The next patch, I hope it's as detailed as this

[Boff'in]

You got a company who gives updates, talks to the communities, stalks the forums announced stuff, via twitter/facebook/forums and has weekly newsletters about the state of the game, up and coming goals/mileposts/patches and community references, art and video's.

They get back with hotfixes within the following work day.


oh not detailed enough.....for some

oh what a shame


I'm a H A L F - L I F E fan who stalks the steam half life forums........
please spin me a yarn of how underdeveloped Frontier communications have been in COMPARISON to Valve's communication about up and coming sequel to Half Life 2 - Episode2 from 2007.

 

[Ben Ryder]

An extra few lines in each newsletter with some instructions on how to take part in thing like community goals, rather than pictures of fan art etc. would be much more useful.

 

[Monk]

I'm afraid now the genie is out of the bag, and our increasingly unquenchable desire for media immediacy will hit a wall soon. Only a pipe plugged into our heads will top what's just around the corner.

So much truth in this.

The new normal is set, and all shall be judged against it.

 

[Viajero]

CCP is only an example because A) They had a content patch today and B) There is a lot of crossover of players here.

You are correct, CCP was terrible and it has taken that many years, but many other companies have too - basically the baseline for a lot of mistakes and lessons have been set and that mean the standard today should already be a lot higher to begin with.

One would think hey? I am sure many lessons learned have been passed along in the industry.. But not sure how many ex CCP devs are in FDEV atm, that would be something !

"Man is the only animal that trips twice over the same stone"

 

[Titus Balls]

You got a company who gives updates, talks to the communties, stalks the forums announced stuff, via twitter/facebook/forums.

They get back with hotfixes within the following work day.

oh not detailed enough.....for some

oh what a shame

All the stuff on Facebook/Twitter (certainly 90% of it) is automated via Hootsuite - it comes out at random times of the day. It's designed for 1-way engagement. When it matters (like patch day) having people on hand to answer peoples questions and put out the fires, there is no one around. That is not an effective social media strategy.

As for the forums, yes they come on the forums and I have to say Sandro and Michael try do a good job, but as developers it shouldn't be their job to come put out the fires - and rather propose and discuss gameplay features. They do that too, and I can't fault them for that. Ed steps in when he needs to, especially around stuff where fulfilment is a issue (like goods not being shipped from the store or people unable to download the game) and he's come in to threads I've been in and I appreciate that.

Not everyone reads the forums though. The newsletter and social media are more popular channels.

I'm a half life fan who stalks the steam half life forums........
please spin me a yarn of how underdeveloped Frontier communications have been in COMPARISON to Valve's communication about up and coming sequel to Half Life 2 - Episode2 from 2007.

There is no HL3.

 

[wstephenson]

While I would love to see release announcements with that level of polish describing high level features, these take a huge amount of time to write and have to come from the right person, ideally the product manager for the release. Having written pre release sneak peeks, release announcements, feature lists and detailed changelogs myself, each one has to be written in a different register. The feature descriptions are the hardest. You need someone who can write good copy, but who also understand the feature. If you paraphrase the commit messages, it creates gobbledygook. At the moment we're seeing MB rework some of the commit messages and Marketing doing a very high level writeup for the newsletter but nothing in the middle ground.

 

[Titus Balls]

While I would love to see release announcements with that level of polish describing high level features, these take a huge amount of time to write and have to come from the right person, ideally the product manager for the release. Having written pre release sneak peeks, release announcements, feature lists and detailed changelogs myself, each one has to be written in a different register. The feature descriptions are the hardest. You need someone who can write good copy, but who also understand the feature. If you paraphrase the commit messages, it creates gobbledygook. At the moment we're seeing MB rework some of the commit messages and Marketing doing a very high level writeup for the newsletter but nothing in the middle ground.

Agreed.

It's why NOW we should be getting details about wings. How will they work? What UI changes will happen with them? What gameplay features will it bring? (really we've talking about it enough and known it's coming that Frontier should know exactly what they plan to deliver to us)

We're supposed to be testing it in about 2 weeks, but I suspect we won't get all the details until the day before it's pushed out to production and even then it'll be just enough detail for more experienced players to maybe grasp but a larger amount of casual players scratching their heads and wondering why something doesn't work they way they expect it to.

Edit: Oh and what else is it bringing - I've heard tales of changes to how we communicate and interact with other players. Does this mean a better chat interface? Can we see a prototype? Can we be expected to test new networking and matchmaking to see if it's been improved and confirm Frontier's assumptions? None of this is being communicated.

But again, to bring up CCP on this:

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=403598

 

[Celeste]

Shameless Eve plug?

