Q&A w/ Oktagon - September Edition (10/9/18)

Brigby
Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
in MtGPQ General Discussion
Hi Everyone,

Since the team has been busy working on the Duel Decks event, the September Q&A will more on the lighter side. Please take a look at some of their answers below:
==========
How are you planning on dealing with the ever increasing number of reprinted cards as it relates to the legality of those cards in this game?
For now, we plan to simply not add them to the collections. We are aware, however, that long-term that is not a solution. Therefore, we are studying some possibilities on how to handle that.

Is there a plan to introduce pity timers to help players who are statistically the unluckiest for card drop rates?
This is included in the quality of life changes that we are looking into, although we can't specify when it will be added.

How do you plan on communicating with the player base more, beyond just the monthly Q&A?
Alongside every new release, we will continue to release blog posts explaining and describing some of the mechanics and features of that release.
==========
In addition to Oktagon's replies, I'd also like to answer some of the questions they unfortunately did not have time to address.

Are there any plans to improve the new player experience, and what do you feel is the biggest deterrent to new players that stops them from continuing to play this game?
Magic: the Gathering is a robust game with enrapturing characteristics, and we work hard to maintain that flavor and feel within MtGPQ. In doing so though, that also means we transfer over the complexities the tabletop game also has. One of our biggest new-player challenges is being able to coherently and efficiently explain how the game works to someone that has never played Magic: the Gathering before.

To that end, we definitely have some plans we want to try and implement, both in-game and out, to make the First-Time User Experience a much easier and fluid process. For example, I personally am working on a New Player Guide, that will live within our Helpshift FAQ page, that covers everything from the basics of Menu Navigation to Deck-Building. I hope to complete this guide in the near future, and as always, we welcome your feedback!

With the holidays approaching, are there plans to have holiday events and/or special holiday cards?
What's a holiday without celebration right? I wonder what the next major holiday is? ;)

Thanks for checking out the September Edition of the Q&A w/ Oktagon. If you have questions you'd like to ask them for the October Edition, then please submit them HERE.
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Comments

  • khurram
    khurram Posts: 1,090 Chairperson of the Boards
    I can only assume after reading this that the monthly QAs are just a formality to oktagon that they'd rather not have to deal with. Their dwindling interest in effectively communicating with the players is evident.


    On other note, next up is Halloween. What have you planned?
  • Buizel
    Buizel Posts: 50 Match Maker
    edited October 2018
    In one month they did not have time to address more than 3 questions, 2 of which were yes-or-no questions?
  • UweTellkampf
    UweTellkampf Posts: 376 Mover and Shaker
    If I were on a date, and I would get answers of this kind, I’d at some point check if I smelled bad, then I’d ask if everything is ok, and to that I’d probably get: “To this question I definitely plan to have an answer at some point”, to what I’d just suggest that we silently finish our 6-course dinner and never talk again.
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
    Low expectations - still disappointed.
    Duel decks should not be a reason not to put work into this. The good blog post shouldn't be, neither..

    There will always be something more important, more pressing, more whatever. I also don't like cleaning the kitchen, and I definetely have better things to do, but my girlfriend would probably not accept that as a reason and be cool with it either.


  • Volrak
    Volrak Posts: 732 Critical Contributor
    Quantity of answers may be low but quality is not the worst.  Thank you for providing at least these few insights.
  • Kinesia
    Kinesia Posts: 1,621 Chairperson of the Boards
    Isn't Oktagon meant to have a public face person too? Why isn't communicating with us one of their priorities?
  • UweTellkampf
    UweTellkampf Posts: 376 Mover and Shaker
    Kinesia said:
    Isn't Oktagon meant to have a public face person too? Why isn't communicating with us one of their priorities?
    I get the impression they are maybe just too few people. This is really just shots in the dark, but the way how slow they react to so many actually acute things like bugs and exploits, plus the low amount of regular communication and also rare designing of new events leads me to think the above. The team might be too small and thus too preoccupied with just keeping the game alive.
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    Kinesia said:
    Isn't Oktagon meant to have a public face person too? Why isn't communicating with us one of their priorities?
    If you look back on the post when she was introduced, get job here is to handle bugs and technical issues. Primarily lockouts — however pretty much everyone ignores that and tags her regularly — a thing I personally find really impolite and disrespectful. 

    https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/70923/daiane-oktagons-community-manager
  • span_argoman
    span_argoman Posts: 751 Critical Contributor
    I'm happy to see that they are looking into retaining new players through improving the learning experience though it would have been better to hear them address the vast gap between where a new player's collection starts and when they'll have enough cards to be able to start exploring card synergies.

