How has this not been posted yet? Retro VGS

[bretthorror]

 

Infinite coins or bad headache?

 

 

You guys have it all wrong, this is actually how they plan to bypass Kickstarter and get funding for campaign 2.0.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Yes. Please follow these instructions, complete with infinite nested loop...

 

10 Bang head on the question block.

20 IF block = red

30 THEN Call 911

40 ELSE GOTO 10

50 END IF

Infinite coins or bad headache?

 

Both, LOL!

 

Infinite nested loop... I don't know what the correct term is. The GOTO command sends the program outside of the IF-THEN-ELSE loop without executing the END IF command. This leaves the loop open. Then the program creates a new nested loop within the previous IF-THEN-ELSE statement. Every time Mario bashes his head on the question block, the nest level goes one deeper. Assuming the program has finite computing resources, it will eventually run out of memory and crash. I wrote a purposely bad program to see in anyone would catch it. Nobody did. Mario's head will get bloodied up long before it crashes. Or he get a concussion...

[roland p]

If you really want to know, the if-then-else and goto just compiles into a bunch of (conditional) jumps and won't crash

Edited November 21, 2015 by roland p

[StopDrop&Retro]

I noticed this on their RVGS webpage. I guess they found a new third musketeer.

 

 

 

EDIT: holy shit... I have a feeling things are going to get interesting...

 

[Kotaku] SNK Doesn't "Pride Itself In Customer Service"

 

Quote from Mr. Herman:

 

As far as customer service, we have a very small sales office here. We don't pride ourselves in customer service. Or where you've sent an email or what you've done, I don't care at this point.

Edited November 21, 2015 by StopDrop&Retro

[PlaysWithWolves]

So now they have two sales-and-ideas guys? I wonder who they're hiring (or hired) to develop a prototype?

 

 

I noticed this on their RVGS webpage. I guess they found a new third musketeer.

 

 

 

 

For anyone who can't read from the above image (via RetroVGS.com):

 

Retro VGS, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Ben Herman of Middletown, NJ to its Board of Directors. Mr. Herman has a career spanning 40 years in the video game industry with sales and senior management positions with Parker Brothers, Nintendo, Atari and SNK PLAYMORE. Recently he has been a consultant helping developers bring new ideas and I.P.’s to gaming platforms and is excited to use his experience and deep industry connections to help nurture a growing user base and a thriving game catalog on this new gaming system. Ben lives in New Jersey with his wife, Sherry, of 34 years, close to NYC where their two grown daughters work and live.

 

Edited November 21, 2015 by PlaysWithWolves

[+Nathan Strum]

I noticed this on their RVGS webpage. I guess they found a new third musketeer.

 

Quote from Mr. Herman:

 

As far as customer service, we have a very small sales office here. We don't pride ourselves in customer service. Or where you've sent an email or what you've done, I don't care at this point.

 

He's going to fit right in!

[Keatah]

"Retro VGS, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Ben Herman of Middletown, NJ to its Board of Directors."

 

Why does a company need to use kickstarter to fund their operation? Should they be able to obtain funds through conventional channels?

[Andromeda Stardust]

I noticed this on their RVGS webpage. I guess they found a new third musketeer.

 

 

 

EDIT: holy shit... I have a feeling things are going to get interesting...

 

%5BKotaku%5D SNK Doesn't "Pride Itself In Customer Service"

 

Quote from Mr. Herman:

Adding more conductors will not lessen the final blow when this train wreck comes crashing down. I would recommend rebuilding the bridge across the canyon first.

 

Also this guy from SNK sounds like a jerk if they released a broken game and offered no compensation or at least appologetic feedback.

 

"Retro VGS, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Ben Herman of Middletown, NJ to its Board of Directors."

 

Why does a company need to use kickstarter to fund their operation? Should they be able to obtain funds through conventional channels?

Hard headed and stubborn people will never learn. For it is written,

 

"A wise man learns from his mistakes, but like a dog returns to it's vomit, a fool repeats his folley."

[PlaysWithWolves]

Quote from Mr. Herman:

 

As far as customer service, we have a very small sales office here. We don't pride ourselves in customer service. Or where you've sent an email or what you've done, I don't care at this point.

