The reason they're not responding is because they DO care.
I've lost my patience with the majority of the people complaining in the general forum.
I love how the Mod forum area is all ideas of how to fix it themselves and what they can do to make the game more fun for themselves. This forum area is filled with complainers who attack people who say that they enjoy the game.

Bethesda is trying to fix the bugs. The game was released what... three weeks ago? They probably took a week off since they'd been working so damn hard on the game, then had some time to spend with family through Thanksgiving and then they pumped out a patch that, from my understanding, fixed quite a few problems that people were having. Even if that new patch created some other problems, they're obviously trying to work on it. Why don't you cut them some slack and stop acting like a blundering buffoon with no concern for other people? Why do you people insist on acting as if you have been greatly wronged in some way? Yes, I said YOU PEOPLE.

EDIT: By the way, Bethesda has no obligation whatsoever to fix the game that you already paid for. You paid for it and you get to live with the finished product. The fact that they're actually doing something about the bugs in this game should make you happy. Do most gamers no longer remember all of the bugs in older games? Most of which were used to exploit older games.

Let me tell you a little story.

Codemasters are the makers of the F1 2011 game for the PC,PS3 and XBOX.
This year's game proved to be an inferior PS3 port with noticeably downgraded visuals, very bad implementation of AA and framerate problems.
The PC and 360 versions are very good. Various bugs plagued all versions but most of them were fixed with the two patches released so far.
There was an uproar in their forums as you can guess with people (myself included) making all sorts of complains about the visuals, the framerate, the bugs for the PS3 version.
A situation very similar to what we have here.

The difference!

All that time, the community manager (who was actually in touch with the developers the whole time) and the moderators of that forum were trying their best to put people's minds at ease with actual responses, not just the generic "calm down the devs watch the problems" ones. The Chief Games Designer Steven Hood took the time and effort to give feedback to the users regarding everything with the game with his own forum account. The problems, the patches and sometimes he even gave developing insight about the game's design and the decisions they had to make in its making.

Am I happy with that game?
No, I expected console parity and wanted more.
However I did (and do) appreciated the fact that codemasters actually COMMUNICATED with their users/fans/customers and in some cases they even listened to their requests.
That is the key word here: COMMUNICATION!
If Bethesda took the time to communicate with us here, things would have been much more mature and civilized.

P.S I don't really blame the mods (although sometimes they over react) because I believe that they are kept in the dark as well and they are not Bethesda employees.

Could not have typed it better myself.

Could've been a lot shorter and just went with "BOHICA, and you'll LIKE it"

If you want a twitter message posted, trust me, you'd want it to be the same people who work on the engine - unless you're just looking for a "we're seeing issues" as opposed to any actual information on what's being done. You want a tech giving you tech information, NOT PR. And now my preference to them focusing on the task at hand as opposed to posting BS on Twitter is "an obsession"?

But whatever. I guess the patch can be put off because someone's upset that the patch caused some issues. Because we know this Twitter post or whatnot would actually calm anyone anyhow, right? No, they'd just be all jumping on that. There's no point. Fixing the issue actually does something. Maybe it's you who needs help.

I've spent a lot of time on the Battlefield 3 forums trying to educate people about the fact that developers do not set the release date. In this case, Zenimax set the release date. Bethesda are in no way involved; they are merely under contract to get it done by the due date. If they can't, it can mean serious problems for everybody, so they try to get it out as quickly as possible. It's not as easy as just "delaying it".



But they didn't. I've had no problems. Seriously, none at all. Therefore, it's exactly about how the game runs on different PCs. The problems on launch were also mainly to do with specific rig specifications, which is why the majority of people did not run into problems, and some did.



You're a moron. An utter moron. You have a problem, so you extrapolate it and sensationalise it, and then insist that everybody who hasn't had the problem is lying about it? I'm absolutely in awe of behaviour and comments. You're the reason Bethesda doesn't want to talk to the community.



No, they did not make a patch that [censored] up the game. They made a patch that they thought would fix the game, and an unintended side-effect of that patch was that many aspects of the game were now buggy. I don't see anything wrong with defending Bethesda; it's not as if they did it on purpose.

Yeah, people have the right to complain, but Bethesda have the right to not say anything.

And no, I wouldn't behave totally differently. For the first two weeks of owning Battlefield 3, it would almost never run, and when it did it was awful. Did I get mad? No. I just conceded that future patches and updates would work everything out, even if there were some problems. And, lo and behold, there were patches and driver optimisation, and now Battlefield 3 runs beautifully on my computer. I've encountered CTD errors in Skyrim a few times, and I don't get angry. Why? Because if I made a mistake on a report at work, I wouldn't expect the boss to throw a tantrum upon reading it, and proceed to email me, saying, "HEY, ASSBUTT MC[censored]FACE. YOUR REPORT svckS. I AM YOUR BOSS, AND I AM ENTITLED TO A GOOD REPORT; YOU'RE A USELESS [censored], AND YOU'VE NEVER DONE ANYTHING GOOD TO ME. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? YOU USED TO BE SUCH A GREAT EMPLOYEE, BUT NOW YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING, AND YOU SHOULD JUST KILL YOURSELF. I'M GOING TO SUE YOU FOR FRAUD, AND EVERY OTHER PRIVATE LAW CONCEPT, BECAUSE I AM UNHAPPY."

