The best customer support message I've ever read. Many companies should learn from this example. We are all humans, even the most professional teams consist of humans. We all know, humans make mistakes. The hardest part is admitting these and keep working on the product to make it better.
A few lines are all it takes to see things differently. I don't even care about bugs anymore. YOU made it possible to re-play my favorite game after many years. It was YOU who put many hours and a great deal of efforts into this project, for a small and reasonable fee and all you get is complains. I feel ashamed now although, the few comments I made about bugs were not intended to criticize you but rather to help your effort to make this game even better.
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and KEEP MOVING FORWARD. How much you can take, and KEEP MOVING FORWARD. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!"
Thank you for everything. I've been playing the game since the day after release, and have had no crashes, and only seen some extremely minor graphical glitches, and that infamous help button label; I've not seen any bugs yet that I would consider to be serious. There was the thac0 display issue, but that got fixed the first weekend after release.
As I've said, I love the character action portrait icons, and the color-coded circles. I'll play from now on using BG:EE just for those two features alone. And, I like the blue interface. I know a lot of people don't, but I do.
I am super impressed with how you are supporting this game, and how you are willing to communicate with the forum apolgetically. The forum itself is a step forward in gaming forums, and your attention to it shows that you care about your community. I can't wait for BG2:EE, and for future updates and downloadable content.
I'll pre-order BG2:EE as soon as you make pre-ordering available.
Thank you Overhaul for making my dream come true It's good to see Baldur's Gate rise again And it feels even better, now that i see that you really care about our opinion.
Great to hear you are hard working at fixing the game . What with language-support patch? Can we expect it this week?
We've had language updates to German, Spanish, Polish and Czech. As well the English voices should play in those languages now.
I mean dubbing-support patch. We have subtitles, but with some problems with diactric letters (ł, ó, ę etc) not showing correctly. So we are waiting for official patch supporting other languages, with dubbing files to download and fix this problem with language-specific letters. When the game launched it was said it will be released this week. Is it still valid date with all this hard work you are doing?
Exactly that is the difference between Bioware nowadays and Overhaul Games AND also the reason why you guys will succeed. I wish you all the best! We know you're just humans like us and I really hope no one judges you just because of a rocky start.
I can't Baldurdash because of a laggy intel chip. More like a Baldurcrawl... But full support for the team! Keep it up. Can't wait for the patch. If you need a forum countdown, call me.
Phil, and everyone else who's working so hard on this: You're amazing. And we love you. I personally am grateful because the bug that caused me not to play nonstop prevented me from not sleeping and not finishing any of the 3 papers and 2 other projects I've had to finish in the last week. So thanks for not letting me fail my classes
You will be pleased to know that it is very warm and uncomfortable in my corner of the office, so I have been suffering for many days. (...) We would like to apologize to anyone that has experienced issues, and pledge that we will do our best to help you either get your game running, or receive a refund. We love Baldur's Gate as much as the most die-hard fan, and we'll continue working on it for a long while because we believe both the game and the community deserve ongoing support. And keep in mind as we develop for Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition, we will be back-porting improvements from the sequel into Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition.
Chin up gents: "This too shall pass."
I'm fairly sure it takes guts to take on an old classic like this, what with 10+ years of dedicated fans tinkering and making the game their own. As the curators and restorers of such a classic, you've probably discussed many times over how to deal with the expectations of the fanbase and how to appeal to old dawgs like Cam, Avenger and the other long-time modders, as well as retelling the story to those new to the series.
As hard as it may be right now, please keep faith in yourselves and try to recall the love of the game that drove you to return and rekindle the flame so long kept alive by the community.
"Shut up and keep my money" indeed. And if you don't mind me asking, where do I pledge funds to the continued development of the game? I really want to see this refresh become both an artistic and commercial success, and just like I've pledged funds to Chris Robert's Star Citizen venture, I would like to show my support and pledge funds to the rekindling -- and continued development of -- the Baldur's Gate series and the Infinity Engine that made this all possible.
Cheers to you Team Overhaul (and contributing modders and testers). The real heroes of this tale are you.
"Shut up and keep my money" indeed. And if you don't mind me asking, where do I pledge funds to the continued development of the game? I really want to see this refresh become both an artistic and commercial success, and just like I've pledged funds to Chris Robert's Star Citizen venture, I would like to show my support and pledge funds to the rekindling -- and continued development of -- the Baldur's Gate series and the Infinity Engine that made this all possible.
I would also like to reiterate something I've said before:
Can someone ( @Nathan, @PhillipDaigle, @TrentOster, @CameronTofer ) at Beamdog please, please, please upgrade the site purchasing system to allow for multiple purchases before BG2:EE is announced for pre-order -- not saying drop everything and do it now, though, obviously. I have a great deal of respect for these guys and the work they're putting in, but I don't think anyone at Beamdog realises just how absolutely-mind-numbingly-tedious it is to purchase more than a couple copies of BG:EE at a time... One or two at a time is fine, beamdog.com, click RPG, scroll down a little and click BG:EE, click buy now, click PayPal, enter user name and password, click to proceed, click return to Beamdog, roughly three minutes per purchase. Now imagine that a few more times and imagine the look of absolute boredom on my face.
Something like this would suffice:
I'm not complaining. I want to give you my money. Just a suggestion for the fine folks at Beamdog to consider .
(If that's not possible due to being busy with other things, would it be possible - once BG2:EE is announced for pre-order - to contact Beamdog and tell them how many I want to purchase and get them to send me a PayPal link to complete said purchase? Or perhaps a PayPal donation button?)
