Transparency

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Originally Posted by Bolt

Game development, especially in mobile games, is fast paced and requires a lot of different disciplines to work together to make the final product happen. This creates complex structures and processes that are necessary to keep things running smoothly. We in the Community team are working to change some of the processes in place to facilitate more transparency and be able to provide you with more information and context on a regular basis. Unfortunately, change is not as quick a process as we'd like. I don't want this to sound like nothing more than excuses but because changing the underlying system before you see tangible results takes time, it may appear as if nothing is happening when in fact things are changing behind the scenes. We know we are not where we should be. We are committed to increasing transparency as much as possible and we thank you for your patience in the meantime.

On a side note, there are good reasons why game developers don't share everything in advance with players. That is a complicated topic for another time :)

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Hi Bolt

To some extent I have to agree with you that sometimes there is no way to give us any information ahead of time..........................
on the other hand...............I have to say (and I am sure you will agree with me).....................that the developers are giving you BS because in some instances they can give you a detail information of the changes and how they will affect players.............................

I will give you one example of when they can do that, and please let me know if I am mistaken

New Update is ready (lest use the latest MW update in the apple store) it just came out a few days ago............but I am very sure, that after developers finished it, and all the hmm, QA was done and all tested to make sure works fine.....................they have to send it to apple for approval..............and that approval does not happen overnight, it takes at least 72 hours for apple to review and approve...................(maybe less, maybe more).................but the point is that by the time the send the update to apple, there is nothing for the developers to do on that, thus they can perfectly let you know what the changes that are implementing are and how they will work (in a general manner or with some key details) which you in turn would be able to let us know, so that we are not in the dark when it gets approve by apple

and if the developers say "oh, we cannot do that, incase apple does not approve and we need to make changes"................because I am sure that the changes if any, will not change significantly, and plus, you can always add "guys this is what is coming, but please bear in mind that changes may occur if apples does not approve it".........in which case you could inform us that something may change, but at least we have a general idea of what to expect

Culture change does take a while but has the person or people who created this culture been fired yet? If not then top management is not behind this attempt and sadly it will fail. I enjoy the game and have been playing for a little over a year and everything the players complain about that is legitimate seems to be going backwards.

Anyway I hope you are able to change the culture and I hope the big bosses are actually committed to it and not just short term incentives.

If you are committed to being transparent a perfect way to show that is to tell us why the bonuses have dropped so much in one cycle. Where 2 months ago there would be a 15-18% bonus now there is a 3% bonus. On LTQs bonuses have been completely removed from everything except speed. It's your game and are free to do what you want but I do think a perfect olive branch would be an explanation as to why.

Thanks in advance for answering the bonus question and showing us your willing to be transparent.

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Originally Posted by Bolt

On a side note, there are good reasons why game developers don't share everything in advance with players. That is a complicated topic for another time :)

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Let me start off by saying that I am not trying to excuse poor communication by saying the above. Nothing of the sort. If I didn't believe in the power of a healthy and vibrant relationship between developers and the game community I wouldn't be in Community Management as a career choice.
I can't speak for all game developers everywhere, but what I can say is that game development is a lot about compromise. For every idea that makes it into a game, there are probably several that never see the light of day. Features that have a lot of effort dedicated to them may get cut at the 11th hour because it can take a lot of work before an idea can be evaluated thoroughly (and be found lacking in one of many ways). Priorities change. It is never as simple as A to B. These simple facts make it important to know how, what and when to communicate with your player base. When done well, it looks completely seamless from the outside: information you need flows, you are up to date with anything relevant and your feedback is taken into consideration in the decision making process.

In any case, I just wanted to write this out to explain what I meant above coming from my experience in game development in general, not at any company in particular.

Bolt, you make it sound like you're planning the invasion of Normandy. It's not rocket surgery.
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All it takes is for the boss at Gree to say:

"Right. You, yes you, the funny looking one sitting in the corner writing code. I want you to write two paragraphs on what the next update will contain and why. It has to be on my desk by 4pm today. Then I can give it to the social media wallahs to distribute. If it's not on my desk by 4pm you'll be staying here until it is on my desk."

How hard is that?? Unless, of course, the problem is the boss who doesn't give a rats a s s. Then there's no hope and we'll be having this same conversation with the next mod in a year from now, provided there are still customers for that mod to converse with by then.

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Originally Posted by Bolt

Let me start off by saying that I am not trying to excuse poor communication by saying the above. Nothing of the sort. If I didn't believe in the power of a healthy and vibrant relationship between developers and the game community I wouldn't be in Community Management as a career choice.
I can't speak for all game developers everywhere, but what I can say is that game development is a lot about compromise. For every idea that makes it into a game, there are probably several that never see the light of day. Features that have a lot of effort dedicated to them may get cut at the 11th hour because it can take a lot of work before an idea can be evaluated thoroughly (and be found lacking in one of many ways). Priorities change. It is never as simple as A to B. These simple facts make it important to know how, what and when to communicate with your player base. When done well, it looks completely seamless from the outside: information you need flows, you are up to date with anything relevant and your feedback is taken into consideration in the decision making process.

In any case, I just wanted to write this out to explain what I meant above coming from my experience in game development in general, not at any company in particular.

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I agree that there should be compromise between the company and the players since there is money on the line BUT the compromise should be in favor of the players. The more players agree with game decisions and the happier they are, the more money the game makes. I dont see how this is so hard. I never have played a game before where the developers changed things that have been proven to work into something else that players dont like. Rather than make Raid Boss more enjoyable, it was killed and catered to the top players, who in most cases did not spend more to finish it anyway.

We are telling you what to do with the game since we play it everyday.

