Friday with Means - March 26th, 2010 - Amnesia...please.

[Waldgeyst]

Marketing policy for AO is not only non-existent, you purposely keep players away with this persecution rules of "Annihilate everything non-English!". 2 times have I dared speak in a non-English language here and all I got was both posts deleted and a 3 infraction point penalty for one of those posts. Now it turns out you're breaking this holy rule just to keep players from going away. Does this mean you have figured out the importance of a community in you own language to make people come/stay in the game? How about you make another step forward and try not to only keep players from leaving the game but to bring more new players into the game?

Some data your marketing team should know about

The reason we can't allow anything else than English on these boards so far, is not that we are ignorant towards the realities of different languages, but more the realities of what kind of community personnel we have to take care of said languages.

We can't allow a mixed languages forum, as it would only frustrate the majority of users to jump into a thread and then they don't understand it. Even if the Germans are welcomed here, they still have to stay in the German subforums, if they want to talk German. They are welcome to talk everywhere else, as long as they post in English. Additionally the Germans are in a special position, because so far they had their own separate forum under http://forums-de.anarchy-online.com and we want to encourage them to come over here, embrace their new one, meet the rest of the players from RK1/RK2 in the forums, while still giving them the opportunity to have their own place to meet up.

I am sure, if we would have a Russian/French/Spanish CM or whatever, we would not hesitate to create a subforum in here, if the amount of players in said language shows that it is needed. But right now we only have english and german speaking CMs.

I hope you understand now, that we really don't want to insult anyone/cut someone short by keeping the english-only rule alive in here, but it's meant to improve overall communication between players.

Thanks for your understanding.

Cheers,
Waldgeist

[Swardbearker]

Umm, could you put the German forum part to the bottom, below the English parts of the forums rather than just below the Announcements forum part? Now it makes me feel like FC thinks that the Germans make the largest single group on both RK1 and RK2, and that they are more important than us who're "forced" to use English.

And they still have their own forums and their own server, too! It's not like they need to feel more welcome here than everyone else as well.

[Waldgeyst]

Umm, could you put the German forum part to the bottom, below the English parts of the forums rather than just below the Announcements forum part? Now it makes me feel like FC thinks that the Germans make the largest single group on both RK1 and RK2, and that they are more important than us who're "forced" to use English.

And they still have their own forums and their own server, too! It's not like they need to feel more welcome here than everyone else as well.

If we put the forums of a different language at the BOTTOM of the forums, then new players of that language will not find them. It's common to have the forums of a different supported language right below the announcement section of the international forum. We could also make it like this http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com, but I bet no one wants that to happen

Cheers,
Waldgeist

[ElBoogy]

yes right... i like it hehe...

it should be possible for the non-german people to "hide" it or something i think...

it takes not really much space, but just a little option that they only see the "German Forums" line and not the 5 subforums would be nice i think.

oh and when you are doing it, can we have the order changed?

i would like to see the "Wissensfundgrube" between Roleplay and Technical Issues... so like : "1. Allgemeines 2. Rollenspiel 3. Wissensfundgrube 4. Technische Probleme 5. Organisationen 6. Offtopic"

shouldn´t be too hard to change it i hope

[ElBoogy]

Wait a second i have another "complaint"

so waldgeist (hope you´re still in here)

the "OOC-Rollenspiel-Diskussionen" is hidden on the frontpage, so you can only see it when you hit the German Forums on Top of our new area... i think you could just remove it totally, no one will ever see it for sure and 1 roleplay subforum should be enough, some OOC- Threads can be marked like [OOC] I have a question blablub ...

[Waldgeyst]

yes right... i like it hehe...

it should be possible for the non-german people to "hide" it or something i think...

it takes not really much space, but just a little option that they only see the "German Forums" line and not the 5 subforums would be nice i think.

oh and when you are doing it, can we have the order changed?

i would like to see the "Wissensfundgrube" between Roleplay and Technical Issues... so like : "1. Allgemeines 2. Rollenspiel 3. Wissensfundgrube 4. Technische Probleme 5. Organisationen 6. Offtopic"

shouldn´t be too hard to change it i hope

Sadly the german players are not a different usergroup on this forum, so I cannot make it so that only those can see the german forums. But users can just press the "minus" on the right hand side of the forum title, to make the section fold together as one line and the forum will store that setting and not bother them with it anymore

Cheers,
Waldgeist

[ElBoogy]

That was all i wanted hehe

i am used to have such "minus" buttons on the left side of the Forums, so i didn´t notice it *g*

[Swardbearker]

If we put the forums of a different language at the BOTTOM of the forums, then new players of that language will not find them. It's common to have the forums of a different supported language right below the announcement section of the international forum. We could also make it like this http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com, but I bet no one wants that to happen

You could make it sorta like that and make the German forums a bit smaller, eh, eh!

