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Poor communication with customer ?

darrenkuodarrenkuo Member Posts: 366
edited December 2015 in Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
Nov.06th ,
Beamdog Newsletter mentioned :
We will check back again at the end of month with more news, content, and sale announcements

It looks like there are only couple hours remain before end Nov.30th ,

Of course , i understand it will done when it's ready ,

But my concern point is why your guys always say somthing which can't secure it on time ?

I can understand delay for release date
Because of unexpected issue and potential bug issue , nobody can control well ,

But more news , more content ?

Is it really difficult to show some pictures for your fans ?

Especially you tell your customers , you will share something cool for them in specific date ?




Post edited by darrenkuo on

Comments

  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,758
    It looks like that phrase was more a signature than a deliberate sentence.
  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    What irks me, is that most news comes to this forum from people reposting tweets from the developers in https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/26673/all-you-wanted-to-know-about-baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-adventure-y-previously#latest

    It hardly ever happens news is posted directly here. It's like your forced to create a social media account to get updates and people who don't use social media but just read the forum are second rate citizens.
  • shawneshawne Member Posts: 3,239
    edited December 2015
    Son_of_Imoen said:

    What irks me, is that most news comes to this forum from people reposting tweets from the developers in https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/26673/all-you-wanted-to-know-about-baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-adventure-y-previously#latest

    It hardly ever happens news is posted directly here. It's like your forced to create a social media account to get updates and people who don't use social media but just read the forum are second rate citizens.

    And even then, those second-hand reposts tend to come with a boatload of baseless speculation that gets everyone gassed up for no reason. (See in that same thread: the recent "list" tweet and the official response that the new information is that there's no new information.)
    bengoshi said:

    It looks like that phrase was more a signature than a deliberate sentence.

    ... Sure. "End of the month" could mean anything. I mean, they never said which month, right? *rolleye*

    Anyway, OP, you've been around these parts since 2012; you should know by now that the devs have about as much credibility as fortune cookie predictions.
  • QbertQbert Member Posts: 195
    shawne said:

    Son_of_Imoen said:

    What irks me, is that most news comes to this forum from people reposting tweets from the developers in https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/26673/all-you-wanted-to-know-about-baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-adventure-y-previously#latest

    It hardly ever happens news is posted directly here. It's like your forced to create a social media account to get updates and people who don't use social media but just read the forum are second rate citizens.

    And even then, those second-hand reposts tend to come with a boatload of baseless speculation that gets everyone gassed up for no reason. (See in that same thread: the recent "list" tweet and the official response that the new information is that there's no new information.)
    bengoshi said:

    It looks like that phrase was more a signature than a deliberate sentence.

    ... Sure. "End of the month" could mean anything. I mean, they never said which month, right? *rolleye*

    Anyway, OP, you've been around these parts since 2012; you should know by now that the devs have about as much credibility as fortune cookie predictions.
    I think most here know this, in which case not many are getting gassed up about anything. I know I'm not. I don't expect a release before Q2 next year.

    I too think Beamdog could stand to improve their communication.
  • shawneshawne Member Posts: 3,239
    edited December 2015
    Amber_Scott said:

    I'll take your comments to heart and try to improve communication on my end. Thanks everyone.

    Let's do the time warp agaaaaaaain...
  • joluvjoluv Member Posts: 2,137
    @shawne: What a great reminder that Beamdog employees have consistently responded to tedious, accusatory whining with courtesy and empathy!
  • recklessheartrecklessheart Member Posts: 692
    With respect, @joluv it does not do well to claim a moral high-ground when you attack the OP with condemnations that they are 'tedious', 'accusatory', and 'whining'. If anything, @shawne provides ammunition for people who hold the OP's point of view to believe that Beamdog is not learning from prior criticisms, or does not regard community criticisms as important.

    I do not believe that is the case, and I do not mean to accuse Beamdog of that. Saying that, I am sympathetic with the position of the OP, given the amount of time that has elapsed wherein we have learned nothing new about SoD except what fellow members of the community have tried to salvage for us. Do I agree with his phrasing? No, not particularly. I think it is unkind, and forgetful of the great work Beamdog has done and continues to attempt, but it is no worse than the commentary which you are responding with.

