An open letter to the Dev team

[Caloss2]

What is a Dev?, in an MMO they are person employed to DEVelop the game, that is tweak and improve it add or subtract game characteristics to that end.

So that begs the question, what is happening in the AO DEVelopment team?

In the last 8 months of Anarchy Online I have never in the previous 13 years seen such ill informed, misguided and ultimately terrible game development, the latest "fix" for an exploit involving DM, delete the item and replace it with something only, and I do mean ONLY a total outsider would come up with.

And there in lies the problem, The Dev team is isolated from the real game, and by that I mean that you don't seem to have any insight into the game you are employed to develop, and that is dangerous.

Inaction over multiboxing, led to players leaving what you are employed to develop, and please before the entirely predictable 10 year old mentality of calling "oh such emo" is just so lame, so so lame, the people you use that infantile retort to are the reason you have other people to play with or at the very least play against, they left on principle.

So my thoughts are this, the current Dev team need do one of a few things.

1. learn the game you are employed to develop, or at the very least talk to the professionals from each class for guidance before making an embarrassing mess of something you are changing, like have every dammed time for the last 8 months; that is, embarrassing for you as it makes you seem utterly clueless.

2. None of this matters, you are actually being paid to lower the active subscriber base to a level where it would be acceptable to close down the game, in which case, you're doing a very very good job.

3. You have recently been given a new COMMUNITY MANAGER, to act as a go-between, for the Devs, FC and the COMMUNITY, why not ask them to respond to a single petition or post about your latest embarrassingly terrible "fix" you know, that thing they are paid to actually do.

Case in point the last REAL COMMUNITY MANAGER AO had was Cz, and the last real game director we had was MEANS.

I call for a vote of no confidence in the current Dev team and it's "leadership" by all subscribers, to at least let them know that AO won't go down without a fight. NO MATTER HOW HARD THEY SEEM TO BE TRYING.

[Notevenmad]

what i dont understand is why do people still pay for this game after all this lmao

gullibles gonna gullible

[Le-Quack]

yes its all true, the dev team dont seem to own any passion over ao, its just a place they go to get their mounthly paycheck. ao could be rather okey with good population if the dev team actualy showd some passion. this game is realy good, and leavers will always come back becose word by mouth goes quick if positive things happens ingame.

but latly they seem to give up on the best mmo game ever made, if funcom kills this game they loose credability forever if they gonna aim for future mmo's

[ameratsu]

They Wnt respond because they dnt care..a response will be made if more people unsubbed.

[Traderjill]

Interesting post. only thing I wanted to point out was that the new community manager stated that his responsibilities were basically events. Doesn't sound like being a liaison between players and AO staff is part of his job description.

[ByLogic]

I miss both Cz, "Sirrilion" and Means. One of the most epic thing Means said was .."here you
see this white blank whiteboard". I saw just white, but still it was epic. Any person that can inspire with just a blank whiteboard has some personal magic skill.

On the constructive side, the recent changes that been made to the game does show some insight from the developers point of view. So i am not entirely on with this.

[Traderjill]

On the constructive side, the recent changes that been made to the game does show some insight from the developers point of view. So i am not entirely on with this.

I agree. I won't pretend that I read all of those rebalance docs.. I didn't. I did read a lot of the summary threads started by the professionals, however. I didn't see anything disturbing. In fact, I quite liked where they were going with things.

That being said, the biggest issue I'm having with some of the changes is timing. Some of the changes, when implemented along with other changes make perfect sense. Those same changes implemented alone can be devastating to a profession.

What funcom did was break a profession for an unspecified amount of time. I don't have a 220 NT (I think they're boring to play) but I know how I'd feel if my trader or doctor was all of a suddenly nerfed based on a future template that hasn't been at all implemented on the live server. This may not have a direct impact on some of us but when these pissed off NT mains let their accounts lapse you have yet another group of people that will be missing from an already dwindling/dead population.

[ByLogic]

Let's hope things doesn't have to be overpowered to be fun to play.

How i balance things out in RoC is to play the game reverest, you make character max level with all the
best combo of gear and talent, and see how that works, So if you meet a poor geared player vs good geared player
there will be a feel of "overpoweredness", this is naturally.. But imbalance when all is equal is not good.

