I met up with David | Arkadia

I met up with David and Chris yesterday for a few hours. Chris was around for about an hour before he had to leave, but I was hanging out with David and shooting the breeze with him for a few hours.

They have just finished a busy session and shipped off the next Content Update to MA for testing / approval, but even so, as I understand it, David is in the office right now (Sunday afternoon for us now), as I post this.

It is a rare CEO who takes his time out to meet with a random average player to find out his views on the game and the issues he faced online. We discussed Arkadia, EU and lots of other stuff which had nothing to do with the game itself.

Unfortunately he did not tell me when the Arkadia Mod Merc or Mod Fap will drop and from which mobs (there is always hope that I will learn that next time )

My impression of them is that they are pretty cool people, with a passion for EU and Arkadia in particular. It is pretty impressive what they have accomplished with such a small team working together.

Anyway, David agreed to meet up with other players who will be in Singapore around mid October. If any of you are interested, feel free to let me know and we can arrange the details later.

With management which is so involved in the player base, it is making me even more keen to spend alot more time (and money!) in Planet Arkadia.
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I posted the above originally at :
Arkadia Forum

Dave is the reason Arkadia is such a successful planet partner. He listens to his client base and actually communicates. If you PM Chris in Arkadia forum or Dave, they will reply. They will even meet you in game if required. I am yet to see communication at this level from the Calypso Dev team. I give the Ark Dev team full marks! Awesome guys.

Few Scars said:

Dave is the reason Arkadia is such a successful planet partner.

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How exactly are you defining success? Seems a bit far fetched to call a struggling planet partner a success.

Have Arkadia published their yearly accounts? ever? Do you know who all the investors are in it? Perhaps it would be an idea to get some actual facts?

Few Scars said:

He listens to his client base and actually communicates. If you PM Chris in Arkadia forum or Dave, they will reply. They will even meet you in game if required.

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This is simply not true. Not the slightest. From my experience many of my questions were unanswered and remain unanswered. So what criteria does he choose in deciding who to answer and who not?

Few Scars said:

I am yet to see communication at this level from the Calypso Dev team. I give the Ark Dev team full marks! Awesome guys.

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A communication that is based on {removed}. Telling people what they want to hear reminds me of politicians. I'd rather have decent and honest communication or no communication.

I give the ark dev team zero marks. For being full of shit and completely unfair.

GeorgeSkywalker said:

Have Arkadia published their yearly accounts? ever? Do you know who all the investors are in it?
.

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i agree with this statement.... I would like more communication/openess

And I agree with Bjorn, A-Team is the best group of developers and support.
And Arkadia - the best EU planet in my opinion.

GeorgeSkywalker said:

Few Scars said:

Dave is the reason Arkadia is such a successful planet partner.

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How exactly are you defining success? Seems a bit far fetched to call a struggling planet partner a success.

Have Arkadia published their yearly accounts? ever? Do you know who all the investors are in it? Perhaps it would be an idea to get some actual facts?

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By looking at activity, you can clearly see that Arkadia is most a(ttra)ctive PP.
Although they are far behind from out beloved Calypso, they leave all other competition in dust cloud, including oldest PP RockTropia.
You can either interpret that as Arkadia being very successful or RT being utter failure (or both statements at a time ).

I agree, Arkadia is the best planet out there.

rastamannen said:

I agree, Arkadia is the best planet out there.

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We all know Calypso is THE best!
But yeah, Arkadia is best out of PPs .

GeorgeSkywalker said:

How exactly are you defining success? Seems a bit far fetched to call a struggling planet partner a success.

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Try and eat a Singapore mud crab in chilli sauce without a bib; you'll know what it meant then

xaph said:

Try and eat a Singapore mud crab in chilli sauce without a bib; you'll know what it meant then

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I've eaten chilli crabs and stuff in Singapore before, but mud crabs? Never heard of them ......

