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Overhaul PR-strategy

EleutherosEleutheros Member Posts: 70
in Archive (General Discussion)
At this point I really have a hard time understanding why there is no update on the patch. There seems to be a lot of steam building up in the community, focusing on the "mid" part of the "mid to late september"-message. I can't understand why it is so hard for Overhaul to say, e.g. "The beta is still too unstable for a constructive open beta. Thus the patch won't be out this week. We'll be back when it's getting closer." I think it would be better for the community if they took the time to do that.

My 2 cents, anyway.

Comments

  • KratokKratok Member Posts: 42
    Mid-september was a whopping 1-2 days ago! Where's the patch, Overhaul?!? *Fetches the pitchforks*

    Or maybe give it some time. The "mid-september" wasn't exactly a promise either, more of an estimate. I want the patch as much as the next guy, but 1 day off from an estimate isn't such a massive issue in my opinion. That said I wouldn't of course mind if they did an update, but I'm fine with waiting a bit longer.
  • trinittrinit Member Posts: 705
    @Kratok great sarcasm there, but i think this wasn't about accusations, this is simply about communication and telling the community whether they should be excited or patient.
  • KratokKratok Member Posts: 42
    edited September 2013
    @trinit I understand, that part wasn't aimed at the OP directly, just more towards what seems to be the general mood here at times. The OP's post is perfectly reasonable, but I don't think it's necessary to have an update post either just 1 day "late", but like I said, I wouldn't mind if there was one.

    Just generally saying that a little bit more patience wouldn't hurt I feel. :)
  • trinittrinit Member Posts: 705
    @Kratok i understand what you mean. if this is teasing, great, if not, i hope we get some announcement. this vague situation with nothing tangible creates some impatient people and i do not blame them.
  • redlineredline Member Posts: 296
    I believe there was a post from @Dee at some point stating that the mid-September deadline was going to be missed. There wasn't a big announcement made, so your original point still stands, but some information has trickled out.
  • Lord_TansheronLord_Tansheron Member Posts: 4,212
    Well, that certainly isn't going to affect people's willingness to preorder BG2:EE. I guess you can't do it right either way; if you keep it vague people complain that it'll never be done, if you name a date people complain when it's missed.
  • shawneshawne Member Posts: 3,239
    @Lord_Tansheron: I always thought the way to do it right would be to name a date and actually hit it. *shrug*
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  • PalanthisPalanthis Member Posts: 283
    edited September 2013
    Kratok said:

    I don't think it's necessary to have an update post either just 1 day "late", but like I said, I wouldn't mind if there was one.

    Just generally saying that a little bit more patience wouldn't hurt I feel. :)

    Well, "1 day late" for some. At first this same patch was announced for the 31 May, so it will be 4 months late. This amount of delay for a patch always seems silly to me when i say it !

    I'd say our patience has been exhausted by now...
  • Lord_TansheronLord_Tansheron Member Posts: 4,212
    @shawne: in Magical Christmas Land, that's true. In the real world, it can't be done 90% of the time. Not because people aren't good enough, mind you, but because you just *can't* be accurate enough in your estimations. Too many variables, too many people. Unless you're willing to slam every deadline with ridiculous safety margins, you'll miss regularly. That's just a reality. It could probably be mitigated with more investment, but there's a point where that effort is just not worth it. Rather lose a bit by missing dates than spend more making sure to hit it.
  • EleutherosEleutheros Member Posts: 70
    @Shandyr I think I understand how @Dee and the rest of the team feel about this, but I'm not convinced that they are managing expectations and newsflow in the optimal manner. This is a knowledge gap situation, where different groups have different amounts of information. Overhaul have to stay behind legislative walls regarding the largest part of the knowledge gap, and that makes this difficult.

    Still, there is no such thing as patience in the information age (look at what Twitter are doing to journalism), and while I am personally more than happy to wait several more months for a better BGEE(2), I keep coming back here checking for info on a daily basis. If there is a situation where the devs know that nothing new is going to be revealed this week (either regarding the patch/open beta-period or the contents of the patch), then I would really like to be told.

    This could for instance be done by having an announcement that was replaced on a weekly basis, basically giving folks a heads up for the rest of the week, e.g. "Sorry guys, but we don't expect to be able to share any new information regarding the patch or BGEE2 this week. We are doing as much as we can to get this done quickly and with top quality!".

