Comments on: Getting Feedback http://programmerjoe.com/2008/04/28/getting-feedback/ Joe Ludwig's blog Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:49:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Xavin http://programmerjoe.com/2008/04/28/getting-feedback/comment-page-1/#comment-158058 Xavin Fri, 16 May 2008 13:42:57 +0000 http://programmerjoe.com/2008/04/28/getting-feedback/#comment-158058 Your forum search does suck, mainly because it requires search words to be four letters or more, which rules out common PotBS terms like DPS, NO, DR, etc. From the dev chat logs i have read, the general questions and concerns are the same as the forums. The forums are definitely more combative (it's easier to attack someone when they aren't standing in front of you), and the posters more knowledgeable, so they don't ask the minor stuff that you have already answered. On the other hand, most of the regular PotBS posters have a much better grasp of the game issues than a normal player. I would put money on the fact that over half the level 50 game population still has a few very wrong notions on how the RvR contention system works, while I'm confident most of the forum posters understand it. If you are able to strip the bile and hate from the forum, I think that most of your core game issues are laid out there very well, with a lot of well thought out discussion in between the flames. Your forum search does suck, mainly because it requires search words to be four letters or more, which rules out common PotBS terms like DPS, NO, DR, etc.

From the dev chat logs i have read, the general questions and concerns are the same as the forums. The forums are definitely more combative (it’s easier to attack someone when they aren’t standing in front of you), and the posters more knowledgeable, so they don’t ask the minor stuff that you have already answered. On the other hand, most of the regular PotBS posters have a much better grasp of the game issues than a normal player. I would put money on the fact that over half the level 50 game population still has a few very wrong notions on how the RvR contention system works, while I’m confident most of the forum posters understand it. If you are able to strip the bile and hate from the forum, I think that most of your core game issues are laid out there very well, with a lot of well thought out discussion in between the flames.

]]> By: Joe http://programmerjoe.com/2008/04/28/getting-feedback/comment-page-1/#comment-147517 Joe Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:54:58 +0000 http://programmerjoe.com/2008/04/28/getting-feedback/#comment-147517 Lots of games have decided to not have official forums for one reason or another. We didn't do that because we wanted to have a high degree of influence over the primary place people go to talk about our game. We set the tone of the discussion in our forums and have the ability to enforce that tone if someone gets too far out of line. It also allows us to restrict forum posting access to our actual customers, which is a big help all by itself. (Some jerk with an axe to grind can't disrupt the forums after we ban him for jerkdom.) Our forum search is just the vanilla search that came with vBulletin. Hmm... I wonder if we could get Google to do search for us. :) Lots of games have decided to not have official forums for one reason or another. We didn’t do that because we wanted to have a high degree of influence over the primary place people go to talk about our game. We set the tone of the discussion in our forums and have the ability to enforce that tone if someone gets too far out of line. It also allows us to restrict forum posting access to our actual customers, which is a big help all by itself. (Some jerk with an axe to grind can’t disrupt the forums after we ban him for jerkdom.)

Our forum search is just the vanilla search that came with vBulletin. Hmm… I wonder if we could get Google to do search for us. :)

]]> By: jliu http://programmerjoe.com/2008/04/28/getting-feedback/comment-page-1/#comment-147292 jliu Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:03:21 +0000 http://programmerjoe.com/2008/04/28/getting-feedback/#comment-147292 :O What do you think of Warhammer Online's stance on "no official forums", because of what WoW's forums had become - essentially full of hard-core unhappy groups out to complain of every change the designer wants to do to the game. Who owns the game, designers or players? I always think having a forum points system - each person is assigned xp points for being helpful (answering questions) or unhelpful (trolls) on the forum with the forum filter based on recent - high sum(xp) threads. I guess it's kind of like slashdot/digg's self moderating forum systems. Btw, PotBS's forum search sucks - but I shouldn't bring game complains to your blog. :O

What do you think of Warhammer Online’s stance on “no official forums”, because of what WoW’s forums had become – essentially full of hard-core unhappy groups out to complain of every change the designer wants to do to the game.

Who owns the game, designers or players?

I always think having a forum points system – each person is assigned xp points for being helpful (answering questions) or unhelpful (trolls) on the forum with the forum filter based on recent – high sum(xp) threads. I guess it’s kind of like slashdot/digg’s self moderating forum systems.

Btw, PotBS’s forum search sucks – but I shouldn’t bring game complains to your blog.

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