In some other threads the lack of communication by ark officials is defended by "it's a small development team" this is a thread about an upcoming event on planet cyrene: http://cyreneforum.com/threads/sharp-dangerous-a-tideclaw-hunting-event.7841/ Now Kris from cyrene, also gets some criticism about the prizes and the difference in maturity. He stays professional and handles the complaints and suggestion in a normal matter, without throwing dirt or accusing players. THAT is how proper communication by a planet partner should work. Ark team and advisers should take a look and maybe learn a thing or two. I wouldn't qualify Cyrene team as a big development team Same goes for an even smaller planet. In this thread, a player dedicated to that planet, asks if the planet is still alive. And again, a very professional response from the developer. http://www.toulanforum.com/forum/showthread.php?1879-Is-Toulan-still-active&p=4518#post4518 Ark team and advisers.. do with it what you want, but if you want your moon to succeed, maybe take a look at how you communicate with your customers?
Communication is not a one-way road. The way some people "communicate", the most professional approach is to ignore them. In the Cyrene example, some are shrieking "bad execution" even before it begins. Meh. And it's by far not the only instance. Some people's egos are bigger than any room they enter. But yes, Kris is outstanding at handling all this. The singular mistake made here in my opinion was forgetting to tell people in advance that the prizes were yet to be developed. Then you would have known what to expect. Or if it was foreseen to attract a slurry of snide remarks at MA's track record in this regard, avoiding them has backfired. I am sure that something was learned from this. I agree that sometimes I'd like to read a little more about what was done at VU or patch times, and what's on top of your list that isn't done yet. It is always appreciated and increases trust in your work. One instance I may like to relate was the long time we had no audio on Arkadia for some bug which obviously was hard to chase down. It was over just in time for Goldrush and after the first round or two I happened to meet David in game, said hello and thanked him for the event and asked casually if it was possible to publish a bit more background about what happened for the technically interested. He had to decline. I didn't want to make anything of it but it left me a bit disappointed. If contractual limitations were the reason, they are a hindrance because it always makes you suspect that politics got the upper hand. While most devs dislike having to document every step, at the time you present the results you actually do want to list everything you've achieved and want your patch notes to look as impressive as possible. Especially when it was hard to do. So it must be something else that prevents them.
Some "partners" handle MAs-blackmailing different than others. Usually it means a high level of stress, money and anger. Remember, its MA pulling the final levers, not the planet partner...hence the silence and/or misscommunication. If you havent yet realized, under what kind of pressure planet "partners" are working.
yep. Communication is important... Also helps if the the Planet Partner's main focus is 'on their planet' and not on other side projects, whether those may be doing fancy Hollywood blitz stuff (ala Next Island style or Neverdie Style), or creating icos to sell to the world as important monopoly money, etc. Can't really communicate much from management if management isn't really managing anything and is just using the Planet as a form of passive income?
Ever stop to think that the planet partner might not seem to be focusing on their planet as they might just be waiting for MA to do something. Can you imagine the out cry from players if a planet partner did x, y and z updates to the planet while still waiting for MA to pull their finger out? Do we as players honestly expect a planet partner not to do side projects during these waiting periods while their partner is getting side tracked with their own side projects? i don't think any company would pay their staff and bills for several months of collective thumb twiddling when they can be generating income. As for the communication issue, as an Arkadia Advisor, I know I was sitting on my hands to avoid having to be blunt and tactless and escalating the matter (if that had been indeed possible). Arkadia studios would have been in a catch 22 situation and were damned if they replied and damned if they did not, as they would have had to wait on MA to give them a date.
Keep in mind Arkadia studios and Mindark are two separate businesses that work closely together. Arkadia designs the content we experience on Arkadia and the Underground, but MA has to approve and perform the final "loading" of this content into the entropia universe. There is relatively little Ark can do without having to go through MA. Errors will be made, sometimes by the Ark devs, sometimes by the MA devs. On occasions when MA has made an error or has not prioritized Arkadia projects so they fall behind schedule, Arkadia studios won't usually let us know that MA has dropped the ball (besides being normal professional behavior, they probably have an agreement to not badmouth each other). Similarly, MA usually won't say when Arkadia studios is at fault for some issue. Often, the route both parties take is to say nothing about the issue publicly until it's fixed, which has the obvious drawback of making some players feel like their concerns are being ignored, when they may in fact be doing everything they can do to solve the issue. So... to prevent misunderstandings, it would be wise to view all feature promises or timelines with this dynamic in mind. I agree, along with probably everyone else, that Arkadia studios should have more communication with the playerbase. Of course communication of status and plans are complicated by the dynamic with MA mentioned above... But I do miss the times when Arkadia had a dedicated community manager. For now, Arkadia doesn't have one and I think with the moon project deadline looming, communication is going to continue to be a low priority. Last I heard they were ahead of schedule but realistically they'll still be working feverishly until thursday before the update. Because there are always more bugs to fix even when you thought you got them all.
15 years of development, there is nothing to defend. If Ark is so badly served by MA why are they still creating a moon? stop to say mischiefs MA or Ark that changes little it is like under treating a benefit (graphic development) to a different group. Coca cola orangina is the same structure in the end, such ark calypso cyrene is the same structure EU .
