Support for a game labelled Fm2014, whilst it is still the first quarter of THAT YEAR, should be continued, don't you think? I mean to basically say, "you bought it, and we know the game has issues, but we are NOT going to fix them" is possibly the worst kind of customer relations, ever.
That's not entirely what they're saying. What they're saying is "we know the game has issues, but we don't believe it makes the game unplayable and because we're not big enough to fix all of them AND develop a new game at the same time, what we're going to try and do is work the fixes into the next game."
Frankly, I think that's a reasonably good kind of customer relations. And that's ignoring the fact that they do do a LOT of fixes - more than say EA ever has on any of their games ever - so it's a little harsh.
A game that was released in October and is only 6 months old, has some fairly minor and some more conspicuous errors/bugs and they refuse to update? Where's the strategy in encouraging ongoing and new business in that? Where's the pride in product? Where's the basic responsibility to the customer?
All buried under a big sign saying "WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH PEOPLE", unfortunately.
SI have a lot of pride in their product, and rightly so. They're a relatively TINY game studio producing a game that is truly global in scale and has a cultural impact far beyond the kind of games most studios of a similar size produce. Although, if you're going to criticise them for not encouraging new business, given FMs sales increasing year on year I think I'd rethink my position.
Your facetious comment is woefully off target. 6 months is hardly indefinitely. If you think asking for hotfix/patch on the few major issues here (strikers, offsides, etc etc) only 6 months after release is too much then you're mistaken. Especially when the season from which the game takes its name is still going!
You do realise pretty much the entire studio has already switched focus to FM15, right? If they didn't, then that game would be coming about around February. So we have two options: either we get an ultra-polished FM14 and no FM15, or we get a pretty well done FM14 and then a new and upgraded game in FM15.
I know I'd choose the latter, frankly.
Football Manager has been the same game since its inception lol, you've always been paying every year for updates.
Not really right, given the entire framework of the game has been rebuilt from the ground up multiple times over the years.
Basically, they simple don't care and now even less because they are already focused in FM15. Let's give March away because of the update, so these guys have 7 months every year to develop a new game (they don't because some editions are just cosmetic updates and some ME issues). Then when November comes they say "Hey guys, here's the Beta version, now go work for us and for free and tell us what is wrong", then when we help and do what they have requested with screenshots and pkm's they have the audacity to say "IT'S YOUR TACTICS".
Oh give me a break.
You're complaining about beta access? You think the consumers mostly iron out the bugs? Don't be ridiculous. SI have a team of beta testers who find 95% of the bugs in the game. The beta they release to the public - which they don't have to do, by the way - has already gone through hundreds of changes and updates.
And then you think you know more about the game than the actual ******* developers?! You need to get your head out of your ****, son.
Look some months ago, several screenshots were posted at SI Forum / Translation issues, with regard to some very bad translations to portuguese. The guy in charge (some Andr? something) didn't even reply and when he did reply was "it's done when it's done". And after I complained (and complained about other issues and even against some moderators), what did they do ? Then banned me, because I had a bad attitude.
And it was probably justified.
He was right. It will be done when it is done. That's the approach SI and Miles Jacobsen have always taken. You set dates for things and one of two things happen: either you miss it and complain, or you half-*** it to get it out on time and people complain. SI have one big date a year to plan around, so I don't blame them for not rushing with as many aspects as they can.
If the history of game development has taught us anything, not rushing a game or aspect of a game out has always always always resulted in a better end product.
Since then I have an IP ban, so I used other computers to create other accounts, which are also banned because they are alias acounts. So, I sent a message to the forum administrator, complaining about a translation issue since the last patch because the portuguese edition has words in brazilian. Neil Brock from SI replied to me and requested if I could sent him screenshots of this problem and pkm's of other ME problems and if I would do so he would clean my previous accounts and allow my access to the SI Forum. Ok, I did sent what he asked. Finaly we come to the current day when, after SI silence and after I have sent another message to the administrator forum, once again Neil Brock replied to me saying they are not going fo fix nothing more, the match engine team is happy with the game and the development cycle of FM14 is closed.
So, when it comes to dealing with customers and managing relations with customers, I guess it's quite clear how SI feels.
Probably quite tired of people, yes.
SI has the absolute whingiest fanbase in the world. Seriously. FIFA comes close, there are MMORPG games that come close, but there is nothing that matches the absolute refusal of FM fans to believe anything other than SI don't know what they're doing.
If you were as unacceptable with your behaviour as I suspect, then Neil Brock's a ******* saint to listen to you despite your repeated attempts to circumvent your ban.