Brigby: From MTGPQ to G.I. Joe

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Comments

  • Michael_WC
    Michael_WC Posts: 74 Match Maker
    edited January 2020
    Brigby said:
    bken1234 said:

    I can also tell everyone he is nothing short of beloved on the Marvel boards, so I count us lucky to have him joining the team with Oktagon_Support here. 
    I want to believe this, but in over a week we didn't get a simple "Hi guys". What's the deal? 
    Good point, when is he planning on joining?  We feel neglected :'(

    Brigby
    IceIX is the secondary point of contact, as he'll be working more behind the scenes. @Oktagon_Support should be your primary point of contact, and the person that will be interacting the most in the forum with everyone.
    So MPQ gets a "community manager," G.I. Joe gets a "community manager," but MtGPQ gets a faceless generic Support account that MIGHT interact with us?....neglected indeed.
  • Quantius
    Quantius Posts: 228 Tile Toppler
    Well tbf, Mr/Ms Oktagon_Support has actually popped in when people have had issues. This person is a bit faceless currently. I have a feeling they're spending most of their time putting out fires and it'd be great to have someone to answer questions that don't only pertain to immediate problems.

    Definitely feels like we've been left out to dry.
  • Michael_WC
    Michael_WC Posts: 74 Match Maker
    Don't get me wrong, I am glad that @Oktagon_Support is around from time to time, but the lack of a "person" interacting with the community while other games get dedicated community managers is a little off putting. Oktagon has enough responsibility with development, they shouldn't also have to be the PR for the game, that is why you use a publisher, which both @Brigby and @IceIX are a member of. The fact that we're just left to deal is sour tasting.
  • Volrak
    Volrak Posts: 732 Critical Contributor
    I agree that one (or more!) personal representative of the developers and/or publishers actively engaging in the forums makes a real difference to the sentiment of a fair chunk of the player base.  Brigby was fulfilling that role admirably, and you can tell because of the reaction over his changed responsibilities.  All the best with GI Joe!
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    OS is not a generic account. She is a person, give her some time to acclimate to the forum and her position. 
  • FindingHeart8
    FindingHeart8 Posts: 2,730 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2020
    bken1234 said:
    OS is not a generic account. She is a person, give her some time to acclimate to the forum and her position. 
    @Michael_WC summed it up pretty well in my opinion.

    I'm surprised she didn't get her own name.  Octagon_Support sounds more like a helpdesk account that multiple staff might interchangeably use, than the personal account of a manager.  Is that something that can be changed for her benefit? Perhaps getting to make her own name might help her feel more at home here, and avoid misinterpretations in the future.  Just my 2 cents.

    I look forward to future discussions with OS or whatever she decides to name herself  :)
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    bken1234 said:
    OS is not a generic account. She is a person, give her some time to acclimate to the forum and her position. 
    My apologies for the assumption. I don't think it is a far stretch for anyone to assume this was a generic account used for anyone posting support related posts and articles. That error is on me.

    However, let's take a step back and look at an excerpt from Brigby's departing post:

    "As sad as I am to be leaving the amazingly passionate MTGPQ community, taking my spot will be a seasoned D3 Go! Production veteran: @IceIX . He has been the champion Producer for Marvel Puzzle Quest since its inception, and now he will also be supporting Magic: Puzzle Quest as its Producer.

    In addition, Oktagon will also be taking steps to increase the level of engagement they're able to have with the community, as some of you may have already seen @Oktagon_Support posting articles and replies.

    With IceIX joining Oktagon at the game's helm, I'm excited to see the progress and growth MTGPQ will experience in the future."

    The community has come to know Brigby as the voice of the Developer/Publisher here on the forums. He specifically states that IceIX will be taking his spot. One can only surmise that IceIX's involvement here would be similar to Brigby yet there has been nothing but silence from this individual, not even a casual Hello.

