[bf1942] OT: Communication with and from DICE Canada

[Jon Wolberg]

your rish devs go risher as you play with lag, GI

;)

In fact I just added that to the rotating announcements on our 40 man pub

Hopefully I can take it out tomorrow

Jon Wolberg
Tech Support Manager
www.ECGNetwork.Com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Martin Steiger" <martin at steigi.com>
To: <bf1942 at icculus.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 5:51 PM
Subject: [bf1942] OT: Communication with and from DICE Canada


> Dear DICE/EA
>
> Since today was a "more busy day" on this mailinglist (I already thought,
I
> misconfigured my mailclient), I'd like to spend a few words about this
> mailing list, the forums and the general way of communication of DICE
> Canada.
>
> Let me start at the beginning: When BF1942 was ported to linux, it was
Ryan
> C. Gordon who made the whole thing and started this mailing list. Every
> input was (more or less) appreciated by Ryan, who never hesitated to
answer
> to any issue as fast as possible.
>
> Then, BF1942 moved to DICE Sweden. Personally, I believe, Andreas
sometimes
> wasn't so happy about following this list, but that's another story... :)
> Fact is, he took our complaints serious and, after Steve started the
> lightcubed-forums, he was even a frequent visitor there.
>
> At last, BF:V was given to DICE Canada (for whatever reasons) and since
> then, communication was dead. No stop, I'm wrong: I remember having much
> traffic on this list, when Peter Chang did it, asked for our opinion and
> bugs and finally fixed them. His way of communication was sometimes
sloppy,
> but heh, at least we got some informations... :)
>
> Ok, so far for history, now let's juggle some numbers...
>
> Facts are gone now, the following numbers are only my assumptions: I
assume,
> this list has about 1'000 members. About 500 of them are "active" and
wrote
> at least one email. That would be IMHO about 500 more or less serious
> admins.
>
> Now let's go to the forums: ~1800 registered users until now, let's be
brave
> and take 900 as serious admins. That would be 1'400 until now... Let's be
> modest again and say, every of them runs only one 20 slot server, or even
> more modest and decrease the numbers of serious players to only 10 per
> server.
>
> We have the numbers, lets do the math: 1'400 * 10 = 14'000 (!!!!!!!!)
>
> Now for the conclusion: I know, EA has their own forums for bug reporting,
> and I'm sure, they have thousands of posts every day with people,
> complaining about the same thing every time.
>
> On this mailing list and the forums, you have these 14'000 opinions
> _concentrated_ on a "few" mails and a "few" posts. Additionally, more
> experienced admins are helping the less experienced out, so that's also
> saving a lot work (and money) for your support people.
>
> I know you heard this a thousand times already, but please keep in mind,
> that WE are running the servers, that make YOUR game so successful.
>
> We don't expect you to release your business plans for the next years or
any
> release dates, but IMHO, the lack of communication at the moment is
> "inacceptable". The statements of "EA Mike" are just not enough to keep
our
> players happy.
>
> Thanks for your time
>
> Martin Steiger
> (a "proud" member of the BF-community... ;)
>
>