Guild Wars 2

Branden Gee.2150:

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

I think, without noticing it, you pretty much described what’s wrong with ANet. xD

Every time in the past, when ANet tried to give us the potato of our dreams, we did end up with something completlely unexpected.
But it wasn’t better.

If I say, I want a potato and you are willing to give me one, don’t try to give me what you think, might be even better. Just give me that freakin’ potato.
Don’t try to give me instead some stupid level 5 vegan bullkitten, some bioengeneered tofu-potatoe-replacement.
Just. Give. Me. That. Potato.

Can you guys fix the evade frame discrepancy that was introduced a couple patches ago, the number of people getting immobed then dodge rolling away, or eating basi venom while half way through a dodge roll or taking damage while evading with thief 3 skills is ridiculous now.

I was dueling my friend engy vs thief last night and about half the time when I used 3 to dodge a nade or rifle skill (which is really really easy to dodge) I would be hit mid animation, twice in 10 duels he got stunned by basi venom and he was stuck in the air doing a jump dodge (body curled upside down floating in the air), it is just way too ridiculous now :/

The only problem is that you never told us 1) That we’re getting any potato related material 2) That you’re even in the kitchen.
We came to this lack of understanding at this point is because we were expecting potato, even raw one at that, but as we ask you about it, you can’t answer because you’re out in Chinese Restaurant.
Before you went out you fixed up a dish. It needed some salt and pepper, maybe some other spices, but they’re nowhere to be found.
So as we eat this under-prepared meal, we are waiting for that potato to come along.

#wheresmysaltandpepper

Just give me the darn potatoe, I’m hungry darnit!

We should change the profanity filter from kitten to potatoes now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scope_creep

Branden Gee.2150:

Elrey.5472:

Call me crazy, but I do believe some info about the next update, even if it’s just “hey, we’ll give you a potato in 4 weeks” would calm down the people impatience… such is the gw2 community hunger.

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

It often happens that a mashed potato with gravy is even better still, unfortunately gravy requires more dev time. So we end up shipping a mashed potato without gravy to meet our promise of ship time or we push back the time and date of when we are shipping again and again. You get your mashed potato with gravy but it is delivered much later than it was expected.

Worst of all that is when we realize that potatoes are way too mainstream and that yams are where it’s at now. And I think we all know how reactions seem to go when we ship yams instead of potatoes.

So in a lot of cases the best we can do is tell you that we are still in the kitchen cooking things up, we’re reading your feedback, and that we’re excited to get the meal out to you soon™.

This, Sir, is epic. I did completely understand what you mean, but it was also epic fun to read it. Nevertheless, the announcement of the four winds festival is exactly what i asked for and it really makes me happy. We got our potatoe, even if we don’t know how it’ll be.

Mixed emotions here.

That was a really nice write up Mr. Gee and I really appreaciate the explination but at the same time I have to wonder if we couldnt have gotten a little more notice. Using this current release as an example, why would it have hurt to tell us “we have some new content coming for you before the end of the month” Something simple like that contains no spoilers and doesnt give a specific date. So we dont know if were getting potatoes or yams and we dont know exactly when dinner will be but what we do know is that the table has at least been set.

As it stands, its like we’ve been off playing in the mud (other games) and you have told us dinner is in 15 minutes. It would be nice to have time to take a shower and put on some nice clothes (farm some gold, finish up achievments in WvW, get that balthy backpiece) before dinner.

Branden Gee.2150:

Elrey.5472:

Call me crazy, but I do believe some info about the next update, even if it’s just “hey, we’ll give you a potato in 4 weeks” would calm down the people impatience… such is the gw2 community hunger.

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

It often happens that a mashed potato with gravy is even better still, unfortunately gravy requires more dev time. So we end up shipping a mashed potato without gravy to meet our promise of ship time or we push back the time and date of when we are shipping again and again. You get your mashed potato with gravy but it is delivered much later than it was expected.