@ Ace ... perhaps it is you who should check facts before making your derogatory statements, or could your responses be as a result of your issues at the Arkadia Forum that got you banned, which is an incredibly rare action at that forum.

I've seen your postings at PCF and EP slamming Dave, the A-Team and Arkadia in general, and you've definitely been unfair in your statements. I've never responded to you about it before, but I believe that you're just taking it way too far. It's apparent you are still holding a grudge and it shows in your harsh words that really say nothing other than it's yet another opportunity for you to make negative comments to get back at Arkadia. It's time to move on already.

And I'm really surprised to see that you agree with Ace's comments Rose, it would be interesting to know what your issues with Arkadia are and why you feel the same.

And for the record, I absolutely agree with Bjorn - from day one when Dave announced that he was developing a planet, he set a precedent with communication, and he has been consistent ever since, not only at the Arkadia Forum, but in his generosity to do live radio interviews and share quite a bit with the community. They've done their very best to keep us informed as much as possible, and it's a lot.

Calypso is a 10 year old planet, so it's quite unfair to compare apples and oranges when placing value, but ... out of all the new planets on the platform, Arkadia has given us more than any others, and as far as I'm concerned, has surpassed any of the other new planets with regard to content and results. Bugs happen, they get fixed quite quickly, and if it's something on MA's side, they keep us informed.

Arkadia has a very dedicated population, and no matter where they travel to at times, they always come back. They keep us informed, and I'm about to do 2 more articles on Arkadia. They've been innovative, and even give people from the community an opportunity to contribute their talent to Arkadia content, which is an ongoing thing.

There's so much good about Arkadia as a planet and development team I could go on and on, and while it's not for everyone, there are certain things about Dave and the A-Team, as well as the planet itself, that I could go on further, but will just say ...

Ace, stop being so driven by your obvious grudge against Arkadia and a contest where you disagreed with the results or details and just get on with it, instead of using every opportunity to slam Dave and Arkadia with every derogatory thing you can think of that actually has published evidence to prove you wrong. Sometimes, you just don't need an annual report, or a listing of who has invested in what to know if a venture is failing or thriving, and I would say that Arkadia is definitely thriving, and far better than any of the other new planets.

GeorgeSkywalker said:

This is simply not true. Not the slightest. From my experience many of my questions were unanswered and remain unanswered. So what criteria does he choose in deciding who to answer and who not?

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From reading your post, I think I could take a guess.

In all reality, I've only been on Arkadia a couple times, but I was one of the earliest members of Global Alliance when Dave started it. I spent a lot of time chatting with him back in the day and I was always impressed with his excitement for the game and his patience in dealing with difficult people.

In business, it's not really possible to please everyone, but you'd have a hard time convincing me that he doesn't at least listen.

I had no idea that there is so much "bad blood" between some people here and the Arkadia's management.

I only visited Arkadia about 2 weeks ago, for the first time ever, stayed there for a week, and started following their forum as well.

From what I have noticed in that short duration, management is alot more responsive there then here.

I have been impressed with what I saw in the forum, and have been even more impressed after meeting up with David in real life. He seems to be someone who has a vision of what he wants to do in the short and long run and is aware of the things he has to do to get there.

No doubt MA has alot of power, but planet management can at least be more active in the forums and with other lines of communications so that we, the players at least feel that we are being heard and being taken into consideration. And if the PP has to wait on MA to fix something (like the pirate summon issues), at least the PP can respond and say that MA has been notified and that we have to await MA's pleasure, instead of acting like nothing is going on and ignoring the issues for weeks at a time.

End of the day, it all comes back to how the management seems to take an active interest in what the community is saying, and is trying to make things better when players think that something is bad.

MindStar9 said:

Sometimes, you just don't need an annual report, or a listing of who has invested in what to know if a venture is failing or thriving,

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Really? So without knowing any facts you can just state something out of thin air? Wasn't it David Dobson who stated in an interview he got arrested at airport because of essentially how badly his planet was doing? since his wages did not reflect those of a CEO the authorities there got suspicious. If he himself is saying his planet is struggling perhaps it is?

