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5 Questions Answered. Seriously? Hate The New Ask The Dev's Format

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#1 irony1999

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Posted 04 July 2013 - 03:14 PM

Ask the Dev's format is pretty much the only regular communication we get from you guys on the forum. Dozens of questions are answered each time, and I sincerely appreciate it. I think I'm not alone on that.

Now we get five questions answered. Five. Where's the community involvement? Knowing that someone else can get their answer question, but almost never mine (might as well enter the lottery). It also seems to be a prelude to just eliminating it entirely.

Lets face it, in terms of posting officially on the board, its been going downhill this year:
-You only post in the Command Chair section once or twice a month - and often never post on topics you promise to post on.
-You've give up on the daily in-universe updates.
-The Monthly Developer update has been including less information each month, often come out after the first patch, and is frequently superseded by information in third party podcasts with your staff (seriously - why am I finding out about UI 2.0 and CW being pushed back on NGNG, and not in your official updates?).

I don't know if the negativity on this board is getting to you guys, and you're cutting back on your exposure to us, or what - but I strongly urge you to reconsider the new format.

The old format gave EVERYONE a chance to speak with the staff, officially. Now only a select few are, and we're all being left out as a result. Not cool.

#2 Hellen Wheels

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Posted 04 July 2013 - 04:10 PM

Just my two cents worth, but historically the ATD forum has been littered with:

1) the same questions, asked different ways, ad nauseum, and
2) questions that are either obnoxious, facetious, full of QQ (to use a "term" that I abhor), and / or completely irrelevant (e.g., "What did you guys have for lunch today?"), and
3) inflammatory, or
4) already asked and answered.

You reap what you sow. Now, they intend to cut through the chaff and drivel to find questions that are relevant, well stated, and of interest to the community as a whole (as opposed to, let's say, addressing the 1% of "elite" players that think they should have the unflagging attention of PGI and IGP at all times.)

I, for one, welcome the new format, and hope that we'll get real answers of substance now about the most important topics of interest to us all, instead of the non-answers that we usually get.

Now, it's your turn to crucify me. Do your worst.
=H=

Edited by Hellen Wheels, 04 July 2013 - 04:33 PM.


#3 Krzysztof z Bagien

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Posted 04 July 2013 - 04:11 PM

It doesn't matter. 1/3 of the answers was "After launch", "I have to ask" and "I can't speak of it right now", 1/4 was Yes/No without any further explanation, another 1/4 was not the answer for the question that was asked and the rest was detailed answers to questions like "Do you feel bad about shitstorms on forums?" or questions that have already been answered.
Maybe with this new form we can actually get to know anything, I'm not holding my breath though, as previous experiments in this area were complete failures.

Edited by Krzysztof z Bagien, 05 July 2013 - 03:35 AM.


#4 irony1999

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Posted 04 July 2013 - 05:09 PM

View PostHellen Wheels, on 04 July 2013 - 04:10 PM, said:

Now, it's your turn to crucify me. Do your worst.


I don't have to. There's nothing in your post thats fact based to respond to.

Fact: Last Ask The Devs had 55 different questions answered
Fact: None of the answered questions were duplicates
Fact: None of the 55 were obnoxious, etc.
Fact: None that I could see were inflamatory
Fact: Few were previously answered questions as far as I can see.

You had 4 points, almost none of them matching the reality of the answered questions.

We are going from a format where 55 different people got an answer, to 5. As for them being non-answers, I've had several questions answered and been happy with the response most of the time.

Edited by irony1999, 04 July 2013 - 05:09 PM.


#5 Hellen Wheels

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Posted 04 July 2013 - 05:14 PM

View Postirony1999, on 04 July 2013 - 05:09 PM, said:


I don't have to. There's nothing in your post thats fact based to respond to.

Fact: Last Ask The Devs had 55 different questions answered
Fact: None of the answered questions were duplicates
Fact: None of the 55 were obnoxious, etc.
Fact: None that I could see were inflamatory
Fact: Few were previously answered questions as far as I can see.

You had 4 points, almost none of them matching the reality of the answered questions.

We are going from a format where 55 different people got an answer, to 5. As for them being non-answers, I've had several questions answered and been happy with the response most of the time.


Good points, and well stated, but I was referring to the overall set of questions that have been ASKED, not the limited set of questions that have been ANSWERED.

I think we can both agree at least that its a fun game, worthy of our continued support, even with all the forum dramas here. Good hunting to ya!
=H=

Edited by Hellen Wheels, 04 July 2013 - 05:28 PM.


#6 Sybreed

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Posted 04 July 2013 - 06:49 PM

my main concern right now is that the questions that received the most votes are pretty much about the same subjects... I hope IGP will filter this!

#7 Rebas Kradd

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Posted 04 July 2013 - 07:08 PM

This new format will only turn ATD into a balance gripefest.

#8 Hellen Wheels

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Posted 04 July 2013 - 07:15 PM

View PostSybreed, on 04 July 2013 - 06:49 PM, said:

my main concern right now is that the questions that received the most votes are pretty much about the same subjects... I hope IGP will filter this!

