At 03:20 PM 4/28/99 -0400, Gabriel wrote:

>Right, so I guess they DO need to work on it now. I'll just have to hope
>they keep enough staff on the current product to keep it in good order.

The reality of the software business is that you have to work on the next
release and maintain the current release(s). There's some overlap, as bugs
in the current release should be fixed in the next one as well as for the
current one (via maintenance releases), but keeping all that staffed and
under control is a difficult job.

My guess is that Verant barely had the staff to not quite finish the
initial release and they're now completely swamped attempting to maintain
it, including finishing details and fixing bugs, and on top of that they're
trying to figure out what they can realistically do next. Along with that
there's the ongoing operation of the servers, since this sort of game play
requires their ongoing work and support.

All that said means I understand the bind I figure they're in, but that
still doesn't entirely excuse the lack of communication. Their
documentation is abysmal. The game is complex and rich to the point that
it's very hard to tell bugs from game features, which means that people can
easily waste many hours of game play trying to do or use something that's
broken rather than appropriately obscure. There's little excuse for
letting that situation continue. Among all their people they should be
able to dedicate one or two to keeping people from beating their heads
against blind alleys (to mix a metaphor).

As a bard and a tailor (and in another personna a warrior and a smith), I'd
settle for some effects not working for a while if I simply knew which were
broken and which I haven't understood but should work out in game. There's
enough there to have plenty of fun while I wait for fixes and finishes, but
I resent wasting on wild-goose chases any of the too much time I already
spend in the game.

Bob