Nog even over TTR: Phats is er mee gestopt...
edit: Zal het verhaaltje hier ook even neer plempen
By TTR Virus:
I put this up, not in disrespect of Phat's and his wishes, but to clear up the stories and shine a light on all the crap that has gone on behind the scenes of these tournaments. These are Phat's own word about why it has all come halting to a stop.
"What has TTR done to deserve such impositions and restraints imposed on it by the UK Microsoft PR team? Nothing! Sadly Robin Burrows, Mark Dawson and Stephen McGill of the Microsoft UK PR team think otherwise. So this is how Microsoft PR team treat the XBL community when it questions why, why and why! One of the worst examples of corporate bullying. Lets all try to remember that without the community Xbox Live is nothing.
I was going to leave TTR this year to spend more time with my family but I did not want to leave like this. The following is an outline of what has happened over the past year or so and is for your eyes only in order to allow you guys to see what has been going on. Its been great knowing you all and I wish you every success for the future and please understand that these last few weeks have been some of the most difficult in my life and I sincerely wish that things could have worked out for the better.
Due to circumstances out of our control TTR has been forced to close as a direct result of the Microsoft UK PR team for forcing restrictions on what Microsoft partners can talk to TTR - in a word non. And what is the crime for such restrictions NONE... Only that the UK PR team cannot take any form of criticism for their organisational incompetence. The persons we have dealt with in the UK at Microsoft are Robin Burrows, Mark Dawson and Stephen McGill. It was a direct result of Stephen McGill's totalitarian actions that TTR found its self unable to carry on forcing extreme conditions on TTR. Stephen McGill was asked to provide a formal response for his actions and his response was he did not have to give one - such arrogance... underlining a totalitarian PR response... you may wonder why Microsoft employee such bullies! Surly if they had nothing to hide they would come clean with why they had taken such over the top action... was little TTR such a threat to the Microsoft's UK PR team's empire. This is supposed to be a gaming network yet these people that run the public relations for Microsoft take matters a little to far and have way too much power. Power hungry and trigger happy. This problem is not with Microsoft but the people that run these way over the top powerful departments that cannot take valid criticism for their blunders.
Each time we have contacted Microsoft UK PR team we have done so in a constructive fashion. Truth is the UK PR team do not like it when you criticise them and subtly point out their incompetence and there is much of this. To date they have not accepted any criticism and in return rather than act like responsible mature adults and accept valid criticism about their conduct in the community they close the door on you - Such arrogance. Here are some of the constructive points we have raised with Microsoft and why I believe they have taken this over the top action:
The UK Forza Challenge - We complained to Robin Burrows at Microsoft UK PR team in a productive manner about how unprofessional the event was run. Don’t forget guys we had 7 TTR members that finished in the top 7 places so who better to advise Microsoft about the weaknesses at the event. There response... didn’t care didn’t want to know! Microsoft employees onsite, including Robin Burrows, were asking 7 TTR members who attended the event how they connect Xboxes together! This is how bad it was run. No rules or guides were in place and this meant some drivers used the racing line while others did not simply because they did not know. Nobody could hear the sound because it was in a busy Virgin music store! No headphones were provided! Robin Burrows was onsite at this event and despite the 7 TTR members that took part his response was he thought the whole event was a success thus he was unwilling to accept any criticism to help Microsoft in future events. There is a huge arrogance and incompetence generated from this office. Lets not forget it took Robin Burrows months to get some games to Dunky... and Plums car was if I recall correctly almost 6 months late!
The PGR100 - Two of our members were rammed off the track by the dirtiest racer on XBL, namely, MaX PL. Speedracer was voted No1 PGR3 player by Bizarre Creations and Chompr is a machine and would have easily made it to the finals but sadly both were rammed into the barrier by the same dirty racer. On complaining to the Race Director at Microsoft, namely, Darren Trencher, we were advised that they wanted the community to decide what action to take. Naturally the video footage was obvious but more importantly Max PL even confessed to racing dirty and posted his confession on Microsoft's own website xbox.com. You would have thought with this shocking evidence that Max PL would have been banned and we all know what the community said. So what did Microsoft do? They claimed the community was in favour of Max PL and allowed him to stay yet the evidence was overwhelming and said quite the opposite. By allowing this Darren Trencher basically endorsed dirty racing in the community.