Worst of all that is when we realize that potatoes are way too mainstream and that yams are where it’s at now. And I think we all know how reactions seem to go when we ship yams instead of potatoes.

So in a lot of cases the best we can do is tell you that we are still in the kitchen cooking things up, we’re reading your feedback, and that we’re excited to get the meal out to you soon™.

What about the players who don’t like mashed potatoes with gravy? What about the ones that like buttered potatoes with salt, pepper, and dressing? What about those that like parcely potatoes? And are we talking regular potatoes or red potatoes? What about purple potatoes?

THIS IS THE INFO WE NEED!

Ppl need to stop whining.. i would rather have devs working on content/bugs etc etc.. then to waste their time on the forums answering stupid threads like this one. I dont think your little complaining threads are that important that it needs to be seen by devs, let alone be answered by devs. Stop QQing and start playing !!

Branden Gee.2150:

Elrey.5472:

Call me crazy, but I do believe some info about the next update, even if it’s just “hey, we’ll give you a potato in 4 weeks” would calm down the people impatience… such is the gw2 community hunger.

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

It often happens that a mashed potato with gravy is even better still, unfortunately gravy requires more dev time. So we end up shipping a mashed potato without gravy to meet our promise of ship time or we push back the time and date of when we are shipping again and again. You get your mashed potato with gravy but it is delivered much later than it was expected.

Worst of all that is when we realize that potatoes are way too mainstream and that yams are where it’s at now. And I think we all know how reactions seem to go when we ship yams instead of potatoes.

So in a lot of cases the best we can do is tell you that we are still in the kitchen cooking things up, we’re reading your feedback, and that we’re excited to get the meal out to you soon™.

So what you are saying is, the feature patch was a potato with ants on it?

PoembaNL.7530:

Ppl need to stop whining.. i would rather have devs working on content/bugs etc etc.. then to waste their time on the forums answering stupid threads like this one. I dont think your little complaining threads are that important that it needs to be seen by devs, let alone be answered by devs. Stop QQing and start playing !!

Do see the topic title and 1st post?

And why should not complain about smt that is broken? How can i play when most of the games are 4v5? How can i play when i am getting pve heros going for thier daily and stay afk whole game? How can i play when i am getting skyhammer every 3rd map with engis playing me like pinpong ball? I have the right and i have the arguments to complain.

i hunger for fried potatoes now <3

dulfy.1493:

We should change the profanity filter from kitten to potatoes now.

potatoes yeah!
I’d be potatoesing all over that!

Branden Gee.2150:

Elrey.5472:

Call me crazy, but I do believe some info about the next update, even if it’s just “hey, we’ll give you a potato in 4 weeks” would calm down the people impatience… such is the gw2 community hunger.

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

It often happens that a mashed potato with gravy is even better still, unfortunately gravy requires more dev time. So we end up shipping a mashed potato without gravy to meet our promise of ship time or we push back the time and date of when we are shipping again and again. You get your mashed potato with gravy but it is delivered much later than it was expected.

Worst of all that is when we realize that potatoes are way too mainstream and that yams are where it’s at now. And I think we all know how reactions seem to go when we ship yams instead of potatoes.

So in a lot of cases the best we can do is tell you that we are still in the kitchen cooking things up, we’re reading your feedback, and that we’re excited to get the meal out to you soon™.

If you have any extra potatoes left over, please deliver some to the WvW forum at your earliest convenience. We’re a resourceful bunch and can use our ever-growing supply of torches and pitchforks to bake and mash our own potatoes if/when they ever arrive, but unfortunately Mark keeps slapping our hands every time we reach for the plate.

PoembaNL.7530:

Ppl need to stop whining.. i would rather have devs working on content/bugs etc etc.. then to waste their time on the forums answering stupid threads like this one. I dont think your little complaining threads are that important that it needs to be seen by devs, let alone be answered by devs. Stop QQing and start playing !!