Absolutely, along with the long-winded, multiple questions that go beyond the limit of one question per customer. Some of them are just off the beam (like the very first one.) I hope the Moderator(s) will be applying The Rule as stated, ideally with a very heavy cudgel.

Edited by Hellen Wheels, 04 July 2013 - 07:17 PM.


#9 Onmyoudo

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Posted 05 July 2013 - 01:02 AM

Seems like most people stop reading a couple pages in. Some good questions might miss out on a lot of those now-crucial likes just by virtue of not being on the first couple pages.

However the dev OP says they're only going to answer 5 questions, but in a lot of detail. So if they answer 5 properly instead of all that "Soon ™" ******** then it should work out okay.

#10 Chavette

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Posted 06 July 2013 - 06:42 AM

View PostKrzysztof z Bagien, on 04 July 2013 - 04:11 PM, said:

It doesn't matter. 1/3 of the answers was "After launch", "I have to ask" and "I can't speak of it right now", 1/4 was Yes/No without any further explanation, another 1/4 was not the answer for the question that was asked and the rest was detailed answers to questions like "Do you feel bad about shitstorms on forums?" or questions that have already been answered.
Maybe with this new form we can actually get to know anything, I'm not holding my breath though, as previous experiments in this area were complete failures.

I'd gladly have 30 yes/no -s, instead of 5 yes/no -s with some thoughts behind it that I could probably logically figure out myself.

#11 KingCobra

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Posted 06 July 2013 - 07:18 AM

They will not answer questions because of all the negative feedback from the community of course due to there lack of understanding of what the MechWarrior IP was and what the community expected which was not what MWO started out to be. Now there like mad scientists helllll bent on experimentation instead of fixing what they had made and making it more player friendly. You can see there overall attitude to there community as in no open forums sections like General was or the lack of a Live Open Chat platform we could interact together and with the devs. Or the fact any posts the PGI mod tools don't like ends up in forum no mans land buried because they don't want the topics or post discussed. Or maybe the fact the total population is shrinking and if the grand opening of the game does not do well they can just shut it down and slink away.

#12 HansBlix WMD

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Posted 11 July 2013 - 02:17 AM

My advice would be use this opportunity to answer questions in detail. Answering questions with "we've thought about that internally" and providing no further detail is pointless and a waste of everyone's time. It can be said about anything and provides no information.

You thought about it internally, and? You discussed it, and said what? You decided what about it? I guess this way you can choose questions where you don't feel obligated to give a non-answer.

#13 Scromboid

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Posted 11 July 2013 - 01:42 PM

I agree. This is total horse squeeze.

Let the devs answer what they want. Honestly, is answering a bunch of questions about your game every few weeks all that bad? Maybe you should keep us informed to begin with.

#14 Deathlike

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Posted 12 July 2013 - 05:33 AM

View PostNiko Snow, on 09 July 2013 - 07:51 AM, said:

The new ATD format is a Work in Progress and experimenting with the idea of answering fewer questions but with more detail. There was an overarching concern from the previous ATD that many did not appreciate the short and quick Y/N format of some answers which allowed us to have more questions answered.


It is unacceptable for various reasons. If for any reason that the questions that were answered this time around are not thoroughly answered as you suggest.... let's just say nothing good will come of that.

The sad part is most of those questions in previous AtD are NOT the yes/no questions. Even if they are the case, it would actually be better to expand the answers just for the sake of interest.

The thing is, you have to explain yourself.. Here's an example type of question that goes on in an AtD:

Quote

Question: Are SRMs going to be buffed anytime soon? You nerfed them a while ago and nothing has changed since then.

Bryan: I dunno, ask Paul.


That's what these issues look to us in detail. It's insulting, and it's a waste of time to have read that response.

The answers are kinda like you've been procrastinating, and you have an hour or so to finish up a questionnaire/homework that's due in class. The effort in the responses/questions is exactly what you would find in a D/F level homework assignment.

Here's what people are looking for instead:

Quote

Question: Are SRMs going to be buffed anytime soon? You nerfed them a while ago and nothing has changed since then.

Not Bryan: I apologize that we have not gotten around to addressing this sooner. The problem with buffing SRMs previously was that splash damage was a major issue and I believe that has been resolved. However, the current hit registration on everything is affecting our numbers and metrics, so we hope to resolve this quickly before we start tweaking the numbers. I understand people have been requesting an increase in damage, and when the netcode/hitreg has improved, this will receive the proper attention at that time.


See there? It's simple, concise, and to the point. It does not show an exact timeline (putting down an exact date), but a reasonable timeline and a fair response. It even addresses people wondering why this hasn't been resolved as quickly as it should. These are answers that we reasonably expect PGI to deliver. Even a simple explanation is better than one that does not discuss exact details, but an the overall idea of the issues that arise and/or a thoughtful response.

Myself and others simply don't like how AtD response effective are... Yes/No and the reasoning be "just because". That's why the entire AtD has been woefully unacceptable for a while now and doing this is not really the way to go.. it in fact may be more detrimental if the time spent answering the questions is just as long as the time spent properly balancing the game (which is, very little). I hope you take this seriously as a company. It's insulting to the players to continue that disappointing state of the the AtD posts.





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