R64 Telethon thoughts

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by oplek, Apr 13, 2019.

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  1. oplek

    oplek Avatar

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    It's been a few releases since I've watched one of these. I have thoughts.

    - I didn't take exact note of the stretch goal bar, but it only seemed to have inched up $1000-$1500 during the telethon. I realize it's a month-long process, but it's telling to me that the stretch goals were barely mentioned. They didn't even go over what the stretch goals were to try to entice people (but good luck with the list) What happened to the whiteboard that had to be updated every few minutes?

    They've hit diminishing returns very hard here, on their process. Even marching Garriot around as a guest-appearance did very little.

    - They seemed to be patting themselves on the back quite a bit for Chris streaming almost daily. It's been about 18 days since Chris last posted anything to forums. About 27 days since the last standup notes.

    .. but boy to people like to donate and subscribe to the stream. I guess they're following the money. Maybe if we had a "cheer" system here too, they'd take interest in their own primary communication hub again?

    - As usual, only a handful of questions were answered... and most only partially so. They probably had a couple hundred questions total, and since the followup-posts we'd see here that answer the remaining questions seemed to have stopped several releases ago.... why are they taking questions? All they're doing is frustrating people.

    - They didn't really cover what had been accomplished, or what was in store for the future to any real degree. I thought part of the point was to generate hype. I guess we're done with the "postmortem" part?


    There's many a few more nitpicky things I could nitpick about, but my general impressions is that this "telethon" process is a shadow of its former self. They're having to do more and more more streams and events, and are getting less and less from it.

    Maybe instead taking questions about "can we please have a ABC that XYZs", they take some time to address the top concerns of the community. Those are usually the trending topics in the forums... that mysterious place before time that is perhaps only mythological.
     
  2. Weins201

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    I too see this as a HUGE downfall not an accomplishment.o_O

    One asks a question and it is up to someone else to ask Chris while he is Streaming to get any response. :rolleyes: Which means we get second hand answers. :(Also spending so much time there in those streams means he is not using his time efficiently fixing / completing the game.:oops:

    I feel you pain and concerns, take a deep breath ;)
     
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  3. Lained

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    This isn't the case, working from home has saved wasted travel time and also allows for flexible hours that Chris utilises by working earlier hours during the day. The streams are a bonus on top of his regular duties to attract more players into the game, he's doing it because he's seeing these results.
     
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  4. Weins201

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    Working Longer or more hours does not equate to getting more done, proof will be in the results. As I see it (and others) is to much new stuff, some comes out broken, and to much old stuff still unfinished / broken.

    New players - sorry but nothing he is doing on those streams will result in "New" income. You can bring in 1000 New players in a F2P game, but when they turn around in a week or a month and only drop a dime or two, it does not offset the utter LOSS of income from those of us who have been around and dedicated backers who have just stopped.

    Some people see these as great others are waiting to see how it pans out. I am waiting but do not see progress I see stagnation.
     
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  5. Rufus D`Asperdi

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    Yet more evidence that no matter what they do, someone will complain.
     
  6. Cypher Black

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    I agree with @Lained The streams are good and Chris does answer a lot of questions during them. Remember, Chris is not the only one building the game. Also, now that the telethon is really a month long event, I don't think they are focusing on generating revenue during the shorter telethons. I do agree that they could do a much better job of answering the questions during the telethon. If people are taking the time to ask the questions, a little more effort could be afforded to answering them fully rather than that pfft answers that we sometimes receive.

    Cypher Black
     
  7. Rufus D`Asperdi

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    Chris needs Starr riding herd on him during the dailies so he doesn't spend 8 minutes answering each question.
     
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  8. Woodchuck

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    they should have a live stream every day!
     
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  9. oplek

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    So I take it from your response that you are in favor of:
    • Them abandoning their main communication hub
    • Them collecting hundreds of questions and failing to answer them
    • Garriot being less involved
    • Failing to generate interest or hype over their own game
    Got it. Or is it just that you wont' complain about it?

