Anybody at Frontier?

[LumberTubs]

Having a quick glance at the main forum pages for each of the games, there do appear to be more dev posts on other games as compared to ED.

At the time of writing, there isn't a single dev post marker on the first page of dangerous discussion (stickies aside) whereas there are a few on the first pages of the Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo, Planet Dinosaurs equivalents. Although that might be mainly down to the higher amount of traffic on dangerous discussion, I do get the impression the CMs on those other games engage more.

Having said that, every other post on this forum is about how much the poster hates the game and won't ever play it again so there's not a lot to engage with.

 

[Cmdr Miles Long]

I've seen more communication in a dead game with 300 players at peak time...

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

I think the hostility towards the game, and its lack of lack of CM engagement form a negative feedback loop. Players get hacked off because long running issues do not seem to get addressed / acknowledged and start griping on the forums, CM team sees all the griping & decides to "leave them to it" meaning concerns raised in the forum go unanswered, leading to players getting hacked off and posting more salty posts, which precpitates even less CM engagement and so it spirals... Rinse repeat.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

Excluding stickies, its page 4 before you see a dev post tag in dangerous discussions, and even that was in 2015 in the thread Elite Memes which has been necroed:

You could have got my name right

Michael

 

[Defacto]

I think the hostility towards the game, and its lack of lack of CM engagement form a negative feedback loop. Players get hacked off because long running issues do not seem to get addressed / acknowledged and start griping on the forums, CM team sees all the griping & decides to "leave them to it" meaning concerns raised in the forum go unanswered, leading to players getting hacked off and posting more salty posts, which precpitates even less CM engagement and so it spirals... Rinse repeat.

I think this is spot on. Imagine delving into the untamed wilds of 'dangerous discussion' as the CM or a FD dev, just seeing oceans of 'X is a joke' or 'OMG Frontier 5 YEARS and Y is still unbalanced!!'. And in the threads, noone seems to agree on anything, so you can't get any coherent feedback from the community anyways.

But from a player perspective, this silence from FD fuels this atmosphere in the first place. It's a negative feedback loop, as you say.

 

[dognosh]

Excluding stickies, its page 4 before you see a dev post tag in dangerous discussions, and even that was in 2015 in the thread Elite Memes which has been necroed:

Page 11 by Benedetti on the 9th june.

Don't be so hard on them, the previous 10 pages is just full of complaints about carriers and mining

 

[Alien]

I think this is spot on. Imagine delving into the untamed wilds of 'dangerous discussion' as the CM or a FD dev, just seeing oceans of 'X is a joke' or 'OMG Frontier 5 YEARS and Y is still unbalanced!!'. And in the threads, noone seems to agree on anything, so you can't get any coherent feedback from the community anyways.

But from a player perspective, this silence from FD fuels this atmosphere in the first place. It's a negative feedback loop, as you say.

It's a thin tenuous atmosphere.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Just because you don't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist

Elite: Dangerous Dev Tracker

Elite: Dangerous Developer Tracker tracks post across multiple social platforms to help you stay up to date with all the latest Elite: Dangerous updates

elitedevtracker.com

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

I think this is spot on. Imagine delving into the untamed wilds of 'dangerous discussion' as the CM or a FD dev, just seeing oceans of 'X is a joke' or 'OMG Frontier 5 YEARS and Y is still unbalanced!!'. And in the threads, noone seems to agree on anything, so you can't get any coherent feedback from the community anyways.

But from a player perspective, this silence from FD fuels this atmosphere in the first place. It's a negative feedback loop, as you say.

Page 11 by Benedetti on the 9th june.

Don't be so hard on them, the previous 10 pages is just full of complaints about carriers and mining

I hate to be "that guy" but isn't dealing with such complaints part of the CM Job? We have 3 Community Managers's on Elite, and I'd have thought part of their job would be ameliorating the discontent expressed in the last ten pages?

Just because you don't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist

Elite: Dangerous Dev Tracker

Elite: Dangerous Developer Tracker tracks post across multiple social platforms to help you stay up to date with all the latest Elite: Dangerous updates

elitedevtracker.com

If you look at the URL you posted there is naff all relating to Elite in there. Being honest with you I don't like the dev tracker as it picks up on all the CM's personal tweets as well as anything related to the games they manage the community for, so looking at that site presumably for any info on the game you end up looking into their personal lives.

