Author: John Merlino
Date: 13:54:08 08/01/04
Go up one level in this thread
On August 01, 2004 at 16:10:43, Albert Silver wrote: >On August 01, 2004 at 15:10:03, John Merlino wrote: > >>On July 31, 2004 at 20:14:19, Steve B wrote: >> >>>>Looks like they messed up by not keeping John Merlino. >>> >>>yup >>>and to his credit..he defends the demo like a real trooper >>>tell you this..i would want John in the foxhole with me >>>Steve >> >>I haven't exactly "defended" the demo; I have merely called it like I have seen >>it, and what I have seen doesn't look bad. Of course, being a computer gamer, >>rather than somebody who simply uses their computer for chess (like many people >>here), I have a good 3D card, so I haven't seen any of the problems that many >>other posters have seen. >> >>However, even after two patches (to the demo!), I am still unable to connect to >>a game in the online portion. I cannot play or watch a game (apart from ONE >>instance in which I was able to watch). I have attempted at least 20 times. >> >>And, finally, you wouldn't want me in the foxhole with you -- I'm a pacifist. >>:-) >> >>But many thanks for your kind words.... >> >>jm > >With all due respect, they have no idea what they were doing when they changed >the team. For one thing, you did a great job on the interface and other aspects. >Your personal devotion to the quality of the outcome and personally providing >support, as opposed to just letting some company crew handle it, say a lot. > >When you first appeared at CCC, I was intrigued, but didn't think much of it. I >had seen other developers come in, barely posting, and possibly not seeing >anything constructive in being a part of it, as opposed to seeing this as forum >in which to get feedback and bring users into the process. Your attitude was >altogether different, deftly handling the complaints (and trolls), yet >constantly attentive and giving. It makes all the difference IMO. > >Ubisoft are fools and really showed their near-sightedness. > > Albert Many thanks. Some comments: As for the interface, I simply picked up where the previous versions had left off. I don't think anything particularly cool was done to the interface except with CM7000, when we switched to the room metaphor (although many users didn't like it). However, even that was just a solution to the problem of a massively growing feature set, and not enough places to put all of it -- so, we created places. :-) Pretty simple, really. I also truly believe that the Romanian team is an excellent group of programmers, with their own (equally valid) ideas of where the Chessmaster series should have gone next. I think lots of people will like the new interface, lots of people will hate it, and lots of people will be indifferent. And as for my consistent posting here, let's just say that I knew a good resource for ideas when I saw one. :-) In preparation for CM8000, we realized that we already had plenty for the "typical chess player", but we needed more reasons for the very strong player and the hardcore computer chess person to buy Chessmaster (since those were clearly our weaknesses). I suggested that we make the GUI Winboard compatible, and we probably sold a lot more copies because of it. We also fleshed out the Classroom Curriculum with difficult drills (KBNvK for example) and Bruce Pandolfini's "Match the Masters" tests (both of which are way too hard for me -- and for our typical user). As I've said before, for Ubi Soft it was simply an obvious financial decision. Get three times the number of programmers for less money. I bear Ubi Soft no ill will at all. Now, if it had been an AMERICAN company, then maybe.... And, in all truth (and I'm sure that most CCC posters know this), Ubi Soft probably couldn't care less about the kind of chess player that posts on this board, because it probably represents less than 1% of sales. The main reason I stayed around was because I met lots of terrific people, found interesting topics that I would read (but wouldn't dare participate in), and staunchly defended the Chessmaster series from the people who called it (and still call it) a toy. Put bluntly, it's called Customer Service, and I enjoy it very much. Many thanks again, jm
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