Reposted from Compuserve's Flight Sim Forum via the Delphi Flight Sim Forum courtesy of Jerry Luttrell.
"This is a bit long... but it's also long overdue. So I'll ask your indulgence this once.
I just want to interject a few comments about what I've been quietly observing the past few weeks. First of all, I work for Dynamix. I was on the launch team for the original Red Baron (I recognize a few names on here still... scary) and have been pretty much with the company since its beginnings. I was the head of marketing who launched RB2, stepping in after being gone a couple years at another company. The trials and tribulations of RB2's development history may or may not be well known to you all... I don't know. But it wasn't a party from what I saw and was told. In the world of business, some things go terribly right (I launched Descent one and two for Interplay... they went terribly right) and some things go terribly wrong.
Many aspects of RB2's development/launch fell into the "terribly wrong" category. Suffice to say you're probably all too well aware of this. The way things worked out... well, speaking for myself, the situation made me sick to my stomach. Speaking for Dynamix, we all know the potential damage its done to our sim line and company reputation. Bottom line though is it was a business descision made way out of my hands and I thank the Lord that it was a decision process that I personally wasn't allowed to be involved with ... there were far too many variables (customer/business/line reputation/expectations/you name it) and I would have probably hung myself over the stress.
I was talking to Damon Slye (one of Dynamix's co-founders as well as designer of RB1 and much of the Aces series) about it a couple months ago and he said the same thing. "Good lord..." It was a very, very bad situation, made worse by the fact that Dynamix has had so little public contact with folks like yourselves over the past few years. You all wanted to vent, you wanted answers, you wanted action and you wanted replies. And you deserved all of the above. Unfortunately for everyone, Dynamix was no longer staffed for that kind of customer service. _I_ used to do it waaayyyy back in the old days but a lot has changed in those eight or nine years. To make matters worse, I've been out on sick leave for the last seven months and wasn't able to push for an on-line reaction. So, guys and gals, bitch away. You have every right to and I know I sure as hell would have screamed if I had been in your place. This is a Flight Sim Forum. WE should be here supporting you and our flight sim products.
Tucker, bless his soul, has been busting hump trying to keep up with his regular job duties while still keeping you all informed. He and the entire RB2 team have been putting in maniac hours to get the patches together, tested and out. That is the total truth. Every main programmer from the team has been working non-stop since the game shipped to put out the patches and will continue to do so for at least another three or four months... depending upon what's decided with the well/over-publicized "Super Patch/Gold Edition/Whatever."
If I (or anyone else here at Dynamix) could erase the past twelve months on RB2 and make retroactive changes, we would. But, we can't. All we can do is learn from some extremely painful mistakes, adjust things accordingly, make damn sure it doesn't happen again and do right by those who've bought our product... you, the customer, who ultimately pay our wages and allow us all at Dynamix to have this this silly ass, great career: making games. A job that we're all thrilled to have. And, we can offer a sincere apology. I think it's safe to say that everyone at Dynamix shares this statement with me: We screwed up.
Some might wish to blame Sierra or some higher corporate power, but bottom line is we screwed up... No one else. And we're dedicated to doing whatever it takes to make things right with all of you. We're not stupid, despite the view that some of you may have about the "corporate world." Dynamix makes games because we love to. We love to largely because we can share our fun with others such as yourselves. Yes, we've gotta make money to pay the bills, but that really all boils down to the fact that it allows us to make more games. We screw the customer, we screw ourselves. No demand for goods, no profit to make goods. Pretty simple when you rip away all the political and corporate BS.
Things are changing. That's part of my job now. I'm no tech head but I do know all the important folks and can scream awfully damn loud if need be. I'm always here lurking and if you've got a question that doesn't get answered, direct it to me. I'll do my best at getting an answer (just don't ask me to reconfigure your system or you'll be in serious trouble). I'm going to try and make sure we've got a team member around for specific technical issues but if you've got a general question/gripe/comment or aren't getting the attention you feel you deserve, let me know and I'll do whatever I can as fast as I can.
This forum has always been special to me in that it's where I personally started meeting with the flight sim folks... Red Baron 1 wasn't exactly bug free if those of you who were around recall. Man, that was a long time ago. I'm startin' to feel my age.
Anyway, enough babble. The newest/latest patch is out.
I've read some of the replies and comments and know Tucker is taking it back to the team. So, let's talk about some fun stuff... like contests, prizes, cool missions, multiplayer (you all tried it yet? I haven't... though Tucker says it's pretty cool now), etc. I'm no longer the head marketing weasel but I've still got keys to all the goodies;) How about a conference? I'm sure you'd all like to grill the team with some live questions:)
And "hey there to any of you 'old timers.' I'm baaacccckkkkk!:)
-Jerry Luttrell/Dynamix
CServe: 110752,1607
AOL: JLuttrell2@aol.com
PS. If any of you frequent the other boards like avsim or Delphi, go ahead and feel free to post my address and comments. I'm lurking there as I am here and my comments go to everyone. I'm going to try and hit all the major sites but I know that since I'm only a force of one right now, I'll be spreading myself a little thin at first."