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>> Some people are still experiencing response and stability problems that we’re working fast to address. >We have redefined the word fast. Sometimes I am rea

by micampe 14y ago

>> Some people are still experiencing response and stability problems that we’re working fast to address. >We have redefined the word fast. Sometimes I am really surprised by the responses to companies here. It seems like people never had a job or forgot the experience. Companies are not abstract entities that make things happen and only do PR: people work there. A large portion of HN is likely engineers of some sort or someone very close to them and yet you don't believe EA's engineers are scrambling, maybe pulling all nighters to fix this. All you see is PR being slow to respond. PR are not the ones working fast to fix the issue. (I don't work at EA and I don't know anyone who does, I don't even play games)

lucian1900 14y ago
It should be trivial to make a patch with an offline mode, if they've followed good network programming practice. [edit] "It should be relatively easy" might be more accurate. It would not be good engineering to create a single-player mode that doesn't degrade gracefully when the network connection is absent.
- micampe 14y ago
  > It should be trivial This is another statement that always surprises me when said by an engineer instead of an exec.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - epo 14y ago
    In both cases it is a statement made by someone who doesn't understand what they are talking about. (EDIT) to avoid being needlessly trite: because if someone does know what they are talking about then they would say it is trivial. "It should be trivial" means you are just making stuff up.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
lifeisstillgood 14y ago
Yes, but the people whose decisions lead to IT people pulling all nighters are not themselves pulling all nighters or even bothering to tell the PR people what to say for 48 hours. They want to minimise their losses to piracy before China and India become really big markets. They are willing to destroy the companies for this opportunity.
espadrine 14y ago
I meant it the following way. The DRM issue was already visible and caused issues during the beta. EA was notified. The game creators were aware of it. They might even have asked the executives to allow them to fix it the obvious way [1]. You'd at least expect them to make sure this known issue would be easy to fix fast. The most awesome part is that EA is making a lot of money on this disaster. DRMs are a very profitable absurdity. I am quite sure that execs slept well, and that EA engineers did pull an all-nighter. [1]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/08/ea-employee-chastizes-company-over-simcity-in-public-letter/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/08/ea-employe...

by micampe 14y ago

lucian1900 14y ago

It should be trivial to make a patch with an offline mode, if they've followed good network programming practice. [edit] "It should be relatively easy" might be more accurate. It would not be good engineering to create a single-player mode that doesn't degrade gracefully when the network connection is absent.

micampe 14y ago
> It should be trivial This is another statement that always surprises me when said by an engineer instead of an exec.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- epo 14y ago
  In both cases it is a statement made by someone who doesn't understand what they are talking about. (EDIT) to avoid being needlessly trite: because if someone does know what they are talking about then they would say it is trivial. "It should be trivial" means you are just making stuff up.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

lifeisstillgood 14y ago

Yes, but the people whose decisions lead to IT people pulling all nighters are not themselves pulling all nighters or even bothering to tell the PR people what to say for 48 hours. They want to minimise their losses to piracy before China and India become really big markets. They are willing to destroy the companies for this opportunity.

espadrine 14y ago

I meant it the following way. The DRM issue was already visible and caused issues during the beta. EA was notified. The game creators were aware of it. They might even have asked the executives to allow them to fix it the obvious way [1]. You'd at least expect them to make sure this known issue would be easy to fix fast. The most awesome part is that EA is making a lot of money on this disaster. DRMs are a very profitable absurdity. I am quite sure that execs slept well, and that EA engineers did pull an all-nighter. [1]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/08/ea-employee-chastizes-company-over-simcity-in-public-letter/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/08/ea-employe...