Reintroductions and reflections.

[Glorian]

@Az does this mean you'll be coming into voice every so often to talk with guild leaders/representatives and answering questions about the direction of the game/changes and overall balance like you used to?

That's something that a friend of mine was looking to setup for me if he were to come back to the staff.

Spoiler:

I Have to spend 2 words against this, i alredy hated the fact that "some ppl " can bypass forum and go dev chats , i know listen to guilds is important but do thing behind the curtain with some only is basically trash the forum....


We have a forum also with a balance section LETS USE IT. If you really wanna talk with guild make forum section for that

-only guild leader can write
- only guild with min members
-only guild born from x times

-etc

Make things chill and trasparent( allcan read) you still give bigger guild privileges but ppl see what is going on and see who do good and how ppl behaviour and especially who is bias guild wise.

Please no more things behind the curtains they do more harm than good especially since is proved that you can talk with ppl such aza or penril this can be done or other ppl with same mentality / attitude can take the burden.

The thing Bamboozeled talked about was the Dev Q&A Sessions I was reffering too.
Guild Leaders were invited with the message that if they don't behave they fly out of the chat.
And then one after the next everyone was allowed a Question in text or voice and Aza told what was the current state, or what was the problem so something was fixed like it was.

With Discord we could pretty much make such a Session open to everyone and everyone is just muted. I was in skype Sessions with 130 attendands all on Mute.

This wasn't some kind of discussion.
But it was a good feeling that they listen to the questions and answer them correctly. Also some question were stuff that really concerned back then. State of Dungeons, Patcher and all that.

I would really look orward to such a Dev Q&A.
Make it Saturday 23:00 /time and the EU Playeres as well as the NA ones could hop on and listen to the Masters voice.

[Tesq]

That's something that a friend of mine was looking to setup for me if he were to come back to the staff.

Spoiler:

I Have to spend 2 words against this, i alredy hated the fact that "some ppl " can bypass forum and go dev chats , i know listen to guilds is important but do thing behind the curtain with some only is basically trash the forum....


We have a forum also with a balance section LETS USE IT. If you really wanna talk with guild make forum section for that

-only guild leader can write
- only guild with min members
-only guild born from x times

-etc

Make things chill and trasparent( allcan read) you still give bigger guild privileges but ppl see what is going on and see who do good and how ppl behaviour and especially who is bias guild wise.

Please no more things behind the curtains they do more harm than good especially since is proved that you can talk with ppl such aza or penril this can be done or other ppl with same mentality / attitude can take the burden.

The thing Bamboozeled talked about was the Dev Q&A Sessions I was reffering too.
Guild Leaders were invited with the message that if they don't behave they fly out of the chat.
And then one after the next everyone was allowed a Question in text or voice and Aza told what was the current state, or what was the problem so something was fixed like it was.

With Discord we could pretty much make such a Session open to everyone and everyone is just muted. I was in skype Sessions with 130 attendands all on Mute.

This wasn't some kind of discussion.
But it was a good feeling that they listen to the questions and answer them correctly. Also some question were stuff that really concerned back then. State of Dungeons, Patcher and all that.

I would really look orward to such a Dev Q&A.
Make it Saturday 23:00 /time and the EU Playeres as well as the NA ones could hop on and listen to the Masters voice.

Ah ok then i miss interpret it , tought i still hope it dont happen.

[Glorian]

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

I Have to spend 2 words against this, i alredy hated the fact that "some ppl " can bypass forum and go dev chats , i know listen to guilds is important but do thing behind the curtain with some only is basically trash the forum....


We have a forum also with a balance section LETS USE IT. If you really wanna talk with guild make forum section for that

-only guild leader can write
- only guild with min members
-only guild born from x times

-etc

Make things chill and trasparent( allcan read) you still give bigger guild privileges but ppl see what is going on and see who do good and how ppl behaviour and especially who is bias guild wise.

Please no more things behind the curtains they do more harm than good especially since is proved that you can talk with ppl such aza or penril this can be done or other ppl with same mentality / attitude can take the burden.

The thing Bamboozeled talked about was the Dev Q&A Sessions I was reffering too.
Guild Leaders were invited with the message that if they don't behave they fly out of the chat.
And then one after the next everyone was allowed a Question in text or voice and Aza told what was the current state, or what was the problem so something was fixed like it was.

With Discord we could pretty much make such a Session open to everyone and everyone is just muted. I was in skype Sessions with 130 attendands all on Mute.

This wasn't some kind of discussion.
But it was a good feeling that they listen to the questions and answer them correctly. Also some question were stuff that really concerned back then. State of Dungeons, Patcher and all that.

I would really look orward to such a Dev Q&A.
Make it Saturday 23:00 /time and the EU Playeres as well as the NA ones could hop on and listen to the Masters voice.

Ah ok then i miss interpret it , tought i still hope it dont happen.

Ah also I missed my important part. Instead of Devs and Guild Leaders I don't see a problem with making it Community and Devs.

[Fallenkezef]

I can't give you hard guarantees on anything. It depends whether you think my force of personality and general management style can control this situation or not.

Well at this point it can't hurt to try. Summat has to be done to bring the staff and community together and remove the wedge that has grown.

I think part of the issue is due to the siege mentality that tends to develop in these situations. Take Torque as an example, he works hard, throws himself into trying to make the game better and gets slagged off whenever he dares to touch somebody's fave class. I can't blame the guy for developing a touchy and dismissive attitude.