Who has invested in Ark and who works for them is very important. Without that I may as well conclude you have some involvement in Arkadia because of your obviously biased posts. Biased because any wrongdoing or nonsense they get upto is either ignored or swept under the carpet by yourself.

All I have ever heard you say is how good their communication skills are despite the fact that they are rubbish. What on earth is that based on? they have rubbish communication skills because all Ark do is point the finger at MA. When have they taken responsibility for their mistakes? Never as far as I'm aware.

Communication skills are not about pointing the finger at MA or RT which David Dobson loves to do despite having signed some kind of agreement that they are not supposed to comment on MA or other planet partners. He gets the popular vote due to playing the "MA card" and other "PP card" he's a bullshitter. People like yourself love having a dig at MA hence his popularity.

In my experience someone who talks the truth will rarely be popular. Someone who bullshits however and says what people want to hear often gets the popular vote.


Finally, just so that the important question does not get lost. What is your involvement with Arkadia?

George, maybe you could give us some idea of how the guys from Arkadia have let you down?

As a casual observer, I can't even imagine an aspect of the game that PP's have any control over that could get anybody's undies in such a bunch as yours seem to be. Exactly what did Dave do to you?

GeorgeSkywalker said:

Finally, just so that the important question does not get lost. What is your involvement with Arkadia?

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This is the only part of your post that I will respond to, because the rest is a continuous personal attack against Dave and his team and you know it.

To answer your question ... Dave and I have been long-time friends, and long before he decided to develop a planet, but I'm hardly a yes person, nor agree with everything that someone says, but I know what's truth and what isn't based on personal knowledge, and am not someone to take something out of context and make comments or statements such as you have, especially about a person's personal life.

While Dave and I have been long-time friends, my relationship with Arkadia is strictly media-related.

With regard to being bias ... I appreciate when management takes the time to communicate with the players, to keep them informed, to invite their ideas and even participate in designing content, but also listening to what's working and what isn't working. Arkadia also addresses any issues, and as one who has worked behind the scenes as an official of a different PP, I can tell you that it is not always the PP's fault that something isn't working, or that a bug isn't fixed.

If I'm biased against any planet, it would be Cyrene, because I worked with them behind the scenes for a year as an official, and I know their potential, not to mention an amazing storyline, but Cyrene is flying below the radar right now while working on development, and Kris and Lykke are doing an excellent job at communicating with the players and addressing questions and issues while Ed is working on other related projects.

There are things I can talk about, and things I can't talk about with regard to MA, PPs, and our universe in general, but I can tell you that quite frequently, you are way off base with some of the comments and speculation you put out there, which is not only unfair, but has potential to do damage if some believe everything you write.

I've said before that there's nothing wrong with speculation, as long as it's done well and really gives people a bit to think about that could result in some great discussion, or lead to potential thinking and/or changes on the part of MA or the PPs. Substance-based speculation is like uncovering a mystery at times, and it can be fun.

And just for the record ... there are things I really like about all of the planets, even Space, but that's quite messed up right now with too many issues, so you won't find me there too often, unless I feel like meeting up with the pirates to give them a little fun wasting their bullets.

My relationship with any official is strictly media-related, but I think you already know that George. It's what helps me to bring news and information to the community, and I appreciate it when I'm approached to do something new.

You and I have been friends for a very long time too George, but for some time now, it seems to me that you have become very angry, and while I'm all for venting and getting it out, you seem to make it personal, and make statements that just are not true whatsoever, so I have no clue now what's going on with you. I actually feel bad that we find ourselves in these banters at times, but I'm just not one to stand down when you go off the way you do at times.

I'm hoping that things will get better all the way around with our universe.

GeorgeSkywalker said:

Finally, just so that the important question does not get lost. What is your involvement with Arkadia?

