Menu
What's New
By:
Filters

Challenge to player base 10k ped competition - The responsibility test

GeorgeSkywalker

GeorgeSkywalker

Mutated
Joined
May 20, 2007
Posts
11,618
Location
England
Society
Freelancer
Avatar Name
George Ace Skywalker
Imagine you were responsible for the development of the game. As this imagined developer can you do the following?

1) Priority

Make a prioritized list of what your staff should develop i.e. should they make non essential bugs/issues the priority? how do you decide whats non-essential?

For example should they be fixing black clothing to black as top priority? (as suggested here) and what priority should be attached to taming? what about space? what about hangars? what about fixing exploits? and all other issues? what about new systems that could be much better and interesting? what about developing areas to increase server population? what about development of player base?

i.e. that is a full prioritized holistic approach to all the work your staff need to be doing.

2) No communication

The case for no communication. Can you think of reasons why it would be wiser for you as the developer and your staff not to communicate with the player base?


If the player base can successfully do the above I will personally pay 10k peds to the person who contributes most to the above two points. That person can decide to give some of it to others who contributed or keep it all for themselves.

Important notes

* The winning entry will ideally have nothing left out of points 1 or 2 and will be selected by myself.

* Development issues and priorities can change. Therefore please do not edit any post you make here as the date of your post can play an important part in selecting the winner.

* Any post that is edited will be disqualified

* You can make multiple entries. Each post is considered an entry.

* Competition closes 1st of April 2014! and yes it's April Fools Day. It's another test to see if you treat this as a laughing matter or indeed be mature and responsible.

* This is a test of responsibility and personal development. Please treat it as such and act accordingly. Thank you.
 
Important Please read

I'll keep original post unedited and any changes to rules etc will be posted here.

* Edit 1 on 27 May 2013 Calypso Time 10:10 - To encourage people to post their ideas early preference will be given to early entries



* reserved for future use
 
Last edited:
Do you want us to look at is from a planet partners point of view, and what to focus on then, or as a MA point of view? Or a combined point of view?
 
Harmony. said:
Do you want us to look at is from a planet partners point of view, and what to focus on then, or as a MA point of view? Or a combined point of view?
Click to expand...

Good question. Both would be ideal.
 
GeorgeSkywalker said:
Make a prioritized list of what your staff should develop i.e. should they make non essential bugs/issues the priority? how do you decide whats non-essential? [/U]
Click to expand...
The first priority should be to analyze why there needs to be a choice between priorities. Atleast one or two dedicated people fixing visual bugs are required, this could even be done by students.

GeorgeSkywalker said:
Can you think of reasons why it would be wiser for you as the developer and your staff not to communicate with the player base?
Click to expand...

The only reason i can think of is that it's wiser not to communicate so you can never be held accountable for things that are not/badly done.
 
GeorgeSkywalker said:
Imagine you were responsible for the development of the game. As this imagined developer can you do the following?

1) Priority

Make a prioritized list of what your staff should develop i.e. should they make non essential bugs/issues the priority? how do you decide whats non-essential?

For example should they be fixing black clothing to black as top priority? (as suggested here) and what priority should be attached to taming? what about space? what about hangars? what about fixing exploits? and all other issues? what about new systems that could be much better and interesting? what about developing areas to increase server population? what about development of player base?

i.e. that is a full prioritized holistic approach to all the work your staff need to be doing.

2) No communication

The case for no communication. Can you think of reasons why it would be wiser for you as the developer and your staff not to communicate with the player base?


If the player base can successfully do the above I will personally pay 10k peds to the person who contributes most to the above two points. That person can decide to give some of it to others who contributed or keep it all for themselves.

Important notes

* The winning entry will ideally have nothing left out of points 1 or 2 and will be selected by myself.

* Development issues and priorities can change. Therefore please do not edit any post you make here as the date of your post can play an important part in selecting the winner.

* Any post that is edited will be disqualified

* You can make multiple entries. Each post is considered an entry.

* Competition closes 1st of April 2014! and yes it's April Fools Day. It's another test to see if you treat this as a laughing matter or indeed be mature and responsible.

* This is a test of responsibility and personal development. Please treat it as such and act accordingly. Thank you.
Click to expand...

If i win you can sent the money to UNICEF:

The priority in every game is to fix bug's that alter/advantage game play ( i remember reading i read alot about Entropia) that when the bug concerned MA losing peds it was instantly fixed (it means they can do it if they want).

Now is hard to tell which is more important that another (for example i don't play EU any more becose i found my self to look bad + my clothes look shit) should they adress my issue first ? Why am more important that the person taht don't deposit at all ? Mayby they need to fix hes problem at first.

So as you see this is hard to decide but this is what i will do:

Fix any bug that can be used to gain advantage
Fix any bug that interact whith the game play (bad lag, CTD)
Fix any bug that touch large part of player base
Fix minor bugs (like black clothes and trust me i want to put this one at the TOP but if you are game devloper this is probably not what you will put on TOP)

Essencials is what afect the whole or the big part of the player base not esensial is Xing and the black coat becose we are not many that cary it.

