I've been trying out Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (or WAR as I believe the preferred T.L.A. would have it) it's fun enough tho at the moment I don't know if I would pay to play it once my free trail runs out. Much like WOW/AO/DAOC/EQ/ and many others I find these things have an interest level that runs out rather conveniently at the one month level meaning one months free trial is more than enough. The public quest system is interesting for friendless misanthropes (like myself) and does rather neatly solve the issue of wanting to solo game or play in small parties of people you know to avoid smacktards and griefers but still want to get at some of the content designed for large groups without having to join guilds or groups and talk to people.
Anyway I was having an issue with the graphics flickering like billy-oh when on full screen to the extent that passing epileptics were collapsing outside my window just from a brief glance, which did neatly pay for my recent upgrade as it is amazing what you can get for a human kidney on ebay. I fixed the flickering by switching to windowed but it is rather annoying having to run at a lower res so it fits on the screen. I sent WAR! technical support a request detailing my problem and my complete system setup and several days later they sent me the following form letter completely unrelated to my problem. I have commented in bold due to frustration that this was sent from a no-reply so I can't bug them.
Dear Customer
Sorry to hear you are having trouble logging into WAR I'm not you idiots the title of my email was even "Display issues" which you included in your reply and it was sent with your own form with the graphics problem option selected in your drop down!
There are several technical issues that may be affecting your
system and interfering with WAR. Here are a few suggestions as to how we may fix your problem.
... they list a load of solutions to the problem I don't have here
We hope one of these solutions should fix the issue you are NOT having with your connection.
Alternatively, keep an eye on the WAR Europe website for further technical updates.
Enjoy the WAR!
European Customer Support.
the above should read "Lazy Buggers that Can't be bothered to read your email or even look at the category that the form was sent under"
Comments
I had trouble reading the later part of the post because I was laughing so hard at:
passing epileptics were collapsing outside my window just from a brief glance, which did neatly pay for my recent upgrade as it is amazing what you can get for a human kidney on ebay
The idea of you dragging resting-after-an-episode epileptics into your kitchen to cut out their livers will stay with me for some time.
As for 'Customer Support', that's not actually customer support at all. The phrase "support" would suggest that they would help find a solution. This is not helping at all! I recommend you post this on an official forum somewhere.
I thought that joke was offal...
Weirdly they replied to you about the issue that Stu's having even though his choosen method of resolution is to wait until Christmas and try again.
maybe he got my reply?
That would indicate that their support team is both superb and psychic. Stu has literally just put the game on a shelf and waited for his problems to resolve...he hasn't contacted them.
Stu has the IQ and common sense of a Common or Garden Chair.
Though with MMO's that quite often change so much after release that they might as well be different games from what they were when they started (cough) SWG (/cough) it's not completely beyond the realms of possibility for it to be fixed in a later patch.
Of course it will no longer be a game about warhammer elves and dwarfs and so on but be based on the Thomas the tank engine books and be a mmo railway simulator. WOoooo WOOO get on board the fun train!
Contrast that experience with a bug I raised against an open source wordpress plugin at about 2am last night, which was fixed without fuss at about lunchtime.
And yet my company still resists deploying open-source tools internally because 'you don't get support.'
Our company doesn't believe in something you get for free (I recommended open office).
Someone in the software section here recommended we put most people on Google Docs, as no-one is using Word/Excel etc at anywhere near its full potential.
The company I work for almost moved to Linux, but the directors thought it was going to be too hard to use, (one of whom has a Mac), so they got Vista instead....
Maybe theres a gap in the market here, if compaines only concern about not using "open-source" is support why not start a company offering free software but providing support contracts for users.
There are companies that do that, RedHat being a notable example. Oddly, my company is quite happy to ship RedHat linux as the basis of the product we sell to customers, they just won't roll open-source tools out internally.