Alright Everyone: Chill.

[CatKnight]

I've spent the past day plus looking over the comments here, and I have one general comment for most of you:

Just relax.

You want to be disappointed? It appears you have every right to be. You want to be angry? Ditto. You want to demand an explanation? I think that's warranted.

If you want to descend into personal attacks on a two person company....yeah, might be time for a reality check.

Refunds:
If you honestly feel you have been robbed or otherwise taken advantage of, then e-mail Dee Dreslough. (dee@sportsmogul.com). SM is one of the very few companies I know with a no questions asked refund policy. I've done so twice when I wasn't happy with Football Mogul, and she didn't blink an eye. As far as I can tell, Dee is great. Take your refund, and get on with more important things.

Explanation:
For those calling for an explanation - yeah, that's fair. However, other than a brief 'mea culpa' or 'WTH just happened??', and a plan of attack over the next few days or weeks, I wouldn't want Clay to be on this board answering every complaint or flame. Clay's job right now is to get back in there, figure out what happened to his game, and fix the damn thing.

I don't know Clay personally, but from having watched BM grow since BM08, and having owned everything from BM05 up, I can tell you he cares for it. BM hasn't seen much change over the last few years, but honestly the core engine was doing well enough for what we expected - a simple, user friendly baseball sim. I suspect (and I'm guessing at this point) it was what he wanted, and over the last two versions he's tried to make it even better, to take it to the next higher level. Unfortunately this time it looks like it's biting back.

SM doesn't have the financial or personnel resources of say OOTP, who in turn isn't even in the same league as EA. That means if something BAD happens... Clay's up to bat. But you need to have faith in that. This is his baby. It's been part of his life for sixteen years. I refuse to believe he's just going to let it fall on this note.

There is nothing wrong that's being reported that can't be repaired, even if the repair means ripping everything out and turning 16.01 into BM13 with new rosters. This will get fixed. You will have a game.

If you're still with me so far, my strong advice is to be patient. If you have the game, give Clay a few days to figure out what's broken and come up with a plan of attack. I've seen games come back from worse than this. If you don't have the game...be patient, and let's see how this unfolds.

[futuremarlinsgm]

I'm sorry but everyone has the right to express their opinions. To tell everyone to chill is to try and deny somebody their right to express themselves.

[CatKnight]

So...you're saying I don't have the right to express myself? It's a two way street, my friend.

Actually, given this is a private board, neither you nor I have any rights whatsoever. Something to consider in future arguments when you pull this out because someone dares disagree with you.

In point, I don't disagree. The reports you and others are publishing are exceptionally distressing. Turning it into personal attacks however does zero good. It doesn't fix the game that much faster. It doesn't validate your argument one way or the other. It is provocative and, over a game, somewhat silly.

SM has given you an out, friend. If you're that disappointed, ask for your money back. Otherwise trying to stir the pot isn't going to get this fixed any faster, is it?

[Big Mikey]

This also seems to be that alot of problems could easily be roster related. Try recalculatting salaries or starting with a fictinal league and then run some tetst. The engine itself might not be broken and stick with tradional scouting for now so you can have a concrete base to start with.

[Edge]

I'm sorry but everyone has the right to express their opinions. To tell everyone to chill is to try and deny somebody their right to express themselves.

I don't think he's denying anything. If he was denying your freedom of speech he'd be threatening you with arrest. But that reaction speaks to his point, are we seriously wrapped tight enough to turn this into a discussion about freedoms? Chillax.

His point in a nutshell - this small company has brought us much joy over the years and clearly something didn't go right this time around. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and see what happens.

[Borker]

There are big problems to be resolved, but I haven't the slightest doubt that Clay is working really hard to get the game patched so a lot of these things go away. They'll be hardly a memory in a few weeks time. A little patience will go a long way.

[LunchBox]

I can't speak for everyone else but now that Clay has posted on facebook that he is currently hunting down the issues with the new game, I for one can calm down a bit.

As for anything being said earlier being "a personal attack on a two-person company" get real...
It was mostly angry or frustrated customers who were worried that their voices were either not being heard or worse ignored... which clearly is not the case.

So in a way I believe catknight is right... everybody needs to calm down and give clay and dee the time they need.

[fredreed]

Catknight maybe you need to just relax a bit. This is a two company fine. All the fans wanted was a explanation from clay which is what they finally got. The problems are finally being addressed in patches. So drop this and just enjoy playing the game. If you keep this up catknight then you may need to take a break from playing baseball mogul. Everyone here had high hopes for the new baseball mogul version and couldn't believe how bad it was but Clay is doing a great job with fixing these issues in the game. This is al everyone wanted to know was when he was going to fix these issues. I have two words play ball.

[glennrwordman]

While some of the more hyperbolic responses were quite over the top, I think most people did not need a full explanation of what was happening. What I believe was causing much of the dismay was the absolute silence; that nothing was being heard at all.

