Open letter to Firaxis and Electronic Arts regarding Alpha Centauri

[toor...@metacrawler.com]

Here is a copy of an email I sent to Electronic Arts recently. I post it
here for your comments and input. I think it speaks for itself,
especially for those who have tried to use Alpha Centauri's multiplayer
capabilities...

People,

I don't like to start my communiques with negative statements, but in this
case Electronic Arts certainly deserves it; your web sites are pitiful.
At home on a regular 56k modem you can't get on at all, but what makes it
worse is that your site barely functions, when it does function at all, on
the T1 line here at work. Don't you realize the millions of games you
have out there and that people will check your sites for information and
that, as a marketing tool, your site not only fails to grab your
customers' attention, but in fact turns people away from future Electronic
Arts titles? Myself and a group of friends all have Alpha Centauri, and
aside from complications with the software itself, trying to get help is
as frustrating as the software issues or even more so! Among my group of
friends, Electronic Arts is rapidly building for itself a reputation of
poor customer support and, frankly, incompetence (due to the poor to
nonexistent functionality of your sites). I strongly suggest you remedy
this situation immediately.

Now, on to Alpha Centauri (I guess if I haven't already pissed you off!).
First off, what's with www.alphahq.net? Like I've already mentioned, it
doesn't function! How can you release a multiplayer game and not support
it online in some fashion or another! Have you seen GT's Unreal
Tournament? You load the software, get online, and there are absolutely
no problems, contrary to Alpha Centauri...

HEAT.net does not function at all, at least on Alpha Centauri. You log on
to Heat.net, load up their software, load up AC, go into multiplayer,
click the HEAT option and NOTHING OCCURS!! WHY?! Don't you know I paid
good money for this game?!

HEAT.net says to use IPX when using their site for online AC gaming.
Okay, load up HEAT, load up AC, go into multi-player, hit IPX, and the
game calls for Direct X 5.0 or above. I HAVE DIRECT X 7.0!!! What gives!
This game cost over $40!!! Your reputation is at stake! Doesn't that
matter?

Now, a friend and I decide to call each other directly. It works...except
the game died once thanks to a terrain-driver-something-or-other error. I
can live with that seeing that there are much worse functionality issues
here.

These issues aside, it's a marvelous piece of software and a truly
engaging game. But, seriously, these issues are sophomoric and releasing
a game that has not been test thoroughly can no longer be tolerated.
Little to no online support and the nonfunctional multi-player mode will
tarnish the luster of any piece of software.

I hope you can take my criticism constructively, and that you will answer
my tech issues as soon as possible. I'd like to play the game in multi-
player mode because that's the reason I bought it.

Thanks,

Toorglick

--
Posted via CNET Help.com
http://www.help.com/

[Hyperion]

Why can't you get the EA websites to load? They're graphically intense (as
all game sites are) but I don't have any problems with my 56k.

toor...@metacrawler.com wrote in message ...

[toor...@metacrawler.com]

Hyperion wrote:
>
>
> Why can't you get the EA websites to load? They're graphically intense
(as
> all game sites are) but I don't have any problems with my 56k.
>

That's a Jim-dandy question that I'd like to have answered. I don't have
problems with other sites. Even HEAT.net, for all its goofiness, works
fine. EA did respond, btw, saying they're been having problems on their
end, and that'd they'd be fixed by the end of the week. But, I've been
having this problem since Christmas. Even on a T1 line, I get slow
performance from Alphahq.net. Either no load, or it loads a Unix error
page.