PC1 Banned for no reason!

[Rob Every]

I was banned last night after passing a few comments about the game.

No explanation, no reasons why.

Just a refund in your email the next day and no way to acces the forums. ABout as professsional as a 5 year old.

Really guys, if you are thinking about investing any more than 10 pounds into this shower I really wouldnt.

They are total charlatans who only want yes men and people who say nice things. Criticise them and they will just ban you, no matter how you do it.

I was perfectly constructive, non abusive, and also said very positive things.

Good riddance I say, to be honest the game was shameful anyway, but was interesting to see that they are exactly as others have found, utterly polarized on themselves and their crew of psycophants.

Please be very careful with these people, I do not think they are honest, professional or reasonable.

 

[Peter]

Are you chunder27?

 

[Rob Every]

Hilarious,

also been banned from nogrip a place I have been a member of for many years

For posting teh above there too!

Seems these guys are very powerful!

 

[Travis]

Are you chunder27?

Certainly looks that way..

http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1534481&postcount=556

http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1534491&postcount=557

http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1534492&postcount=558

I don't always agree with the bans (outright trolling should be an instant ban) but it's an SMS run forum and Ian Bell's decision is final.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Not sure what happened but If you have requested your membership to WMD to be terminated banning is the only option Rob. You pay to have access to the WMD forums and the game builds. If you don't wish to continue and ask for a refund you accept that of course your access to the forums and game will be revoked.

 

[Peter]

Rob it's your own fould, this is what I found on the WDM support page:

''What is expected from you?First of all, you'll be testing the game and providing feedback to the devs in the pCARS forums. Since the game is in development and there will always be things that will be missing or not working correctly, feedback needs to be constructive and explicit. Stating that something doesn't work or that you don't like it will not help the development of the game unless you state why you don't like it or in what way it doesn't work.
A second part of your 'job' is to make sure that the game is shown properly and promoted to the 'outside world', i.e. on the internet outside the forums. That means that you can tell everyone about the project and encourage them to join, and when promoting the game through videos or screenshots you should make sure that you stress the good sides and not what needs fixing or what is absent. When making pictures or videos of problems with the game, post them only on the WMD forums or use links that are 'private'.

 

[glight]

Dude, that was some pretty spiteful stuff. No wonder you got banned!

The game is PRE ALPHA which means there WILL be problems. You paid to HELP them fix that not COMPLAIN like you did in your posts. The leaderboards don't mean squat right now (kind of like F1 test times), they are just there as that is a feature of the game being worked on and to compare laptimes against other drivers. Noone in their right mind would complain about leaderboard times in a pre-alpha game.

Cheers to Ian for his response!

(sorry for all the shouting, you just struck a nerve 10/10)

edit: no need for me to use massive font size:oops:

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I wish people stopped using the same pre-alpha argument all the time. Thats getting on nerves too

The way pre-alpha is used nowadays is for marketing purposes to not receive any negative feedback. If its really pre-alpha it should be behind closed doors and don't share their builds on various simracing sites all the time. Its exactly the same as codemasters did with their F1 games.

Create a full working game filled with bugs, show it on youtube to give the impression you are building a simulation game and defend every negative comment by saying its pre-alpha. Two weeks later the game was in shops. (quick development cycle?). Pre-alpha is the new beta and beta is the new goldmaster (with bugs in the full releases). DLC's and patches are the new goldmaster when the game is finally playable.

SMS is doing exactly the same imo and the red text that Triskele10 posted is laughable if thats really true. Project North Korea? Sim-Young Il? Anybody is allowed to have an opinion (positive or negative) on forums as long as its not trolling. They are fully in their right to set their own forum/community rules but I find it absurd to read that people get banned on forums outside of the WMD portal for having an opinion that they don't like.

If they don't wish to receive negative feedback they should have developed the game behind closed doors and test it with professional small beta testers until its good enough to promote and sell.

 

[glight]

Bram, you are right I am (somewhat) biased since I am participating in pCARS.

Here is what I am assuming:

1. Pre-alpha means pre-alpha. The game is very far off especially after the recent decision to do a boxed copy instead of f2p. They were aiming for Q4 2012 with the f2p model.

2. Now that boxed copy is the target the game will have more content and a longer dev cycle. We shouldn't see the builds labeled as alpha until sometime this year.

Create a full working game filled with bugs, show it on youtube and add Antony Davidson (Ben Collins anybody?) to the show to give the impression you are building a simulation game and defend every negative comment by saying its pre-alpha. Two weeks later the game was in shops. (quick development cycle?). Pre-alpha is the new beta and beta is the new goldmaster (with bugs in the full releases). DLC's and patches are the new goldmaster when the game is finally playable.

Very accurate description of a terrible trend in game developers these days. Though I think you are referencing one game in particular . Hopefully SMS are aware, I don't think they will repeat Codemasters' mistakes (I hope they won't!).

Whether this ends up to be true time will tell.

Ian is digging himself a very large hole if he turns out to be wrong though...

 

[David Ignjatovic]

My biggest problem with pcars is that I was{rightly or wrongly} under the assumption it was going to be more sim than arcade, however, I certainly don't get that impression atm, so if they were to announce it was more of a arcade or even use the word simcade racer, then I for one could ignore it, as I no longer plan to buy non sims with the possible exception of Dirt4...

