If I Were A Halo 2 Vista Developer

[Nick]

I would completely lack the urge to help just about any damn one of you guys.

I've seen the forum fill over the past month with smart ass remarks, insults, disrespect, and generally unpleasant comments towards Microsoft / Bungie / Hired Gun / Pi Studios. Sure you have a right to be angry that a bug wasn't caught during testing, that files were left out, or that the tools failed to meet your expectations, but you don't have the right to be jerks because such issues exist.

I could go on a long rant about how bugs should be expected even in shipping software (it's a fact of the SDLC, that's why patching technologies exist), about how it isn't as simple as you believe it is to develop and test software, and about how some calls are simply out of your hands when you work under contract. However, I will spare you, since I can already predict the empty and ignorant comments that certain individuals would make.

Instead, I am here to make some suggestions. These suggestions are in the best interests of the Halo 2 Vista community as well as the Halo 2 Vista developers. Mature individuals should be able to understand these suggestions instantaneously; immature individuals may require a bit more time to process them.

1. No Insults. Yes, you're frustrated that whatever problem you are having even exists, but that is no reason to blow off steam here. Go count to ten and collect your thoughts before firing off a post or new thread.

2. No Demands. Yes, you want your problem fixed and yes, you want it now. No, you should not demand it. The minute someone demands something of me, as opposed to kindly requesting it, is the minute I stop caring they have a problem.

The developers browsing this forum are in no way obligated to go and fix bugs for you; they are obligated to take bug reports from Microsoft's internal testing team and fix them based on the priority assigned to each bug report. However, if you are nice about it, they just may feel motivated to log your bug and work on a fix for the next patch that will eventually be released.

3. Clear and Concise. Describe the problem in detail, but do so in a way that is to the point; there is no reason to give a full background as to why you think something happened or what you ate for lunch while it was happening. Use lists and text formatting to assist in showing order of events and important steps.

4. Your Viewpoint. Explain what you expected to happen instead of what actually happened. Last I checked, humans were not capable of mind reading outside of science fiction; you have to communicate why you think the behavior is wrong.

5. No Expectations. That's right, don't have any. Even if you do all of the above, there is no guarantee that your issue will be addressed by a developer or fixed in the next path. You did what you could - you publicly documented the issue and gave others a chance to verify the issue; now all you can do is hope it gets fixed.

6. Reply. If you see an issue reported in the forum and you also have that issue, reply stating that. The more people that have an issue the more attention it is likely to get. Don't lie just to get your friend's issue more attention, that would be ... unintelligent. When replying, keep the above points in mind - no insults, no demands, and be nice. If you have some relevant information regarding the bug or want to provide more details than the original poster, go for it.

Here is an example:

While using text chat in-game, I noticed an issue that prevents me from being able to properly communicate with other players.

1. Reassign the team chat toggle to an alphabetic key (Y).
2. Initiate a global message using the key assigned to global text messages (B).
3. Type any message that contains the key assigned to team chat toggle (Y).

This causes the global text chat to close and a fresh text box to be displayed for team chat, making it impossible to send any global text messages containing the team chat toggle key.

Thank you for looking into this issue. If anyone else is having this problem, please reply as confirmation of this issue.

And here's an example of what NOT to do:

Man you guys suck. Halo 2 is filled with so many bugs I can't even use the damn chat; this sucks more than Gearbox's mess that was Halo 1 PC. Don't you guys know how to code anything? How about testing your software before making me pay all this money for it. If you hit the team chat key while making a message it just screws up and gets rid of what I was typing. HURRY UP AND PATCH THIS CRAP ALREADY OR I AM GOING TO SUE.

Anybody else having this problem? Of course you are. Spread this thread around and get all the replies you can so we can send it to Bungie and tell them to screw themselves, since they suck anyway. We have a RIGHT to this being fixed RIGHT NOW!

Hopefully this has been an informative post and the poor condition of this forum will improve in short order.

Thank you for reading.

Nick

[phase]

Hevens another person with more rep and less posts then me!
Anyways +rep.

[dg]

This is a great thread. Very well said, Nick.

[Masterz1337]

Bout time someone said it.

[Zeph]

I'm surprised someone actually came forth and made a thread about it.

[Chronos]

I totally agree on everything you mentioned above.

Besides the high specs that you need to have to run this, I'm very pleased with this game and I think Hired Gun did a great job.

Also, I think someone should make this into a sticky post.

[TheGhost]

Great thread and points. +rep!

[Llama Juice]

Well said, I found it funny though how the "bad forum user" still had proper sentence structure and whatnot... when... well... you guys all know the truth.

[SnaFuBAR]

not surprisingly, you're not the only one to feel like this, and you're not the only one to make the appropriate steps to see the solution to the undesireable positon we're in.

not to mention the irony of your opening paragraph....

I've seen the forum fill over the past month with smart ass remarks, insults, disrespect, and generally unpleasant comments

[DOMINATOR]

it's the internet...