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Thread: A plea to Funcom from AO Stratics

  1. #1

    A plea to Funcom from AO Stratics

    I sent the following email to Funcom and would like to have your opinion on it. Thank you. (Please keep the flaming for you, I need constructive opinions here):

    Hello Funcom,

    I noticed today that we have a few maps which were submitted to us by Funcom in the past: a whompah map (from 14.4), maps of various zones, a planet map. I wonder why a dungeon map, especially one of "WTF" which is an incredibly huge (and boring dungeon to map out) cannot be provided by Funcom. I will make an announcement that we need a map of that dungeon for our dungeon guide, but the point that Funcom does not provide maps is moot, considering that you guys did provide maps in the past which were actually helpful and could have been created by players aswell (and have been afterwards). However, a map from Funcom is always nice to have on a fansite, since it is something from the devs (exclusive) and usually more accurate than anything created by players, especially in the case of "WTF" with its layout for PvP, which is incredibly hard to map.

    Please reconsider your reply and tell me again that you do not provide a map of this dungeon, so i can make the news posting accordingly.

    On another topic: I find it incredibly unlogical to keep fansites in the dark about progress made in Anarchy Online. You do not seem to see that exclusive news or pictures is what makes fansites really interesting to visit. Our forums are dead because the Funcom forums cover all things needed for this community. You could help fansites out (especially large ones like AO Stratics) with providing a bit more content which is released prior to the normal players getting it or even exclusively before other fansites get it. Our site can not live from the guides alone or the news (which as you can see from the numerous black icons, are hard to get). The community does rarely submit news items to fansites, because they try it first and mainly only on the official AO website. That is not helpful for AO, not helpful for the community and especially not helpful for Funcom. A community can only thrive when it has more than 1 place to go to... and the forums (which are overspammed with whining posts anyway) do currently provide this place for the small community that AO is. As a good example for a fansite, i would like to point you to UO Stratics (http://uo.stratics.com) which works together closely with OSI and always has exclusive content, news postings from Developers to be published on the page. Accordingly, the UO community is alive and kicking on the official UO forums by OSI and on the UO Stratics forums and being part of that community was very much fun for me during my 2.5 years of playing Ultima Online. I still visit the UO forums from time to time to see how the game is doing (it is looking quite good actually with all the additions since i left UO for AO).

    My goal is it, to make AO Stratics the #1 fansite for AO with news and content superior to all other fansites out there (of which there are not that many, but those that are there are widely spread apart). Funcom can help this goal by providing some of the content and the dungeon map i asked you for is 1 small token compared to what Funcom could do for the AO fansites.

    That brings me to Shadowlands, your next expansion pack. I see that the guys at FC are nearing holidays and look forward to having a few days off work, however a site like AO Stratics does not have holidays and the release date of Shadowlands is drawing nearer as you read this email. It is in your best interest to supply news bits regarding the development of Shadowlands to the community and exclusive content like screenshots or videos from Shadowlands, even if it is in development only. Any news is good news when it comes to something made for AO and so far i can wholeheartedly say that Funcom is lacking greatly in this area. Since you are the Community Manager for Funcom, I simply expect that this situation gets worked out rather soon, so that we (AO Stratics, but also other fansites) can call us fansites again and not just hosts for guides which are available on many sites in double and triplicate. Otherwise, I see no reason why Stratics should provide a full blown fansite for Anarchy Online. A portal (like AO Basher is) would certainly do with the little info that is available for AO and its boosters/expansions.

    Steady news about new development of dungeons, game mechanics, new and fun items, profession changes, etc. is what is needed, not the patch notes 1 hour in advance to the patch. Spoiling the surprise is in some cases better, since most players do not like to have bad surprises but rather want to see what they can expect to come and comment on this. As you probably noticed, your Christmas items have already been in the news and are well wanted by the players (although i can say there that monster sunglasses or some propeller hat does not make good x-mas gifts, considering that their use is not very christmas related). In Ultima Online players were able to place x-mas trees in their houses (which AO unfortunately does not have and wont have for a long time to come i am afraid), special items which had the ability to carry the name of the player who owned it or x-mas cards which could be traded between players and made great commodity items and carried memories of past x-mas times in UO a few years afterwards. Instead of adding shortlived and useless items like monster sunglasses and propeller hats, you people should consider adding something more in-line with christmas and not just christmas, but other holidays aswell (like Valentine's day or Easter or Anarchy Onlines birthday!!!)


    Thank you for reading my email.

    Please forward my email to everyone at Funcom who might be able to help with this situation, since I am not convinced that sending it to Thomas, April and Darren will help much until proven otherwise.


    Regards,

    Meister
    AO Stratics
    Project Manager
    http://ao.stratics.com
    Director "Meister"
    President, Omni-Pol
    Level 207 Omni-Tek Dictator
    Meister's Reinforced Suit - Bureaucrats may be gimps, but at least we know how to look good.
    Account Created: 2001-06-27 23:07:32

  2. #2

    Talking Best Wishes

    A nobel goal indeed.. Hope you make it happen
    I love the engie combo, i create to destroy, how constructive

  3. #3
    Maps for dungons, made by Funcom?? bad idea!

