191 replies to this topic

[sycocys]

I unfortunately can't copy/paste it because he blocked me at the end after I suggested he should once again engage with the community here at MWo, but here are some of the things I gathered from the conversation.

1. CW won't get any real meaningful updates until 2015 - 6+ months from now. -Unless maybe the community bombs his twitter to light a fire under his rear end.-

2. Russ thinks their current snails pace is more than acceptable in today's market.

-Even other small studios like Gazillion with Marvel Heroes update weekly and have in the 2 years (since alpha) nearly completely rebuilt their entire game core while constantly building out their game AND their store. Its a hotter (market) IP, but it also has a very hard working development staff.-

3. has zero intention of ever engaging with the community on the forums again.

-Sad, and mind boggling at the same time. But also explains the lack of direction in the production cycles. Again I'll reference the Marvel Heroes game, they have it sorted out on how to communicate with their players to keep the game on a good trajectory. Can also reference closed beta and even early open beta from this game some of us can remember that far back, to show they know how to do it but simply refuse to.-

4. Can't comprehend that his new attack/defense assault mode concept is exactly the same thing he put into CW for invasion being re-delivered as an update to an old mode.

-This I really don't know how to respond to, the vision he gave is exactly the same thing as invasion, how he can't see that is totally beyond me.-

5. Oh yes, his idea of the improvement for CW beta 2 is the spawn fixing that they built directly into the maps that they had people "working full time" to create.

- Honestly I don't see how this would have been an issue at all if they simply engaged with the community to find out what their desires for the mode were in the first place. I don't recall ever reading people looking for dota maps and channeled blob assault myself. Just feels like a Russ, "I need this to be more e-sport arena" situation that dragged out into 5 maps because of the continual ignoring of the community.-

My opinons are inside the - -

I'm not crying out that the sky is falling, just that after this short conversation I feel like I have a much better grasp on what the future of this game holds and how much confidence I can personally put into the leadership of this game. Very disappointed that the guy that is supposed to be leading this studio would block someone for suggesting he actually go back and start actively engaging the community that cares about the game, probably more disappointed in that than the total lack of a real plan for the future of the game.

Anyhow, I'll let this end here. Just thought some of you guys and gals that don't twitter would be interested to know how a conversation with Russ can go, wish I had anticipated him acting like a child and blocking me so I could have screen captured the posts directly for you.

[Templar Dane]

The trappings of a game developer......

I played another mmo for almost a decade. Right around the time of it's height in popularity, the devs started ignoring the players. Up until then they worked with the community.

They had two other games in development and their "cash cow" was just that. It was purely seen as money to hold them over until the other two games were finished.

That didn't turn out so well. One game flopped, the other was cancelled. The cash cow wasn't producing like it was and it was like they had no idea why.

Eventually they figured out that they can't just ignore the cash cow and expect it to keep producing no matter what.

[the hedgehog]

lordtzar, on 10 June 2015 - 05:57 AM, said:

Eventually they figured out that they can't just ignore the cash cow and expect it to keep producing no matter what.

Even the best cows only produce when they are fed and cared for.

MWO ain't bad, but it ain't great either.

Glad it's around though.

[LordBraxton]

PGI's cow has protruding ribs and an empty belly. Let's milk this analogy.. shall we? If PGI can't summon the resources (or more likely the knowledgeable coders, like the ones that mass-quit because of russ) to overhaul MWO's core... this game will likely not last more than a couple more years. The game has drastically decreased in quality graphically, and that doesn't fly in todays market. They need to fix the graphics, collisions, and hit-reg, to keep players around. They also need to fix the economy and NPE to bring in fresh blood. They've needed to do this for 2.5 years now and all we got are more mechs and a terrible attempt at CW.

Edited by LordBraxton, 10 June 2015 - 06:15 AM.

[JC Daxion]

So the guy says, He won't talk on the forums.. I don't blame him. He has people that do that...


