posted 03-05-99 12:12 AM ET        

Dear Firaxis,

Did you or did you not design your game to work under the Windows environment?

To say, "Oh, yeah, THAT crash. Well, that's a Windows problem" seems odd considering my Windows wouldn't crash (at that specific moment at least) unless I were playing SMAC would it?

True, Windows absolutely sucks and programming for it must be a nightmare, but that's your job: To program under Windows so it doesn't crash. Our job is to pay your salary. If you don't do your job, we can't really do ours.

I truly do appreciate that there is even such a person as Jeff here to read what we have to say, but why not just suck it up and say, "O.K., we'll kill the bug" and then fix it? Blaming Windows is extremely lame.

[Jeff's personal reply to my e-mail account]

Hi yin. I've got to ask what your problem is. Feel free to have
discussions about the game, even if you're not the biggest fan. But
please don't interfere with my ability to troubleshoot problems. If you
disagree with my suggestion, and have another that might solve the
problem, let me know. But don't purposelessly stir up trouble just to be
a pain. If it continues, I'll have to restrict your access to the forum,
which I REALLY don't want to do. Can we work this out?
--
Jeffrey Kennedy Morris
Firaxis Games
QA Director/Programmer
[email protected]

[my reply]

Dear Jeff,

If I misunderstood your post, then I apologize. But from what I could tell, people were reporting a crash (which I have also encountered) and your response was something to the effect of "That's a Window's problem not a SMAC problem." If you didn't mean to say that, then your post was ambiguous. How could it NOT be a SMAC problem when so many people encounter the same problem? If it's not a SMAC problem, then why does my system lock-up only when I play SMAC at certain stages in the game?

This IS clearly a problem between SMAC and Windows, but your response seemed to put the blame on Windows without admitting, "Yeah, we should have worked around that. It will be in patch 3.0"

For the record, you have been very helpful to many people, which is more than I can say for any other company I've dealt with. So don't get me wrong, I think you're doing a GREAT job. You would move to STELLAR status if you never blamed Windows (we all know Windows sucks) and didn't threaten to ban people for bringing up a valid point that you don't agree with.

Anyway, I'd be very interested in hearing your Windows v. SMAC perspective. If you clear this up for me, I'd appreciate it.

[Jeff's final(?) reply]

I'm afraid I don't have the time to spare. Some other time.

--
Jeffrey Kennedy Morris
Firaxis Games
QA Director/Programmer
[email protected]

[my final(?) two cents]

I'll be the first to admit that I don't even begin to understand the challenges of programming a game for the Windows environment, but it is WORTHLESS to tell me "Oh, we didn't forsee that Windows configuration when we started, so that's not a SMAC problem. Fix your hardware."

So, Mr. QA Director/Programmer, it seems like they left out something in your quality assurance training:

Don't deflect blame. Don't threaten to ban your fans for being rightfully (even ignorantly, if that's your opinion) angry that their game doesn't work. And never forget to let people know you are honestly doing your best to fix the problem.

So, Jeff, if this seems like I'm just being a pain, feel free to ban me. I can just sign up again anyway (and I do have IP address work-arounds).

And next time, if you threaten to ban me, at least have the courage to enlighten me first.

Loyal (believe it or not) Firaxis Fan,

Yin

posted 03-05-99 10:21 PM ET            

Look. We all have computers, and most of us have problems at sime time or another. I do. I have a problem where once in a blue moon SMAC will hang my system when I try to run it. You know what? It does the same thing with Motocross Madness. A Microsoft Product. Microsoft can't (wont?) even publish games that work with their own operating system/DirectX drivers. How do you expect Firaxis to? Maybe my particular bug is the fault of my Matrox video drivers. Who knows? After playing games such as Daggerfall, Baldur's Gate, and Fallout (1&2),
Firaxis has (in my mind) released one of the highest quality products in a long time. There are too many uncertainties in the computer industry, and too many different configurations, to blame everything on Firaxis. These are PC's, not Playstations.

Welcome to chaos. How about you try to program something for it?

posted 03-05-99 11:25 PM ET         

I am not saying that Firaxis has gone that way yet, but Jeff's stance is getting kinda scary. On the other hand, I make a living programming myself, have for many years, I know how it goes.

posted 03-06-99 01:27 AM ET            

Windows is like a freak of nature, and we are lucky any programs at all will work for any length of time.

Hell, Windows crashes just because it's running. If system software is the airport, and applications software are the airplanes, then Windows is like a giant sucking machine that continuously bombards the hapless victims caught in its traffic pattern with an unending stream of wind shear. You can't blame the planes for crashing; just patch 'em up and launch 'em down the runway and throw 'em back out into the storm.

posted 03-07-99 01:54 AM ET            

None of us as software developers want to publish software that crashes, but hey, Windoze happens. We all try mightily to make our software work, but if it's running on Windows it's only a matter of time before it crashes. And after you reboot it may run another year before it crashes again. Windoze happens.

Linux crashes less often than Windows. Linux also can't do neat things like autodetect your video card and automatically install accelerator software for it from the basic OS install CD. Linux is too difficult to be the typical user's desktop OS.

posted 03-08-99 11:41 AM ET            

Now that I have ranted about those professional points, my personal opinion is that yeah, maybe Jeff was a bit flaky with that response and how he responded to Yin, but remember his job deals with customer service and that is a tough job (megaprops to Jeff for dealing with this crap). Yin, you have to remember that is *is* their property, *their* forum, that we are *invited* to use. There is no rule saying they can't ban you for any reason no matter how petty. Suck it up, Yin, and deal with your few issues, and let Firaxis deal with the millions they have, and accept his help. You don't like it, go somewhere else.

posted 03-13-99 07:28 PM ET            

Why? If you have no valid input or nothing constructive to say then there is no point in using this forum to flame people.

If you are pointing out a problem or asking for advice fair enough, If all you are trying to do is flame then dont be suprised when people do it back to you.

Yes there are bugs in the coding but hey there are bugs in any code over 100 lines.

What you cannotdo is never release any software as it is bugged or 90% of the people using this forum would have no operating system!!!!!!

You cannot just point the finger in one direction.