Originally posted by ianstein29

Really Xoom maybe coming into another companies forum and telling folks to move on might be the wrong tact. I understand you can control writings in your own forum since it has been stated numerous times it is not a public site.  Here  a more open conversation can be explored without over zealous moderators shutting down threads. 

This forum is hosted by MMORPG.com, but this is our company's forum (World War II Online). If by a "more open conversation" you mean falsification exploit conversation, sure it can exist here, and so it shall.

When events are dug up from 2+ years ago to try and shed some light on current (although vastly not comparable) affairs, I will be here to enlighten the mis-informed.

I am continuously blown away by some of you guys. I love our community, and some of you are in it, some of you are even active subscribers. What doesn't make sense is coming over here, talking about how the game would be so much better off without Cornered Rat Software, its team, and how the game is dead or should be.

Questions...

Do you know who the development company was that created this game?

Do you know who some of its founding members were?

Do you know who the business that is keeping this game "ON" is?

If you know these answers, and yet you still say "we'd be so much better off," I am concerned.

Look, I get it. We've had to play bad guy, and we've had to do some unpopular things at times. When communicating with each other through text, much is mis-interpreted. Mistakes occur, for we are all human.

But if you support World War II Online, or if you ever have, and you are here on the sole priority to "air-out" or smash the team, then please consider what you are doing carefully. I can't or won't try to stop you, but just take a moment to think about what you're really doing, other than making yourself feel better for a moment.

To those of you who have or continue to support the game, thank you.

S!

Originally posted by BodkinBarber
Why in the year 2013 does the game still not have a dedicated youtube channel?

Arguably, this needs to be updated, and I'll prepare my arse for an RA hater when I post this... but here it is.

http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/youtube

---

Originally posted by Silky303
HC meltdowns actually happen fairly routinely on both sidesNature of the beast I'm afraid. The triggers might be CRS or entirely internal but it happens too frequently to be considered game changing

---

Hey guys.

Guys.

I got an idea.

Let's get rid of the high commands. AOs will be handled by player population and proximity to a town. Each town will have it's own spawn list that rebuilds in eight hours or so.

The players who like to lead can still lead. The ones that like to follow can still follow. Cornered Rat Software won't have to tend to the latest drama or officer shortage ; probably important for a such a small studio.

If necessary I will personally buy each current HC officer a copy of Hearts of Iron 3 or something to seal the deal.

Originally posted by ianstein29
I do support the game by keeping my 2 accts open with CRS.   I do not blindly follow in some strange loyalty like a fanboy.   Some people do that and more power to them if it makes them happy.  I have seen many companies insulate themselves from the truth about their brands and then to be shocked when bad things happen.  I did enjoy the game, no I am not a fan of Doc since he has a hard time communicating properly with others.  Xoom I have known you for many years and I respect the hard position you are in since I am a brand manager in real life as well.   Some  posts do go sideways into conspiracy theories but CRS has made many mistakes which build these negatives into a story.  I hope for the best for you Xoom I really do.   

Ian,

I genuinely appreciate that post. Thank you for having the courage to write it, and best wishes to you as well in your Brand Manager position. It's not easy, sometimes it's really not easy, but everything we do for what we believe in, makes it worth it.

We're in the entertainment business (not sure what industry you are in), and people want their entertainment a certain way. We won't always meet everyone's expectations, but we hope you all enjoy the product built and play it like there's nothing else like it out there.

See what I did there?

David06,

Glad to see you've reactivated your account under the deal I added to your account. Welcome Back Soldier, S!

Stug is correct; the game isn't dying.   But what Stug fails to mention or refuses to accept is that the game is not growing and it certainly isn't thriving.  WW2OL is frozen developmentally as there are no coders and artists to create new assets and new theaters (and fix old and new bugs).  Instead you have  a handful of "producers" who apparently aren't producing much these days if you exclude carbon dioxide and bodily wastes.   As has been said before CRS is a privately held company which means  they have no shareholders to answer to or any kowtowing before a giant publisher for more money.    

The "producers" are in a sweet spot if you think about it.   They don't need to grow the game.  They don't need to hire new programmers and artists.   Why do that since it would only cut into their take home pay.   All the grunt work is done and with nobody else eating into their overhead, the producers  need simply post thinly veiled warnings from Doc about impending doom along with dangling that 1.35 carrot before the  remaining customer base so that they remain subscribed.  It doesn't get any easier than that.    I would be surprised if the producers weren't pulling in decent middle class salaries all from just showing up at the office to see if the server is up and running.  Heck, they could even make more free time for themselves by hiring a kid who's only work experience is 'Subway sandwich maker' and appoint him as CFO and community relations manager.  

