if you were a dev, how would you approach these forums

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Tahru, Oct 3, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Sixclicks

    Sixclicks Avatar

    Messages:
    522
    Likes Received:
    1,091
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Lancaster, PA
    I'm pretty sure they all show up in the dev tracker, but unless you watch the tracker all the time, that info can be lost in the "depths of the forums." Which is why I generally try to read every post in the What's New? section. Not to mention, the dev tracker page loads very slowly for some reason.

    I wasn't criticizing your transparency if that's how you took it. And what I meant by "don't appear anywhere else on any official dev posted thread" was sometimes information is added to a conversation by a dev in a player posted thread that doesn't appear elsewhere on the forums or in any official thread started by a dev. For example, DarkStarr's responses in this thread regarding the durability bonus that bone armor was supposed to have: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-durability-for-bone-armor.65767/#post-671151

    I still see other's making threads asking what's so special about the bone armor that they just crafted after hours farming boss creatures for their bones. Which is why I'm glad I read nearly every post in What's New and can then relay this info in those other threads to help calm the storm I guess. It also helps for the purposes of letting my guild know what's going on.

    If I had to criticize any of your team's transparency, it would be in regards to some changes not making it into the patch notes. I assume most of these things are just accidentally forgotten and left out of the patch notes as a result. For example, the change to the reagent use chance of Air spells. Or the change to the rate at which XP is applied to skills upon use. Otherwise, I think you guys are doing a great job with transparency.
     
  2. Gix

    Gix Avatar

    Messages:
    2,203
    Likes Received:
    4,014
    Trophy Points:
    153
    I'm a dev. The way I approach things is that I made a conscious decision to not go on Kickstarter and I don't have forums. I have a clear goal and I have a team that isn't shy to be blunt with their opinions as it's as much their game as it is mine. Of course I have a way smaller budget but, if I did go on Kickstarter, I would've payed the price of having the responsibility of dealing with everyone's thoughts.

    Make a game, if it's good sell it, no regrets.

    Now, if I was Darkstarr, that's a different matter. I wouldn't change much; I'd just get moderators that have a firm understanding of common sense. Woops! I said too much already.
     
    Apollyon9515 and Tahru like this.
  3. Berek

    Berek Portalarian Emeritus Dev Emeritus

    Messages:
    3,957
    Likes Received:
    12,761
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    It's possible the patch notes miss a few things. If you guys want to send us bullet-point lists of anything you feel was changed and that wasn't included in the patch notes, we would like to take a look at those and get them into the patch notes if they were indeed changes.
     
  4. Sixclicks

    Sixclicks Avatar

    Messages:
    522
    Likes Received:
    1,091
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Lancaster, PA
    I'll be sure to start keeping a list of anything I notice that isn't included. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
     
    Tahru and Berek like this.
  5. Spoon

    Spoon Avatar

    Messages:
    8,403
    Likes Received:
    23,554
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Sweden
    Muhahahahahaheheheehehe*cough*tihi.

    So I'm in charge? You sure? Really really sure?
    Hohoho....the power....it is.....exhilarating....such a tingling....sensation.

    I'd do a mayor...F.... fantastic... mayor...overhaul.

    First point on the agenda - sit down, overlook my domain, and list all the things that ME, MYSELF and I want from this. Just ramble away key words, concepts, phrases etc until the list is too long. Then concoct it over slow fire into a top 5 since that is a good target. How about:
    1. Improve the quality of the player feedback
    2. Reduce the workload of Q&A and Info requests
    3. Have some fun for myself and my crew
    4. Promote the Product
    5. Steal the best ideas and make them mine


    Second point on the agenda - use those unpaid minions till they bleed ehrm, I meant, do more crowdsourcing using the potential of the community as a positive driving force in the community itself. Making them do the initial leg work in each instance of those 5 targets. So lets see here which deep dark mine could I put them ways can we promote their participation?
    1. Player Feedback
      1. Divide player bugs into two forums, one controlled by fauns players and one controlled by satyrs devs.
        1. Assign player "pest control moderators" which each have their own fauns lovely users, where those teams confirm/reproduce bug reports, before moving them over to the Dev Bug Forum.
        2. Whip those make sure those "pest control moderators" read the release notes, known issues and player instructions - so that they filter the utterly useless
        3. Reward such teams with useless trinkets and vanity items collectibles and titles. So the teams get cut throat and peer pressure friendly, competitive and encouraging of their team's performance.
      2. List features to control the players focus
        1. List mayor concepts with tags as "your input is useless" or "slightly less useless" "we are reworking this - no feedback needed", "please test this - feedback wanted" and "focus right now - new iteration coming up".
        2. Each release, regardless of internal focus/resources, direct the fauns player's focus on one concept.
          1. Open a specific feedback forum on this focus and close it afterwards.
          2. For instance "this releases Player Feedback Focus is: Housing Decoration"
          3. This will give the fauns the illusion that their thoughts matter ehrm, this will help steer the users from subject to subject applying creativity in finding problems and solutions.
    2. Reduce workload
      1. RTFM
        Read
        The
        what your mum and dad did to get you delivered by the stork
        Manual
        1. NEVER answer a question individually in an individual topic
        2. ALWAYS answer through updating the FAQ and then link to that FAQ answer stating it was there all along sot that we get a feedback loop of dragging the fauns in the ear helping the users to find the correct place for other answers
        3. If a question is not worthy suitable for the FAQ it should definately probably not be answered anyway
        4. Force that encourage the community manager to keep the FAQ updated by creating a specific subforum where some fauns players can list issues (and see 1.1.1)
      2. Reinstate the forum questions to the devs
        1. make the users take charge of this
        2. let them present a top 10 list of Qs to chose from
        3. address only those which I feel like which are highlighting current trends and popular topics
    3. Have some fun
      1. Troll them endlessly and needlessly
    4. Promote the Product
      1. Bribe Mini-competitions in a cycle of platforms with miniscule store credit prizes, like "Create a meme motivator pic of -SotA funny moment"
      2. Lie have a rolling schedule of the devs writing a short thing for each weekly update under a common header "From the Development Trenches", which always aim for the "why" instead of the "how" portion.
      3. Distort have a fact in each release of something which sounds better than it is which spins something that has happened, like "Portalarium gave away a quarter of a million dollars to the players this release, and will do so again next release"
      4. Cheat have a small propaganda press release blog each month, which highlight a user input/feedback that led to a change/feature. Rinse & Repeat each release until they fall for it the word gets around that 'we' listen
    5. Steal Ideas
      1. Create an Upvoting section in the forum for player ideas
        1. again with a player side, and a dev side
        2. Where a user can post an idea - and everyone can upvote
        3. top ideas get discarded into the bin promoted to the dev side
        4. rework it and see if it look like it was the plan all along can add something to the game
        5. [pretend like I care] follow up one such idea each quarter, from plan, to jira, to dev assigned, to implemented in RXX, this gives the illusion feeling that the game is a co-effort between fauns and satyrs the users and the makers.
      2. Create focus groups
        1. steal Chris' idea Implement the concept of 'XX scrum' for other subjects BUT
          1. First rule of scrumclub is that we don't talk about scrumclub
          2. select the team myself check the metrics and pick the right people for the job
          3. Then write a list on the subject with which of my opinions I want them to agree with with clear parameters on what I want feedback on and what is out of scope