    Its just like inviting the larger guilds and leaving out any special loot for the minors. U already said u self, that players make maps, thats fine, dont like the idea about FC making maps.

    As for the part about keeping fan sites in the dark. Thats nothing new in that. And to keep u on track, they just finish with NW, which was a pri 1. Theyll do some more on SDL soon (or ill go nuts!)

    As for AO stratics... well, that site is not worth much in its current state. (The SWG Stratics is) Keeping sites in the dark is ok with me, then we are free from all that spoiler junk (my opinion) but i do agree that we could use a bit more CR support from Funcom in other areas.

  4. #4
    I agree with Arila:

    I think dungeon maps should not be made available by Funcom. The dungeons are places that should be discovered and explored.

    Regarding Fansites (such as AOStratics), I think they should be responsible for creating their content, and shouldn't rely on Funcom for doing their work for them. Funcom should release information to the player comunity as they see fit, but not do it selectivily. Either something is public information or not. If a Fansite wants something unique, they should collect it or create it. Absent of anything unique, there really is no purpose for the fansite to exist.
    ======================

    blix01/spookiepants/stiffwood

  5. #5
    Regarding Fansites (such as AOStratics), I think they should be responsible for creating their content, and shouldn't rely on Funcom for doing their work for them
    Exactly. Don't be so lazy and do your own work. Don't ask for FC to waste their time developing spoiler content for your website.
    Aaron Simons Harkonnen

  6. #6
    Whoa!

    I didn't mean to imply that requesting content was a sign of laziness. AOStratics is very well done site.
    I'm sure that Meister and the AOStratics staff spend a lot of time on the site, and it shows. And frankly I'd be asking for special content as well if I were in his situation.
    But I'm not.
    ======================

    blix01/spookiepants/stiffwood

  7. #7
    I didn't mean to imply that requesting content was a sign of laziness.
    I took what you said a step further. I believe it is. If you want to do a fansite that has maps of places like this, you need to do the work on your own. Publicly pleading with FC to get the map done for you is lazy and foolish, plain and simple.
    Aaron Simons Harkonnen

  8. #8
    The map itself is not the reason why i sent the email. I agree that i overreacted and given the chance i would take that email back, since it is badly worded. First i should never use the term "fansite" in context with AO Stratics, since we are not a fansite, but an online media site, as is the whole Stratics network which covers all MMORPGs available. The email was rather sent to express my anger about the lack of general support for fansites by Funcom, which will change in the future. Cz is working with us and people from other sites on this issue and you can expect to see changes soon. However, since nothing is finalized yet, I cannot tell you yet when these changes will come, but the first opportunity would be to have better coverage of Shadowlands, which will be released in not too distant future.

    I can assure you that I am not lazy when it comes to AO Stratics. If you compare it to what it was before and what has been added in the last 2 months (during the cooperation with AO Zone - which *is* a fansite), you will notice that the content of AO Stratics has since then increased x3 if not more.

    Those of you who come from Ultima Online surely know UO Stratics, which is the communtiy site for UO par excellance. I remember my time in the tamer community over there and it is good for a company to support networks and smaller fansites in a better way than Funcom has done so far, which is partly to blame on the fact that 1 community representative (Cz) is simply not enough to deal with all sites available for a game like Anarchy Online. However, given the opportunity, we will increase our status from a "fansite" as most of you probably see us right now, to a community site for Anarchy Online with active forums, a bigger staff to work with so that our content expands as soon as information about things is available and to offer a better community place than these forums here are (which was not intended by the way).

    And as always, if you need info or are willing to help out on AO Stratics, go to http://ao.stratics.com and either look through our content or send an email my way to meister@stratics.com for an application to get an available position.


    Thank you.
    Director "Meister"
    President, Omni-Pol
    Level 207 Omni-Tek Dictator
    Meister's Reinforced Suit - Bureaucrats may be gimps, but at least we know how to look good.
    Account Created: 2001-06-27 23:07:32

  9. #9
    Oh I think fansites shouldn't be able to get exclusive news.
    This goes double for Stratics who is more or less hostile towards other sites, especially when it comes to UO.

    The only thing UO Stratics has are some moderately decent forums and a few incredible admins. *cough* CrazyJoe *cough*

  10. #10
    I'm kinda teetering here on either side.

    While I think that it would be great if FC worked with fansites to deliver more news and content, it would also be potentially hazardous. Call it what you will, Stratics is just as much an AO fan site as any other AO fan site (like AO Basher for example), wishing to deliver media, news, articles, opinions, and editorials to the fans of Anarchy Online.

    I think that, if AO is to deliver news and content to the public, they should do it via their own site to make it as public as possible. Any fan/media site wishing to use that article on their own turf would be free to do so. To do otherwise does two things: A) It limits the number of people who see the news and contents (since more than twice as many people view the AO news page than the combination of most other AO media sites), and B) It creates friction between the fan sites, inevitably "killing off" the attempts made by other people to create good news sites simply because they weren't included in the elite mix of Funcom Friendlies.