    It wasn't until today that the clarification was made that IceIX would be working more behind the scenes and Oktagon_Support would be taking point on communicating with the forum. This reads as the exact opposite of what was initially announced. Even if this was contrary to the original intention it wasn't even cleared up until 11 days later and after much complaining from the community.

    All of this is to say, communication with your customers is key. While it may not seem like it on the surface, perhaps it's hard to tell on a message board, but many of us share genuine concern. We want the game to continue to improve, we want to see success out of an IP many of us cherish. The cries for answers come from a community that cares.

    While some of this may sound like entitlement, I'm a relatively big spender on IAPs, have been a VIP since coming back to the game, and want to continue supporting the game and it's developers, but that is becoming harder to do.

    Game development is hard, I get it, but every time we turn around more features and mechanics are added to the game along with a mountain of the bugs that could rival an Egyptian plague. And that's the thing, it's not like these bugs are unknown, many of us report them almost as soon as a new exclusive card is purchasable from the vault (this doesn't even address the many that exist from regular cards). Many of us feel like QA testers, but there is no communication with the devs or support how or what they are doing to fix these problems. When you drop $30 USD only to find you can't use your cards because they don't work as intended or worse completely freeze the game one tends to get a little upset. Worse still when there is no acknowledgment of an issue or if\when it might be fixed.

    Hopefully this post is taken as constructive criticism as it is intended and not as an attack. There is a thriving community out there that only wants to see the game get better. I for one am happy to consider myself one of its many members.

    Michael
    Brigby was never MtGPQ’s actual Producer. As far as I know, for a long time, that was Cthulhu— and we never heard from him. And we didn’t complain. Brigby was the Community Manager for D3Go!  This is a position in the Communications department where the one duties is to manage this forum. (He wore many other hats, despite the fact that people thought the forum was his only job).  A few months ago Brigby was moved into the production side of MtGPQ for a period before being moved to GI Joe, but as far as I know his primary responsibility was always Community Manager which is a very different thing. 

    Regardless, there is a changing of the guard and the structure of how things are being done. Let’s be welcoming to OS and optimistic. How is it a bad thing to cut out the middle man and now have a direct representative from Oktagon managing our community? Everything we say and do is now going directly to Oktagon. I fail to see the issue. 
  • Michael_WC
    Michael_WC Posts: 74 Match Maker
    bken1234 said:
    bken1234 said:
    OS is not a generic account. She is a person, give her some time to acclimate to the forum and her position. 
    My apologies for the assumption. I don't think it is a far stretch for anyone to assume this was a generic account used for anyone posting support related posts and articles. That error is on me.

    However, let's take a step back and look at an excerpt from Brigby's departing post:

    "As sad as I am to be leaving the amazingly passionate MTGPQ community, taking my spot will be a seasoned D3 Go! Production veteran: @IceIX . He has been the champion Producer for Marvel Puzzle Quest since its inception, and now he will also be supporting Magic: Puzzle Quest as its Producer.

    In addition, Oktagon will also be taking steps to increase the level of engagement they're able to have with the community, as some of you may have already seen @Oktagon_Support posting articles and replies.

    With IceIX joining Oktagon at the game's helm, I'm excited to see the progress and growth MTGPQ will experience in the future."

    The community has come to know Brigby as the voice of the Developer/Publisher here on the forums. He specifically states that IceIX will be taking his spot. One can only surmise that IceIX's involvement here would be similar to Brigby yet there has been nothing but silence from this individual, not even a casual Hello.

    It wasn't until today that the clarification was made that IceIX would be working more behind the scenes and Oktagon_Support would be taking point on communicating with the forum. This reads as the exact opposite of what was initially announced. Even if this was contrary to the original intention it wasn't even cleared up until 11 days later and after much complaining from the community.

    All of this is to say, communication with your customers is key. While it may not seem like it on the surface, perhaps it's hard to tell on a message board, but many of us share genuine concern. We want the game to continue to improve, we want to see success out of an IP many of us cherish. The cries for answers come from a community that cares.

