Get it off your chest

[Lester]

Is that, like, a shellfish?

 

[nath]

Could be. They say shellfish is an aphrodisiac. And you make me horny.

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by Jonny_Darko
You know what, if everyone who says "I've not played on a BW server for months, they're always empty" were to actually play you wouldn't have that problem.

No you have it very wrong!!

I was playing IGI2 online and there are quite a few free servers. The Codemaster servers in the UK were great! And free! And plenty of people were playing on there.

I then saw the Game.Net servers...locked to the general public...completely empty.

Then the next evening the Codemaster servers were not up for whatever reason and there were loads of people saying I wish they were up the ping rates are superb or they could gain access to the Game.Net servers.

Game.Nets ping rates were excellent too.

I would gladly have jumped onto a Game.Net server as would about 30 other people there if they were free to use.

I am a subscriber but how can I play IGI2 when there is nobody else playing on the server? I have to go where the people are not where the empty server is!!

 

[Trem]

No, its a n00b!





edit:that is for Lester fs!

 

[GDW]

DaGaffer wrote on 06-06-03 09:21:
OK - why are you offended? I'm just confused now.

I cant send this PM as its too long so here is my reply

I suppose you could put it to a small number of things that have just come to a head. I was one of the first subscribers, before GAME aquired Barrysworld. I subscribed back then primarily because I wanted to give something back to Barrysworld. After all it had been a free service since it had evolved, and I felt that for£12 it was the least I could do to help so to speak.

Then it was announced that GAME had taken over, fine nothing at all wrong with that. But at that time came a plethora of promises as to how things were going to really improve. I thought this was great, Id no longer have to play on public servers. Now I can use this subscription to play on the BW servers which might begin to fill up.

But it never happened. Promises continued to be posted on the forum. Things like all early subscribers where going to get a special bonus (or words to that effect). That was about 5-6 months ago and nothing ever came of that.

At the same time we were being told on the forums how to behave and how not to behave. Some regulars like myself at the time thought that this was pretty positive. Afterall a very small number of users were extremely offensive and took things too far. However because we were regulars we knew who was being serious and who wasnt.

As I said in my post the 'Barrysworld' community is probably the best asset that GAME got when it purchased Barrysword. Hundreds of avid gamers, a great foundation on which to build a pay to play service. The thing is we were all here because it was free and because of the community spirit. Now it costs money and not only that the community spirit is being sucked out because people feel inhibited and threatened. Now I know that there are legal ramifications etc etc. of what is posted and that its not just about little Jimmy, but GAME cant expect to retain a unique community like this if the things that made it unique in the first place are removed.

Now I know at the end of the day its just about maximising the wealth of GAME shareholders and that if the original community that came from Barrysworld werent profitable then let them go. Thats fine from a commmercial viewpoint but you cant expect some people to be bitterly opposed to it and not raise their opinions.

GAME appears to feel that the time is approaching were all services such as this will become pay to play and theyve taken the plunge and started the ball rolling. Now it apppears that that strategy isnt working. Loads of people in here have made suggestions as to how things could be improved, theyre comment s appear o pass unnoticed. Ive yet to see any thread started by yourselves admitting that the current strategy isnt working, so what do you suggest we do. Hell theres a lot of intelligent people on these forums , with a wealth of ideas that you dont have to pay for.

Anyway , I diverse I not here to tell you how to run the service. The final thing is that some of the GAME.NET employees want to be accepted as part of the community. Thats just not going to happen if they just appear once in a while to plug a game of tell someone off for abuse. They seem upset at being called a suit, but some of then have already adopted that title for themselves.

At the end of the day Im not worried about the £12. Im just annoyed that promises were made that couldnt be delivered and its the principle of the matter. And yes Im upset that the forums arent the place they once where. I know theres nothing that can be done about it, but that doesnt stop me being annoyed about it.

All I did was start a thread inviting people to get anything off their chest about GAME.net, as the previous few days had been focused on what bad chappies some of us were.

Im sorry for rambling and hopefully some of this will make some sense. I dont expect anything to change and still wont be renewing my subscription.

 

[Jonny_Darko]

Originally posted by GDW
I was one of the first subscribers, before GAME aquired Barrysworld. I subscribed back then primarily because I wanted to give something back to Barrysworld. After all it had been a free service since it had evolved, and I felt that for£12 it was the least I could do to help so to speak.

No you didn't. GAME acquired BarrysWorld before BW subs started. A long time before.

Originally posted by GDW
But it never happened. Promises continued to be posted on the forum. Things like all early subscribers where going to get a special bonus (or words to that effect). That was about 5-6 months ago and nothing ever came of that.

So you didn't get your subs reset in March like everyone else then? A decision, I should add, that was not TedTheDog's doing as everyone suspected, but an idea that came from GAME.

 

[GDW]

Well fuck me that makes it all ok then doesnt it. If that little fact had been communicated to me Id never have needed to start this thread, hell Id never have got annoyed in the first place.

 

[Jonny_Darko]

Originally posted by GDW
Loads of people in here have made suggestions as to how things could be improved, theyre comment s appear o pass unnoticed.