    It would be even better if they could give one or more reasons for this, but for all I know that could be behind the legislative walls mentioned above...

    tldr: It might be possible to manage expectations and newsflow in a better way.
  • shawneshawne Member Posts: 3,239
    @Lord_Tansheron: That's a bit of an exaggeration, particularly in this industry - blowing internal deadlines is one thing, but once you announce a time frame, it's considered rather bad form to miss it once, let alone multiple times.
  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    I have generally been positive about BG EE and Beamdog/Overhal, but this patch thing could have been better handled. However Dee has already apologised for offering misleading expectations back in August, which seemed much more genuine than the generic 'professional bullshit' I got from Blizzard over Diablo 3's issues last year.

    Also it is worth pointing out that BG 2 EE release date was a pleasant surprise for most of us, given all the legal mess that cast a shadow over the entire project until relatively recently, I did not expect BG 2 EE to be released until well into 2014 at the earliest.

    This does raise another question in my mind... one which Dee has probably already answered elsewhere. But am I right in thinking that BG EE patch team is separate to the BG 2 EE dev team? Cos if not, it would seem more logical to ensure BG EE patch is released asap before finishing up work on BG 2 EE. I don't think anyone was desperately waiting on BG 2 EE, whereas lots of people were/are waiting for the BG EE patch.

    Also... as a student of economics, I know it's not the most efficient financial strategy (cos patches do not feed into revenue for a new product like BG 2 EE), but perhaps enlarging the 'patches team' might be a good idea to speed up the patch cycle and reduce the level of frustration some people understandably have.
  • ChildofBhaal599ChildofBhaal599 Member Posts: 1,781
    @Lord_tansheron I wonder if I am the only one who read "too many variable" in a mordin voice :)
  • PadentonPadenton Member Posts: 48
    edited September 2013
    Eleutheros said:

    At this point I really have a hard time understanding why there is no update on the patch. There seems to be a lot of steam building up in the community, focusing on the "mid" part of the "mid to late september"-message. I can't understand why it is so hard for Overhaul to say, e.g. "The beta is still too unstable for a constructive open beta. Thus the patch won't be out this week. We'll be back when it's getting closer." I think it would be better for the community if they took the time to do that.

    My 2 cents, anyway.

    It'll be out when it's done. This isn't something you can say for sure when it'll be out. If you go and say it'll be out next week, and then a critical bug is found the next day, then it's a lot worse than if you just gave a rough estimate.
    They've been saying, several times, in several threads, that it's being constantly worked on, and they'll announce more information when it's ready.
    It's your own fault if you're not looking for the answers to your question before making a new thread to complain that it's not out yet.

    How many of these "I'm unhappy" threads do we need?
  • EleutherosEleutheros Member Posts: 70
    Padenton said:

    It'll be out when it's done. This isn't something you can say for sure when it'll be out. If you go and say it'll be out next week, and then a critical bug is found the next day, then it's a lot worse than if you just gave a rough estimate.
    They've been saying, several times, in several threads, that it's being constantly worked on, and they'll announce more information when it's ready.
    It's your own fault if you're not looking for the answers to your question before making a new thread to complain that it's not out yet.

    How many of these "I'm unhappy" threads do we need?

    I'm a bit surprised by that response. To clarify:

    1. I'm not unhappy.
    2. I'm not asking for information stating a release date.

    What I'm asking is that they share what you might call negative information (i.e. information that there is no new information). That is, if they know that the open beta won't start in the next two or three weeks (or something like that), then they could share that.

    Hope that's more clear now.

  • LuigirulesLuigirules Member Posts: 419
    I thought OP made a polite, reasonable post.

    But I think the thing about Overhaul is that they're a small team. I think a lot of the angry people here should take a moment to reflect that a small team simply can't do the amount of work that Blizzard or EA can do. They have unreasonable expectations.
    Heindrich1988 said:

    I don't think anyone was desperately waiting on BG 2 EE, whereas lots of people were/are waiting for the BG EE patch.

    I am desperately waiting on BG2:EE. To be perfectly fair, I only bought BG:EE because I have a compulsive need to have complete sets of things. In my opinion, the first game is fun to play through once...but that's it. It's just the same damn thing with the same bland, barely-there NPCs. BG2's characterization is what makes that game fun, and that's something that the original simply can't compete with.
  • AristilliusAristillius Member Posts: 873
    Padenton said:

    It'll be out when it's done. This isn't something you can say for sure when it'll be out. If you go and say it'll be out next week, and then a critical bug is found the next day, then it's a lot worse than if you just gave a rough estimate.

    That is a good point, which i myself tend to forget at times. Otherwise I think this was a good topic, prudent to bring up. Informative - at least to myself.

    Looking forward to the beta!

  • EleutherosEleutheros Member Posts: 70
    Thank you for taking the time to say that, @Cuv! I really think all your hard work will pay off - and I'm looking forward to dive into an even more enhanced BGEE, and an amazing BG2:EE!
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