C
chevalier
Guest
Sigh. It’s difficult for me to be objective, but here’s the deal. Computer games have always been my hobby of choice, especially those that link up with my other interests, like history, geography, whatever. You could argue against my maturity as a guy in early thirties from here, and I wouldn’t really oppose you. Anyway.
There was that game, a sort of freeform historical one, a bit similar to Risk, but more complex. It was very involving and rewarding to play initially, despite some obvious flaws and illogicalities, but eventually the quality began to decrease sharply with post-release design changes via patching (non-optional conceptual changes to ‘vanilla’ game, not optional content or custom user modifications). Where most such patches released in a bugged state and needed a hotfix, in one case delayed a full month due to everybody in that company being on vacation. There is a very clear lack of proper flowcharting, not enough whiteboard time, no records of the big picture, skipped Quality Assurance procedures, probably not all of this but most of it or something in the same vein. Basically just winging it and being incompetent at it.
I had for a long time questioned the logic of some of their design decisions, with not too many constructive results, but no backlash against me, either, until something changed. I stopped following the generally obeyed convention that mandates that suggesting improvements is fine but one should maintain polite fiction that there are no flaws or errors or whatever. I started speaking more openly, I eventually questioned their professional standards, and the experience/supervision/staffing, whatever led to all those questionable decisions, band-aid solutions to problems, not knowing where they were going and everything else that a professionally acting software designer would avoid. Like, a professionally acting software designer wouldn’t even need the QA department to help remove or avoid those issues, they simply wouldn’t even have popped up.
Another problem was the company’s PR and communication line voicing complete satisfaction with themselves and no need for change. Some of the staffers act like they think they’re demigods to be worshipped, which is annoying. Their PR releases follow a similar style. I actually called them out on that once, too.
Anyway, backlash started and has so far involved insults, threats (telling me they’d ban me from the forums when they want to, no reason/rules violation needed), unprofessional comments, psychiatric advice, short messages resembling a moderator’s warning of infraction but not linking or citing anything specific, just accusations of trolling and a request to help them promote a positive atmosphere (meaning praise to them and no criticism) etc. — all these from not only professional corporates (or supposed to be) but actual PR people or related to that branch of the company. Misrepresentations were involved, possibly even some sort of lying.
My guess is that they reacted with very strong resentment against me, because I didn’t engage in the mindless trolling they tolerate in order to fake openmindedness (because ‘your product sucks’ is not something their users would regard seriously anyway) but actually provided arguments and most importantly I brought together the entire list of issues they don’t individually deny but are fighting tooth and nail to prevent anyone from aggregating and pointing out the sheer number or proposing some conclusions regarding the company’s professional standards or whether they have a clue as to what they’re doing.
A moment ago one of them, a high-up PR rep for community relations, posted an off-topic message in one of my threads, putting me down and divulging the contents of a private message I had sent him.
I calmly replied that he might wish to keep that stuff private, and that I was posting to suggest some things for the benefit of the actual developers and the user base, not to give him an opportunity to score PR points for himself by taking shots at me.
Some hours later they banned me for ‘rules violations’ (plural), for two days, and there’s a new message in my inbox I can’t access. Which means a transparently fake tirade on their part along with some threats and a couple of gratuitous insults, unless I’ve developed paranoia.
The ‘rules’ stuff contradicts their earlier reply — to my suggestion that they would be trumping up some infractions — that they didn’t need a reason and could ban me for just their wanting to ban me.
Anyway, this all is eating at me so much, probably due to the amount of PR black ops involved, the gross unfairness of all this, their carefree, careless attitude towards their own incompetence, the disregard for the customer that they officially hide but privately fault in your face, the clear lack of honesty/sincerity in some of those cases. Basically can’t believe this is happening with a normal international software corporation that’s supposed to have some standards.
There was that game, a sort of freeform historical one, a bit similar to Risk, but more complex. It was very involving and rewarding to play initially, despite some obvious flaws and illogicalities, but eventually the quality began to decrease sharply with post-release design changes via patching (non-optional conceptual changes to ‘vanilla’ game, not optional content or custom user modifications). Where most such patches released in a bugged state and needed a hotfix, in one case delayed a full month due to everybody in that company being on vacation. There is a very clear lack of proper flowcharting, not enough whiteboard time, no records of the big picture, skipped Quality Assurance procedures, probably not all of this but most of it or something in the same vein. Basically just winging it and being incompetent at it.
I had for a long time questioned the logic of some of their design decisions, with not too many constructive results, but no backlash against me, either, until something changed. I stopped following the generally obeyed convention that mandates that suggesting improvements is fine but one should maintain polite fiction that there are no flaws or errors or whatever. I started speaking more openly, I eventually questioned their professional standards, and the experience/supervision/staffing, whatever led to all those questionable decisions, band-aid solutions to problems, not knowing where they were going and everything else that a professionally acting software designer would avoid. Like, a professionally acting software designer wouldn’t even need the QA department to help remove or avoid those issues, they simply wouldn’t even have popped up.
Another problem was the company’s PR and communication line voicing complete satisfaction with themselves and no need for change. Some of the staffers act like they think they’re demigods to be worshipped, which is annoying. Their PR releases follow a similar style. I actually called them out on that once, too.
Anyway, backlash started and has so far involved insults, threats (telling me they’d ban me from the forums when they want to, no reason/rules violation needed), unprofessional comments, psychiatric advice, short messages resembling a moderator’s warning of infraction but not linking or citing anything specific, just accusations of trolling and a request to help them promote a positive atmosphere (meaning praise to them and no criticism) etc. — all these from not only professional corporates (or supposed to be) but actual PR people or related to that branch of the company. Misrepresentations were involved, possibly even some sort of lying.
My guess is that they reacted with very strong resentment against me, because I didn’t engage in the mindless trolling they tolerate in order to fake openmindedness (because ‘your product sucks’ is not something their users would regard seriously anyway) but actually provided arguments and most importantly I brought together the entire list of issues they don’t individually deny but are fighting tooth and nail to prevent anyone from aggregating and pointing out the sheer number or proposing some conclusions regarding the company’s professional standards or whether they have a clue as to what they’re doing.
A moment ago one of them, a high-up PR rep for community relations, posted an off-topic message in one of my threads, putting me down and divulging the contents of a private message I had sent him.
I calmly replied that he might wish to keep that stuff private, and that I was posting to suggest some things for the benefit of the actual developers and the user base, not to give him an opportunity to score PR points for himself by taking shots at me.
Some hours later they banned me for ‘rules violations’ (plural), for two days, and there’s a new message in my inbox I can’t access. Which means a transparently fake tirade on their part along with some threats and a couple of gratuitous insults, unless I’ve developed paranoia.
The ‘rules’ stuff contradicts their earlier reply — to my suggestion that they would be trumping up some infractions — that they didn’t need a reason and could ban me for just their wanting to ban me.
Anyway, this all is eating at me so much, probably due to the amount of PR black ops involved, the gross unfairness of all this, their carefree, careless attitude towards their own incompetence, the disregard for the customer that they officially hide but privately fault in your face, the clear lack of honesty/sincerity in some of those cases. Basically can’t believe this is happening with a normal international software corporation that’s supposed to have some standards.
