R.I.P MPQ Forum 10/2013-8/2020

2

Comments

  • Theghouse
    Theghouse Posts: 331 Mover and Shaker
    I just don't understand all the responses here about hashtag customer service.

    The forum is not customer service/support.  Contacting support is, literally.

    The forum is a community gathering place.  When the devs want our feedback here, they create a thread and then we can comment. Pre-release information is always a bonus but certainly not an entitlement to the player base.  I've already mentioned that I myself am disappointed that the sneak peeks are no longer being updated. And there is certainly no expectation set that they will show up in any thread as if they can be summoned on command to address anything.  

    I've played the game for nearly 900 days on and off.  I've supported the game through purchases at multiple levels throughout my time.  I've asked for plenty of advice here on the forum from the community throughout my playing time and have always got great feedback from the community itself.  When I need to submit feedback directly to the developers I have used the bug submission part of the forum and the official support communication.  While my bug forum posts have not received developer responses, what I have posted did get fixed.  I've been critical of the game in some of my posts, especially when it comes to dilution/in-game-inflation.  But I've never come to the forum and expected anything from the devs other than that they hopefully see my feedback and it can influence the direction of the game in a positive manner. 

    When I see others come here and expect more, especially with an "I've played longer" or "I've bought more Stark salaries" attitude, that is the embodiment of "stinks of entitlement" to me.
  • DyingLegend
    DyingLegend Posts: 1,203 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited August 2020
    I'd rather hear the Devs reasoning behind a nerf, or reward changes or character balance rather then them just do it and stay silent.

    Sure we can get upset that they did it, but if we understand there reasoning we can be a little less angry.

    The forums are a place to talk about feedback and to keep an open communication with, albeit, a small percentage of players to ensure the game stays in a healthy state.

    I will say, since the communication has broken down on the forums you know what else you don't see anymore? In game surveys. Those pretty much dropped off the map. 

    Makes me think the game is on autopilot and unless there is a game breaking issue that needs to be addressed, this is what it is now. Slowly people will stop coming to the forums and slowly people will stop playing. Such is life.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,728 Chairperson of the Boards
    I made a post recently about the changes in 2020 so far.

    They have done a lot of stuff.....added SCL10.  Added "Introducing" events for each new character.  Reworked Shield Training.  Adding NEW MINIONS (this is a big deal!  No revenue comes out of this; it's purely a "give players something different to do" move.  Well, maybe a minion that counters metas helps make players chase other options? It's very indirect revenue generation under that scenario).  Tweaking SCL10...a work in progress.

    And they kept up new character releases.....you can decide if that's good or bad.   :D

    I mean it feels like they are trying to keep things interesting and engaging.  I appreciate that and do not consider the game on "autopilot" right now.  That situation can always change....late 2019 to early 2020, I was very close to quitting out of pure boredom.  That could well happen again.

    ----

    In general they have communicated on the forum about the big new changes.  So at least they do that.

    I guess we will see what happens with the Sneak Peek....I feel like that's the biggest gap at this point.  They've clearly established lack of time and/or interest in engaging with players here.  It seems a little weird to me to still be upset about a pattern that has been in place for all of 2020 (8 months now).

    Also, Brigby left our MPQ forum prior to him leaving the company.  In a way he was perhaps an outlier in the game communication industry.  He seemed genuinely motivated in providing good service and communication to the players, and my understanding is he went on to try to help run a gaming bar (bad timing, sadly) which would be a very customer-focused job.  FTP games are by necessity very dependent on controlling information closely and we all know that there is a constant suspicion involved in all FTP games which depend on convincing you to spend money you don't need to spend (to play the game in general is free).  Every change is going to be viewed through a lens of "how is this somehow screwing me and trying to force me to spend money?" by many players.

    That is the business model; making changes or adding content that makes the customer more likely to spend money than not.

    You can be nice and say "well they need to adjust things so that we keep spending money and keep the game is business, even if I don't like it" or you can get upset and just think it's unfair.  It is completely natural for players to just think it's unfair when the game changes the rules it has been operating under, especially when it is so slow to adjust or change those rules.

    If you are in the FTP game industry you should fully expect that many of the things you do will be viewed negatively just due to the nature of the relationship.  
  • liminal_lad
    liminal_lad Posts: 473 Mover and Shaker
    Are they still posting things on Discord occasionally or has that stopped too? 
  • DoneWithThis
    DoneWithThis Posts: 10 Just Dropped In
    The fact that Sentinels have been in the game for two days and we only got an announcement on the forums today can in no way be blamed on the player base. 
  • Dormammu
    Dormammu Posts: 3,531 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited August 2020
    The fact that Sentinels have been in the game for two days and we only got an announcement on the forums today can in no way be blamed on the player base. 
    So that means the forums are dead?

    Is it so critical that we get an announcement here beforehand when there is a 4-day PvE mini event basically announcing in-game 'Hey everyone, check out the new Sentinels! Try them out in a stress-free, risk-free environment before they make it into a competitive PvE.' 
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,728 Chairperson of the Boards
    Dormammu said:
    The fact that Sentinels have been in the game for two days and we only got an announcement on the forums today can in no way be blamed on the player base. 
    So that means the forums are dead?

