Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Morrison gets called out
This discussion has been closed.
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
Good on Craig for telling it the way it is. Vocal minority has and will always have their arena to vent but in the end, enjoy what the majority wants or walk.
No worries lol, after your post I actually went back and read the whole thing again. I must admit I believe I was mistaken. Originally it felt as if he were distancing himself from the things players didn't like when taking the poster he replied to into account. But in retrospect I believe I came to that conclusion based on the use of Team and the team instead of saying me and my team or me and the team. And I will admit that I did not read his post in it's entirety, I stopped after I got the feeling he was putting it on the team.
Having gone back and finished it I must apologize as I see that he does indeed include himself in the team, which becomes blatantly clear towards the end of his post.
Again my mistake, if he's sharing blame then all is good lol.
Speaking from the UK side of the pond, in general if you're the Team Leader, it is your responsibility. Everything is your responsibility. Your teams failures are your failures, your team's successes are yours.
Craig Morrison appears to disagree. Perhaps somebody will now tell me that it's a different culture in Scotland.
Ah, ok. Heh, I do that too sometimes especially when I only glanced a long post or thread.
Respect for the correction and admission of having misinterpreted, btw
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Looking at this interplay between developer and client does not necessarily have to be seen through a lens of nationality.
However if you simply want to judge the merits of the discussion as they relate to actual design decisions or the manner in which a company lead responds to criticism without recognizing nationality with a heavy hand then you might be labeled 'ignorant' and 'arrogant'. The premise being that educated and worldy people would immediately recognize that this is a difference in cultural standards and that any response is automatically filtered through an 'American viewpoint' (whatever that is considering diversity is the standard)
Look, I am going way offtrack now. I just find that nationality enters into too many of these conversations and I realize I just kept that ball rolling :P Ah well
(Yeah I could just delete but I'll let my foolishness stand)
Nah, I don't mind admitting when I F'd up lol. Just a shame one of the EU posters didn't reply in the manner that you did lol. Maybe it's a cultural difference oO. lol jk jk guys, don't get all huffy.
Got a source for that?
http://aoc.yg.com/census
Divide through for alts. That's total number of active characters (as seen by the YG bots) in the last month.
If there weren't so many subscribers left who never actually play, it would be way worse than it is.
Which in another post you said a source told you AOC had 90,000. Would make what Avery told you about YG true, that it's not acurate in telling AOC sub numbers. So which is it????
EDIT: sorry 98,000 you claim.
.. .... .- - . - .-. --- .-.. .-.. ... .-- .... --- .-. . .--. --- .-. - .-.-.-
--------------------------------------------------------
Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
YG is wildly inaccurate. All extrapolation....
Yes, I was talking to a Funcom employee and he gave me those later stats, including the information regarding OVER 50,000 SUBSCRIPTIONS THAT NO LONGER PLAY THE GAME.
However, I was asked where the 41K figure came from so I tried to explain that.
These are words.
I have written them for you.
Enjoy.
Good read and well said by the OP. He may of stepped out of line asking craig to step down but craig shouldn't say he won't take it seriously because there was a personal attack. Your in the gaming buisness with people paying good money to play your game, if they are disappointed with the way you take the game they have a right to express themselves and if they feel the need to resort to personal attacks then fair do's if you are seriously screwing up the game.
Ignoring this feedback is silly, they may make a hurtful comment but somewhere in that post is the reason why. They are also often the best feedback because they get right to it and show you how pissed off they are. I can understand ignoring a post that simply says "Step down please, you suck and the game is getting worse". They don't state why it is, but when they do you should NEVER ignore it. Grow a pair and take the insults to better yourself, if they ask you to step down don't say "Ignored, your to mean" simply say "Thank you for the feedback" and get out there and show them that you have what it takes to stay in the directors chair.
Losing subscriptions is a clear indication that what you are doing isn't improving the game, Craig is right when he says you can't please everyone but you don't go about that by pleasing certain people while pissing others off. If he truely believes the game is improving even though subscription numbers are declining then he needs to go back to school.
Also saw he mentioned he only over-ruled the team twice. I don't know about some people but that doesn't sound like a professional director. Is he even doing his job?