Originally posted by XOOM-CRS

Originally posted by BodkinBarber
Why in the year 2013 does the game still not have a dedicated youtube channel?

Arguably, this needs to be updated, and I'll prepare my arse for an RA hater when I post this... but here it is.

http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/youtube

I am familiar with that channel but firstly the name does not successfuly centralise your online presence. It's all fine with that link above but if you see a video uploaded with 'tuberafter' people are not going to think "This is the dedicated youtube channel for Battleground Europe/Cornered Rat Software". To me just viewing it it always looked like Gophur's personal youtube channel and to any normal viewer it just looks like a collection on videos uploaded by a player, not a development studio. When I type in 'Battleground Europe' or 'WW2online' there is no channel that strikes out as being an official channel. In the year 2013 a typical gamer would just think "Must be a small old game". Lots of users comment in the videos "Is this game still going". You want to be able to say "YES YES YES" by showing a strong online presence.

The official channel for Call of Duty on youtube is 'CALLOFDUTY', EA's official channel is 'EA', The developers Gallica Game Studios are 'GallicaGameStudio'. Why not have an account called 'BattlegroundEurope', 'BGEurope', 'WW2BattlegroundEurope' etc (as many names have been taken prior). Most views on youtube come from people clicking on videos on the side of the screen. By having an account name which people will odvious relate to then it vastly increase the games credibility and then allows youtube users a direct way of communicating with you (and CRS a direct way of communicating with users).

Also even if this is going to stay permantly as the official account why is the trailer not been uploaded onto their and instead it's on your personal account?

Why has there never been a push to get consistent content out onto the 'official' channel? You have lots of volunteers willing to do work so even if your busy with other marketing stuff they can run the youtube channel, post a new video e.g. every 2 weeks by inviting players to submit past content or create content for the game. Likewise you've got the buzzcam, a 15minute buzzcam video done by a GM every week or so and uploaded will make the game appear active and allows people to 'like' it, share it on facebook, comment on youtube ("OMG thats me in the tank at 5:11! lolozlolz") etc all of which will establish the game more and will introduce it to more people.

Likewise the twitter account is barely updated. Of course you have much more important stuff on your end (and the value of twitter is exagerated) but there is nothing stopping you from allowing a respectable volunteer to log on every 3-4 days and go "Wow! Great battle at " then link to a screenshot/buzzcam image showing lots of action.

Originally posted by ginzo

Heck, they could even make more free time for themselves by hiring a kid who's only work experience is 'Subway sandwich maker' and appoint him as CFO and community relations manager.  

I'm not a kid, but depending on your age I may be considered one.

I'm not the CFO, that is Chief Financial Officer, I am the Marketing guy (CMO).

With respect to Subway, my family was in the business with three Franchises for 20 years. I started working when I was 14 and ran a store solely for quite some time until I decided to open up my own business(es) and educate myself on business ownership & marketing.

Congratulations on a poor attempt at attacking me. Hopefully now you can feel better that you are so unhappy with yourself that you resort to low blow insults against contributing members of society and job creators.

Originally posted by XOOM-CRS
 

You're wrong about the previous CinC. A lot of people stepped up to the plate and did what was necessary to rebuild. I challenge you to ask the senior command at the time their level of confidence of him as CinC, you seem to have convoluted information from anti-CRS campaigns.

What happened was an absolute last resort option, and has since not been repeated. This situation is 2+ years old, move on.

It was not a last resort.   The campaign had 2-3 days max left.  Oyaji could have been asked to step down after.   Accomplish the same goal with minimal disruption.    NOT doing it that way makes anyone with common sense start to ask why.   Either CRS missed the obvious or they wanted something or someone destroyed.   Neither is acceptable.

There is a process to moving on from past issues.   One, identify the problem.  Two,  analyze how that problem occured and find steps to keep it from happening again.   Three,  take one of those steps.   

But that would require disclosure from CRS.   And it would require admitting mistakes have been made.  There would be a need to discuss something that isn't all fluffy puppies and kittens.    But we all know that's not gonna happen.  

CRS if you hate all the consiracy theories,  they are your children brought about by lack of simple disclosure of the game rules/changes that most companies view as industry standard.

Originally posted by dcoy68

Originally posted by XOOM-CRS
 

You're wrong about the previous CinC. A lot of people stepped up to the plate and did what was necessary to rebuild. I challenge you to ask the senior command at the time their level of confidence of him as CinC, you seem to have convoluted information from anti-CRS campaigns.

What happened was an absolute last resort option, and has since not been repeated. This situation is 2+ years old, move on.

