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Hi Gree
Another call for Transparency for this game.
You keep making changes to existing game play. You make us guess what is what. Why not give out a detailed calender on forum with explaination of changes made compared to last time the event ran.
We would like to know what is what.
I know this wont be answered. But its my wish.
They cant plan anything nor problem check what they do come up with... just look at the programming... the calander wouldl be just as glitched as the game and offer no correct info anyways... monkey smash keyboard monkey get banana... we get MW
They said, for LTQs anyway, that they are going to stop posting information about it because they might putout the wrong information. Not something anyone wants to here since we are spending money. We should at least know what we are going into.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Plutorules
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 :)
That's rubbish. I'm sorry, but I'm calling BS. Every other game out there keeps the player base fully informed about game changes in advance. Some even publish weekly blogs about game development with updates on what the dev team have been doing since the last blog, with opportunity for player feedback on the devs ideas. And the players love it, and support the game appropriately on the forums.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolt
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But not gree. Gree is all smoke and mirrors. Why? Your announcements section may as well be written in heiroglyphics you have to go so far back before you find any useful information about upcoming changes before they get implemented. And look at how well you are supported here in your forums as a result.
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What were those good reasons again? The only reason I can see is that development happens so haphazardly you wouldn't want to start promising something only to publicly reveal how it all changes on the fly and gets implemented in a rush with no clear plan or purpose from day one.
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Because when you DON'T communicate what's going on, and have a track record of roll outs that we have all seen and experienced, that's the only conclusion we can draw as to why you don't. Don't forget Bolt, we've seen it all before. Every Mod since CJ has promised more open Comms and asked for our patience while it is implimented. So far, the only changes to Comms are a revolving door of mods. Apparently it's easier to change them than it is communications policy.
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Now, how easy would it be to change all that with a clear and open, and above all PROACTIVE communication policy. Only shady people feel the need to hide their intentions. Do you really think it's a sound communication policy to treat your paying customers as mushrooms? Does that strike you as a winning long term strategy for player loyalty?
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Or, are you not interested in long term loyalty?
Sorry Bolt. You can put the "change doesn't happen overnight" excuse back up on the shelf. We heard it all over a year ago and things are a hundred times worse now. We've heard the commitments, promises, and pledges but have seen nothing but a deteriorating game and ever shrinking player base. Nothing short of a complete 180 degree turn by the entire GREE staff would stand a chance of helping at this point. Honestly though, I don't think that would be enough at this point.
I've said this before, but I know our community is past the point of wanting to hear promises and wants results. Until those changes materialize and you can see that things have changed, I can't fault you for being mistrustful or resentful. Change is gradual and all I can do in the meantime is do the best I can with what I have and thank you for your patience as we make a transition. Clementine, Relic and I have all admitted that things are not working as they should and we are doing what we can to make change come sooner. Rather than offer more apologies I will reiterate our commitment to giving you a better service.
Ok Bolt. Quick question. Why do we have to wait until AFTER said changes to find out about them, usually in a haphazard manner and usually only after we ask?
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Why not take the initiative and inform us about said changes BEFORE they occur, so we can see what is planned for the game, how it's going to be implimented, and how it impacts our decisions on how to play (not to mention, spend).
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After all, we've only been asking for the last three years or so...............
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Personally, I think this is all part of Gree's carefully thought through strategy. They want us in the dark, anxious about change, pressured and uncertain, because that's how people spend more than is necessary in a vain effort to keep ahead of any changes that may or may not be in the pipeline. Gree wants everything to be a mad, unpredictable, paranoid scramble to keep up. Why else treat us like mushrooms?
How has what your company done to and for us, worked out for you?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolt
If the game were to end tomorrow, no player's life would be ruined.
If this game were to disappear, it would not cost one player one US dollar.
No one has to play this game, even though people joke about it.
People have to get treatment for cancer, buy food, pay their utility bill, pay their mortgage or rent, pay for school tuition, pay traffic fines, pay taxes, etc..., but they don't need this game, or any game.
Yet, your company doesn't treat its customers as if they are important to them.
Your company dictates and mandates, rather than request or suggest.
Therein lies the problem, plus your company repeatedly puts out a shoddy, ill conceived, and broken product.
How's that working out for your company, Bolt?
Gosh, don't you know all of this is intended by design?? Lmao.
Hi Bolt thanks for taking time to debate it. I know there is much work and you're new.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolt
Lets take firstly the in game calender that doesn't work
You have to go back and fourth between indi and faction to have an idea of what is coming. A simple description that this is a fltq or RB or what else would be nice. I can through much play greestimate what is what - but why should I
When you drastically change health of a boss or energy requirements for Fltq you could give a heads up - or does this fall under what you think should be a secret. (cant see what it would help Gree)
Lately we had much confusion about FL since goals go back and fourth.
You do not have to explain every change or new thing for us. But these things would be nice for my faction to know. We play your game only because we have fun as a team. Individually we would quit. FYI. But the constant back and fourth makes many very tired.
