BonzaiGopher opened this issue on Oct 08, 2002 ยท 71 posts
CyberStretch posted Tue, 08 October 2002 at 8:43 PM
BG, Not to worry. With all the problems that CL/P5 has had with this release, I seriously doubt if they made enough "numbers" to continue on for too long. I just hope that when it does happen (and it will by the looks of it) Poser gets picked up by someone who will have enough programmers, QA staff, and finances to attend to all of the issues. === In a recent e-mail to one of my friends about Poser 5, I identified 10 areas in which I believe that CL blew this release: 1. CL over-hyped the release of P5 by providing too many promises, positive posts, and assurances prior to release; despite the fact they knew the release would be buggy; causing unrealistic expectations from the users about the capabilities of P5. 2. CL included the registration scheme; despite the community's prior adversity to such an idea; causing the community to revisit a heated discussion which, most likely, cost CL customers the first time around - as well as the second. 3. CL accepted pre-order funds before the product shipped; despite the precedent by most companies of withholding payment until the product is shipped; causing users to question their financial stability, which proved to be unstable per admission by CL. 4. CL included a very ambiguous and restrictive EULA; despite the fact that most of the protection they wish to achieve is already covered by law; causing far too much controversy over the EULA detracting from the release, decreasing P5's initial sales, and much needed merchant/vendor support. 5. CL failed to address many known bugs in P4 and P4PP within the release of P5; despite many P4/P4PP bug reports from users; causing users to surmise that the new features were merely add-ons over and above the P4/P4PP code base. 6. CL released a "beta quality" software package; despite the fact that many problems were known to exist with the software prior to release (as evidenced by the huge list of fixes in the first patch); causing users to question whether CL could actually deliver upon its promises. 7. CL failed to adequately prepare for the onslaught of registration problems that the consumers had; despite many admonitions from the more technical savvy users prior to release; causing additional "Registration Frustration" by the users who already had a bad taste from having to register at all. 8. CL failed to have Content Paradise up and functional by the time that P5 shipped; despite the fact that it was touted as being a "feature" of P5; causing a lost opportunity to reveal CP, losing the initial push for encouraging use of CP, and causing vendors/merchants/stores from questioning the viability of CP as a venue for sales. 9. CL staff publicly criticized users for posting problems to the fora vs sending bug reports, etc, directly to CL; despite the fact they knew the community already had high expectations for the release and the community is overly willing to share experiences - both good and bad; causing further frustration by the users who had legitimate issues and were assured it was "user error" vs technical in nature. 10. CL released a bug-ridden patch within 30 days of shipment; despite the fact that the initial software had many bugs already creating issues on users' systems; causing even more users to question whether CL has sufficient development, managerial, and support staff to handle such an ambitious release. Some in the community will agree to them, some will vehemently oppose them, and others simply will not care. I think that CL was counting on this release to be their "saving grace". If that is the case, then it will be interesting to see how long CL controls Poser.