- on top of this many of our members won so many prizes and nothing was done not just for a few weeks but months so on their behalf I contacted Robin Burrows who passed me onto the Xbox Online Manager namely a Mr Mark Dawson at Microsoft PR team in the UK and expressed concern that TTR plumsaround had not received his black 360. At first Dawson took a while to respond but he did eventually. I have never dealt with such nonsense... I was told by Dawson that he was doing us a favour in trying to resolve this mater... rather than apologise to Plums... again such arrogance from this office! This was the most difficult person I have dealt with at Microsoft and I felt that it was just one excuse after another. Dawson said that he did not want to deal with me and claimed he was doing me a favour by trying to find an Xbox for Plums - doing me a favour - hang on wasn’t this the online manager! But isn't this guy supposed to be from the UK 'public relations' team... isn't it his job to do this not try to make community members feel guilty that he is doing the job at Microsoft he was employed to do! A complaint was sent to Microsoft yet sadly instead of actually taking the complaint seriously the big power house UK PR team said they no longer wanted to deal with me! Stephen McGill (Head of Gaming & Entertainment) telephoned me and informed me of this whilst I was on loud speaker - I could hear Dawson childishly laughing in the background which just underlined how immature this office was being run. My experience with this department proved to me that too much power in the wrong hands is a bad thing moreover this office was not willing to accept responsibility for so much incompetence and as a result closed the door on us. Up until dealing with Mark Dawson our relationship with Microsoft was OK. Sadly Dawson took matters a little to personal and telephoned me at work and shouted at me over an email I sent to MGS about several issues one was for TTR to help promote FM2 at the worlds largest motor show and the other criticising the UK PR team and the UK Forza challenge. You would have thought by now that the UK PR team got the message that they are just totally incompetent but alas no... so what did they do... act professionally and resolve the matter directly with us... come up with some constructive points in order to make sure events in the future were run better... no they stopped all Microsoft departments and partners talking with us underlining total incompetence and such arrogance. A professional organisation would take due criticism and want to try to make amends but these guys cant take any form of criticism so they stop all communication hoping that we will go away... all this from a Microsoft public relations team!
The WCG - This is supposed to be the no.1 event to find the best player in the world at any particular game yet how can this be when some countries, for example Italy, were to send 3 contestants, some 2 and others just one like the USA. This was pointed out to the WCG which was in turn passed to Microsoft.
Major Nelson (AKA: Larry Hryb Director of Programming for Xbox Live) has been contacted on so many occasions like matters were gamers are found harassing our members for creating offensive gamertags etc. Larry was contacted over the ridiculous actions which Stephen McGill put in place but sadly he did not want to get involved again underlining the power the UK PR team have over Microsoft.
UK OXM Mag - In a word a joke. It was great that we appeared in the magazine but it was supposed to be a rolling interview. The rolling interview turned into video footage of TTR supposedly on 'our weekly training' sessions - we have never had a weekly training session and were not informed that this was going to be portrayed as such by OXM MONOBROW, the OXM reporter. We were not consulted at any stage about these change of plans or ideas for the interview. Microsoft were criticised in the interview but this was edited out. The magazine in merely an extension of Microsoft sales so what people are buying is promotional pictures and ideas rather than independent editorial pieces.
I am not prepared to operate under these impositions or restraints imposed on us by the UK PR team. I offered to leave TTR if they removed these outrageous impositions or restraints but Stephen McGill failed to respond and sadly Major Nelson did not want to get involved underlining the obvious. So things could have worked out but Microsoft UK PR team did not want them to. In place of accepting due criticism and working with us Microsoft simply don’t care. They want to deal with people on their own terms and conditions. I will not sit back and allow other teams to prosper for our hard work while Microsoft yank our chain - you are slaves to no one. Clearly Xbox Live should be an independent service governed by independent bodies because Microsoft want us all to believe that the system is fair. Self policing in the XBL community does not work and to word it as such is an insult to you all. On top of this Microsoft have licence agreements with all game developers and bully them into talking to only who they want. They way the UK PR team are allowed to work borders on fascism... Do as we say or else. Just like to OXM magazine the whole system is joke!
There are other points that should also be mentioned but most of you are aware of them. In a word Microsoft UK PR team are nothing more than corporate bullies... TTR is no threat to the giant... these guys want to work with guys that suck up to them and not tell them how it is. Their arrogance and incompetence is unacceptable.
I am deeply sorry guys that this has happened but I see no other way for us. Take pride in the fact that you were all in the 1st pro racing team. We pioneered so may things yet the arrogance of the Microsoft UK PR team will not let us move forward."
My other goal in posting this is to get awareness out on these types of situations in hopes that the community will step in to prevent these things from happening again. With a strong community backing we can get things ran the way they should be.
-ViRuS