On the plus side, I am loving this game. Hope to have more time to play it over the weekend.
I think it is really good to know you guys are working hard to improve things.
I played the multi-player game immediately upon release, and there were so many bugs we couldn't play and that was annoying because we were looking forward to it for half a year.. but beginnings are hard, I am sure things will be much improved quickly and people who jump on board at a later time will probably have a much better experience.
After playing the single player game for a while I must say that it shines.. the improvements are really worth while and it is a totally different experience compared to BG1.
thanks for all your hard work, I am thoroughly drawn back into and addicted to the world of Baldurs Gate again, shame people get so upset, down right rude and make things personal
I am an old time Baldur's gate fan, and the game started me on the road to becoming computer literate. I now understand enough about it to realise that I would rather be sitting here than in your seat. I appreciate the work that you are putting into this and wish you success, as if you do succeed it will be better for the gaming world as a whole. I might point out that what has been happening at Bioware since they were bought up by EA has not been very good to see.
I hope people have understanding and give them further time to troubleshoot and push fixes. My copy works great and has yet to even crash or fail to start. But I have been there with other games, that crash or not start.
Give them more time. They are updating a 20th century game to the 21st and it is like 3+ system operations removed. =]
I, too, would like to say thanks to the Overhaul team for even daring to restore this game. I have been enjoying BG:EE immensely. Great work! Keep it up.
Comments
The hardest part is admitting these and keep working on the product to make it better.
A few lines are all it takes to see things differently. I don't even care about bugs anymore. YOU made it possible to re-play my favorite game after many years. It was YOU who put many hours and a great deal of efforts into this project, for a small and reasonable fee and all you get is complains. I feel ashamed now although, the few comments I made about bugs were not intended to criticize you but rather to help your effort to make this game even better.
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and KEEP MOVING FORWARD. How much you can take, and KEEP MOVING FORWARD. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!"
Keep up the great work and
THANK YOU OVERHAUL GAMES!
As I've said, I love the character action portrait icons, and the color-coded circles. I'll play from now on using BG:EE just for those two features alone. And, I like the blue interface. I know a lot of people don't, but I do.
I am super impressed with how you are supporting this game, and how you are willing to communicate with the forum apolgetically. The forum itself is a step forward in gaming forums, and your attention to it shows that you care about your community. I can't wait for BG2:EE, and for future updates and downloadable content.
I'll pre-order BG2:EE as soon as you make pre-ordering available.
Great job & great attitudes guys! Thanks for both!
Well. If this is true, I'm glad I went the evil route. Faerun doesn't deserve to be saved.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8KMHR_yHZgY/TwlnSzbjvnI/AAAAAAAAAT4/-qB22fmnGoE/s640/cute-cat-sleeping.jpg
... I was trying to be supportive with a cute cat picture, but this is the first forum I've been active on in... ever, so I fail.
I'm fairly sure it takes guts to take on an old classic like this, what with 10+ years of dedicated fans tinkering and making the game their own. As the curators and restorers of such a classic, you've probably discussed many times over how to deal with the expectations of the fanbase and how to appeal to old dawgs like Cam, Avenger and the other long-time modders, as well as retelling the story to those new to the series.
As hard as it may be right now, please keep faith in yourselves and try to recall the love of the game that drove you to return and rekindle the flame so long kept alive by the community.
"Shut up and keep my money" indeed. And if you don't mind me asking, where do I pledge funds to the continued development of the game? I really want to see this refresh become both an artistic and commercial success, and just like I've pledged funds to Chris Robert's Star Citizen venture, I would like to show my support and pledge funds to the rekindling -- and continued development of -- the Baldur's Gate series and the Infinity Engine that made this all possible.
Cheers to you Team Overhaul (and contributing modders and testers). The real heroes of this tale are you.
Can someone ( @Nathan, @PhillipDaigle, @TrentOster, @CameronTofer ) at Beamdog please, please, please upgrade the site purchasing system to allow for multiple purchases before BG2:EE is announced for pre-order -- not saying drop everything and do it now, though, obviously. I have a great deal of respect for these guys and the work they're putting in, but I don't think anyone at Beamdog realises just how absolutely-mind-numbingly-tedious it is to purchase more than a couple copies of BG:EE at a time... One or two at a time is fine, beamdog.com, click RPG, scroll down a little and click BG:EE, click buy now, click PayPal, enter user name and password, click to proceed, click return to Beamdog, roughly three minutes per purchase. Now imagine that a few more times and imagine the look of absolute boredom on my face.
Something like this would suffice:
I'm not complaining. I want to give you my money. Just a suggestion for the fine folks at Beamdog to consider
(If that's not possible due to being busy with other things, would it be possible - once BG2:EE is announced for pre-order - to contact Beamdog and tell them how many I want to purchase and get them to send me a PayPal link to complete said purchase? Or perhaps a PayPal donation button?)
On the plus side, I am loving this game. Hope to have more time to play it over the weekend.
I played the multi-player game immediately upon release, and there were so many bugs we couldn't play and that was annoying because we were looking forward to it for half a year.. but beginnings are hard, I am sure things will be much improved quickly and people who jump on board at a later time will probably have a much better experience.
After playing the single player game for a while I must say that it shines.. the improvements are really worth while and it is a totally different experience compared to BG1.
So keep up the good work, and it will pay off :-)
Give them more time. They are updating a 20th century game to the 21st and it is like 3+ system operations removed. =]
(also posted in priority bug crash on game start thread)
Any news on multiplayer matchmaking?