Eve's been in the MMO business for what.. 13 years now? Frontier is just getting their feet wet, and I think Eve has had plenty of time to get their "technical" fixed and are just adding more to the game. Elite, being a new game, is still going through the growing pains that Eve has had a decade to work on.

 

[Titus Balls]

Shameless Eve plug?

Eve's been in the MMO business for what.. 13 years now? Frontier is just getting their feet wet, and I think Eve has had plenty of time to get their "technical" fixed and are just adding more to the game. Elite, being a new game, is still going through the growing pains that Eve has had a decade to work on.

Not really shameless. For me, these are points I've been making for a while - the timing is they happened to release a content patch today. There are plenty of Eve players on here, so no need to "sell" anything.

I don't think anyone is under any illusions that Frontier don't have a lot of technical challenges ahead of them and we all want them to succeed, but to do that they also need to be more upfront and frank with the community instead of hiding everything behind smoke and mirrors - it comes over as more like something an early access on Steam vying for your money instead of an already-proven AAA studio willing to stand behind one of the greatest gaming IPs of all time.

As for the other stuff, like I mention there is already a benchmark set on this and plenty of people have commented that Frontier are hitting way below that when it comes to explaining changes to the game (as well as general mechanics).

 

[Skip Intro]

It's not as if no-one at Frontier have ever been involved in promoting a game before, is it? It really isn't rocket science!

 

[Monk]

Shameless Eve plug?

Eve's been in the MMO business for what.. 13 years now? Frontier is just getting their feet wet, and I think Eve has had plenty of time to get their "technical" fixed and are just adding more to the game. Elite, being a new game, is still going through the growing pains that Eve has had a decade to work on.

Exactly. EVE has made mistakes and learned from them. Doesn't hurt to try to point out to Frontier where others have already stubbed their toes.

 

[Toscaner]

Shameless Eve plug?

Eve's been in the MMO business for what.. 13 years now? Frontier is just getting their feet wet, and I think Eve has had plenty of time to get their "technical" fixed and are just adding more to the game. Elite, being a new game, is still going through the growing pains that Eve has had a decade to work on.

as already mentioned you would think that FD could learn from those already made mistakes and the polish CCP and others went through, and don't have to reinvent the wheel.

it is of course a matter of experience and sheer manpower.

it took CCP quite a few years to actually start dev-posts with alternating devs and topics. but when they did them, they were very detailed and upfront. weeks before the release presenting their ideas and asking the players about their opinion.

what i would wish for more than high level design in marketing (while it doesn't hurt), is of course more detailed information about soon planned features, and a roadmap or a summary of their current vision for the next months.

we still don't know what Wings will bring, 2 weeks before it's supposed to hit the beta, and after 1.2 there's just a big black hole, filled with expectations and speculation.

 

[Monk]

It's not as if no-one at Frontier have ever been involved in promoting a game before, is it? It really isn't rocket science!

Rocket science is easy...marketing and promotion is a headache.

Though, you have a point. We know there are folks there with industry experience. I just don't think they have the appropriate resources to provide everything people are asking for.

 

[DieScream]

Let's cut the middle man and just go play Eve. FD and Braben have failed miserably.

 

[ScottGust]

I stopped at the word Eve..cmon man...

 

[Cooperman]

i dont really care about eve,been there done it crap flight,played it for about 10 years,old hat now.

 

[Titus Balls]

Let's cut the middle man and just go play Eve. FD and Braben have failed miserably.

Well I have resubbed for something else to do so I don't get TOO bored of ED.

But that's a bit harsh, even by my standards They've not hit the mark but to say they've failed miserably would be equating DB to Molyneux.

We have given them our money after all and they have delivered a product that works. I think a lot of us are just asking for more transparency.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

I stopped at the word Eve..cmon man...

i dont really care about eve,been there done it crap flight,played it for about 10 years,old hat now.

Then you are missing the point of what it's about. I could have said Trion Worlds, or Blizzard or any other company like that. I merely use them as an easy-to-point-to guide and timely due to the patch, nothing more. This isn't about it's gameplay, or players.

I hope when you're house is on fire you listen to the people screaming your house is on fire and not wait until the fireman shows up to tell you the same thing.

 

[Dannyc]

It would be nice if they got concise and better communication wise.. But comparing it to Eve is just a joke - They have an entire office dedicated to this which they have developed over 13years..

As for the META I beg it to remain hidden - The last thing we need is yet another spreadsheet MMO style cookie cutter game..

 

[Cooperman]

not a very good analogy Titus that last bit.
eve has been going for years they are bound to be "better" at the forum pleasing patch notes.
FD have a long way to go and personally i am looking forward to there "growth" in all matters.

 

[Titus Balls]

Ahh it only took 3 pages