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Originally Posted by Danger Mouse

Bolt, you make it sound like you're planning the invasion of Normandy. It's not rocket surgery.
-
All it takes is for the boss at Gree to say:

"Right. You, yes you, the funny looking one sitting in the corner writing code. I want you to write two paragraphs on what the next update will contain and why. It has to be on my desk by 4pm today. Then I can give it to the social media wallahs to distribute. If it's not on my desk by 4pm you'll be staying here until it is on my desk."

How hard is that?? Unless, of course, the problem is the boss who doesn't give a rats a s s. Then there's no hope and we'll be having this same conversation with the next mod in a year from now, provided there are still customers for that mod to converse with by then.

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More like we will be having the same conversation with the new mod only a month from now given the turnover at gree....

Bolt I appreciate what you have said thus far in this thread. It appears sincere and not just lip service. However what I think people find most troubling is the consistent message that Gree is working on change for both communication and development but as has been said we have heard these words before. If better communication is a goal for the Gree organization as a whole then it doesn't take a lot of planning and buildup to achieve that. Your company sets a philosophy and acts on it. When the president of the company I work for took his position 8 or so years ago he established a new corporate philosophy called I-client. 3 simple ideas make up the I-Client philosophy. People matter, quality first, integrity always. It's plastered all over our building. We are expected to live it and follow it everyday. Coming up with that philosophy shouldn't be difficult for Gree. You just do it.

Bolt. I'm sorry to say but we heard this from the previous mods heard from you and will hear it from the next mod. But nice try

And another thing BOLT if gree would actually test new updates instead of just pushing them out and all hell breaks loose and **** doesn't work the game might just might be better. How about that is the only thing you work on now. And just maybe you could turn the game around.

Wish full thinking on my part.

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Originally Posted by Jg48

And another thing BOLT if gree would actually test new updates instead of just pushing them out and all hell breaks loose and **** doesn't work the game might just might be better. How about that is the only thing you work on now. And just maybe you could turn the game around.

Wish full thinking on my part.

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Any moderator on here is damned if they do, damned if they don't.
Any information given is jumped on, torn apart and then the players expect more or less of what's presented to them.
IMO, this community that just wants to raise cane about everything, they are never satisfied.


Bolt, thank you for replying to posts in this thread.

The mod would not be damned if they do or not if the damned monkey brigade did not keep pushing glitches and almost unplayable updates

'

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Originally Posted by Bolt

Let me start off by saying that I am not trying to excuse poor communication by saying the above. Nothing of the sort. If I didn't believe in the power of a healthy and vibrant relationship between developers and the game community I wouldn't be in Community Management as a career choice.
I can't speak for all game developers everywhere, but what I can say is that game development is a lot about compromise. For every idea that makes it into a game, there are probably several that never see the light of day. Features that have a lot of effort dedicated to them may get cut at the 11th hour because it can take a lot of work before an idea can be evaluated thoroughly (and be found lacking in one of many ways). Priorities change. It is never as simple as A to B. These simple facts make it important to know how, what and when to communicate with your player base. When done well, it looks completely seamless from the outside: information you need flows, you are up to date with anything relevant and your feedback is taken into consideration in the decision making process.

In any case, I just wanted to write this out to explain what I meant above coming from my experience in game development in general, not at any company in particular.

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This community if you hadn't noticed, isn't huge on change. We want consistency and glitch free gaming. You talk here of changes getting cut at the eleventh hour, no no no no no!, we don't need changes every cycle to every event as we barely recognise most of our events now. This is the whole of the problem, kiss theory...keep is simple. Stop changing events. Stop trying to save the game with new ideas.

What we had was a car that functioned fine, now every cycle some genius thinks if we remove the steering wheel we will save weight and go faster. The next cycle another genius thinks if we have a smaller fuel tank we will save weight and go faster. The next genius think I know we will remove the windscreen wipers and we will be more aerodynamic and then it rains for a week.

Just fix. Priority numbers 1 through 10000 should be to fix problems 1 through 10000. Get that down to 100 and run the game consistently for 4-5 cycles and then maybe get cute with events.

Currently the game is an Auction house, full of gambling for children (crates, scratchers and loot chance), full of errors and is a massive data soak and the games direction is chaotic and constantly changing. Keep it simple. Slow down and fix.

Thank you for your tone and your attempts here, as I have said to the many who have come before you. Unless you can get upper management on board you will be left out in the cold having promised improvements without any facilities to achieve them. We need to see action from the guys who make the decisions.

We need issues resolved and this theory of "constant changes (so called "improvements" by your staff)" that will fix the game thrown in the garbage.

Go to your shed. You don't change quality tools that work, you maintain them and they last a lifetime. Then a few times a year you buy a new one to add to the collection. Run the game as a good person runs their shed. They put their tools away in the same place every time after they use them so next time when they comes back they have order and can just get the job done with their quality collection.

I must say when I saw the orange right after my post earlier asking a good question that many of is want to know I was excited. Very quickly into it I realized that it was addressing a different post and how you know communication is important. Tomorrow when you get in I am sure we would really appreciate an answer to my earlier question. Start the communication. I'm sure whatever the answer is some will jump on it and complain but they would do that regardless. The silent majority would appreciate getting an answer regardless of what the answer is.

So I will ask again hoping that you just got busy and forgot to communicate to us the answer. And a quick reminder of the question: why did ltq bonuses disappear and other bonuses go from 18% to 3%?

I will be patiently awaiting the answer.

At 18% the stat jump would be to much for the veteran players.

What jg48? And I was looking for Gree's reasons not your guess. Remember this post is about transparency not about the loss of bonuses. My question was just a way for bolt to show us the communication and transparency they are trying to work on improving. Hope you are getting your coffee right now Bolt and getting ready to settle in for your work day! I am not a coffee person so I have to use a cocktail of extra caffeinated drinks.