I've said time and time again, a good step is locking the patch notes for at least a few days, I'd lock it till the next patch. It just turns into a slagging off session whenever a class is nerfed or buffed before anyone can even experiment with the changes made. I can only imagine how this makes the staff feel, who have worked on balancing changes only to get slagged off everytime they make a change.

[Acidic]

Community certainly is an improvement, guild leaders who would attend and thus have more influence tend to be from niche areas of the game and as such the coverage of points of view limited.
The big question is to me around community is who represents such a broad beast in a format that is half manageable. Typically the moderators /balance team they read all the spam and balance out the different perspectives.
This is typically why results from balance discutions are not 1:1 with the discution.
But that said certain niche areas does warrant niche meetings. Doubt any would argue with dwarf being over represented in a role play future discution

[Azarael]

I think part of the issue is due to the siege mentality that tends to develop in these situations. Take Torque as an example, he works hard, throws himself into trying to make the game better and gets slagged off whenever he dares to touch somebody's fave class. I can't blame the guy for developing a touchy and dismissive attitude.

Siege mentality is a very real concern, and I've seen some of the most intelligent people I've ever known act like fools because of it. You can see from what dur3al quoted up there that this is exactly how it feels at some points, and while he didn't quote that post of mine to outline how much of a stress it can be when you are receiving vitriol, it does get that point across.

[Azarael]

I get it, hence my first statement that it's just a PR move because of how unlikely anything is to change. Regarding the comment on creating characters and selling them off, that pretty much already happens just without the selling. People on the team have modified both level and renown plus full gear sets and tallies. Happens on most of their characters and that was happening at least 2 years ago and carried on all the way through to when I left and even when I came back. There is rarely a punishment for it. I'm not defending anybody here and I am guilty of it myself. But if this whole trust thing between the community and staff is to work then they may as well come out and be honest about all the shady stuff that goes on. Can't disagree with what you said.

Outside of Event and Experimental Chars I have not yet seen someone modify renown or exp for their chars. All staff commands are logged and if a person of staff is to get himself some new dyes or a fancy appearance item these things have to be stated in the dedicated forum thread.Cheating yourself Items that increase your power is against the rules as far as I can tell. However, I cant say if these rules existed while you were still GM.

Source devs during my time were allowed to do this. I don't apologise for it and I'm very surprised Ade is mentioning it as if it is some dirty secret. This was done so that source devs would not spend their time grinding and leveling up, and would have the equipment required to make better judgements about the state of classes and the game. After an internal scandal involving secret vendors in dead zones, all usage of staff power to advance a character was logged internally.

[Glorian]

Community certainly is an improvement, guild leaders who would attend and thus have more influence tend to be from niche areas of the game and as such the coverage of points of view limited.
...

Quite on the contrary. Most Guild leaders of a guild with anything above 2 active players per evening usually have quite a good overview of the classes and how they work in an RvR Enviroment. Because most of the time they see threats from the other side and try to get the maximum out of their own synergies.
Also they run regularly PVE Sessions, 6 mens and the usual Warband.

But yes managing such an Q&A could be interesting.

SO if I would do it.

Make Discord Server for it, or use official one.
Make a Text and Voice Chat.
Set everyone to No Permission on write and speak.
Questions should be send to the moderator.
The moderator put the questions in the text channel and filter out double questions and profanities.
Dev reads the Question and Answers.
Audience Listens.

Rinse and repeat for an hour.
END.

[Fallenkezef]

Community certainly is an improvement, guild leaders who would attend and thus have more influence tend to be from niche areas of the game and as such the coverage of points of view limited.
...

Quite on the contrary. Most Guild leaders of a guild with anything above 2 active players per evening usually have quite a good overview of the classes and how they work in an RvR Enviroment. Because most of the time they see threats from the other side and try to get the maximum out of their own synergies.
Also they run regularly PVE Sessions, 6 mens and the usual Warband.

But yes managing such an Q&A could be interesting.

SO if I would do it.

Make Discord Server for it, or use official one.
Make a Text and Voice Chat.
Set everyone to No Permission on write and speak.
Questions should be send to the moderator.
The moderator put the questions in the text channel and filter out double questions and profanities.
Dev reads the Question and Answers.
Audience Listens.

Rinse and repeat for an hour.
END.

Q&A sessions work very well in other games and spheres, it's worth a shot.

[peterthepan3]

Community certainly is an improvement, guild leaders who would attend and thus have more influence tend to be from niche areas of the game and as such the coverage of points of view limited.
...

Quite on the contrary. Most Guild leaders of a guild with anything above 2 active players per evening usually have quite a good overview of the classes and how they work in an RvR Enviroment. Because most of the time they see threats from the other side and try to get the maximum out of their own synergies.
Also they run regularly PVE Sessions, 6 mens and the usual Warband.

But yes managing such an Q&A could be interesting.

SO if I would do it.

Make Discord Server for it, or use official one.
Make a Text and Voice Chat.
Set everyone to No Permission on write and speak.
Questions should be send to the moderator.
The moderator put the questions in the text channel and filter out double questions and profanities.
Dev reads the Question and Answers.
Audience Listens.

Rinse and repeat for an hour.
END.

Honestly don't need to go to such meticulous lengths. Everyone joins, and we simply engage in a friendly to and fro. That happened a while ago without any such restrictions, and it went very well: people would ask Geni or Aza a question, wait for a reply, and then someone else would take over.

It doesn't have to be so strict/rulebased.