At 09:58 AM 5/18/00 -0600, you wrote:
>We weren't mad at GZ, we were mad at the Live teams answer when GZ asked
>them. I don't think anyone pointed at GZ as the culprit, just Verant as a
>whole. I do think GZ has no idea what bards are all about however. I'd say
>I spend 90% of my time tanking. Even when I go all instrument I get hit by
>every extra mob in the pull.
We went to E3 last week - I got to talk face to face with GZ, god those
folks are good at wiggling out of stuff.
First of all - they were demoing EQ at two different booths - at least. GMs
were doing the demo - with THEIR GM accounts. Boy - all the feedback they
get is sweet - numeric faction changes, mob level and HP, whole buncha
stuff. Plus of course that runnin REALLY REALLY fast thing. I told them it
was really NOT right to be showing off a published product in public with
that kind of client - not that there were many folks there that hadn't
played themselves, but it is VERY misleading demonstration. Did my heart
good to see a Black Screen of Death show up while I was there - least I'm
not the only one. I asked why they were doing that - and why they got so
much valuable info we do not - the only answer was debugging - yeah
right....I think the main problem is they don't understand a regular client
because theirs doesn't have the same shortcomings. Anyway.....
I asked GZ about a few things - like giving us a slot for an instrument
similiar to a range slot. Doubt that will ever happen, they consider it
more work to code than it's worth. He did say that they were going to try
to make items like MM Drums etc - taggable so you couldn't accidently drop
them on the ground. Also asked him about letting us setup a series of songs
so we weren't constantly having to twitch - since this isn't after all
supposed to be a twitch game. He gave some vague answer that at least let
me know they were thinking about doing something like that - but I'll not
be holding my breath.
I suggested GZ subscribe to this list - he said someone forwarded him
'important' things. Grrrrrrr This list has the lowest noise to information
ratio of any I've ever seen. The whole Verant's shit don't stink attitute
is really irritating.
He then went on to tell me one of HIS main characters was a bard - and that
he played on a normal account - ummm, yeah right. Somehow I just couldn't
swallow that one. I got into the whole binding issue with him and another
programmer. I think Brad must put something in the company water cooler -
their eyes glaze over and they start chanting company mantra whenever
something doesn't fit 'the vision'. I could instantly tell that the
official company policy on debating hard questions is "What would YOU do?"
Heard that one several times - unfortunately for them - I'm not shy about
telling them - and I did. Hehehe, that tactic only works on some people. Ya
just don't lob the ball into someone else's court if they are gonna fire it
right back at ya *smile*.
We had an appointment to interview Brad and John both - out of all the
developers we interviewed while we were there - they were they ONLY ones
that blew us off. Poor timing I guess - Keith Parkinson was supposed to be
there to sign the artwork of the Kunark box and a plane strike kept him
away - so the team was signing the posters instead. Brad was running around
- kept saying 30 more min guys..... Well, at the end of 3 long days of
concrete standing - I guess my patience was a little thin. I had this
poster rolled up in my hand - I REALLY wanted to ask him why my poor bard
has to be next to naked for so long - my husband took it out of my hand and
bopped him over the head with it as he darted by once - yelling - GIVE MY
WIFE CLOTHES or some such thing. That was probably a personal highlight
from E3 for me.
Anyway - on a different subject entirely - Anarchy online and Shadowbane
are both looking VERY good - as does UO2 - now officially going by the name
of "Origin".