Forum Titles Gone

I do not know if it is temporary or permanent, but they are gone currently.

If it is permanent, it really does not matter to me, as they were confusing at times.

However, I'd like to take an opportunity to explicitly state what I think will hurt this project over anything else.

Communication.

This is an all around learning experience for most people here, including the development team.

They are used to having publishers in-front of them, dealing with community, and community is used to having information, regardless if it is BS info, up-to-date.

So from both sides some compromises must be made.

The community must learn to not get OCD for every single thing "hinted" and learn to temper their thirst of knowledge with the fact that development takes time.

The development team must realize that communicating, even the littlest of details that change, should become part of their process, day in and out, as changes could be confusing

Since this project is doing a public development cycle, one which predicates itself on public investment, both of time and money, I do not believe this is too much to ask.

There does not have to be a justification for every single thing happening, or even an an awareness of something happening for most non-ubiquitous things.

In the case of forum titles, they were here since day one, some people like them, and to just abruptly end something without notice or acknowledgment is not the pattern I want to see this project take.

Again, some will see this as nitpicking, others will not, but I have seen this "style" of non-communication elsewhere (again, from both sides) in much more important things and just hope that the tenor, tempo and timeliness will change.

Cheers.

 

I agree, the forum titles gone means little, except less confusion.

However, I 100% agree that there needs to be more communication. One of the biggest things pushed during the KS was the transparency and the communication with the backers, and I have seen more than a few occasions where communication didn't happen where/when it should have.

Yes, they don't have a lot of people working there, but how hard is it to write a heads-up forum sticky that something is going to be changed? Things that may not seem like a big deal could be a big deal to someone, or could lead to people jumping to conclusions.

 

I agree completely. One of the things that I keep noticing is that the Founders Blog hasn't been updated since October 4th. I know their busy, I know that the pre-releases are the focus, but it seems like there could be a shared folder somewhere that all the devs just chuck a copy of something they are working on into and on a weekly basis Starr, Chris or RG look through it for 15-20 mins and mark 3 or 4 things for FL to post.

Was there ever a statement that the Pen of the Avatar was going to go on hold? or that Dev Hangouts would be far and few between? Perhaps, and if so I missed seeing it. Not to mention that it seems "info" is coming from devs to whoever is in the chat at that moment and then being sporadically posted in threads to make or prove a point.

 

The PotA hiatus was discussed on the show, but the extra week delay was never reported.

 

I'm actually happy to see those titles do go. They were far more confusing than anything else. People were constantly getting confused by them, think that was their pledge level.

I really don't think Portalarium needs to keep us abreast on minuscule changes like the removal of a forum feature that small. And I think they do a good job at communicating changes when they happen, like the Crafting Megapost. They are releasing information as they are comfortable with it. The daily standup updates are great. They let you see what the team members are working on for that given day. They do this, almost without fail, daily. The also give a thorough weekly update, again almost without fail. I think that level of updates is better than what you would get from most software companies - especially for a pre-alpha product. I think asking for more is not justifiable. But that is just my opinion.

 

You said it better then I could have. I wrote out a post, proofed it and realized I was being a jerk. (Something I am striving not to be here.) So thanks for saying that.

 

I agree with all your points, although I really think the weekly updates and/or the dev blog on the forum really need to have a little more of the step in between the standup one-liners and the weekly updates' finished and released products. The standup corner is a great thing and I'm incredibly grateful for it, but I honestly get very little from the two or three words it usually consists of. A weekly one-to-three paragraph 'recap' of what was worked on by each dev, maybe highlight some breakthroughs or problem areas, posted in the dev blog area I think would go a long way towards making people feel 'included' and that the project is more transparent, without taking a great deal more of the Dev's time.

 

But sometimes we just can't help it

 

While I don't disagree, "MOST games" don't take millions of dollars in pledges from KS.

It would have been nice if they had said something as I wouldn't have wasted time trying to figure out why I couldn't see titles anymore.

 

Oh well.......I guess there is no need for people to spam anymore to get a 'title'

 

I miss things like the dev video about adding rivers to the world map, or how they are going about modeling and rigging something. There was discussion of doing a weekly modeling show along the lines of PotA, but it has taken a backseat, as usual, to actual production.

