witp patch

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: von Murrin

Well, anyone using Bill the Cat and Opus for an avatar must have their head screwed on properly by definition.[:'(]

I never mentioned this to David, but Gary was a big Bill the Cat fan back in the late eighties and unless something has changed, he'd probably choose a Bill the Cat avatar (that is if he was one to have an avatar, which he isn't since he isn't into online forums). My wife and I got a stuffed animal Opus when we first started going out, and he had a proud place in the audience at our wedding. So you see, there is quite a bond between Matrix and 2by3 that goes beyond wargames.

As for Mike Scholl's last set of comments, I can understand the desire to know whether something has been ruled out or not, and why, but that assumes a finality to the decisions that often does not exist for quite some time. As David said, we often don't know whether a bug is truely a bug until the programmers are working on it. You'd be amazed at how many bugs are user error or something that can't be duplicated. Then there are the bugs that turn out to be very different than originally reported. With features, what gets done depends on what is involved, and an ever changing risk/reward dynamic that is impacted by the ever changing understanding of the issues involved and the resources available to tackle the job. Yes, some items could be rejected out of hand, but I would bet many more that I would have expected to reject out of hand ultimately get done (usually thanks to Mike Woods efforts, but occasionally due to a save coming in or an unanticipated accidental discovery of the root cause of a problem that wasn't even being worked on). Would it be better to give you our first gut call on an issue when it arises (even though it could easily be wrong)? I am usually one for full disclosure, but that in itself takes a lot of time and effort to communicate (especially internally unless we let Mike give you his initial impression without his checking with others on the team). And if we spent that time, we'd probably end up misleading people inadvertantly so often that this in itself would frustrate people.

The bottom line is we try to fix all known bugs (we're not always successful, but if the bug is confirmed we try especially if we have saves and can duplicate the bug). New features, AI improvements and rule changes are something that players should not count on, but with the help of the testers, user comments and save games, Matrix and 2by3 do more than most companies to keep improving the game. As David said, we do appreciate user feedback, even though we may not always agree with it.

[gts2096]

ORIGINAL: David Heath


We are very happy to hear from each and everyone of you and as you know we are always looking to improve our games.

David

And this is why I keep buying games from Matrix......[&o][:D]

[dinsdale]

ORIGINAL: pasternakski

You might want to remember that Frag does not speak for Matrix/2by3. He has disclaimed that over and over again. As for my post, I thought maybe a bit of levity might lighten the mood here somewhat.

I perfectly understand that he does not represent Matrix, but in a way, all of you posting here do. You certainly represent this game in front of potential customers.

In any event, my position is that posters on these forums ought to be seeking improvement in the game by pointing out possible bugs...

When, however, it comes to advocacy of major redesign or alteration of the OB for the selfish purpose of turning the game into something that is satisfactory to only one person or a small segment of the customer base, there's something else afoot, and it needs to be pointed out.

One person's bug report is another person's redesign. [:)] IMHO there are different ways of pointing it out, no matter how provocative or repetative or obnoxious the posts might be.

I have never characterized posters here as "whining and ranting," but I can see why those with a bona fide interest in preserving the integrity of the game and keeping it true to the design intentions that formed its foundation in the first place would be tempted to do so.

In any event, here's my final whine and rant: "Just play the game."

Well as long as it's not yours, or their money which is at stake I'd say go ahead. I do notice a very different posting style whenever someone official from Matrix comes on here (as above.)

Enthusiastic fans can be as damaging as deranged critics, but don't let me stop you all from fighting WW2 in every thread. If nothing else, it does remind me each time I consider buying the game to wait until the next patch.