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Based on the evidence, I must conclude that you are {removed} whose only recourse to relieve the pain of that realization is to try to attack others...

Personally I find your attempts at writing anything relevant here hilariously pathetic.

-O-
(biased and proud of it)

Well George since u are demanding facts in every post u make how about stating some facts yourself?

GeorgeSkywalker said:

Really? So without knowing any facts you can just state something out of thin air? Wasn't it David Dobson who stated in an interview he got arrested at airport because of essentially how badly his planet was doing? since his wages did not reflect those of a CEO the authorities there got suspicious. If he himself is saying his planet is struggling perhaps it is?

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Any startup which is growing from scratch goes through an expansion phase. This is when the business increases, not the profit margin as growth is important and business's tend to reinvest there profits into the growth. If you had any business sense, you would know this but then i guess business is not your forte. In that case why comment on something when you have little knowledge in that subject

GeorgeSkywalker said:

All I have ever heard you say is how good their communication skills are despite the fact that they are rubbish. What on earth is that based on? they have rubbish communication skills because all Ark do is point the finger at MA. When have they taken responsibility for their mistakes? Never as far as I'm aware.

Communication skills are not about pointing the finger at MA or RT which David Dobson loves to do despite having signed some kind of agreement that they are not supposed to comment on MA or other planet partners. He gets the popular vote due to playing the "MA card" and other "PP card" he's a bullshitter. People like yourself love having a dig at MA hence his popularity.

In my experience someone who talks the truth will rarely be popular. Someone who bullshits however and says what people want to hear often gets the popular vote.

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I'll try address a few things here. Communication skill is exactly about telling people whats going on. If MA has all the controls and if Arkadian team cannot do anything about something , they have two choices : a) Keep mum about it and b) Tell there customers that the ball is in the upper court. The fact that they choose b) does not mean they are trying to pass on the blame but they are just making it clear to the customer that they are at work with the problem and awaiting further action from MA's end. Now if that makes MA work faster to resolve the problem and puts the onus on MA team, thats exactly what is needed unlike Calypso team which chooses to keep an air of mystery around everything. ( The fact that the Caly team and MA team are probably the same might have to do with this).

What he has signed with MA is between David and MA and you are being naive there commenting about NDA's which you urself have no clue about.

Lastly,

In my experience someone who talks the truth will rarely be popular. Someone who bullshits however and says what people want to hear often gets the popular vote.

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You seem to have more experience with the wrong kind of people. BS always gets exposed and truth is what gets sustained over time. Every business knows that BS doesnt last long.

Cheers,

Divinity

PS : You can -rep me again for something i say, but you will never get the satisfaction of getting one from me.

PPS: I know after this post you are gonna think i am somehow part of Arkadia, so please do weave a conspiracy theory. You usually have one

Divinity said:

BS always gets exposed and truth is what gets sustained over time. Every business knows that BS doesnt last long.

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Like it did with "Hunt the LA, WIN the LA"?

Divinity said:

If MA has all the controls and if Arkadian team cannot do anything about something , they have two choices : a) Keep mum about it and b) Tell there customers that the ball is in the upper court. The fact that they choose b) does not mean they are trying to pass on the blame but they are just making it clear to the customer that they are at work with the problem and awaiting further action from MA's end.

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Well, I think one of the issues here is that they have (at least once) let MA get the blame for release delays that were entirely their (Arkadia dev teams) fault. This by withholding information, and probably to make themselves look better.

Since this has happened, it is difficult to know if it is happening again or not.

Nighthawk said:

Well, I think one of the issues here is that they have (at least once) let MA get the blame for release delays that were entirely their (Arkadia dev teams) fault. This by withholding information, and probably to make themselves look better.

Since this has happened, it is difficult to know if it is happening again or not.

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Can u direct me to somewhere that i can get some more info on this m8?? I am afraid i dont track arkadian forum much so it would be gr8 if you could.

