Update on Communication

[Sighman]

I really don't understand why FD always seem deathly scared of saying anything.

It's a publicly-traded company. Any news which could affect the share price has to be announced to the market first, not accidentally revealed by a CM on a livestream.

If you want reams of news about updates coming in 1-2-3 years time, try a game from an indie developer with no such constraints. I hear they've been having trouble with roadmaps recently as well, though.

 

[Cmdr Microponto]

Greetings Commanders,

I want to speak directly about the lack of official streams and reduced communications from our social channels since the start of 2022. I understand the concerns this has caused and hope this statement goes some way to alleviate them.

The whole team are excited to share all of the upcoming content for this year including new updates, content expansions and the next major phase in the ongoing narrative following the Azimuth Saga finale. Beyond this, we also look forward to sharing our new streaming format when the series returns as a weekly show. Changes will include new segments, year-round Twitch Drop campaigns and studio-quality production once we move back into the office.

However, there are several questions that must be answered internally to inform this communication plan. It is important to me that we address key subjects by priority and when we do that the information we provide is clear. The team and I are working incredibly hard behind the scenes to gather this information and provide these answers.

As always, the team and I are grateful for your patience and support while we wait for the opportunity to share all of the above with you. We will update you with more detail as soon as we can.

See you in the black o7.

-Arf​

Let me get this straight, pls
You give us a statement to alleviate our concerns... But all you say is that you look forward to share stuff you are not sharing. Like so, giving us nothing!
Then you say several questions must be answered internally before you inform us. You still dont give us nothing...
Then you speak of priorities, and that you guys are working 'incredibly hard' behind the scenes to gather information that will provide answers you dont give. You are still not giving us anything....
Then you thank our patience (i'm supper impatient) and state you can't wait to share what you haven't (just now) shared... and delay again all sorts of answers....

With this kind of posts you remind me political parties in my country (unfortunately)...
Its like coming to inform that you have nothing to inform while refering key words that you think everyone wants to listen.
Please don't deviate from what is malfunctioning in the game and has to be fixed, for the sake of your customers...
There are lots of forum users that have already made great posts about stuff that's going on with practical gameplay.... Hear/read them!!!

 

[Crimson Kaim]

What does this even mean?

That they will share information whenever they feel ready, no ETAs no guarantees.
Or simply in one phrase: soonTM

 

[zikolach]

its there, in the job description, engage with the community.

at least once, but better twice a month or more

What happened to engineering, and all those good suggestions?

could be they realized these are changes, which are easily worth a separate DLC in size?

Then you thank our patience (i'm supper impatient)

I would not take this personally - it is for those who is patient...

 

[Profane_Pagan]

What does this even mean?

It means pre-production of their material which can mean everything from designing shooting schedules, writing scripts, making and editing cutscenes, writing the preliminary update notes, most importantly continuous meetings with other departments, arranging their studio and coming out from home office, and ofc line-producer duties. Community managers rely on the steady flow of information which other departments produce . Devs (and by devs I mean community managers too) don't sit on their hands. A new year with important future announcements require a lot of planning and organizing. They don't stream or tweet like any kid in a rubber pool on Twitch -they are a publicly traded company where one half sentence from a community manager on Twitch could affect Fdev share prices negatively or positively.

 

[AngryAntz]

Because ED is the topic, no other game.

The streaming schedule thread was in the Frontier section. As far as I can see ED is still part of the Frontier stable. Or are you saying ED isn't part of frontier anymore?

And in case you haven't noticed already. I was not part of that thread as a poster... just as a reader.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

It's a publicly-traded company. Any news which could affect the share price has to be announced to the market first, not accidentally revealed by a CM on a livestream.

If you want reams of news about updates coming in 1-2-3 years time, try a game from an indie developer with no such constraints. I hear they've been having trouble with roadmaps recently as well, though.

I don't believe a strategic but still vague enough announcement (like "we're looking at adding base building to Elite in 2023, with ELWs likely not before 2024, if all goes as planned") will get Frontier into trouble as a PLC. Rather the complete lack of such statements for Elite in the last report must've raised some eyebrows indeed.

And we're not even asking for anything that far in advance (well, I'm not, although I wouldn't say no to such an update either), but patch 11 (including FCs) is, if we go by their current update cadency, to be released in February/early March, that's pretty short term to me. We have received nothing beyond that in terms of what the plan is for Elite even for the remainder of this year, let alone the next three.

 

[zimms]

Damned if they do, damned if they don't huh!.

Do what exactly? I know Frontier can do no wrong in your opinion, but clearly this hasn't been handled perfectly.