We talked about this on FB yesterday: The problem that a lot of companies, large and tiny, have when something goes wrong is not the problem itself, but communicating that they KNOW there's a problem and it is being addressed. (Yes, we can "assume" it, but...that's not the point).

At a conference of theater operators I attended, one thing that came up over and over again, was that the most angry people got was LITERALLY being left in the dark: there's a technical problem with a film, the screen goes blank, no lights come up, and NO ONE comes in to at least say "sorry, folks, we've got some technical difficulties, but as soon as they're fixed, we'll get up on screen again/if it can't be fixed, you'll have our sincere apologies and a full refund." Over and over again, theater operators rightly focused on the "cause" of a problem, but did not treat the symptoms...which were often our customers!!

I think most people just wanted one sentence, somewhere--Facebook, here: "We're aware there are problems with BM2014. We're sorry and now, let me get back to trying to fix it! More soon!" That would've assuaged 99% of the upset customers (there will always be that ONE guy who can never be made happy!)

I'm sure by Friday morning, Clay will have restored the game to be as he intended all along. S**t happens, and he's an honorable guy who will make it right.

[fredreed]

Everyone needs to be patient and let Clay fix these issues in the game. If there is anyone out there who feels that they were ripped off then please explain yourself but in due respect I think that Clay is doing a great job in addressing what happened and where it might have happened and folks just sit back and relax. There is no need to get angry at any one here or threaten them just please be patient with Clay as he works on fixing these bugs or glitches.

[HoustonGM]

To some of the responses to CatKnight:

[Louddog]

I love BBM. I spend lots of hours playing it through out the year. I'm thankful and curse Clay at the same time for all the enjoyment and wasted hours of my life

However, when pretty significant problems popped up instantly after opening the game (which I had been looking forward to for months) I really wanted an answer, or just someone to say "I got this". I don't know if this is Clay's full time job, or more of a hobby, I don't know his time commitments... But a quick "I see what you are seeing, I got this" would have shut most of us up.

Now that i see he has acknowledged the problems, has provided a timeline, and he's on it, I'm satisfied and will wait patently (maybe the garage will get cleaned finally...).

But I still want to know how Clay is connected to Cole Gillespie! Nephew? Neighbor's kid? Just a big fan?

[Edge]

HoustonGM - If ever there was a time to work your magic one last time, this might be the year. =)

[HoustonGM]

HoustonGM - If ever there was a time to work your magic one last time, this might be the year. =)

Sorry :\ Another hobby plus a full-time job basically take up all my time.

[daves]

I've spent the past day plus looking over the comments here, and I have one general comment for most of you:

Just relax.

You want to be disappointed? It appears you have every right to be. You want to be angry? Ditto. You want to demand an explanation? I think that's warranted.

If you want to descend into personal attacks on a two person company....yeah, might be time for a reality check.

Refunds:
If you honestly feel you have been robbed or otherwise taken advantage of, then e-mail Dee Dreslough. (dee@sportsmogul.com). SM is one of the very few companies I know with a no questions asked refund policy. I've done so twice when I wasn't happy with Football Mogul, and she didn't blink an eye. As far as I can tell, Dee is great. Take your refund, and get on with more important things.

Explanation:
For those calling for an explanation - yeah, that's fair. However, other than a brief 'mea culpa' or 'WTH just happened??', and a plan of attack over the next few days or weeks, I wouldn't want Clay to be on this board answering every complaint or flame. Clay's job right now is to get back in there, figure out what happened to his game, and fix the damn thing.

I don't know Clay personally, but from having watched BM grow since BM08, and having owned everything from BM05 up, I can tell you he cares for it. BM hasn't seen much change over the last few years, but honestly the core engine was doing well enough for what we expected - a simple, user friendly baseball sim. I suspect (and I'm guessing at this point) it was what he wanted, and over the last two versions he's tried to make it even better, to take it to the next higher level. Unfortunately this time it looks like it's biting back.

SM doesn't have the financial or personnel resources of say OOTP, who in turn isn't even in the same league as EA. That means if something BAD happens... Clay's up to bat. But you need to have faith in that. This is his baby. It's been part of his life for sixteen years. I refuse to believe he's just going to let it fall on this note.

There is nothing wrong that's being reported that can't be repaired, even if the repair means ripping everything out and turning 16.01 into BM13 with new rosters. This will get fixed. You will have a game.

If you're still with me so far, my strong advice is to be patient. If you have the game, give Clay a few days to figure out what's broken and come up with a plan of attack. I've seen games come back from worse than this. If you don't have the game...be patient, and let's see how this unfolds.

I appreciate the post. I am sure many of us are frustrated with Mogul2014, but we need to send in support requests to Clay on what exactly is wrong and post in the bug forum. One without the other will probably not resolve the issue and too much complaining in the General forum will not solve the issue.

OOTP13 was a great release, but a lot of us still have a heart to play Mogul because it's quick fun and easy. Right now, it's too buggy, but most should be fixed within a week?