The issue is that devs overall seem to not understand at all what is being said in the forums, and that is the easiest way to find out things that are happening. Examples? Multiple times have there been bugs for months that were completely unrecognized by the development team, in fact at least once there was a case of a skill being severely nerfed without a patch note, and the player base had no idea if it was a bug or nerf for 4 months because there was not a single dev post about it.

The reality is that a small team of devs just isn’t enough to understand every single part of the game, and so they need to utilize the forums (and other metrics), and actually show that they are using them when evidence shows otherwise.

I like yams.

Bhawb.7408:

PoembaNL.7530:

Ppl need to stop whining.. i would rather have devs working on content/bugs etc etc.. then to waste their time on the forums answering stupid threads like this one. I dont think your little complaining threads are that important that it needs to be seen by devs, let alone be answered by devs. Stop QQing and start playing !!

The issue is that devs overall seem to not understand at all what is being said in the forums, and that is the easiest way to find out things that are happening. Examples? Multiple times have there been bugs for months that were completely unrecognized by the development team, in fact at least once there was a case of a skill being severely nerfed without a patch note, and the player base had no idea if it was a bug or nerf for 4 months because there was not a single dev post about it.

The reality is that a small team of devs just isn’t enough to understand every single part of the game, and so they need to utilize the forums (and other metrics), and actually show that they are using them when evidence shows otherwise.

You guys have it pretty nice over here. Back home, we’re not even allowed to discuss our potatoes.

Branden Gee.2150:

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

It often happens that a mashed potato with gravy is even better still, unfortunately gravy requires more dev time. So we end up shipping a mashed potato without gravy to meet our promise of ship time or we push back the time and date of when we are shipping again and again. You get your mashed potato with gravy but it is delivered much later than it was expected.

Worst of all that is when we realize that potatoes are way too mainstream and that yams are where it’s at now. And I think we all know how reactions seem to go when we ship yams instead of potatoes.

So in a lot of cases the best we can do is tell you that we are still in the kitchen cooking things up, we’re reading your feedback, and that we’re excited to get the meal out to you soon™.

You completely misunderstood. His was not a metaphor.
He meant “hey, we’ll give you a potato in 4 weeks” literally. So whenever there is an upcoming feature, just write “hey, we’ll give you a potato in 4 weeks” on the forum. Potato, yes. No hidden meanings.

Tamasan.6457:

Evan Lesh.3295:

Community team members are really helpful when relaying information back and forth between devs and players. ( Like Allie :’( )

Where are they?

I realize all the coders are busy with China. While I’m not thrilled that a huge patch was released and no one has any time for fixes or tweaks, I realize it happens.

But where are the community coordinators? I read the dev tracker every day. The only thing happening is that all feedback gets merged into the gargantuan feedback threads where there is no red name activity. It’s great that you’re reading the threads. But communication is two-way. Someone needs to step up and get involved in a discussion, because if we can’t see that happening, we have no way to know what’s going on, and we feel ignored. It’s 2014, the internet expects interaction, not passive silence.

Unfortunately Allie has left the team as seen in this thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Bowing-out I will miss her posts, between her and Gaile Grey, the forums were filled with red posts. Now if Gaile doesn’t post, we’re lucky to see more than 2 or 3 dev posts on any particular day. Sometimes it makes it seem like the devs don’t care. I just hope something big is being cooked up because I’m ready for new, permanent content.

I miss Ree Soesbee, she used to talk to me in game when I first started playing. She is a very nice person.

Branden Gee.2150:

Elrey.5472:

Call me crazy, but I do believe some info about the next update, even if it’s just “hey, we’ll give you a potato in 4 weeks” would calm down the people impatience… such is the gw2 community hunger.

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

It often happens that a mashed potato with gravy is even better still, unfortunately gravy requires more dev time. So we end up shipping a mashed potato without gravy to meet our promise of ship time or we push back the time and date of when we are shipping again and again. You get your mashed potato with gravy but it is delivered much later than it was expected.

Worst of all that is when we realize that potatoes are way too mainstream and that yams are where it’s at now. And I think we all know how reactions seem to go when we ship yams instead of potatoes.

