EA responds to fan demands

Gsp. · 08-11-2003, 08:29 AM

EA responds to fan demands

In a report on the German Panzerfahren.de site it would seem that EA/Dice have reacted to the stream of demands fans have been throwing at them by explaining their patch and update policy.

In an earlier interview with EA the site managed to establish that EA has in fact a department called LIVE which is exclusively tasked with bugs and community wishes. Apperently however, this is an internal department, meaning that they won't contact the fans themselves.

EA has started off the reaction with regret that the community doesn't give the developers any slack or goodwill. As an analogy EA talks about a vicious circle: in the past EA did not see any benefit in supporting the community, and seeing this lack off support made the community hostile, which in turn made EA even more careful, etc. EA states that as a result the fans are highly critical at virtually every thing that is given out to them. This is especially regretful as the BF1942 department has been trying to be enthousiastic toward the community and listen to it for further development.

In short the situation was defined as follows: If Modders want to have a more support from EA, two things must happen. EA has tro recognize the value of the modding community, and the modding community has to start to use the tools EA has offered (Battlecraft 1942).

In connection to this it was also noted that Zerk, Chief developer of Battlecraft, suffered two heartattacks and had to undergo heartsurgery.

It is rather interesting to see that the patches and updates released by EA have usually started a storm of criticism, and have then been adopted. The Secret Weapons addon, where initial reactions were extremely negative, and fist reviews of the demo now seem to be positive can be called an example.

Raijin Z · 08-11-2003, 08:48 AM

EA's going to recognize the value of the modding community when Suckass Weapons falls flat on its retail face.

Mack-lee · 08-11-2003, 09:45 AM

Is this real?

grim reaper · 08-11-2003, 09:50 AM

yeah, where did you find this from, its not on any of the news sites.

Morat · 08-11-2003, 10:44 AM

Here's a link to the story with Google translation.

Sheesh that took 10 seconds, you lazy people

Mack-lee · 08-11-2003, 11:02 AM

WOW! Look at what a fog hack actually does!!! http://www.nosurrender.nu/misc/nofog...7dd103f6f5 d8 EA needs to take action!

The Diceman · 08-11-2003, 11:07 AM

Yeah what it actually does is it removes the fog

Mack-lee · 08-11-2003, 11:12 AM

Didn't know it was that serious! DEATH TO THE CHEATING INFIDELS!

Gsp. · 08-11-2003, 11:18 AM

Lol we will slaugterd them all!
We will burn them in their tanks.

Raijin Z · 08-11-2003, 11:19 AM

Jesus fucking christ. I knew people were using the no fog cheat in a couple games when I was getting shot up from across the map (6 player air-combat over el alamein). Maybe it's time for vengance, only on the EA servers.

The Master · 08-11-2003, 12:51 PM

I heard that in the next patch, banning the cd key is possible - that ll be cool for tkers and cheaters.

maverick514 · 08-11-2003, 04:26 PM

EA will never help the modding community.

MonsterTrucker87 · 08-11-2003, 04:41 PM

god, cut them some slack, EA and DICE are doing the best they can, we're lucky that they still even support bf.

Đemðlitiðn Man · 08-11-2003, 04:58 PM

I think the community should be able to release patches... EA should hand patch making over to the community it would get done a lot faster.

yetix · 08-11-2003, 05:15 PM

ns, EA has become the Wal-mart retail giant of gaming.
it's a corporate machine, until EA gets it's ass spanked by competition
nothing will change. why should it?

DC could possibly compete using the DICE refractor 2 engine, but we all know something is up between EA and the Dc folks anyhoo.

c'mon competition!

JeanFrancois · 08-11-2003, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Đemðlitiðn Man

I think the community should be able to release patches... EA should hand patch making over to the community it would get done a lot faster.

That sure will stop all those cheaters!

If they have access to the code, do you think it will be easier or harder to make cheats?

