A Few Questions of the GM's/GOA

Accupuncture

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 21, 2004
Messages
302
Hi

While I and everyone think GOA and DL have done a great job at trying to get us UK players up and running and able to play on release date.

I have a few questions that I'm sure everyone would like answered

1) Why did GOA not find out from their distributers (the people supplying the retailers and ultimatly us) that the game was sat in their warehouses and not on shelves. I cant beleave they did not know. You dont release a new addon without following up its release to its userbase.

2) Why did it take my call to HIP and my post to even get a response back from them (up untill that post we were being told that there would be copies in the stores, right up untill the last minute)

3) Are we the UK userbase going to have to go through the same crap again next release of an addon.

4) If GOA are going to do it this way again ie make it available to download are there going to be resourses to cope with supplying the game/keys this way.

5) Is there going to be honesty from the people in the know with regards cockups. All we want is honesty (should not have to be its players that find out your cockups - be honest and say sorry we know shit happens, we dont like being treaded like shit)

Thats it not too many hard questions to answer its loyal users.
 

Bugz

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
7,297
Accupuncture said:
Hi

While I and everyone think GOA and DL have done a great job at trying to get us UK players up and running and able to play on release date.

I have a few questions that I'm sure everyone would like answered

1) Why did GOA not find out from their distributers (the people supplying the retailers and ultimatly us) that the game was sat in their warehouses and not on shelves. I cant beleave they did not know. You dont release a new addon without following up its release to its userbase.

GoA tried there best even after realising that the distributors weren't distributing in time. Alas, the distributors were a pain.

2) Why did it take my call to HIP and my post to even get a response back from them (up untill that post we were being told that there would be copies in the stores, right up untill the last minute)

Response to who? GoA can do very little to change what the distributors do.

3) Are we the UK userbase going to have to go through the same crap again next release of an addon.

Hopefully not :D

4) If GOA are going to do it this way again ie make it available to download are there going to be resourses to cope with supplying the game/keys this way.

As far as i know many distributors don't like the idea of CD Keys through email and then game through postal services. It's alot of effort for them that could be spent elsewhere. As for GoA doing it - i wouldn't bet fully.

5) Is there going to be honesty from the people in the know with regards cockups. All we want is honesty (should not have to be its players that find out your cockups - be honest and say sorry we know shit happens, we dont like being treaded like shit)

Requiel, the guy everyone seems to flame, is doing a tremendous job and has told Freedyshouse users the situation time and time again. Leave off him and read what he says (not directly @ the topic creator).

Thats it not too many hard questions to answer its loyal users.

My 2 cents.
 

Esselinithia

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
1,110
First: GOA is a branch of France Telecom, not a gme publishers.

Secound: Some GOA staff thinks, saying the lagged router doesn't exist (sprintlink network, paris router) solves problems, and say there are no such router because otherwise they would have to admit: They did choose OT because they belong to same parent company. I seen official persons doing such stuff, but GMs usuauly helping. When you try to solve subscribtion and CD key related problems it is mostly handled by official people. Requiel or Zenythe can't make it much faster.

Third: FT used to be the bigger fish and dictate the terms for stuff, practicing this and expecting some multinationals to follow is a risky bussiness, who knows how it works next? There are many ways to avoid this problem. But GMs were here, and some DLGamer people tried to reach their contacts (official people) with no success. It is easter weekend.

Fourth: Noone was repared for it, and they had other licensing problems, they willbe able to handle later.

Fifth: Requiel knows what his bosses tell to game masters, one who is nice and trying to relay the information shouldn't be flamed or blamed.

5.a) I would blame Game Masters in 2 cases: Ignoring a bug report they should forward to mythic, etc. (quickreply bug, super anon bug) for goa specific bugs. If they don't report it won't be fixed. And would also blame, without anger or anything, some GM in a simple scenario: If I ask them about legality of a tactics that can make rvr effort (sieges, keep maintenance, etc) easier, and end up seeing the enemy realms starting to use it agains me from the next day. But would be happy if the tactics works, and would like to see friend GMs enjoying the game, so it is acceptable...
 

IainC

English WAR Community Manager
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
1,862
Accupuncture said:
Hi

While I and everyone think GOA and DL have done a great job at trying to get us UK players up and running and able to play on release date.

I have a few questions that I'm sure everyone would like answered

1) Why did GOA not find out from their distributers (the people supplying the retailers and ultimatly us) that the game was sat in their warehouses and not on shelves. I cant beleave they did not know. You dont release a new addon without following up its release to its userbase.

2) Why did it take my call to HIP and my post to even get a response back from them (up untill that post we were being told that there would be copies in the stores, right up untill the last minute)

3) Are we the UK userbase going to have to go through the same crap again next release of an addon.

4) If GOA are going to do it this way again ie make it available to download are there going to be resourses to cope with supplying the game/keys this way.

5) Is there going to be honesty from the people in the know with regards cockups. All we want is honesty (should not have to be its players that find out your cockups - be honest and say sorry we know shit happens, we dont like being treaded like shit)

Thats it not too many hard questions to answer its loyal users.

1: The boxes were shipped. The reason they didn't get to shelves is another matter. Boxes went from the distributors to the retailers in time.

2: The situation was changing rapidly on Wednesday. up to that point we and Hip were confident that there would be copies on shelves and in the post for the weekend. When it changed late Wednesday/early Thursday we were immediately aware of the situation and took action to organise a contingency plan.

