An Alternate Strategy?

[DroopSnoot]

Originally Posted by carguy_

In my opinion the updates probably have been more frequent than any other game I bought

LOL because it was virtually unplayable to ALL on release and they had to do something, you dont think they patched out of the goodness of their hearts do you.
The patches people are refering to are the ones we havent even seen yet.

[Codex]

Originally Posted by mxmadman

So.. when one of your projects that 'will be done when its done' is going to be late, do you also recommend that your clients go to your competition for their products while they wait?

If so, how's business holdin' up?

Well I'm employed by a bank as a developer for the corporate sector, so I have no competition, only deadlines. I'm probably fortunate that I'm not a contract developer, but having said that, the contractors only real competition is at the job seeking level.

With regards to CoD what "competition" is there? I've already said if you need to fill the simming void there are other sims out there. But you know as well as others, we will all come back to IL-2 CoD eventually.

BTW Business is great for me. During my contract days honesty was the best policy and if I felt the "competition" would do a better job than me, I would refer my clients to them as did the competition did for me. It's bad for business to say you can do the job, knowing full well that you can't. You only hurt yourself in the end.

[mxmadman]

Originally Posted by Codex

Well I'm employed by a bank as a developer for the corporate sector, so I have no competition, only deadlines. I'm probably fortunate that I'm not a contract developer, but having said that, the contractors only real competition is at the job seeking level.

With regards to CoD what "competition" is there? I've already said if you need to fill the simming void there are other sims out there. But you know as well as others, we will all come back to IL-2 CoD eventually.

BTW Business is great for me. During my contract days honesty was the best policy and if I felt the "competition" would do a better job than me, I would refer my clients to them as did the competition did for me. It's bad for business to say you can do the job, knowing full well that you can't. You only hurt yourself in the end.

I respect your response, sorry for being a little passive aggressive. The competition I referred to are the games you listed in your last post.

The difference between how you operate and how 1C operates is your dedication to honest communication. As stated earlier, 'we're working on it' is such a vague response that borders on insulting our intelligence.

Deadlines are broken by everyone, for an unlimited number of reasons. Its how you respond to those set backs that makes, in this case a company, what it is.

[Codex]

No need to apologize, it's all good, I didn't take it as being aggressive.

I think that the "secrecy" aspect to development can frustrate people hence the constant barrage of threads and posts saying "are we there yet?".

Until you've had some involvement in the process it can seem like they're doing nothing and only sending out notices every Friday say we're still working on it.

It's all about patience and ... GOOD DISTRACTION

[robtek]

It is a question of trust.

Either you trust the devs when they say they are working on the patch, then you'll know its ready when its released.

Or you dont trust the devs when they say they are working on the patch, calling them liars by that, then it doesn't matter what is posted as you would only believe it when it fits your opinion.

I, for my part, trust the devs, because they are working to get their baby running, to get their jobs paid, to ge me the flightsim i adore.

The only way for the devs to get the trust back from the people who didn't have enough, is to present the patch, not talking to people who wont believe anything anyway.

[Insuber]

If you want examples of a correct customer - developer relationship, look at the iPad apps. The developers - most of them - have websites with development plans, public bug lists, blogs, Q&A. They normally answer to emails by the hour. If you want an example:

http://notesplusapp.com/versions/development-progress

Those devs want to retain the existing customers, and attract new ones showing an excellent after sale support. It counts a lot.

[robtek]

I'd rather have the devs doing a job they know, instead of wasting time in forums.

Once the sim is working at a adequate level there may be resources left for that.

And alienating customers who have already paid and have run out of patience? Well, the only solution is a working patch, not sweet talking.

Oh, and Apple and Co have to have good customer relations to sell their not really cheap stuff.

[Insuber]

Originally Posted by robtek

I'd rather have the devs doing a job they know, instead of wasting time in forums.

Once the sim is working at a adequate level there may be resources left for that.

And alienating customers who have already paid and have run out of patience? Well, the only solution is a working patch, not sweet talking.

Oh, and Apple and Co have to have good customer relations to sell their not really cheap stuff.

Have you ever purchased an app? They start from .79 €, most of them cost 2-3 euros. Not really expensive stuff. And what you call sweet talking ... OMG I stop here.

[Chivas]

I don't see any secrecy coming from the devs. At this point we know people are rewriting the graphic code, testing, and rewriting until it works to allow for better performance and headroom. We know they have other people working on the AI, FM, DM, Commands etc. They don't have to tell me every week they are still rewriting and testing as that should be fairly obvious. Its also a job you can't put a timeframe too, after testing each patch build it either works or there are new bugs to fix. If the development goes under we should know in less than a week as the Russian COD forums will get wind of it quickly.

[CaptainDoggles]

Originally Posted by robtek

I'd rather have the devs doing a job they know, instead of wasting time in forums.

This is a false dichotomy. Somewhere down the line, somebody started spreading the notion that Maddox Games can't be communicative and also develop a halfway decent sim at the same time.

I don't believe that to be true.