The guy talks directly to people on twitter, and on top of that has town hall meetings where he answers questions directly for 2-4 hours, and has done so a few times since they took over about 9 months ago.

PGI has never been more transparent, about what is going on, And have been pretty darn on spot with all their announcements since IGN dropped.


I honestly don't get what more people wan't..

And i totally get it, today's gamers want everything yesterday. Over all in 3 years from founders to now.. i think they have made some great steps, with only improvements on the grand scale..

CW is a smaller group of people, (fact) they have the numbers not us, so if it is getting back burned a bit for other stuff that helps more players enjoy.. i get that completely.

the guy takes the time to talk to you, you press topics, which finally makes him say he has had enough, instead of just having a short convo and letting it go, and now you are upset? Wish i could see the actual convo, cause sounds to me like he was talking to a fan that started giving him crap, just from the ton of how you are reacting to his answers..


I've been waiting since 2001 for another story based campaign, and joined up with this game the moment i heard about it.. and continue to support the game with cash, in hopes that one day i'll get my wish.. Till then i will happily play this great mech game, that there is NOTHING else like it anywhere in todays gaming,... and be happy i got what i do, and hope it keeps improving like it has over the 2+ years that i've actually played it.

[Dolph Hoskins]

EDIT:
Nevermind. I have no real opinion on hear say.

Edited by The Ripper13, 10 June 2015 - 06:57 AM.

[XX Sulla XX]

The truth is there is not what the community wants there are many conflicting things many different parts of the community want. And many things some people want are incompatible with what other people want or are impractical or just bad. They have to sort through all of this and make the choices they think best.

Communications from PGI is still strong over all. But they cant take the time to debate every person on every idea they have.

Edited by XX Sulla XX, 10 June 2015 - 06:21 AM.

[Bill Lumbar]

Interesting for sure, thanks for the post.

[Paigan]

sycocys, on 10 June 2015 - 05:46 AM, said:

I unfortunately can't copy/paste it because he blocked me at the end after I suggested he should once again engage with the community here at MWo, [...]

Uhm...
I can understand that a guy in his position (being endlessly bugged by numerous people) might block someone after that one constantly being a smartass or constantly annoying him, etc. But for suggesting to engage with his customers? ... o_0
He can always say "not enough time, sorry" or "too much flaming there" or anything. But blocking?

Sound's a little "The earth is not a disc" - "BURN HIM!" -ish to me.

Edited by Paigan, 10 June 2015 - 06:25 AM.

[LordBraxton]

I'm just going to have to make a twitter account just to be heard.

[Duke Nedo]

It all depends on what was said... I can imagine if I was running a game and someone bugged me with personal demands I'd reach a point where I'd say nope, this persons money is not worth listening to this and he'll most likely quit anyways. Block.

[Paigan]

Duke Nedo, on 10 June 2015 - 06:32 AM, said:

It all depends on what was said... I can imagine if I was running a game and someone bugged me with personal demands I'd reach a point where I'd say nope, this persons money is not worth listening to this and he'll most likely quit anyways. Block.

Sure.
But if it really was for just harmlessly suggesting to re-engage in the forums...

[Bilbo]

Paigan, on 10 June 2015 - 06:33 AM, said:

Sure.
But if it really was for just harmlessly suggesting to re-engage in the forums...

You can see the conversation. The OP was like a dog worrying at a bone. I'm surprised it took him as long as it did to get blocked.

[N a p e s]

Paigan, on 10 June 2015 - 06:33 AM, said:

Sure.
But if it really was for just harmlessly suggesting to re-engage in the forums...

Well the OP can't copy/paste so we don't know just how harmlessly it was done.

[Saint Scarlett Johan]

This is a very toxic and stubborn community with their set ways of how it should be done. You have the TRO TT guys that basically want a first person dice roller, you've arcade crowd that just want stompy robots, you've got your full Sim crowd, you've got the ones that want it to be a clone of MW2/3/4, etc.