 

[PUGS16]

I think everyone just needs to come to terms with what Frontier is. They produce minimally viable products. That's it. They want profit and they're going to do what they are going to do and steamroll past the community criticism and suggestions along the way. The oozing passion most of you crave from a video game developer is just not here and that's not going to change. It was here years ago, but this former small company is a large corporation. They ran the numbers and you're opinion isn't factored into the equation.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

I think everyone just needs to come to terms with what Frontier is. They produce minimally viable products. That's it. They want profit and they're going to do what they are going to do and steamroll past the community criticism and suggestions along the way. The oozing passion most of you crave from a video game developer is just not here and that's not going to change. It was here years ago, but this former small company is a large corporation. They ran the numbers and you're opinion isn't factored into the equation.

Very pragmatic and entirely plausible, if somewhat disheartening...

 

[MishaTX]

Listen, I'm no fan of the drama Llama posturing in every other thread about "OMG, FD nerfed hourly mining income from 6 billion a minute to a mere 5 billion, I'm so never going to play this game that I bought a week ago on sale so I could get a fleet carrier within an hour", but there is something to be said about the utter lack of community engagement from the so-called "community managers" of this company.

I don't know, perhaps the job description for that gig includes "under no circumstance communicate with the community you're managing", in which case I guess it's as it should be, all I can say is that I'd take that gig no matter what the pay.

Easiest job I'd have ever had. Don't spend even five minutes on it.

Sure beats every community relations job I ever had where "people are mad at us" wasn't an excuse to curl up under a blanket and think happy thoughts until it all passed.

Hey, FD, need a new one? I'm absolutely ready to take on the responsibility of never touching a keyboard and getting paid for it!

 

[VR jefranklin18]

When was the last post from a Developer?
QA Team member?
Community Team Member actively answering and engaging with the community?

I appreciate that everybody is still working from home but the forums are buzzing with concerns, rumours and questions. Nothing is coming back from Frontier to its customers.

I have not checked the other Frontier games forums - I wonder if the company is struggling in lockdown or if it is just the Elite team that are having issues.

Lets not forget the return of dev diaries promised for Odyssey. I guess development hasn't actually started yet?

 

[zarrazee]

I think the hostility towards the game, and its lack of lack of CM engagement form a negative feedback loop. Players get hacked off because long running issues do not seem to get addressed / acknowledged and start griping on the forums, CM team sees all the griping & decides to "leave them to it" meaning concerns raised in the forum go unanswered, leading to players getting hacked off and posting more salty posts, which precpitates even less CM engagement and so it spirals... Rinse repeat.

A very keen observation. +1.

If I was a CM at FDev, I wouldn't bother addressing/answering most of the issues that are raised here too. I would

• log the perceived issue
• monitor how much discussion went on about it
• raise it at the next monthly review meeting
• report back to the community when appropriate

I think many people expect non-stop communications and instant/ongoing feedback from companies. Businesses don't work like that.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I hate to be "that guy" but isn't dealing with such complaints part of the CM Job? We have 3 Community Managers's on Elite, and I'd have thought part of their job would be ameliorating the discontent expressed in the last ten pages?


If you look at the URL you posted there is naff all relating to Elite in there. Being honest with you I don't like the dev tracker as it picks up on all the CM's personal tweets as well as anything related to the games they manage the community for, so looking at that site presumably for any info on the game you end up looking into their personal lives.

I generally disable the Twitter one as it picks up on devs private twitter accounts. It does mean you miss the official twitter stuff, but i can live without those.

Elite: Dangerous Dev Tracker

Elite: Dangerous Developer Tracker tracks post across multiple social platforms to help you stay up to date with all the latest Elite: Dangerous updates

elitedevtracker.com

Last ED related post was 8 hours ago.

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

Two questions.

1. Are we saying the offices are empty?
2. Where did you say the office was based again?

Spoiler: Asking for a friend

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I think this is spot on. Imagine delving into the untamed wilds of 'dangerous discussion' as the CM or a FD dev, just seeing oceans of 'X is a joke' or 'OMG Frontier 5 YEARS and Y is still unbalanced!!'. And in the threads, noone seems to agree on anything, so you can't get any coherent feedback from the community anyways.

But from a player perspective, this silence from FD fuels this atmosphere in the first place. It's a negative feedback loop, as you say.

They could completely ignore DD for all I care - I do expect them to respond to posts in the news/updates section though, to threads that they themselves have created.

Alternatively they should just lock them altogether, in order to stop wasting people's time sending their (mostly) "valuable feedback" into the void.

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

Ok you lot. I've read between the lines, I'm off to their offices to do a 'paint job' on them. Lets see how they like it.

 

[dognosh]

Ok you lot. I've read between the lines, I'm off to their offices to do a 'paint job' on them. Lets see how they like it.

But they won't be able to see it !

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

But they won't be able to see it !

Haha! That is the beauty of my plan, I actually did it last week and they haven't noticed. Proves my point. One nil to me.