Entitlement: Why I don't get it

[Asmodai]

But to use your cookie cutter explanation of how your team handles PTO does not make it an industry, or even business standard for every situation. That's business 101. We don't know if they had a 6 month or more PTO blackout for Heavensward, creating a situation where a whole team may have to take vacation in a compressed schedule. And to speculate either way is just simply that... speculation.

To halt production because you give your entire team time off at the same time is the worst possible thing you can do. That is business 101, dont stop.

[Yaichiro]

snip

I am not sure about "many business" there, tell us exactly who. On the other hand EVERY (yes can confirm) multinational company can't allow a whole department overseeing a core product go on "vacation".

SE is a company with product and we are customers, in fact they make it clear that the game is a service! Now imagine this situation, you have insurance on your car and you got involved in an accident. You go to your insurance company and they tell you "sorry all our staff are having a vacation so you need to wait 3 months to get money to fix your car, we will surely pay but after 3 months". Now you're left with a broken car for 3 months thanks to their "vacation".

They are definitely not going against their ToS as we are not entitled things such as patches. However, the game reputation is taking the blow especially with unsubs and you need to work twice as hard to get back those who unsubed compared to keeping subbed people. Many people quitted the game including myself last year and most people didn't return for subsequent patches but they returned for the expansion only to find it a "bigger" patch which we are stuck with for 5 months.

[Sylve]

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Christmas is a common one. Easter too. At least it is where i work. Any other time is free game though.

I'd also like to point out that no-where in the subscription "contract" or ToS says the developers must bring you new patches in an explicit time frame.
So yeah, the people demanding content NOW are being "Entitled" in the more derogatory sense. Our Sub grants us access to the game and nothing more than that.
If you have "nothing" to do in the game, go grab some people interested in attempting Savage Alex and work at getting a clear. All these people claiming boredom and nothing to do haven't cleared Savage Alex nor raised every job/class to max.

I end this post with a question ... If not now, when do you lot want the Devs to take some time off? No matter when they do it SOMEONE SOMEWHERE is going to freak out that the patch is late.

PS: Letting the whole team take time off at once eliminates issues that stem from missing staff at all times for the entirety of the year.

[Monoman]

It's a very logical way to look at things and I completely agree. Unfortunately for businesses (especially in entertainment), you have to appear like a friend more often than not since there is nothing worse than an image that you are not and the customers become entitled by that fact. So depending on the business, it's just part of the business.

[Alberel]

The thing is no one really says "I am entitled to X", it's usually people on the other side of the debate claiming they are saying that and putting words in their mouths in an attempt to silence complaints. I think to some degree this is more an issue of the word 'entitled' being overused and thrown all over the place when it's not even relevant.

As paying customers there is a degree of expectation that we will be given X content for our Y money. That's not acting entitled, that is just how the service works. When the devs delay the release of new content we are essentially getting less for our money. The current lack of fun things to do in game for most people at the moment has also left most of the population waiting for 3.1, so having it postponed when it's all most of us have to look forward to is doubly frustrating.

Basically people are bored because the expansion left us at 60 with less to do than when we were at 50 and now the patch expected to fix that has been delayed leaving us with a five month gap when they previously said it would be three. That is not acting entitled. That is being annoyed that the quality of the game is going downhill. If the devs need a break then by all means let them have one, but this should have been planned in such a way that it didn't cause a two month delay to the release of new content when the game is desperately in need of something to keep players paying their subscriptions.

This delay is in no one's interests so it's justified for the players to voice their concerns about it.

[drmambo1999]

I agree with this mostly aside from that last bit. I think compassion can go a long way with this kind of thing. Yes they have a job to do and are getting paid, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be treated like human beings. Emotion shouldn't be a part of business but it inevitably is because we are all human. I am a firm believer in positive reinforcement while also knowing when to be firm. Okay with that tangent out of the way, back on topic.

I honestly think you described one of the reasons why this "entitled attitude " is a thing in your post. We all know no one reads the terms of service agreement and therefor we have plenty of people speaking out on how "they feel" things should be instead of how things actually are.

I don't really think it is all that bad to express the want or need for change though as that is really the only way things will in fact change. For example, I sort of agree that EU players should be able to transfer to their server for free as they have been inconvenienced just the same as NA players have been by this maintenance. I don't think that is asking too much, BUT at the same time, I am not sure they are "entitled" to it either. After all, there was no official agreement made for such a thing.

It would just be a nice thing to do which in turn COULD benefit business. Then again, maybe it won't. Either way, I agree that the entitled attitude can be quite annoying when it comes to players whining for things they were never promised because they "don't want to work for what they get."

[Moqi]

Players and SE both know patches and new content is expected to keep the subs, regardless of what the ToS says. It's a moot point to argue.

3 months of sub would get you a patch worth of content and now it doesn't, it's not unreasonable to question why. And when the answer they give you is "we sent the devs on vacation", well... every worker goes on vacation at some point, but other companies don't need to hault production every time they do. It's a bs excuse. They're not irreplaceable.

[Sicno]

Players and SE both know patches and new content is expected to keep the subs, regardless of what the ToS says. It's a moot point to argue.

3 months of sub would get you a patch worth of content and now it doesn't, it's not unreasonable to question why. And when the answer they give you is "we sent the devs on vacation", well... every worker goes on vacation at some point, but other companies don't need to hault production every time they do. It's a bs excuse. They're not irreplaceable.

So you'd rather have a B team deliver the next big patch? I wouldn't read the end of that here at the forums.

[Asmodai]

So you'd rather have a B team deliver the next big patch? I wouldn't read the end of that here at the forums.

So, you think there is an A team and a B team? Like they are competing and Yoshi is just like "Sorry guys, your stuff isn't making it in this week"?

[Colorful]

So, you think there is an A team and a B team? Like they are competing and Yoshi is just like "Sorry guys, your stuff isn't making it in this week"?

It was the same with the the whole Dark Souls 2 fiasco too, even though the "B team" did a lot significantly better than the A team in some aspects, but there were no "teams" in the end. Just one large team where staff members switched between projects when needed from what I've read.