MAX2 QA ... or the story of Kwah...

Thur, July 23, high noon Pacific time (that is 12:00pm to you): Still no new patch. But we do have the following breaking story:

MAX2 was originally OK'd for release by the QA department (names and EMail addresses to follow ... stay tuned!).

First ... get the pronounciation right!  QA is pronounced Coo-Wah ... which you must say FAST ... kind of like Kwah.

OK, now you are ready for the rest of the story...

It seems that the QA group thought that QA meant Quick Approval, so they signed off on MAX2 for release on June 19.

Well, that went over real well (the programmers wanted 6 more months before the game would be ready for release!) So, they then became the "new" QA department ... Qué Amigos (or, what friends?)

They didn't like this so they changed it to Quit Answering (EMail and Phone Calls that is).

Today they became the Quit Asking group ("you want your patch approved when? Ha Ha Ha Ha").

So who are these secret QA people (Kwah People)? Glad you asked. Here is the list as we know it:

Please let me know if any of the above in inaccurate (I think it is Quite Accurate myself ... but we should try to eliminate any errors in this list -- I would hate to be referred to as Questionably Accurate!). You may wish to send them an EMail asking any QA question you have (QA really stands for Quality Assurance ... so you might ask them to define the words Quality and Assurance).

Seriously ... I heard that Interplay has JUST gone public (that means they strive to do well for their shareholders -- NOT the customers, us!) ... and since it is a public company, we should be allowed to write to them, right? Oh ... in case anyone out there is planning on buying some Interplay Stock, it is listed on the NASDAQ, ticker symbol IPLY. If you are a stockholder you get to go to their annual meetings, right?

Speaking of PUBLIC COMPANY, in case you are interested, I have found out who the "principals" of the company are (no ... they are not elementary school principals):

And just in case you couldn't figure it out ... the QA story is just HUMOR ... you are supposed to LAUGH ... ha ha ha ha (or is qa qa qa qa)!

However, the names have NOT been changed and should be accurrate (I have written to every one of them personally already and only recieved ONE "undelivered" message ... and I fixed the EMail address for that one so they should be 100% correct now). And you can relax ... none of this information is confidential or secret. I found it all published on Interplay's own website and the MAX2 manual (plus the EMail address for everyone at Interplay is the person's first initial followed by their last name @interplay.com).

You know what to do with the EMail addresses (cut and paste works well, that is how I got them into my EMail Address book after I typed them in here) ... add a CC: to CaptComal@hotmail.com please -- AND MOST IMPORTANT -- if you write to them, please ask them to have ALLIANCES put in to MAX2 as they ADVERTISED! Chris told me that MAX2 ALLIANCES are completely designed already ... they only need to be coded! And they have already said that it could be done in a Patch! If you get any replies, I would love to see them ... forward them please. As for me, I have not received any replies yet (but it has only been a couple hours since I sent my EMails.)

REMINDER: When writing to Interplay to report MAX2 BUGS or CRASHES or PECULIARITIES or FEATURES or LACK THERE-OF, do not send them to any of the addresses in the charts above. Always send BUG and CRASH and PECULIARITIES and FEATURES (or lack there-of) EMail as follows:

TO:    max2@interplay.com
CC:    CaptComal@hotmail.com

It helps them if you attach the SAVE GAME file (save10.xxx) for the game that crashed. It is SAVE10.MLT for multiplayer games.

Finally, as usual, I will keep watch and let you know when it is safe to try to play MAX2 again. - CaptComal