Cheers,

Divinity

From my view point Arkadia team's problem is that they listen too much players. They get some things right with that, but some things need view point of the bigger picture than individuals' experiences. Also, they lack own ideas. Even Rocktropia has more own vision than Arkadia. Treasure hunting is after all just mining with different textures. But I think if they have satisfied customers as they seem to have, they are doing things right.

MindStar9 said:

If I'm biased against any planet, it would be Cyrene, because I worked with them behind the scenes for a year as an official, and I know their potential, not to mention an amazing storyline, but Cyrene is flying below the radar right now while working on development, and Kris and Lykke are doing an excellent job at communicating with the players and addressing questions and issues while Ed is working on other related projects.

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I agree, Cyrene officials are really nice and helpful to players. Hope it stays that way.

rastamannen said:

Well George since u are demanding facts in every post u make how about stating some facts yourself?

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IIRC it was the apartment decorating event. George didn't like the rules and did something on the forum to interfere with the event. IIRC he was giving out peds on the forum to get votes for his apartment or something absurd like that and got banned. It's been a LONG time so I don't remember all the details just that the whole situation seemed pretty silly to me.

I think Rose got involved in the "radio wars". Since I don't listen to EU radio except for the rare interviews with entropia devs, I don't know any more than that. I think one of the radio personalities was an Ark adviser, beyond that I don't know the details of the drama or how it was connected to Arkadia. Maybe she will share.

I think Cyrene is doing a great job with the resources they have, good communication there too.

Chris|Arkadia has been visiting ingame every day at the quarry to keep in touch with players. When players realize that there are actual people behind the game who care about what goes on, it's a great thing for morale. But... they also have to be careful what they say since any casual comment from the devs could easily be misinterpreted and taken to mean something it doesn't. That might be one reason why you don't see devs in the game all the time.

anyone else disturbed by Georges ongoing man crush on dave?

Neil Stockton said:

IIRC it was the apartment decorating event. George didn't like the rules and did something on the forum to try and ruin the entire event for everyone. IIRC it was something like he was giving out money on the forum to get votes for his apartment or something absurd like that and got banned. It's been a LONG time so I don't remember all the details just that the whole situation seemed pretty silly to me.

I think Rose's problem with Arkadia was that she got involved in the "radio wars". Since I don't listen to EU radio except for the rare interviews with entropia devs, I don't know any more than that. I think one of the radio personalities was an Ark adviser, beyond that I don't know the details of the drama.

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If this is correct then you all should calm down and get a life

I am 16 and it seems to me that teenage girls bullshit less than you Ace ( And they bullshit a lot rofl)

Whatever happened between you and the Ark team personally does not effect how awesome i think they are

And i know for a fact that they have excellent communication

All i have to say for now Hopefully the Mod's won't lock it as i am having more fun reading this crap than i am grinding caraboks on ARKADIA

Hope to see more bullshit soon!

Fatyyboy

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A little reminder of some important forum rules:

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JohnCapital said:

--Mod's comment--
Having different opinions and expressing them is fine.

What's not fine, regardless of what side you are debating, you do not get to sling insults and name calling here.

A little reminder of some important forum rules:




--/Mod's comment--

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Sorry Teenage girls ROFL

Divinity said:

Can u direct me to somewhere that i can get some more info on this m8?? I am afraid i dont track arkadian forum much so it would be gr8 if you could.

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There was one update this year where the A-team (maybe other PPs too?) asked MA to delay the VU deadline. I think it was around the avatar update, if you remember the amount of bugs that needed fixing then I imagine it was related to that. I don't think they ever "blamed" MA for delaying the update though. Since collectively we know a tiny fraction of what goes on behind the scenes during updates, assigning "blame" for VU delays is pointless. Even a platform update like upcoming one, you never know if MA needs to coordinate with the PPs, even though they don't contribute new content. Though it is fun to blame MA for stuff... I suppose deep down we all want to get even a little for the "bad loot" we've had.