    Maybe I just chose bad ones, but I sat through a couple of them. I found the useful information disbursement to be.... agonizingly sparse. And of course, only useful for those who spend hours upon untold hours sitting through them.
     
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  10. Lained

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    Chris stated that 10% came from new players which he attributes to the daily streams, he simply wouldn't do them if it wasn't beneficial to the game.
     
  11. Weins201

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    @oplek there are two sides to these forums ours and theirs, sadly when enough of us stop, theirs will be left with nothing. They just refuse to see anything bad.

    Him working from home is great for the game as it affords him time to do some serious work, however if 50% + is spent spit balling with players not much actually gets accomplished.

    Sorry but they continue to just slap lipstick on it.
     
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  12. Alexandra Cornfellow

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    I'm still having a blast playing the game, and the live streams just add to the fun and feeling of community. Perhaps there is another reason Chris and the gang aren't visiting these forums as often--personally I get bummed every time I come here and foolishly read one of these gripe posts.

    Cheers
     
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  13. Arkah EMPstrike

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    This is incorrect. His streams are streams of him fixing stuff. He is also fixing easy to fix bugs and making notes on feedback

    Its also chris making progress live visually accessible
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2019
  14. Weins201

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    I am still playing and the community is without a doubt great. However progress is not visible, the live streams do not provide any content just a distraction. OR if you want to try and get a question answered?

    But I asked about fishing here on the forums, where it should be done and I get players saying baits do not work, not one reply from devs.

    As Opelek said they are abandoning their own forums. Why because there are only two types of people left here, those wo see no wrong and other who see storm clouds. They ignore the stormy people .

    As I have said before these forums are the only place left where anyone says anything positive about the game.
     
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  15. Arkah EMPstrike

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    The only REAL complaint that i can derive from all this is that the info that is available outside the forum (which is avaiable inside the forum) is not placed into standup notes


    The rest of the stuff about them not working on bugs etc is just silly nonsense
     
  16. Arcanoxer

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    That's the main reason why i stopped watching the SotA streams.
     
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  17. Arkah EMPstrike

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    Id preferr chris not to have to answer the questions since he is doing alot of the dev work. Who else can answer them
     
  18. ldykllr

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    @Chris streams, at most, a couple hours at the end of his day. Dude is up at 4am working and he does answer as many questions as he can during the stream. I would like to see Standup notes once again, but personally, I'm going to cut them some slack because I feel that the streams are a more personalized way of interacting with folks. I am not saying it's a replacement for the forums (maybe @DarkStarr should pick up some of that slack). The biggest problem I see is that they appear to be somewhat disorganized - however, that is only what I see from what they show us.
     
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  19. Scanphor

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    Spot on - Chris is basically spending a couple of hours of his free time every day after a full day's work to interact directly with the players, answer questions, take note of requests, new bugs etc and all some people do is complain that 'he's not working on the game'.

    Personally I think the streams are a great way of interacting with the players.
     
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  20. Vladamir Begemot

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    I'd like to see Bilbo continue his journey so Chris might fix some of the little things that are huge issues to new players.

    Instead he made it about as far through the early game as most of the negative reviews on Steam did.

    But even if he's just entertaining players, it's a good thing. It's more exposure than the game has gotten at any time other than the launches. And a new player viewing the Stream at least knows what to expect so they are more likely to suffer through the early game.

    Questions could use some discipline though. Maybe do have Star join in once a week for a no event, strictly question answering session, and the two of them maintain discipline and grind through them while not being distracted.

    People love having their questions answered and ideas heard, it is a major hook.

    Of course they are reanswering the same questions over and over... Perhaps a player made wiki of don't lawyer me bro answers.

    The abandonment of the forums is most scary in the bug section. Almost nothing has been acknowledged since Serafina left unless it's on QA.
     
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