"I'm Dreaming"

[Redeemed143]

of the day, when the the first thing I see when I hit my OOTP bookmark at the top of google chrome, is this:

Sticky: FHM Patch x.x.xx Now Available

Of course x.x.xx will be a real set of numbers.

sugar plums I tell you, sugar plums.

[Bruins86]

Its kinda sad how often i check this site...I think i have a problem lol

[Duranium]

Originally Posted by Bruins86

Its kinda sad how often i check this site...I think i have a problem lol

..me too...

[thepete]

Me too. I didn't think "we're gonna take our time" meant "we're gonna take ALL the time"...closing in on 3 months now, no?

[Orioles1966]

If all the editors aren't turned on,I will be highly disappointed.

[Mordrehl]

From Sebastien's update thread :
I will use this (locked) thread to give you 4-5 updates a week. That way you know what we are working on. Most of the time it will be boring updates but I will use this thread to go into more detail when I feel the time is right.


And here we are, a week without anything posted to that thread .... so what promised to be a new era in communication from the devs has gone back to what it was :P

[Orioles1966]

Originally Posted by Mordrehl

From Sebastien's update thread :
I will use this (locked) thread to give you 4-5 updates a week. That way you know what we are working on. Most of the time it will be boring updates but I will use this thread to go into more detail when I feel the time is right.


And here we are, a week without anything posted to that thread .... so what promised to be a new era in communication from the devs has gone back to what it was :P

Maybe they are releasing a whole new game.

[Orioles1966]

Originally Posted by Redeemed143

of the day, when the the first thing I see when I hit my OOTP bookmark at the top of google chrome, is this:

Sticky: FHM Patch x.x.xx Now Available

Of course x.x.xx will be a real set of numbers.

sugar plums I tell you, sugar plums.

That and the announcement of an OOTP pro basketball game seem far fetched at this point.

[Germaniac]

Originally Posted by Mordrehl

From Sebastien's update thread :
I will use this (locked) thread to give you 4-5 updates a week. That way you know what we are working on. Most of the time it will be boring updates but I will use this thread to go into more detail when I feel the time is right.


And here we are, a week without anything posted to that thread .... so what promised to be a new era in communication from the devs has gone back to what it was :P

What a disappointing experience

I bet OOTP15 will be released before we'll get a new patch for FHM ...

... okay, if there will ever be another patch for FHM14

[Mordrehl]

Originally Posted by Germaniac

What a disappointing experience

I bet OOTP15 will be released before we'll get a new patch for FHM ...

... okay, if there will ever be another patch for FHM14

The next patch or two for FHM will determine in my mind whether I ever pay for a FHM product again to be honest.

The state of the game at launch, the continuing state of the game in all the patches since ... and the sporadic communication from the company has left me disillusioned to say the least.

[Duranium]

...and the ranting starts all over again.....

[Mordrehl]

Originally Posted by Duranium

...and the ranting starts all over again.....

You left out a word "justified ranting" .... I paid for what feels like a half finished product, I feel somewhat deceived between what was advertised and what was delivered ... and further deceived when the devs seem to finally "get it" that more communication is needed, only for them to fall silent again.

I get that there are those who want to passionately defend this product with the vision that by doing so you are encouraging OOTP to continue and improve it's development.

However ... when you ridicule or minimize those of us who are fed up with the lack of communication and the poor state of development, you fail to recognize just how many people have already been turned off by this product.


Witness how quiet these forums are lately? There are people who were very active who have not posted in weeks. There are those who tried this product, found it lacking and will never return again. The easiest form of damage control is communication ... something that has been lacking since launch.

I personally also find it tiresome that people are willing to accept poor execution from software companies ... that it is accepted that products will be launched broken and patched until fixed. What other industry does this? Does the music industry release an album where the vocals are missing or distorted and say "oh it'll be fixed in a future patch". No, because if they did that ... their reputation and sales would suffer. Yet in the software industry we're expected to accept that the product we purchase may not be working as advertised, finished or complete.

[batdad]

Witness how quiet these forums are lately? There are people who were very active who have not posted in weeks. There are those who tried this product, found it lacking and will never return again. The easiest form of damage control is communication ... something that has been lacking since launch.

We are here, we just do not bother whining and complaining all the time anymore. The staff is working on the game, and we are waiting. Life goes on. The game came out not ready for prime time, Sebastien knows it...Jeff knows it, and they are working on it. Thankfully.

And really do people think the next game is going to come out before a patch for this one? LOL.

Back to reading and lurking only occasionally, as tired of the bickering between people who know not what the guys are doing behind the scenes.

[Mordrehl]

Originally Posted by batdad

Back to reading and lurking only occasionally, as tired of the bickering between people who know not what the guys are doing behind the scenes.

Which, if you read my post history, is my biggest gripe ... the lack of communication.

We have a thread, started by Sebastian that states "X updates per week" ... and here we are a week after the last posting by a dev without any communication. The state of the game rates about a 3-4 on my scale of annoyances ... it will eventually be of OOTP quality. But in the meantime, stop leaving us in the dark :P

[GMO123]

I'm very reluctant to say anything against this game, even without a patch, because I support it and all the work that's gone into it but what is bothersome is the poor communication.

I don't understand why someone does not take a few minutes once every few (3-7) days just to let us know what is going on.

It can be a simple message such as 'We're still working on the game and testing it, and when we have it ready to release we'll let you know".

At least we'll know that something is going on in the background and that they care about their current and potential customers.

It seems like the team does not understand the high importance of communication when developing a software product.

It's not like creating something physical where you can show someone an actual product (such as building a house where you can show someone the house being built).

Because there is no physical product the developers must keep the end user up-to-date as to the stage of development.

I've worked on many software projects and I would not be allowed to get away with poor communication.

I'm writing this not as a malicious gripe but it's meant as constructive criticism so they can perhaps understand what the poor communication does to their public image.

I'm optimistic that the poor communication will be improved and the patch will solve a lot of the problems with FHM.

[TheAlaskan]

Beyond the communication issues, I'm sure they're feeling like they're in a tight spot:

1) Release patch earlier to satisfy the masses, but it isn't comprehensive enough to appease everyone and will force everyone to start new games (I think).

2) Wait and release a more comprehensive patch and make people upset at the delays and lack of information.

Honestly, a weekly State Of The Patch post would be all I need:

1) Let's us know the bugs or improvements that are being made.

2) The status on those bugs or improvements.

I'll still be checking in and continuing my North Bay Battalion game (I've made it to 2036 and won the Memorial Cup twice...).

[gekkoguy82]

Same stuff, different day

[silvam14]

At this point, the only thing that will tell the devs what is up is the number of sales on pre-orders for the next version whenever that begins. My guess is there will tend to be more "wait and see" decisions from people, including myself that jumped right on the open beta last year.

[pens66]

Here we go again...

And: It may be somewhat off-topic, but the thread title is pretty fitting and I just want to take the chance to point out what the company thinks about FHM (in case the hockey guys here missed what Markus Heinsohn posted in the football part of the boards):

About 2 years ago we decided to expand our product line as Sebastian (our iOOTP programmer) introduced us to his buddy Malte and told us about their hockey game, which they had been developing in their spare time - Franchise Hockey Manager. Now, the game was released a few months ago, and apart from a few hiccups and lessens learned, FHM is a big success for our company.

I honestly felt insulted by that sentence.

[Orioles1966]

Why is it such a secret and no one can know when the patch is coming out? Like the above said-it's highly successful.