    While some of this may sound like entitlement, I'm a relatively big spender on IAPs, have been a VIP since coming back to the game, and want to continue supporting the game and it's developers, but that is becoming harder to do.

    Game development is hard, I get it, but every time we turn around more features and mechanics are added to the game along with a mountain of the bugs that could rival an Egyptian plague. And that's the thing, it's not like these bugs are unknown, many of us report them almost as soon as a new exclusive card is purchasable from the vault (this doesn't even address the many that exist from regular cards). Many of us feel like QA testers, but there is no communication with the devs or support how or what they are doing to fix these problems. When you drop $30 USD only to find you can't use your cards because they don't work as intended or worse completely freeze the game one tends to get a little upset. Worse still when there is no acknowledgment of an issue or if\when it might be fixed.

    Hopefully this post is taken as constructive criticism as it is intended and not as an attack. There is a thriving community out there that only wants to see the game get better. I for one am happy to consider myself one of its many members.

    Michael
    Brigby was never MtGPQ’s actual Producer. As far as I know, for a long time, that was Cthulhu— and we never heard from him. And we didn’t complain. Brigby was the Community Manager for D3Go!  This is a position in the Communications department where the one duties is to manage this forum. (He wore many other hats, despite the fact that people thought the forum was his only job).  A few months ago Brigby was moved into the production side of MtGPQ for a period before being moved to GI Joe, but as far as I know his primary responsibility was always Community Manager which is a very different thing. 

    Regardless, there is a changing of the guard and the structure of how things are being done. Let’s be welcoming to OS and optimistic. How is it a bad thing to cut out the middle man and now have a direct representative from Oktagon managing our community? Everything we say and do is now going directly to Oktagon. I fail to see the issue. 
    There is nothing to be gained by one of us trying to convince the other of our position on the issue, the fact is communication has been poor (your explanation above of various positions has been the most informative yet by the way).

    I'm all for welcoming @Oktagon_Support and wish her the best here. I hope that as the guard changes we see the improvements we're all hopeful for, but talk is cheap, this game can be expensive, and actions speak far louder than any words.

    Michael
  • Kinesia
    Kinesia Posts: 1,621 Chairperson of the Boards
    Getting direct contact is a very very good thing and much welcomeness to @Oktagon_Support. Some here are always grumpy, others are always hopeful but most of us live in the normal human range of hope and fear combined and can even mix the two together to give both jokes and good responses to honest queries!

    Every single change in the game since Oktagon took over I've been able to see the future plans written into both the implementation and even the bugs that develop as part of the process. I've only ever been annoyed that vanguards haven't been made extremely accessible. The rest of the changes are _all_ progress even when they've come with bugs.

    All the new events have included supports that helped with the objectives (which used to be our major complaint, that the supports always acted _against_ the objectives) and, yeah, we could some new events without supports, but they are literally acting on prior complaints. If you want some stability.... Stop complaining!

    The future is fine. I know. I'm 10 hours ahead of most of you.
  • Michael_WC
    Michael_WC Posts: 74 Match Maker
    Hi guys,

    Thanks to those who wished me a welcome, and to those who still feel frustrated with some aspects of the game I promise that we, from Oktagon, are always doing our best to deliver the best to you.
    Here we are all Magic lovers, just like you!
    We are going through a time of adaptation but we hope to get over it soon and improve several aspects of the development/player relationship.

    Regards to all,
    Marcela.
    Hi Marcela,

    Thank you for taking the time to post in this thread and providing a bit of insight from your side of things. Please don't take the frustrations personally. The goal of voicing these concerns is so that the powers that be (a.k.a. Oktagon) is made aware of them. As we all become acclimated to the changes I am hopeful things will continue to progress in a positive direction.

    It may be a rocky road, but welcome all the same.

    Michael