I agree that EA is the Wal-Mart of the gaming industry. They don't make the games, but as the publishers they still have a big say in what gets out and what doesn't. BF in it's current state is a mess in terms of cheaters, and their last attempt at Pure servers didn't help very much. We need TRUE pure servers and demo recording/playback capabilities.

Bacon · 08-11-2003, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yetix

but we all know something is up between EA and the Dc folks anyhoo.

Man if EA f*cks up the development of Future Desert Combat releases in anyway, not only will i not purchase that crappy new expansion, i wont even consider Vietnam, and move onto that other Vietnam game that's part of the Medal of Honour series....no surprise..that's beeing produced by EA too, anyways, i guess i'm going to play Soldner.

Red MEat · 08-11-2003, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeanFrancois

Quote:

Originally Posted by Đemðlitiðn Man

I think the community should be able to release patches... EA should hand patch making over to the community it would get done a lot faster.

That sure will stop all those cheaters!

If they have access to the code, do you think it will be easier or harder to make cheats?

I agree that EA is the Wal-Mart of the gaming industry. They don't make the games, but as the publishers they still have a big say in what gets out and what doesn't. BF in it's current state is a mess in terms of cheaters, and their last attempt at Pure servers didn't help very much. We need TRUE pure servers and demo recording/playback capabilities.

I agree but to stop the "No Fog, Neon Skins, Radar" cheats/hacks you would have to have all these either server side settings or have a very intrusive CRC occurring between all the clients and the server checking on content... I don't think that will work because the server is already pretty tasked at this point and adding any more load to it will decrease its performance and you will just get more people compalining about Lag also it would absolutly kill the Modders unless EA releases some mini SDK that would allow them to include their Mods in the CRC schema. So as long as there are open files (Non-CRC) on the clients machine you will have hacks/cheats happening.

Compared to CS, BF is a almost cheat/hack free and I play on servers that have an Admin present 80% of the time so the obvious No Fog cheaters are kicked pretty quickly when found out.

JeanFrancois · 08-11-2003, 05:58 PM

That's the beauty of CRC checks. Most of the work is done by client, which runs the algorithm, returns a result, that gets sent off to be compared to a known-good CRC. Ideally, you'd have different CRC algorithms going around so it would be harder to spoof a file.

Red MEat · 08-11-2003, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeanFrancois

That's the beauty of CRC checks. Most of the work is done by client, which runs the algorithm, returns a result, that gets sent off to be compared to a known-good CRC. Ideally, you'd have different CRC algorithms going around so it would be harder to spoof a file.

Thats great but only if EA/DICE sets a schema for it, I know you can do it solely via a client installation but that is also the weakest way to accomplish it and give Hackers a way to defeat the CRC. The Best solution is either built into the server side code or resides on the server as middle-ware... and it will add more load to the system.

08-11-2003, 08:29 AM	#1 (permalink)
Gsp. Private Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 12	EA responds to fan demands EA responds to fan demands In a report on the German Panzerfahren.de site it would seem that EA/Dice have reacted to the stream of demands fans have been throwing at them by explaining their patch and update policy. In an earlier interview with EA the site managed to establish that EA has in fact a department called LIVE which is exclusively tasked with bugs and community wishes. Apperently however, this is an internal department, meaning that they won't contact the fans themselves. EA has started off the reaction with regret that the community doesn't give the developers any slack or goodwill. As an analogy EA talks about a vicious circle: in the past EA did not see any benefit in supporting the community, and seeing this lack off support made the community hostile, which in turn made EA even more careful, etc. EA states that as a result the fans are highly critical at virtually every thing that is given out to them. This is especially regretful as the BF1942 department has been trying to be enthousiastic toward the community and listen to it for further development. In short the situation was defined as follows: If Modders want to have a more support from EA, two things must happen. EA has tro recognize the value of the modding community, and the modding community has to start to use the tools EA has offered (Battlecraft 1942). In connection to this it was also noted that Zerk, Chief developer of Battlecraft, suffered two heartattacks and had to undergo heartsurgery. It is rather interesting to see that the patches and updates released by EA have usually started a storm of criticism, and have then been adopted. The Secret Weapons addon, where initial reactions were extremely negative, and fist reviews of the demo now seem to be positive can be called an example.

