Thank you BIS, you've shown how one should actually treat their customers...

[Ange1 10]

Yes this is a partial spam link for my own purposes, but I feel the need to share it with you guys anyway. I want to thank BIS for being such an open, creative development group who go out of their way to listen to your customers and do right by us. It gives me hope in an industry dominated by corporations that are trying to control us in every way and charge us through the nose for it. I've been playing the Arma 3 alpha since it was released and I love it. Sure it has some of the old BIS style bugs, but for an Alpha, its brilliant, polished and the fact you put modding support in straight away has earned you my everlasting respect and customer loyalty.

Its perhaps suitable then that running alongside this is the whole SimCity debacle from EA. Its prompted me today to write this article to compare how EA and BIS treat you as a customer. I hope you guys enjoy the read and please share! :)

http://www.sgnonline.com/2013/03/14/ea-vs-bis-how-to-treat-your-customers/

Remember, stop buying EA games ;)

[SmallBlackSheep 0]

Nice read! I totally agree with you. Including mod support in the Alpha was a brilliant move as well.

[tonygrunt 10]

Nice read, please crosspost it to Latest "ARMA 3" Press Coverage | NO discussion here! too.

[Tonci87 163]

Nice read.

The Main difference between EA and BIS

EA is run by shareholders and BIS is mainly run by Devs

Don´t change that BIS!

[viper[cww] 14]

Very good read.

[NeuroFunker 11]

this is simple, when EA would allow modding, people wouldn't care about their DLC all to much, since they can mod it all by themselves. Cash, cash is all they need.

[FattyAcids 1]

Very interesting to read, thanks for posting.

[UbiquitousUK 11]

Good article, which I enjoyed. I have been making essentially this point on IGN--thought I might exploit EA's misfortune to convert a few more over the the ArmA fold :cool:.

Had head about the SC connection problems, but not about the apparent simplicity of the glass box "simulation" engine.

[sEi 10]

+1 <3 bis

[MrUnSavory 10]

I have to agree. As one of those who was stupid enough to purchase Sim City it is nice to still see a few company's who take their customers satisfaction first and foremost. I got Sim City as a pre-order, got to play with it for an hour the first night, then the problems started the next day. I have not touched the game since and gave $65.00 away to EA. No refunds and if you threatened to go to your bank and dispute the charge you were told your EA account would be banned making all your games no good for online anymore.

Installed Arma 3 and have not had a problem.

As someone who has been gaming since Pong came out in 1975, Yes, I am spoiled, I was use to installing games and having them run fine. I remember the days when you didn't see patches for games, they just worked. But since the early 2000's we have seen a rash of junk for games come out on the market. Games that are buggy and are never fixed, re-hash's of old titles because dev's just have no imagination anymore and barrels of new excuses from company's when they push a product out the door before it is ready.

Thank You BIS for a product that runs just wonderful as far as I am concerned. I could play this just like it is and have hours of fun. It is nice to know anything else you send us will just make the game more enjoyable. Unlike other company's who patch games just to make them playable.

[nodunit 397]

Nice read, very good of you to include the saturation mod for BF3..I was very sad to see EA's dissent towards it and coming from someone to avidly played Battlfield 2 Project Reality, Sandbox 2, Forgotten Hope and many others, to see their dissinterest in modding for it was..disheartening to say the least.

this is simple, when EA would allow modding, people wouldn't care about their DLC all to much, since they can mod it all by themselves. Cash, cash is all they need.

Thats not true, BI issued many DLC's for Arma 2 and plenty of people must have bought it for them to continue creating it.

Perhaps it was a case of "you treat us fairly so we'll repay the favor" or perhaps they didn't want to live with the low resolution free units released as to not tear the haves and have nots apart (which could contribute to the former)

None of this day1 DLC bullshit, no inevitable splits because you don't have the kit, and not cutting things from the game, not even forcing you to get it to play with your friends, I think that attitude made people willingly WANT to support BI and purchase what they sold even if there were already addons of similar units out here.

Edited March 14, 2013 by NodUnit

[Alistair 10]

Keep up the good work BIS!

Your games are pieces of art!

Don't loose this awesome connection with your community!Your an exemple to be followed! :D

[Husker 1]

Nice read, very good of you to include the saturation mod for BF3..I was very sad to see EA's dissent towards it and coming from someone to avidly played Battlfield 2 Project Reality, Sandbox 2, Forgotten Hope and many others, to see their dissinterest in modding for it was..disheartening to say the least.

Thats not true, BI issued many DLC's for Arma 2 and plenty of people must have bought it for them to continue creating it.

Perhaps it was a case of "you treat us fairly so we'll repay the favor" or perhaps they didn't want to live with the low resolution free units released as to not tear the haves and have nots apart (which could contribute to the former)

None of this day1 DLC bullshit, no inevitable splits because you don't have the kit, and not cutting things from the game, not even forcing you to get it to play with your friends, I think that attitude made people willingly WANT to support BI and purchase what they sold even if there were already addons of similar units out here.

Except the fact that you don't need to purchase the DLC for Arma because they give it to you for free, the 'Lite' versions, so that you can continue playing on servers that are running the full DLC. This is very much unlike any modern shooter that splits communities because of map packs.. etcetcetc

[tremanarch 6]

thx guys at BIS! youre great! Whatever game you made I bought it to not only to play but also to support you all!

[On_Sabbatical 11]

I have never bothered getting on a forum of any game before,until i discovered BIS games :) , i don't like some gameplay aspects,but ArmA is the best game i ve never played and BIS is by far the best at providing support to their customers !

[spamurai 3]

Much of what is commonly accept as standard in an ArmA game.... was once taken for granted in all MP Shooter games "back in the day".

