IPLY loves your feedback!

Rosh · Post by **Rosh** » Thu May 15, 2003 12:48 pm

Mad Max RW wrote:Hahaha I love it! It's like a bad soap opera.

No, it's kind of like watching a compilation of clips from the Iraqi Minister of Information™.

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Thu May 15, 2003 1:00 pm

Where the hell do they find these moderators? Let's say for a minute all of the complaints are true. Wouldn't it be their fault for letting it get that way? They have a significant team of mods and not one of them knows what they're doing. To me it looks like Shodan and the like are on serious power trips. It's just a stupid internet forum. Stop taking yourselves so damn seriously! And when things get out of hand they throw in the towel... a SECOND time after closing the FOBOS forum. Again, that's what it looks like.

In reality they are probably spineless morons acting as puppets for Interplay. But the conspiracy here sounds so ridiculous it can't be true. They might as well close the whole damn forum, because no matter what you're gonna get negative comments as long as people exist.

mrmarcus · Post by **mrmarcus** » Thu May 15, 2003 1:26 pm

Rosh wrote:
EDIT: More announcement fun! Various mods post this message:

Good morning to you all, today I am the bearer of nasty news.

Problems have arisen, and the board is under threat. Basically, anyone caught 'bashing' anything in regards to Interplay (including games, the forum, the mods and anything or anyone else) will be given an instant warning. Get caught a second time and you'll be banned.

This is effective immediately. I don't want to have to ban anyone, but the bashers, spammers and flamers need to be filtered out. This is your only warning, not seeing this thread is not an excuse.

Enjoy!
Today at Interplay we will practice marching up and down the square! Remember to smile at all times and never think anything bad - Interplay is good! All of our products are good! Anyone who thinks otherwise is a Commie Mutant Traitor that must be banned for befouling our precious essence with such heresy!

Wilford · Post by **Wilford** » Thu May 15, 2003 1:38 pm

To Max:

I wouldnÃƒâ€šÃ‚Â´t blame the moderators too much. Stuff like:

It was not our idea to enforce these rules, it was Interplay's idea. We must either tighten up or start losing the forums one by one.

If you are requesting that the users give ideas on how to enforce these rules, go ahead.

or

Interplay feels that much of the discussion on the thier forum is useless. They have commanded the mods to tighten up the rules.

sounds believable to me. So IÃƒâ€šÃ‚Â´d rather blame the IPlay-Nazis in the background for this.

BTW, hi forum.

Rosh · Post by **Rosh** » Thu May 15, 2003 1:49 pm

Wilford, if the mods gave the straight truth, no problem. Instead, they're going into the same practice as Chuck Cuervos. Do some wacky shit, then try to cover it up and excuse it or just talk out both sides of their ass like TechWizz. It's made many mods question what the hell is going on, and Mistress has already left her position because it's gotten far too ridiculous.

We already know Interplay doesn't give a flying fuck about its customers and hasn't for years.

Wilford · Post by **Wilford** » Thu May 15, 2003 1:56 pm

I donÃƒâ€šÃ‚Â´t see the current announcements as a sign of not giving a fuck. They tell me clearly that I am, along with my filthy purist opinion, an enemy that needs to be killed off quickly. And that is far worse than any user mod ego-trip could ever be.

Rosh · Post by **Rosh** » Thu May 15, 2003 2:04 pm

Hmmm, then let me reiterate.

Interplay hasn't really cared about their customers for years, given their haphazard approach to patching and their poor QA house. This attitude towards their feedback forum only reinforces their policy used elsewhere, and makes it quite firm. They've essentially thrown out all good talent and are slapping crap out the doors with their ears plugged to any bad news to hope it goes away. That also includes those who may voice an opinion or are able to point out flaws in their crappy design.

Saint_Proverbius · Post by **Saint_Proverbius** » Thu May 15, 2003 2:25 pm

Anyone else think it's funny as shit that Puuk, an interplay employee who has been working there for several years, is now arguing with an unpaid, volunteer moderator, Shodan, about how the forum is being handled?

Kind of sad when that happens, a company grunt has less say in how one of the main public outlets for the company is handled than just another fanboy with a forum flag toggled.

The other really funny shit is that none of these people gave a shit when it was happening to others, like the Fallout fans outraged by Fallout Enforcer.. Then it gets applied to them, and they toss a hissy. Don't you just love it? I do.