    The point I am trying to make here, really, is that all parties could stand to communicate and co-operate with one another better.
  • joluvjoluv Member Posts: 2,137
    @recklessheart: Oh, I didn't claim a moral high ground. My response was less courteous and empathetic than what we've seen from Beamdog employees. I admire their -- and your -- diplomatic language, but I don't think mine was inaccurate.
    darrenkuo said:


    First,

    Someday , your iMac/iPhone/iPad , Galaxy S4/Note burning , explosion in your home,

    You will charge for apple / samsung to get the money back ,
    You forget where you have thousands companies overlooking the product..
    You pay money for who ,then you ask who take responsibility, it's reasonable

    Customer doesn't need to know how many companies involve , it's not their duty ,

    Second,

    If Beamdog can't deal with ATARI , Wizards for information disclose , release date , etc.. by themselves

    They should manage their team members don't release non-confident information to customers,

    Trent tweet information as below on Apr.17th
    The current plan , barring disaster is to roll the new renderer before the end of May. We may roll out a partial version earlier

    I also saw lots of feedback from beamdog related members (beta tester , etc.. ) reply to fans : the new patch coming "soon" , "soon" , "soon" ... in many threads and the timeframe is mid of May

    Please define what's the "soon " in beamdog , one week ? Two or Three ? Or more ?

    Origianl release date delay must get releated companies approved then just can be announced ,
    We see , not ready , no experience , more polish ,

    Eight months later (Orginal release date is Sep/M)

    new patch , they should already know , they can't catch up end of May target, why do they still let their team members keep reply to fans "soon" , "soon" , "soon" in mid of May timeframe,

    Are still fans problems ? Or they have bad communication with customers ?

    Do they study previous experience already ?

    Third,

    If promise , communication are not important.
    What is the advantage point in this small company ?

    Because you are small , you should more quick , flexible than other companies

    We all have choice for other games , i can pay my money for wasteland , eternity project , torment first ..

    Like don't starve which is $14.99 , i can use my money to have fun first ,

    multi-match not ready , cloudy save not ready , all language translation not ready... after six months

    Why should we have to pre-order the game ? I can buy it 1~1.5 years later after the game be released

    We pay the money not only for save 2 bucks , it also show we support beamdog , trust developers

    This is why they can't always say 's fans have unrealistic wish ,

    If they find new patch can't meet end of May target , they can release some information from beta tester or related members more early

    That's all , nobody can complain .. because we had knew it in advance.

    But after May.25th , it still has lots of "soon" , "soon" , "soon" from team members ... how come ?

    Fourth,

    There are many feature request threads in the forum ,
    Developers say they consider weather effects , even Linux version , graphic enhance , etc ..

    The problem is that is it really possible or not ?

    Beamdog is samll company which only has 13 crew ,

    Do they really have enough resources , manpowers, capabilities to meet their dreams ?

    What's their interal target?

    All platform sales?

    Focus on multi-play support?
    Focus on new contents?
    Foucs on game experience improve?

    Or even additonal graphic enhance ? I know source art had been lost , but they ever mention water / weather effects can be considered enhance


    If not , why do they set up so high level target then dis-commit again and again,
    You can't always say under working , consideration ...

    Final,

    Don't give the fans big dreams... it's bad to say everything is possible , every features can be considered.. but eventually it's almost impossible can be done by current team resource...

    I may just waste the time by myself

    I really hope the game be fantastic , the company become nice , so i complain,

  • shawneshawne Member Posts: 3,239
    joluv said:

    @shawne: What a great reminder that Beamdog employees have consistently responded to tedious, accusatory whining with courtesy and empathy!

    Really? Because at this point "improving communication" is turning into Beamdog's version of "Your call is very important to us." But hey, you do you.
  • ArunsunArunsun Member Posts: 1,592
    There is but one thing I regret about Beamdog communication. That would be more datas about when patches and, in this case, SoD will be released. I can understand delay. It is far better to have a bugless (or nearly so) game even with, say, 6 months delay. But having a date, even a pessimistic one, is better than nothing.
    However I can hardly understand why you guys always want more teasing. Right now with no accurate or semi-accurate release date it would be more of a torture than anything.
    Just wanted to mention that releasing screens etc... is not as easy as "upload them on imageshack => copypaste link", because of the legal aspect. The FR franchise belongs to WotC, which means Beamdog needs them to validate any publication, and though they might overlook tweets, I don't think they would overlook a regular official publication from Beamdog.
  • lordkimlordkim Member Posts: 1,063
    .
  • Huskarl2006Huskarl2006 Member Posts: 21
    Forget the release date. Give us more info about content and/or patches.
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    shawne said:

    The devs don't have anything to say about Dragonspear's stories over the years? They don't have concept art? They don't have music samples? They don't have background info on the new characters, or the old ones coming back?

    Well obviously the devs have all of those things in their studio.

    However, @Amber_Scott has already explained (in the other thread to which she refers) that Beamdog are required to get pre-approval from WotC for every detail they pre-release. That's bound to be a time-consuming PITA when they've got plenty of other work to do, so I'm now less surprised that the flow of additional pre-release information has been such a sparse trickle since the official announcement.
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    Aha, thanks for that clarification, @Amber_Scott.

    I shall revert to eager anticipation of some news, then!

    How about now?

    Now!

    NOW!!
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