Central Comand PLEASE Respond

[WPBRJ]

not even sure this is the right forum to post this but here goes

Ok I have been a member for about 3 to 4 weeks now and have to say I am a bit disappointed at best. Is there anyone in charge here at this site? I have been playing risk for a long time now I have been playing on line for over 15 years and have seen about 6 or 7 sites now start up and shut down. This is a great site except for the lag, the crashes, the break downs, and the biggest of all the lack of communication from the central command and staff. I have seen a very small amount of posts in the forums to this point from them, I can count on one hand how many I actually remember there 14 staff members in centcom and maybe I have seen 6 posts in my time here that is not acceptable to me.

I am certainly not saying there should be a counter post to every post made but at least a post when there are problems. I joined and immediately paid for premium that’s how much I liked the site boy did I jump the gun on that one. While I still love the site I have no more of an idea what’s going on with all the problems now than I did when I first joined and with all respect that’s bull shit. I have never seen a post by most of the staff let alone I have never seen any of them on the site or in games.

This leads me to my question is this site going dead? Are you just taking people’s money and not giving a crap? That money goes to someone and they should be on this site every day talking to his or her customers explaining what’s going on and what they are doing to fix things. Silence is doing nothing more than pissing people off and making them want to leave. Maybe this site needs to go back into Bata for a while so you can work these bugs out.

It’s been 2 days now with games not loading and all we heard from centcom is there look into it. That’s it there look into it; wow that really told me a lot, why can’t they just post saying were sorry for the inconveniences and this bug is XYZ and there hopping to have it fixed by such and such day and time and that they recommended suggestions to this point will work for most players. There are 30 posts from players on fixes but these are temporary at best. The one fix I used was the push pull thing they said it was way slow and the ironic thing about it was it was faster than most of the days that I have played to this point. So not sure why they say it’s slow.

I also think that whoever is taking the money from the players needs to really start to think about returning the money if they so choose to stay silent and not give a fuck about the people that actually care about this game and want to play. I have the right as a paying customer to at least raise these questions and deserve a response. I am not asking for your first born I just as a customer want to know what is going on and what is being done about it and what we as customers can do to help.

i am sure this will be ignored as well by staff and thats a shame this place had such promise!!

R.J.

 

[ghost]

although in principle I agree with shep and ghostie about the ads, I'd be willing to put up with them if it meant the bugs got fixed faster. I believe that, with the speed issue and the server issues and the bugs (0-troop, etc.) fixed, and with the cartographers that are here, this will someday be far and away the best 'risk' site on the web, and will gain enough of a following that all the time that Bado, et. al, put into it might actually pay off for them monetarily, at least in some modest fashion.

There are SO many things to fix now; the scoreboard doesn't work half the time, I don't believe that the medals are awarded in a timely manner, ranks don't get upgraded for hours/days, there are dead/broken games in the 'find a game', there are broken tourneys that need to go away, the list goes on. But, I will continue to stay and keep my membership and remain hopeful, although I probably will not play as many games until things get better, because I'm a bit of an 'excitable boy' and it pisses me off when I lose because of a glitch or server issue. Hoping that December brings positive changes!

and this is why we love you..
because despite things being rough (for the moment) you're still willing to put up with it all and support MC til things get fixed.

i just played an rt game to test out some of the complaints, and had little problems. a bit of freezing.. some glitchy bits with the reserves cash in pop-up.. but overall it wasn't terrible. let's just cross fingers Corey is our savior!! lol.

 

[PackerHawkeye]

And I think we could argue about that game and that call for hours and neither of us would budge on our opinions about the call... so why don't we just agree that if the Seahawks and Packers meet in the playoffs that the Seahawks will obviously beat the Packers.

LOL. Can we bring back Matt Hasselbeck and Al Harris for that game?

 

[Robinette]

Just a quick comment about ads...

While I could live with a moderate amount of these personally, I am pretty sure they would not provide any substantial revenue at this point. It's all about the number of impressions, and you needs lots of them. For example, if we had 2,000 visitors per day with a total of 4,000 page views that had an ad on each, then you might get $8 per day.

As a business model, and yes, this is a business even if it is not run like one,,, as a business model, it would be far more fruitful to provide a service that gets more subscriptions. Now if this was CC, the idea of ads would bring in much more $ due to the traffic. Perhaps MC will get to that level of traffic someday, and hopefully it will choose to stay ad free.

Anyway, sure do hope the bugs can be worked out, and I will personally stick around to see one way or the other.