[JustinSane4]

A few thoughts: First, the dev team Means led was probably 5-8 times the size of the one Genele currently leads. Yet meaningful movement toward the stuff we've been waiting for forever (engine, re-balance, NPE, Steam) has happened under Genele and never did under Means.

In addition to the work of creating much of that, Genele also has the community management/ PR responsibilities of a GD - she's the one who gets the angry PMs when someone is upset about something. She needs to locate and address bugs and exploits. Manage the beta and test-live. She's given rough timelines for certain things to happen going forward, and given Funcom's past track record there, she's doubtless motivated to stick to it as closely as she can. On the whole, she is passionate and knowledgeable about AO, and incredibly hard-working, but not perfect.

I personally think the latest DM replacement is a damaging mis-step. But I think it is not a result of developer laziness, apathy, or ignorance. There was a game breaking issue, she addressed it with the functional temporary deletion of Detonation Matrix, and I'd guess she's planning on fixing it along with the more sweeping changes coming in 18.7 (which has been the development focus for some time). Basically, I think the decision was not to put any more work than absolutely necessary into holding 18.6 together when 18.7 is close and changes so much.

Finally, I'm glad I'm not an NT right now (first time that's been true in years). And even more glad I'm not the NT Professional.

[Traderjill]

I personally think the latest DM replacement is a damaging mis-step. But I think it is not a result of developer laziness, apathy, or ignorance.

I'm going to disagree with you here. Maybe it isn't laziness but if they didn't realize how damaging this change was going to be to their own game community then there is certainly a high degree of ignorance going on. I personally can't imagine them being that ignorant of the AO community so I'm leaning a bit towards the apathy camp these days. What other reason is there for the total absence of communication regarding an issue that has legitimately upset so many players?

There was a game breaking issue, she addressed it with the functional temporary deletion of Detonation Matrix, and I'd guess she's planning on fixing it with more sweeping changes in 18.7 (which has been the development focus for some time). Basically, I think the decision was not to put any more work than absolutely necessary into holding 18.6 together when 18.7 is close and changes so much.

You could be right but there are as many theories about what Genele and crew were doing with this last patch as there are people posting on the forums. No one has heard from her or any member of the AO development team... at all. This was a significant change that clearly warrants some form of communication and absolutely none has been given. That is the biggest issue with what's happened.. the unknown. Assuming your theory is correct (and I suspect it might be.. at least it is also my running theory). All she had to do was come and explain. The thing is, 18.7 might be as far away as Halloween.. if not further because we know how they are with deadlines. To leave people's toons virtually broken for the entire summer and good part of the fall is unacceptable.

[Pafpuf]

snip

What are you talking about, 1 person dedicated to this game could have done more than the entire "AO team" has in the past 10 years.

Passionate and knowledgeable yet manages to address every bug exploit in this game as "fine, deal with it" until months, years or if ever someone actually does something about it. Usually not even a bug fix but a retarded band-aid fix that's just as damaging to the game itself, just in a different way.

Search the game suggestions forum for a post by anyone on the AO team that's not just forum moderation or some ridiculous chit-chat. Acknowledging or adopting a player's good idea. Doesn't happen because there's no passion or knowledge among them, only arrogance. All they do is copypaste existing work and take ideas from other sources adding random values, the damage and requirements on the NT nuke being a shining new example. Excuses like "well there's future plans blabla" don't cut it. How would you react if someone gifted you with a nice car, then you notice it has no steering wheel and when you complain they tell you "we may plan on installing one in the unforeseen future, enjoy it meanwhile".

Halfassed work shouldn't go live, that's what the test server is for. It's embarrassing for funcom and a slap in the face to the playerbase.

[nanoforcer]

Don't forget to cancel your accounts now ppl, before it autorenews

I think i'll actually do that and hope they actually READ the reason to why i'm canceling, also when you cancel you can type in a reason as to why.

You can always resub when they manage to turn it into something / rethink the issue.
And if not gz on saving yourself some money and getting a point across

[Raggy]

A few thoughts: First, the dev team Means led was probably 5-8 times the size of the one Genele currently leads. Yet meaningful movement toward the stuff we've been waiting for forever (engine, re-balance, NPE, Steam) has happened under Genele and never did under Means.