They're not being ignored, they're being taken on board. Most of them have already been kicked around long ago. Some are in the process of happening.

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by Jonny_Darko
So you didn't get your subs reset in March like everyone else then? A decision, I should add, that was not TedTheDog's doing as everyone suspected, but an idea that came from GAME.

Yes it was a nice gesture but if they had not done it I would definitely not have subscribed again!!

The first year was a shambles iro subscriptions and this year isnt much better tbh.

 

[nath]

"Yeah mate yeah, we're dealing with it. That thing you suggested a while ago, yeah no probs mate we're thinking about it. Honestly man, stuffs in the bag, wait and see!"

Come on Jonny, people need to be kept informed about what's going on. You can't just shrug everything off by saying "we're already on it!"

 

[Jonny_Darko]

Stuff *is* going on, but I'm sorry if we can't tell the likes of Jolt, BYGames and whoever else what the plans are.

Be annoyed, you have every right to be, but don't accuse us of not doing anything to improve the situation. Yes, it hasn't gone according to plan so far, but like I've said before no-one trodden this path before, and it's a rough track, but major things are underway and I can't say any more than that. Wait and see, or don't, just don't spend all day accusing us of not being on the case when trust me, we are.

What's so frustrating and nonsensical is that many of you seem to think we're not interested...we don't want this to work. Do you think GAME would invest what it has in this project without every intention of using whatever (frankly quite impressive) resource it has to make it a roaring success?

 

[Gumbo]

Yup, I know you can't say what you are doing, but can you give us an idea of how long before a major change is made, (by major I mean on the scale of the release in stores, only hopefully more successful).

 

[cjravey]

Originally posted by GDW
The final thing is that some of the GAME.NET employees want to be accepted as part of the community. Thats just not going to happen if they just appear once in a while to plug a game of tell someone off for abuse. They seem upset at being called a suit, but some of then have already adopted that title for themselves.

Gonna comment on this, because that was my original beef. Don't want to be accepted as part of the community particularly - as I've said, I work on the shop side. Letting people know they can send in questions for a developer or that Half Life 2 is dead cheap atm is not some kind of heinous affront for a games retailer, it's me job. get over it Just astonished at being called corporate, a 'suit' etc., but as I say I understand why yuou need me to be that faceless person.

 

[GDW]

Arent you going to continue to be an imbecile and pick holes in my post ? Or maybe you want the time to write a more constuctive reply , if not shut up please. Either that or close the thread again, cause youre just making me more angry.

 

[Lester]

Dad dad dad are we there yet?

 

[(Shovel)]

Originally posted by Jonny_Darko
They're not being ignored, they're being taken on board. Most of them have already been kicked around long ago. Some are in the process of happening.

I don't want to sound cynical, because I don't think that you GAME peeps deserve cynacism - you're here in the depths of the gen forum, as has been said, it's great.

Maybe what's lacking is definate answers? It's great if these ideas are being taken back to Game Towers (or whatever corperate stereotype you want for your offices.. ahem) but maybe it would help those who make the suggestions, and especially those posting followup points to know what was happening at the GAME end? I guess... like being given a report of what goes on inside regarding the ideas that come from here.

 

[nath]

People have every right to accuse you of doing nothing, Jonny. They've not actually seen any improvements, and why should they just chuck blind faith your way despite the fact that the servers are still empty.

 

[(Shovel)]

OK, a question:

What are GAME's percieved "risks" of releasing information on an idea? You've mentioned competitors, is that a case of idea thievery protection? What does GAME percieve would happen if any of the current pipeline ideas were to be open for discussion on the forums?

 

[Embattle]

You won't get it out of them.....whatever it is or if it is at all

 

[(Shovel)]

I don't want to know the idea (well, I do, but not right now). Just the perceieved "what if" scenario that prevents the community getting more involved.

 

[Embattle]

You won't get that either

 

[(Shovel)]

£2.50 says I will...

 

[Embattle]

You've got no money to bet with

 

[nath]

You won't be told because there's nothing to tell :|

 

[(Shovel)]

Originally posted by Embattle
You've got no money to bet with

True though, I had to buy some bread and milk this morning, so it's down to 97p.

 

[Gumbo]

There must be stuff in the pipeline, the POS costs alone in the stores would have been pretty big, so they'll want to recoup that, I just want to know when...

Mind you they could just call it a loss now, and give up, shutting the whole lot down and giving us nowhere to carry on these almost pointless arguments.

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by (Shovel)



True though, I had to buy some bread and milk this morning, so it's down to 97p.

If you buy a few tins of 5p Baked Beans you will have food for a week and you'll be living in luxury!

 

[Embattle]

Plus it lowers your heating costs

 

[(Shovel)]

Originally posted by dysfunction
If you buy a few tins of 5p Baked Beans you will have food for a week and you'll be living in luxury!

A guy in my flat has been living of 9p/pack ASDA imitation supernoodles for weeks...

anyway... back to GAME.

 

[nath]

They rock.

But you can get better proper chinese ones for 4p from tesco. Hao Hao I think they're called.