Now the sec part the road book:

1, downgrade the damage request to use the unlimited non SIB (they downgraded the HA but not downgrading the 100 levels for damage just feels like unfinished product like half done don't make sance)

2, work youre ass off to gather datta on players way of game play so you can bring the avrage cost to the game to 100 USD per month (it will still remains the most expensiff game to play in the history but you will hit biger audiance) i rather sell 1 candy to 1 000 000 ppl that 1 candy to 1000, profit in gaming don't comme out of the amount you take from each player the best way is to take litle from every one. At this point i think the game cost to much for avrage person

3, Work youre ass of on server stability and game requeremant to be played (when you claim free to play game) you are adresing 70% of ppl whith avrege PC specs if they log and cant play they will log out never comme back.

4, you must at somme point drop MM, mod faps and old gear (somme ppl play the game to lote those items only if they one day realyse tehy cant loot them you will lose valuable customers) is not anoff to drop new good items old stuff must drop again

5, leave the space alone as long you dont get good solid planet performances (no one will ever beat EvE online is pointless to even try)

6, try to work whith planet parteners more so the EU become real one universe and not what it feels now every one in hes corner

7, taming is something they need to fix ASAP becose ppl skiled for that and we all know skilling is not free in EU

8, Hangars i don't know but they did not wanish when space arived (hangars used to be the flight space from Caly to CP) so i cant realy coment on those

9, doing any advertisement is totaly dumb !!! MA disapointed so many ppl every time they advertise on web sitre there is 100 negative coments falowing in the next 24h and trust me ppl read before they download the game (it take few hours to download any game so tehre is planty of time to read and look youtube for in game footage) it hapened to me to download game and in process of downloading it i stoped becose i did not like the rewiews so definetly dont waist monbey in advertisemant try to use the money to devlop GREAT game not what is now less that average.

10, change game engine i just played game whith new unreal engine 3 EU whith cryengine feels like dummy game after you seen what i saw (change the engine or get 'real' devlopers that can make good looking games)

11, drop clothes ? i mean is it normal that 5 ppl in game carry storm coat ? This one will eventualy make me quit i never found game in wich i was not able to find clothes i liked (i mean they are just clothes they dont advantage you in any think) why not drop them is mistery to me :scratch2:

I may add more later

On the comunication.

I think Kim is doing that now but i think there is not alot of comunications going on... if you dont tell ppl what you doing how thinks going ppl will and up thinking you dont care so why they will care for you ?

TRION amased me when they released defiance and trust me lots of bugs ocured they actualy made public apology to players and told players they are happy players stick whith them (well i can tell you lots of players put up whith bugs and stayed just becose of that) i doubt MA will ever do something like that.

But i think EU will die Under 5 years this is why:

There is alredy games out where you can make real money by grinding for items and seling them for real money and this all legitimatly not risking to get banned going to paypal ! Now soon the NextGen will be out 2014 probably and i belive from what i gather as info from friend that is going to be the same model as real money transactions when Blizard will take there cut in the process.

Now EU can't claim any more the 'get pay to play game' as you can alredy do that games are released and what is worst for MA in this case is that in auther games you don't need to put down tons of money that change everithing.

Look EU in the next 5 years.
 
Last edited:
I reserve this post :) Will update soon.
 
GeorgeSkywalker said:
(...)
* Development issues and priorities can change. Therefore please do not edit any post you make here as the date of your post can play an important part in selecting the winner.
(...)
Click to expand...

Satans said:
I reserve this post :) Will update soon.
Click to expand...

Please read closely what OP says ;). Just a friendly warning so you will not feel unfairly disqualified ;).

Falagor
:bandit:
 
My opinion and assessment would be:

MA is a private company, within private companies are larger things at work than bug-fixing.

Private companies often usually and hopefully operate under a private design.

A private company does not often share inside operational information or projects before releasing them for particular reasons.

Before we could accurately asses the priority of bugfixing, we would need to know:

The projects MA has on the table:
Many may not realize they nearly got a NASA contract for software.

The staff: (Priority)
The crew is a barebones crew for the size of the workload. Perhaps related to budget.

The server structure: (Priority)
These costs and maintenance and need for continual on the fly "bug-fixing" is the highest priority we should be concerned about than anything else. Even the players livid-over-clothing, would probably prefer to be livid looking at it, than livid not being able to log in.

The budget: (Priority)
We have no way of knowing what actual resources are available to provide toward bug-fixing, in light of other unknown costs. We all have bills, companies are not excluded.

As to communication, several of the same factors above fall into play.
To say communication does not exist is a bit of a stretch.
It just happens to not be to the particular liking of a few.
I doubt I would be reading profanity laced support cases too long, or even worse, "experts" telling me how the upper management will need to change. Its just not realistic.

Would people seriously prefer to be taming an exarosaur right now instead of things like space or Arkadia?


They provide a service, we pay for the service what we feel it is worth.

It is somewhat unreasonable and pointless to demand anything of them in my opinion, since they are a private company with much more going behind the scenes besides a graphics engine and servers.

They do work on them, bugs do get fixed, things do move forward, the game still evolves.

Obviously this will never happen with the various ideals of perfection individuals have.
Its why anyone would form a private company, to protect and develop theirs, with individuals of their choosing.

