A Support/Hackers Discussion

[Tanngnjostr]

but on the other hand, we could have expected this knowing your relationship with the company.

Just to clear this up: David (caledonianblues) has no business relationship to EW whatsoever. Granted, he's a very active player, moderator and does a lot of volunteer stuff for the community. But that's exactly what it is: volunteer stuff for which he invests his free time and his own money. Often enough he voices criticism towards design decisions or problems in here when he thinks it's necessary, so I cannot understand your statement above.

Regarding the comparison between tH and FSX... I'm sure David will have a few words to say. If there's any software that he knows as good as tH, it's probably FSX. I don't know much about it, but I have the feeling that you're comparing oranges to apples. The company you mentioned, OrbX, are not the game developers, they are just a small group making add-ons.

I lack the knowledge and experience to say whether the level of interaction between the community and the devs is "unprecedented" and I can see areas where it could be improved (some of which you mentioned), but from my limited experience there are a lot of software companies and game developers (especially the big ones) that do it much worse...

[Nickolino]

Yes, there is communication when it comes to theHunter... it's called ONE-WAY communication for a HUGE(!) part, heck the only time we can ask them something directly is when THEY decide every few months to open a thread in which people can then ask questions. If you happen to have a question weeks later, you're going to be out of luck for the most part.

I don't know how many times over the last couple of years I saw members getting into a heated argument, when just a quick response of the developer could have ended the argument.

It is a fact, considering that there is a great amount of people here who spent unbelievable amounts of time and money. We're talking about players with more than one thousand bucks spent and more than 10 thousands hours of gameplay. It's obvious that userbase really, really care about this game, and it's disproportionate the threatment they recieve from devs. This game have one of the worst supports and feedbacks systems I ever saw in any game or service and looks like it's only keeps running because community engagment. A game with thousands of players and only ONE employee to read all errors, bugs, claims, mistakes and critics is far from acceptable and it's ridiculous.

Now take an issue like this for example: https://youtu.be/ck2piy7hupw?t=4m45s

Why earth do the developers refuse to respond? Lots of people spent money on that crossbow and its scope, not cheap either when it's not on sale, isn't then a more than polite thing to do, to respond to the issue? For Pete's sake, look a that video, it's truly ridiculous that they have not responded to such foolishness of its ironsight that zooms as much as the scope of a tenpoint, while its scope zooms as much as the tenpoint's ironsight!! Their refusal to respond makes me truly mad, it shows that they absolutely do NOT care!

And take a for example the 12 GA Blaser F3 Game O/U Shotgun with its iron sign that is not centered and also mentioned as a negative by several viewers on this forum, but the developer refuses to respond.

Don't forget the Pulsar bow that people are complaining about problems with his recharge system since release and this week got TWO RESKINS.

[Corsaire31]

What I find difficult to understand is why you would spend a lot of money in a game if you are convinced that it is full of bugs which will never get repaired, because support is lousy and team is too small ? Usually when I spend money in a game it means I'm globally satisfied with what I get for the amount I put into. ( which is the case so far with the Hunter ) When I'm not, I keep my money and move to something else.

We can imagine that if thousands of people still invest quite a few bucks, the situation can't be that bad ?

[BCKidd]

What I find difficult to understand is why you would spend a lot of money in a game if you are convinced that it is full of bugs which will never get repaired, because support is lousy and team is too small ? Usually when I spend money in a game it means I'm globally satisfied with what I get for the amount I put into. ( which is the case so far with the Hunter ) When I'm not, I keep my money and move to something else.

We can imagine that if thousands of people still invest quite a few bucks, the situation can't be that bad ?

I agree, we hear about this (read about it) all the time. Folks insisting that they have spent a ton of cash into theHunter, yet they are not satisfied, and likely weren't satisfied when they put in the first couple of dollars, so why would you invest so much $$$ if you aren't satisfied. In which case I'd say, stop buying into the game. Makes no sense that one would if they felt that way. I know I wouldn't. Peace.

BCKidd.

[willybepop]

I see what's going on here! It's Calendonianblue that's hacking the comps just to get us to play in his comps. Smart man!



(For the record, I'm only kidding. Please don't ban me mods.)