    Is it so critical that we get an announcement here beforehand when there is a 4-day PvE mini event basically announcing in-game 'Hey everyone, check out the new Sentinels! Try them out in a stress-free, risk-free environment before they make it into a competitive PvE.' 
    And.....the event opened up in the morning on Thursday, and the announcement post appeared later that day for me (EDT).  I mean sure it would have been nice to see it beforehand, but it did appear on the first day.
  • Michael1957
    Michael1957 Posts: 630 Critical Contributor
    With the death of the forum , maybe we should start a #MPQPlayersMatter protest . I for one would lead a revolt against those Candy Crush players . 
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    I think there're three possible reasons:

    1) The "norm" has been used as a baseline for judging the dev's responsiveness. Anything that falls short of the "norm" will trigger ill-feeling or uneasiness in them. 

    2) This is similar to point 1. Humans are creatures of habits. Their habits have been disrupted. They expect to see advance info in the forum before it appears in the game. 

    3) This could be related to point 2 indirectly. When info are posted in this forum before it appears in-game, they feel special or empowered because they are ahead of the majority of the players in the game in terms of knowing what's going to happen. Regardless of whether there's any real advantage, it makes them feel good.


    We knew the abilities of two out of four Sentinel types before it was posted in the forum. Just suppose that we knew what all of their abilities can do 3-7 days in advance, how is it going to impact your game experience? For me, it's likely that I will forget what they do when the actual in-game battle begins. I'm still going to read what they do before I make my first move because I don't have a photographic memory. 
  • helix72
    helix72 Posts: 995 Critical Contributor
    I have a photographic memory but my memory card is full...
  • Daredevil217
    Daredevil217 Posts: 3,939 Chairperson of the Boards
    You don’t have to go that far back.

    https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/comment/916837#Comment_916837

    When I expressed our frustration with lack of communication. 
    Demiurge_[bagman] said:

    Daredevil217:  "There is a long history of things being removed to be “re-evaluated” but never get touched on again. ...then the communication shut down and nothing changed. So the perception real or not is that we’re not being listened to."   I understand the sentiment. We want to do better, we also understand there's a lot of ground to make up. 
  • Bad
    Bad Posts: 3,146 Chairperson of the Boards
    I got late for 3 days. First, giving you the congratulations: for being a dead forum you got 1700 views in 3 days! You are on a godlike level : resurrecting dead.
    It seems nobody thought we are in middle on some little crisis up there. Not much, but has some similarities with a zombie apocalypse. Im only guessing but it could be that devs chose to focus improving his game rather than paying all atention in a forum that I dont know if his well known highly devoted community fans at all times earned.
    Here are 2 hypothetical example of devs and forum fans interaction:
    1Devs:_ We are going to rebalance all characters, we will release a 4* and 5* each year, we are going to give free supports tokens regularly.
    Community forumers:_ Yeah! Great! We deserved it!
    2Devs:_ We are creating new minions, new modes, releasing 4* and 5* for renewing the game and make you play and grind more(and spend, we dont live from the breath)
    Community forumers: Boooh! This is the worst. We are being ignored. Im not going to spend a dime anymore. Im going to quit and a lot of more players. Im going to destroy ratings at playstore. You will regret this.

    But hey, dont forget if devs would had chosen the second option,  forum would be dead and they would be guilties.
  • jp1
    jp1 Posts: 1,081 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited August 2020
    Zombie Apocalypse you say?

    I respect your opinion, but there is a lot of hyperbole there.

    edit: Just an FYI, I didn’t flag your post. 
  • Bad
    Bad Posts: 3,146 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited August 2020
    jp1 said:
    Zombie Apocalypse you say?

    I respect your opinion, but there is a lot of hyperbole there.

    edit: Just an FYI, I didn’t flag your post. 
    Dont worry, truth is Im getting used to lol.
    Truths must be flagged.
  • Spudgutter
    Spudgutter Posts: 743 Critical Contributor
    edited August 2020
    Bad said:
    jp1 said:
    Zombie Apocalypse you say?

    I respect your opinion, but there is a lot of hyperbole there.

    edit: Just an FYI, I didn’t flag your post. 
    Dont worry, truth is Im getting used to lol.
    Truths must be flagged.

    I hate to break it to you, but there weren't a whole lot of truths in your statement.  mostly hyperbole mixed in with the classic straw man.  

  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited August 2020
    It's fine to be demeaning, snarky and sarcastic towards devs and posts like those usually get likes, instead of flags.

    When some of them get a taste of their own medicine, they get defensive and start abusing flag buttons.

    I mean, is the dev team considered to be lesser human beings and they deserve this kind of double standard, simply because they don't do things according to the preferences of some individuals? Why is such double standard being condoned?

    Any normal human beings who are subjected to such treatements regularly would want to distance themselves from such situation as much as possible.