AGS needs to start using AGILE project management ASAP. The 360 degree feedback is horrid, the time it takes is causing a lag in terms of cause/effect for the real issues at hand

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Implement some changes at AGS immediately or you’re gonna continue to bleed a playerbase and never recover.

Let’s talk WATERMARK, yes you have changes coming, but what GROUPS are going to be effected by those changes and what PERCENTAGES of your active players make up those GROUPS?

GROUP 1) BURNOUT GROUP. These are the players who raced to max level, they blobbed Myrkgard doing Chest/Boss runs and the overwhelming MAJORITY of them got bored and quit. These are the majority of your players that have 600GS watermarks, and they no longer even play.

GROUP 2) NORMAL GROUP. These are the players who did a mix of everything, yes they participated in SOME of those Myrkgard runs but it was too boring for them to keep grinding and they went off that path to do other things. These players are the MAJORITY of your current active playerbase and they have Watermark GS in the 540-580 ranges.

GROUP 3) EXPLORER/CRAFTER GROUP. These are the players who believed they did NOT have to run around with blobs of other players looting chests in endgame zones and zerging down bosses in order to progress. These players CRAFTED their own gear, purchased gear from other players, used the Trading Post system to acquire gear, and so on. These players likely make up the next largest MAJORITY of currently active players, just behind GROUP 2. These players likely have Watermark GS in the 515-540 ranges.

GROUP 4) Ultra Casuals & New Players GROUP. These are players that did a lot of everything, most have not finished their main quest and most are not level 60 yet. They will be PUNISHED the most of all the groups should the “2022 Watermark/GS changes” be implemented.

SUMMARY:
The majority of your players that have already obtained the 595-600 watermark are no longer playing and/or will not be delayed or impacted by your suggested 2022 watermark/gs changes.

The majority of your currently active players that did not “break your game by playing it in a way the team never foreseen or intended”, will be punished and placed into a grindy system and will likely go frustrated and quit because of the disparity between those that did play to break your game and they have the 595-600 GS already.

The crafters will be betrayed. The new players will see the negative reviews and the grind and quit.

Your profits from this game will plummet and your shareholders will have Bezos head on a platter. What do you think will happen to YOUR JOB, when that time comes?

Goodluck.

2

You seriously giving Amazon software development tips?

3

Your comment makes no sense. My post has absolutely nothing to do with software development. You clearly walked into a topic that is over your head. The FACT that you had to GOOGLE the term “Agile” and you looked at the first response, then came here with your ignorance just proves my point to the T.

What is Agile? Agile is the ability to create and respond to change.

4

nice try, that term is from project management. you are trying to give AGS dev advice or you are saying they need to use some sort of project management…

SCRUM for the win!

5

You specifically called out AGILE development, but nothing in your post hinted at anything development related. Agile Development (methodology) is the new CIO buzzword, and really has it’s place in the mobile market, or in applications specifically developed from the start using one of the many Agile methodologies.

I agree that the communication from AGS has been utterly abysmal. They aren’t proactively engaging the community in regards to issues. On the other hand, the number of people that come on here and disparage the developers is absolutely ridiculous. If you really want to place any sort of blame here, put the blame on the developers management, not the developers themselves.

The method that AGS is using to submit bug reports is also absolutely horrid. They should be using a webform of some sort, not some sort of discussion where we copy and paste answers to a set of questions.

I can think of a few games where they started using an Agile methodology, and the best one so far, that comes to mind, is Phasmophobia.

6

I have a feeling it goes like this over at AGS.

Game Studio Producer: We need a Customer Service team that plays the game, understands the jargon and the players concerns. Our team needs to be able to identify the real issues at hand, filter customer tickets sent to them, and provide the development team with near instant feedback from those front line players themselves.

Amazon Mid Level Manager: We already have 15,000 customer service agents in India that can read from a scripted response book. They can reply to the players with canned responses and we will be able to process hundreds of thousands of “customer tickets” each month, our “numbers” will look fantastic! I’m sure we’ll also make Jeff B. very pleased with those numbers!

Game Studio Producer: We need to get real data and metrics about the current state of the game so we can know what changes we should prioritize and respond to immediately!

Amazon Mid Level Manager: We already have that, we will use AI to sift through all the random data and allow the AI to tell us what to do and how to respond. Hey Alexa, tell me how many copies of New World we sold… (Alexa: over 1 million)… HEY! WE ARE WINNING, SEE THAT!

Game Studio Manager: We need to make sure our game has a Game Master presence to be able to handle cheaters, botters, exploiters and having that “presence” in the game really helps The public is deterred from taking EULA violating actions, if they think an invisible GM may be watching!

Amazon Mid Level Manager: That would cost $, and Jeff B does not want to spend a cent more than we must to get this game to market. We all know the “Game” is not the priority, its the “ENGINE” that is going to be the cash cow. New World is just a tech demo for Lumberyard, we all know that, now stop acting like this “Game” even matters. Just keep as many people playing as you can for as long as you can… (turns 180 in his chair to play some PS5 game).

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