Players Council

gruntface

A general musing on my part but something of an open letter to JC etc

From time to time we get player surveys which give the player base an outlet but it's pretty limited in its scope. We also sometimes get updates from the development side which are more announcements than anything. I was wondering whether the development team had ever entertained the idea of a players council.

It's form could be one of several approaches but the purpose would be for developers to tap directly into a small representative group of players for some real two way communication about the state of the game.

Forums like this by its nature tend to focus on what isn't working and therefore is somewhat limited. It's also clear that there is little interaction from the creative team which I think hurts both the players who do not feel listened to but also results in missed opportunities for the developers to really understand what people are looking for. It's not a case of give us free mythics weekly, it's more nuanced than that.

I recognize it's (thopter?) pie in the sky but the idea of a periodic meet up of devs and players to have a constructive two way dialogue I think would go a long way to helping all parties out.

Other companies do this in other areas (for instance sports teams engaging with season ticket holders to both get feedback and better share their vision) and with the recent round of players quitting or on the verge of leaving or generally becoming disillusioned with the game think it would be beneficial. We know that resources are limited also but having insight into what players value should be of interest and a public forum is a difficult place to engage in (due to its public nature).

Overall, I really enjoy the game, there's a ton to like and we are the ones who will both put money into the game and bring others in as well. We are a significant resource for those who want to make money and think we share the same overall goals.

bk1234

I agree 100%

See my post HERE

bken1234 wrote:

I played another game, much like this one for 3 years -- it folded several months ago -- because they just couldn't get a handle on cheaters -- but they did communication right. They did focus groups, they posted dev ideas on their forums and on Facebook. It wasn't a huge game, but the community valued it and stuck with it through a lot of issues because the developers valued us.

Jaff

Totally agree!

I played a RTS game for 5 years. And one of the best way of this success was the approach between players and devs.

buscemi

gruntface wrote:

...we share the same overall goals.

Do we tho? I'd like a game with balanced cards, whereas they're commited to making large amounts of OP and UP cards. I want a user interface that's smooth and usable; they want one that constantly changes it's veneer without changing functionality. I want bugs to be fixed... they want to alter code that already works like Hexproof or Discard. I want the amount of skill involved in placing at the top of the leaderboard to increase, whereas they want to favor luck instead. I want the graphics to be simple enough not to lock up my device when playing with Fabricate and Energy, and they want them to look good in adverts. I want all the planeswalkers in the game to be playable, and they want to power creep the new ones to make the old ones unplayable. I'd like the events to roll out slower, and then gradually change like they used to, and they'd like to dump all the new event content on us in one go and then forget about it. I think Customer Support and Quality Assurance are important in a business.

And that's before I even get onto the more selfish aspirations I have for the game, like increased drop rates. 84 upvotes for that thread now, I see.

Me and D3/Hibernum share an interest in there being a thing called Magic:Puzzle Quest, certainly, but our visions for the game seem very different.