ER: An Opinion
By Ladybird
Now, don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy the game. I play it daily, love foaling season, and cheer when my pixilated ponies win an event (which, unfortunately, isn’t often). That being said, I do not plan on renewing my account come July.
Most of it is honestly just that I have my own business to run, and I can’t justify the time spent. Having a foreman and trainers is a drain on my account financially, and I can’t wake up every night at midnight to do ranch reports myself, so I don’t show as much as I should.
The economy is a bit harsh, as well. Prices are good, don’t get me wrong, but its very, very, very difficult for me to sell a horse that isn’t a well known breed, even if it has 8’s in the bottom. I usually just end up rehoming horses that don’t fit the bill quite right. This is also tough on the old pocket book.
It seems that the best way to get cash in the game is to win futurities. This doesn’t help when you can’t afford the nomination fee for every foal, and you don’t know quite enough to judge which one is worth it. Not to mention horses get injured quite often. I can understand working racehorses and the like getting injured fairly frequently, but foals shouldn’t be getting some of these injuries so often. I am horse stupid, I admit, but would a real foal get cracked hooves twice in a row from being halter trained?
Another thing I hear people bitch about a lot is pictures, but I disagree. I actually like the pictures. Granted, it’s a bit weird that my Arabian looks exactly like my Miniature horse, but they actually bothered to color every single pattern in and I respect that kind of work. I wouldn’t mind more realistic pictures, but I’m not going to put it down for not being perfect.
I am a wee bit disappointed that breed bonuses got taken away, but it’s not like I win anyway, so that isn’t a big deal either.
Now, I highly enjoy the fact that death is now a part of the game. If I had a choice, I would have notification if the horse is going downhill so I could choose to euthanize it if I wanted, but I love this feature and that’s that.
Ok, this is what everyone who reads this blog really wants to read about, the illustrious owner of ER, Branik.
Now, to be perfectly honest, I don’t like her, but I am not going to sit here and nitpick her in public. It’s my private opinion. But how do I think about her management of the game?
Customer service. That’s a biggie. Now, my personal experience with her hasn’t been bad. I’ve sent in tickets, and they were answered within 24 hours, in a crisp, businesslike manner. You can’t exactly be overly polite with hundreds of questions to answer, and that’s fine. I don’t want to chat over tea, I just want an answer to my ticket and that’s exactly what I got. So my personal experience with ER customer service was good.
But as I can’t help but see, that hasn’t been the case for everybody. There have been accusations that tickets have been answered in vulgarity and rudeness. Although this is understandable (there ARE incredibly stupid questions, you know), I personally don’t feel this is acceptable. If I ran a game, and I got a stupid, rude, or purposefully inflammatory question, I would bitch about it to myself (out-loud, speaking, not typing it on the internet), and then type back a perfectly cheery response. Inflammatory people just want to cause trouble, and when you lash back they get what they want. It’s much more fun to put them on ice. And there are ALWAYS going to be stupid questions, which is why I personally would have a little set of stock answers (for example: Please see to the help files! LINK) that I could copy, paste, send, and be done with. It isn’t worth the stress. If you run a business, you need to act business like no matter how many dicks try to piss on you.
Now, rule breaking. Although I like the convicted cheater banner, I don’t like the idea of the news blotter. Sometimes, people make mistakes, we are only human. Shit happens. Dish out punishment, don’t put them in stocks and hand other players tomatoes. Its rude and uncalled for.
So, to my point!
ER isn’t a bad game. Branik had a good idea, and managed to put it together rather well. But her attitude has been off-putting for many players, and again that is unacceptable. Many of these players are children. Children need a role model, preferably one who is fair and unbiased, doesn’t use vulgarity, doesn’t belittle people, and someone they can look up to. Branik has apparently been this person for some players, and that is completely fine. I am glad that they have someone to talk to and confide in. BUT for the most part, its driving people away.
So should you play it? You can try it. It’s a fun game. Just watch where you tread.
4 comments:
i pretty much agree with all of this too.
re: injuries, i feel they're a bit excessive in frequency. it's off-putting and frustrating when you've got a ranch full of injured horses you can't do anything with, despite doing everything possible to minimize them(current vetting, keeping them shod, keeping them on the highest feed available).
re: selling horses, this is another area where things have become difficult, even with "popular" breeds. i rarely bother to try and sell anything i don't want anymore, i just rehome them, because the chances anyone will buy are very low. i often wonder why that is, but then again, i also rarely buy horses from other players, so maybe more players than not are like me in that regard.
re: pictures, i do wish people would lay off about them. i think they're just fine, and i know branik put an incredible amount of work in to them. having "types" to correspond better with the breeds would be very nice, though not necessary IMO. then again, as i mentioned in another comment, i am one of the few who doesn't care much about the pictures either way. there was a time when there were NO pictures. isn't something better than nothing?
re: general interactions, i also have never had a personal negative experience with either branik or jim. both have been perfectly pleasant/polite in any exchanges i've had with them. but it is branik's interactions with others, the ones she makes so very public, that bother me greatly. i thought her blog was interesting at first, but now i feel like the majority of these issues should have been dealt with privately and remained private between the parties involved. the uncalled for public humiliation of jim_craig is the one that stands out the most.
re: branik being a "role model", i certainly wish she wouldn't attempt this, since all she's teaching to many of these children is that it's perfectly okay to whip out the big guns over the most minor events and bully others in to submission. having control issues isn't something to aspire to. besides which, they are not her children and it is not her responsibility to somehow educate them on life. that is the function of their parents. it seems like she's burdening herself more than necessary(which perhaps adds to her stress levels?).
Ladybird makes some good points, all of which I agree with.
It all boils down to, if you want to play that game, you are on your own. Don't bother going to the forums, filing a support ticket, or heaven forbid asking anyone anything in chat. The help/faq files are sometimes contradictory or in many cases, simply missing.
And whatever you do, stay away from the blog of the owner. If you do not agree 100% with what she posts, you are just asking to be attacked.
I have never seen such immaturity in my life as is displayed there. I don't understand why this person feels such an overwhelming need to post stuff like that publicly. Venting is supposed to be done in private. She's turned humilation into a free-for-all over there, and it's just appalling.
Whatever her medical problems may be, I highly doubt what she is doing has improved her health in the least/ That much vitriol and hatred has got to be bad for anyone.
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