Customer Disservice

I've not posted anything on this  for a while because I've been working on my other blog. This one will be more personal from now on, with my gaming stuff appearing on Chaotic Good Gaming (which is still very much a work in progress at the moment).

There is one area of common ground, however, that is likely to appear on both sites: customer service (or, more likely, the lack of).

Given that I run a rather busy (under staffed/over worked) technical support department and have a rather significant amount of customer services experience and training, it's a topic that's rather close to home.

The first thing I have to include, when writing about customer service, is that it isn't hard to get it right... it really (really) isn't, it just requires a little effort and thought. That's not to say it's even easier to get it horribly wrong, of course.

There are several things you need to consider if you want to keep the majority of your customers happy. Communication, managing expectation and being realistic.

If It doesn't matter how bad things are, if you are keeping in touch with your customer(s) and making sure they know what is happening and how you are dealing with their issue, you can easily avoid any angry confrontation. If you leave it until they are frustrated and have to ask you for an update... it's too late. For a prime example of how this should be done, just look at how the community managers for the Star Wars The Old Republic MMO attempt to keep everyone posted about issues during the beta and release, on both the forums and Twitter. Granted, the information flow will never be quite enough for some people, but it is fairly constant and, where possible, personal.

For an example of how not to do it, I will talk about my personal dealings with Rockstar Games technical support further down the page.

Managing expectation goes hand in hand with communication. While telling a customer that their issue will be resolved quickly may give you short term relief from their hounding... if, in reality, it is going to take longer, you are simply storing up problems for yourself further down the line. Be honest about timescales and allow for delays (especially when dealing with third parties). Which leads neatly to...

Be realistic! About timescales, costs and required resources... cutting corners only helps your short-term gain. And accept that some people will never be happy with the outcome, no matter how hard you try; but that's no excuse to deal with them any differently.

All in all, it's just seems like common sense to me... but so many companies get it wrong.

So, on to a little story about poor customer services. This is, in no way, the only time I've experienced poor customer services (trust me) but it is fairly recent and offers some excellent material to demonstrate that not to do:

Waaaay back in May this year, GamersGate were doing a deal on Bully: Scholarship Edition for the PC.  Having played a little of this when the game was first released, I thought it would be a good idea to give it another try.  Sadly, after downloading, installing and then launching the game it simply 'locked' on the loading page.  A quick search of the Internet turned up a lot of people having the same issue (regardless of where they had bought it from) and no one seemed to have a solution. So, after testing a few different solutions of my own (compatibility settings, resolution changes and the obligatory uninstall/clean/reinstall) I decided to log a support ticket with Rockstar technical support.  The original ticket, number 28709, was logged on Monday, May 30th.  I didn't receive a response from Rockstar was eleven days later (9 if you only count "business" days)  on Friday, the 10th of June.  Already we're off to a bad start... eleven days before their first generic "have you tried these steps" reply?!

By this point, I'd actually already given up on the game and moved on to something else... but, as they had actually chosen to reply, I figured I'd at least see the technical call through.  After attempting all the steps they had supplied without success, I then replied to the call on the 15th of June with my DXDiag and MSInfo files (requested as part of the first response).

The next reply from Rockstar was more prompt... the very next day.  Excellent, I though, now we're in the process this should go pretty quickly.  Sadly, however, yet another generic reply.  Install DirectX 9c, Visual C++ 2008 redistribution and the .Net 4.0 framework.  Great... hang on, I've already got these installed... surely you spotted that in the information you requested from the last ticket?!  Regardless, I downloaded the packages and re-installed/repaired them just to be sure; I like to be able to say "Yes, I did that" and not just assume my installations are ok (I know how annoying that can be).

After contacting them just an hour later and explaining that the situation, and adding a number of other things I had already tried (in an attempt to avoid any further 'generic' responses), I received my next reply just 12 minutes later... and it appeared to be a personal one asking about other compatibility modes I had tried, and not a 'copy and paste' answer.  So, eagerly, I replied explaining all of the different modes I had tried and sat waiting for "Paul C" to reply... but nothing came.

Sadly, at this stage, the team support failed.  Having exhausted his list of generic questions, Paul appeared to have given up.

Disappointed that there didn't appear to be any solution, and without any help from Rockstar, there was little I could do but chalk it up to a bad experience.

Then, out of the blue nearly three months later I suddenly get another reply from a different member of their support team requesting further info.  At this point, however, I was actually away on my honeymoon so didn't see it and wouldn't have been able to do anything about it if I'd wanted to and seven days after the request, they had closed the ticket because I hadn't responded!

This, however, was not the end.  Five days after closing the ticket (it's now the 17th of September) I receive yet another email from Rockstar asking what I'd thought of their technical support.  Given that it was now three and a half months after logging the initial ticket, you can imagine that my reply wasn't particularly positive (but entirely factual and honest... without resorting to any cheap shots or abuse),

A few hours after leaving my feedback I received yet another email from them... opening another ticket (99675) and 'defending' their support.

By this time I had completely rebuilt my PC with a new graphics card and a fresh install of Windows (ready for Battlefield 3 and Skyrim, obviously).  So, at their request, I re-installed Bully and started again, posting the new information they had requested the very next day.

