An open letter to Jacob Fryxelius

[FrankJones]

[Also posted on BGG]

Jacob,

First, I wish to give credit where credit is due and thank you for creating a magnificent game in Terraforming Mars. I’m sure you are well aware that it is in the top 3 on Board Game Geek’s rankings, and deservedly so. I’m sure I speak for most (perhaps all?) of the fans of the game when I say we appreciate your contribution to the gaming community. I have enjoyed countless hours playing terraforming mars “in real life” and online, despite the extensive problems with the online game.

Which brings me to my main point.

Jacob, my understanding is that you are, in some way, affiliated with or involved with the online game. If that is the case (or even if it isn’t), how can you sit idly by while your creation is and has been butchered by incompetent programmers for almost 20 months now? Since its inception, the game has been a minefield of bizarre bugs, glitches, disconnects, timer issues, user interface issues, and who knows what else.

The loyal fans of the game (those who have stuck around, anyway; quite a few loyal fans eventually gave up on the online game when it became apparent that the programmers were unable or unwilling to fix the glaring issues with the game) have not had one single day in the 20+ months of the game’s existence on which all the cards and rules worked properly. Some cards, such as protected habitats and power infrastructure, have been broken for so long, it is difficult to remember whether they EVER worked properly. I am not sure power infrastructure ever did, at least, not consistently. There is also rampant cheating of one form or another, including some especially insidious cheats that, luckily, most people are too honest to use.

I know that the original programming/development company (Lucky Hammers, or whatever it was called) went broke. And deservedly so, considering the horrendous job they did and the mind-numbing fiascos they allowed to enter the published game. I’m sure the long-time players recall the glory days of mining guild getting +1 steel production for ANY placement, or the fun times when people could use search for life and ”BUY” the card for free each gen. Or the mighty optimal aerobraking, which became a card so omnipotent that it made AI Central look like Dust Seals.

Now it seems Asmodee has directly taken over or has sourced the programming to some other unnamed company. Who knows? They aren’t exactly forthcoming with information. The rare times they reply at all, they give some hackneyed, impersonal form-letter type of reply that gives no useful information other than falsely claiming that they care very much about our experience and are taking our input into consideration.

We haven’t had an update or patch since February 10th. And yes, I realize there is a global pandemic going on. All the more reason to put some effort into getting the online game fixed. People are craving stimulating online activities during these quarantined times. And programming is something that can be done at home, or remotely, or both. It’s not as though programmers need to risk their lives fixing terraforming mars. So, before you or anyone makes some kind of annoyed reply to me regarding the COVID-19 situation, please, spare me. My wife is a respiratory therapist on the front lines battling this virus, in one of the worst hotspot areas in the US. She saves lives, and if she doesn’t do her job properly, people die.

When a company continues to collect money from paying customers while failing to make even the most basic necessary improvements, something is wrong, and people have a right to be angry. And they are. Read the steam forums, Jacob. There are thousands of posts, the vast majority negative, from frustrated users wondering why they cannot log in, why they paid for a mac version that was later revoked (with no refund given), why the same cards have been broken forever and haven’t been fixed, or myriad other issues.

So, the question, as I asked before, is: Jacob, why haven’t you done more to enhance the online players’ experience? Is it a question of money? I assume you have earned considerable revenue in your lifetime from terraforming mars and all the expansions. I assume you make some money from the digital game. I’m not counting your money or trying to tell you how to spend it, but your fans ARE spending their money on the online game, and they deserve a better product. They deserve a patch or update that actually fixes things and addresses reasonable complaints. Most of the needed fixes are not difficult. In some cases, hobbyist players of the game with no programming experience (myself included) have solved problems that the actual programmers were not able to; and that’s with our NOT having the actual code while they DO.

One member, “MoogV” on steam forums, was able to successfully fix more problems and make more improvements to the game in a few weeks than the entire development team has done in 6 months. If money is a problem, it shouldn’t be. Numerous users, myself included, have offered to work with the company to fix the game, requesting little or no compensation. We are already essentially doing that anyway, in the form of beta testing, even though the developers just push betas through even after we beta-testers find numerous problems.