So in a lot of cases the best we can do is tell you that we are still in the kitchen cooking things up, we’re reading your feedback, and that we’re excited to get the meal out to you soon™.

Where is my poutine in all of this?

It’s ok everyone, I’m here.

Romo.3709:

The only problem is that you never told us 1) That we’re getting any potato related material 2) That you’re even in the kitchen.
We came to this lack of understanding at this point is because we were expecting potato, even raw one at that, but as we ask you about it, you can’t answer because you’re out in Chinese Restaurant.
Before you went out you fixed up a dish. It needed some salt and pepper, maybe some other spices, but they’re nowhere to be found.
So as we eat this under-prepared meal, we are waiting for that potato to come along.

#wheresmysaltandpepper

This hit the nail on the head. In perfect analogy as well. Have a potato, sir.

Fox.3562:

It’s ok everyone, I’m here.

What does the Fox say?

Anywway… i think the problem Anet is facing is that they are way too much scared of leaked info or spoilers. Sometimes, the players we just need to know that something is happening, what it’s it doesn’t matter. You could say “this week i’ve done a test for an animation of a new possible legendary” and the next day say “we got a group coding a new building for WvsW” and then later on “remember that legendary? it won’t work, the design has been cancelled and we removed it”.

Those are just examples that, even if it could make us guess a lot of probably wrong assumptions, it would also help us to understand what it’s going on. Not knowing if you guys are on summer holidays or still worried about the game, or ignoring us and focus on the chinese population or… well, not knowing that happens? it’s the worst nightmare of a player.

So this 20th we are getting a microwaved leftover moldy potato with a dash of salt to spruce it up to try to make it more palatable (Festival of the Four Winds)… =/

Branden Gee.2150:

Elrey.5472:

Call me crazy, but I do believe some info about the next update, even if it’s just “hey, we’ll give you a potato in 4 weeks” would calm down the people impatience… such is the gw2 community hunger.

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

It often happens that a mashed potato with gravy is even better still, unfortunately gravy requires more dev time. So we end up shipping a mashed potato without gravy to meet our promise of ship time or we push back the time and date of when we are shipping again and again. You get your mashed potato with gravy but it is delivered much later than it was expected.

Worst of all that is when we realize that potatoes are way too mainstream and that yams are where it’s at now. And I think we all know how reactions seem to go when we ship yams instead of potatoes.

So in a lot of cases the best we can do is tell you that we are still in the kitchen cooking things up, we’re reading your feedback, and that we’re excited to get the meal out to you soon™.

Thanks for taking time to speak your mind, but i think it kind of shows the problem, you guys arent sure what you are going to end up with. I mean its consistent with an iterative process, but, I think you need to narrow your focus, and start with a more defined vision. You also need to commit to a course, and make it the best course possible, you can add to it, or create other things later, but you need to be able to follow through.

i think you guys have a lot of talent, and are fairly adaptable, but you also need a creative vision to focus that adaptability around providing the best solutions/design to fit the specifications of the situation.

TLDR, come up with a good idea, commit to it, follow through. oh, and tell people something to let them know whats on the horizon.

phys.7689:

Thanks for taking time to speak your mind, but i think it kind of shows the problem, you guys arent sure what you are going to end up with. I mean its consistent with an iterative process, but, I think you need to narrow your focus, and start with a more defined vision. You also need to commit to a course, and make it the best course possible, you can add to it, or create other things later, but you need to be able to follow through.

i think you guys have a lot of talent, and are fairly adaptable, but you also need a creative vision to focus that adaptability around providing the best solutions/design to fit the specifications of the situation.

TLDR, come up with a good idea, commit to it, follow through. oh, and tell people something to let them know whats on the horizon.

Fail Faster

Transparency is a good thing, but sticking with a design even if it turns out to be suboptimal isn’t always good. They are still trying to find the right balance on that.

Ascended cooking confirmed!
Invest heavily in potatoes and yams!

I’m hungry now.

