I quote from a prior message:

"DOWN WITH VERANT
DOWN WITH VERANT"

Ha HA HAA! - I love these strings that flame Verant or Sony for "not caring about the game" or ruining the game or ripping off another gave, blah blah blah! As a prior poster commented, Take a class in Economics and keep at least part or your head here in the real world (errr, last time I checked playing RPG's in any form was still considered by most inhabitants of the real world entertainment and a hobby at best or an often addictive time wasting obsession at worst and NOT one of the worlds great religions, philosophies or social movements to be held in awe or to pattern one's life after).

Sony and Verant are not "evil" entities out to spoil your fun or ruin the RPG gaming world, they are BUSINESSES that exist to make money for stockholders. Granted, they may be evil for other reasons, such as social irresponsibility, but I would put things like polluting the environment, supporting corrupt or non-democratic governments or using slave or child labor in the manufacture of products in that category and NOT nerfing a class' spells or deciding on a product line/marketing strategy that interferes with my personal entertainment preferences matrix. They are not government agencies providing a necesary "fantasy world" service to voting constituents. In the world of business the only voting is done with your dollars/feet, go somewhere else/spend your money on something else. They make decisions based on (especially companies like Sony) the consideration of what will maximize the long term profits and return on investment of the STOCKHOLDERS (the concept of "making decisions" in an organization will also inject an measure of uncertainty as to whether the correct decision, even based on this criteria will be made). And for mega companies like Sony that doesn't even mean the profits from a single business (like their entire online gaming business) but the entire entity (this individual division may not be making as much money but it feeds to another or helps us provide a full line of products, etc.)

This is not to say that complaints should not be made. In any customer / business relationship the customer may desire to let the service provider know of dissatisfaction. The rational business entity will evaluate the level of customer satisfaction against the matrix of expected effect of changing to rectify the complaint (i.e. cost and possibly increased revenues) compared to the effect of ignoring the complaint (potential revenues lost). It seems that in many cases (but not all) Sony/Verant decides that it will make more money by not changing (avoiding the cost of doing so) as the effect on revenues will be zero or less than the cost of fixing the issue. if enough people do so you may raise the issue in question to the level where it crosses the cost/benefit threshold and moves the service provider to take action. In complaining about matters the most effective complaints will always end with a subtle or not so subtle mention of the potential cost for not paying attention. Note however, due to the fractured buyers' market (multitudes of buyers of low revenue items vs. large individual purchasers representing a substantial percentage of revenues) any single complaint will not clear the cost/benefit hurdle. Only numerous complaints that represent a credible potential loss of revenues will be heeded.

I think in the end the bottom line (another business term for the uninitiated) choices you have are:

1) Continue to play (and pay) and enjoy or not enjoy the game. You can also combine that with complain directly to the service when and as you see fit. This can be combined with posting your complaints on forums such as this. It may encourage others who share your complaint to tell Sony/Verant when they might not otherwise have done so. It also may provide the critical mass of complaints if Sony/Verant reads them here AND believes that people will actually stop purchasing based on the level of dissatisfaction they voice.

2) Quit playing. Vote with your feet and go play something else. This will let Sony know they have made a mistake (if enough people do it). Unfortunately this only works for you if you find something that gives you more satisfaction for your money and time spent. Otherwise you have only "cut off your nose to spite your face" (Always wondered about that saying and the psychological issues with self mutilation).

3) Continue to "rant and rave" about this matter in a manner which attaches an air of great import to it. While I do thoroughly enjoy playing RPG's as a form of entertainment (and sometimes reading the flames against the service providers) I have one suggestion to those who do feel the need to post them. After you post your flame message, sit back and imagine it being read at your funeral as an example of something that was really important to you. Then turn off your computer and go play outside - you'll be better for it, I assure you.


Edited, Mon Apr 29 19:59:51 2002