 

 

 

You left out the part where he left his phone number and offered to help resolve the issue. Also, it's a conveniently one-sided story to begin with. After reading up on this, I'll actually side with Herman here. Could he have handled it a bit better? Probably. Was "Gilgamesh" fame-hunting by making it public? You betcha.

 

That said, hopefully with Kennedy on the team Herman will be instructed to make bug-free games.

(rimshot)

[leods]

KOTAKU is a disgrace. I know it's off-Topic, but that blog is trash. I don't even click on links to them. Since most is clickbait anyway, better to just stay clear.

 

As for the rest, I sincerely don't give a damn who's on board. All I want from any Company is: What you offer, and what's the Price. Done. Give me specs, and give me a Price that's invinting. The rest is called PR bullshit. I don't give a damn. So even though I don't care who they have aboard, I don't see why should People be complaining.

[FUBARofPittsburgh]

I noticed this on their RVGS webpage. I guess they found a new third musketeer.

 

 

 

EDIT: holy shit... I have a feeling things are going to get interesting...

 

[Kotaku] SNK Doesn't "Pride Itself In Customer Service"

 

Quote from Mr. Herman:

 

 

OK wait. Why did this guy not just return the broken game to the store he bought it from? This story smells like BS.

 

That being said is ANYONE still interested in this thing?

[Zerosquare]

"Board of directors", seriously? I see they're not scaling back their delusions of grandeur.

[StopDrop&Retro]

OK wait. Why did this guy not just return the broken game to the store he bought it from? This story smells like BS.

 

Because the game wasn't "broken" in a retail sense, as in- the disk was scratched or cracked or anything. Most retailers will solve a "broken" game issue by replacing it with the same game. This game had a glitch that made it unplayable. Contacting the publisher is unusual but perfectly fine to do with a brand new game because it does come with a warranty right out of the box, which is very common.*

 

You left out the part where he left his phone number and offered to help resolve the issue. Also, it's a conveniently one-sided story to begin with. After reading up on this, I'll actually side with Herman here. Could he have handled it a bit better? Probably. Was "Gilgamesh" fame-hunting by making it public? You betcha.

 

That said, hopefully with Kennedy on the team Herman will be instructed to make bug-free games.

(rimshot)

 

And you're leaving out the part where he tried every possible solution and received no response. And he wasn't even trying to get a hold of the company president he was just dialing random extensions.*

 

Chris tried to contact the SNK Playmore USA sales department, but never got a response. He sent emails to every SNK address he could find. Still, no reply. Then! He started dialing SNK's office, entering every imaginable extension.

 

Sure, the SNK USA president handling a customer service issue is outrageous, but if the problem is so trivial why did the company president of all people feel the need to respond to it? Why not just have his secretary call back to give the customer service phone number? If I left a message for the president of any company the last thing I would expect to receive is a ranting response where he says that customer service means nothing to his company and he doesn't care about the hoops I've been jumping through to try to get some sort of response.

 

And that crazy response from any company president is newsworthy. And unfortunately for Mr. Herman that customer he pissed off runs a gaming website which only gave him a bigger soapbox. This is something that the RVGS crew are going to have to understand. Times have changed, gone are the days when your best hope of getting your word out was to have a letter appear in Nintendo Power. These are days when gaming companies have to be extremely careful because the next customer they piss off might just have a YouTube channel with a million subscribers where they can air their own rant.

 

I didn't even realize that the craziest part of it all is that Gilgamesh was doing EXACTLY what the RVGS team would want him to do in this exact same situation. He bought a game with a game breaking bug, so he wants to return it to the company itself. Just like you send your game back to RVGS when it didn't ship "bug-free." And rather than get any type of customer care, he got a message from the company president acting like a dick.

 

 

 

 

*EDIT: I took an SNK Playmore game off the shelf to check its warranty information in the manual.

 

Sure enough it says:

If the product is found to be defective within the 90-day warranty period, SNK PLAYMORE agrees to repair or replace the product as its option free of charge... Please contact SNK PLAYMORE by sending an email to sales@snkplaymoreusa.com for further instruction on returns within the 90-day warranty period.

And he did try to contact sales and got no response.

