What’s happening right now?

[Half-Lock]

As some of you know, my computer is now considered obsolete, so I’ve had a rougher and rougher experience playing, so I haven’t been keeping up to speed- when it comes to my in-game activities- and have basically left-off with the current Thargoid war.

I have been keeping up with the updates, progress, and storylines and, as I announced on my CMDR Half-Lock (Tom) (formerly the Nain Incorporated page - long story) I just picked up a new laptop so I’ll be getting back into the swing of things.

But what is going on with the Community Team? The announcements have come fewer and further between, the streams have been reduced to a month, and folks have been moved off to other teams/games/etc.

Is it just standard internal personnel rotation and community maintenance, with a current focus being what’s going on in the background and with the new “Partner program” or is there something bigger or catastrophic in the works?

 

[Ned Flandalorian]

• Game quality drops due to lack of developers / insufficient testing
• Community becomes toxic with complaints
• Staff don't want to work on a title with a toxic community, switch to other projects
• Repeat from step 1

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

Well, some people were quite abusive and there's always the doom people, not to mention the regular forumites who tend to take things way off-topic.
So, they've kinda retreated due to the general, apparent hostility... bar what is deemed mecessary.
Thngs might be better if they made a few examples but they never make these things public.
Sometimes you just need to lay down the law, even if it's only temporary bans for the lesser crimes.
Send a message.

 

[zimms]

Yup, all the community's fault.

 

[amigacooke]

Looks to me like Frontier has less CMs and therefore they are spread more thinly over the portfolio of games.

Sally does an excellent job in a very adverse situation.

 

[Crank Larson]

But what is going on with the Community Team?

The "team" appears to have been reduced to just Sally, with cameo appearances from others.

 

[Slaani Ludlow]

So in the end its all the community fault that Elite Dangerous went down the hill. So ungrateful.
Ok ...

 

[sgurr]

FD had to write off Odyssey development costs, ie. Odyssey didn't make FD money.

Other FD game launches needing community resources aside, the current resources allocated to FD are probably what its current income can justify, that will apply to both the community and dev teams and is how businesses work.

 

[amigacooke]

FD had to write off Odyssey development costs, ie. Odyssey didn't make FD money.

Other FD game launches needing community resources aside, the current resources allocated to FD are probably what its current income can justify, that will apply to both the community and dev teams and is how businesses work.

I was under the impression that investment is put into creating new/new content for video games and then the developers get the financial reward, not the other way around.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

@zimms
Certain members, yes.
What i suggested was to remove the worst cares, like the one who was offensive to Sally which resulted in them shutting up shop. That should never happen.
I haven't seen them since, for example.
Even so, there are many bad actors about the place.
I know they can remove ppl from specific threads, so that might give them some space to communicate.

 

[sgurr]

I was under the impression that investment is put into creating new/new content for video games and then the developers get the financial reward, not the other way around.

That's my point, they're investing what they deem worthwhile for the expected return.

 

[amigacooke]

That's my point, they're investing what they deem worthwhile for the expected return.

They don’t seem to be getting much of a return for their investment, at least in player activity.

 

[sgurr]

They don’t seem to be getting much of a return for their investment, at least in player activity.

Doesn't look like it, at least for now.

 

[ubermick]

• One CM was being continually harassed and insulted, and asked to be moved to a different project.
• Another CM made it public that he was suffering from mental health issues, and seemingly that was like someone throwing raw meat to the dogs.
• Other CMs received death threats to themselves and their families in the months after Odyssey.
• Our one remaining full-time CM is constantly getting tagged in here about every little personal peeve, and has repeatedly had to shut down threads and close her DMs.

I don't think its the community's fault that Elite is a game that's entering its twilight years. It's almost 10 years since it was released, and that's a damn good innings and in reality about all we hoped for for a game that's not a AAA title, is being funded mainly by Arx sales, and was being given away for free a few years ago.

But eff me, a swathe of alleged grown adults haven't helped things.

 

[amigacooke]

Doesn't look like it, at least for now.

I can’t see a logical reason why it should increase notably, except perhaps the ‘end of summer’ factor. If players are not engaging with the Thargoids war now, why will they do so in the future? Has Frontier‘s new development become just an updating of old content in player’s eyes?

 

[amigacooke]

• One CM was being continually harassed and insulted, and asked to be moved to a different project.
• Another CM made it public that he was suffering from mental health issues, and seemingly that was like someone throwing raw meat to the dogs.
• Other CMs received death threats to themselves and their families in the months after Odyssey.
• Our one remaining full-time CM is constantly getting tagged in here about every little personal peeve, and has repeatedly had to shut down threads and close her DMs.

I don't think its the community's fault that Elite is a game that's entering its twilight years. It's almost 10 years since it was released, and that's a damn good innings and in reality about all we hoped for for a game that's not a AAA title, is being funded mainly by Arx sales, and was being given away for free a few years ago.

But eff me, a swathe of alleged grown adults haven't helped things.

That sort of behaviour is unacceptable.

However, it’s also not an excuse to shut down any form of criticism or unfavourable feedback (which to their credit Frontier have not tried to do) or to try to blame the whole community for the actions of a small minority.

 

[Spaceman-FXL5]

What i suggested was to remove the worst cares, like the one who was offensive to Sally which resulted in them shutting up shop. That should never happen.
I haven't seen them since, for example.

IIRC Banana's, it was just the one poster who really, really, offended Sally - see thread Discovery-scanner-27-03-3023 #18 and #21 reply onwards, that's where it started and in just several hours as we were watching in real time, she quite rightly (possibly after consulting her colleagues and HR) ended the Monday Discovery Scanner due to abusive and toxic posts.
I would have preferred a short forum ban for said toxic poster(s), or just close the Discovery Scanner to forum replies (lock it?)

Unfortunate for those of us who had looked forward to a start of week update whilst at work.

 

[Ozric]

and folks have been moved off to other teams/games/etc.

The Community Team have worked on multiple titles for years now, long before Odyssey was released. It just happens at the moment a couple of big titles are ramping up.

They don’t seem to be getting much of a return for their investment, at least in player activity.

Not that you know how much player activity there actually is. But why let reason get in the way of putting something down.

 

[amigacooke]

Not that you know how much player activity there actually is. But why let reason get in the way of putting something down.

Figures are available to discern trends, provided by a source that is indifferent to the published materials.

Perhaps you could explain why Steam charts are not a reasonable poll of player activity trends?

 

[zimms]

I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that Frontier isn't willing anymore to invest as many man hours into Elite as they once have.