I felt like pulling up a post I made in the last "Lusternia's Direction" thread. It helped (for me at least) frame where Lusternia was 3.5 months ago, and more easily compare it to where the game's currently headed.
QUOTE(Xenthos @ May 30 2008, 03:52 PM) 516717
I'm going to take a few moments out of my vacation to pen a few thoughts (so excuse me if this isn't quite as complete as it could be).
I've seen this touched on a bit by others, and wanted to emphasize their points (since a lot of it seems to be getting lost in various other discussions about specific skillsets, or what have you):
There is a very real sense that Lusternia is on the "development track". Things are released, and while they may be examined once very shortly after release, once it's been out a bit "That's the way it is." It's very unlikely to change, because those who were working on it have already moved on to bigger and better (well, shinier) new things. This is great for a new game world, but consider that Lusternia is now over three years old.
There is three years worth of development that has mostly been introduced under this philosophy, and all of the discussions thus far have focused on "taking a break from releasing new things to tweak old bits that may be issues".
This is, itself, not only an issue: It is the issue.
Lusternia needs a consistent focus on existing content as well as new content. An equal amount of effort needs to be put into tweaking, fixing, and playing with the last three years' worth of development as is put towards "the new stuff". This means that if there is one person coding new things, one person should also be in charge of the "existing game and modifications thereof". We are not asking that the introduction of new content be halted! Far from it. However, there is far too much of an emphasis on new content and nowhere near enough of a spotlight on the old. As a part of this, numerous discussions and concerns raised on the forums go completely unanswered. Are they being ignored? There is no way to say from our end whether the concerns are even being heard by those who make the decisions, so whether they are being ignored or not from your end, from our end it really doesn't matter. When there is no response, it looks like it's a player concern that just is "not a concern".
Some examples of this include:
Constructs, effects thereof (the primary example would be the Dark Nest)
Constructs, battling (though this one actually disproves my point early on, as their creator was fiercely devoted to researching the matter and tweaking them throughout, this died off rather quickly due to unfortunate and unforeseen events, and devolved from there. The final tweak to them ended up introducing more issues, and now the issue's back up again)
Aetherspace (flying, aetherbubbles, creatures, ship issues)
Various skillsets (Riding, Dramatics, Crow, etc.)
Miniatures (Anyone remember what these are?)
Ascendance (Issues were raised a few weeks after its release once the issues were first beginning to surface. We were told to wait until it was Transcended, learn all about it, and then bring it up once more for discussion. This was done. The discussion was proceeding with Morgfyre, some ideas were raised and we were told those were the kind of ideas he was looking for. With no further discussion from him, it was just assumed that some of them were going to be tweaked in. Then we find out over a week later that not only has the entire issue been dropped, but it's "not an issue any more". This is a prime example of the concern that this post is addressing.)
Domoths, battling (Tweaked once, and apparently deemed a-okay without any other real discussion or asking how it's going.)
Domoths, rewards (Again, this has been brought up as an issue quite a bit from most of those involved, with no comment whatsoever.)
Etc.
I'm sure many more things can be listed, but really, it doesn't matter what the things are. What matters is the perception that this is the way Lusternia deals with its customers.
I've already given one primary solution, but really, what I think you need to do is to assign one of your Ephemerals to have more of a PR focus. Obviously, you all do a bit of it as part of your other duties, but you need someone who actually can "take the pulse" of the playerbase on a regular basis. There is a bit of a distance between the Administration and the players (something which you foster specifically to try and reduce favouritism, it seems-- I seem to remember you posting that the reason for not letting Divine play characters is because they would want to help the organization that character is in). For the most part, that's a good idea, but it does have its downsides (this distance). Even those who start off as players find themselves naturally distancing themselves from most mortals as time goes on (which is exactly what you want)... but to truly be able to figure out what we want and how to deal with us, you need to do something about the gulf between us. These threads are a start, but even in them, the same problems surface: The issues you don't want to deal with just get ignored.