Just my two cents this morning. Let the debate continue
Boom Beach has actual conversations in forums and Facebook with info for upcoming events and updates. And tells when updates will take place. And what the updates actually do. I could list more games that do the same thing that most of my faction are currently enjoying together. Seems that other companies do not act as if they are some world intelligence agency, and have to play all this cloak and dagger BS! Just cut out the nonsense! I hope no one bought those ridiculous answers bolt!
Yeah bolt we have had plenty of mods before you give us the exact same speels you are giving us. Yes you need to keep giving them but you will be given an honorary Sainthood around these parts if you can get the devs to stop their fast paced bs theory and just fix what is broken.
The game is fine, can you imagine changing monopoly every week???, the few rules that game has creates havoc but changing them every time would cause siblings to murder each other quite literally.
They just need to stop panicking, take a breathe and fix all their other eff ups and the game will come back to them. It is so simple. All the research has been done for you guys.
Everyone just needs to chill. Fix the glitches n bugs. Protect your content. Remove the gambling for children and wallah, we have a great and ethical gaming situation that is a monster cash cow. Ethics do not lose you money, losing your ethics doesn't get you anywhere. Try honesty and transparency, we will pay for it.
You are preaching to the choir. Being proactive and informing the community in advance is one of our Community goals. I believe in it strongly. As a gamer and Community Manager, I know the value in being proactive.Quote:
Originally Posted by Danger Mouse
And no, it's not a conspiracy. Honestly? it just "is". In the past, GREE has not had "proactive community communication" as part of it's game development DNA. It isn't as simple as flipping a switch. It needs to be a part of how GREE makes games for it to work, otherwise you will have a few proactive updates and then the communication will peter out. GREE hasn't been there in the past and it isn't there right now. But we are working on changing that.
The calendar is working on iOS but not on Android; I've brought this up with the team so the bug can be investigated and fixed. Discussing major changes to bosses is something I think should be discussed in advance, we are obviously not there yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Plutorules
Several GREE games have had a rough time of it lately, Modern War in particular. Nobody is denying that this is unacceptable. There are systemic changes happening meant to address this problem. Change and stability may not happen as fast as we'd like but I am optimistic that things will get better.Quote:
Originally Posted by bam bam.
Like most in forum I am going to be hard to convince to believe. However , at this time I would like to commend your approach in addressing the issues and mostly in being understanding of community's lack of trust. I sincerely hope you are as commited as you sound to fix the communication problem. Either way well done and I hope it continues to be your goal its going to be VERY tough to undo what has taken gree to build up as far as resentment and mistrustQuote:
Originally Posted by Bolt
Hi BoltQuote:
Originally Posted by 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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolt
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolt
We are telling you what to do with the game since we play it everyday.
More like we will be having the same conversation with the new mod only a month from now given the turnover at gree....Quote:
Originally Posted by Danger Mouse
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.
Any moderator on here is damned if they do, damned if they don't.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jg48
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
'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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolt
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.
Bolt...we get the issues, and that the messenger rarely has the authority to implement change.
Understood.
But I hope the people here asking for more transparency understand that the request is akin to asking a Vegas pit boss for transparency.
Hell if we got the kind of transparency that Vegas gives, it would be a miracle.
As @truthteller had previously said. Why cant the details be released once the app has been submitted to Apple with the caveat that Apple may reject it?
Think you summed it up perfectly. I too would much rather see the ongoing problems solved instead of adding on new ones.Quote:
Originally Posted by bam bam.
I have to wonder if dev even tries the changes before releasing them based on the poor track record. Not your fault Bolt and you have tried a lot harder then some who have come before you, but someone over there needs a good slap on the head.
Let the men speak! Here here!
They are pretty spot on, gree does a great job of trying to cause chaos to spend more... That's so shady, glad I play clash of clans now, they like other games listen to their players
We hope to achieve far better than that. Certain processes need to change. Internal communication needs to improve. When we have made certain advances we will be much better equipped to provide you with proactive rather than after-the-fact communication. I am optimistic that we will make progress soon.Quote:
Originally Posted by HellRaizer
Just an FYI, this forum is for Gree/Modern War. I think you are looking for Supercell/Clash of Clans.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikelord
Bye Felicia.
Make certain advances? You act like there is some massive technological roadblock keeping you from this. 1 person, 30 minutes because they were told to do it. That's it. Is your office really that dysfunctional that you need to make "certain advances" to achieve that?
Hello Bolt
We had a lot of talk about transparency recently.
Now the calendar change on a daily basis can we please get a answer to why this constant changing.
Latest March on Milan has disappeared from faction goals
Please advise what is what
I think they are DEWIN what they can to keep the ship afloat.Quote:
Originally Posted by Plutorules
In that mode, you can't be proactive or plan, you simply react.
What we see is the best its ever gonna be.