If I can pipe in with my more moderate 2 cents worth...I understand
both sides of this one. I write commercial software for a living,
too, and often under a great deal of pressure. I know first-hand just
how hard it is to ship quality software.
On the other hand, as customers we have certain expectations, and if
those expectations aren't met by one company we generally go to
another. The biggest problem with the situation with Papyrus is that
there is simply no competition for them. While Microprose works on
F1GP2, it is NOT an IndyCar or NASCAR simulator. Effectively there is
ONE quality product in each category, and the three products
complement each other rather than directly compete with each other. No
matter how good F1GP2 may be, I'm still going to want to race Laguna
Seca and for that I'm going to go to IndyCar II, not F1GP2. And
neither ICR2 or F1GP2 is going to give me a NASCAR fix.
Because of the fact that Papyrus has no competition in this regard, we
don't see competitors working hard to one-up each other in this genre,
and I think this is why we see more incremental and less revolutionary
upgrades. And it will continue to be so until Papyrus gets enough
competition that they MUST pioneer new technologies to maintain its
customer base. For the time being, they can focus their efforts on
incremental upgrades and promoting their multi-player service which
does more to add value and enhance existing products than leapfrog
anyone else's product.
Unfortunately, the customer backlash is thus stronger because...as
they say "where else ya gonna go"? No matter how much someone whines,
you know and I know that 99% are going to be the first in line to buy
whatever the next version is that Papyrus sells. There's simply no
other alternative short of not racing at all! So instead they BUY the
products, Papyrus gets their money and gets treated to these major
*** sessions by people. But the bottom line is, Papyrus doesn't
technically HAVE to listen to these gripes unless its affecting the
bottom line...and since they have no competition, the impact of this
kind of whining is rather small, except insofar as the people at
Papyrus are hardworking programmers who love what they do and truly
want happy customers. However, the programmers aren't running the
show. Sierra is...a huge *** company which has to manage multiple
divisions and try to turn a profit on each one.
Finally, some of the whiners here ought to be grateful that Papyrus is
putting out the ICR2 Win95 patch free of charge to its ICR2 DOS
customers (unless there has been some change that I haven't heard).
These programmers have been busting their butts for months moving ICR
to a completely new platform, then they give it away to their DOS
customers and don't make any new revenue off of it, except for those
customers who take the plunge once they see a Win95 version is out.
It would not be at all strange if Papyrus were to charge some modest
upgrade fee for this (although at this point, since they promised the
update to their DOS users for only shipping & handling charges,
they're a little stuck by their own commitment), but instead you see
Papyrus, owning a virtual monopoly on the NASCAR/IndyCar sim market,
doing right by its customers.
No matter how well meaning Papyrus' programmers are, there are going
to be bugs in these games. period. Deal with it. If you can't deal
with finding bugs in software, you should find another hobby, because
as long as human beings are writing out millions of lines of code,
things are going to sneak by.
Bottom line...Papyrus is doing more than it has to to make us happy,
considering its ownership position in this market, and we should be
grateful for that...and if you want to see Papyrus build entirely new,
revolutionary sims, why don't you start your own company, build a
better sim, and force their hand by competition, not complaining about
it. Competition drives innovation more than anything else. That's
just a fact.
All of the above is just my personal opinion (donning asbestos).
Randy