Tempers Flare Over Archeage Queues as CEO Jokes About Player Rage

grimal

The CEO commented on the player rage on his Facebook account. 

The Facebook Post

This isn’t that big of a deal, but was a big no no.

CEO, Scott Hartsman, was joking about this player’s hate in relation to the Archeage queues today on his Facebook status which was posted to reddit. As you can see the comments are over the top and horrendous:

 

 

Now, again, it was funny, the player was certainly over the top and in need of psychiatric assistance, and I can see Mr. Hartsman was making light of it, but I don’t think you should ever downplay the anger of the community in a situation like this. All this does is make it look like you find their plight funny. This person might be saying some very horrible things, but they are a paying customer, and if we are to go by the Archeage forums, this is very far removed from an isolated case. Surely Mr. Hartsman knows better, as he is a pro who’s been at this for many, many years.

While this goes down in the record books for bad launches, we wish Trion Worlds the best, as Archeage really is a stellar game. We are sure they will straighten things out in good order.

 

And, yes, Scott, it was funny, but too soon. Too soon.

See article here: http://www.galactic-squid.com/2014/09/19/tempers-flare-archeage-queues-ceo-jokes-player-rage/5577

What do you guys think?  Improper of him to comment too soon?

Strana

While those people probably deserved his response from other person,  it seems unprofessional as a CEO of a company with public relation problems.   Instead of spending time attacking haters, maybe he should be using his time to keep his paying customers better informed.   Its been like pulling teeth getting info out of Trion ever since they announced their publishing deal over a year ago.  

  As much as I like AA, I think Trion needs a wake up call from the playerbase.   The calls for refunds might just be the beginning.   At rate Trion is going, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a class action lawsuit in EU based on EU consumer protection laws.

Nevulus

Improper of you to link a clickbait article twisting a guys intentions around. He made light of a very serious matter. A matter involving a guy just doing his job yet getting death threats sent to his facebook, work email, & home.

Omali

Scott Hartsmann points out childish overreaction and the response is, typically, childish overreaction. 

"Scott Hartsmann said we overreact to things? I hope he gets fired and thrown in jail!"

Tyvolus4

Originally posted by grimal

The CEO commented on the player rage on his Facebook account. 

The Facebook Post

This isn’t that big of a deal, but was a big no no.

CEO, Scott Hartsman, was joking about this player’s hate in relation to the Archeage queues today on his Facebook status which was posted to reddit. As you can see the comments are over the top and horrendous:

 

 

Now, again, it was funny, the player was certainly over the top and in need of psychiatric assistance, and I can see Mr. Hartsman was making light of it, but I don’t think you should ever downplay the anger of the community in a situation like this. All this does is make it look like you find their plight funny. This person might be saying some very horrible things, but they are a paying customer, and if we are to go by the Archeage forums, this is very far removed from an isolated case. Surely Mr. Hartsman knows better, as he is a pro who’s been at this for many, many years.

While this goes down in the record books for bad launches, we wish Trion Worlds the best, as Archeage really is a stellar game. We are sure they will straighten things out in good order.

 

And, yes, Scott, it was funny, but too soon. Too soon.

See article here: http://www.galactic-squid.com/2014/09/19/tempers-flare-archeage-queues-ceo-jokes-player-rage/5577

What do you guys think?  Improper of him to comment too soon?

I would think he should have just ignored it, but those comments were so crazy, I don't think he did anything wrong. 

iridescence

They shouldn't blank out the names of people who post idiotic rage drivel like that. They deserve to be named and shamed.

 

Perjure

He failed when he posted that. As CEO he loses credibility by doing this. A CEO without credibility is a CEO on his way out  the door.

Kyleran

Nothing to see here folks, mock internet rage is so 2009.

JJ82

Its Hartsman, he was called the Steve Ballmer of the video game world years ago...this isn't new.

He is the reason why I am dead set against Glyph or ever using it. I don't care what Trion makes, it will never be installed on my system. This man is terrible, his ideas are just as bad and I wont feed that company a penny of mine because of him. Those of us that have been hyping AA since its Korean release, and then trying to get XL games to reverse their changes to the crafting/LP system gave ample warning to the community and to Trion to get on XLs backs before its too late. We got no support...and now look what you have.

Enjoy AA while you can, what happened in Russia and whats happening in Japan will happen here as well, the game will lose players quickly because its heart and soul has been crippled. Oh and 8 servers for an American launch?!? hahaha, Trion is run by amateurs with no grasp of the very market that pressured them into actually bringing the game over.

atziluth

I am failing to see the issue here. He posted something to his facebook friends which was not intended for public view. If this is the worst he has said as a CEO about his customers, he is better than 99.99% of the other CEOs out there.

starstorm777

My que just got jumped to another hour and I been waiting almost a whole hour already. This is B.S. ...