3: This whole episode was entirely impossible to predict. There was nothing that we or our distributors could do to prevent the situation. Two entirely separate companies came to a deal which had the effect of upsetting our release plans. Based on that while I can't guarantee that it won't hapepn again, I think the odds of a random circumstance having the same effect twice on release weeks is very low.

4: The download option was a very short term measure. We are very grateful for the superb service that DLGamer have provided, however the arrangement is a temporary one to cover an emergency gap. In the event that we offer full online purchasing, there will be a more permanent and robust arrangement in place.

5: I have been entirely honest with the community here. Everything I have said has been the absolute truth. If things subsequently changed, then I have explained that and told you the new situation. There was no 'cockup', there was no intention to mislead. We have been put in a very bad situation by the actions of two unrelated companies and have tried very hard to make sure that it caused as little disruption as possible. I'm not sure how it's possible to be more honest than we have been. I'm also not sure why you seem to be under the impression that we have somehow been 'found out' by the players and are reacting to that. If there's any correlation between any post you've made and a subsequent action by us I assure you it's entirely co-incidental.
 

Accupuncture

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 21, 2004
Messages
302
:) thanks for the prompt reply and your time. This is no way a dig at you or any GM.

I think someone needs to talk to HIP then as that very nice chap told me and I quote him "All parties involved in the release of Catacombs were aware well in advance that the release would not go ahead on the 25th March"

I asked which parties were these and I quote again "GOA,GAME, ourselves and the marketing people."

So GOA new in advance that there would be a problem with the 25th release and right up to the last minute said everything was fine.

On that note when are we going to see more serials supplied to DL so that I may play.
 

Tilda

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
5,755
Accupuncture said:
:) thanks for the prompt reply and your time. This is no way a dig at you or any GM.

I think someone needs to talk to HIP then as that very nice chap told me and I quote him "All parties involved in the release of Catacombs were aware well in advance that the release would not go ahead on the 25th March"

I asked which parties were these and I quote again "GOA,GAME, ourselves and the marketing people."

So GOA new in advance that there would be a problem with the 25th release and right up to the last minute said everything was fine.

On that note when are we going to see more serials supplied to DL so that I may play.
Souces can be misleading Accu, well in advance could be 3 days depending on your time scale.

In relation to your last point, DL are probably interacting with goa as a pretty normal company. From what I gather, DL just had a set number of Catas CD's and just made them avaliable on the web. I doubt there is any special deal going on, and afaik they would have to order new Catas stock like any normal company.
Someone suggested in another thread that GOA simply email DL the cd-key gen for catacombs. This is a silly idea for two reasons; firstly at such short notice nothing like this is going to happen. Realisticly a contract would need to be signed and much complicated legal stuff would have to happen before DL would be able to be given free reign on a CD key-gen. In addition, any program they were given would have to be well tested to make sure GOA got the required revenue for the CD Keys sold. This happening before April 1st is crazily unlikley. Finally a slightly more possible idea would be for goa to email batches of cd keys to DL, ie an email containing 100 CD Keys for £1500 or something, although this has less security problems, it would still likley need high end GOA clearance and a fair bit of testing and contractual work before it could be used. Again, nothing that could really be fixed up over an easter weekend.

Tilda
 

Nomans Land

One of Freddy's beloved
Joined
Apr 28, 2004
Messages
791
Tilda said:
Souces can be misleading Accu, well in advance could be 3 days depending on your time scale.

In relation to your last point, DL are probably interacting with goa as a pretty normal company. From what I gather, DL just had a set number of Catas CD's and just made them avaliable on the web. I doubt there is any special deal going on, and afaik they would have to order new Catas stock like any normal company.
Someone suggested in another thread that GOA simply email DL the cd-key gen for catacombs. This is a silly idea for two reasons; firstly at such short notice nothing like this is going to happen. Realisticly a contract would need to be signed and much complicated legal stuff would have to happen before DL would be able to be given free reign on a CD key-gen. In addition, any program they were given would have to be well tested to make sure GOA got the required revenue for the CD Keys sold. This happening before April 1st is crazily unlikley. Finally a slightly more possible idea would be for goa to email batches of cd keys to DL, ie an email containing 100 CD Keys for £1500 or something, although this has less security problems, it would still likley need high end GOA clearance and a fair bit of testing and contractual work before it could be used. Again, nothing that could really be fixed up over an easter weekend.

Tilda

Paragraphs are your friend ;)
 

LawBringer

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Sep 8, 2004
Messages
331
Having spoken to one UK supplier, the problem seems to be at our end - not GoA, the supplier I spoke to decided that they did not want to post a release date they did not feel they could achieve, that is they rely on 3rd parties - carriers, royal mail etc... and with the public holiday so close to the release date they decided to delay their own release date to avoid having lots of angry customers. Sadly the UK distributors did not it seems communicate their thought to GoA until it was too late. I will be waiting for play.com to deliver as I prefer owning the actual hardware to a DL'd file - my preference.

GoA based in France though did under-estimate the UK attitude, but then the French do have a more "Just do it approach" and get on with it.
 

gervaise

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Jan 4, 2004
Messages
388
It was entirely impossible topredict thatthis would happen ...... again.
More folks should have believed what all the good Freddy posters have been saying for weeks - "Houston we have a problem".

P.S Contingency planning in business is your friend.
 

Berlain

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Mar 27, 2005
Messages
6
none

yes this made me mad as well i was not happy as i was hoping to get the game before my birthday on the 28th of march but i have 2 wait until the 1st of april cos play.com wont send it out befor then i was hoping 2 play the game and change the looks of my cruddy players in to uber looking players
 

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