Quote Originally Posted by Old Celt
Turbo,

I've read alot of posts on several forums and never once found a remark from a "lapdog" saying you should be grateful for a patch. All software has bugs. When they are identified, the releasing company has a responsibility to act for a reasonable length of time to support their work. Customer satisfaction as an overall indicator is very important.
Huh? I've seen those posts OVER and OVER and OVER again about how grateful everyone should be for the game or for the patch and that nobody should ever criticize it. It is common theme in any game forum. We call them the whiner whiners.

I've also seen many posts where folks can point to specific problems and be told they are wrong by the same types... It is amusing when a patch actually fixes the "non-existent" problem.

And the WORST defense of all is that "well, if you want a better product, you are a whiner and in the minority, so go away." That is what you are in effect saying. The best input I got for software development and bug fixes was from those "difficult customers."

Turbo's right about companies failing when they lose the thread. Drive off your core users and you have a serious problem. I have seen this from within a company as well as from outside. It usually takes a couple of years to reach a crisis state, but some of us see the indicators well ahead of time, when the shift occurs. Moving out of your niche into an over competitive commodity market is a classic blunder. When you decide that servicing your core niche is no longer important, you might as well put a gun to your corporate temple.

Hint for you: Don't go to a core player site and tell the core types that they are an insignficant part of that games market.