No word from the devs

I'm going to have to agree with the successive posters -- just because we aren't seeing names that start with Oktagon like we did with Hibernum doesn't mean they aren't here. I see their presence in many ways, just not in our faces. 

The monthly threads are great. Status on known issues is much faster, and there is a lot more use of the inbox. 

I have no complaints about Oktagon's level of engagement. 

GrizzoMtGPQ said:

@bken1234 can you share more about how you've seen their presence? I was specifically thinking about how JC and others would directly converse with us in the forums in somewhat real time from time to time. I'd appreciate one of those sessions.

I'll say that when Brigby posted the events for the following week back in December.  I posted shortly after that I would like to see Avacyn's Maddness return, since we had not played it in years.  Some other players agreed with me.  It was not on the planned schedule, but later that day is was available to play for the first time in over a year.

I've heard other players say similar things with things like more HoD events 

GrizzoMtGPQ said:

Under Hibernum we had the developers come to the forums and talk to us.
How about it?

Maybe before Nov. 2016. Because I know they weren't doing that after that point. There were quite a few posts of players complaining about Hibernium just disappearing from the forum and Brigby was about the only contact any of us had.

I happen to agree with op in that I would like to see some form of Oktagon presence on the forums. However I believe it should be a very limited format. I don't think they should hold a constant vigil here.

This release and subsequent event would imo be a good time for Oktagon to open a q&a/feedback thread. 
I feel like such a thread should require struck guidelines and oversight and should be open only for a very short period of time. Also it should be made clear to the community that the dev team would not receive any tagged messages or private messages.

This sort of limited format, after a major release or major change to the game, I believe would be a moral boost for the players and could prove insightful to Oktagon as well. 

I have no issues with Oktagon and the frequency and speed in which they do communicate. They have done an amazing job to date listening and responding to the community and I applaud both Oktagon and Brigby for their continued efforts.

I have to agree with @GrizzoMtGPQ here. Oktagon is great and all but the level of engagement with players is a lot less than Hibernum's from their early days. This doesnt make me very optimistic about how communicative they will be a little more down the road.

Oktagons communication so far is behind the monthly QAs except those QAs arent getting posted in time and they cherry pick the questions and don't really give away any significant information , just that they are working on "stuff". It's more of the same.

The feedback of players for ixalan has been overwhelmingly negative and there hasn't been a single word from the devs. Not even an acknowledgement that they are listening.

Kinesia said:

Just look even at _this_ thread, let alone others... This is not a friendly environment to invite someone into, you'd have to pay me much higher than my normal wage to actually engage when I was -guaranteed- to be attacked.

Even the _nice_ people have bad days or say things in bad ways (including me).

I think it's relevant to report this article from my friend about what game devs _really_ deal with...
https://medium.com/@morganjaffit/the-cost-of-doing-business-c09cc5cc8728

    An interesting link, i donnot work as a dev but i'm used to face people complaining and abusing while they have no idea of what they want and just feel uncomfortable with what they got.

   On the other hand,  i think most of the players here are attached to the game, want to make it last, and try to do constructive proposals.
   Some players love many things oktagon did but feel uncomfortable because behind the lot of good intentions and ideas, the game might still become less fun to play because of "details", while the general direction is interesting.
   
    My personal feeling is that oktagon is doing his best to satisfy a lot of complaints and has done quite good for now on ... 
     Ixalan's release has been disapointing in many ways ... But it doesnt seem to be because of a lack of implication. Devs and support team have generally been productive and reactive ... But there might be a lack of understanding of the gaming experience and the TCG background of this game.
   On that point, some kind of more direct interaction might be interesting.
 
   I would add that communication  goes in both ways and i'd live to see oktagon explain the difficulties they face in term of cards balancing, event creation or anything that has to do with the game's developement (if there are such dificulties).
  I'm pretty sure many players would sincerely try to help and would be understanding.
   

bken1234 said:

GrizzoMtGPQ said:

@bken1234 can you share more about how you've seen their presence? I was specifically thinking about how JC and others would directly converse with us in the forums in somewhat real time from time to time. I'd appreciate one of those sessions.

I would rather not have them in the forum  -- if they were in here they would just get tagged to death like everyone already does with D3 employees. This is something that has always bothered me -- it's almost like when I have my kids at an important appointment and my son is constantly tugging on my shirt "Mommy, mom, mommy, mom..." After awhile, people hounded the Hibernum devs so much they just stopped responding.

I am confident they are listening and responding in actions.

I tell my kids all the time "Telling someone you love them means nothing if you don't show them -- actions always speak louder than words."

I see they're listening. 

//Removed Insults -Brigby

B-E-A-utiful. Well said, @bken1234

babar3355 said:

Can we at least agree that they ARE going to engage the community and we have a new community manager.  I guess we now just have to see if and when she engages .  

On to more productive things, I agree completely. This was a great move by Oktagon, and an overdue one at that. I look forward to more direct engagement with the development team!

//Removed Off-Topic Comments -Brigby