MoogV and I have each worked behind the scenes with the developers, spending considerable time and effort to improve the game, including exchanges of personal e-mails outside of any of the forums. We have received no compensation and haven’t asked for any. A fully functional game will be compensation enough, though some actual recognition for the members who have contributed so much to the game would also be nice (and not just some throwaway one-liner listing in the “special thanks” that is buried 4 sublevels deep from the main menu that is probably seen by no one, ever).

The problem appears to be three-pronged:

1) The developers don’t have capable programmers - resulting in bizarre and baffling bugs and glitches, and often resulting in broken cards that had worked previously even though these newly broken cards were not even part of a recent update,

2) The developers don’t even know the actual rules – I and others have had to correct them on RULES errors numerous times. So, even if they KNEW how to program cards properly, they would still get things wrong because they literally don’t know the rules.

3) They don’t seem to understand what makes for a good user interface, resulting in a couple dozen issues that just make people scratch their heads in bewilderment, wondering what the programmers were thinking when they designed something the way they did. Further exacerbating this problem is that they do not have a pulse for what the players actually want. Despite numerous lengthy posts from numerous members explicitly stating which improvements they would like, there was a “recent” (February 10th) update that “accomplished” the following:

a. A flashing wave banner that moves across the top of the screen periodically

b. A more colorful corporation logo

These two “improvements” were requested by nobody, ever.

What exactly were the developers thinking when they spent time and money on those “upgrades” while dozens of cards and rules still do not work properly? Some users even complained of possible seizure triggers from the flashing banner, but the developers showed utter indifference.

And Jacob, I don’t mean to beat a dead horse here, but why are you complacent with this debacle? I could understand some minor issues in the first few months of the game’s release, but the game has been besieged by severe game-breaking flaws since day one, and has continued to be plagued by severe issues for 20 months now.

You are the creator of this game! You have some authority in this matter. Can’t you do anything? How much money would it cost to actually fix the game? Have the developers bring in 3 people: A user interface expert, such as MoogV, a rules expert (hey, you could fill that role, or any one of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ardent fans who knows the rules with 100% accuracy), and a PROGRMMING EXPERT. Those 3 would have the game fixed in a week. Even if those 3 people demanded a $1000 compensation each, we’d be talking about $3000.00. A minuscule pittance compared to the tens hundreds of thousands of dollars people have paid for the online game, to say nothing of the revenue generated from the physical game and its expansions.

Where am I getting these figures from? The math is not difficult. There are over 2000 rated players, and that is just those who are active within the last 15 days. The actual number is almost certainly closer to 4000 or 5000. That is ONLY the players who have completed enough rated games (20) to be counted on the leaderboard at all. The vast majority of people who buy the game never even reach 20 games. I think I read somewhere that the number is between 3% and 5% (of game purchasers who reach that 20-game threshold). This is confirmed by looking through the player list in the game lobby and counting how many of the players are listed with a rating – very few.

Terraforming Mars is one of the greatest games ever made. It is 3rd on BGG’s list of literally tens of thousands of games. It is known world-wide, with players from across the globe playing online. There should be thousands of players logged in at any given moment, with dozens of open games being hosted. It's absurd that the bugs and glitches of the online implementation of the game have diluted the player pool to the point that it sometimes takes hours for a player to find a game with the parameters he seeks.

This game deserves better and the fans deserve better, and it is unclear why we haven’t received “better.” And accountability starts at the top.

So: People, including you, Jacob, can criticize me or demonize me if they wish (as some have, especially on the steam forum), but two crucial facts remain:
1) Everything I have said here is true, and
2) The vast majority of people who have interacted with me either directly or indirectly on either of the two forums (BGG and steam) have been enthusiastically supportive of my efforts and thankful for my work.

Please, allocate some time, money, and resources to fix the game, or sell the rights to the online game to a person or company that has the time and resources to do so. I find it difficult to believe that there is no way to make it profitable to fix the bugs of an online implementation of one of the greatest and most famous games ever made.