Jaiml

It has certainly been pulled out of context, but he should have know better.

 

I run a small company and when things go wrong (doesn't matter where you work things will go wrong form time to time) when things go wrong I don't even joke verbally, internally.  You never know what someone might find funny and post on social media these days.  Even it if was not intended to crate harm it can.  I am hyper paranoid about stuff like that.

 

He is in a visible and tech related field.  Unfortunately he should have know better.

 

Too late now... 

Ludwik

Good for Hartsman.

Sovrath

Originally posted by grimal

 

 

 

 

Normally I would be the first person to say "no" you don't make fun of players or belittle them or insult or embarrass them as it's unprofessional.

However, what he said was not really making fun of the players or that they were angry. He was pointing out that sometimes that anger manifests itself in a way that is so over the top and full of vitriol that all one can do is laugh in those instances.

 

Sovrath

Originally posted by Omali

Scott Hartsmann points out childish overreaction and the response is, typically, childish overreaction. 

"Scott Hartsmann said we overreact to things? I hope he gets fired and thrown in jail!"

lol, love it, spot on.

soulmirror

Ask the former owner of the Clippers about privacy, Donald Sterling.    As one person has mentioned about being paranoid,  you do need some have some concerns whenever you hit the send button.  Nothing electronic is private, vpn and encryption notwithstanding, once it is on the network it is public.  All he has done is anger more people, losing more revenue by the hour.  I would suggest at this time he ignores social media and concentrate on crafting a response to the investors and paying players over this rough launch.  A lot of people got stiffed on early access and priority queues, that is where his interest should lie.

Slampig

[mod edit] I don't give two f***s if that donkey is a paying customer. He was over the line. I would have banned him, but that is just me I guess.

 

And the response from the Trion guy, so what? I don't see him blowing off customers or whatever it is they are crying about.

Sure, they should have thought out this mess before hand but that doesn't give anyone the right to attack someone in that way. But this is the internet and I totally do not expect anyone to understand this.

Slampig

Originally posted by Torvaldr

He didn't lose any credibility to me. As a customer I don't like some of the decisions he's made but it's my choice to remain a customer. That's what you do, you choose to remain a customer or not. If you're not getting your money's worth then get a refund and move on.

Honestly it wouldn't offend me if he laughed at those people. They have their priorities so far out of whack it's not funny. People who lash out to that degree or make violent threats need to face consequences. Those who make criminal threats should have their accounts (twitter, trion, facebook, etc) shuttered and possibly face prosecution.

This isn't an incredibly smooth launch but it's really no worse than ESO, FF:ARR, Wildstar, or most recent launches. They can't just open more servers. That would absolutely screw a lot of players when it came time to do server merges. There may be some pathetic nerd-raging now, but server merges would anger your more dedicated customers and that would be bad.

You need to remember that these are the same people that wanted Smedley's house to burn down and even worse, all because of a video game...

MMOGamer71

I don't see the issue with it, it's "his" FB account.  I'm more concerned why he has time to be on FB when paying customers cannot play the game due to server queues.

JDis25

That facebook post was about hate, not about queues. Still a smart decision? meh probably not but he is free to speak his opinion about his dislike of being personally attacked on the internet.

grimal

Originally posted by Nevulus
Improper of you to link a clickbait article twisting a guys intentions around. He made light of a very serious matter. A matter involving a guy just doing his job yet getting death threats sent to his facebook, work email, & home.

I titled the exact topic from the linked article.

Ludwik

Originally posted by MMOGamer71

I don't see the issue with it, it's "his" FB account.  I'm more concerned why he has time to be on FB when paying customers cannot play the game due to server queues.

 

Because he's a human being, not a robot.

He doesn't work 24 hours a day.

Albatroes

Posting in public or private doesn't matter. Obviously, since the comment was made to friends only he should know someone among him is going to out him if he's joking about an issue like this. Sure some people are going to have better luck than others depending on the server, but there's also some things you do and don't post especially in a position of his stature at this particular time. If this issue was 100% fixed then he can talk about this stuff and yeah a lot of people will laugh about it....till then he's not a funny guy till he can find an all around fix to this issue.

umcorian

Definately should have ignored it.

While some gamers are obviously in need of medication, it's not a good idea to release a product that is in absolute shambles and then make fun of the people yelling about it... especially when so many paid good money. 

Ginaz

While I'm pissed at the ques and other issues (still indicating my sub ends 17 Oct. when it should be 17 Dec., paid for 3 months of patron not 1) this is a non-issue.  IMO his response was pretty subdued and appropriate.

observer

Very unprofessional.  Could you ever see Bill Gates or the late Steve Jobs saying something like this (watch someone post a link saying they did. lol.)?  He's an MMO player, and should know better not to feed the trolls.