    Also happy to hear that they are looking into pity timers, though I'm guessing it's not gonna be popping up any time soon considering they were busy with Duel Decks and no doubt with GRN upcoming. There's probably stuff to be done for the holiday season too, not to mention the usual debugging. So I'm hopeful that things will get better,

    I don't think it's the quantity of questions answered which we should be looking at to gauge the state of the game.
  • hueyTW
    hueyTW Posts: 31 Just Dropped In
    Will the cards in duel event become craftable
  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    We understand that players have a lot of burning questions waiting to be answered, but the team always wants to ensure that the information they provide is as accurate as possible.

    Some features they may already be developing a plan for, but just aren't concrete enough in the details to announce yet. The last thing we want to happen is to say "This is our current idea as to how to address X topic" or "We have a feature addressing this that should be added in Y month," and then something comes up that completely changes those details.

    This was a lesson we definitely learned from the announcement, and unfortunate delays, of Booster Crafting, and one we want to avoid moving forward.
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
    Brigby said:
    We understand that players have a lot of burning questions waiting to be answered, but the team always wants to ensure that the information they provide is as accurate as possible.

    Some features they may already be developing a plan for, but just aren't concrete enough in the details to announce yet. The last thing we want to happen is to say "This is our current idea as to how to address X topic" or "We have a feature addressing this that should be added in Y month," and then something comes up that completely changes those details.

    This was a lesson we definitely learned from the announcement, and unfortunate delays, of Booster Crafting, and one we want to avoid moving forward.

    So.. The current communication strategy is actually how you want it to be?
    Because (this is just my interpretation) you've learned the wrong lessons? Booster crafting was one real big bone you threw us, one everyone hoped for, and one of the few occasions where you gave us insight in your plans.. It's clear that everyone was hyped! Particularly since magic players are not known to be emotionally distanced.

    Now, if it hadn't been this very topic (that will never be reached in terms of anticipation), but just a regular topic, and if it was totally normal that you share this kind of things with us.. It would be different.
    Whenever you make us really hot for something, you're taking a risk, but if you just speak openly and regularly about plans, ideas, current projects /focus and concepts and mark those as such, you're not taking a big risk at all.

    There'll be always some negative feedback. This is magic. Hiding won't help, only make things worse.
  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    @Laeuftbeidir When it comes to the Q&A sessions, others have mentioned that it's more the quality of answers, as opposed to simply the quantity. We understand that players want as much information as possible, but when there are questions the team may not be able to answer at the moment, we'd rather hold off on answering, as opposed to saying "We have no concrete plans at the moment, but it's on our to-do list" repeatedly.

    When I referenced the initial Booster Crafting announcement, we wanted to avoid the too-early reveal of the feature, not avoiding previews entirely. Many players were upset that we teased such an impacting feature, and then we weren't able to follow up further with in-depth information (aspects of its design were still being fleshed out). On top of that, we unfortunately had to deal with multiple unexpected delays, so that's understandably a frustrating experience, which is why we want to avoid that situation from happening again. 
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    What I don't like is that for most forum users the Q&A has just become a wishlist. When will you do this? When will I get this? And the devs feed into it with the questions they choose to respond to. 

    A small % of players ask great questions every month about the design process and other interesting things and they get ignored. Answering these questions could be a great way to engage with the community and get feedback that could be meaningful going forward. 
  • IM_CARLOS
    IM_CARLOS Posts: 640 Critical Contributor
    The design process not really my space. I am a player, i am a cash payer and I am only interested in design process, if something doesn't work like intended, to find a way together to make it work. 

    As a player I ask thinks about the game and not behind the game. Sometimes there are answer, or at least something near to this, bit this month is more like chit-chat.

    I think every question is an active feedback to make a better product. Don't flush it away so easily. If no one will react, don't ask for feedback/questions/bug reports. The only result is silence. 
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    But there's a whole subforum for suggestions and feedback!
  • Mburn7
    Mburn7 Posts: 3,427 Chairperson of the Boards
    bken1234 said:
    But there's a whole subforum for suggestions and feedback!
    Do the devs look at that forum?  Does anyone?  I see maybe 1 thread a week with a couple comments.  General seems to be where most people and admins are
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    Mburn7 said:
    bken1234 said:
    But there's a whole subforum for suggestions and feedback!
    Do the devs look at that forum?  Does anyone?  I see maybe 1 thread a week with a couple comments.  General seems to be where most people and admins are
    I'm sure they do -- and putting suggestions and feedback there makes it much more accessible to them than having to wade through the General board. 

    If you're asking whether it's moderated and reviewed by mods or D3Go! -- yes, it is. 

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