EEVIAC · Post by **EEVIAC** » Thu May 15, 2003 3:21 pm

It occurs to me that the longer IPLY keep the FOBOS forum down, the more harmfull it is for their public image. They're insinuating (even admitting) that the weight of public perception and negativity forced them to close their public forum, which would negate their argument that it was merely a small band of fanaticals making a lot of noise.

If they actually carry out their threat and remove all fora, not only will they lose the majority of their dwindling, endangered fanbase, but the respect (and remaining trust) of the gaming public and press.

A corporate entity is beaten into submission by (not even) a few hundred Fallout loonies. Frankly, they look like cowards.

ApTyp · Post by **ApTyp** » Thu May 15, 2003 4:29 pm

I gotta tell you, seeing this news more than makes up to me the indignity of Fallout moving to consoles. What fun!

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Thu May 15, 2003 4:34 pm

Saint_Proverbius wrote:Anyone else think it's funny as shit that Puuk, an interplay employee who has been working there for several years, is now arguing with an unpaid, volunteer moderator, Shodan, about how the forum is being handled?

Yep, funny shit. I think you and Killzig were banned as a test run to see how the community would handle such an approach

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Thu May 15, 2003 4:48 pm

The most realistic option I see Interplay doing is closing the forums, deleting all accounts (members and moderators alike), and reopening the whole damn thing a few weeks later starting from scratch. They've reached the point where any attempt to fix the situation will only drive more people away until it's completely inactive.

KruddMan · Post by **KruddMan** » Thu May 15, 2003 6:37 pm

Interplay Execs are probably Scientologists.
http://www.xenu.net
blindly devoted to their failing project like john travolta

I just got a Girls Gone Wild ad on these forums... ... ... isn't that porn?

Rayt · Post by **Rayt** » Thu May 15, 2003 6:44 pm

Dan wrote:Now this, I found amusing.

After they banned my Dan account, I registered again with another account. I'm now posting there without causing too much trouble.

A moderator by the name of Rayt replied to someone who posted a link to DAC. He said that DAC and NMA are not for the feint of heart, as you'll get banned or flamed if you don't agree with Rosh and Saint (He might have said Killzig, but I'm not sure).
I replied, wondering how he can say that after all the censorship going on there...

Heh, I actually registered so I could reply to this thread. Anyway, I didn't say or suggest that at NMA and DAC people got banned for odd reasons, or for no reason at all. I said (which I said better in another post afterwards) that if your opinion deviates from for Saint Proverbius and or Roshambo, you better have thick skin if you want to discuss it (for example if you consider FO:BOS a great idea then you'd better put on an asbest suit) on their fora. Which is what I meant with "not for the feint of heart".

I'd put a link, but the thread has been deleted by someone. Funny that, I used to be a moderator of a forum where other people would moderate it for me. Ah well, that's also a closed chapter now.

Anyhoo, to make one thing clear, I don't have anything against Rosh, Killzig, Saint Proverbius or anyone else for that matter. I just tried to warn people before an overenthousiastic console kid asks in l33t speak if anyone else is as excited as he is about FO:BOS here, because he thought these were the right boards to discuss stuff like that. You know, otherwise he might get scarred for life by the flames.

Sorry for derailing this thread. So to make my post on-topic I'll just say that Interplay is taking a, to say the least, strange approach to get the boards on track, whatever that might be.

Raymondo · Post by **Raymondo** » Thu May 15, 2003 6:52 pm

It seems that my nightmares are coming true, Interplay pimping fallout yet again but even worst this time and interplay dieing and by the looks of it so will the rights to fallout.

I find it funny that interplay cant just admit that this game was a bad idea and cant just start a new project with whatÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s left of their money.

Interplay

19?? ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ 2003

We never listened to the fans.

Saint_Proverbius · Post by **Saint_Proverbius** » Thu May 15, 2003 6:55 pm

Mad Max RW wrote:The most realistic option I see Interplay doing is closing the forums, deleting all accounts (members and moderators alike), and reopening the whole damn thing a few weeks later starting from scratch. They've reached the point where any attempt to fix the situation will only drive more people away until it's completely inactive.

You overestimate the IPLY fan boys. There are some of them who think all of this is in their best interest. Seriously.

