While we're on the subject of "Kissing Ass" I am a curious person and am just dying to know one thing. What exactly do you brown nosers have to gain by getting in line to smooch butt? It's not like HT has a pen and paper and is 'keeping score' like Santa Claus and is going to bestow upon you some gift for valiantly defending his virtue on these boards.
If you really wanted to do HT, HTC, the community and the game a service you would get up off your knees and voice your honest, truthfull opinion as to what you believe is best for the game as a whole, not just for you personally. That kind of information is really usefull to a company, especially a small shop like HTC. Do you guys realize how much money US companies spend on market analysis each year to find out how to improve their products, customer satisfaction and therefore their bottom lines? I'll give you hint, Bill Gates would be collecting soda cans on the sides of highways to feed his family if he had to pay the bill for what corporate America spends. HTC, is getting FREE market analysis from us, well me and a few others, all he's getting from the rest of you is a vigorous ego massage.
Most of us here went through the meat grinder with either Kesmai or WB. We have seen first-hand what small, insulated groups of well-intentioned programmers/designers can do to a product such as this when left to their own devices if they lack and/or ignore valuable customer feedback. I'm not saying HTC will go down that road. But, we as a community can help guarentee HTC does not by offering our valuable input, advice, and yes, even constructive criticism. If HTC/HiTech truly cares for this product he will listen and evaluate this information and act on it in the best interest of the community and his company if and when he sees fit. Without this information HTC/HiTech is shooting in the dark 'hoping' he guesses right. The potential consequence if he guesses wrong? Bankrupty, equity liquidation and asset dispersement to creditors, no more Aces High.
We are dealing with extremely complex issues here. Issues that honestly go far beyond C++ programming and HiTech's area of expertise. These are issues that deal with human nature, psychology, group thinking and dynamics, along with fundamental business principles. If HiTech is a smart man, as I am sure he is, he will be the first to admit he, nor anyone else at HTC is the 'master of all these domains'.
If Kesmai and AW taught me anything from a business point of view, it taught me that not listening to your customers is sheer folly, thinking you as the designer somehow 'knows' better than your 5,000 paying customers how to handle THEIR issues is sheer folly. A little business acumen and some common sense should make this plainly obvious to anyone who has had even the tiniest contact with the business world.
In conclusion, stop kissing ass, roll your sleeves up, get in there and start coming up with ideas to improve this product. Only in that way can we be totally assured it will still be here for us to enjoy tomorrow, next month, next year or ten years from now.
Peace!
Zazen
