[bf1942] Hotfix release time upgraded from 'soon' to 'not far off'

[David Stevens]

Whenever I deal with software developers, I ask them how long it will take,
double that number, add 10% and tell that to the customer.   It is usually
pretty close to bang-on.

As far as being vague, and being precise, with a monolith like EA, its very
difficult to wrap everything together to give a precise date, and that's why
the give the vague ones. It's a lot simpler than making a promise, and
having the community rant and rave when they fail to meet it.

Dave's #1 rule- NEVER overpromise, and underdeliver.  Nothing pisses off
people more (in my books)

This is EA's basic malfunction, as much as they try to step around it, the
give us a promise ("This software has been qa'd for 2 weeks, and is ready to
go") and then fail on it.

It only makes it worse when they promise "soon."   As to me, "Soon" is
within 1 -3 days (when we are talking a patch, If I was diagnosed with
cancer, and was going to die "soon" that would be 6 months)

Well, enough of my ranting, as much as we whine and complain, they won't do
anything about it.   I will just go to EBgames, and try and return my copy.

Dave


-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Mahoney [mailto:akaelite at rogers.com] 
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 8:49 AM
To: bf1942 at icculus.org
Subject: Re: [bf1942] Hotfix release time upgraded from 'soon' to 'not far
off'

So rather than educate the customer on their practices and reasoning they 
choose to be vague and evasive. Has anyone thought about promising a date 
later than expected. This way when the customer gets it early they are 
pleasantly surprised
and the software gurus look good at the same time. It's astounding. The 
intelligence level of most corporations is quite high but they lack common 
sense. Even Einstein couldn't find his way home. LOL


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lee Latham" <leeprivate at cgmlarson.com>
To: <bf1942 at icculus.org>
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 10:32 AM
Subject: Re: [bf1942] Hotfix release time upgraded from 'soon' to 'not far 
off'


> In their defense, as a software professional myself, I can tell you that 
> they are just trying to not lie about it.   If you ever give a customer an

> estimated date, they always treat it as a promised delivery date, so it's 
> better, when possible, to be vague.
>
> At 05:42 AM 7/15/2005, you wrote:
>>oo look it's in testing, that really fills me with confidence!!
>>----- Original Message ----- From: "Renegade Tyrant" <tyrant at rngd.net>
>>To: <bf1942 at icculus.org>
>>Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 10:31 AM
>>Subject: [bf1942] Hotfix release time upgraded from 'soon' to 'not far 
>>off'
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Last Week the 'hotfix' for the failed 1.01 patch was said to be available
>>>'soon' (after it was also said to be a 'one line fix'). In a dramatic 
>>>move,
>>>in a whole week this one line of codework has gone from 'soon' to 'not 
>>>far
>>>off'.
>>>
>>> From EA's latest community update:
>>>
>>>"Listen up soldiers, this update is to inform you that EA and DICE have a
>>>HOTFIX candidate for Battlefield 2 v1.01 in testing now. What does this
>>>mean? It means the fix for the memory leak found in v1.01 is being tested
>>>and will soon be available. While we're unable to specify an exact 
>>>release
>>>date, rest assured, it's not far off and we will keep you updated through
>>>this web space"
>>>
>>>
>>>I expect next weeks announcement will be 'any time now'
>>>
>>>
>>>Their community announcement also 'announced' that Gamespy is having some
>>>problems...and in other news...they let us know that water is 'wet'
>>>http://www.eagames.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/editorial.jsp
?sr
>>>c=update_071405
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>