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  • FindingHeart8
    FindingHeart8 Posts: 2,732 Chairperson of the Boards
    Volrak said:
    FH's point might be that D3 have an overall budget which they must split between their own publishing activities and the development work charged out to Oktagon, and from the perspective of him and some other players, it looks like D3 may be better served by shifting in the longer term towards allocating more of that budget pie to the sub-contracted development work.
    That's a fine opinion to present, but of course it should be clear that as customers we have far from complete information about D3's business.  There'd be many factors D3 have to consider which we have no awareness of, even putting aside the things we know would be difficult (including what B has pointed out).  It should also be clear that D3 aren't going to treat our opinions of their business strategy with any more weight than we'd be treating random customers' opinions of our own business strategies.  The main take-away for D3 is probably that there exist customers who care enough to make this kind of suggestion, which they should take as a positive.
    As for a newsletter, something like that is a pretty standard channel for a business to have.  All else being equal, D3 having one doesn't seem like a bad thing in any sense, for them or for customers.  I haven't seen evidence that it's consuming inordinate resources.
    Agreed.  I should elaborate and explain that I do not believe a newsletter is a bad idea, it is just a matter of strategy priority.

    To the MTGPQ community it appears that:

    1) The game functionality is frequently unstable.

    2) D3 is not well-informed of Octagon's progress on solving this instability  (or preventing future occurences)

    3) Priority to informing the player-base on anything is currently very low.

    Maybe the newsletter is an attempt to solve this? I'm not sure, the monthly updates did not go so well, and how is D3 supposed to provide us with a detailed and accurate newsletter when they themselves have no idea what is going on with Octagon?

    And Volrak is right that we have no idea beyond speculation what the internal structure of d3 and Octagon's relationship is,

    but

    from a player perspective it looks negative, and appearance is incredibly important to most successful companies, and should matter here.

    I dunno...maybe there is no pressure to actually try in this arrangement because they can just piggyback off of paper MTG's success.  It's abnormal, but I've seen a few companies out there that are able to work that way, and it would explain a lot of the player frustration in the forums.
  • TomB
    TomB Posts: 269 Mover and Shaker
    Considering D3's function as the marketing arm of this enterprise I would assume the newsletter would feature more of a preview of upcoming offerings and perhaps release dates for new content than updates on bug fixes, incoming nerfs, etc.

    I wouldn't read too much into this... :)
  • Azerack
    Azerack Posts: 501 Critical Contributor
    TomB said:
    Considering D3's function as the marketing arm of this enterprise I would assume the newsletter would feature more of a preview of upcoming offerings and perhaps release dates for new content than updates on bug fixes, incoming nerfs, etc.

    I wouldn't read too much into this... :)
    I see what you did there... ;)

    (and if you didn't I saw it, anyway... )
  • FindingHeart8
    FindingHeart8 Posts: 2,732 Chairperson of the Boards
    TomB said:
    Considering D3's function as the marketing arm of this enterprise I would assume the newsletter would feature more of a preview of upcoming offerings and perhaps release dates for new content than updates on bug fixes, incoming nerfs, etc.

    I wouldn't read too much into this... :)
    I actually laughed out loud.  Well played :)
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  • Azerack
    Azerack Posts: 501 Critical Contributor
    I'm of the mind that maybe D3 is trying out another form of communication apart from Brigby's posts here, not to mention some people who play don't check forums as often...

    ..I told you NOT to mention that!   ;)

    There is plenty for them to tell us but still, even if we can't reply to the newsletter, we can still POST about the newsletter info, here, so, if that's their plan it's already doomed. ;) 
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    Could the newsletter just be a tool of business? Like other businesses have? Maybe it’s a general D3Go! thing? Why do we have to read so much into everything? 

    We beg for communication, here it is, and we are angry about it? 
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  • IM_CARLOS
    IM_CARLOS Posts: 640 Critical Contributor
    bken1234 said:
    FindingHeart8 said:
    LakeStone said:
    Mburn7 said:
    I'm just a bit concerned that this appeared with absolutely no explanation.  
    What's in the newsletter?  Who is writing it?  How often does it get released?  Why should anyone sign up for it?
    Thanks for the question.  There is only so much we can include in the inbox messages given the limited character count but the email newsletter(s) includes news and announcements and is written by the D3 Go! team.  It typically goes out once or twice a month.  And signing up is completely optional and subscribers can unsubscribe at anytime.  
    As interesting as this sounds, unless the newsletter was to address the questions and concerns voiced by the mtgpq forum community, I'd personally rather see the extra manpower devoted to bug fixes and quicker content releases.
    Sigh. Once again. Two different companies. Oktagon — the developers, do techie stuff like bug fixes. D3Go!, the production company writes the newsletter. They handle marketing and things like that. One is located in Brazil, the other in California. Oktagon is hired by D3Go! to handle all the IT stuff. It’s outsourced, if you will.  

    D3Go! can’t simply pull Bob from Communications off the newsletter and send him over to the IT department to start fixing bugs. First, the IT department is a different company.  Second, it’s on another contentent. Third, the rest of the department likely speaks Portuguese, Bob probably speaks only English, Finally, as I also have a Communications degree, I venture to guess Bob didn’t take any coding classes and cannot fix bugs. 

    You are right, but Roberto from brazil can code very well and work for half the money of Bob. And as a bonus he speaks portuguese and english very well. 
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited September 2019
    IM_CARLOS said:
    bken1234 said:
    FindingHeart8 said:
    LakeStone said:
    Mburn7 said:
    I'm just a bit concerned that this appeared with absolutely no explanation.  
    What's in the newsletter?  Who is writing it?  How often does it get released?  Why should anyone sign up for it?
    Thanks for the question.  There is only so much we can include in the inbox messages given the limited character count but the email newsletter(s) includes news and announcements and is written by the D3 Go! team.  It typically goes out once or twice a month.  And signing up is completely optional and subscribers can unsubscribe at anytime.  
    As interesting as this sounds, unless the newsletter was to address the questions and concerns voiced by the mtgpq forum community, I'd personally rather see the extra manpower devoted to bug fixes and quicker content releases.
    Sigh. Once again. Two different companies. Oktagon — the developers, do techie stuff like bug fixes. D3Go!, the production company writes the newsletter. They handle marketing and things like that. One is located in Brazil, the other in California. Oktagon is hired by D3Go! to handle all the IT stuff. It’s outsourced, if you will.  

    D3Go! can’t simply pull Bob from Communications off the newsletter and send him over to the IT department to start fixing bugs. First, the IT department is a different company.  Second, it’s on another contentent. Third, the rest of the department likely speaks Portuguese, Bob probably speaks only English, Finally, as I also have a Communications degree, I venture to guess Bob didn’t take any coding classes and cannot fix bugs. 

    You are right, but Roberto from brazil can code very well and work for half the money of Bob. And as a bonus he speaks portuguese and english very well. 
    You’re making an assumption. I play 2 games — this one and another with many Brazilian professionals. Maybe half of them speak English well of the other half only half of those speak English at all. 

    Also very quick preliminary research showed pretty comparable wages — which is actually kindof sad considering the tax inflation Brazilian consumers pay on things like digital media — this is a different post though.  

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