In addition to the work of creating much of that, Genele also has the community management/ PR responsibilities of a GD - she's the one who gets the angry PMs when someone is upset about something. She needs to locate and address bugs and exploits. Manage the beta and test-live. She's given rough timelines for certain things to happen going forward, and given Funcom's past track record there, she's doubtless motivated to stick to it as closely as she can. On the whole, she is passionate and knowledgeable about AO, and incredibly hard-working, but not perfect.

I personally think the latest DM replacement is a damaging mis-step. But I think it is not a result of developer laziness, apathy, or ignorance. There was a game breaking issue, she addressed it with the functional temporary deletion of Detonation Matrix, and I'd guess she's planning on fixing it along with the more sweeping changes coming in 18.7 (which has been the development focus for some time). Basically, I think the decision was not to put any more work than absolutely necessary into holding 18.6 together when 18.7 is close and changes so much.

Finally, I'm glad I'm not an NT right now (first time that's been true in years). And even more glad I'm not the NT Professional.

There is literally no defence you can say against complete and total communication blackout when it comes to incredibly game-changing changes like the ones we have seen being pushed through recently.

Whether she has a smaller team or not, whether she is a competent dev or not, both are utterly irrelevant in the face of the glaring fact she isn't explaining what she is doing and by ignoring this, she is doing nothing but hurting herself and the game she is working on. In the absence of fact, rumours and imagination take precedence.

And we have absolutely no facts beyond the knowledge that there is no visible pattern of change and no communication from FC.

[Caloss2]

A few thoughts: First, the dev team Means led was probably 5-8 times the size of the one Genele currently leads. Yet meaningful movement toward the stuff we've been waiting for forever (engine, re-balance, NPE, Steam) has happened under Genele and never did under Means.

In addition to the work of creating much of that, Genele also has the community management/ PR responsibilities of a GD - she's the one who gets the angry PMs when someone is upset about something. She needs to locate and address bugs and exploits. Manage the beta and test-live. She's given rough timelines for certain things to happen going forward, and given Funcom's past track record there, she's doubtless motivated to stick to it as closely as she can. On the whole, she is passionate and knowledgeable about AO, and incredibly hard-working, but not perfect.

I personally think the latest DM replacement is a damaging mis-step. But I think it is not a result of developer laziness, apathy, or ignorance. There was a game breaking issue, she addressed it with the functional temporary deletion of Detonation Matrix, and I'd guess she's planning on fixing it along with the more sweeping changes coming in 18.7 (which has been the development focus for some time). Basically, I think the decision was not to put any more work than absolutely necessary into holding 18.6 together when 18.7 is close and changes so much.

Finally, I'm glad I'm not an NT right now (first time that's been true in years). And even more glad I'm not the NT Professional.

You know what, I don't buy that, it just doesn't add up.
Firstly:- Means had more people, well maybe, but guess what 17 years of management experience has taught me? that more people just means there is more to manage.

Secondly:- Your painting a picture of someone hard done to and under a lot of pressure, BUT actually that is someone micromanaging and doing everybody elses job, yet again the mark of a bad manager.

Thirdly:- Again painting a picture of an unsung hero getting more done that someone else previously did; this is simply not true, Means put into motion and created more than any other game director we've had, and he wasn't shy of speaking to his consumers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2kfnTrMgEI

Lastly:- passionate and knowledgeable (your words) people don't produce inadequate and adulterated work like the work that has been done to address DM being exploited. To the detriment of every player that has a T-7 NT.
Lazy or unconscionable people produce this kind of work hence my conviction to a vote of no confidence.

[Ophiuchus]

It's not that the Dev team don't care. It's that their vision versus the vision of the vocal playerbase are wildly divergent. Of all the many and varied criticisms I have of Genele's reign, sitting around doing nothing is not one of them. She and whoever else is still working on AO appear to be doing stuff. I hate a lot of the stuff they are doing and agree with basically everything else here with respect to how little heed they appear to be paying to player concerns, but in terms of working hours of the Devs (all 2 or 3 of them) and the Beta stuff there has been a lot going on.

I don't know exactly what Tomium's remit is here as CM but communication between playerbase and devs is something that urgently needs addressing.