08-11-2003, 09:45 AM	#3 (permalink)
Mack-lee Sergeant Major Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: South Jerzey Posts: 647	Is this real? __________________

08-11-2003, 10:44 AM	#5 (permalink)
Morat Master Warrant Officer Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Diving towards your pos with my finger on the bomb release... Posts: 1,188	Here's a link to the story with Google translation. Sheesh that took 10 seconds, you lazy people __________________ Desktop wallpapers by Morat at caedes

08-11-2003, 11:02 AM	#6 (permalink)
Mack-lee Sergeant Major Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: South Jerzey Posts: 647	WOW! Look at what a fog hack actually does!!! http://www.nosurrender.nu/misc/nofog...7dd103f6f5 d8 EA needs to take action! __________________

08-11-2003, 11:07 AM	#7 (permalink)
The Diceman Master Warrant Officer Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Error404-could not be retrieved Posts: 1,272	Yeah what it actually does is it removes the fog __________________

08-11-2003, 08:48 AM	#2 (permalink)
Raijin Z Sergeant Major Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Northeast USA Posts: 609	EA's going to recognize the value of the modding community when Suckass Weapons falls flat on its retail face.

08-11-2003, 09:50 AM	#4 (permalink)
grim reaper Forum Moderator Brigadier General Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: England Posts: 7,255	yeah, where did you find this from, its not on any of the news sites.

08-11-2003, 11:12 AM	#8 (permalink)
Mack-lee Sergeant Major Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: South Jerzey Posts: 647	Didn't know it was that serious! DEATH TO THE CHEATING INFIDELS! __________________

08-11-2003, 11:18 AM	#9 (permalink)
Gsp. Private Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 12	Lol we will slaugterd them all! We will burn them in their tanks.

08-11-2003, 11:19 AM	#10 (permalink)
Raijin Z Sergeant Major Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Northeast USA Posts: 609	Jesus fucking christ. I knew people were using the no fog cheat in a couple games when I was getting shot up from across the map (6 player air-combat over el alamein). Maybe it's time for vengance, only on the EA servers.

08-11-2003, 12:51 PM	#11 (permalink)
The Master First Lieutenant Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Germany Posts: 1,700	I heard that in the next patch, banning the cd key is possible - that ll be cool for tkers and cheaters.

08-11-2003, 04:26 PM	#12 (permalink)
maverick514 Colonel Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: People's Republic of MA Posts: 6,061	EA will never help the modding community. __________________

08-11-2003, 04:41 PM	#13 (permalink)
MonsterTrucker87 Sergeant First Class Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: In a mall surrounded by zombies Posts: 471	god, cut them some slack, EA and DICE are doing the best they can, we're lucky that they still even support bf.

08-11-2003, 04:58 PM	#14 (permalink)
Đemðlitiðn Man Private Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Western, NY Posts: 22	I think the community should be able to release patches... EA should hand patch making over to the community it would get done a lot faster. __________________ Old Name: TigerTank

08-11-2003, 05:15 PM	#15 (permalink)
yetix Major Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Bob's Panzer Garage, BFE Arkansas Posts: 3,191	ns, EA has become the Wal-mart retail giant of gaming. it's a corporate machine, until EA gets it's ass spanked by competition nothing will change. why should it? DC could possibly compete using the DICE refractor 2 engine, but we all know something is up between EA and the Dc folks anyhoo. c'mon competition! __________________

08-11-2003, 05:58 PM	#19 (permalink)
JeanFrancois Chief Warrant Officer First Class Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 1,039	That's the beauty of CRC checks. Most of the work is done by client, which runs the algorithm, returns a result, that gets sent off to be compared to a known-good CRC. Ideally, you'd have different CRC algorithms going around so it would be harder to spoof a file. __________________ Don\'t feed the trolls.