Author: Michael Cummings
Date: 06:59:25 12/31/99
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On December 30, 1999 at 16:53:37, John Merlino wrote: >On December 30, 1999 at 16:25:09, Fernando Villegas wrote: > >>Well, Mr. Merlino, maybe you could tell the development team to come here from >>time to time to get some new ideas. If there is a site where chess comp fans >>gather is this. Let them know. >>Fernando > >I tell them everything that happens here regarding Chessmaster, and I come here >almost every day. The team are quite aware of this board and definitely listen >to everything I tell them. Unfortunately, as many people here have pointed out, >the people who post on this board are a very small minority of the people who >buy Chessmaster. So just because it seems like an obviously required feature to >somebody here, it is possible that the TYPICAL purchaser of Chessmaster couldn't >care less about it. > >That's just a generalization, but I'm sure you understand. > >jm How do they find what people like. People here know their chess programs and this should be given more attention than the mass market who might want more female personalities and do not care about the rest. But how many of these mass market people will buy chessmaster, start to like chess, want to go further, go out and find what they need to get better, and buy another program, simply because the chessmaster program lacks a feature which is not to specific to serious chess programs. Just remember if you say "Oh but only 10% asked about that feature" If you sell 4 million copies of this program, you are ignoring 400,000 people. That is alot of people to ignore and thus piss off. What is a typical buyer of chessmaster, and after they get it, what do they do with it, and what do they wish. Tell me if I am wrong, but apart from their web site which I only visit to get patches, how many people who buy chessmaster will write to them and say what they like or dislike of the percentage of the total who buy this program. When people buy programs, they never really care about telling the peole who make it if it is good or not, especially not the mass market. Just for the guys at Mindscape, Five young people which I advised to buy CM6K and to play chess with it, have also now bought CM7K against my wishes, for which it works on all five to varying degrees. But only one of the five likes it, and they all still use CM6K over CM7K, simply because they think CM6K with the same engine looks a more serious program, and that CM7K look more fun orientated and for younger players, and is less serious. These kids are 14,14,16,17,17 years old. Even if this is not the case. I agree they made the interface wrong. Only one thinks it is a improvement over CM6K. So I think people who upgrade might find this program lacking, but who knows. As for not knowing where you were in CM6K as a reason for changing the interface, well all I can say is to me that is total crap. I, nor any of these other poeple mentioned when I asked them about this, ever felt lost. Maybe a 6 year old would, but not older kids, IMHO. Maybe what would be interesting, since these guys are the same as the ones that made CM6K, would be for them to write something short about why the changes and how they dicided to make them, and for what reason. I would find it very interesting. The story behind CM7K. As for the BUG in the Patch (which is very funny actually) I think maybe trying to use new technology and leaving many people who have older machines out on the cold. Very dissapointing.
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