No, instead my boss would email me saying, "Hey Callum, I noticed an error right here. Would you mind fixing that? Thanks."

In the weeks on this forum, I have not once seen a polite request for a fix. Everybody just demands as if they're entitled to everything right now.



Incorrect. They only have an obligation to fix the problem. They don't have to discuss it.

This is the general discussion subforum not the Hardware and Software Issues Subforums.

Seconded.

Beth doesn't owe you, OP, or anyone else with problems any answers. They'll patch it as they do all their games, and if they don't, the modding community will. If you are one of those poor saps that bought it on a console who can't use mods...well...that's your problem. I've had two bugs since starting playing on Thanksgiving; one is the carts won't take you to where you need to go and the other is the guards in every city know I helped the Forsworn with their uprising in Markath. But I haven't complained. Why? Because they don't really bother me and because I know they'll get patched eventually. So, stop your whining. If you feel you can't play the game then don't. No one is holding a gun to your head.

I'm sick of coming onto these forums and seeing all these whiners complain about how broken their game is then demand that Beth does something about it. Hell, I can't play BF3 because its broken. Yup, I've [censored]ed but whatever, EA isn't going to fix it. Fine with me. My copy of Skyrim works just fine.

I've been that developer, want to know what happened? I canceled the time off, came back into work and pulled a 24 hour shift (along with others) to work on my areas and help others, kicked off regression tests, went to bed, woke up, got the results and made the release.

Yes it's stressful, yes it's a thankless task at times, but it's part of the job. You don't get to say 'yeah the release is screwed but I just really like turkey, they can wait.'

That sounds cool, pulling 24 hour shifts to fix problems. I couldn't imagine how sleep deprivation might cause new ones.

Well...have a look at the comments on the retweeted "vote for skyrim" one on their twitter feed....let me know how well you think that's going down.


It takes a PR/press liaison all of 10 minutes to draft something and say another 20 to have it signed off.


No matter anyone's personal feelings on the matter it is simply common sense when you screw up to a: apologise and b: say you're dealing with it. It gets you breathing space to actually look, it calms the consumers and makes you appear to care. Even if it's not true and you dont care it is still worth the half hour it'll take to get it posted.

They should learn from Blizzard and response with "we are aware of the issues and will release patch when it is ready, soon"

then everyone will stop making thread like this one

oh wait

Yeah, it's not recommended for any length of time but that's what regression tests are for.

Plus, every day a broken product is in the wild the company loses money. You can mitigate that by keeping your customers 'in the loop' in terms of fixes (*cough*), but there's still a very real daily cost to unfixed bugs.

I'm not being rude or snarky or anything, but have you ever really had a high-pressure job? There are plenty of jobs that will, at some point, require this kind of thing. Nobody wants to do it, but sometimes it just has to be done. It's not as soul-crushing as it sounds.



This. Totally and unequivocally.

Also, some anecdotal evidence. DICE's Community Manager made a few posts on the Battlefield 3 forums about a week ago, discussing some problems. People exploded over the fact that time was being wasted talking to the community, instead of fixing the problems with the game. No matter what happens, people will be [censored]. That's just how it works.

Aside from all this negativity flooding the boards recently, thank you for an awesome game! Immersive, fun to play, and full of moments where I just stop and take in everything around me. For every grumpy person, there are many more happily enjoying the game you've created.

You are the reason the gaming industry can get away with anything!

Sitting there in your high horse looking down on people as if you are the corporate representative with the task to defend everything.
Are you a lawyer by any chance because you sure do sound like one.

It's funny how you can post these remarks when in the case of you or anybody else buying a new car and finding out that the electronics got burned during the first month and are not included in the guarantee, you would breathe fire on the retailer/company that sold it to you.
Yes, people can say anything as long as it doesn't affect them.

I have had high-pressure jobs. This does not take away from my comment that pushing 24 hour shifts in coding will likely do more damage than good. This has nothing to do with the stress involved - it has to do with sleepiness causing errors more likely than a well-rested crew.

Then tell us what your country is, and show us the relevant statute.

I'm not American, I'm English, and the law on licences here (which is what you purchase) does not in itself grant you consumer rights.

Unit tests and risk management FTW.

:shakehead: this a shame ....so many people this pissed off......smfh :banghead:

Wouldn't be surprised to hear that this patch was a 24 hour coding shift to stop the whining asap and instead - look what's happened.

I don't think them saying "We're working on a patch for next weekend to fix all problems, after rigorous testing", will fix any problems earlier than not saying it it all.

Myself I have not encountered any major problems so all I can really do is provide logical conclusions without specified context.


Oh btw my cat is sleeping like a human next to me

The most important question is "WHY HAVEN'T THEY PULLED THE PATCH ALREADY"?

Revert Steam/Live/PSN to the last know working patch!

Zero cost, ten minutes to write an email to whoever is in charge. Complaints put to rest. Issue a statament saying that Bethesda listen to the feedback and it's working as hard as it can on patch 1.3. End of complaints.

Considering it took a week or two, that might be unlikely. ?_?

But considering they broke multiple instances of previously working code they're presumably not using regression tests (or at least, not using decent regression tests), so it doesn't really matter how long their shifts are, the release is going to have a really high risk of regression.

thing is, every patch creates new problems. If they revert to 1.1 it's literally a step backward. You'll just have to bear with them, it's not like they're evil, demonic creatures that exist to make your life as miserable as they possibly can.