[Caloss2]

It's not that the Dev team don't care. It's that their vision versus the vision of the vocal playerbase are wildly divergent. Of all the many and varied criticisms I have of Genele's reign, sitting around doing nothing is not one of them. She and whoever else is still working on AO appear to be doing stuff. I hate a lot of the stuff they are doing and agree with basically everything else here with respect to how little heed they appear to be paying to player concerns, but in terms of working hours of the Devs (all 2 or 3 of them) and the Beta stuff there has been a lot going on.

I don't know exactly what Tomium's remit is here as CM but communication between playerbase and devs is something that urgently needs addressing.

The only way we can outline the Dev teams stance is based on what they do and say, you I and anyone else has that and nothing else. Asserting that they care is an assumption at best.

And I do not share it based purely upon the evidence we have at hand.

[JustinSane4]

You know what, I don't buy that, it just doesn't add up.
Firstly:- Means had more people, well maybe, but guess what 17 years of management experience has taught me? that more people just means there is more to manage.

Secondly:- Your painting a picture of someone hard done to and under a lot of pressure, BUT actually that is someone micromanaging and doing everybody elses job, yet again the mark of a bad manager.

Thirdly:- Again painting a picture of an unsung hero getting more done that someone else previously did; this is simply not true, Means put into motion and created more than any other game director we've had, and he wasn't shy of speaking to his consumers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2kfnTrMgEI

Lastly:- passionate and knowledgeable (your words) people don't produce inadequate and adulterated work like the work that has been done to address DM being exploited. To the detriment of every player that has a T-7 NT.
Lazy or unconscionable people produce this kind of work hence my conviction to a vote of no confidence.

The AO team, to my knowledge, is currently Genele, Macrosun and sometimes Michizure. Who is Genele supposedly micromanaging? Whose job is she doing? She's been given all those jobs, there isn't anyone else to do them. Means was wonderfully charismatic, he loved to talk, and he was a good content designer (S42 was his work I believe, and much of the LoX expansion), but the two big initiatives he announced, the profession rebalance and new engine, did not get done in his tenure, or anywhere close to it. Even the server merge didn't happen till he was gone. Under Genele, some system changes have already been implemented, and more are coming, along with the NPE, in 18.7. The engine is in Beta. This is more progress toward these goals than any other GD has made.

I agree that the DM nerf has been clumsily handled (a nearly un-castable nano that does vastly less damage than IU could uncharitably be interpreted as trolling), but personally I'm holding off till the monthly update next week before breaking out torches and pitchforks regarding the lack of public explanation.

Also, Pafpuf, if you have time, go through the profession suggestion threads in many profession forums (often still stickied), then go through the nano-documents. A huge amount of what was requested in those threads was included in the nano-docs. Just because devs rarely comment on suggestions doesn't mean they are all ignored.

[Pennypacker]

The server merge didnt happen because the population was somewhat decent at the time compared to when they were absolutely forced to do it, and it's not like that got done in a jiffy either..

As for the engine, Means was GD when they had to throw out everything they worked on to a new engine, i strongly suspect this had to do with executive decisions over his head concerning TSW development and their own engine.

As for goals being made, i have seen very few goals being reached so far. Sure, they have it in beta, but by now i'm awaiting the release to live before it can even be resembled as a goal reached.

And wasn't rebalance Lindelu's announcement or am i remembering wrong ?

[Pafpuf]

Also, Pafpuf, if you have time, go through the profession suggestion threads in many profession forums (often still stickied), then go through the nano-documents. A huge amount of what was requested in those threads was included in the nano-docs. Just because devs rarely comment on suggestions doesn't mean they are all ignored.

I just read the fixer ones, the only real change I see is a new FA/burst buff and PO becoming usable and not something you spam over and over hoping it'll land. Not exactly spectacular or 3+ years of work.

I don't know why you said rarely, they never comment. And I know they ignore the playerbase because the ratio of player made suggestions vs funcom's trolling that went live is almost exclusively in funcom's favor.

[Esssch]

Means was wonderfully charismatic, he loved to talk, and he was a good content designer (S42 was his work I believe, and much of the LoX expansion), but the two big initiatives he announced, the profession rebalance and new engine, did not get done in his tenure, or anywhere close to it.

Silirrion was the one that announced new engine