It was not a last resort.   The campaign had 2-3 days max left.  Oyaji could have been asked to step down after.   Accomplish the same goal with minimal disruption.    NOT doing it that way makes anyone with common sense start to ask why.   Either CRS missed the obvious or they wanted something or someone destroyed.   Neither is acceptable.

There is a process to moving on from past issues.   One, identify the problem.  Two,  analyze how that problem occured and find steps to keep it from happening again.   Three,  take one of those steps.   

But that would require disclosure from CRS.   And it would require admitting mistakes have been made.  There would be a need to discuss something that isn't all fluffy puppies and kittens.    But we all know that's not gonna happen.  

CRS if you hate all the consiracy theories,  they are your children brought about by lack of simple disclosure of the game rules/changes that most companies view as industry standard.

There is no possible way you have either been fully briefed, or accurately briefed. So your personal understanding in its entirety of the situation (emphasize entirety, because you may have some fragments) is impossible. Why? I was at the front lines of it with the people who came together to ultimately make that decision.

In retrospect, we should've allowed him to finish, I won't argue that. But we didn't, it happened, it hasn't happened since, and we've adjusted procedures to reflect that. We hope to god we never have to again, but it doesn't mean that anyone who makes CinC has a full free ride without consequence.

I am deeply saddened by the departure of yourself and Bloodhun23, in time I hope you guys return. I understand fully why you feel the way you do, and I'm sorry that it couldn't have turned out better.

Thanks to both of you guys for your strategic leadership in the map movement sector that generated a lot of appreciation from the playerbase. 

Originally posted by BodkinBarber

Originally posted by XOOM-CRS

Originally posted by BodkinBarber
Why in the year 2013 does the game still not have a dedicated youtube channel?

Arguably, this needs to be updated, and I'll prepare my arse for an RA hater when I post this... but here it is.

http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/youtube

I am familiar with that channel but firstly the name does not successfuly centralise your online presence. It's all fine with that link above but if you see a video uploaded with 'tuberafter' people are not going to think "This is the dedicated youtube channel for Battleground Europe/Cornered Rat Software". To me just viewing it it always looked like Gophur's personal youtube channel and to any normal viewer it just looks like a collection on videos uploaded by a player, not a development studio. When I type in 'Battleground Europe' or 'WW2online' there is no channel that strikes out as being an official channel. In the year 2013 a typical gamer would just think "Must be a small old game". Lots of users comment in the videos "Is this game still going". You want to be able to say "YES YES YES" by showing a strong online presence.

 

The official channel for Call of Duty on youtube is 'CALLOFDUTY', EA's official channel is 'EA', The developers Gallica Game Studios are 'GallicaGameStudio'. Why not have an account called 'BattlegroundEurope', 'BGEurope', 'WW2BattlegroundEurope' etc (as many names have been taken prior). Most views on youtube come from people clicking on videos on the side of the screen. By having an account name which people will odvious relate to then it vastly increase the games credibility and then allows youtube users a direct way of communicating with you (and CRS a direct way of communicating with users).

 

Also even if this is going to stay permantly as the official account why is the trailer not been uploaded onto their and instead it's on your personal account?

 

Why has there never been a push to get consistent content out onto the 'official' channel? You have lots of volunteers willing to do work so even if your busy with other marketing stuff they can run the youtube channel, post a new video e.g. every 2 weeks by inviting players to submit past content or create content for the game. Likewise you've got the buzzcam, a 15minute buzzcam video done by a GM every week or so and uploaded will make the game appear active and allows people to 'like' it, share it on facebook, comment on youtube ("OMG thats me in the tank at 5:11! lolozlolz") etc all of which will establish the game more and will introduce it to more people.

 

Likewise the twitter account is barely updated. Of course you have much more important stuff on your end (and the value of twitter is exagerated) but there is nothing stopping you from allowing a respectable volunteer to log on every 3-4 days and go "Wow! Great battle at " then link to a screenshot/buzzcam image showing lots of action.

 

Good post this, should really try and take this advise and try to improve the official youtube channel.

Originally posted by XOOM-CRS

Originally posted by ginzo

Heck, they could even make more free time for themselves by hiring a kid who's only work experience is 'Subway sandwich maker' and appoint him as CFO and community relations manager.  

I'm not a kid, but depending on your age I may be considered one.

I'm not the CFO, that is Chief Financial Officer, I am the Marketing guy (CMO).

With respect to Subway, my family was in the business with three Franchises for 20 years. I started working when I was 14 and ran a store solely for quite some time until I decided to open up my own business(es) and educate myself on business ownership & marketing.

Congratulations on a poor attempt at attacking me. Hopefully now you can feel better that you are so unhappy with yourself that you resort to low blow insults against contributing members of society and job creators.

PM sent