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