Acheval vs. MuadDib

Angelspit · Unread postby **Angelspit** » 09 Dec 2006, 22:39

<img src="/http://www.muad.com/pikachu.gif" align=right vspace=10 hsapce=10><img src="/http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e45/Acheval/Lain.jpg" align=right vspace=10 hsapce=10>In a thread started by unreal_az on the official forum about the current state of Heroes of Might and Magic V, where people wondered if Ubisoft and Nival were paying attention to the bug reports, Fabrice (<i>MuadDib</i>, for those of you who have been living under a rock during the past three years) made a rare public appearance <a href=http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/ ... 10215>page 4</a>. Fabrice says that while some issues were introduced by the addition of new content, patches will keep being released on a regular basis. I was told that the original version of his post contained a comment about the Ubisoft community managers -- the post has since been edited and the thread close by Acheval, with the following note:

<i>Portions of this post were removed in order to comply with Ubisoft policy. Further information will be coming later; please do not re-post this statement (either in part or in its entirety) in the meantime. Thank you.</i>

Anyone who have dealt with the very friendly Acheval will find this action quite surprising. There should be a few phone calls or emails between the Paris and San Francisco office on Monday. While this little drama is being resolved, you can read a report Fabrice wrote about the <a href="/viewtopic.php?t=5148">remaining bugs in the game</a>.

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1165703944

val-gaav · Unread postby **val-gaav** » 10 Dec 2006, 00:53

For all that do not know Fabrice basicly just said that he is trying for couple of months to get a dedicated CM for Might and magic brand... He is trying but that does not happen ...some people at the top do not listen ... ... ( Acheval is a CM but she does not take care only about M&M )

That was the main point of the statement that was edited by Acheval ....

Anyway why o why they want to keep it secret so much I cannot understand ???-gaav
Edited on Sat, Dec 09 2006, 17:54 by val-gaav

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 10 Dec 2006, 01:04

There can be only one....

It seems Ubi cares very much for M&M.

Kalah · Unread postby **Kalah** » 10 Dec 2006, 02:25

Alamar · Unread postby **Alamar** » 10 Dec 2006, 03:48

I saw that today and was thinking the same WTF that everyone else was.

Argonaut · Unread postby **Argonaut** » 10 Dec 2006, 06:22

The issue here is also : fans etc report bugs, but there is no dedicated manager to compile the bugs and ensure that they are fixed. In actual fact, all the bug report falls into deaf ears, and are lost. Worse of all, if too many people complain about a particular bug or issues, the CM ***closes the thread*** hoping that the problem will go away, as the thread sinks into obscurity. This Ubisoft practice of closing the thread is REALLY REALLY bad. As you can see, they just close the thread again, because they cannot face the reality that there are so many fans that are upset.

So, why do people post on the Ubisoft board, when their opinions are totally ignored, and their threads continued to be closed????

arturchix · Unread postby **arturchix** » 10 Dec 2006, 08:48

Well, Acheval must have closed the thread because she probably took what FC wrote as a personal insult. Acheval is a US Ubisoft CM and that sentence about dedicated CM for M&M brand she probably understood directed at her. That's why the Ubisoft policy statement which might have something to do not writing bad things about Ubisoft CMs in public, no idea really.

Anyway, both Acheval and MuadDib actually are really nice people - sometimes quarrel can happen even among best friends.

Kalah · Unread postby **Kalah** » 10 Dec 2006, 14:53

I just found it funny that A removed parts of it so it would "comply with Ubisoft policy", when F is an important Ubi employee...

Ethric · Unread postby **Ethric** » 10 Dec 2006, 15:05

He's just another drone under the whip, presumeably

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 10 Dec 2006, 15:14

@Kalah

1984 baby.

Wildbear · Unread postby **Wildbear** » 10 Dec 2006, 15:44

Yeah, now that's ubisoft! Removing negative comments is the only way to "comply with Ubisoft policy"

Seriously anyway, dedicating one person to such a tiny community of players (read "on their boards") would look a bit stupid to me. According to what I've seen, there are less than a hundred posts on those forums everyday, and few of them contain relevant data to fix/improve the games.

Caradoc · Unread postby **Caradoc** » 10 Dec 2006, 16:26

Admitting to having bugs can expose a company to litigation. Many companies do not publish bug lists until the fixes have been released. They prefer to handle them through tech support rather than public forums.

What good does it really do to have bug discussions on a public forum? The company should be confirming bugs and entering reports into their database. Really severe bugs should result in immediate patches, but others need to be prioritized, fixed, and tested in a systematic manner. Making public statements really accomplishes nothing.

What I see a lot of is people trying to pressure the company into action on a single issue, not considering what other work is to be done. It is hopelessly naive to think a company has unlimited resources for support of released products and is under some moral obligation to fix any bug as soon as it is reported. Other people just want to beat up the company and use the bug as a 'gotcha'.

Even so, it is entirely appropriate for players to report problems and for user sites like CH to keep lists. But all the woofing is pointless.

Kalah · Unread postby **Kalah** » 10 Dec 2006, 16:31

Hm. Food for thought there.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 10 Dec 2006, 16:57

Caradoc wrote:It is hopelessly naive to think a company has unlimited resources for support of released products and is under some moral obligation to fix any bug as soon as it is reported.

True, but we should do it anyway. There's nothing wrong with demanding perfection, he just shouldn't really expect it.

Wildbear · Unread postby **Wildbear** » 10 Dec 2006, 17:18

Having a visible list of known bugs can help the user. If your game suddenly crashes under some circumstances and you find that same bug repeated in a list, you can drop it until it's been fixed in a patch. But if your game crashes and you don't have anything to check whether the problem is related to the game itself or not, you may search for hours to solve a software/drivers or hardware problem that simply does not exist.

So in my opinion, confirming known issues from time to time is a good thing. If one issue stands unconfirmed, a discussion may help to find out what the bug really is by cross-checking reports. It can be very difficult with the descriptions most players give to know the real circumstances of a crash.

DaemianLucifer · Unread postby **DaemianLucifer** » 10 Dec 2006, 17:25

Plus if a bug is recognized by the developer it tells the consumers that they are working on it,instead of just ignoring it/not knowing about it.

asandir · Unread postby **asandir** » 10 Dec 2006, 23:05

what is a CM? Content Manager or something?
Edited on Sun, Dec 10 2006, 16:05 by stefan.urlus

val-gaav · Unread postby **val-gaav** » 10 Dec 2006, 23:09

CM = community manager

asandir · Unread postby **asandir** » 11 Dec 2006, 04:59

ahhh .... cheers

Caradoc · Unread postby **Caradoc** » 11 Dec 2006, 05:25

I agree with Wildbear and DL about the value of buglists. However, the usefulness depends on the way the list is organized so that players can identify the problems they may be having. Workarounds or ways to avoid problems would be added value. Lists like the one at CH are much easier for the company to work from than complaints scattered around the official forum. I'm sure it would be impractical to allow users to enter bug reports directly to the support database.

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