We could all drop the game and start a company ourselves and would be free to exercise these ideas toward our own preferred end, but until then, the preferred end is up to MA alone. (as it should be)
 
MA already replied to most of the questions here, some have been postponed (taming), some won't ever happen as explained many times (hangar development) just cause it wasn't in their plan to have any relation between space travels and planet hangars (for sure it isn't the way they are looking to make space working), some will be fixed time by time.

Everything needs to be well planned when we talking about some powerful system like taming, expecially if it needs to be released in a very well made way. And working on a platform like this takes lot of time, testing, and something that doesn't happen in most of others games, consider in detail the economic consequences.

Without considering that finding the reason of a little bug might be impressive complicated sometimes.

Let MA it's time to work on improvments, and... if you bought all these hangars with the intention to make a big speculation about the future use in future, I am sorry but I would prefeer they won't change at all, as they already explained, explained again, and confirmed as in last Kim interview.
 
Last edited:
Xing Nu said:
If i win you can sent the money to UNICEF:

The priority in every game is to fix bug's that alter/advantage game play ( i remember reading i read alot about Entropia) that when the bug concerned MA losing peds it was instantly fixed (it means they can do it if they want).

Now is hard to tell which is more important that another (for example i don't play EU any more becose i found my self to look bad + my clothes look shit) should they adress my issue first ? Why am more important that the person taht don't deposit at all ? Mayby they need to fix hes problem at first.

So as you see this is hard to decide but this is what i will do:

Fix any bug that can be used to gain advantage
Fix any bug that interact whith the game play (bad lag, CTD)
Fix any bug that touch large part of player base
Fix minor bugs (like black clothes and trust me i want to put this one at the TOP but if you are game devloper this is probably not what you will put on TOP)

Essencials is what afect the whole or the big part of the player base not esensial is Xing and the black coat becose we are not many that cary it.

Now the sec part the road book:

1, downgrade the damage request to use the unlimited non SIB (they downgraded the HA but not downgrading the 100 levels for damage just feels like unfinished product like half done don't make sance)

2, work youre ass off to gather datta on players way of game play so you can bring the avrage cost to the game to 100 USD per month (it will still remains the most expensiff game to play in the history but you will hit biger audiance) i rather sell 1 candy to 1 000 000 ppl that 1 candy to 1000, profit in gaming don't comme out of the amount you take from each player the best way is to take litle from every one. At this point i think the game cost to much for avrage person

3, Work youre ass of on server stability and game requeremant to be played (when you claim free to play game) you are adresing 70% of ppl whith avrege PC specs if they log and cant play they will log out never comme back.

4, you must at somme point drop MM, mod faps and old gear (somme ppl play the game to lote those items only if they one day realyse tehy cant loot them you will lose valuable customers) is not anoff to drop new good items old stuff must drop again

5, leave the space alone as long you dont get good solid planet performances (no one will ever beat EvE online is pointless to even try)

6, try to work whith planet parteners more so the EU become real one universe and not what it feels now every one in hes corner

7, taming is something they need to fix ASAP becose ppl skiled for that and we all know skilling is not free in EU

8, Hangars i don't know but they did not wanish when space arived (hangars used to be the flight space from Caly to CP) so i cant realy coment on those

9, doing any advertisement is totaly dumb !!! MA disapointed so many ppl every time they advertise on web sitre there is 100 negative coments falowing in the next 24h and trust me ppl read before they download the game (it take few hours to download any game so tehre is planty of time to read and look youtube for in game footage) it hapened to me to download game and in process of downloading it i stoped becose i did not like the rewiews so definetly dont waist monbey in advertisemant try to use the money to devlop GREAT game not what is now less that average.

10, change game engine i just played game whith new unreal engine 3 EU whith cryengine feels like dummy game after you seen what i saw (change the engine or get 'real' devlopers that can make good looking games)

11, drop clothes ? i mean is it normal that 5 ppl in game carry storm coat ? This one will eventualy make me quit i never found game in wich i was not able to find clothes i liked (i mean they are just clothes they dont advantage you in any think) why not drop them is mistery to me :scratch2:

I may add more later

On the comunication.

I think Kim is doing that now but i think there is not alot of comunications going on... if you dont tell ppl what you doing how thinks going ppl will and up thinking you dont care so why they will care for you ?

TRION amased me when they released defiance and trust me lots of bugs ocured they actualy made public apology to players and told players they are happy players stick whith them (well i can tell you lots of players put up whith bugs and stayed just becose of that) i doubt MA will ever do something like that.

But i think EU will die Under 5 years this is why:

There is alredy games out where you can make real money by grinding for items and seling them for real money and this all legitimatly not risking to get banned going to paypal ! Now soon the NextGen will be out 2014 probably and i belive from what i gather as info from friend that is going to be the same model as real money transactions when Blizard will take there cut in the process.

Now EU can't claim any more the 'get pay to play game' as you can alredy do that games are released and what is worst for MA in this case is that in auther games you don't need to put down tons of money that change everithing.

Look EU in the next 5 years.
Click to expand...

Reposting on behalf of Xing Nu as that post is disqualified for editing. Please be mindful of the rules. Thanks.



giuly_adm said:
MA already replied to most of the questions here, some have been postponed (taming), some won't ever happen as explained many times (hangar development) just cause it wasn't in their plan to have any relation between space travels and planet hangars, some will be fixed time by time.