Since now us poor English speaking folk's newbies will never find the English parts of the forums because of those Germans, buhhuuhuhu. Well, except the German forum bit doesn't fill the entire screen, but hey, that's beside the point mayte!

[Waldgeyst]

You could make it sorta like that and make the German forums a bit smaller, eh, eh!

Since now us poor English speaking folk's newbies will never find the English parts of the forums because of those Germans, buhhuuhuhu. Well, except the German forum bit doesn't fill the entire screen, but hey, that's beside the point mayte!

The minus on the right hand side will help ya

[ElBoogy]

Waldgeist you should make a thread on how to hide forum parts, talk to the responsible persons to get a larger +/- button (on the left hehe) and maybe add a german flag to the german part and switch it to auto minus, so it is small for every one who is new but the german newbies can see it and hit the + button...

[Ayria]

The minus on the right hand side will help ya

Technically speaking it'd help the Germans too. By putting the German forums at the bottom you'd make them (Germans) unable to find them (forums) but simply by minus all the other forums theirs will be at the top

(Just messing with you obviously )

[Waldgeyst]

Waldgeist you should make a thread on how to hide forum parts, talk to the responsible persons to get a larger +/- button (on the left hehe) and maybe add a german flag to the german part and switch it to auto minus, so it is small for every one who is new but the german newbies can see it and hit the + button...

Can't set it to autohide I am afraid.

[ElBoogy]

hm ok no problem...

maybe you should check out the swtor forums they can *giggle&hide*

[Waldgeyst]

hm ok no problem...

maybe you should check out the swtor forums they can *giggle&hide*

The forum overview they use is not standard vBulletin, but custom built

[Swardbearker]

Some data your marketing team should know about

Yes, because AO has superb chances in China!

[Deletion]

@Waldgeist

I'm just wondering, when the new engine is released, what will you do about your exhibition stand's walls?

AoC stand's walls where as i told you looking like Walls in AO :P

Loved how you and Sillyrion were laughing.


but on topic:

Revamping AO will need you to depreciate its costs. Thus you should at least advertise a bit, with Daily Missions and the friendly playerbase that has always been pointed out in any review you should be able to get plenty new players at least.

And at this point, i'm not trying to harrass anyone, but you should train your Gms a bit so that they help a bit at least.

Everything they always do is "Cant help you on that, write an e-mail to <insert random e-mail adress here>"

at least you get helped when writing that email.

But waiting for quiet a few to get your petition answered and then getting such a ****ty response is not the way you intend your support to be i guess.

What i liked a bout RK3 was that "rank your helper" survey system.

you should revamp that and have bad rankings result in a personal talk with Means, or you should have the Worst ranked GM having towerflagged and saved to some well visited point where he'll be gnaked all the time :P like some new-age pillory

[RmikClan]

WTB a portuguese section of the forums

Portuguese 230 7
German 229 8

[Waldgeyst]

@Waldgeist

I'm just wondering, when the new engine is released, what will you do about your exhibition stand's walls?

AoC stand's walls where as i told you looking like Walls in AO :P

Loved how you and Sillyrion were laughing.

I'd actually love to show off AO at GamesCom this year, if we are there with the engine until then. But we will have to see what the marketing department is planning, since the organization of he convention is up to them. If they decide they wanna show all the greatness Funcom has to offer (TSW, AO and AoC) then I am all for it, but it's also likely, they decide to only concentrate on TSW as the upcoming project.

We will see what the future brings.

Cheers,
Waldgeist

[majere]

I'd actually love to show off AO at GamesCom this year, if we are there with the engine until then. But we will have to see what the marketing department is planning, since the organization of he convention is up to them. If they decide they wanna show all the greatness Funcom has to offer (TSW, AO and AoC) then I am all for it, but it's also likely, they decide to only concentrate on TSW as the upcoming project.

We will see what the future brings.

Cheers,
Waldgeist

Marketing = Teh Devil!!!!

[ChibiVampire]

Am I the only one which thinks that the new face looks like Murphy sans the helmet from Robocop?