[chaney]

So say we all.

Or at least the vast majority of posters on this forum.

[FrankJones]

Originally posted by chaney:

So say we all.

Or at least the vast majority of posters on this forum.

Now I want to go play the board game of Battlestar Galactica :)

[Kodashiku]

100% agree with this post

[becephalus]

Yeah I LOVE this game, and after playing it for a bit I almost refunded, and walked away from it for 10 months or however long, only to find it during the quarantine. Really enjoying it with my friends, but still encountering bugs I reported like on release day is very disappointing.

[FrankJones]

I am happy to report that the Fryx family has given an official reply, and it's very positive and uplifting, and full of good news :)

It's on Board Game geek, the first post in the "general" forum of Terraforming Mars forum.

Many thanks to the Fryx family for their honest reply and their transparency in updating us on the situation.

:)

[chaney]

That result is a good start. Hopefully the public discussion will raise the heat on improvements actually taking place, exactly the intent. If not in this particular case, maybe it will improve future decisions including legal language in contracts that penalize bugs. If a game is contracted to be an "exact" version of the original and the rules and function are different, it fails. I understand that legal wording and reason are generally orthogonal.

l hope that major improvements are pending. I'll cross my fingers but not hold my breath. The reply puts most of the "blame" on Bag of Hammers by my reading, and is full of candor, diplomatic by necessity. I'm impressed that it is as direct as it is and appreciate that it was made.

The fire is started, now we'll see what color the smoke is.

[dcak777]

Thank you very much, FrankJones, for your detailled and time-consuming efforts. You analysed the problems with the game, the bugs and the frustration of the players quite accurately. I am a great fan of Terraforming Mars and - notwithstanding all the problems with the online version - have played more than 600 games in the last 1.5 years. Recently I made it to the top 20 of the online ranking.

However, yesterday a bizarre glitch / error appeared in the game in the last generation AFTER I had already passed. I have posted the incident in "bug reports" already and hope for an answer. Due to this glitch I timed out (as did the last remaining other player in the game) and the timeout of ALL players led to a loss of 13 ELO points for me. This is not acceptable. It is twice frustrating not to be able to finish a 2.5 h game due to a stupid bug and to lose a lot of ELO points additionally.

There has to be a safety mechanism that - in the indident that ALL players time out - the game is nullified and does not lead to a loss of ELO points or karma for ANY player.

I invite you to read my recent bug report from yesterday, FrankJones. Maybe you can tell me whether something similar ever occured to you.

Thx again for your commitment to the cause!

Yours sincerely

knight_of_the_grail

[FrankJones]

Originally posted by dcak777:

Thank you very much, FrankJones, for your detailled and time-consuming efforts. You analysed the problems with the game, the bugs and the frustration of the players quite accurately. I am a great fan of Terraforming Mars and - notwithstanding all the problems with the online version - have played more than 600 games in the last 1.5 years. Recently I made it to the top 20 of the online ranking.

However, yesterday a bizarre glitch / error appeared in the game in the last generation AFTER I had already passed. I have posted the incident in "bug reports" already and hope for an answer. Due to this glitch I timed out (as did the last remaining other player in the game) and the timeout of ALL players led to a loss of 13 ELO points for me. This is not acceptable. It is twice frustrating not to be able to finish a 2.5 h game due to a stupid bug and to lose a lot of ELO points additionally.

There has to be a safety mechanism that - in the indident that ALL players time out - the game is nullified and does not lead to a loss of ELO points or karma for ANY player.

I invite you to read my recent bug report from yesterday, FrankJones. Maybe you can tell me whether something similar ever occured to you.

Thx again for your commitment to the cause!

Yours sincerely

knight_of_the_grail

I'll take a look at your report. (Also, congrats - I did notice that you had moved onto the first page, with, I think, a 1913 rating - well done).

Before I do, I want to remark on what you said - you are absolutely correct - there needs to be a safeguard against rating and karma loss for glitched games.

