Game Director Letter – July 2013

[Kurt2013]

Seriously, can you cite one or two posts in THIS thread where you read RAGE into? According to what has been done to this game in the last year, most comments are really civil (especially if you look at past responses to patches and letters in 2011 and 2012). If you worked in after sales, you'd know what i mean

Or has it been edited out already?

I read sarcasm, criticism, suggestions, questions, puzzlement, delusion, pessimism, optimism, compliments, musings etc. ...but where is the rage?

And why shouldn't he read it? If the musings (of the latest posts) are untrue he can sit back relaxed and think "you just wait and see!" and if the musings are true, i doubt it is his personal fault as well. So he might at least forward some of the feedback or take a look at his schedule. How is this "nothing good"?

If you read the annual report and take a look where the "new" team comes from, how can you be surprised by the actual focus and would you do it different concerning big game changes?
So not expecting any big steps, but at least "some" constant maintenance and small steps should be doable (and to be fair, the "mess up" factor has been a lot less in 2013 so far, compared to 2012). Following a roadmap (independant of how bad it might turn out for AoC) sounds still better than some blind actionism we have seen already.

You can compare the games to an old workhorse, a wounded racehorse and a young untamed filly just caught after a runaway. You can't expect wonders from the workhorse, even if you focus and care for it exclusively. Fixing the wound and practicing running might take too much resources at the moment for the racehorse (but the potential is there)...so focusing and trying to tame the filly might look like the best choice. Still all three horses require a minimum of food and care, if you want some work from them in return.

[Arishanya]

By the way it didnt take long Joel to stops posting to official forums. Barely broke Sil´s record of 2 months.

He did just have a baby recently and told us all he wasn't going to be posting as much for a while. Don't forget that.

[Sente]

He promissed to merge servers in May enough said. And how it is fair to see one tine little content im 5 months

He promised that the multi-stage process to get the servers to the single-server tech would start in May. The first stage, moving the Euro servers to US, happened in May.

[Sente]

and think that's worst :X

He knew IN ADVANCE that the progression in AOC will be, and I quote Funcom's dev meeting notes on this, "**** all".

I am quite sure that they have a reasonably well planned schedule and set of priorities, including knowing when and who would go on vacation. Of course he knew.

TSW gets most of the attention and no surprise there - with the business model of TSW they are more dependent on content being produced to get money than with AoC.

The priorities are likely set based on whatever the business side thinks is the most efficient way to bring in money. As past posts from Joel have indicated, a lot of what they do and plan need approval from the business side.

[gcustoms]

Exactly sente. People seem to forget that funcom is wildly understaffed for the products they're trying to keep up. They seem to think games magically fix themselves and that they bring out content instantly. Totally focused on what they want and don't seem to care about what anyone else is doing. Everyone should just be patient and realize that Joel just had a baby, and even with that he DID bring us the 5th anniversary event. Which was unexpectedly awesome.

Why is everyone so quick to forget the good and focus on the bad?

[bruceleroy]

He did just have a baby recently and told us all he wasn't going to be posting as much for a while. Don't forget that.

Then he shouldn't charge us while he is away. He wants a break, so do we...

[tman1991]

Exactly sente. People seem to forget that funcom is wildly understaffed for the products they're trying to keep up. They seem to think games magically fix themselves and that they bring out content instantly. Totally focused on what they want and don't seem to care about what anyone else is doing. Everyone should just be patient and realize that Joel just had a baby, and even with that he DID bring us the 5th anniversary event. Which was unexpectedly awesome.

Why is everyone so quick to forget the good and focus on the bad?

I'm sure there would have been a 5th anniversary event regardless of who the GD was.. Again, what has been done in 2013? Well virtually nothing.. thats the facts..

[Chillee]

Oh the rage ...

If Funcom can deliver on the promises of this months letter it will be a fantastic autumn for AoC. Two new Dungeons, at least 3 rewamped dungeons, achievements, tradecraft, pvp minigame and new raid.

Even if some of the features gets pushed back to winter or spring it is content overflow compared to the last couple of years.

I hope Mr Bylos does'nt read this rage thread. Nothing good can come of it.

That's an enormous IF.

They're 3 months behind the pace he set in April for the new 6 mans, and yet you expect much of what's in there to be out this year? I'd glady pay double for my sub if that were the case, but we both know that we won't get much more than 3 revamped 6 mans no one will much care about plus the new dungeon in DS.

The new pvp game, the new raid, the final DS 6 man, the revamped old world 6 mans that people actually look forward to, and the crafting restart will never see the light of day in 2012 on TL, much less live servers.

Bylos & Co took a huge dump on the AOC population with this "update". But hey, he's got everyone back working strong on Issue #8.

[Patrynn]

Then he shouldn't charge us while he is away. He wants a break, so do we...

That's called not subbing... and that is entirely up to you.

[Kurt2013]

Exactly sente. People seem to forget that funcom is wildly understaffed for the products they're trying to keep up. They seem to think games magically fix themselves and that they bring out content instantly. Totally focused on what they want and don't seem to care about what anyone else is doing. Everyone should just be patient and realize that Joel just had a baby, and even with that he DID bring us the 5th anniversary event. Which was unexpectedly awesome.

Why is everyone so quick to forget the good and focus on the bad?

I agree about constant new content here. That is why people are not asking for a new expansion or are content with waiting for revamps and new tiers tomorrow (or the next weeks). But this does not exclude the option for adding small steps of new content (like the planned unchained versions, which as i think (if i look at past unchained versions) do not require tons of devpower anyway).

But for fixing and constantly maintaining or even improving a game you don't need a "full" team. Less than a handful of motivated people with some rights should do. Just look how other "f2p" games do it with even fewer staff than AoC.

I am still a strong supporter of a weekly (or at least monthly) maintenance patch which includes good documentation what was done (again here you don't need many people...maybe just some "business" guy, deciding it is "worthwhile". ninjaing some things (good and bad) into the game will not help on the long run).

Also, as i tried to explain to the GD once, AoC has a lot of bad history to get on the good side of. They might think they can define "a new beginning" and start from scratch, but i don't think it works well this way. Even if you have the best plans and intentions, with such a history the job is not easy. But you can't blame the customers for it and honestly, that is part of the job description, if you want to sell things...