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Virtus
03-07-2010, 09:42 AM
While I have created this section I certainly hope that once the game comes around that everyone will be using in game systems to communicate and discuss mainly the Totems since that is what they are there for.

Maybe once the game comes I will temp lock this section to try to get people to use the in game system.

The totems should allow enough communication that the forums are not needed.

I would hate to see another game go to the dogs because it was not all in game.

Xx1327
03-07-2010, 09:45 AM
but of course :)
personally I usually ignore the game forums and do everything in game.

Teotwauki
03-08-2010, 03:41 AM
I'm glad you posted that Virtus, in a game like this where RP is not enforced, it may not be needed, but I do not doubt it will increase imersion ten fold. It does suck when there's an in game event and some **** goes and posts all the details on the forums.

Edit:
Not to mention all the flame wars, trolling and general crap that goes on. One thing I may recomend to you though, since you seem to be the Magic behind the forums. I'm stealing this idea from another game... Make a private leaders board, entry on application, for those people who play the game a lot to have inteligent discussion with developers about things that need to be changed in the game.

Not an elitist community, but somewhere without the rants, flaming, insults. Kept clear of spam, a place for issues to be discussed by players with admin.

Toxic
03-08-2010, 04:28 AM
Teotwauki wrote:

I'm glad you posted that Virtus, in a game like this where RP is not enforced, it may not be needed, but I do not doubt it will increase imersion ten fold. It does suck when there's an in game event and some **** goes and posts all the details on the forums.

Edit:
Not to mention all the flame wars, trolling and general crap that goes on. One thing I may recomend to you though, since you seem to be the Magic behind the forums. I'm stealing this idea from another game... Make a private leaders board, entry on application, for those people who play the game a lot to have inteligent discussion with developers about things that need to be changed in the game.

Not an elitist community, but somewhere without the rants, flaming, insults. Kept clear of spam, a place for issues to be discussed by players with admin.

What about the casual community? What if the people who play the game a lot are all griefers? Shouldn't everyone get a say in what goes on? The people in the leader boards might not have all the skills so they don't know whats good/bad in some areas of the game. This may work on other games where players can explore all areas of the game, but you can't in this game (Seeing as you can't master all skills) so IMHO this is not an advisable course of action.

Virtus
03-08-2010, 06:00 AM
There will be an area for subscribers only so that we can hear your ideas/wishes for the game. This way we make sure the actual players are making the decisions.

aliksteel
03-08-2010, 06:36 AM
That's cool Virtus. Sounding great, I have done a blog or two on how it seems the people that play on the forums and not the game get's there way more times the the players do. This should at lest make them pay a Sub to play on the forum area's that will count.

TangerineSky
03-08-2010, 10:03 AM
Virtus wrote:

While I have created this section I certainly hope that once the game comes around that everyone will be using in game systems to communicate and discuss mainly the Totems since that is what they are there for.

Maybe once the game comes I will temp lock this section to try to get people to use the in game system.

The totems should allow enough communication that the forums are not needed.

I would hate to see another game go to the dogs because it was not all in game.While I can't comment on the totems because I have not seen the functionality, you may want to keep in mind that there are a lot of people that have a love for forums because of certain features that are difficult to replicate in-game.

Many of us have long work days with no access to anything other then forums, so in-game communication isn't always available.

I don't think a temp lock is the best solution (not a terrible one), rather a functional communication system that provides incentive to use by itself. If the system works well, I wouldn't worry about needing additional encouragement for people to use it.

TangerineSky
03-08-2010, 10:05 AM
Virtus wrote:

There will be an area for subscribers only so that we can hear your ideas/wishes for the game. This way we make sure the actual players are making the decisions.This idea sounds good in theory, as long as you don't completely exclude the rest of the community because input from potential subscribers is valuable as well.

Virtus
03-08-2010, 10:09 AM
potential subscribers may or may not become subscribers. We only want info from those who have played the game and experienced the features first hand, for only they can tell us what they like and don't like about the current system.

Everyone else can always give their ideas in the other section and they will be listened to and considered.

shadowlz
03-08-2010, 10:12 AM
Virtus wrote:

potential subscribers may or may not become subscribers. We only want info from those who have played the game and experienced the features first hand, for only they can tell us what they like and don't like about the current system.

Everyone else can always give their ideas in the other section and they will be listened to and considered.

and by that he means ignored and disregarded to the junk pile. :)

TangerineSky
03-08-2010, 10:14 AM
Virtus wrote:

potential subscribers may or may not become subscribers. We only want info from those who have played the game and experienced the features first hand, for only they can tell us what they like and don't like about the current system.

Everyone else can always give their ideas in the other section and they will be listened to and considered.That makes sense and I agree, I just know that listening to a smaller collective of people may not always be the best route to go.

I was a part of the closed DF beta which was composed of 200 or so members for 4-5 months before open beta and the problems I saw were polarized opinions that garnered support and were not indicative of the majority of the community opinion outside of closed beta thus leading to a false representation for the devs.
I would hate to see the same problems arise.

Teotwauki
03-08-2010, 04:17 PM
Toxic wrote:

Teotwauki wrote:

I'm glad you posted that Virtus, in a game like this where RP is not enforced, it may not be needed, but I do not doubt it will increase imersion ten fold. It does suck when there's an in game event and some **** goes and posts all the details on the forums.