The integrity of the entire ratings system depends on this. The sum of points gained and lost should always be zero. Always. And the average rating should always be whatever the starting rating is (1500 in this case). Because of these all-forfeit games, neither of those is true, and it drags down he entire rating system, making it impossible for anyone to even crack the 2200 barrier. When the best player in the world can only attain a 2154 rating, something I wrong. And the problem is that the all-forfeits mean that everyone's ratings in general are lower, which makes it difficult for players to stay in the 2000 rating range. That, in turn, means that a 2154 player has no one to playa against without risking a 8/24 ELO split for a win versus a loss. And it all trickles down.

I'll check out your bug report now.

[Alegsei]

This post more than perfectly sums up my feelings towards this game.

In what world does it make sense for me to get kicked out of an online game as the last remaining human player? ♥♥♥♥♥♥

[aufklaerer]

Originally posted by FrankJones:

I am happy to report that the Fryx family has given an official reply, and it's very positive and uplifting, and full of good news :)

It's on Board Game geek, the first post in the "general" forum of Terraforming Mars forum.

Many thanks to the Fryx family for their honest reply and their transparency in updating us on the situation.

:)

Direct link:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2432874/article/34902090#34902090

[Coldsnap]

That is a very sensible post and some great news! There is hope for the future!

[chaney]

Interesting. Here, where all the posters actually own the game, there is full agreement with the OP.

On BGG, when I read the first few pages days ago, the dominant post topic was "Frank, you're making your point wrong" with a few supporters as well.

I guess gaming, and TM no less, attracts the pedants (myself included) who will criticize at any opportunity. It's unfortunate that so many on BGG did so without the depth of perspective required to comprehend Frank's point of view. I'll try in the future to remember this for my own behavior.

[FrankJones]

Originally posted by chaney:

Interesting. Here, where all the posters actually own the game, there is full agreement with the OP.

On BGG, when I read the first few pages days ago, the dominant post topic was "Frank, you're making your point wrong" with a few supporters as well.

I guess gaming, and TM no less, attracts the pedants (myself included) who will criticize at any opportunity. It's unfortunate that so many on BGG did so without the depth of perspective required to comprehend Frank's point of view. I'll try in the future to remember this for my own behavior.

I agree, generally speaking with your premise, though I would say that there were only 6 to 8 people who took issues with my letter on BGG, they just did so very loudly, and therefore made it seem like a larger number of people. There were significantly more people on the BGG thread supporting me than opposing me. A lot of the supporters' posts were removed by moderators.

For example, if one person wrote a dissenting reply to my letter, and then 5 people countered that by supporting me, and then the dissenting post got pulled by moderators, the replies automatically get pulled too, which results in 2 dissenting opinion getting purged by 5 supporting opinions getting purged.


But yeah, it's very obvious that most of the dissenters in that thread don't even play the steam version, they were just being ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and stirring up trouble. One well-known troll hadal FIVE of his posts in that thread removed, and therefore automatically, many replies to his posts were removed, posts that were supporting my efforts.

Especially damning is that there's a JavaScript version of the gam that has full functionality, ALL expansions, no bugs, no crashes, no problems; it' flawless.

And yet, even after I pointed that out, some of the programming "experts" in that thread STILL stood by their assertion that I was wrong in saying that programming the game shouldn't be so difficult.

[chaney]

Where can the JavaScript version be found? Can it even be said?

It's frustrating when smart people decline to accept proof by demonstration. We all lose when ego beats reason.

[FrankJones]

Originally posted by chaney:

Where can the JavaScript version be found? Can it even be said?

It's frustrating when smart people decline to accept proof by demonstration. We all lose when ego beats reason.

https://terraforming-mars.herokuapp.com/

It's great! I already played my first two solo games ever using preludes (And I'm 2 for 2 :) )

Try it out - everything seems to work, no bugs, no interface problems. No cheating. No annoying timers. No pointless confirmations.

There's ONE interface improvement that I see necessary, maybe 2, that's it.

Don't use Microsoft Edge, it won't work. I needed to use Chrome, I'm also told Firefox works.