    Opinion: And, all that in mind, AOStratics has admittedly been fairly hostile to other fan sites in the past, and if deservity were to go out to fan sites who "should" or "should not" get exclusive news and content, my vote would unfortunately not go to AO Stratics, despite the incredible amount of work put into it (which DOES deserve mega-props, I like it).
    --The connections that enable us to learn are infinitely more important than our state of knowing.

  11. #11

    Re: A plea to Funcom from AO Stratics

    Originally posted by Meister
    Our forums are dead because the Funcom forums cover all things needed for this community.
    And this is bad because...?
    At least I'm sure Funcom will be REALLY proud of their forums when they read that
    Ghump - a member of Ragnarok

    My hovercraft is full of eels

  12. #12
    Yes.. it is bad. Anyways.. I hope that this changes soon.. we are working with Cz on changing some things. That includes AO Stratics, AO Basher, AO Vault and Jeux Online (french AO site) so far as the big community sites out there.

    While I am here.. do you have a topic that we could talk about with the developers at the next AO HoC chat on Stratics IRC?
    Director "Meister"
    President, Omni-Pol
    Level 207 Omni-Tek Dictator
    Meister's Reinforced Suit - Bureaucrats may be gimps, but at least we know how to look good.
    Account Created: 2001-06-27 23:07:32

  13. #13
    Well I hope you're happy Meister.

    Your quest to force content to your fansite, seems to have killed the official forums.

    gee thanks alot.
    ======================

    blix01/spookiepants/stiffwood

  14. #14
    It surely has not killed them. Instead this change will hopefully help to better the community by having more places to go to for posting. As it was the last 2 years on these forums, the amount of spam and flames was unbearable. You will not find that on any of the Stratics forums, since we have good ROC (Rules of Conduct) and many moderators to look after the forums. It is also entirely possible for the fansites (at least for AO Stratics) to see what is good and deserves to be forwarded to Funcom or can be used as news article on the mainpage, thus that will maybe even increase the news we have for posting on the frontsite.
    Director "Meister"
    President, Omni-Pol
    Level 207 Omni-Tek Dictator
    Meister's Reinforced Suit - Bureaucrats may be gimps, but at least we know how to look good.
    Account Created: 2001-06-27 23:07:32

  15. #15

    Question

    how will having several forums benefit the community? wont it simply dilute the community?
    Omni-Pol intelligence report for Peregrinus Praecautus
    Known applicant of Third Faction
    Warning! Record is being accessed by an external source of unknown origin.
    Recovering file

    be on your guard pilgrim
    File ends

  16. #16
    Grats looks like you got your wish.
    My wishlist:

    ql170+ shining/bright/faded clusters of Offensive Mastery
    *
    ql200 Heavy Notum Tank

    i think that's it ;D

  17. #17
    Originally posted by Meister
    While I am here.. do you have a topic that we could talk about with the developers at the next AO HoC chat on Stratics IRC?
    Yes, what type of job they all want when there is no players left due to the lack of FUN in this game, the game has officially been named a mmoPVP game for the past month, AO is dead, and all the employees of FC are sacked........
    RETIRED:Cassondra "Hotsy" Magistrale, Proud General of OPEC
    And a gazillion other chars

    Member of the Grumpy Old Crat Bunch
    Bureaucrats, Broken as intended
    Chilled:The crat community.. bitter but entirely supportive, kind of like coffee.
    P.S. i didn't proof read this, or check for spelling, I wouldn't want to Nerf my post by actually Fixing the problems.

    This post is fucntioning "As Intended" that means i don't have to fix any problems with it. (Snipped from pooncrat).


  18. #18
    AO is not dead and i am confident that it wont be dead until its scheduled end of "storyline" at least.

    The topic for the next dev chat has been set to be the 14.8 patch, which we will see patch notes for soon
    Director "Meister"
    President, Omni-Pol
    Level 207 Omni-Tek Dictator
    Meister's Reinforced Suit - Bureaucrats may be gimps, but at least we know how to look good.
    Account Created: 2001-06-27 23:07:32

  19. #19
    No offence meister, but i could not give a damn about your views, to spread out the entire RP area is the stupidest thing ever. And i for one wont visit any of the fan sites anyway, most of them dont catch what i want, these boards does.

    I cant think of any good fan sites at all (with that i mean stroy/news related, not Item DB ect) on the web. AO-Basher sux to much to go there.

    And your Ao Stratic... well, its the same ...
    "It's your life. Keep it up! Keep it real!"

  20. #20
    Nice sig you have there... linking to a.. umm.. fansite? The initial post made here is old and Cz has since been working with us on doing things to get life back into the fansites. That starts with moving some of the forum traffic to fansite forums instead of the official forums. If you dont like fansites and dont visit them, thats your decision and loss, many others like them and visit us and find what they need. Think about it next time you visit Anarchyarcanum for instance to look for a guide
    Director "Meister"
    President, Omni-Pol
    Level 207 Omni-Tek Dictator
    Meister's Reinforced Suit - Bureaucrats may be gimps, but at least we know how to look good.
    Account Created: 2001-06-27 23:07:32

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