Games-Freaks

Gamer Double-J has written an open letter to the world, telling about his frustration against Valve/EA, and citing the numerous issues encountered in the PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box.

Here is the letter: "Dear Madam or Sir,

I am writing to you today in the hopes you might be able to help myself and thousands of others with the problems we are experiencing with the PlayStation 3 version of Valve/Electronic Arts The Orange Box.

The problems concerning The Orange Box for the PS3 are two-fold. First, we are dealing with numerous bugs, glitches, and server issues that have rendered the game unplayable at times and have remained since the game was originally released in October 2007.

More troublesome is the fact that our many attempts to contact Valve and EA through traditional channels —telephone, e-mail, and regular post— have fallen upon deaf ears. In a complete disregard for the large community of gamers who are experiencing these issues, in attempting to seek answers, the consumer support divisions of each company have repeatedly rejected pleas for help.

To begin, allow me to elaborate on some of the issues. While both the PC and XBox 360 versions of the game have been updated several times since release, PS3 players only have received is a generic patch that allegedly fixed several problems; unfortunately, these fixes are more fiction than fact, and those that did work only scratched the surface of the numerous flaws that exist. Primarily, the problems are centered on Team Fortress 2, the online, team-based, first person shooter which is one of the five games inside of The Orange Box.

First, the PS3 version lacks the functionality of its PC and XBox 360 counterparts, as we do not have the ability to create and host private servers (making competitive clan-based gaming extremely difficult); there is no proper lobby system with which to organize players and set up games; the servers that we do have are constantly plagued by lag, making the game virtually unplayable..

Second (and more egregious) are the number of glitches and flaws that remain unpatched in the PS3 version of the game, which include: a glitch that causes the friends list to function improperly or not at all, making it impossible to find players in the game; VOIP/microphone issues where communication will sometimes stop in the middle of a match or, alternatively, some players will not be able to hear others, and vice versa; and in-game exploits that allow players to cheat and ruin ranked games.

Third, it is unclear and increasingly unlikely that PS3 users will ever receive the upgrades, maps and updates that have either already been released or are coming soon for the PC and XBox 360 versions. Neither Valve nor EA are willing to claim responsibility for providing this content. In the single-player games contained within The Orange Box, such as Portal and Half-Life: Episode 2, more general problems include frame rate dips that render the game unplayable in some situations, occasional freezes, and long load times (sometimes minutes long) that break up the pace and flow of the game.

As part of the larger PlayStation 3/The Orange Box community, we have made several attempts to contact both EA and Valve in order to get some sort of satisfaction regarding these issues. However, at every turn, we have been disappointed to find runarounds and lack of acknowledgment from both companies' customer support division. I think that it is important you understand that countless number of fill-in-the-blank e-mail replies we have received from both companies. I myself have called EA tech support more than a dozen times, only to have the tech tell me each time that I would receive a phone call from a senior level tech within 24 hours.

This has been going on since I began experiencing problems back in January, and I still have not heard my phone ring yet. Most of the responses from Valve or EA either shirk their responsibility and blame the other company or, in the case of EA, claim that the problems are on the users end and can be resolved by checking the The Orange Box-specific forums on EA's website.

The only trouble is that no such forum exists, and any posts made in other sections of EA's forums are deleted as off topic. In fact, by looking at EA's website, you would hardly know that The Orange Box was published by the company. Maybe that is an indicator of how sheepish they are when it comes to supporting a product they know is a lemon.

Beyond EA's shoddy performance, it is not entirely surprising that our claims have fallen on deaf ears from Valve as well; co-founder and managing director, Gabe Newell has stated in published interviews that the PlayStation 3 is "a waste of everybody's time" and a "total disaster on so many levels." If this is the sort of opinion embraced by the top level executives, it explains the delinquency of their companies but does not excuse them for putting out an inferior product and shameful customer "service".

As we users continue to play a flawed and faulty version of a game that has little light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to updates and patches, we can only hope that the power behind this letter, can spread the word on this issue and help to achieve some modicum of success in having our voices heard.

Our e-mails and phone calls have not worked, our complaints on both companies' forums have not worked, an official petition website listing all issues was created (over 21,000 visits to date), and even a petition signed over 2,200 times have all failed to light a fire under these companies and make them take responsibility for their products.

Thank you for taking the time to hear my concerns.
Please visit the official petition website at http://www.orangeboxpetition.com"

Labels: EA, Letter, Petition, PS3, TF2, The Orange Box, Valve