They announced stuff last year that simply didn't happen. And it was impossible for anyone to take the 1 minute it takes to post "It's not happening, sorry for the delay."? Sorry, but I don't believe that. Going past a deadline without delivering anything and not even offering a single word of communication is just very poor form in my honest opinion.

But sure, let's scapegoat the evil community again, that always works.

 

[Frop]

It means pre-production of their material which can mean everything from designing shooting schedules, writing scripts, making and editing cutscenes, writing the preliminary update notes, most importantly continuous meetings with other departments, arranging their studio and coming out from home office, and ofc line-producer duties. Community managers rely on the steady flow of information which other departments produce . Devs (and by devs I mean community managers too) don't sit on their hands. A new year with important future announcements require a lot of planning and organizing. They don't stream or tweet like any kid in a rubber pool on Twitch -they are a publicly traded company where one half sentence from a community manager on Twitch could affect Fdev share prices negatively or positively.

Of course, they could've said something like this. But instead, we got what was written in the OP.

 

[ElvisKremmen]

Great news to hear @Arthur Tolmie, I hope you and the team had a great new year. I look forward to the new updates and the way elite is moving. o7

 

[Luftwaffle_]

Why are you working on storylines and livestreams when the game is still a mess?

What a joke of an update. But I'm not even surprised.

 

[Geronimo3]

Great news to hear @Arthur Tolmie, I hope you and the team had a great new year. I look forward to the new updates and the way elite is moving. o7

i think its time that David Braben jumps in here and enlighten the community on the ED future plans. This post from Arthur Tolmie is worthless to me and a disconnect from decembers anouncments. if i didn´t love this game so much i had long time stopped following this CM stuff, they have lost creditability for me.

 

[angusmadmac1]

Look you guys, be patient. It is a lot of work returning to work.
Most manf/production (as did I) kept going throughout, but the office staff were working from home with zoom etc.
Our offices are even now returning, but in phases, and the same will be happening with FD.
You saw Sally's living room tweets? and the December streams were good.
They are now organizing the move back to the FD office whilst at the same time working on update 11, I should hope.

With my particular company, with work/social distancing still in place to some extent, we can no longer fit everyone back into the same work space as before 2020 and is taking a great deal of organizing.

Seems the other productions in frontier have managed streams regular CM's input and they are the same company ? So it's only Elite ?

 

[Gleitfrosch]

With respect, the paragraphs, whilst beautifully formed, are lacking in real information and appear to be sidestepping the questions that have been asked since December last year by the members of the forum.

Has the 'new era' of communication been shelved? Is ED and its expansions actually 'doomed' as is being bandied around? Read around Arf, the children are nervous!

I understood the message that these questions will be answered once the new communication structure has been internally approved or ha e already been partiallyanswered.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

It's a publicly-traded company. Any news which could affect the share price has to be announced to the market first, not accidentally revealed by a CM on a livestream.

If you want reams of news about updates coming in 1-2-3 years time, try a game from an indie developer with no such constraints. I hear they've been having trouble with roadmaps recently as well, though.

I wasn't suggesting they give any news which could affect their share price. I'm just suggesting they engage with the community and don't go dark.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Why are you working on storylines and livestreams when the game is still a mess?

What a joke of an update. But I'm not even surprised.

Performance is the only serious issue and the people who work on performance are not the CMs. There will also be people working on other things as well.

CMs do livestreams and communicate with the community. That's the thing that is troubling, not that CMs are not working on fixing the game, which they cannot do.

 

[Frop]

I'm just suggesting they engage with the community and don't go dark.

Unfortunately for us, one of their favourite expressions is "working behind the scenes" and not "working in the spotlight".

 

[StevieG]

I'm sorry but you dont need to communicate anything to us. You are community managers. You just need to be involved in the community.
Its why Educating Ed was soo good. A filler between content drops. A weekly touch point with the community manager who was not announcing anything.

Be community managers, not Elite Dangerous spoke people. Thats where this all went wrong, when you start seeing yourselves as the front face of fdev rather than the interaction between fdev and the community.

Get in a ship and come fly with the community - you dont need to announce anything!

 

[AngryAntz]

Unfortunately for us, one of their favourite expressions is "working behind the scenes" and not "working in the spotlight".

Lately It is almost as if "Community Manager" is a title only and not part of the job description.

 

[Viajero]

I don't see how even all that or more stops them making a few posts a day between the 4 of them.

I think that is quite a lot already and prolly just the most obvious part. Either way I thought you asked what they may be doing during their work day while not making a few posts and not why they don’t make a few posts irrespective of what they may be doing during their work day.