He makes a critical mistake in my opinion, he says he has talked to players ingame and they have liked the changes. Now firstly, those players are most likely going to like the changes as they are still ingame whilst the ones that don't are either leaving or posting their feedback and simply refuse to play until fixed. Secondly, The people you are talking to could just happen to be 5 out of 20,000 subscribers in NA or EU that like the changes whilst the remaining 19,995 hate the changes...Basing successful decisions on talking to a FEW players ingame is NOT the way to go about it.
Seems like you don't read too well. Here is a quote directly from Mr. Morrison:
That's not the same question as in your post and your quote.
In terms of the quote, I have answered this before many time and the answer is the same. We use a variety of feedback channels - player behaviour, feedback mails and posts, focus testing, spending time in game, surveys, CS feedback and statistics and tracking. Using all those means we see how people feel and react to the changes we make. You could even see in the summer surveys that the reactions to the changes we have made have been generally positive, and some (like 1.05 and Guild renown) being very popular with over 75% acknowledgment as positive additions and improvements.
...and that is also really the answer to your second question. Why do I think we have improved the game? I think so because I spend time in the game, playing with, and speaking to, players all the time and I see first hand how much the game has improved.
is it perfect? No, far from it! There are still many things that the team and I would love to improve! No doubt. It is also the good side of working in an MMO, because you get that chance to constantly improve the game
...but am I happy that we improving the game? Yes, I am happy of that. I think the game is undeniably better than it was two years ago. Of course not everyone will agree, but that is the way of things, and we always accept there will be some that don't like the direction. __________________
Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison
Game Director
Obvious he is is doing more than talking to a couple of in-game players. Sheesh, give the man credit where credit is due. And stop making up situations that make your opinions seem validated. They are not. Many here would agree that AoC is better than it was 2 years ago, myself included. But you'd have people believe that it is not.
Also for the record, Mr. Morrison said he disagreed with his team on 1 or 2 occasions. He never said what they disagreed on. Nor did he say If what they disagreed on was patched into the game or not. So we don't know to what degree his "leadership" failed or not. But you again assume that he is doing nothing. A good leader works with his team, not against it. But by your tone you'd think that he should only stand as a champion for the PvP vocal minority that ruined the game for a lot of people in the first place.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
[quote]
Originally posted by Ramonski7
Then how come there are so few subscribers compared to 2 years ago?
THIS is the logical fallacy in your continued statements. If the game's so great now, why is everyone leaving it?
Because make no mistake, they are.
I only pointed out the part where he chats to players ingame because i think it isn't a valid way to gather feedback accurately. The other things he states well, we don't know who that data comes from. Who are the survey's for? People already subscribed to the game? What if those people already left the game? You should be sending out survey's to previous subscribers as well. Feedback mail and posts, i think anyone that has read the thread can understand why that may not be so realiable for them. How they use the feedback is also another thing, from here it doesn't look as if they are using it correctly.
They are trying i'll give them that, but if your losing subscriptions and claiming the game is improving and you are clearing your goals, maybe its time you start changing your goals and standing up to the fact the game isn't improving as much as you thought. Personally from the replies in that thread i don't think he has the leadership skills needed. Its all fine working with the team but you need to step in and guide the team as well not just let them get on with it. Not if you want things perfect. He is putting to much faith into the team, when things appear to be going so badly.
From what was said in that thread, i would believe many players think it is getting worse not better.
Bottom line is, if your losing subscriptions then the game is getting worse. No point living in fairy tale land and thinking everything is fine. Change is needed and craig doesn't seem to think so. That right there, is a sign of poor leadership in my eyes.
Note: My opinions are always valid, thats why they are opinions. I'm just going by what the players said in that thread.
Well, your argument is a fallacy itself. You're translating Ramonski7's statement: "AoC is better than it was 2 years ago" to "AoC is so great now", then you're trying to having him justify his statement about the game quality with your second unsupported statement that the number of subscriptions is decreasing...
I think claiming that the number of subs falling is "unsupported" really is going waaaaaaaaay into the realms of fantasy.
There is entirely too much baiting going on in this thread. Also let me remind you that making personal attacks on someone based on their nationality is against our Rules of Conduct. Remember to read these rules before posting. Thanks. Locked.