Everything needs to be well planned when we talking about some powerful system like taming, expecially if it needs to be released in a very well made way. And working on a platform like this takes lot of time, testing, and something that doesn't happen in most of others games, consider in detail the economic consequences.

Without considering that finding the reason of a little bug might be impressive complicated sometimes.

Let MA it's time to work on improvments, and... if you bought all these hangars with the intention to make a big speculation if they will be needed in future, I am sorry but I would prefeer they won't change at all, as they told, told again, and explained again as in last Kim interview.
Click to expand...

The issue is not about taming or hangars. I merely used those as examples for illustration. This competition is about important management decisions you would have to make if you were responsible for the development of the platform and Calypso. Note this is not directed at you Giuly but to readers in general to hopefully avoid potential derailment from the core issues outlined:

* Prioritizing development
* Why no communication is better

I selected those two because understanding them is central to understanding how MA and all the different PP's operate imho. Furthermore many threads that pop up on this forum are related to those two issues in some way or another. Therefore furthering our understanding of them I believe is vital to the progression of the player base and the community and hence the game...
 
GeorgeSkywalker said:
Imagine you were responsible for the development of the game. As this imagined developer can you do the following?

1) Priority

Make a prioritized list of what your staff should develop i.e. should they make non essential bugs/issues the priority? how do you decide whats non-essential?

For example should they be fixing black clothing to black as top priority? (as suggested here) and what priority should be attached to taming? what about space? what about hangars? what about fixing exploits? and all other issues? what about new systems that could be much better and interesting? what about developing areas to increase server population? what about development of player base?

i.e. that is a full prioritized holistic approach to all the work your staff need to be doing.
Click to expand...

As a developer and project manager IRL programming work prioritization is always a hard thing to grasp entirely. You have business aspects, customer aspects, financial aspects, difficulty aspect, timeframe aspects, the list keeps going on....

Business and Financial are closely tied, they have to consider product sales, cost for developing, testing etc before the product sale or release etc. Most times this is controlled by non developers and they see the big picture not knowing how the work really gets done and they make their decisions almost completely by budget factors they get passed to them. The less they spend to give someone something usually is the path they take even if it is not a good path or choice. That is just RL and is plagues all business models as they are there to make money and if you bleed money to long whats the point, they have to figure out how to balance this.

Now the middle management comes in and tries to take the upper management BS and work in a plan with the customers and developers, at all times trying to not exceed any budgets layed out by upper management, usually it is really hard to get those budgets changed for the better end product, upper management usually sticks to their guns because they need to have a good bonus at end year.

Now developers tell middle management it would take x time to do x amount of work and x amount of testing. Middle management then cuts features to do based on these time frames. And yes this means the features the customer wants all because the customer isn't paying more to get it done and upper management said no. Again the mighty money controls this completely in almost all cases.

So hence EU players really are clients using a service that they are not directly purchasing but just using as the company that owns the product sees fit, customers have a lower priority then the big financial picture of the company. If they were making a product that a customer needs by x date or no payment period and contracts are broken etc, then company would have much higher priority to do customer specific fixes first then come back to the financial stuff later for longevity of more product sales and support, yes support is sold not given for free in most cases unlike in EU, support is just there and is not payed for every time you use it, talking true support not the lame teleconf and email support but people doing real action work asap for that support ticket to get x amount of money.

So example, taming, fishing etc. takes long time and has little benefit for profits and attracting new depositors int he big picture. I bet very few will come to EU if they anounce they just added taming and fishing but both systems are huge time consuming tasks. So it is low because upper management sees it as so, again money spend with little gain in the end. Same with clothing etc, low sales equal nothing for the company. Cycling PED as fast as possible and attracting new players is priority by upper management because that's where money comes from. 1000's new players depositing 10-20 USD is better then old player here and there putting in hundred or so every few weeks or months. They don't care about retaining everyone they just want those initial deposits and know some will stay that is good for them and that is where the money is made.

I actually understand and feel for MA staff trying to handle this big of a nightmare it has to be horrible to try to prioritize all the stuff people want, report, need asap, etc.... But in the end all decisions are based on how MA and staff can do it without loosing money doing it and usually means taking forever to implement as complex stuff gets pushed aside for smaller faster fixes so the smaller fixes don't keep building up.

GeorgeSkywalker said:
2) No communication

The case for no communication. Can you think of reasons why it would be wiser for you as the developer and your staff not to communicate with the player base?
Click to expand...

MA should have a help desk in an office at PA or somewhere where a dedicated person is there to help live during work hours. Same with every planet partner, non of this crappy 3-17week turn around for generic support case response.


BTW: As a client playing I get frustrated all the time and share my frustration but I also know they will not jump on stuff right away if it is not beneficial for them as well in the long run.
 
Last edited:
Some fantastic input so far. Thanks to all those who have contributed.


I can see point 2 about no communication and the wisdom of that approach is an issue. I suspect It's not something the player base normally considers and hence a bit alien.