I get that making the game is the most important, but people are also following this and pledging high amounts for an inside look. At what point does it makes sense to hire another person to help facilitate communication?

 

Known Issue. No need to panic, the sky is not falling. I repeat, the sky... not falling.

And we know you guys miss the Dev Hangouts. They will be back starting next week with Pen of the Avatar on Tuesday.

 

Thank you for commenting FL, it is appreciated. I don't think anyone thought or was saying the sky was falling, but with it being a known issue a simple post from you guys saying "look, we know the flow of information has slowed but we are working on a way to increase it while still staying on our timetable, please be patient" BEFORE a thread like this is created would go a long way.

 

I totally agree. While I like the weekly updates, they're not particularly informative - it's always specific finished products, usually ones for sale. I would like to see more "work in progress" stuff, especially on gameplay, instead of the extremely occasional megapost. The founders blogs have been unused for months other than the standup corner - what gives?

 

I also thought the forum titles were confusing some people, as we'd get these posts every now and then about why their pledge status was incorrect, when it was the forum title they're referring to. The forum titles aren't that important to me, but it may be to others so I'm fine with or without them.

Regarding flow of information, communication, and increased engagement, yes, I would have to agree there to some extent. But I also recognize that they'd never be able to satiate my hunger for info about the game.

 

One thing I see too much is devs making comments in the chat area that never gets back to the forums. Then 4 months later someone mentions that decision was made in chat but nothing on the forums or FAQ.

I am afraid I will miss the npc character creation if I don't try to keep up with the forums every 4 hours.

 

Reading too much into things, you are. Be patient you must.

Development cycles are like any complex system. They experience ebbs and flows and require a certain amount of flexibility when dealing with them. There are going to be times when we post new ideas, have time to write dev blogs, and then there are going to be the times where we're nose down, implementing all that cool stuff we just talked about. It doesn't mean the communication is going away never to return. It's just the nature of what we do.

 

Well, I do not think anyone here has gone off the train to say things are not ever in flux. Development, yes, has periods of up and down, but your production teams typically always have a steady stream of work. Even downtime is spent re-scheduling things.

I also assume there are meeting minute notes, requirement analysis docs, design docs, tech require docs, etc... passing all around the studio. Same for website changes.

I dont think anyone expects a minute by minute detailed report, like I said above, just some periodic updates would be good.

Frankly, someone else said it, that founder's blog is a nasty black mark in my opinion. No updates since October 4th?

If you are predicating one of the large sell points of this product on community back and forth, you need to have a system in place to facilitate the flow of information.

So far this seems slightly in the favor of the external customer side: we all throw stuff into this forum and it gets consumed by you guys.

I totally get the weekly updates, but then they may need some more flesh? They always seem to be about the "we just did this" stuff rather than the "this is what is in the current planning pipe" and the current pipe.

I hate to use other projects as an exemplar, and won't mention by name, but plenty of other KSers, that planned the same level of dissemination about past, present and future parts of the project, that got more or LESS money, are doing a good job keeping that promise in this regard.

And I do have to agree, it seems there are a general fall off of the dev hangouts since the intervening months of the KS and a couple after, just because of a ? unknown problem to us. So it feels like that portion of the buyin is just non-existent in some cases.

Again, please do not try to minimize this as a "small" thing. I could care less, as I said, and others have said, about the titles. I am just seeing this trend in the overall communication.

 

Nah they update it daily. What was being posted in there was mostly screen-shots of in game items. which hasn't seen a new one since october, can be various reasons, most of the new items we have been seeing have been things in the add-on store, so it looks like they get posted there. Anyone paying $60 or more can look to see what the team is working on at any given day, I think that is awesome. Oh I guess there is also the concept art section that hasn't been updated since October. I don't know if there is less concept art or more of the concept art is being hidden for spoilers.


I would propose a forum in the founders section where founders(The tier, not the distinction between the founder/benefactor) can discuss what is posted in there outside of the general forums (as that isn't intended for general consumption).

 

They removed forum titles just because they were confusing? Well, I guess they didn't make sense. I never knew at which point the title changed, as it didn't seem related to post count but rather by the number of Likes. And if not that, I'm not sure what. Is there a thread that explained why they removed titles? I also don't care about them but was just curious.