Original Message sent Wed. April 13, 2011.
Good Morning,
I'm a long time casual player of your great RPG's. They
are innovative, original, and challenging. There is, however, a
critical issue that I feel needs to be addressed. I work at a public
affairs office for a large public organization, and have experience
dealing with inquiries. I have to express my severe dissatisfaction and
concern with what appears to be an unbalanced protocol for handling game
problems and subsequent questions from customers.
I'm making an assumption that Bioware, or whichever relative company
deals with game problems and customer support, is intentionally ignoring
repeated requests for these support services when the issue at hand is
either not able to be fixed or still being addressed. I'm making this
assumption because there are no official announcements to the contrary.
In fact, there seems to be a suspicious lack of any official involvement
when it comes to certain issues.
Its readily apparent that something is going unsaid. An internet search
for easily fixed, avoidable, or user generated game problems provides
pertinent information with little ambiguity directly from the source.
Problem solved, bug avoided, happy gamer. Unfortunately it has become
clear to me that in certain cases, when a customer turns to your company
for help, both that customer, and the issue in general is intentionally
ignored. This is leading to a growing community of players who are
becoming disenfranchised with otherwise excellent games.
Personally, I ignore most bugs. I realize how much goes in to making
such expansive games, and far be it from me to expect perfection. If I
can't ignore the problem, I reload an earlier save, turning to the
internet as a last resort. Ninety-nine percent of the time this is all
I need to do. However, and this is a big however, when I encounter a
problem and your company's help features don't even acknowledge it, I
first think the bug is another unique game play experience, (like the
Fade), only to realize I'm experiencing a glitch that has ruined my
game. I become so cautious of stumbling into another unacknowledged
problem that I spend more time verifying game content online than I do
actually playing the game. The game, which I thought would be an all
time favorite, just became a warning for me when selecting other titles
by the same company.
Here's a specific example:
[Please understand that I am a casual console gamer. I have little to
no understanding of the basics of PC gaming mechanics. MODS, Exploits,
DRM; all are terms that I have only a vague understanding of, and never
intentionally use. Further, the only reason I know these terms is
because many who consider themselves PC, RPG experts, (your traditional
base) have very similar theories on ignored bugs, all of which usually
contain one of previously mentioned terms.]
I played Dragon Age: Origins for my Xbox 360 upon its initial release a
few years ago. At one point in the game the game world seemed to morph,
change colors, and alter between overlapping paths. My mage would cast
useless spells at regular intervals, and all of my characters stopped
gaining experience. I thought I was in something similar to the game's
Fade, and started trying to figure out the 'quest'. Now I know that
this was, in fact, my first experience with issues like the ones I'm
emailing you about.
Skip ahead to last month. I bought Dragon Age II for my PS3(different
console), got a notion to buy Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition, for
my PS3 as well. Now I could import characters, and play the series as a
whole from beginning to end. I had forgotten all about the problems I
experienced with my Xbox version, and I was confident that since I
bought the Ultimate Edition, it was on another console, and it had been
YEARS since my first playing, all bugs from the original version would
have been dealt with. I was wrong.
I had the same problems, which instantly triggered my memory of
the original experience. And here I am now, frustrated, perplexed,
humiliated at having spent money twice on this, tired from searching
online all day to no end, and wondering if the 90 percent of the rest of
the series that I have yet to play, from Origins DLC to Dragon Age II
and its DLC, is just as problematic.
I rarely write to companies, but I am seriously considering a
personal boycott of your products. If this were solely a matter of
bugs, I would not be so critical. But that's not the real issue. The
real issue is your refusal to just give us a warning. It may seem like
the most efficient method of crowd control, and you may still continue
to make money selling future titles even if your traditional customers
leave. But I avidly look for new RPG titles, and have noticed that the
majority of your products are extensions, add-ons, and sequels. It
seems to me you would do well to treat your customers with some basic
decency. I don't think your company is being malicious, but regardless
of intention you are being perceived as such because of your silence.
Hoping this does not fall on deaf ears,
v/r
Modifié par matthew.e.clifton, 13 avril 2011 - 09:24 .
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