is the forum support good?

[klausD]

Everybody says that the support of SE4 is so good. I am not so sure for my part. At least I think that the MM support (or shrapnel) for this forum is not good. why?
How many Posts did MM directly at this board which is IMO the most important forum for SE4. Some post are coming from Richard of shrapnel games but these Posts are mainly official or business things. I can not remember Richard told us even once about his opinions about our numerous ideas and suggestions, mods and strategies.
And Aaron? (or the second guy of MM)
No Posts of them at all.
Is this a good forum support? I say no.

Dont get me wrong, guys, I love Se4 and I think MM did a great work and a big step forward in 4x games in releasing this jewel. I know he is only one guy and he works hard on the patches. But I work also hard in my job and I take my time to look 10min. per day in this forum to read all those ideas. It should be in MMs own interest to post some Messages per week in the forum too. MM should consider this action as part of their daily work on the SE4 game. Maybe Aaron read the Messages in this forum, but why didnt he post any Messages? I cannot understand this.

For example I am coming just from the Age of Wonders message board (a fantasy strategy game) and there I feel that there is a really good forum support. In every second thread there is a (or more) message from the programmers or producers of the game in which they comment the ideas and suggestions of their customers.

sorry for the rant but someone had to say it.

klaus

the adress: http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/f...&fn=10&f=,,,10

[Suicide Junkie]

If you want Aaron to respond to you, sent him an E-mail yourself.

On these Boards, there is always a ton of people Online who will help you.
Response time for any question is on the order of an hour, day or night. That's what I call a good, supportive forum.

Aaron dosen't need to post in this forum, cause by the time he's read anything, there is already an answer or solution posted .
Very little ever goes over the heads of the forum veterans.

edit) Response time = 0:20

Check a few of the threads around here, and you'll notice that only threads asking about a specific person's mod, or requiring people to download something, have a delay in response.
Most of the other threads asking questions have the second post within 1&1/2 hours of the first, with a half-hour being a common time delay.

For any basic question, you can expect a response almost instantly.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 30 May 2001).]

[klausD]

Thanks for your prompt answer.
But I think you misunderstood me a little bit. I dont have much questions about the game itsself.(I am playing the SE series since several years)
And I dont want MM to answer questions of newbies or solve rule problems if they appear in a forum thread. For this I think - the same as you think - the helpful veterans of the board should answer those installation, rule or bug questions.

But what I really miss is the dialogue MM should have with all you guys in THIS forum. MM should post sometimes a message in which it takes position to new ideas and suggestions of the members of the forum (wheter they are good or not) But Aaron does not. And thats why I think that MM support is not good in this forum.


I dont say that this forum is no good. I think its a very excellent forum. But that is only because the posters are so excellent. The quality has nothing to do with MM.

Ok, I can send Aaron an email with ideas and if I have luck (3 times out of 10) I get a short reply. This is ok and I am not complaining. But the sending email story was not the point of my critics.

The thread is called "is the forum support good?" And because MM seems to ignore the forum I have to say "no". (sorry SJ)

bye
Klaus

[Matryx]

Well actually I have to say "Yes" to your question.
The question you asked is "Is the forum support good?" and yes it is.
if a question is asked here it is quickly answered.
If there is a problem with the forums, it is remedied asap by Richard (or whoever)
And if a nasty situation develops, a remedy is found faster than I certainly could.

The forum support is excellent, however I think the question you meant to address is "Does MM take an active role in the forums?"
For this, the answer would be "No"
They may read the forums and take our ideas under consideration but they dont post (to my knowledge)

Just my view

Matryx

[jimbob55]

1st off, how do you know Aaron doesn't post?

2nd, imagine the carnage if he did. The hundreds of people who would demand responses for their requests for info, rating ideas, blessing of children etc would crash the board server pretty quick.
Then when he doesn't address each and every little detail, people would become bitter and grumpy that they didn't get an answer.......
Bad Public Relations is probably the reason why we see no Posts by Aaron.

Also a desire to do something other than sit in front of a monitor all day may have something to do with it.

[God Emperor]

I've emailed suggestions to Aaron in the past and usually got a positive comment in return, but, I must admit, I'd be interested to occaisionally see MM's views on major changes proposed by people in the forum.
Regards,
GE