Can we switch the analogy to something else?

Branden Gee.2150:

Elrey.5472:

Call me crazy, but I do believe some info about the next update, even if it’s just “hey, we’ll give you a potato in 4 weeks” would calm down the people impatience… such is the gw2 community hunger.

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

It often happens that a mashed potato with gravy is even better still, unfortunately gravy requires more dev time. So we end up shipping a mashed potato without gravy to meet our promise of ship time or we push back the time and date of when we are shipping again and again. You get your mashed potato with gravy but it is delivered much later than it was expected.

Worst of all that is when we realize that potatoes are way too mainstream and that yams are where it’s at now. And I think we all know how reactions seem to go when we ship yams instead of potatoes.

So in a lot of cases the best we can do is tell you that we are still in the kitchen cooking things up, we’re reading your feedback, and that we’re excited to get the meal out to you soon™.

Totally get it, but maybe some more trust in your community is warranted. What about saying “Hey, we’re cooking up a potato, how do you like it?”

Then as time goes by, “Hey! We realized potatoes suck now, do you still like them? How about a yam instead?”

All we’re asking is to be kept in the loop and to be acknowledged for ideas. Sure those that don’t like the way the potato or yam turned out will complain, but your faithful will help you explain or quiet them.

Trust in your community to help you guys out Everyone wants to know what’s for dinner before it’s served!

And in the meantime, we die of hunger and search for another potato joint.

I don’t want a yam or a potato, I want chili cheese fries.

I get the feeling most of the people on these forums aren’t actually asking for potatoes, they’re asking for attention and validation.

There are some hints of what they might be cooking up in the THIRDPARTYSOFTWAREREADME.txt file.

For example there are licenses for speex and opus. Both are audio codecs designed for VoIP. Also webm and h264 video encoding.

The weirdest one is probably gpsd but that is probably for the android app. Can’t imagine why anything GW2 related would care about GPS coordinates but maybe that is an indirect dependency.

Thing is though most of the time we don’t even get a glimpse of the gravy, let alone any potato.

Branden Gee.2150:

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

That is the problem right there. You guys are that waiter who argues with the customer. Then ends up giving me something I did not order. If I want a regular potato so I can make a Mr. Potatoface. Don’t, I repeat DO NOT give me a baked potato. And for the love of god don’t try to make it a loaded baked potato. I did not ask for this. I do not want this. I just wanted a potato.

On a side note props to responding to the thread. On the WvW forums we only get a red name if we necro one year old threads about updates that were suppose to get in the next 3-6 months. Ha.

Branden Gee.2150:

So in a lot of cases the best we can do is tell you that we are still in the kitchen cooking things up, we’re reading your feedback, and that we’re excited to get the meal out to you soon™.

Pity how, at the end of the day, all that is delivered are raw potatoes~

Branden Gee.2150:

snip

Full of win… your post is just full of win! TY

Branden Gee.2150:

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

It often happens that a mashed potato with gravy is even better still, unfortunately gravy requires more dev time. So we end up shipping a mashed potato without gravy to meet our promise of ship time or we push back the time and date of when we are shipping again and again. You get your mashed potato with gravy but it is delivered much later than it was expected.

Worst of all that is when we realize that potatoes are way too mainstream and that yams are where it’s at now. And I think we all know how reactions seem to go when we ship yams instead of potatoes.

So in a lot of cases the best we can do is tell you that we are still in the kitchen cooking things up, we’re reading your feedback, and that we’re excited to get the meal out to you soon™.

I hope we’re getting potatoes with the rest of the update now.

On a more serious note. If you’re planning on adding any new instruments, a violin would be wonderful.

Branden Gee.2150:

It often happens that a mashed potato with gravy is even better still, unfortunately gravy requires more dev time. So we end up shipping a mashed potato without gravy to meet our promise of ship time or we push back the time and date of when we are shipping again and again. You get your mashed potato with gravy but it is delivered much later than it was expected.