    Third point on the agenda - rebrand the main site to drive the mindless sheep potential players, to see Key Features right away.

    Fourth point on the agenda -
    see the money come in - steal the money - run - never look back
     
    Thwip, Tahru, Themo Lock and 5 others like this.
  6. Bubonic

    Bubonic Avatar

    Messages:
    2,455
    Likes Received:
    7,975
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    hahahaha
     
    Spoon and Fister Magee like this.
  7. Spoon

    Spoon Avatar

    Messages:
    8,403
    Likes Received:
    23,554
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Sweden
    I always found it ironic that the one who censors the most in his user profile is the community manager.
    This is of course due to the community manager knowing more about human nature on the interwebs...
    [​IMG]

    Almost all the other devs have the default settings for what they are doing, but Berek has made an effort and changed his so that we can't track him...
    :D:p;)
     
  8. Aurelius Silverson

    Aurelius Silverson Avatar

    Messages:
    687
    Likes Received:
    1,585
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Ironically, having just patched a few minutes ago from 485 to 486 and then directly to 487, there seem to be no 486 patch notes at all at https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=32989 - goes straight from 485 to 487 ... so is everything 486 meant to do included in the 487 notes?
     
  9. NRaas

    NRaas Avatar

    Messages:
    3,984
    Likes Received:
    5,841
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Glenraas
    Was 486 ever actually released publicly ?

    The devs could have tried releasing a 486 patch, found an error while it was cooking, and stopped the process before it was made public.


    In that case, yes, all those changes would probably have been included in the 487 patch notes instead. :)
     
    Spoon likes this.
  10. Aurelius Silverson

    Aurelius Silverson Avatar

    Messages:
    687
    Likes Received:
    1,585
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Could well be - all I know is I launched the client, it updated to 486 and then instantly went on download and install to 487 ... maybe 487 fixes 486 :)
     
    Tahru and NRaas like this.
  11. Sir_Hemlock

    Sir_Hemlock Avatar

    Messages:
    1,194
    Likes Received:
    2,292
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    In my view Shroud had its day- it came and went.
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2016
  12. Magnus Zarwaddim

    Magnus Zarwaddim Avatar

    Messages:
    975
    Likes Received:
    1,884
    Trophy Points:
    93
    While something we can certainly hope for, when would he and his team get to the business of making the game if they spend so much time on the forums? :(
     
    Tahru likes this.
  13. TEK1

    TEK1 Avatar

    Messages:
    186
    Likes Received:
    510
    Trophy Points:
    18
    1. I would never use these forums. Everyone is just as full of it as I am.

    2. I would advocate to close down the forums permanently as they are a waste of time and resources that are better utilized in completing the actual game.
     
    Tahru likes this.
  14. Ashlynn [Pax]

    Ashlynn [Pax] Avatar

    Messages:
    995
    Likes Received:
    2,242
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Gender:
    Female
    I might actually try to do some more planning and give greater consideration to the impact of any decisions. IE: I wouldn't promise so much in the kickstarter, I wouldn't sell POTs without limits and considering the effect on the landscape, I wouldn't try to do an MMO and a single player RPG in one package. I wouldn't go forward with no art direction or aesthetic theme, and I wouldn't endorse RMT. I wouldn't make a progression system that tries to be skill independent yet still tied to XP and also skill gains that ends up doing all things badly. I wouldn't just add grind to increase the number of hours it takes to do anything in game.

    I could go on.
     
  15. Ristra

    Ristra Avatar

    Messages:
    3,942
    Likes Received:
    5,442
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Location:
    Athens
    1. Make as many people as possible happy by doing as much as I can. Even if it's conflicting concepts.

    2. Secretly design the game with it's original intent.

    3. Release both the master piece and the smoldering pile of flop at the same time and let the masses decide which is best.
     
    Tahru and Pikegirl like this.
  16. Pikegirl

    Pikegirl Avatar

    Messages:
    444
    Likes Received:
    1,478
    Trophy Points:
    43
    I would sift through all the comments and be thankful that there are varied comments out there by the community.

    It shows they care about it enough to post stuff.
     
    Tahru and lollie like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.