Flav wrote on Jun 20^th, 2014 at 2:16pm:

Thank you kindly.

However since this whole thread is some sort of trial of Maj, I'll weigh in.  The Oracle approves of Maj.  Maj is guilty of trying, talking to people, keeping communication open, and the verdict here is guilty.

I saw a movie about this before -- it's called "The Wall", where being straight is a crime.  Honestly, wtf is wrong with some of you?  Yeah, clearly the best plan is to punish the guy that tried to keep a channel open for not being perfect.  [or for not being what you expected him to be.]

He communicated.  Now he's gone.  Yay, we win.  Crap on his grave for art points.

That said, if Maj really went to LotRO, my condolences.   Doesn't come up here much but the Oracle does track LotRO now as well, and as a result has an account, and characters there.

Gads, it's awful.  Empty, mindless, soulless awful.  No one plays LotRO because of Turbine, they play it because of Tolkien and memories of a book they read, and are sorely disappointed.

Ah Pook wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 3:26am:

The Oracle's been creating online communities for 30+ years.  Witch hunts are very old news.  You'll get no free pass this time.

Ah Pook wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 3:26am:

D&D is a thing.  Tolkien wrote stories.

The Oracle wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 3:02am:


I'm actually quite surprised that you weighed into this so strongly.
I respect that everyone is entitled to their viewpoint, even Eighnuss's "leave Britney alone!!" post almost had me in tears (almost).   

So those saying leave him alone, what makes MajMal so special?  He communicated on the vault?  Forgive me for not getting excited, but did Turdbine set the bar so low, that a guy who shows up irregularly to make pithy, sarcastic comments and blames others, is such a stand up guy?  Really?  Go read his history of posts.
Are other developers of other games that bad, that he looks good?
If I spoke to my customers the way he does, I would be out of business.

The guy is in charge of QA and in his 4 year tenure the game has become a fucking mess.  Is it all his fault - of course not, but some of it absolutely is.  How much shit makes it thru to Live repeatedly?  Either he or his team are incompetent, and we all know what Maj would say (hint: "it wasn't me!).

Ok, some of the bugs are extraordinarily obscure and no-one would likely catch those, but 90% of exploits are repeats.  How do they not catch those?

In game Bug reporting tool - how hard could it be?  Imagine how much more feedback they would get, but then maybe that was the idea - a natural player apathy filter?

Code versioning - who is responsible for ensuring that everyone is working on the same master release version and everyone starts with the same previous release code?  This is how you stop bugs recurring.  In most businesses, QA controls or at the very least monitors versioning.  Version control in DDO is laughable.

Maj's goodbye gift?  Why fix the exploits when you can lock down the UI so much as to make half the game a friggin chore!  What a dickless effort that was.  And he said he would have gone further if he could have.
Good job, you locked down that interface so well that only the exploiters can use it now and the other 95% of your customers are pissed at you for it.

Others have mentioned his many achievements so I won't continue.

Suffice to say, that I don't know much about him other than what he has told us.  He might be a funny, smart guy who is great dad and community leader.
But you know what, I don't really care.  I'm not judging him personally, I'm judging him professionally.

When I'm paying for a service, be it a mechanic or my website development, I don't care if they're nice.  It helps, but I'm not seeking a service based on that.
I want competence at the very least, and maybe even excellence.  I don't want half my website to go to dead links, but because the developer told some cracking jokes, it's ok.....

Just saying, try to isolate the individual from the role he performed and whether you think he did a good job.  If you still do, please explain how he did great?

Last point - guilty of trying?  Really, the best you can say is he tried?  Is this primary/junior school? 
Well since he tried to do his job, and failed, we should be politically correct and award him the very first Vault Certificate of Participation.
Gratz Mal.

Thanks for the fucked up UI now MajMal.

Now fuck off and good riddance to you.

cunt.

The Oracle wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 3:41am:

So have many of us.  What does that have to do with anything?


The Oracle wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 3:41am:

How is criticizing someone for their work performance a witch hunt?  I don't give a fuck if he's over at your house for Sunday dinner, he was head of QA.  Bully on him for talking to people and keeping communication open, but you know what that job's called?  Community Relations Manager.  And it's taken.

Here's the problem: Turbine seems to have an atmosphere of total non-accountability.  When you have a situation where one person can destroy loot for *months*, and he only gets fired because of a drunken rant in public, that's an issue.  When you have changelogs that list things being fixed that aren't, and obviously aren't, that's an issue.  That's a QA issue.  Bug gets logged, developer fixes, QA verifies.  This is pretty basic shit, and a lot of us have been doing it for a long time, which is why it's so frustrating when we're held in thrall by people who aren't very good at it.

You see a guy who communicated with the players; I see a guy who wasn't very good at his job, threw other people under the bus all the time, and made the game worse for those parts he had an effect on.  If someone wants to be proud of creative work they've done, that's great, but the moment you start having an ego about technical issues, you're done.  The total devotion to staying the course, even when they know it's flawed, is what wipes out any kind of goodwill.

Nobody really cares that the graphics are dated.  Christ, I still play Pirates! once in a while.  We're here for the D&D.  The angst comes in because this game could be great.  It's got most of the necessary parts to make a really good, fun experience, and the decision making and lack of skill on Turbine's side just shits all over it.  If you think that a QA who couldn't keep "The" splashscreen from going live and a producer who shipped with the bags in this state is worthy of anything other than "don't let the door hit your ass on the way out," I don't know what to tell you.  Enjoy the game.