Therefore I'll provide a bit of input as food for thought and hopefully help out i.e. clues

Clue 1 ) This game is an RCE (Real Cash Economy) as such normal methods of doing things go out of the window as it produces some difficult to manage challenges i.e. Since it's an RCE you have to evaluate what impact everything has on the economy and the game including any form of communication

Clue 2) Equality, preference and fairness

Clue 3) Example 1. I've worked as a reporter and sometimes I had to consider some really interesting dilemma's to publish or not to publish. Bearing in mind I play the game as well. For example if I published the article that I personally found interesting I have to evaluate it's repercussions e.g. how many will accuse me of profiteering i.e. wrote article to profit from it myself. Since I play the game it's impossible for me to completely separate my in game activity...
Although my intentions may have been genuine in the end I decided it's actually better not to publish and didn't publish.


Clue 4) Example 2. Consider David Dobson and Arkadia's Approach to communication which many players find appealing. In my humble opinion it's selfish, irresponsible and extremely damaging to the game. For example say there is some issue on Arkadia that needs fixing. He'll make an issue of it on radio and player base that he'll have it fixed. Judging by his communications he'll then proceed to "pester" MA to get it fixed. It's pestering because from MA's point of view it obstructs their normal workload. It's entirely possible that some other work does not get done because manpower has been diverted to fix this issue which may be quite trivial. David Dobson will then make a song and dance about how he gets the job done. Along with other players and Radio shows etc shouting the same. If you look at it what's happened is a case of making himself look good at the expense of MA and interfered with the real work getting done. It also damages players perceptions as many if not most will believe it all...
Furthermore some players who may want to attack MA will join in and fan the flames...
 
Before I consider putting in the effort, let me focus on how I personally perceive the current offering from MA and Planet Calypso.

It must have been an enormous challenge to move the game over to Cryengine, not to mention the learning curve of the developers to make that happen. I think the Calypso team done extraordinarily well to maintain the grinding concept and make it feel like not much had changed within a totally new engine. MA are still to reintroduce some of the old systems, which shows the scale of the task they had on their plate. Not to mention it must have cost a small fortune which we the player base funded.

I believe the game totally changed for many players with the introduction of missions. Although it promoted grinding to a whole new level, it turned many from a very social group of players into stressed out solo hunters “on-a–mission”. I think that alone burnt out many long term players, not just in expenditure but beyond that to mental and psychical burn-out. Many players decided to take it “ALL” on, with the addition of many events and new planets to explore as well.

I’m not saying this is bad in fact the extra offerings had many fantastic positives. I’m simply trying to explain how the gamer changed their view of the world, and that is why I think taming was very much missed, because what players were crying out for was something to do to actually relax and take the foot of the gas (a relaxed fishing concept might have also have helped). Sure we don’t have to do any of what is offered, but lets be truthful about it, if a big tin of sweets is opened you’re not going to take just ‘one’.

So the game fundamentally changed, and what it’s missing is activities to calm the player base especially addicted players, that can also be financially rewarding to MA as well. It could be argued that mining is such as relaxing pursuit, that would be fine if MA hadn’t have covered every inch of Planet Calypso with mobs to force hunting on mining, so that’s why people go to FOMA for relaxed mining (a solution to what really is a problem).

Ok that aside: We have vehicles, space, space ships, new weapons, new planets, new mindforce, new avatars, many new mobs, missions, new noob area, instances, new MM......the list goes on. Bugs aside what has been achieved by the developers is truly remarkable in the timescale.

The recession has taken its toll, but from a positive view point I think behind the scenes much is being done to improve loot. Sure there’re times when it goes wrong out there, and some are still very much struggling. Although personally I notice a difference, it is not as painful, and in fact at times very much enjoyable. Worrying whenever you start a run, is not the mind-set you want your players to be thinking about, and i think much has been done to address that and put the fun back into spending.

I also think that the new weapon and fap introduction has done a lot to not only provide many tools to many levels of professions, but it also provides more access to upper tier of mobs to a whole new set of growing players that had limited access to gear to fight such creatures. For example; MM faps and high end bio chips. This tells me that MA are keen for more players to climb the ladder, even though it will undoubtedly have an impact of older item values.

Every move MA makes is an experiment that they throw at us and then see what happens. It’s easy to be critical considering how much change has been done, although I think we should applaud what has been achieved first.

I may contribute a list of priorities but in truth I think MA and their team in the last year have changed their management structure, realised they need to address the numbers playing and really are trying to make a difference. It’s good to hear our ideas, but I don’t think they need to be told what to do, because I don't think they’re stupid (some arrogance at times, regarding how far they can push players, but not stupid).

Rick
 
1) Priority

Make a prioritized list of what your staff should develop i.e. should they make non essential bugs/issues the priority? how do you decide whats non-essential?

Obviously, first priority is always to be that everything we buy as customers should work and look like it was the day we bought it otherwise you can never trust the vendor, and if you can not trust what you buy so it takes away the idea of having an economy. Otherwise MA have to provide a guarantee that you will get their money back.
Just tell me what would happend if you buy a car who has a speed limit at 300 km/h and when you get it it cant do more then 100 km/h or if you look in a store and buying a black skirt and when you come home and see ita a pink one.

2) No communication

The case for no communication. Can you think of reasons why it would be wiser for you as the developer and your staff not to communicate with the player base?
The spontaneous idea I get is that they hope that the focus away from the problem or forget about it because you do not talk about it more.
 
Hmmm. So you aren't picking a winner until a year from now?

