Themis Group continuing?

[______________Scorus]

Just noticed that we are about three weeks from the end of the original four-month consulting contract that Funcom made with the Themis Group to help improve customer service. That was released October 18. I was wondering whether a continuation of that contract was going to be signed by Funcom?

The original goals of the consultancy were:

Building more friendly, less formal community relations with more frequent commentary by AO insiders and greater opportunities for player input;
Decreasing in-game petition and e-mail response times, creating better tools for customer service personnel to solve problems;
Expanding the event program to help make AO?s four-year story arc come alive to the players;
Improving the experience for new players with an expanded greeter (introduction) program;
Moving towards a "zero surprises" philosophy with regards to player notification of fixes and changes;
Prioritizing development efforts on issues (such as bugs) which are most damaging to player satisfaction.

Funcom's belief that customer service is best served by a policy of "Fear and Ignorance; Ignorance and Fear" (a quote from a game ironically designed by current Themis Group member Greg Costikyan called Paranoia, possibly the greatest RPG of all time) prevents them from telling us how much of the progress can be attributed to the work of the Themis Group. But of those categories above I think we definitely have better petition and email response times and a better greeter program. Offsetting this, we have less frequent commentary by AO insiders (when that came out we still got daily updates), events are still very few and far between, and while they got closer to achieving 'zero surprises' in late 2001 but have been abyssmal at providing information since the holidays. No way to know how they are prioritizing development efforts since they seem to have abandoned attempts to update those Envisioned and In Progress areas of the web site that were announced by the President of Funcom in his letter to the players last October with such fanfare.

So, Funcom, have you been impressed enough with your investment in the Themis Group to extend their contract past its original four-month term?

Scorus

[FunnyFace]

I think it's safe to say that the <deleted for security reasons> have handled their <deleted for security reasons> in an <deleted for security reasons> and therefor will most likely <deleted for security reasons>. This is <deleted for security reasons> that should <deleted for security reasons> us all.

Gracecup-G-5
Clan Anvil Advisor

[___________Misophist]

I always wondered why Savant dropped off the face of the, uh, boards. I lurk more than I post, but I don't recall any mention of his departure. Oh well!

Edit: did a search on Savant and found a thread regarding his doing more with the marketing aspects of the game. As to the Themis group's contract continuing, who knows?

[Paffy]

Was desperate PR stunt. Nothing more, nothing less.

If you needed that group to move you from the situation from 4 month ago to the situation we have now... damn, I must be in wrong business.

Seems consulting is super easy money. You dont actually have to do anything.

Could someone please make a list of what has happened during past four months that could be put into the scoreboard for Themis group?

I mean most of the things that have happened have been suggested by PLAYERS like 1000 times and even then... I dont see too much "improvement" in areas that Themis group was hired to do, now lets see:

1.
Building more friendly, less formal community relations with more frequent commentary by AO insiders and greater opportunities for player input;

RESULT:

Partially failed.

Their impact to fan sites has been about 0. I havent seen any more dev. insider posts than what I saw before. IRC channel? You mean you need consultant to tell you to make one? Board presence? Still abysmal with answers that dont help at all (we look into it, its being looked into, I pass this on). They teached you those three lines? Wow.

2.
Decreasing in-game petition and e-mail response times, creating better tools for customer service personnel to solve problems;

Success.

This success might be partially credited to the fact that there seems to be soon more ARK's than there are players

Oh yeah I know. ARK's are players too which IMHO is BAD mistake. People who are used to report bugs/abuses/exploits get to know them first. They might even be guild friends of people being petitioned.

Lately there have been some quite knowledgeable ARK's too btw. Cudos to that. Its nice that you now have few higher lvl players as ARK's too.

But really. You needed Themis group to do this?

3
Expanding the event program to help make AO?s four-year story arc come alive to the players;

TOTAL FAILURE.

Nothing has changed. Events are still far between. World feels static and not dynamic.

4.
Improving the experience for new players with an expanded greeter (introduction) program;

Ehhe. The only greeter that has visited my chars (funnily enough my rp solitus enf rp gimp in rk2) was LOL:ing to me all the time and saying in no uncertain terms that I am gimp. I kept that "encounter" in RP and he was stepping out of rp all the time. You say this "enhanced" my start experience?

LOL LOL LOL ... hmm, no, it dont enhance my start no matter how many times you do it.

5.
Moving towards a "zero surprises" philosophy with regards to player notification of fixes and changes;

FAILURE.

There has been hidden changes, tunes, nerfs in EVERY patch this far.

6.
Prioritizing development efforts on issues (such as bugs) which are most damaging to player satisfaction.

Again you need "consultation" group to tell you those?

SUMMARY:

If you need consult firm to tell you what needs to be done and this is what they have succeeded doing in four months your game is doomed.

I for one doubt they brought many of these changes but instead they were brought by your own dev's, customer reps, players, etc. and that the Themis Group was just a stop gap to buy you time. Good move as that but I wouldnt go so far as to raise them statues

Zarch and bunch of other chars between 5-140

[Downsizr]

I have the same questions here ... any news ? Feedback ?





... Discussion ??

[______________Scorus]

Just saw on their site that Themis has been contracted to do work on Jumpgate and that Savant is leading that group. Guess that explains where he is. Apparently they will be taking over all the GM duties and letting NetDevil focus on programming. Interesting arrangement.

The Themis Group has most recently provided Player Relations and Event consulting for Funcom on its massively multiplayer online RPG, Anarchy Online and anticipates announcing several additional consulting and outsourcing deals this quarter.

Given that sentence and the fact that Funcom has had to lay off people recently, I'm betting that the relationship is ending or has ended. You can see the whole release here:
http://www.themis-group.com/view_news.phtml?id=9

Scorus

[______________Archon]

Hi Scorus,
Alex Macris (CEO of Themis Group) here.

Our contract with Funcom is actually wrapping up at the end of this week; right now its just Jess Mulligan and I doing some final recommendations. Savant and the rest of the crew shifted to new projects as of the second week of February.

The scope of our actual recommendations for Funcom is confidential, but I think Themis made a positive contribution to the success of AO.

Its been a real pleasure working with AO and the community, and we look forward to watching the game thrive.

Best regards,
Alex Macris