This game has a rich history that's being extrapolated from a board game to make a first person shooter. The community doesn't even agree on all the rules of how they want to play TT. They want their pet set of rules in place, everyone else's opinions be damned. It was painfully obvious going through and seeing the personal pet builds and not new player friendly builds so many people were suggesting for the Trial Mech revamps.

So I can't blame him. I don't like the whole Twitter thing in general, but they do have a community manager now. I've seen her interact on reddit a good bit and as she starts to learn this game, we may start to see her more.

Instead of trying to get Russ' ear, try Tina's.

[sycocys]

I'm really not mad about it, just disappointed.

He left a troll response when I first suggested it so I responded with a link to https://forums.marvelheroes.com/ so he could research a company that does it correctly and a couple messages encouraging him to rethink his lack of engagement.

Went to weld up a muffler for a friend and was blocked by the time I returned.

No hate, as I said for me personally the conversation was just an insight into the leadership of the company. If you can still see it on your end then by all means go check it out. Might fill you in on some of the scheduling details that he never discusses with players here.

--
Also I don't know if other players remember this being that those old forums from beta were wiped - but he and Paul used to do a great job in getting to the bottom of different things when they actively engaged. Finding a good middle ground by being a part of the discussion rather than just leaving the community in the wind which is a great deal of why much of it has become so bitter or left entirely.

Edited by sycocys, 10 June 2015 - 06:50 AM.

[GeistHrafn]

Seeing the constant "PGI sucks" attitude that a lot of folks give on the forums, spewing venom with little constructive purpose (I am not referring to this thread), I'm not at all surprised he has no intention of coming back to engage with us here.
I see threads where someone IS constructive, offers a good idea for others to discuss, only to be hijacked by the same venom each time. It's like grade school at times.

I get it, some people are disillusioned with the game. I get some are angry. But it doesn't encourage PGI to listen to us when you let it creep into what could be a good conversation with valid points.

[PappySmurf]

Russ and Brian are not real devs they are at best dev game modders PGI has no clue why there failing and when told why they just ignore everyone or ban them or the mods place all the posts in K-town to be ignored further.

I personally gave up on the devs and PGI right after Closed beta and I see no reason to spend any more money on this game until it does a 360 and turns back into MechWarrior/battletech with a new MSN gamming zone and leagues and all the cool things in solo and multiplayer that MechWarrior2-MechWarrior4 had.

[AlexEss]

Well Syc... To be fair... The main reason the forums have been devoid if good info is that since Garth left (and Tina took over) we had no community manager... Unlike.. say... Marvel Heroes.


Secondly... We are the 2%.... You can not design your marketing around that small of a base.. Especially as most of those 2% use other social media too. It was different when forums was pretty much the only way to reach out. That is no longer the case.

Thirdly... Russ is not a media person. We have seen that over and over again.

Fourth and final. Why come here with a chip on your shoulder and a attitude sour enough to make a lemon cringe...? What was the goal..? To have us make you feel better?

Edited by AlexEss, 10 June 2015 - 06:56 AM.

[Mercules]

sycocys, on 10 June 2015 - 06:47 AM, said:

He left a troll response when I first suggested it so I responded with a link to https://forums.marvelheroes.com/ so he could research a company that does it correctly and a couple messages encouraging him to rethink his lack of engagement.

I skimmed through the conversations on Twitter between yourself and him. It looks like he just got fed up with you. I think both parties are at fault. He probably shouldn't have blocked you, but at the same time you were sort of badgering him. I personally think Twitter is horrible due to the text limit. There are far too many things that get misconstrued when condensed. You don't get the opportunity to add the extra words that set the context better and so a lot of time tweets don't convey the right tone or mood of the message and get taken the wrong way.

So it's possible you were having a friendly conversation and he was seeing someone ranting incoherently about something he already explained.


Yes, it is a shame he doesn't interact on the forums, but that would be why they hired Tina, right?