Assuming we're all still here next year, can someone go ahead and necro the thread sometime in March. I'll give it some thought then.
 
1) Priority

Make a prioritized list of what your staff should develop i.e. should they make non essential bugs/issues the priority? how do you decide whats non-essential?

For example should they be fixing black clothing to black as top priority? (as suggested here) and what priority should be attached to taming? what about space? what about hangars? what about fixing exploits? and all other issues? what about new systems that could be much better and interesting? what about developing areas to increase server population? what about development of player base?

i.e. that is a full prioritized holistic approach to all the work your staff need to be doing.

-------------------------------------------

1) Address technical concerns. These would be game breakers in the code base that caused login issues, or game breakers in the code base that caused unintentional shortfalls or windfalls within the dynamic loot system. This is the single most important aspect of the product and IMHO should never fall off number 1 status. Without it there really is no product.

2) Address client playability. This includes issues with server load. Same as #1, but focused on the customer experience.

3) Address new player and mid range player retention. Conduct multiple 30 day studies over the course of 3-5 years, making incremental changes to existing systems and adding in new systems (such as missions). Document player longevity from account creation, including ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) comparisons with the actual subject accounts to see if they fall above or below ARPU. Document average player longevity. Document the effect of established player morale on new player retention if possible and allow for room for incentives toward established players, while keeping in mind that the mission is to expand the player base, not placate existing players who may or may not be impressed. Conduct community Q&A sessions to see what new players want. Growth is always important. It's actually more important to attract new customers than satisfy existing ones completely, though some may consider it impolitic to say so.

4) Fix non game breaking bugs based off a priority list that takes into account time bug has been around, average number of unique complaints from players regarding bug, and severity as defined by loss of immersion due to bug persistence.

5) Introduce new quest lines and improve content diversity across the board, without bias to age or skill level of player. Something for everyone.

6) Re-introduce old systems to bring the entire product back online. Some may think this is more important than to be on number 6, but I have given this a good deal of thought and I respectfully disagree. Without well researched data on what players are currently doing and what they currently want, how can you hope to re-develop an old system into something that actually has more than simply a niche appeal. Research. Then act. Community pressure from a few die-hards may be unpleasant, but the truth is most of the player base out there does not miss what they never experienced. Should they desire the missing system, they likely desire a re-vamped version with features the development team may not have even imagined yet!

7) Introduce new systems as requested from Planet Partners.

8) Conduct research as to the appeal of existing systems. If existing systems are not generating positive growth (ie they are stagnating or losing the interest of players as defined by having players actually using the system) review system for overhaul.

9) Overhaul systems identified above as needed. This includes core engine updates, bringing EU up to DX11 standards, 64 bit clients, space, combat, etc.

10) Conduct market research into gaming trends. Develop new strategies to remain competitive.

11) Market the product. While some may think this should be higher up the chain, marketing a product that is not growing, is not being researched properly, and is not living up to expectations of players and/or investors is actually counterproductive. Those marketing dollars will be spent attracting people who will hear negative things, and then tell their friends those negative things. This will result in long term avoidance of the product.

12) Develop anti-cheating mechanisms.

13) Enforce EULA/TOU. This is low on the chain because to be perfectly frank this is not a development concern until things get grossly out of hand. This is handled by a QA department usually at the first tier of support. A developers job is to create and to code, not babysit problem players. Code solutions should only be pursued if the code itself can alleviate a problem without creating another one.

2) No communication

The case for no communication. Can you think of reasons why it would be wiser for you as the developer and your staff not to communicate with the player base?

-------------------------------------------

In a highly competitive environment non-communication can often be more of a service than communication. For instance, within EU players own property and can trade it. Should it be leaked, even to a property owner, that changes were on the horizon 2 things would occur.

Either the player would like the changes, and encourage folks to prepare, thus gaining competitive advantage over other property owners who may not have changes at this time.

OR

The player would not like the changes, and simply shut off activities surrounding that change, reducing overall traffic to the property and perhaps even damaging development processes as well, as developers are forced to create a plan B on public land to make up for the lack of cooperation on the property managers part.

Should developers find plan B works better, in the long term they may always opt to host events or make changes on public land, thus reducing the overall value of land. Why deal with problem land owners when you can ensure the desired result occurs on company owned property?

The same can be said for items, communication may come from different sources, and without being 100% coordinated different aspects of upcoming items may be revealed in enough detail that market manipulation begins to occur on existing items that may be related. Say folks dump all of current uber weapon XYZ-2000 at large markup knowing that in 6 weeks the markup will be roughly 1/2 its current value due to introduction of a weapon just like it on another planet.

---------------------------------------

If the player base can successfully do the above I will personally pay 10k peds to the person who contributes most to the above two points. That person can decide to give some of it to others who contributed or keep it all for themselves.
 
Rumsponge said:
Assuming we're all still here next year, can someone go ahead and necro the thread sometime in March. I'll give it some thought then.
Click to expand...

That's within the rules so yes you can do that. However, such a strategy places you at a disadvantage because:

* If you place your ideas down on table now you can then update them later since you are allowed multiple unlimited entries
* If you place your idea at end it doesn't allow much room for you to develop your own idea further so you won't be making much use of the development process
* Judging by previous entries nearly everyone edits their entry which proves the point it's better to keep repost and refine your ideas further
* If you post your entry now and others also do the same you can then make use of other peoples input and incorporate that into your own ideas. This would not only benefit yourself but the community.
* Hopefully I'll be bumping this thread if no one else does every week
* To encourage posting early I'm also changing the rules to favour people who post early
 
* please note rule change on second post
 
Let me first explain the angle I'm attacking this from.

