Going on 7 days now, I received an email from a competing online sim developer...to keep a long story short, at the bottom of the letter read this:
If you have any problems please contact me regarding them and I will get you squared away as quickly as possible.
I did have problems technically almost immediately. I emailed these folks, via 3 different routes. That was 7 days ago.
My point is this: Smaller companies are better for customer support/service. Imagine what kind of customer service one would get from an online gaming provider where the player base reaches upward of ,say 10,000 users. Do you honestly think you're going to get the same customer support or service like you do with a smaller company like HTC? Ask Microsoft users that have tried to contact their support people.
In summary, I don't care how good a game is, if the customer support or service level is missing, I personally can live life just fine without it on my hard drive.
Edit: It was 7 days ago from today that I sent this 'Very Large Online Software Company with a highly anticipated online game' an email with no reply.
[This message has been edited by Ripsnort (edited 05-01-2001).]