I posted the following on the audiogames.net forum. While not the ultimatum talked about, I do hope it'll get a result, sinse I'm sick of this stupidity!
Hello. After a recent discussion of your work on the audeasy list, I felt it was extremely important to bring certain urgent issues to your attention. Both of Your games have been very much appreciated in the past, and during the immediate time after release. however, increasingly, the opinion among members of the community is that bavisoft's behaviour and practices have been less and less reputable, and indeed it has now come to the point when a newcomer to audiogames is advised to steer clear of attempting to perchice your games. there are several reasons for this. firstly, is the business of people not receiving orders. There has been a long history of people not recieving their games on cd, or indeed having to wait periods of time upwards of 6 weeks to get them, (doubly bad in todays' world of high speed net connections). What makes this situation far worse, is the lack of any sort of contact method for bavisoft. For at least the last three to four years, the E-mail address sa...@bavisoft.com has consistantly bounced e-mails, thus leaving customers who wish to know the status of their orders with no way of contacting the company at all, (I in fact originally attempted to send this enquiry via E-mail myself, but my message produced a "this address has a fatal error" warning). then, there is Bavisoft's lack of even acnolidging the release of windows versions later than xp. With the release of windows Vista in 2007, and windows 7 a year later, people are experiencing extreme compatibility issues with games written for earlier versions of windows. This situation is only made the worse by the fact that all other developers of audio games, ---- even those such as bsc games and Vip gameszone who are no longer actually producing titles (though they stil support their old games), have made the upgrades to their programs necessary to run on later windows versions. this brings me to Bavisoft's final, and most serious problem. The company has released no news, no word, not even a season's greetings for the past six years. Indeed, the only times Bavisoft has responded to any enquiry is when people have suggested your games should be made abandonware sinse you seem no longer to support them. This happens roughly once a year, in august of 2008, then in June of 2009. As players of audio games, we are all familiar with the amount of time it takes to develope titles. There has been a gap of two years betwene Gma games last three releases, and Usa games' title Mysteries of the ancients has been in developement for the past five years, while Draconis haven't released a game sinse 2006. We are also well aware that life, desasters or unforseen circumstances can very much get in the way of developement, as in fact it has in the case of usa games. however, in the cases of most audio game developers, there is at least some news, or at the least an occasional happy Christmas or halloween, to let people know that the company is stil selling and supporting their games and may, ---- time permitting be able to produce a new title in future. In the case of bavisoft however, there is none of this. the company website has not been updated sinse 2004, and Bavisoft have said nothing to their players at all beyond "please don't pirate our games" and that only once a year. While I (both personally and in my capacity as moderator of audiogames.net), in no way condone game piracy, I do rather understand the feeling which some players have that if they cannot obtain Bavisoft's games by any other method, ---- owing to unprocessed orders, and no company support via E-mail or similar, the games should be made abandonware so that people may play them. it is for this reason that i AM WRITING THIS APPEAL. It has been six years sinse the community at large has heard from bavisoft officially, people have not been able to obtain the games on cd nor to contact the company. so, please! give us some word, even if just "happy christmas" to let us know the company is stil running. It has also been suggested that Bavisoft strongly considder the following points: 1: While in 2000 and even 2004, 160 mb for a game was a large size, given modern connection speed this is no longer the case (sarah from pcs games is 120 mb already). Therefore, Bavisoft's games should be made perchiceable by download instead of cd. This would stop dead all problems associated with unfulfilled orders. 2: Bavisoft should obtain a working E-mail address and address any technical support or sales related questions. While gameplay questions are able to be handled on audiogames.net or similar forums or mailing lists, it is essential to build trust and maintain a good relationship with their customers that bavisoft make themselves contactable, as indeed all other audio game companies are. 3: Bavisoft should look into upgrading their games to run on windows vista and 7, so that more people may enjoy them for years to come. 4: Bavisoft should produce at least some sort of news or communication, whether a season's greetings, news on developement of future games (if any), news of why future games aren't developed (people are far more understanding if they know the reason why), or heck, just your opinion about upcoming releases at the cinema. At least something to show that Bavisoft is stil a legitimate and trust worthy company from whome people would wish to buy games. I very much hope you will considder what has been said here, sinse the current state of affairs is doing neither bavisoft nor the members of the audiogames playing community any good, and while I cannot agree with those who wish to place copies of Bavisoft's games for download on the internet for free, it is difficult currently to think of too many good reasons why they should not, given that for all intents and purposes Bavisoft currently seems a dead enterprise. Can I please also ask our members nnot to respond to this topic, and leave it free for bavisoft to give their direct answer, though you are welcome to start a new topic and discuss the matter there. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