I assume Mindark is currently:
- intentionally operating in the grey area between legal and illegal. There is no clear jurisdiction, and as such they "fall between the chairs" when reported to government authorities for the crimes they commit.
- run by blathering megalomaniac idiots (castle, anyone?).
- using the Mexican company they 100% own to illegaly "repurpose" taxable income.
- having the old Virgin Islands or Cayman Islands or whatever angle to keep funneling money to.
- run by criminals.

As I know for a fact I'm far from the only person having this impression about MA, I know for a fact it's required to address it.

My first and most important goal would be to wash away these, and many other percieved (whether actual or not) illegalities, and the life-long dishonesty against customers.


That said, time to try to fix the company.


As the "developer" of EU (which, again, is not a game - by MA's own admission), I put on the hat of someone directly below the CEO or a person between the CEO and the board (the chairman has already been fired).


1) prioritized list of what your staff should develop i.e. should they make non essential bugs/issues the priority? how do you decide whats non-essential?

So, we have 2 priority queues here:
1.1: Essential.
1.2: Non-essential.

What may be interesting, is that I'd prioritize so many activities at the same level, as they can be performed in parallel, that I simply... didn't. Except for the last point in "Essentials". That is the most important thing that MA can never achieve with current leadership.

Essential:

- I'd immediately give each new developer a well-defined section of code to go over with a fine toothed comb for any and all illegalities, past present or potentially future, the current crew had put in there (like the time MindArk illegally used all our computers to mine Bitcoins). Each past/present/planned illegal abuse of customers computing resources will grant the finder 1000SEK, and they get twice their normal pay for the hours it takes to document this to report it to the police and bring the responsible to trial.
The purpose of this is threefold
- 1. Display to existing and future customers we from now on have ZERO tolerance for crimes intentionally committed by "The Company" against customers.
- 2. Bring guilty to ustice.
- 3. Make it crystal clear that "If you yourself ever consider doing anything illegal against our customers, you will be virtually flogged yourself".

- In parallel, I'd inform the PR *department* (note: more than one person) to *communicate* this to the customers AND reply to ANY questions relating to the shift in management. Especially important would be the new rules:

- Honesty.
- Taking responsibility (if we fuck up, WE bloody pay for it too!).
- Information sharing.

- Fix existing bugs that prevents PAYING CUSTOMERS to get what they have paid for. This obviously includes non-black black clothing, fucked up weapon stats, and who knows what.

- Implement PROMISED systems - yes, I'm looking at you, Taming. EU is still in bloody PRE-BETA since VU10! Shame on us!

- Development of an automated sanity-test system for item statistics (getting a #NaN or #INF in an UI is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!).

- EVERY developer, at EVERY level, should learn the mantra "We are like a *real bank*. EVERY line of code you write could affect someones economy, including your own or the company as a whole. If you can't even be bothered to write even auto-tests for this, you are hereby fired on grounds of gross neglect and incompetence".

- Inform EUSO to NEVER delay forwarding of bug reports to "The Company".

- ALWAYS (!) provide feedback on bug reports. For confirmed bugs, they shall be inserted in an Issue-tracking system, and that system SHALL be available to our customers to search, and add more feedback on. For bug reports turning out to not be a bug (a puny percentage I'd guess), at least get back IN PERSON to the one(s) reporting the percieved bug!

- Fix the virtual file system (VFS). While a collection of zip-files like we have today can be made to work, it bloody doesn't when you have live updates of them every now and then!

- Related to VFS: Develop a system that automatically both verifies and sanity- checks Planet Partner's content drops before they are put into the production system.

- Never EVER even begin PLANNING a new "system" or "feature" or whatever without a thorough investigation in how it could affect any and all other existing systems/features/activities/<whatever>. WHEN you finally decide on an implementation, you are required to list ALL interactions you have come to think of, and this will be made public in the Issue tracking system. You are then REQUIRED to follow up on comments on interactions you have not considered, and relay this back to ALL involved or affected in the company.

- Look into any and all reports about avatar invulnerability.

- Look into any and all reports about PvP cheating.

- Inform the whole staff (including subcompanies such as Ilunova and EUSO) that our goal is to get, and keep, an ISO 9001:2008 certification.

- Aim to PLEASE our customers!


Some of these activities can be done in parallel, some will hold up PP content releases, but since I believe PP's are simply (to quote myself) "glorified LA owners" there isn't any penalty clause for keeping them on hold. That said, once all of this is taken care of, PP contracts terms shall become public.

EU is NOT a game - it's a financial system with a gaming front-end.


Non-essential:
- Boot all game-servers from a (cluster of) master-image servers. A VU shouldn't take hours, it should take at most 30 seconds to roll out new images, and perhaps a few minutes to reboot the whole cluster. MAX 5 minutes servers downtime is from this date allowed for a VU - but we aim for 90 seconds.

- Pay final salary to previous QA responsible role (low-priority).