It was standard to have the map editor and modeling tools.

It was standard to have customizable options.

It was standard to have moddable end user content.

It was standard to have dedicated server tools.

All of which disappeared under the various guises of being no longer technically possible to offer these things once Video Games became big business and large corporate publishers grew wise to the lucrative opportunities these things offered to investors and shareholders. Games now are produced, not by people who go home at night and play the games they produce... but by people who go home at night and organize their portfolio's, pick their stock options and count their net worth.

I'd be surprised to learn that guys like Robert Kotick (CEO of Activision) or John Riccitiello (CEO of EA Games) have played, of their own free will and leisure, more then 10 minutes of Call of Duty or Sim City Online respectively. You know, the games that ultimately contribute to the +$800,000 these guys get paid every year to churn out.

They wouldn't dream of offering the next rehashed installment of the Call of Duty or Battlefield franchises for half of it's retail value. Instead they'd charge you a full $59.99, but offer you access to "open beta" a month before it's released suggesting that it's an exclusive privilege to help them work out the bugs to their own product, for free of charge (to them of course). The same guys who came up with the idea of the "Rented Server" affiliates... the "Season Pass" and "Premium Access" memberships... "Day 0" and "On Disk" DLC Content for sale as soon as the game is released. And lets not forget the ever popularized "Always online, DRM" schemes (so they can further monetize your marketable demographic data which they data mine from your habits all while not offering you any form of compensation). Afterall, did EA Games lower the price of their PC games after the rolling sleeper mega-hit Bad Company 2 exploded in popularity at $49.99, proving that PC gaming is still as popular and profitable as ever? No... of course not. They raised the price of all their PC titles to $59.99 in a blanket move to match their overpriced console titles. In contrast... how does Bohemia Interactive react when a completely free, end-user level mod to their flagship franchise, launches ArmA 2 to the top of the Steam best seller list over a year after being released? When DayZ sells more copies of ArmA 2:CO for $30 then all other versions combined at any point in it's history (if not all of it's history)?..... Let's sell ArmA 3 for $32.99 and lets give them full access to it as soon as possible. I mean... why would we charge our loyalist community full price to test our incomplete game?

I can picture the Kotick and Riccitiello's of the world recoiling in abject horror at the mere thought of it all, Has Marek Spanel lost his fucking mind?. How do you run a game company this way?!

Bohemia Interactive might make mistakes, might drop the ball or just plain fuck it up sometimes.... but they're old school, like the way it used to be. The way that keeps the fun in playing games where it should be... in the hands of players instead of shareholders.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Spamurai

[Fuse 1]

this is simple, when EA would allow modding, people wouldn't care about their DLC all to much, since they can mod it all by themselves. Cash, cash is all they need.

Except the fact that you don't need to purchase the DLC for Arma because they give it to you for free, the 'Lite' versions, so that you can continue playing on servers that are running the full DLC. This is very much unlike any modern shooter that splits communities because of map packs.. etcetcetc

History begs to differ. Mods made Half-Life and Valve what they are today, but we all were only too eager to get our hands on more content (Blue Shift, anyone?). Sure, back then they weren't "DLC", but that's just because we were still on dial-up.

Even the Battlefield series wouldn't be what it is today if it weren't for mods. Modern Combat mod for BF1942 didn't stop people from buying Road to Rome or Secret Weapons of WWII, but it did so well that DICE acquired the team for work on Battlefield 2.

Mods are only a threat to companies that are trying to bleed their customers. If you put out quality content people will buy it, and the mod community's work can help you deliver that content. Never look at something EA does and assume it's the only (or right) way to do things.

[Winfernal 2]

Never look at something EA does and assume it's the only (or right) way to do things.

Everyone should have this quote in a large picture at the living room wall.

[nodunit 397]

Except the fact that you don't need to purchase the DLC for Arma because they give it to you for free, the 'Lite' versions, so that you can continue playing on servers that are running the full DLC. This is very much unlike any modern shooter that splits communities because of map packs.. etcetcetc

Yeees I'm glad we agree.

free units released as to not tear the haves and have nots apart

[Vilos Cohaagen 1]

Good article :)

[Desaix 1]

Good comparison. I could have replaced SEGA/CA with EA getting the same result. The way they ruined the TW series by closing more and more stuff to modders made me stop to buy their product after NTW. They even refused to implement stuff announced before released like unit editor and square formation. Big corporation as usual are just money suckers, small company what cares about customers.

[Scoggs 1]

Very well said and I completley agree. BIS you are no joke, my favorite developer!

[Tonci87 163]

Good comparison. I could have replaced SEGA/CA with EA getting the same result. The way they ruined the TW series by closing more and more stuff to modders made me stop to buy their product after NTW. They even refused to implement stuff announced before released like unit editor and square formation. Big corporation as usual are just money suckers, small company what cares about customers.

Yeah Shogun 2 was definately the last TW game I bought, and I had skipped Napoleon before that.

That´s actually funny if you consider that I was a very active community member, even a moderator at totalwar-zone.de (doesn´t exist anymore, The Admin just couldn´t identify himself with the TW series anymore). I even did some modding °_°

The amount of broken promises by CA and the absence of mod tools is not even funny anymore. Especially if you consider that the unit DLCs are mostly put together with parts of existing units. A modder could have done that in only a few days for free. CA has changed very much since they are owned by SEGA. Many old members of the team left the company.

So BIS, don´t let any big publisher buy you, OK?

Just stay the way you are.

[J0K3R 5 92]

Good read

[robbya 11]

sigh..wish i could say the same about BIS.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?187387-How-does-BIS-treat-a-loyal-customer

We will see if I can write a good review as well..I hope I can....