So... for that continuation I mentioned.
After that little conversation, the creature decided that since we can't do anything, it should try and call up the middleware folks and demand that *they* create a terrain editing tool. Unfortunately, no one else was really in the room to talk on the phone with it, so nobody heard the whole conversation. We were, however listening in, as well as occasionally passing through the creature's office from time to time during the call (in case you're not aware, passing through the creature's office is necessary if anybody wants to get to the kitchen to grab coffee, or if any artist wants to see a programmer or vice versa, or if any programmer or concept artist wanted to get to the restroom).
We even arranged people to deliberately walk through the creature's office periodically to try and pick up words exchanged over the phone. This was mainly because we were expecting the creature to say things that would effectively get us in the doghouse with the support lines. We were actually right to worry.
Among the things the creature said, caught by various people listening in as well as passing through the room included --
"You know, the cheap engines like the Torque are bound to creep up and catch you if you don't pay attention to them."
"You know, you guys should probably look at this engine called the Unreal engine. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's a pretty big deal."
"Yes, but you have to realize that terrain takes up a lot of space, and when you put big things in a level, that's more important than when you put big things in other levels."
""When you have terrain in a level, it needs to have more than one texture. Otherwise, you get a horse's head in your bed. And that is why you need to make the editor."
"I don't think you realize how valuable this DirectX 9 is... Yeah, you're doing it on your new engine, but not on this one, and when your terrain thingies have to suffer for it, that's bad all the way."
"Generality is important all right, but I'm more important, you see."
The one that puzzles me even now, and I was listening to it as I walked through the creature's office, is this following one --
"Yes, I understand that you need Xbox compatibility, but my understanding of the Xbox is... well, there are other engines more diverse for Playstation 2 media."
I still have no clue what it was trying to say (I'm at least able to guess it has something to do with them wanting to keep that particular edition of the engine at DX8).
It wasn't long before the rep on the phone decided to raise up the point of several people on the team sending in support questions, but the creature only purchased a single license seat. You can probably guess that the call ended in a hurry after that.
Anyway, soon after that call ended, the bunch of us on the team expected hell, so I sent an email to their support team to apologize for the creature's behavior. Essentially telling them not to mind the creature and feel okay about telling it to go to hell. This was the reply email I got --
(This is mostly verbatim, except that I've reworded or taken out anything that refers to people's names).
Hey,
[Our sales Rep] actually took the call. He gets paid to deal with folks like him everyday. He's very good at it, and he was expecting much of what they did talk about.
We definitely understand where you're coming from. We've all worked for folks like him. I wouldn't worry too much about it. We know that you have a talented team by the questions that you ask support, and are very excited to see the outcome of the project you're working on.
An apology is not necessary, but we do appreciate it. Although it would certainly be nicer if, in the future, our correspondence was more with the team and not... him.