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

They see themselves as competitors of Forza and Gran Turismo, so in that case it must be a simcade title. Nothing wrong with that though, very enjoyable games.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

For me at least, I've lost interest in bad simcade games, ie, ones that have various problems like F1 2011 and it's poor low speed steering, questionable MP, and even after buying a fast HDD, the game still seems to suffer savegame corruption.

It will be interesting to monitor sales of pcars, I just hope people don't keep referring to it as a sim unless there's a radical overhaul.

 

[Rob Every]

I appreciate your highlighting of this issue. I was banned for a reason and it was because I was very critical and scathing of aspects of the game, and they are aspects ( I believe) pivotal to a racing game, be it a sim or an arcade game. Namely the steering and FFB for wheel users.

I do not think I went massively over the top? I was critical yes, but I was not abusive to anyone or outrageous, maybe childish I admit but not harmful. But for some reason Bell decided to ignore the inital postings I made when I was simply making queries and posting comments.

He also seemed to take umbridge with me commenting about other games such as simraceway and RF2 in their forum. Now I appreciate SRW is a proper game and though a BETA is mainly a build on game. ANd RF2 obviously is a full on sim where they are testing the viability and ease of modding, most of the game is complete physics wise?

I also think my signature which read "Try RF two too" didnt help the sitiuation!! lol

But I do feel quite strongly about being banned from PCARS, and also totally unreasonably from nogrip. I have used nogrip for years and always found them tolerant and cool! So was quite shocked about that. I would suggest Mr Bell has talons in their operation!!

OK I maybe went a bit too far, and the comment on the forum was ironic about leaving, but they obviously felt the need to ban me and give me my money back! But the comments I made are nothing I haven't done elsewhere, I do admit to being quite scathing and opinionated, but surely that is no reason to ban someone, just remove their posts or something?

Anyway, am thankful for the opportunity here to not be lambasted by everyone.

AS I said in their forum, I do think some aspects of Pcars are very promising. The menus are good, the graphics are lovely. And in some ways the game play is good,

Anyway, Some will agree with my stance, some will vehemently disagree. But I will say this. I will stand to be corrected if they can sort it out. But I fear for any company that has such as trong arm technique. If you pay to BETA test and have bad comments then surely that is fair enough.

 

[Travis]

The bannings highlight a need for a cooling off period as I've seen instituted here.

No one should ever be kicked out for voicing an opinion; you've bought the right to have a voice within the CARS project and should be allowed to use that right without fear of recrimination.

 

[Rob Every]

Agreed

That is what would happen on a proper forum!! And I understand that!

I would have gone along with that, it is easy to get dragged into a war of words sometimes.

But to be banned from the game, refunded and then banned from a totally separate forum seems a little OTT.

But that just means I will no longer use what I consdidered to be a reasonable forum anymore.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

I think they need clarity as to what the final product's going to be, otherwise sim players will feel conned.
re Redi.....a disturbing yes man who values the company he keeps over common decency.

 

[Lee Ross]

No disrespect to the OP, i don't know you but i'm sorry all this just screams of sour grapes IMO. Some of the stuff you posted was downright taking the mickey out of the team. You came across to me as vindictive and the comments about the leaderboards were pathetic.

Like i say i don't know you, you are possibly an alright guy normally but from your posts at WMD and NoGrip it suggested different.

I really do not understand this title, you asked to be let loose from the Alpha in the first place.

Also, the WMD site is not a normal forum. As you may know it is their ( Slight Mad Studios ) work place and so they do not stand for the type of crap that goes on elsewhere. I think that's the best thing about SMS is the lack of arguing, trolling whatever you want to call it. Behave yourself and present you concerns in a mature and constructive manner then you will have no problems. You didn't and again you asked to be let free.

Your original posts were posted over at NG by Ian Bell so you are really making yourself look silly with this title.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

Not everyone agrees with you Ross, but it ultimately comes down to whether they're building a sim or a GT5 competitor, if it's a sim, then they're on the wrong track, but everything leads me to believe they're heading for simcadey.

 

[Lee Ross]

Not everyone agrees with you Ross, but it ultimately comes down to whether they're building a sim or a GT5 competitor, if it's a sim, then they're on the wrong track, but everything leads me to believe they're heading for simcadey.

What do you mean not everyone agrees? I don't want anyone to agree, it was a post to say what i see from the OP and his hissy fit. People that don't like the WMD site are generally the same people that have been giving the boot for their behaviour, There are thousands of happy members that have no issues or worrys to speak out, it's all about the way you present yourself and your concerns. Something the OP just could not grasp

And what exactly it is not sim about it, are you race driver? Or maybe your just like others that " think " they know what makes a realistic sim.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

A second part of your 'job' is to make sure that the game is shown properly and promoted to the 'outside world', i.e. on the internet outside the forums. That means that you can tell everyone about the project and encourage them to join, and when promoting the game through videos or screenshots you should make sure that you stress the good sides and not what needs fixing or what is absent. When making pictures or videos of problems with the game, post them only on the WMD forums or use links that are 'private'.

This just blew my mind. Surely that is a joke right?