WHAT ABOUT WESTWOOD ?

[djhenry]

Each company needs to rely on something. And as a main goal each company is creating something to answer the needs of thei client.the problem with software engineering, especially with computer gaming is the defenition of the word "creating". By that i mean that a company could create a program, by what they think is "the public's demand" (like computer games:let's say that strategy games are the publics' deman).While giving 100% of effort on the creation of the game, less and less time and money is spent on supporting the product.

For a more clear view of not, or to be exact immediate support look at WESTWOOD. The Tech-support is active for only 3-4 months AFTER the release of the product. This is a short list of products that westwood created, and some known issues:

1.dune 2000:

 i.this game has a problem with LAN support on windows 98. the solution westwood offers isn't helpful.

 ii.this program fails on some occasions to run on XP platforms.

 iii.further development and bug treatment stopped after 2 months.

2.emperor:

 i.community support has been abandoned completly by westwood, and fans had to recreate it.

 ii.known bugs and issues were reported, Costumers had nothing but only a fanmade thread in their former

  forums to help.

 iii.commun asked questions (faq's and such) weren't updated since 3 months after the release.

 iv.further plans and patching were delayed

3.command & conquer - tiberian sun

 i. some multyplayer problems and bug expolitation weren't fixed.

4.red alert 2

 i. some multyplayer problems and bug expolitation weren't fixed.

As for these games:

westwood has stopped making plans for them because the "creation" was good enough (back then..) and the supporting of the product seemed less impotant. We, as clients should think more about the meaning and relevence of the word abandoned.

has westwood really abandoned us ?

[ken124578]

hey, don't think like that, just think: ww has abandoned us those @#!& bastards abandoned us!

j/k ;D

[Nyarlathotep]

A new support site is currently in development as part of my companies website, so be patient. It will cover ALL games, and I do not mean just Westwood games ;)

[djhenry]

nyar, what's the address ????

[Frodo_I]

YOu bring up an interesting point Dj. Let me see if i can summarize correctly. Your saying that ww decides what they think the public wants and acts on it?? Let me ask this. WHy doesn't WW ask the public what they want and then act on it instead of assuming they know beforehand???Case in point, ww feels "support" means support a game only during the launch phase. Yet Blizzard has thousands of fans that still play pc games that are 4 to 5 years old, not because the games any better than WW's, but because the competition is. The competition is better at blizzard because blizzard STOMPS all cheats and bugs as they are found (or soon thereafter). WW doesn't do this, and so WW isn't making the money Blizzard is making, and WW won't continue getting the sales they have had in the past if more and more people get unhappy with their support efforts

[Desert_Eagle25]

damn straight. ;D

[Nyarlathotep]

nyar, what's the address ????

www.gameheaven.nl

Nothing their yet though..

[djhenry]

thanks nyar

frodo: you are right, though it depends on what does the word "support" actually mean. And i just wanted to point out that USUALLY companies are depending on their costumers. if not for them, the company wouldn't have been in the first place.this doesn't necesserily means that westwood has a group of people that asks EACH CLIENT what they want... they just make an assumption and go for it.... although westwood tends to make buggy products.

[nemafakei]

There has been a problem with WW and IG with emperor. As I see it, IG made the game; it was a little buggy, but it could be fixed. But WW saw no profit in doing so: the number of customers it was likely to disappoint was fewer, due to the limited size of sales (perhaps as a result of previous problems?) - so they would lose very few of their potential market for the next game (and there is no direct profit in Tech Support). Athough IG made the game, WW could veto any funds for improving it. So a few minor problems were fixed, then they left it at that. I think the managers of WW have become a little too concerned in profits...

WW haven't abandoned us. They want us back for their next games, but they just don't want to spend money on Emp in order to do it. Which is probably bad business, and certainly bad behaviour.

[ken124578]

hehe, LIONHEAD is better, at least they let their customers suggest what would be in their next game (black and white 2) sweet 8)

i'll leave emp. when it comes out, which wil take a while :'(

[djhenry]

well, just to add more wood to the fire...

When designing a product 67 of all costs go directly to .... support. that's right. support means:

1.fixing and tracing bugs.

2.adding features.

3.making the program more stable with OS.

4.research and server support.

well, westwood done all that (yeah, right :- )

they still dodn't fix all their bugs, i think nyar here deserves a westwoods' paycheck for his wonderful work.

features were added, but not too much (at least no grouping was added, and no music patch was ever done, nor fixing known multyplayer bugs...)

and about research and server support, well, they took off their site over @ westwood and dropped it all on gob.... well....

i think that they should trash their source and give it to the public. i mean ... look at freespace 2, homeworld, cataclysm and total annihilation , those have too much mods and goodies because the developers wanted to see what will the talented fans make out of their work. i don't mean that there's been some bad work on emperor, but it should have been made more... "user friendly"

[vidiware]

Remember, the greatest thing with westwood is the release of a few great games...

but you forgot Dune2

Why don't they give it away as unsupported freeware?

[Nyarlathotep]

"i think nyar here deserves a westwoods' paycheck for his wonderful work."

I don't need a paycheck from Westwood. That won't make me as happy as when I'm able to solve problems for the users in general.

I have some knowledge on computers as I build them myself. In the line of my work I have dealt with many support isuses (I have been technical manager of a European backbone). What I'm trying to do is to show how support probably should be (at least in my opinion).

I know Westwood can't do it the same way I'm doing, but IMHO if you support a game, people will not complain about support. If you support a game like Westwood does, people start to complain. I'm showing that you rather don't want any reaction on your support, opposed to having it critizized (?) by the customer.

The support area on the new website I'm setting up will be huge, as I have so many information that it will take me a while to get everything done. Once done, I'm thinking of asking game companies like Weswtood to have me support their games to a certain extend. Only the real difficult problems will be transferred to Westwood, which should give them less to do and provide the real support to people who really need it.

Just look at the amount of posts in the tech forum and have in mind the short time it exists. Also, not to forget my e-mail. In my e-mail I have more support requests then there are posts in the tech forum :O That's just me, now think how many requests are going directly to Westwood..

I think Westwood needs to consider some things in the way they create and support their products. If all goes the way I hope it's going, I might be able to help them out ;)

[djhenry]

well, i know nyar. and it's a tough thing too.

that's why i admire your hard work in this scene.

[djhenry]

BUMP