Satyn wrote:dont really think you have the right to say that. You dont know how many hours a day those ppl work. I dont see any reason why they shouldnt put those remaining 500 reports as a priority. And just because they went to a marketing exercise (wich you should be happy for that they do that cos marketing is good for this game) doesnt mean there was anyone left to work on the problem. You dont know if that was in the evening after workinghourse either or in the weekend.
I really do feel for everyone that hasnt had their items back, but posts like this is just oil on the fire.
Why don't I have a right to say it? I'm not saying anything not based on the facts and I am not trying to twist the situation.
Prioritisation is an issue for all organisations. You've got a list of goals you want to achieve, a list of tasks through which you will achieve them and a finite amount of resource to allocate to the tasks to get them done. In a healthy business, your list of tasks will require more resources than you actually have, so you have to prioritise - some you do now, some you do at a later date. Or in some cases, you reduce the size of the task to accomplish your goal to lesser degree. In other cases, you may feel that you'll take a risk and only resource something as much as it requires in the most optimistic circumstances, so that if anything goes wrong your goal slips. You get the picture.
All I am saying is that GOA have determined that whichever goal they are trying to achieve through going to the show (presumably a short-term marketing goal and probably part of a longer term marketing stratgey) is more important than restoring the items as quickly as they can.
Am I happy that they are putting effort into marketing the game? Yes. Would I prioritise this particular element in the overall marketing effort above restoring items? No.
Why not? Well, for one thing the impact of attending the show is going to be very localised. People who attend it will be partly industry (meaning they are not potential customers) and the non-industry people going will almost certainly be aware of DAoC already (people don't attend such things unless they are involved int he hobby already). I'm sure some new players will be gained, but I doubt it will be many, and since the visibility of the show is localised (apart from some press coverage of the show itself), it won't do a huge amount to increase to profile of DAoC on the whole.
Furthermore, the resourcing allocated to preparations for the show could possibly be reduced without impacting the marketing goal in a huge sense (this sort of thing has a lot of flexibility in it since it is not an exact science). Showing your face at a show can be accomplished without generating huge amounts of electronic artifacts if necessary (there's always things to display).
So really we're saying should they divert resources from restoration to make their presence at a show a bit more impressive. I'm sure they will be attending whether they diverted resources or not.
Now, the next question is how valuable in terms of marketing is the goodwill of the existing player base? By delaying the restoration they are drawing out the publicity being received relating to one of the worst ever episodes in GOAs custody of DAoC Europe. The value of drawing a line under it so that people stop remembering what a gigantic mess it was is significant in marketing terms. Allowing the playerbase to get closure and move on to feeling more positive is very important.
At this stage in DAoC's commercial lifespan, the existing playerbase is incredibly important. Losing these long-term supporters of the game are big blows, much more significant than winning a few new people who may never play beyond their free month.
Sorry for the long post, but these days it seems we are not allowed to make criticisms of DAoC without being labelled as some kind of malcontent. Demonstrating that my opinions have some rational basis might (though I don't hold out much hope) keep the optimism facists, who dictate that we must put a positive slant on everything GOA does regardless of reality, from making the usual gamut of inane responses.
