three_sixteen
12-07-2007, 12:01 PM
After reading the support forums here, it has come to my attention that there are two important areas where I feel EA has failed in the proper development of Rock Band.
1.) Testing.
It is obvious from all of the complaints on the tech support forums that there are some serious issues with the quality of the hardware that was shipped with the game. While I understand the needs for deadlines, I also understand the importance of doing things correctly the first time - so more resources are not wasted later. EA is now wasting man power and money to ship replacement hardware to customers.
This is why the word delay exists, and why quality assurance exists. I have played Rock Band three times since I bought it. My guitar is unusable because when I 'strum' downwards it doesn't register. I don't seem to be the only person experiencing this issue. This is a quality assurance nightmare. Did nobody on the development/testing team realize the hardware they were shipping was faulty? Was there an issue with production? Were no production models tested?
Rather than replacing what seems to be a good percentage of the hardware shipped with the game, it should have been refurbished or replaced before it was released. Then your customers would be mad at you because they had to wait an extra amount of time to play a game, rather than being mad at you because they can't play the game at all after spending their hard earned money. Likely, someone knew the hardware was faulty and decided to move forward with releasing the game despite that. I've worked in development situations like this, I know it happens. This is what I call incompetence. As a customer I hate dealing with incompetence.
2.) Customer relations.
I've just spent $180.00 on a video game. I don't even own a gaming console - I'm using a friend's Xbox to play this game. This is the first video game I've purchased in YEARS. Now, the 180.00 I spent is sitting on a living room floor - unplayable to my satisfaction. This is what I call a waste of my money. As a customer I hate to spend money on things that I can't use. I doubt I'm the only person too.
Now, to get a replacement controller I will have to 'spend' $125.00 (nearly two thirds of the entire game's cost) and hope that I don't get an empty box in lieu of a real replacement controller. The last thing I want to do as a customer is set aside even more money in a faulty product with the prospect that I will have even more headaches to deal with in the future. So rather than gambling, I've chosen to take the $180.00 and leave it on my floor for what will probably be an entire month until my shipment materials arrive from EA and my replacement controller arrives. This is unacceptable.
This is probably the first and last game that I will ever buy from EA. To think, I could have spent the money on a real guitar instead of a fake one that would break after being used three times. You know what they say though, hind sight is 20/20.
1.) Testing.
It is obvious from all of the complaints on the tech support forums that there are some serious issues with the quality of the hardware that was shipped with the game. While I understand the needs for deadlines, I also understand the importance of doing things correctly the first time - so more resources are not wasted later. EA is now wasting man power and money to ship replacement hardware to customers.
This is why the word delay exists, and why quality assurance exists. I have played Rock Band three times since I bought it. My guitar is unusable because when I 'strum' downwards it doesn't register. I don't seem to be the only person experiencing this issue. This is a quality assurance nightmare. Did nobody on the development/testing team realize the hardware they were shipping was faulty? Was there an issue with production? Were no production models tested?
Rather than replacing what seems to be a good percentage of the hardware shipped with the game, it should have been refurbished or replaced before it was released. Then your customers would be mad at you because they had to wait an extra amount of time to play a game, rather than being mad at you because they can't play the game at all after spending their hard earned money. Likely, someone knew the hardware was faulty and decided to move forward with releasing the game despite that. I've worked in development situations like this, I know it happens. This is what I call incompetence. As a customer I hate dealing with incompetence.
2.) Customer relations.
I've just spent $180.00 on a video game. I don't even own a gaming console - I'm using a friend's Xbox to play this game. This is the first video game I've purchased in YEARS. Now, the 180.00 I spent is sitting on a living room floor - unplayable to my satisfaction. This is what I call a waste of my money. As a customer I hate to spend money on things that I can't use. I doubt I'm the only person too.
Now, to get a replacement controller I will have to 'spend' $125.00 (nearly two thirds of the entire game's cost) and hope that I don't get an empty box in lieu of a real replacement controller. The last thing I want to do as a customer is set aside even more money in a faulty product with the prospect that I will have even more headaches to deal with in the future. So rather than gambling, I've chosen to take the $180.00 and leave it on my floor for what will probably be an entire month until my shipment materials arrive from EA and my replacement controller arrives. This is unacceptable.
This is probably the first and last game that I will ever buy from EA. To think, I could have spent the money on a real guitar instead of a fake one that would break after being used three times. You know what they say though, hind sight is 20/20.
