>I have been taking a very "quiet" approach to this whole patch thing.
>I have given Sierra/Papy every benefit of the doubt. However, I ran
>across something that was very alarming today on Compuserve. It really
>doesn't relate to the patch but, instead, to the apparent "non
>customer oriented" attitude of Sierra/Papy.
>A guy posted a msg to Technical Support on the Sierra forum. He was
>having trouble getting voice recognition to work in the new MAC
>version of Indy Car. Technical support's response was that "voice
>recognition is an UNSUPPORTED FEATURE" The original "poster" responded
>by pointing out that the box (the sim came in) clearly stated that
>this was a FEATURE for the MAC version. Technical support again
>responded that this was an "unsupported feature" and instructed the
>gentleman to return/exchange the game if he was unhappy.
>If this technical support guy is incorrect, Sierra needs to educate
>their personnel. If this guy is correct, Sierra has comitted FRAUD. I
>don't ever remember this sort of problem with Papyrus. Maybe Papyrus
>needs to think about getting the hell away from Sierra.
I read this same thread on Compuserve today as well, and I could not
believe it. I have purchased every Papyrus product since Indianapolis
500 - The Simulation(as I'm sure most eveyone here has). The last
three Novembers(Indycar 1, Nascar, Indycar 2) have been like an early
Christmas for me. Papyrus always had a great BBS, and pretty good tech
support. I once got tech support on the BBS on a Sunday(Memorial Day
Weekend) to help me get my freshly installed Indianapolis Motor
Speedway track pack working properly!!! I also greatly appreciate the
job Ed, Scott, and Rick have done answering everyone's questions and
flames over the past months. Not many other companies would do
this(although in this day and age it should be a given).
However, this Windows 95/Dos /Mac release of Indycar 2 has been a
fiasco no matter how you look at it. I bought Indycar 2 for DOS the
day it came out and have enjoyed it bugs and all. I've been waiting
for the patch since I first heard of it in Jan. 96. Rick definitely
stated that the patch would be available to us for download in the
middle of June, and that it would include the Windows 95 update.
Apparently, he didn't have the authority to state this, and upon his
departure from Sierra/Papyrus, Ed who had nothing to do with the
Indycar project had to take the heat. So the Win95/DOS/Mac version
appeared in the stores for everyone to buy, but still no DOS patch for
us original buyers. So, being the freak that I am, I went and bought
the thing. Don't bother with the Windows 95 version. It has a very
good interface, menus, painkit, etc. but it is just not worth the
installation hassles/performance hit(Windows 95 fault, not Papyrus).
Fortunately, I don't have a Mac, so I do not know if the voice
recognition is not functional. However, I do know that it is clearly
stated on the box, and in the manual. This was used heavily as a
selling point for the Mac version. I sincerely hope that the Sierra
employee on Compuserve is confused, if not, this type of customer
service/false advertising is just unexcusable.
Is it Sierra? Papyrus? Who? I believe the industry as a whole is the
problem. I am a programmer who has been working on a project for 2
years, so I know what it takes; testing, time, money, blah, blah,
blah. There is no other industry that could get away with the
consistent release of buggy, poorly documented, terribly supported
products like the computer *** industry does. And its people like
me that are to blame, because after countless frustrations and
thousands of dollars spent, I can't stop myself from rushing out to by
the next BIG game.Sierra brought me some of my fondest memories of
computer ***(Space Quest/King Quest/Heroes Quest, etc.). But over
the last few years, they have become one of the worst offenders(anyone
else buy Outpost?!!), especially in customer support. It should take
more than the ability to say the phrase "Have you created a boot disk
yet?" to make you a tech support person.
I always considered Papyrus one of the best companies out there, and I
know I will still be first in line to buy Nascar 2 no matter what.
However, the consumers need to voice their dissatisfaction if anything
is going to change. I suspect and hope these most recent frustrations
are the fault of Sierra, but don't forget that Indycar 1 claimed head
to head modem support when it first came out, but a patch actually
added that a few months later. Hmmm.....
Don Chapman
---------------------------
"Waiter there is a fly in my soup."
"We are working on that sir, please eat around it for now and we will
let you know when you can pay to have it fixed."