Do you now the saying “You have to shoot the developer to get the software out” ?

It means: A lot of software developers think that their software is never “finished” and always find something to make it different/better, so the project manager has to finally shoot the programmer to “finish” the software or the software would never be finished and shipped.

Greetings.

P.S. Do not shoot programmers. That is not meant to do in reality.

I’m kitten hungry now! :|

apheCS.7036:

I’m potato hungry now! :|

Fixed that for you.

People need to eat on a regular basis to remain healthy tho…

Another Red Post (4 of them) with 0 information in it.

Granted the potato post was somewhat funny, the continuous fluff postings just adds to the already overboard customer frustration, since almost every red post on the forums contains nothing of value at all.

Mashed potato and gravy is all fine and dandy, if that’s what the order is. If I order wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce, that’s what I expect to be made!

EverythingEnds.4261:

Branden Gee.2150:

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

I think, without noticing it, you pretty much described what’s wrong with ANet. xD

Every time in the past, when ANet tried to give us the potato of our dreams, we did end up with something completlely unexpected.
But it wasn’t better.

If I say, I want a potato and you are willing to give me one, don’t try to give me what you think, might be even better. Just give me that freakin’ potato.
Don’t try to give me instead some stupid level 5 vegan bullkitten, some bioengeneered tofu-potatoe-replacement.
Just. Give. Me. That. Potato.

I had bad day fighting warriors, this post made my day haven’t cracked up that hard in a while.

Level 5 vegan ahahahahahahah

All this talk about Potatoes just makes me think about Latvia.

While a baked potatoe may be better, a nice desert csn offset or even eliminate the dissatisfaction that a simple potatoe could cause. It is therefore important to be clear when serving the meal that there is indeed a desert prepared for after the meal, however the guests will get some time to let the main dish settle while the desert is being prepared to be served.

Stop trying to make a whole city in potatoes, we are hungry and just want french fries (served by Mina Sterling ) !

I like this analogy! Let’s run with it.

Branden Gee.2150:

Elrey.5472:

Call me crazy, but I do believe some info about the next update, even if it’s just “hey, we’ll give you a potato in 4 weeks” would calm down the people impatience… such is the gw2 community hunger.

While we’d love to give you a time and date of when we’re sending out the potato, remember that during the development process we may discover that a baked potato would be even better. So instead of getting the potato of your dreams you end up with something completely unexpected.

It often happens that a mashed potato with gravy is even better still, unfortunately gravy requires more dev time. So we end up shipping a mashed potato without gravy to meet our promise of ship time or we push back the time and date of when we are shipping again and again. You get your mashed potato with gravy but it is delivered much later than it was expected.

Worst of all that is when we realize that potatoes are way too mainstream and that yams are where it’s at now. And I think we all know how reactions seem to go when we ship yams instead of potatoes.

That right there is a problem (one of the many problems with the development and maintenance with this game). If I want a potato, give me a potato, and give it to me in a reasonable time frame. Don’t tell me that what I really want is a yam, and don’t tell me to come back in 3 hours because you have to go to the farm to dig one up.

The request is simple: give me something of reasonable quality in a reasonable time frame. Don’t give me something I don’t ask for, and don’t take forever.

Branden Gee.2150:

So in a lot of cases the best we can do is tell you that we are still in the kitchen cooking things up, we’re reading your feedback, and that we’re excited to get the meal out to you soon™.

What you’re saying is that a restaurant customer should walk in, ask for a potato, then get ignored for 2 hours while the kitchen prepares a chopped salad (with lots of bugs in it because the owner did not hire people who can properly clean the vegetables).

How long do you think such a restaurant will stay in business?

What if the maître d’ came out and apologized, stating the delay is because they are opening another restaurant on the other side of town and, instead of hiring new cooks for the other restaurant, they simply short-staffed this one?

What if the maître d’ sat down and talked with the customers about what they don’t like about the restaurant, but then did not actually do anything with the feedback?

Do you truly believe the way you are running things is making your customers happier than they were before?