It’s been some time since I posted. I know, shame on me. But every once in a while, something simply makes me “cranky”. This is one of those “once in a whiles”.
Seems the CEO of Casual Collective, Will Harbin found it appropriate to tell a customer of one of the companies games to “bugger off” when they gave the game a 1 star review and voiced their displeasure in the way company employees were “playing” the game.
For as long as the thread exists, you can read it here…
Will Harbin – the CEO of Casual collective thinks I should bugger off
What followed is what really made me “cranky”. Mr Harbin continued to taunt members on their forum with posts like…
Wah wah wah. Here is your chance to take me down, I’m at 142, 55
Link to Capture
But it doesn’t stop there either. That customer was subsequently banned from their forum, and mocked by employees after the ban and after the thread was locked with posts like…
Will has commanded me to agree with him!
Link to Capture
My message to Will Harbin… Show some class and man up.
UPDATE 02-10-2011… As I kind of suspected, the thread and posts have been deleted. So, below I’ve added screen captures of what I linked to that was deleted.
Additionally, Casual Collective CEO Will Harbin added a “rules sticky” this morning and announced that a forum moderator would be arriving soon. Great! Fantastic! Anyone who spent time on the forum knew that rules and moderation was sorely needed.
I want to share an excerpt from those rules…
If you don’t like us or our games, why are you here? Stop wasting our time and yours if you don’t have something positive to contribute.
So beware. If you’ve nothing positive to say, don’t bother saying anything at all.
The kick in the teeth is that he (Will) banned one of the oldest forum members (the same person he told to bugger off)… A faithful paying customer who had been in good standing since the beginning of the forum for disagreeing that he was being insulting.
I read the thread that was ultimately closed. It is interesting to note, that the term ‘Bugger Off’ was used. Since in British usage, the term ‘Bugger’ refers to being F’d in the anus – usually man on man. So in essence the CEO of this company told a paying player to ‘Go F’ yourself in the arse’.
Not exactly a man with great ambitions or someone who could guide a growing company through the hiccups of expansion. No wonder nothing gets done on Casual Collective Games – especially after they start putting time, extras, ect. available for fees. Also, the Company seems to enjoy catering to the young, demanding a foolish who are not able to sustain a prolonged game play wherein cold hard cash is involved. They enjoy alienating the people who should be treated with respect … the same ones that have been lining their pockets for years. I see Casual Collective as a spot in the FaceBook cookie cutter collection – lost and wandering, unable to go anywhere besides FB or their own meager website.
Looks like some one could use a class customer relations.. Or at the very least, a class in business 101 : Don’t piss on your customers.. They tend to gang up on you when you do..
WTF is a CEO doing moderating a forum anyways? Especially when he’s such a dick about it… His PR skills are, on a scale of 1 to 10, somewhere about -5. Doesn’t he have anything better to do than harass the player base, informing them that if they complain, they will be banned? He’s got a mega chip on his shoulder and he’s nothing more than a forum nazi. Probably he’s just mad cause got his ass kicked a lot in school. Most internet tough guys are like that
Will Harbin has as much business running the Casual Collective as Obama has being president.
I believe he needs to go back to prison and serve as some bald Nazis bitch.
Well, I don’t fault Will Harbin or David Scott for trying to “moderate” their forum. I do find fault in how they’re attempting to do it.
It’s not difficult to establish a proper set of forum rules and find experienced moderators. Time consuming… yes. Necessary… yes. Difficult… no.
Will Harbin killed a lot of good games he had on his website because he wants to gear Kixeye(casual collective was a much better name) towards there 3 face book games. Another bad decision.
I agree with your opinion of the name change antnoob. And their “About” page speaks volumes.
“…it’s time to blow stuff up!”
While the “short attention span theater crowd” may like that approach, it’s certainly not what “hardcore gamers” usually look for.
Well, last night a friend of mine got banned because he was telling the truth about kixeye in comms. So they take their childish behave to another level…
If you guys are whining about stuff only kids are whining about then suck it up. Who cares if he told him to bugger off, grow up it was used sarcastically. Falcon do you really think that they would let a player more or less Harass them, depending on what he said, enjoy the game without having to think every company owning a game is evil.
Hi Bob
Will Harbin is a company executive. Doesn’t matter what the product is or the audience it is geared to. I am a business owner and if any of my staff behaved in such a manner they’d not have the opportunity to do it a second time.
CrankyDave, If players find out that they were attacked by some devs, they will automatically accuse them of hacking. Im not saying that they devs would not do anything that was more or else unfair, but devs are better because they made the game and they know the weaknesses to units. Do you really think Harbin will tell his staff they cant play, just because ppl complain when they get owned after they attacked them.
Bob,
If we do not think of Harbin as the CEO of games but as a company’s director, and that director just told a customer that is a constant patron of the company to “bugger off”, would you be as simpathetic as you are at the company executive? what if the person told to bugger off was you? Would you still voice your opinion as you have voiced as now? I don’t think anyone could do that. I mean imagine Tim Cook (CEO of Apple Inc.) told a private school’s head master to bugger off just because he thought apple computers suck. I would think that that is an unacceptable thing to do no matter what kind of company the guy owns.