I''m fairly new to these boards, so forgive the anon.

I have, however, managed to catch the Crystal threads in the past few days.

First, I didn''t see Nicole''s post as particularly inflamatory. She/he stated an opinion and people responded. It''s what public discussion is for. Good and bad, it starts conversation. Now, if her facts are in error, then she''ll loose credibility. Done deal.

Second, I''m found Crystal''s response to her posts a bit insulting. In particular:

"I''d like to point out that Bill Gates also has to go to the bathroom once in a while and that President bush probably enjoys shopping with Mrs. Bush at their local supermarket. You don''t go telling Bill Gates that he should not "waste his time" by going to the bathroom or call Mr. Bush a fraud when he walks up to the checkout counter... They might even be reading this message board for all I care!!!"


From what little I''ve seen from Crystal, I would strongly recommend you hire a public liason. You often don''t responde with any objectivity or constructive retorts. They''re emotional and often inflamatory. Personally, think anyone who describes an open forum for discussion and learning a "bathroom" lends credence to Nicole''s statements.

My advice, Alex, would be to seriously consider delegating public announcements about your company to someone who is a bit more objective and less emotionally tied into your company. Having had my own companies in the past I know the feeling, but your responses aren''t aiding your image to any extent.

][nterim.

Talk about knit-picking.
Did you even read his post?

If you did, it doesn''t show in the use of his quote in that context.

You have to be looking for trouble to find any trouble in his posted apology.

Well, this situation works both ways:

Bad: Say Crystal Interactive wasn''t this bad entity that some people are saying. Alex has now been pushed off of this board because of all the critiscm. This could be a bad thing for the many people aiming to get into the industry, especially with games published and such.

Good: What about it Nicole and the others are right? What if Crystal does rip off people? Well the non-believers will find out the hard way just how dodgy this industry can be and believe me whether Alex is or not, there are some bad people out there.....


I really think that CI should have stayed around though and continued to try to clear their name (if it can be cleared). After all, everyone who reads this ask yourself this questions:

If I have a company and people are slagging it off and possibly affecting our reputation, would I want to prove them wrong?

I know I would. I know they don''t have to, but why didn''t they publish figures on Trax here? If you can get the figures publically anyway (which you can), why not?


You can read what you like into the above points, but I myself did a little investigating on Crystal-Interactive and I''m happy that I know the truth (or at least content on whether or not I''ll be sending anything out to them), although I''m not printing what I think I know here......I''d rather let people learn the Hard way or the easy way, as the case may be, rather than be flamed.....


BTW I wasn''t impressed with the guy pretending to be the creator of Trax appearing on this board a while ago trying to back up the claims that he was happy.........(whether the real creator is happy or not).

Hi

I''ve been following CI for a while now, and I can understand why people think they would rip you off. Back then, CI had a bad webpage, didn''t look professional at all. That''s not something what you can trust right? But look, they''ve changed their website, and I haven''t seen anybody being ripped off. CI gives you $1 per copy, and they say they sell about 100000 copies for an ok game, because of the sponatnious buying thing. I think that''s a good market to go for when you''re small.. $1 of $20 bucks is not much, only 5%... BUT can you find a publisher that will publish you''re crappy game? think not.. not for 30-40%..

Anyway, when I''m finished with my game, I''ll look into CI aswell as other publishers...


That''s it for today, gotto wrap up
cheers

whooooo slow down JRZ.

$1 per game sold, 100,000 copies? Is that a typo or do you really think that an "ok" game will sell that much (I understand that is CI''s estimate, but you quoted it), even if CI, or whatever company you are dealing with, have distribution among shops..............

Just because they have a good website and promise this, don''t rush in, you said you are looking at other publishers also, that is a smart move.


I would look into how many copies a ''ok'' game through a big publisher sells, then see the comparison, quite frankly this boast by CI really has made me more suspicious now.......


Didn''t Alex appear on these boards recently and say Trax had sold around 1,600 copies? hasn''t that been about for a while? I wonder if similar boasts were made there........