Two weeks later (*sigh*) I get a reply, only this time with some reasonably useful information... early versions of the game had issues with 64bit operating systems.  Rockstar's suggestion, check the version number by checking the menu screen... which would be great if I could get passed the 'loading' screen (the reason I'd logged the ticket in the first place).  Replying as such and requesting an alternative way to check the version number, I'm told to "hover over the EXE" to get the number... which doesn't work either.  At this point, the new support member, Paul H, has obviously exhausted his ideas as he doesn't reply for another 11 days, and when he does, it's back to the generic cut and paste answers... DXDiag please? Sure.  Another reply the following day for my MSInfo.  Couple of days later... please install Direct X, C++ and the .Net 4 framework... *deep sigh*

By the time I'd replied to that email, I'd pretty much given up the will to live (at least in the world of Bully).  It's now mid-November and if there was even the slightest spark of desire to play the game it has been well and truly destroyed by their technical support department... but perhaps that is their true purpose.  After all, the cynic in my says, they've already got my money right?

Having been quite a fan of Rockstar, it certainly stings a little when you don't get the service you expect... long wait times, no explanation, etc...

I understand that supporting any PC product is going to be a big job, but Rockstar aren't new to this game... and with rumours of Bully 2 on the way once they've got Max Payne 3 out of the way, I can only hope their support department gets some serious investment.

We Be Rollin'

Lot's going on at the moment.  I've got a secret project in the works that *should* be making an appearance soon.  Aside from that, we're now into the busiest period for work and I'm still finding time to rock out.

That's right, last weekend was Sonisphere which was amazing.  With Diamond Head, Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica on the Friday night the rest of the acts that weekend were really going to have to up their game.  Metallica put on a typically impressive show that didn't disappoint... although I've seen them play even better in the past.

Saturday was a little odd with some relatively 'lighter' acts thrown into the mix ending with... Biffy Clyro as the headliner?! This is a METAL festival right?  In all honesty I had no interest in seeing them so when the heavens opened and we were getting soaked through to the skin we ducked out and hit an all-you-can eat Chinese restaurant.  Damn we're rock 'n roll.  Fortunately there were a few acts that were still worth seeing... although I think the highlight of Saturday for me was Richard Cheese with his half-hour of lounge-singer metal covers.

Sunday was pretty awesome with the likes of Motorhead, Airbourne, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and... BILL BAILEY!  House of Pain played a reasonable set but no-one really showed an interest until they played 'Jump Around'.  Motorhead were as loud as ever although it loses some of the impact where you're not in an enclosed area.  Airbourne were as energetic and amazing as always... Joel O'Keefe (their lead singer/guitarist) ensuring the crowd went wild by climbing up on top of the Saturn Stage to play a quick solo.  The guy is crazy but we wouldn't want it any other way!  Not being a particular fan of Limp Bizkit they really surprised me and were definitely one of the highlights of the weekend.  Bill Bailey was as awesome as you'd expect him to be... although he did suffer from some sound mixing issue (as did a few acts I saw on the Saturn Stage).

All in all it was an amazing weekend... spoilt only by the fact it was gone 5am before we were back home in bed and had to be up for work at 7am.  Next time I'll remember to take the Monday off!

Artificial Intelligence?

If you are at all interested in Brink, you've probably read quite a lot of comments about it so far.  The vocal minority (as far as I can tell) appear to be rather unhappy Xbox 360 owners getting some pretty bad lag when attempting to play online. I don't think the PC version has suffered from quite so many issues but it certainly wasn't problem free.  For that reason, despite starting this post some time ago, I've held off finishing it while numerous patches have been released to give the game a fair shot.

Splash Damage have been rather good in terms of getting patches out there and communicating with the players.  Personally, I've not had any issues other than some rather shocking AI.

But I'm getting ahead of myself... 

Let's start with the simple fact that Brink is good... really good... and it's different.  Heavily reliant on objectives and team work, it feels like a cross between Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead.  Run around by yourself and you're not going to last very long but stick with your team mates, especially if they are taking the time to 'buff' each other, and you can be an unstoppable machine.  Compared to Quake Wars or Enemy Territory, this feels a lot tighter both in terms of the quality of the game and the gameplay itself.

The graphics, while not cutting edge, are good and the stylised art direction works well.  There have been a few complaints about the lack of female characters but I'm not sure the elongated faces and features would lend themselves very well to the female form.

There has obviously been quite a lot of attention given to the sound as well.  After listening to it being discussed in one of the Bethesda podcast, I can't help but notice the difference in sounds when aiming down the iron sight... and I think it's this attention to detail that really sells the game and, if I'm honest, something I've almost come to expect from anything coming out of the Bethesda camp.

As for the much hyped customisation, it's mixed bag.  The character customisation is ok; Your face and colour are picked when you first start the character and then these can't be changed.  I was a little disappointed to find that you can only pick your face from a selection and, while I understand why, it would have been good to have a wider range or some control over some of the facial features.  Also, while there are quite a few pieces of clothing to be unlocked, I found that once I'd picked out an outfit I was reasonably happy with, I didn't really feel any need to go back and change it (although I did always check once I'd unlocked a new piece).  The weapon customisation felt very similar, although there are obvious benefits and penalties for fitting certain attachments.

My problems with the game are all fairly minor issues, but ones that perhaps more testing or a fresh eye might have avoided.  The weapon selection, for example, is desperately in need of some way to compare different weapons and a choice of selection screen; the current selection screen gets very cluttered once you've unlocked everything.  Maybe the ability to filter by type of weapon might help.  The friendly AI is also a little lacking; while your AI controlled medics will almost always run to your aid, they will often blindly run into firefights and get very quickly taken out.  I also found that your team mates would sometimes struggle to run in the right direction for an objective or, worse, grab a transport objective and then run into an obviously hostile environment.  At one point, one of my AI team mates managed to get themselves stuck behind a ladder and seem to become invisible to the other team... I ended up having to use grenades to knock him back into play!

But, as I've already said, a great game and definitely worth a play in a world drowning in the next "Call of Duty" wannabes.