- Get rid of the SIP-client that requires every customer to run IP-servers.

- Improve local storage of system content, in all possible ways.



2) Can you think of reasons why it would be wiser for you as the developer and your staff not to communicate with the player base?

Yes, even 2, but only two.

1. The system is a "long" con.

2. We do such a crappy job that we are even incapable to respond properly to anything - be that criticism, suggestions or even offers of help.


----

I took this from a managerial POV. I assume I have strong and honest (something I believe MA lacks) project leaders below me to provide feedback on any- and every- thing I've missed, and tell me if I made a mistake.
 
tamlin said:
EU is NOT a game - it's a financial system with a gaming front-end.
Click to expand...

EU is, actually a game.

Code: 
[B]game[/B]

[SUP]1 [/SUP]  [geym]  Show IPA  noun, adjective, gam·er, [COLOR=#333333]gam·est,[/COLOR] verb, gamed, gam·ing.  
   [COLOR=#333333]noun[/COLOR]  1. an [COLOR=#333333]amusement[/COLOR] or [COLOR=#333333]pastime:[/COLOR] children's games.  

2. the [COLOR=#333333]material[/COLOR] or [COLOR=#333333]equipment[/COLOR] used in playing certain games: a store selling toys [COLOR=#333333]and[/COLOR] [COLOR=#333333]games.[/COLOR]  

3. a [COLOR=#333333]competitive[/COLOR] [COLOR=#333333]activity[/COLOR] [COLOR=#333333]involving[/COLOR] skill, chance, or endurance [COLOR=#333333]on[/COLOR] the part of two or more [COLOR=#333333]persons[/COLOR] who play [COLOR=#333333]according[/COLOR] [COLOR=#333333]to[/COLOR] [COLOR=#333333]a[/COLOR] [URL="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/set"]set[/URL] of rules, usually for their own [COLOR=#333333]amusement[/COLOR] or for that of [COLOR=#333333]spectators.[/COLOR] 

4. a single [COLOR=#333333]occasion[/COLOR] of [COLOR=#333333]such[/COLOR] an activity, or a definite [COLOR=#333333]portion[/COLOR] of one: the final game of the season; [COLOR=#333333]a[/COLOR] [COLOR=#333333]rubber[/COLOR] of three [COLOR=#333333]games[/COLOR] at bridge.  

5. the [COLOR=#333333]number[/COLOR] of points [COLOR=#333333]required[/COLOR] [COLOR=#333333]to[/COLOR] [COLOR=#333333]win[/COLOR] [COLOR=#333333]a[/COLOR] [COLOR=#333333]game.[/COLOR]

Years ago, MA tried to market EU as a virtual universe and touted it as just that, and not a game -- but it didn't work. Most all people who log into the virtual world take part in aspects of the game, which feature gaming mechanisms, and typical game play which is found in many other MMO's and other game genres. EU is not a financial system. Once you put money into the game, there is no guarantee that you will get anything back in the event of MA going bankrupt. In fact, you can bet that you won't get anything. To say that EU is a financial system with a gaming front-end is pure ridiculousness. I won't even begin to touch on your other ridiculous ideas in your post.
 
Last edited:
Harmony. said:
what's the rush? we have almost a year to come up with a decent answer :)
Click to expand...

An earlier entry may mean the difference between you winning and loosing. Besides, better to have the debate now than later, can always revise it and resubmit later.


So get your answers in, lets see some more entries :coffee:
 
Why I said what I said above...


I assume the following things



  • That MindArk is a company that is interested in the longevity of its product, and not out to make a quick buck.
  • That MindArk personnel by and large are good natured people, who simply had a great idea for an entertainment platform and are happy to be doing something they enjoy.
  • That nobody at MindArk is aware of any activities on their end that are sinister in nature, thus supporting point 1 and point 2, as sinister activities could result in the platform being shut down, multiple people losing a fortune, and even a few people being imprisoned.


Beyond that I am looking at things from my own experience over the last 2 years developing a piece of software. My own employees have had mixed reactions to the software, and while many appreciate it most dont understand it. There has even been one incident where a middle manager has outright refused to work with it, and has started a personal crusade against my entire department because somehow we are evil, incompetent, and this person knows more about development than we do.


Along the road I have had attempts made to steal the entire code base for the software by 'helpful' consultants, I have had entire ideas lifted from the software and marketed in a similar platform, and I have had threats made against my job by uneducated individuals who have sought to compromise the project by reporting 'violations' to federal oversight boards.


Despite all this I get praise virtually every day from staff members who are interested in seeing things grow, and who realize the potential of the project. I also have departments who are very pleased to finally be working with the software and who actually enjoy being able to use it and do their jobs from anywhere in the world without much difficulty.


I do not believe I am alone in the software development community, and it is highly likely that in many ways my experience is mirrored by the folks over at MindArk. Ignorance is often loud, and ignorance can be very destructive. But you can still harness it to achieve positive things, as even in ignorance people are often displaying genuine concern for the well being of something they value. They simply do not understand what role your initiatives are playing in making that happen. Sadly many refuse to listen, having already decided their course.


Given this perspective, I belive MA is operating in complete good faith, and while some things take time they take that time because the people behind the scenes want to see success, and a job well done. Not just a job done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top