[DHRifleman]

It is a fact, considering that there is a great amount of people here who spent unbelievable amounts of time and money. We're talking about players with more than one thousand bucks spent and more than 10 thousands hours of gameplay. It's obvious that userbase really, really care about this game, and it's disproportionate the threatment they recieve from devs. This game have one of the worst supports and feedbacks systems I ever saw in any game or service and looks like it's only keeps running because community engagment. A game with thousands of players and only ONE employee to read all errors, bugs, claims, mistakes and critics is far from acceptable and it's ridiculous.

While email to support, and tickets entered through the help section may be originally read by one person, that does not mean they are the only one dealing with the issues. Any simple task like remove extra weapons, or can't change weapon, bought two of something by mistake, or some issues loading the game are handled by that person, it does not mean that other programming issues are. Those are handed off to the appropriate personnel, and handled by them.
The bug section is not handled by the one support person either.
I think Support (David) does a great job especially having to weed through many emails, and tickets having to do with know bugs that need to be addressed solely by the development team.

Honestly I think having bugs to do with programming should not be sent to support, and should only be entered into the bug section. That section should have a full time person weeding through them, and determining if they can be fixed, or if they will be. What the priority is for fixing them, assigning them to the proper team member, and updating the list as to where each bug stands so the players can view it. If a bug is deemed to not warrant the work to fix it, it should be in the notes we can see, and we will just have to live with it. Hammering support with tickets about know bugs that are not going to be fixed is a waste of everyone time that is involve.

Support I think is fine, the bug section could use some attention though.

[DSL]

What I find difficult to understand is why you would spend a lot of money in a game if you are convinced that it is full of bugs which will never get repaired, because support is lousy and team is too small ? Usually when I spend money in a game it means I'm globally satisfied with what I get for the amount I put into. ( which is the case so far with the Hunter ) When I'm not, I keep my money and move to something else.

We can imagine that if thousands of people still invest quite a few bucks, the situation can't be that bad ?

Conformism is the reason for all remain the same, they have not heard of consumer rights yet.

Most have spent know that will not be heard here, has not abandoned because money does not fall from the sky and waiting an hour to change something for the better.

[Corsaire31]

I understand english is not your native language, and is not mine either, but I'm affraid I don't understand all of your post.

A point I understand and agree with is that money doesn't fall from the sky. Therefore my point that one should not invest money in something he's not satisfied with. Specially when you consider the game offers you a non time-limited free trial.

[DSL]

I understand english is not your native language, and is not mine either, but I'm affraid I don't understand all of your post.

A point I understand and agree with is that money doesn't fall from the sky. Therefore my point that one should not invest money in something he's not satisfied with.

If you understand this point I assume you understand the whole post.

[Nickolino]

What I find difficult to understand is why you would spend a lot of money in a game if you are convinced that it is full of bugs which will never get repaired, because support is lousy and team is too small ? Usually when I spend money in a game it means I'm globally satisfied with what I get for the amount I put into. ( which is the case so far with the Hunter ) When I'm not, I keep my money and move to something else.

We can imagine that if thousands of people still invest quite a few bucks, the situation can't be that bad ?

I didn't, i'm far from it and it's my plan to not spend money on this game anymore. Still, you know that there is a lot of people on this who did it. Hunting simulators are a niche game style and this game is practically alone on market, there is no direct competitors. Real Hunters and gamers who's like this genre (like me) have no other "place" to go.

People spend a lot of money on this because it's a freemium game built that way. If you want to enjoy the game and progress competitively you MUST spend a lot of em$, there is no other way. To hunt every animal you MUST have membership. To hunt birds you MUST buy decoys. To grind hunter score you MUST have all guns and reskins even you don't like the weapons. I won't criticize this system, you accept this at the moment you invest money. My point was that is disproportionate when one side is willing to invest thousands of hours and dollars and the other does not give a damn about the opinion of the first. There is bugs with a lot of time without response and items releaseds without a minimum quality control, like the aimpoint.

think Support (David) does a great job especially having to weed through many emails, and tickets having to do with know bugs that need to be addressed solely by the development team.

Yeah, he does, it's literally a one man army job. I expect the Ministry of Employment of Sweden don't discover this!
When I (and I think everybody) complain about support, we're not criticizing David, but the fact he's working alone and almost without tools when we talk about hackers. People gave some ideas on this topic that could help him a lot on his watchful job. The EW should be more careful and attentive to their players, virtual userbases are volatiles and situations like that can escalate quickly until reach a breakpoint. When you begin to find hackers every day, it means that this point is getting close and close.