 

[Finisterre]

We will wait for you. Just stop trying to do more things and concentrate on being what you already are. The best Risk playing site in the world. That alone will attract more like myself and my friends who really appreciate the core package. It is Risk online as we know the game and want it to be.
As a recent player I may have a light voice here but please hear me. Concentrate on what it is you started with and want to do. If people want more than that they can find it anywhere. A genuine and successful attempt at recreating the original Risk experience as people like me played as children is what MC has achieved far more successfully than any other site I and my friends have found, and now, sadly are trying to find, anywhere else. What MC has achieved is phenomenal and historic.
With regards to the points about money. Yes we have paid our tiny sums, and yes, that makes it a business rather than a hobby and therefore subject to the scrutiny and criticisms of a business model, rightly so, but MC at the end of the day is an artistic creation and a labour of love. And we must try to hang in there and support it as such.
But, we can only do that with our hearts, minds and potentially our money if we know we are not ignored and what we have to say is read and answered. It must be so hard to read complaints and not be able to answer but that is the quickest way to lose support. Napoleon said an army marches on it's stomach and so a modern community thrives on information. Starve us of facts and we wander off. Not quite the army he had in mind but one you would be ill advised to ignore.
We are here and will not give up on this site so long as we feel included.
And so to drown rats, repel invaders, impale dispatches and wash lamp posts. I will surround you and cut off your nasty little lines and above all..
I offer this tome found buried in a Baltymoore Tor Chapel Vestry, Mount St. Dibbling, Little Wibble on the Wold, circi 1784.2, Finisterre.

Whichever way thou wendest to thy for-holden land,
Ever the Dice shall ail thee,
Ever the Dice shall fail thee
But ever the dice shall hail thee
And shake thee heartily by the hand.

 

[lh34]

LOL. Can we bring back Matt Hasselbeck and Al Harris for that game?

"We want the ball, and we're gonna score"
Gotta love Hasselbeck.

 

[Chilly]

LOL. Can we bring back Matt Hasselbeck and Al Harris for that game?

"We want the ball, and we're gonna score"
Gotta love Hasselbeck.

Seriously you guys. I love the football smack talk as much as the next. But this is one thread that I subscribed to because I really care what is getting said here. Could you move it to PM's or at least its own thread somewhere else.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I kinda do care what people have to say, on topic, in this thread.

Cheers

 

[Badorties]

Thanks for all the feedback and positivity. As far as Ads go, they will never grace MC. Robinette is right in that they are a poor business model and despite the fact that MC gets 25k pageviews per day it's still a lazy and unattractive way to earn money.

As I have said before, one of MC strong points is it's new users. If you check the scoreboard, there have been 424 new users sign up in the past 48 hours. That pretty solid, the problem is that user churn is high do to all the bugs and poor playing experience. So given that MC can mostly pay it's bills now, when the play experience improves, churn will down, and the active user count will grow faster than it is now.

So.. tldr, no ads, just fix it and they will come.

 

[WPBRJ]

But, we can only do that with our hearts, minds and potentially our money if we know we are not ignored and what we have to say is read and answered. It must be so hard to read complaints and not be able to answer but that is the quickest way to lose support. Napoleon said an army marches on it's stomach and so a modern community thrives on information. Starve us of facts and we wander off. Not quite the army he had in mind but one you would be ill advised to ignore.
We are here and will not give up on this site so long as we feel included.

Well it’s great to see so much feedback and mostly positive feedback at that.

Saying this just to be clear I was not complaining in my original post I was trying to get the top guy to talk to us and let us know what is going on. In the 4 weeks I heard nothing and silence is a back breaker the top 50 to 100 players are his staff and they will help when needed and asked. They will make or break this site and from what I see is they want to make it work. I want to make it work by far the best site I have seen in 40 years of playing this game and 15 of that playing one line at several sites.

Ya adds will for ruin the experience for sure lol maybe a way to generate money maybe adds for the free players and players that upgrade to gold get a switch to turn them off that would help push players to pay and help the site out for sure.

Thnx again for all the good stuff that came out today and thnx Badorties for the response I am 110% back on board with you and this site!

R.J.

 

[FLAGG]

Thanks Badorties! Some great updates! Keep them coming.

AND GO CORY GO GO GO!!!!!! You are our SUPERMAN! Save this site! Can't wait til Christmas break when you start making this site move faster and smoother than ever!

Will stay patient. Love this site!

FLAGG

 

[ladynem]

Thanks for all the feedback and positivity. As far as Ads go, they will never grace MC. Robinette is right in that they are a poor business model and despite the fact that MC gets 25k pageviews per day it's still a lazy and unattractive way to earn money.

As I have said before, one of MC strong points is it's new users. If you check the scoreboard, there have been 424 new users sign up in the past 48 hours. That pretty solid, the problem is that user churn is high do to all the bugs and poor playing experience. So given that MC can mostly pay it's bills now, when the play experience improves, churn will down, and the active user count will grow faster than it is now.