Edit:
Not to mention all the flame wars, trolling and general crap that goes on. One thing I may recomend to you though, since you seem to be the Magic behind the forums. I'm stealing this idea from another game... Make a private leaders board, entry on application, for those people who play the game a lot to have inteligent discussion with developers about things that need to be changed in the game.

Not an elitist community, but somewhere without the rants, flaming, insults. Kept clear of spam, a place for issues to be discussed by players with admin.

What about the casual community? What if the people who play the game a lot are all griefers? Shouldn't everyone get a say in what goes on? The people in the leader boards might not have all the skills so they don't know whats good/bad in some areas of the game. This may work on other games where players can explore all areas of the game, but you can't in this game (Seeing as you can't master all skills) so IMHO this is not an advisable course of action.

In a perfect world, everyone is able to submit a thread to the admin outlining all of your woes, Xsyon comes and takes a look and discusses the problems with you, then works to change the broken skill.

In the real world, a game with 10 or so developers can't sit there and troll the forums reading thousands of posts, rants, flame wars and suggestions about every broken skill.


Not everyone is granted access to the leaders board, the idea is to keep it small, a max of 20 or so people, so the discussions are kept mature, to the point and accurate. You can't expect the admin to read through 500 new forum posts every day to find out what needs fixing in the game. So it's the duty of the leaders board to help the admins decide what needs fixing and how.

Anyway, just an idea, at the moment it isn't even needed, but if the game ends up with a massive population (MMORPG, get it, lol), the forums will be to crowded with every man and his dog putting forward a point of view.

Biships
03-09-2010, 09:41 AM
I agree with Sky on not closing the forums. I need something to do at work :D As for the subscribers forums I like it. So many posts on game forums are from people that don't play and just like to regurgitate what they hear.

Angyll
03-16-2010, 04:00 PM
Wow...it's like someone is in my head...

Personally, when I delve into a game, I pretty much never look at the forums again. I'd rather live and find out things INSIDE, then sift through the rants, trolls, and garbage that forums tend to generate. Luckily, I have always had a few friends who are addicted to forums and could get me any pertinent info that they gleaned, without me having to be subject to all the trash. Other than that, I use just personal guild forums.

However, I ALSO agree that there are times when you are greatly immersed in an world, then forced out due to work and RL, that you want your fix to stay abreast of things, keep in touch. What about a mechanic like EQ2 used, where you could log into your guild chat while not being in game? Personally, I thought that was awesome! It let me keep in touch, continue to do administrative duties, and even participate in RP even when I couldn't game. It wasn't anything that was installed on the host PC either (since few of us get the option to install something at work machines), but just a log in from the website.

I would love to see this feature implemented, or something similar. That way, information can be focused in game, and those who must attend to the drudgery and interruption that is RL can still participate. I think this would help create a closer, more involved community. And anything that allows for a more immersive world, you better believe I am all for! I have been waiting a long time for a world I can get lost in again.

gemini
03-16-2010, 06:22 PM
I agree with angyll. That feature rocked. Would be a huge benefit to us work-a-holics

Kailas
03-16-2010, 07:26 PM
I would go so far as to go against established consensus and say that beta testers should be bug finders and glitch alarms, not guidance material. Games that change for "what the fans want" end up with weird amalgamations and awkward mechanics. Developers have a vision, it's why they made the game a certain way, they should stick to their vision. Imagine the movie Spartacus but at the end Spartacus wins and Rome granted him freedom and he went and lived happily ever after because that's what the fans wanted. Fans don't really know what they want.

In that vein keeping a "pure" forum for experienced people to give their opinion can actually work against you, I'd honestly just give them a bug report feature and then if something really needs to be changed it will be reverberated repeatedly by the majority of the community. So yeah, keep it in game.

TangerineSky
03-16-2010, 08:01 PM
Kailas wrote:

I would go so far as to go against established consensus and say that beta testers should be bug finders and glitch alarms, not guidance material. Games that change for "what the fans want" end up with weird amalgamations and awkward mechanics. Developers have a vision, it's why they made the game a certain way, they should stick to their vision. Imagine the movie Spartacus but at the end Spartacus wins and Rome granted him freedom and he went and lived happily ever after because that's what the fans wanted. Fans don't really know what they want.

In that vein keeping a "pure" forum for experienced people to give their opinion can actually work against you, I'd honestly just give them a bug report feature and then if something really needs to be changed it will be reverberated repeatedly by the majority of the community. So yeah, keep it in game.Bingo

Asmodeous
03-17-2010, 11:48 AM
Kailas wrote:

I would go so far as to go against established consensus and say that beta testers should be bug finders and glitch alarms, not guidance material. Games that change for "what the fans want" end up with weird amalgamations and awkward mechanics. Developers have a vision, it's why they made the game a certain way, they should stick to their vision. Imagine the movie Spartacus but at the end Spartacus wins and Rome granted him freedom and he went and lived happily ever after because that's what the fans wanted. Fans don't really know what they want.

In that vein keeping a "pure" forum for experienced people to give their opinion can actually work against you, I'd honestly just give them a bug report feature and then if something really needs to be changed it will be reverberated repeatedly by the majority of the community. So yeah, keep it in game.

One should take an example from CCP "That's a good idea, and we'll think about it, but currently it is not something that fits in with our game concept."

I love a company that can politely tell the gamers "You don't know the first thing about game design. Shh," and the players will thank them for it.