But the AMA is not ever going to be a WWAESQ (we will answer every stupid question)
The problem is that there were no silly questions, just reasonable ones, and that the CMs set themselves up to fall because they knew what would be asked.
ANNOUNCEMENT Elite Dangerous Community Team AMA
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The problem is that there were no silly questions, just reasonable ones, and that the CMs set themselves up to fall because they knew what would be asked.
It seemed like every other page, there was a "where's Raxxla?" question, which was answered predictably.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)
this is on point, obviously everyone is entitled to ask anything they like yet maybe it's an idea if key forumites could ask the questions that have been missed?
as did I, I thought I'd give it a miss whilst it was live and popped in after just to read the answers, I thought there was a few repeated ones as well as the answers that didn't actually answer.
wouldn't say I was angry over it, just a bit of a missed opportunity but then how much of that was the forums fault for those questions?
next weeks one will be interesting to see
yes there were.
I admit asking about Powerplay was silly.
Observations.
There were 4 CMs present this week. I dont expect them all every week. But yesterday they had come prepared to face a barrage and probably pre-agreed to take and answer certain questions or topics I think. They knew what they were going to say REDACTED about beforehand. They were expecting more Qs about different stuff that they were ready for maybe......but which Qs? They knew to shut down some Qs early and get on to the stuff they could answer. They were ready this week to be bombarded and try and answer as many as they could. Not their fault we only managed 6 pages or so.
They are CMs not Devs. If we say what about XYZ in game or can we have XYZ the only response is we'll pass it on, thats their job role, they dont decide if it goes in game or not. They can and sometimes did offer an opinion on the subject as well eg Mat gathering.
If we ask about future plans the only response unless they already agreed to release something is we'll tell you when we are ready, but more politely. Asking doesnt speed it up, it just changes how the answer is given.
So what can they answer? Lore, gameplay, BGS, what they had for breakfast but please don't, whether they are aware of bugs (Megaships! how did we forget Megaships?!), whether they can improve certain aspects - feedback, especially on bug reporting (a mod did bring this up but was late on and didnt get answered in the time), maybe what bugs are currently being worked on or looked at (if not just all of them)....and lots of other stuff if we can just think of it coz it turned out a lot of our questions were the same ones we hadnt had any feedback on for months and we got it all in first responses.
A topic would be good as a suggestion if not limited to that topic.
There were 4 CMs present this week. I dont expect them all every week. But yesterday they had come prepared to face a barrage and probably pre-agreed to take and answer certain questions or topics I think. They knew what they were going to say REDACTED about beforehand. They were expecting more Qs about different stuff that they were ready for maybe......but which Qs? They knew to shut down some Qs early and get on to the stuff they could answer. They were ready this week to be bombarded and try and answer as many as they could. Not their fault we only managed 6 pages or so.
They are CMs not Devs. If we say what about XYZ in game or can we have XYZ the only response is we'll pass it on, thats their job role, they dont decide if it goes in game or not. They can and sometimes did offer an opinion on the subject as well eg Mat gathering.
If we ask about future plans the only response unless they already agreed to release something is we'll tell you when we are ready, but more politely. Asking doesnt speed it up, it just changes how the answer is given.
So what can they answer? Lore, gameplay, BGS, what they had for breakfast but please don't, whether they are aware of bugs (Megaships! how did we forget Megaships?!), whether they can improve certain aspects - feedback, especially on bug reporting (a mod did bring this up but was late on and didnt get answered in the time), maybe what bugs are currently being worked on or looked at (if not just all of them)....and lots of other stuff if we can just think of it coz it turned out a lot of our questions were the same ones we hadnt had any feedback on for months and we got it all in first responses.
A topic would be good as a suggestion if not limited to that topic.
I like the idea in principle, but if they can't say anything meaningful, then i'd argue it does cause harm. At best, it was a big fat nothingburger.
Then again, there is little point in doing an AMA. The second A does stand for "anything".
Perhaps they should try focused Q&As on topics they know they can give answers to.
Best thing for the CMs is to just give out a list of questions that they can answer.
You might have known it was coming in December, if asked I would have guessed that but would not have been certain.
I saw that answer as at least a positive statement that there is still going to be another Dev Diary this year.
Ask that at the next AMA, maybe.
I'm sure we'd just get a PR response.
More like a [REDACTED]
Raxxla is a rumour of a myth currently and fascinating because of that saying anything definitive about it destroys that.
"That's a good question, I'll find out."
They never said they would answer everything though.
Same goes when someone actually finds it... if it is indeed findable.
Nor would i expect them to.
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