-=Felix=- · Post by **-=Felix=-** » Thu May 15, 2003 8:07 pm

Sumation of the Puuk/Shodan showdown.

Shodan - None of you can say anything bad about any Interplay title, or I'll eat your firstborn
Puuk - Shut up Shodan, criticism of our titles is important so we can learn from mistakes
Shodan - I'm going to eat you Puuk
Puuk - Er, I work for Interplay... so shut up.
Shodan - I don't care, I'm a volunteer who's going to eat you.

*THREAD LOCKED*

What the fuck?

Puuk should use some sort of administrative cockslap or something, what right does a volunteer have to tell an INTERPLAY employee what goes on the INTERPLAY boards?

Oh wait, if its not Techwiz or Jester... they don't count.

whoops, my bad.

Saint_Proverbius · Post by **Saint_Proverbius** » Thu May 15, 2003 8:41 pm

Well, if you want to know the irony of it, the majority of the problems on the IPLY forums are a direct cause of the moderators themselves and the fact they have very limited, often poor judgement on what to do and when to do it. Case in point, the most recent thread about the new "IPLY IZ BAD POSTZ = J00 R TEH BANZORZ" thread, seen here. After seven some odd pages of people questioning this in one day, because it's a HOT TOPIC, an overzealous moderator decides it's a BREIGHT IDEA to lock the thing, at the height of it's activity.

So, rather than isolating that discussion to that one thread, he's now given people a reason to make lots of new threads on the topic, because that policy hasn't been fully fleshed out yet. There's still people wondering what the hell kind of crap that new rule is, and rightly so.

The fact he did it with the angsty reply on top of that locking just further fans the flames, as you can see here:

Shodan wrote:It's time for this thread to goto sleep. Yeah, it is.
_________________
[15:13] <|Shodan|> Kewl, I'm on DAC news! ;-P
[15:15] <MrBrown> lol
[15:15] <|Shodan|> I feel S.P.E.C.I.A.L (pun intended)
[15:19] <Saint_Proverbius> Yup!
[15:19] <|Shodan|> Haha!

In case you were wondering, this is one of the big reasons why the Fallout Enforcer forum blew up in their faces. Rather than leaving a few threads on the various subjects where people were venting on one subject alone, they locked them. That caused the people posting in them who were actively watching those threads to post more threads on the subject. If you had a few people do that at the same, or near the same time since it takes a while to type up a post, the result is several new threads venting on that subject.

But here's the kicker, let's blame this all on the Fallout fans, since they're the posters of the stuff. After all, it's a good excuse, isn't it? It's not because of a poorly made title that people hate, nor overzealous moderation which acts like keroscene on a lit match. It's got to be the Fallout fans, because we're evil.

Some people, they never learn.

Honestly, I wonder what they're going to moderate once they start the full swing banning of everyone that's reacting to this crap.

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Thu May 15, 2003 9:22 pm

Elara wrote:It's pretty clear none of you have a fucking clue what's going on.

I have quite a good fucking clue what's going on. FOBOS isn't going to be canned, obviously, but quickly destroying any chance of publicity being generated for it will make sales plummet further.

Though I agree arrogant people like Rosh don't make the Fallout community look very good.

Rosh · Post by **Rosh** » Thu May 15, 2003 9:24 pm

Yeah, Shodan is by far one of the more flakey moderators I've seen. He really doesn't know how message boards work, or he's just doing this on purpose to incite a number of people into giving an excuse to ban them.

I'd say that the last post wasn't angsty, I'd say it was more like the post of an attention-whore that either doesn't know what the hell they are doing or they are just being a twit. Keep in mind, that is now his .sig. A less likely situation would be that the admins said it needed to be locked and didn't have the cojones to do it themselves, as the reason for locking it was hardly made clear. There's some very valid points, which were not addressed and left the announcements at a still ambiguous meaning, that were left hanging so they can neatly avoid all responsibility. Much like Interplay's patching and QA methods.

At the bottom line, Shodan is pretty much attention-whoring for the drama. It's also pretty bad that more than a couple developers feel upset over this unclear and often condradicting policy, and then basically get lied to by the mods and essentially ignored by them.

To point out why message boards work, people don't read every thread, and there's also something known as debate, so if you're trying to tell me something that has every indication of being piss-poor is going to be just peachy, you're in a ripe position for that to be debated.