Comments on: Interview with Don Hopkins

By: the big wing

the big wing — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 05:09:07 +0000

maxis has the worst website on the net. worst support of any major game maker. i am very disappointed whenever i have contact with them.

By: Urizenus

Urizenus — Wed, 18 Feb 2004 20:08:01 +0000

Don Hopkins just sent me the following post, which he posted on the Stratics link mentioned above:

Ina Me hit the nail on the head: “To me the bottom line is that it was promised to us.”

This has nothing to do with me or my credibility. It has nothing to do with the Alphaville Herald or Peter Ludow. He just asked the right questions at the right time, and I answered them as fully and honestly as I could. I welcome and encourage anyone from Maxis or EA to finally answer these questions which have been repeatedly raised in this and other forums.

TonyCeponi, do you work for EA’s public relations department? If so, I really wish you would listen to what Will Wright has been saying for years, before you go around telling people that the opinions of The Sims Online players don’t matter unless they actually worked for EA.

Tony said about me:

“This guy doesn’t work for TSO, and therefore, I can’t say that he can simply request that his new program be implemented as if he is any different than us players.”

“But he isn’t different, he is just like us because he doesn’t work for this game”

It shouldn’t matter whether or not I’ve worked on TSO — EA should listen to your opinions just as much as they listen mine or any other player’s opinions.

The central issue here is not which person or web site published those opinions, but whether or not the opinions are valid, and whether or not EA is listening to their players. It’s my opinion that EA is NOT LISTENING to their PAYING CUSTOMERS, and they’re also NOT LISTENING TO WILL WRIGHT.

I’ve worked for EA on The Sims, Transmogrifier and TSO, and apparently all the work I’ve done with custom content and my opinion as a software engineer doesn’t matter, so it’s out of my hands. It’s up to all of us as players to tell EA what we want, and take control of the game we’ve been promised and are paying for. The ball is in our court! We have a mandate to make ourselves heard, from Will Wright himself:

GameSpot quotes The Sims designers Will Wright and Chris Trottier as saying the following:

Wright, however, cautions that he wants to let players decide how to evolve the world. >>> he posits. >>> Instead, players need to build covenants with each other and establish the conventions of the world over time. >>> Wright explains. >>> With The Sims Online, Wright believes the community will form in a way similar to the one formed around Slashdot.org, the popular technology news site. >>> Ultimately, The Sims Online could turn into a similar self-governing world, and Wright and his team could sit back and watch it evolve over time. >>> says Trottier.

Will Wright’s statements are quite unambiguous, and leave absolutely zero wiggle room to justify EA treating its paying customers with contempt. Will Wright’s opinion certainly matters, and EA should execute on it instead of just giving it lip service. Instead of ignoring and marginalizing Will Wright along with all the paying customers they seem to hold in such contempt, EA should listen to Will Wright because he’s 100% correct on this point that he’s so eloquently made, time and again, in public.

So to summarize my point by paraphrasing Will Wright’s own words: >>>

I take what Will says as a mandate that we as players are OBLIGED to participate in the design process, just as we as voters have an obligation to participate in the election. The Supreme Court of EA cannot take that decision out of our hands, while at the same time giving lip service to “listening to the players”.

It’s EA’s choice to make, whether they want to “sit back and watch it evolve over time” like Will wants, or just sit back and watch it die a slow painful death, like they’ve been doing. But whatever happens, they’re going to have to answer to their stockholders.

Talk is cheap. Execution counts. EA has totally dropped the ball.

-Don

By: Maria LaVeaux

Maria LaVeaux — Wed, 18 Feb 2004 10:41:26 +0000

I do believe my toy is correct,, such letters, if not annonymous Would indeed be actionable.

Maria.

By: toy

toy — Wed, 18 Feb 2004 00:26:51 +0000

toy thinks you could retire and do this full time from the lawsuit Uri

By: urizenus

urizenus — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:29:27 +0000

Reporters that I talk to tell me to expect that attitude. And now I see that some of those Stratics Board critics are writing letters to the Prez of Michigan to try and get me fired or in trouble or something, lol. Hey, if I got fired I could do this Full Time! Wooot!

By: Maria LaVeaux

Maria LaVeaux — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 17:10:37 +0000

Uri,
I read the content on the Sratics link,,, they don’t seem to like you very much. But for all their Criticism of the AVH the one point they seem to have missed is;
You got the Interview. Not EA, Not Stratics, and Not any of your Detractors there.
While they were making post after post wondering just what the H*ll EA/Maxis was playing at. Uri got them the answers.
Interesting that they stil don’t seem to se the Value in what you do, but then, some people just don’t like Controversy. It disturbs their Illusions too much.

Maria.

By: toy

toy — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 12:32:03 +0000

oh goodness dyer……. are you really that self-centered that you think TSO must be played by only your rules…. You have mentioned you live in NY. There are so many different people there, so many different ways people live their lives in NY. How can you possibly co-exist with them if they dont adhere to your strict guidelines as how they should live and behave?
no, toy expects no answers from you…. you have made it quite clear in previous posts that you are ‘above’ talking, or answering a slaves questions. A bit Domish wouldnt you say? The diference being though, both Dom’s Domme’s Master’s and Mistress’ DO answer this slaves questions, and they do enjoy sharing ideas and thoughts with this girl.. this perhaps comes from your own misconceptions of what a slave is, who can ever know this, since you refuse to answer questions. toy will close by once again saying that this slave pities you dyer, and will say a pray for you tonight

falara kajira toy

By: Maria LaVeaux

Maria LaVeaux — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 11:24:07 +0000

Dyers answer to everything:
“Ugh. No, Maxis, on second thought, shut it down.”

Or roughly translated, “Play my way, or not at all”

How Predictable of him.

Maria.

By: Dyerbrook

Dyerbrook — Mon, 16 Feb 2004 20:57:14 +0000

Re: “We have lost the players for whom this game is not appropriate. What is left is a hardcore group of players who understand that this is a social game, and a playground to make our own in-game experiences.

Please get it together EA and recognize what you have here. You have a small group of people who may never leave. That is something that EQ or other games do not have.

Build on that, attract more like us, and your retirement fund is safe. ”

Ugh. No, Maxis, on second thought, shut it down.

By: Peter Ludlow

Peter Ludlow — Mon, 16 Feb 2004 14:26:17 +0000

Discussion of this interview is on Stratics here:

http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/sims/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=tsogeneral&Number=69089&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&what2=postlist&fpart=