FRONTLINES PATCH 2 RELEASED A.K.A YOU AREN’T VOICING YOURSELVES

Written by SAKY // Filed in General, Xbox 360 // Viewed 218 times

[June 20, 2008]

Yesterday Kaos Studios released the second patch for the 360 version of Frontlines: Fuel of War. You guys remember this one right? Well apparently you don’t because it would seem that people didn’t make enough commotion to coerce Kaos into fixing their broken control options for Legacy and Southpaw-Legacy.

I must say that again I am disappointed…but not in Kaos Studios…no, I feel that the blame lies solely on the majority of our own readers. Now before you send us a bunch of hate mail please try to understand that I am only stating what I believe is fact and I am not just attacking you readers out there. In case you folks don’t understand the point of this website, I’ll explain.

The purpose of Alt-Controls.com is not to help you all to avoid purchasing a developer’s game because of a lack of control options; it’s not even about getting Legacy or Southpaw controls included in every first or third person shooter. It’s most defiantly not about any one game. No, the idea here is to get the developers understand that “not every FPS player sees a developer’s default or numerous layouts as the best option.” Getting developers to understand this simple point is vital to many of us, whether you play default, legacy, or southpaw. I would imagine that even folks over at AbleGamers could get behind our ideals. The point being that, if you get developers to understand this simple idea, they have only one recourse: controller mapping. If Fred wants to aim upwards with the A button, dammit he should have that option. Sure, we provide control information about every new release in the genre but that is all intended to be secondary; a “fall back” if you will.

The point of this rant? 2Three and myself see the numbers, we see the traffic from our readers. What you folks aren’t aware of is that you are part of bigger community than you may think. You come from all corners of the planet. The problem is that too many of you sit on the sidelines and watch each disappointment unfold. You make no comments on this site, no attempts to contact developers, no effort towards making your voices heard.

Be helpful, get some help:
If you make a post on a developer’s forum, post here to let the Alt-Controls.com community know and vice versa, if you see someone has made a forum post get over there, sign up, and chime in. I believe this community can make a difference, you just have to put forth the effort.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 7:03 pm and is filed under General, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

14 Responses to “FRONTLINES PATCH 2 RELEASED A.K.A YOU AREN’T VOICING YOURSELVES”

  • soulwarrior says:
    June 24th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    You are right about the fact people should become more active.

    I have sent the follwoing request to “http://www.us.playstation.com/Corporate/ConsumerServices”:
    ———————————————-
    Hello,

    I am a left-handed player and have difficulties aiming with the right analog stick. Unfortunately most of the games on PS3 don’t have a possibility to adjust the game controls as you can see on this website: http://www.alt-controls.com/ps3-control-list.

    It would be great if the PS3 XMB firmware would have the possibility to remap the button of the controller. This would not only be of interest to left-handed players but also for disabled people. Have a look at the discussion at http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/rss/message?board.id=62&message.id=588790

    Would it be possible to develop this feature for the PS3 firmware? This would be indeed a great asset for the PS3 in contrast to the XBOX360.

    Sincerely Yours,
    …
    ———————————————-

    Does anyone know a contact email for Sony Europe and does there exist a collection of contact addresses?

    Greetings,
    soulwarrior

  • 2Three says:
    June 24th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    help (at) uk.playstation.com was all I could find.

    Great email btw. Let us know if you hear anything back about that :)

  • soulwarrior says:
    June 24th, 2008 at 1:04 pm

    Thanks for the email address, have sent it there too.

    I have now also sent the same email to Microsoft support. Just changing the name from PS3 to XBOX 360 ;-)

    My bet is if either of them will implement this feature in the firmware the other one will have to follow. Same thing happened with divx support.

    I will keep you posted if I receive any replies.

  • soulwarrior says:
    June 25th, 2008 at 8:24 am

    Xbox support were the first to reply!
    Here is the response without the noise ;-):
    ##################################################
    Thank you for writing Xbox Customer Support!

    I am very sorry for the inconvenience this might have caused you. I understand that you were having problem with your Controller. As what I have read in your email that you are a left handed player and you have given some information.

    But we do consider all of the suggestions and comments sent in by our members, and we maintain an internal database of suggestions that we consult and prioritize.
    …
    ##################################################

    I think the important think here is : “internal database of suggestions that we consult and prioritize”. So if every left-handed gamer would write an email to Microsoft, maybe we could initiate a change…

  • 2Three says:
    June 25th, 2008 at 9:39 am

    Thanks for the update, that was a fast reply…

    And sure, if enough people spoke up, they would have no choice but to conform to their customer’s needs.

  • soulwarrior says:
    June 25th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

    Got the answer from Sony:

    #############################
    …
    Thank you for writing us.

    Please visit the link below to download and install available system updates for the PLAYSTATION(R)3
    computer entertainment system.

    http://www.us.playstation.com/ps3/network/updates

    This department does not have any additional information related to possible features or services
    which may be released in future network update(s). Please check back with PlayStation.com in the
    future for the latest information on the PLAYSTATION 3 system. We appreciate your cooperation.
    …
    #############################

    Just a standard answer to install the newest firmware.

  • 2Three says:
    June 25th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

    Good old Sony!

    Customer service at it’s finest…

  • soulwarrior says:
    June 26th, 2008 at 4:38 am

    Just curious: how many visitors do come to this website?

  • 2Three says:
    June 26th, 2008 at 9:17 am

    Last month we clocked in between 34 - 3500 unique visitors.

  • soulwarrior says:
    June 27th, 2008 at 10:36 am

    Would you think it would make sense to start a petition asking for button remapping support at the firmware level?

  • 2Three says:
    June 27th, 2008 at 11:44 am

    This may be a good place to do that:

    http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board?board.id=ps3

    And we could perhaps get support from other Playstation gamers there as well.

    I’m not a member there though, as I personally don’t have a PS3 so I’m not really sure how the petition could be worded to convey what you fellas are after with this firmware update.

    If you start a petition over there, please make sure that you say you are representing Alt-Controls.com! :) I’ll of course head over to lend my support and put a posting here about it as well to (hopefully) rally the troops, so to speak.

  • soulwarrior says:
    June 28th, 2008 at 12:24 am

    Done ;-)

    http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3&thread.id=3021434

    I do not own a PS3 myself yet. I was thinking about buying one and Metal Gear Solid would have been a “good” reason but the again no customizable controls :-(

    Still pondering if the upgrade of my PC wouldn’t be a better option. Now that ATI brought out the affordable HD4850 this has again become an option.

  • 2Three says:
    June 28th, 2008 at 8:40 am

    Good job.

    ‘ Get used to the game controls and have a fun time experience that game. ‘

    Classic response… some people just don’t get it do they??

  • soulwarrior says:
    June 29th, 2008 at 1:03 am

    True:
    Why should I adapt to a technical thing when the technical thing could easily be adapted to me.

    I also don’t go to a restaurent and get served every time the same meal just because 70% do eat this meal, lol

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