Edited November 22, 2015 by StopDrop&Retro

[InnovaX5]

Board of Directors? Does he realize that he isn't going to get paid anything unless this dream gets funded? Maybe they partnered with a larger company to produce this thing? I could see them jumping on board with Hyperkin. At least then we all know that we're going to get a pile of low quality junk before we put money out for it. Further more, many of us link SNK Playmore to the NEOGEO X Gold and we all know how awesome that thing was.

[PlaysWithWolves]

That didn't read "like a dick" to me. Peeved or exasperated, perhaps. We'll never know, as the original audio's link is bad. It sounds like Gilgamesh left one nasty note to begin with, but I guess we'll never know that either. Gossip website is gossipy. News at 11.

 

I'll agree it's a good analogy to RVGS, though. Small team. A cart made it into the wild that was not bug-free. Probably no dedicated customer service staff (and it is a skill).

 

But then, even in 2007 I'd have known to use Google or to just take back the stupid game and look for other entertainment.

None for me, thanks.

[bretthorror]

That didn't read "like a dick" to me. Peeved or exasperated, perhaps. We'll never know, as the original audio's link is bad. It sounds like Gilgamesh left one nasty note to begin with, but I guess we'll never know that either. Gossip website is gossipy. News at 11.

 

I'll agree it's a good analogy to RVGS, though. Small team. A cart made it into the wild that was not bug-free. Probably no dedicated customer service staff (and it is a skill).

 

But then, even in 2007 I'd have known to use Google or to just take back the stupid game and look for other entertainment.

None for me, thanks.

I don't care what this guy told anyone at this company when their game was legit defective, you make that customer happy when it was your fault. Of course people are pissed when they gave you their money for nothing. If the president of the company isn't appalled that his staff hadn't taken care of this shit in two months, he deserves getting shit on. The customer is not always right, but if the game is unplayable, there's no excuse not to kiss that person's ass and make it right. The RVGS team probably had no idea of his actions, but for the love of God, this is the last person I'd want heading a crowd funding campaign as a backer. And like StopDrop said, this is the exact scenario that people could find themselves in with RVGS carts.

 

If a real company was releasing this via their own investment, I couldn't care less what they do. If they piss off customers, obviously that's bad, but at least it's on their heads. This team has no people skills and are actually going to the people for money to invest. Reality is we already know they're going to retaliate like 14 year olds to any criticism in text on the spur of the moment, showing their true colors and now we know the next guy is exactly the same.

[PlaysWithWolves]

I don't care what this guy told anyone at this company when their game was legit defective, you make that customer happy when it was your fault.

 

Which is what Herman did try to do, and exactly what ShopDrop&Retro intentionally left out of his quote to incite people like you. Just because you can attribute whatever inflection you wish to some dry words doesn't take away from the fact that he offered to handle it personally.

[bretthorror]

 

Which is what Herman did try to do, and exactly what ShopDrop&Retro intentionally left out of his quote to incite people like you. Just because you can attribute whatever inflection you wish to some dry words doesn't take away from the fact that he offered to handle it personally.

 

Give me a break, dude.

[PlaysWithWolves]

My apologies, bretthorror. I should have at least phrased it more generically.

I react pretty strongly to the types of tactics employed at every stage of this story. I don't even care about this Herman guy; in fact I found it weird that they have a board of directors and brought in Mike 2.0 (a sales/idea guy but now fortified with connections!).

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

I didn't even realize that the craziest part of it all is that Gilgamesh was doing EXACTLY what the RVGS team would want him to do in this exact same situation. He bought a game with a game breaking bug, so he wants to return it to the company itself. Just like you send your game back to RVGS when it didn't ship "bug-free." And rather than get any type of customer care, he got a message from the company president acting like a dick.

And what makes anyone think that the Retro guys adding a PR person who has a track record of not giving an excrement about customer satisfaction was a good idea? I can just imagine how this pans out...

 

RetroVGS: Thank you for calling RetroVGS support. Your feedback is valuable to us. How may we assist you?

Customer: "My game is broken. I need to return it."

RetroVGS: "We are aware of the bug and are working on it. [game title] version 2.0 will be available for purchase in the coming months, with extra special 'thank you' content."

Customer: "But I don't want to 'buy' it again. I want you to 'fix' the one you sold me."

RetroVGS: "But version 1.0 will become rare. It's a collector's item now."