So.. tldr, no ads, just fix it and they will come.

1) Why don't you disable all new sign-ups?!
People don't have a good user experience and most of them quit playing and are definitely not willing to pay for a site that obviously doesn't work well at the moment.
It might seem good in the very short run ('wooh, 424 new users in the lsat 48 hours') but if the majority of them quits playing soon and/ or is not willing to pay at all, it's actually a pretty useless achievement.

More people will also probably mean more pressure on the server. I know you said it's not a server issue but a programming issue, but when the site was still playable all bugs appeared at the times the server was the busiest, not in the hours with only very little people there to play real time games.

2) Please start updating very regulalry in that blog or something that enters everyone's inbox. It shows you take the problem seriously. Not all people read the forums and no communication (or communication that's hard to find) makes people angry.

3) I actually quite agree with Ajdedo. You told us numerous times that 'we're working on it', but let's face it: not much work has been done. You found someone, which is great, who hopefully has time in the christmas break, which is great, but it also means we've heard for quite some time that 'the team is working on it' while you actually meant 'I'm searching for someone and I hope I will find someone rather soon'. That's a completely different thing.
Again, 20$ is not a lot of money so I can miss it (otherwise I wouldn't've signed up), but I still don't think it's fair to let people subscribe without being open about what they actually buy into. No I'm not gonna ask my money back because it gives you a lot of financial troubles and well, I would find it a mean thing to do, but the lack of open communication and the fact that in 9 months time actually nothing has been done to adress the issues (besides searching for people) is, in my opinion, not correct.

Everyone makes mistakes, we all learn and such, but please, at least start open, honest and regular communication NOW and consider the possibility to refuse any new sign ups until the server and engine can handle the new subscriptions.

 

[ladynem]

A regular update in a blog that appears in our inboxes also decreases the number of topics and makes sure you don't have to explain the same stuff over and over again.
Opening 1 central topic about this and close the rest makes it also easier to manage.

 

[FLAGG]

I think Ladynem makes a ton of great points and suggestions in her last two posts........

FLAGG

 

[Finisterre]

Yes I do too. She has continued on from my comments about lack of communication. It is the same wherever you are, stuck on a tube train that stops in the tunnel for instance. You are not actually angry about the stoppage but the fact that nothing has been said. Silence is lack of respect. So I agree with the Lady here, regular updates and dispatches on the blog or better still, a newsletter just shoved in everyone's mailbox as regularly as possible would go a long way to keep people patient and on board.
Thank you Mr Bad for bothering to answer this thread. And to all the others for your input. Keep MC alive. It is the best there is and we have a lot of affection for it.
110%

 

[Badorties]

I also agree with much of Ms nem. Expect a blog update tomorrow night. And also.... something special under your majcom tree.

 

[diogenes]

Re: the advertising suggestion, I'm guessing a Kickstarter fund to pay a fulltime programmer for a few months to recode everything (if the current plan doesn't work out) is out of the question?

 

[B1G4NF]

Don't lose faith my fellow MajCom brothers and sisters.

I'd like to throw my hat in the ring, simply to say that if things go tits up with Cory... and lets hope they don't... I may have someone that could step in and fix all these problems.

As frustrating as it is, to miss turns and lose games, as a direct result of these site issues, I, as a self proclaimed DIE HARD MajCom fan, will NEVER leave. Yes there are issues, yes they are becoming more frequent, but this is a community site and as a community we should show our support by remaining loyal, besides, as the saying goes... "It's always darkest before the dawn."

 

[WPBRJ]

well Holiday is at its end and still no word on whats going on with this site. is the new programer on the job? is he doing what he said he was going to do?

i would think some one would say something about this and the few posts i have seen thru out the site and nothing AGAIN.

we are right back to the beginning of this post of not having a clue on whats going on. have the higher powers of this site learned nothing from this post silence is a bad thing and all it will do is turn people away.

ANYTHING?

 

[Cardinalsrule]

I haven't been able to get on using IE for over 24 hours now, FINALLY got on using FF but troop carriers won't display, so I'm continuing to lose turns. Don't want to think about how many games are down the drain by now. Good thing Chilly and I held off on starting the next round of 2v2 Battle of the Belt.....

 

[WPBRJ]

to funny i made 2 posts yesterday and bado was on the site when i made them both they were back to back posts and the one here was the 2nd one. he posted after me on the the first one about pretty much of a nothing topic that meant absolutely nothing and this one he said nothing. i guess i see where he is at it certainly is not on fixing or communicating with the players here on this site!

 

[Shepherd]

wish I had anything useful to add.