Being constructive appears to be the requirement imposed on paying customers here. So be it.

I have more money than time, so I kicked in a good chunk of cash to help get started. As a customer, when I pay for a product, I feel that the product should perform at least roughly as advertised. I do understand technical problems; however, I also understand technical support and the value that it brings to a product.

So, I ran into a problem. I was in the Cretan Labyrinth when I lost synchronization with the server. Now, I cannot play the game at all on the server I put my cash into because it goes to a black screen that says "Loading" and sits there forever.

No problem, I'll look for technical support contact information. I couldn't find any. All I found was this forum. So, I start reading and searching only to find that this problem has been reported multiple times before with no reliable solution, and if a forum member complains or is in anyway impolite, then the thread is closed.

I find this interesting. I've worked in the support division of Microsoft Corporation for fifteen years, and let's just say I'm not exactly what you would call entry level. I found myself asking a question. I asked myself what the likely outcome would be if this scenario played out:

1) Hundreds of dollars are paid for a software package.
2) It's very crash prone right from the beginning, and within three days the software has a fatal crash that cannot be recovered by any known means including rebooting or switching to another machine.
3) No telephone, email, or chat based technical support can be located.
4) Technical support provided is by a forum which only provides useful solutions once in a while.
5) If the paying customer does not have the proper attitude, being both constructive and polite, the thread is closed, the customer is publicly chastised, and this chastisement is left in public view for the world to see. It's essentially the electronic equivalent to a public flogging.

I suspect the paying customer would stop paying, which as it so happens is exactly what I'm going to do.

Before I go, here are some customer service tips from a career professional in this business.

1) When customers pay for a product, and it malfunctions, they tend to become upset. Anyone who plans to accomplish anything in technical support would be well advised to grow accustomed to this reality. Angry customers are usually not constructive. The effective technique is to be diplomatic and gently steer the conversation in the direction of the technical information you require to resolve the issue.

2) Abusive customers should not be tolerated as the employees or volunteers working on behalf of a company are entitled to be treated with decency. Obscene language, verbal assaults, threats, and similar behavior are always inappropriate; however, if a customer is filing a complaint in the only forum available to him, and you tell him that he is making a "useless rant", silence him with moderator privilege, and then continue to display this in public, odds are you've lost not only one customer but a lot of others who simply read what you have written and are offended that paying customers are treated with such uncommon disrespect.

3) There is an internet cultural norm that the moderators of a forum are entitled to regulate content and speech in any heavy-handed manner they see fit. However, when your forum is used for product support, you will best serve your company by treating your customers with the same level of respect and tolerance that you would show were you working a retail job and a customer walks up to you face to face.

4) Customer support should have a service level agreement. If a question is asked, it should be reliably answered in a reasonably timely fashion, not ignored if it is in some fashion unpleasant or inconvenient. If you don't want to have these conversations in public, then accept questions in email instead, and post the solutions to problems in this forum including keywords and a search mechanism that is effective and intuitive enough to reduce the volume of duplicate questions.

5) If you suggest an action plan to a customer, and it does not resolve the problem, then suggest another action plan ...

6) Always keep in mind that your customers are paying you, not the other way around.

I hope that criticism was constructive and polite. I'll take my leave now and find someone else to give my money to.

Goodbye.