Customer: "I want my money back."

RetroVGS: "Sorry, no refunds unless game is unopened and in like new condition."

Customer: "Thanks for nothing. I will never buy from you [donkey's rear end] again!"

RetroVGS: "You are welcome. If you should need further assist----"

Customer: [click]

[StopDrop&Retro]

Which is what Herman did try to do, and exactly what ShopDrop&Retro intentionally left out of his quote to incite people like you. Just because you can attribute whatever inflection you wish to some dry words doesn't take away from the fact that he offered to handle it personally.

 

The part that you're ignoring (and missing the whole point of the article) is that this was never a news story until Mr. Herman turned it into a news story. You're absolutely right, he did give his number to the customer but he could have left it at that. Instead he chose to go off on this customer which turned it into an interesting story of a company president venting on a customer who was just trying to go through the warranty process.

 

If he had apologized for the warranty process failing in his sales department and told him "I'll personally send you a prepaid return envelope to return the game and make sure you get a replacement 1.1 version or your money back" then that's it, there would be no news story to write. Or even better, there could be a news story (or blog on the customer's own popular website) that would be overwhelmingly in SNK USA's favor about how their own president personally takes responsibility to make things right when they go wrong at even the lowest level. Imagine this headline: "When It Comes To Customer Satisfaction, No Job Is Too Small For SNK USA's President!" (complete with a picture of Mr. Herman placing a stamp on the envelope)

 

But no, that's not how it happened. It turned into a story about how SNK doesn't take care of their customers and even worse- doesn't mind that they don't take care of their customers because their own president chose that narrative. There is no manufactured outrage here, he acted completely unprofessionally.

Edited November 23, 2015 by StopDrop&Retro

[jaybird3rd]

There is no manufactured outrage here, he acted completely unprofessionally.

... which is why he'll fit in perfectly with a "company" that openly brands its critics as "drunkards" and "haters."

[StopDrop&Retro]

Thank you, jaybird3rd, a beautiful example of how these petty responses backfire. They could have chosen to not comment at all on Pat and Ian's views. Or even said something like "we know this console isn't for everyone, but for those who do get it they're going to have a lot of fun!" But as bretthorror said, they acted like they're 14 and got a justified gloves-off response. I don't know how many subscribers the CUpodcast has, but the rebroadcasted YouTube videos of those two segments alone have almost 200,000 views. They're so popular that if you look up "CU podcast" in YouTube "CU podcast retro vgs" is the second auto fill query that comes up. Yeah, great PR move there.

 

One can only hope Ben and Mike turned their experiences into hard learned lessons, but only time will tell.

Edited November 22, 2015 by StopDrop&Retro

[Flojomojo]

Is it possible you guys are extrapolating a bit much from a single complaint from 2008, blown up into a "story" by Kotaku?

 

Guy buys discount DS shovelware, runs into a bug, goes on a crusade for justice against the company that probably forgot that they made this thing, and blogged about it. Refuses a refund, which would be the most reasonable way out.

 

Seems to me the suit on the other side of the complaint is neither a hero nor a goat, but just some shlub working at the small USA arm of a small company. If this is all we know about him, it's hardly sufficient evidence that we need to get the pitchforks ready.

[bretthorror]

I don't know if its possible - it's too ironic that the RVGS team hired a guy who has actually dealt with - and poorly - with a situation involving a glitched game needing to be returned when everyone was concerned about that to begin with. And the fact that this company knew damn well the game was defective and still ignored him for two months leaves me with no sympathy. When some dumbass makes pirate carts to make a few hundred bucks, everyone's up in arms and igniting their torches because they're ripping people off, so why should SNK not have the same fire thrown at them? They sure must have responded fast to the glitch initially because the IGN review mentions it will be fixed by the company and you'll be able to switch it out. So obviously they responded pretty quickly to those claims and wanted this information to be in the reviews to not hurt their sales, yet didn't follow through with what had been published as a promise to the people.

 

We all make mistakes, no question, but making the dude who got ripped off on a game out to be the bad guy isn't the answer. This new RVGS team member in one fell swoop made it apparent that he really didn't care if his staff were blowing off customers, which means he himself doesn't care if customers are being blown off. Would you hire him to run your company knowing he treats people like this? Exactly.