Another idea would be to appoint two people from each organization as "envoys"-- not for skills and abilities, but for actual game-related things. It would function much like envoys, in that they show up in HELP SERENWILDE for example, and they would work closely with the person who is working on coding / fixing existing game mechanics and features, as well as your PR representative. It should be something separate from envoys, and probably not even allow the same person to do both (to begin with at least), but this would allow you to introduce things, wait two weeks, and then ask a small section of the playerbase from all organizations how the change/fix is working and what problems have arised.
Then your "tweaker" can address those issues, wait a few days, and ask if any more issues came up from that tweak.
This way, you completely destroy the perception that Lusternia is always looking forward, and rarely backward. You shore things up, you strengthen them, and improve them until most of the concerns are rectified. Likely not everything can be fixed, but even so, you'll get a lot closer this way than with the current setup. It will also, at the exact same time, address your "squeaky wheel" syndrome. Currently, the only real perceived way to get the Administration's attention is to keep bringing things up until they actually look at the problem. This can take months, or years-- and isn't pleasant for anyone involved, either the customers or yourselves. Instead, you'll have a small core of customers who bring things to your attention, who can discuss the issue with the dedicated tweaker and/or yourself, and actually return with a response instead of silence. Then, if the thing comes up again later... you now have 9 new people (the 8 representatives and your PR person) who can post with points why it's better / intended as it is (something you already benefit from with the envoy system).
That said, there are advantages to the way you do things. You release a lot of content, you keep looking forward, and hope to draw in new people with exciting new innovations. It does work, and a fair bit of what you do is outside the box. Lusternia is an exciting, evolving game which keeps us coming back. With that, however, comes issues: Things outside the box can be spectacular when they work, but occasionally they just don't, and need to be redone.
Before a year's time passes.
I have to note that a good number of the issues I raised have, indeed, been poked in the time since then.
+ Constructs were completely redone (though I would argue that the "disabling" them part still needs to be looked at, as being destroyed for 30 days is still pretty excessive. However, the effects seem to be much more balanced on the whole and Glomdoring's extra went poof. Seren's resurgem-restrictions may still need a bit of evaluation, though)
+ Aetherspace has had numerous tweaks to it, and seems to be approved of (in general) by a larger number of people now than at the time of the post.
+ A number of skillsets have had had entire envoy reports dedicated to them, and this is nearly wrapped up. While there are (obviously) more tweaks that need to be done, a lot of the major overhauling is already accomplished, leaving a much more manageable burden on Envoys.
- Ascendance hasn't really been touched, though it
is on the backburner for tweaking we've been told, and maybe that's something to watch for after the rest of the skillsets are finished. It certainly touches a smaller portion of the playerbase.
- Miniatures (and other assorted mini projects) haven't been touched for tweaking purposes. Most likely due to the more important things that have been under development.
- Domoths (Well, as per agreement, I just won't delve into that further at present. You have all my reasoning anyways.)
There were lots of other things, with a large number of them having been looked at as well.
At the same time, there has been some new development and progress, new areas are still coming out, etc. So, while it does seem like there's a larger focus on shoring up the works than there was a few months ago, the game itself doesn't seem on-hold. What I'm hoping to see is, after you're done the large overhauls (of skillsets, primarily) is (as I said above) an equal focus on fixing old stuff and introducing new content. Lusternia is getting along in years, and while halting new development would most likely kill the game, the structure needs to remain sound (being tweaked as necessary as per legitimate player concerns). The best way to figure out what those player concerns are are to interact with us, and these Forums are the best place for that (so, essentially, keeping up the recent trend of posting with comments and demonstrating two-way communication is also important, though it does not necessarily need to be you yourself doing it, just someone on the Administrative team who is able to get your ear and/or point you at problems you may have missed).
(I'll just tag this as my TL;DR summary, since it turned out to be more of an epic length than I expected)
I will re-emphasize this line: "I'm sure many more things can be listed, but really, it doesn't matter what the things are. What matters is the perception that this is the way Lusternia deals with its customers."
You've been taking some very positive steps in correcting this recently, which is a good sign.
). I wouldn't play it if it wasn't a great game, but to be honest, sometimes I question why I play it. There was a point where, 4/5 times of playing, I would walk away from the game frustrated and angry. My boyfriend even asked me why I bothered playing a game that only pissed me off.
But the very idea of them seems really cool to me.