ANNOUNCEMENT Elite Dangerous Community Team AMA
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The problem is the labeling- AMA implies everything is up for discussion when i
The problem then is making that engagement meaningful. The AMA reminded me of the lean times of CMs where everything would be 'no comment', 'thats nice'. A danger then becomes people get frustrated because despite saying everything is up for discussion its really not- the AMAs need a focus or at least a filter so we know what sort of questions will get meaningful answers.
Community engagement? I dunno really.
Maybe we could ask next time
The problem then is making that engagement meaningful. The AMA reminded me of the lean times of CMs where everything would be 'no comment', 'thats nice'. A danger then becomes people get frustrated because despite saying everything is up for discussion its really not- the AMAs need a focus or at least a filter so we know what sort of questions will get meaningful answers.
That is a really good point. And maybe get other people answering. I'm sure, for example, we could get more answers about the BGS / mission system / exploration than we will ever get about Odyssey.
Yes. It would mean its not Permit Locked so all those systems can be ignored forever, thats way more info than we have now. So yes, it would have hurt. You gotta think about the questions.
And if they say No, then it isnt in any of the systems we can access now. Its either Permit Locked or not in game. Again, they aint gonna say that.
You asked 'You have a pre-planned and well thought out marketing campaign for Odyssey across all media,. Would you like to break that strategy now and give some other info you arent supposed to yet instead of the timeline you have already agreed to?
The simple answer is 'When we have info to give, you will know about it, so stop asking'
Not if we ask the right questions.
And sometimes the 'Well pass it on' is the 1st time we actually know anyone has even heard it which is all we want to know. They said they know theres an issue with the Azure PJs and that they are aware of all bug-reports on the tracker - 2 more things I wasnt sure about, did they actually know coz we keep saying it on the forums and no feedback? Yes, they did, so I can now move on to other stuff. It will take time but they do know, its in their hands now. Same for Mat gathering rates and Mat Trader rates, they are aware and at some point a decision will be made and they feedback, at that point we respond, until that point its a waste of time.
Stop asking questions they cant or arent going to answer. Yesterday was yet another lesson in questions they wont answer. So next week we can just not ask any of those at all.
I actually liked the firm NO but in other forms, if people keep asking thats their fault not the CMs.
And we ran out of Qs, after 4 pages it was lagging, same Qs asked 3 or 4 times.
We missed almost all QOL improvements, FC filters, SysMap Filters, POI filters (Geo/Bio), Module storage space and much more...next week we should be better prepared with QOL and more...
Goddamn! You're as bad as FD! I demand answers!
Indeed. One way to do it would be set a topic they know they can talk about.
So, instead of releasing news as an info dump, do it as an AMA. Its kind of cheating, but the community will feel engaged.
For example, mangement said, ok, we now authorize CMs to talk about the upcoming (X). Anything about (X) can be discussed. So the CMs do an AMA, and then after, FD does the more well presented info dump.
[redacted]
I thought the answer to that would be obvious, I found redacted to be funny, maybe it's just my twisted sense of humor, but in all honesty, did you really expect an answer to that?
The raxxla topic has nearly 1k pages, it's the biggest mystery in the game, even writers aren't allowed to mention it, why would anyone think a CM would be?
The same question has been ongoing for ages and always comes back to what Braben said a long time ago, then again long time ago he also said he wouldn't want to be forced to forever asteroid mine.
No, I asked them if there was anything they could tell us, and if they wanted to be real trolls, Bruce could have simply said "Yes". I am disappointed because there is a lot Bruce could have said while still keeping within the boundries he's been set, for example the dev diary title, its subject, its current status (even Arthur mentioned that in the run up to the previous dev diary). Repeating what we already know "This December" is frankly, a cop-out and disappointing.
And as for "stop asking questions", it was because I pushed Michael Brookes to answer a question about The Outsider, that they took a chance and launched the Elite Dangerous kickstarter. I would prove that to you, but many of the old threads have been hidden and even I can't get access to them. So, no, I won't stop asking questions (and I suspect, neither will anyone else in the community, and nor should they).
Yepo - next AMA I would make this the absolute priority - "what areas are up for question and suggestion?" as it does rather seem that 99% of questions that people want to ask are off limits/ can't answer/ wont answer/etc. The AMA must have some positive purpose; we've just got to find out what it is!
The other danger is that having AMAs that answer nothing undo the positive atmosphere that recent CM efforts have built, and foster resentment.
Yes, quite. It's counter productive, isn't it? They could do with setting out their stall a bit better, rather than "any questions!?" and then not answering any of the questions.
Writers are not allowed because they are not FD. CMs can if management allow it, and would hope they could at least confirm its in game and reachable.
We could always ask questions they can definitely answer
"Now that you've announced the DC Comics tie-in for Odyssey - can you tell us if both Superman and Batman will be included suit options, or will they be additional DLCs - and which dances will each character have?"
"Now that you've announced the DC Comics tie-in for Odyssey - can you tell us if both Superman and Batman will be included suit options, or will they be additional DLCs - and which dances will each character have?"
I feel really like that. I came with illusion to read the AMA thread and almost all the responses are "can't say thx for your question", I ended quite angry and disappointed (but not surprised). Just don't make an AMA if you don't have nothing to say, it's just marketing sense jesus christ.
The art of PR, like politics, is in giving the
But at the very least, the AMA brought the CMs into the forum, to give a welcoming nod to good ideas, to dismiss silly repetitive questions in a polite manner, and to heal a long-lasting rift between FD and the players. It did no harm.
It was 100% 'nice idea, I'll pass it on'- if anything its dented the goodwill their hard work in recent times IMO. People on this forum have long memories, and it really rubs people up the wrong way when the AMA just prolongs the wait for answers, rather than offering insight.
Next week will be interesting, mainly to see if the optimistic tone is repeated (if the format remains the same)- my guess is as time goes on people will just get more and more frustrated. Just reading Reddit was enough to see a lot of people were fed up.
And that has been asked over and over again. Don't get me wrong, it's worth a shot to ask, but being annoyed because this time the answer was the same as the previous time it was asked, but in a more joking manner, doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
I'm also guessing CMs are limited with answers because of the community itself, as the community takes every word like it's set in stone, leaving no room for any kind of change without risking major negative feedback. I'm not at all surprised with the answers and it's not inconsistent with other game developers either, at least here we get to communicate with CMs even so many years after release.
The purpose of the AMA was stated right at the beginning:
"While we watch the forums to see what the latest is, we're not always able to show our presence and respond in each of the threads in all of the various sections. To give you, our forum users, a direct line to speak with us, we've created this AMA ("ask me anything") style thread. "
Ideally, a CM would be joining in the forum posts with us here, but since FD chose to communicate in public media beyond this forum (for commercial reasons, I should imagine), the CMs are spread too thinly to engage.
But the AMA is not ever going to be a WWAESQ (we will answer every stupid question)
"While we watch the forums to see what the latest is, we're not always able to show our presence and respond in each of the threads in all of the various sections. To give you, our forum users, a direct line to speak with us, we've created this AMA ("ask me anything") style thread. "
Ideally, a CM would be joining in the forum posts with us here, but since FD chose to communicate in public media beyond this forum (for commercial reasons, I should imagine), the CMs are spread too thinly to engage.
But the AMA is not ever going to be a WWAESQ (we will answer every stupid question)
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