These are the things that I struggle with more than anything else. Folks that are familiar with software and software development don't find these issues difficult to understand. But I'm in a constant struggle to get clan members to wrap their heads around this stuff. They look at it as unneccessary turmoil, and they continually want to "blame" someone or something. I've tried my best to put it in perspective, and i've practically written tutorials in the forum to make these transisions as smooth as possible. Then they fail to read them and "pull my chicken" later.
I've sat around and thought about what might be at the core of this discontent, other than a lack of understanding. I've come to some conclusions about what are contributing factors.
One apparent thing is that most folks don't understand the concept of Alpha, Beta, and Final. They seem to expect every release to be a polished "Final." And they don't recognize the value of free content. They don't "get it" that someone or some group has sweated the map design out for months. In terms of man-hours, this equates to thousands of dollars if the creator was paid even a modest salary.
They seem to feel that the driblet they paid for the core game-engine should encompass an endless supply of free quality maps with no development period. They also do not recognize the fact that they are beta testers the moment they start utilizing the free content -whether they like it or not.
And the thing that I find might be the greatest contributing factor to malcontent is tied to broadband and peoples understanding of it. I say this after going through countless hours of helping clan members nurse down and configure a new map. You can't imagine how many people out there are still engaged in real time on-line gaming with something akin to 1.544 Mb/s or little better. It's like bringing a knife to a gun-fight. And some of these poor folks think of themselves as well-equipped. I STILL got people who walk away from a map download to have a cigarrette and cook a meal. By the time they get back, most of us have gone three rounds and moved to the next session. And you'll hear and read many of these same people griping about 64 man server lag.
I'm beyond arguing. If on-line gaming is something you are passionate about, and many people are, they have long ago addressed these things. If your pipe cannot inhale a map in 90 seconds upon server connection, you are not equipped for this hobby. The rest will "get it" a few years down the road when 1000 player slots are not new news in gaming. Climb into the 21st century, kids. I'm serious.
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