewhere else" and i'm doing my best to fight that off for the moment. I figure I have about 2 patches left in me to see if anything improves to where I feel comfortable. If not, i'll have to seriously consider if my money is being used wisely, and if I wouldn't be better of spending it somewhere else.

Well that's it, let the flaming begin, I know there are those who will pick this apart and say, "If you don't like it go somewhere else blah blah blah blah blah" If so then be it, at least for the moment I feel better. heh

Thanks.

[_____________Cloudeh]

Dont flame Funcom!
I look forward to every patch! I especially liked the Yalmaha fix, so much better now that i can zoen and fly away whilst getting attacked by, what you call em, Brain eaters or something lool.

Petetions do help, I get them probably all the time within 10/15 mins.

This statment below is soemthing els ei thought of;

As for things not working etc etc, If it works on MY PC, patches perfectly on my pc, etc etc, and it doesnt on yours, then why do you blame it on FC? Its not there fault its a hardware/software problem in your pc.


Anyway..


I think FC deserves a big hand ;]

I mean, think about it, they have thousands of players to please, they have a handful of arks to help them.
They want us to give feedback on bugs, and they will eventually fix it, dont go all stressy and shout at FC becuase your lil missions wont work, I hate missions because they where to hard and stopped but im starting again as i can now, finally, pick the item up.

Honestly, tell me about a perfect game with no bugs.
And take mmorpg's, EQ, was that perfect? no.

I hate FC bashing, they work hard, id like to see you make a game so big its unture work perfectly.