As someone who has worked on the development side for MMO’s, I have the opportunity to see things from the perspective of the development team investing 60+ hours a week as well as the perspective of a player investing all their free time.
From a development perspective we have to remember a few key things.
- The goal of a game maker is to have people playing your game. Which is exactly what AGS is trying to do. They are making decisions that should help the longevity of the game and will make this be a lasting MMO rather than a normal release game that lasts a couple years max. (go back and look at other MMO launches and early updates. It’s surprisingly similar.)
- Decisions are often never made by developers themselves, but rather a content team that passes information along to the developers. This being said, developers themselves are often not aware of bugs or complaints that the players may have since the information is passed along to them.
- A development team often has weeks if not months of content on the board at a time so it is often hard to make requested or suggested changes in a short time frame. You have to meet about the suggestion, decide if it’s worth implementing and what changes are necessary. You have to pass it to content team to get a full in depth write-up of what to expect. They pass it to developers which work it into the already packed list of things. This can take easily 4+ weeks in a fast schedule.
From a players perspective things seem different, but you have to remember the above bullets.
- Bugs: Are there bugs that need addressed? YES. 100%. However, it’s not as easy as “here is bug, fix it.” Anyone who has worked with code before knows that sometimes bugs arise because one area unknowingly effects another area. This can be easily fixed by a developer that is experienced and knowledgeable of the code, but New World is a new game. It has not been out long enough for the developers to have this level of experience with the code yet. (Yes I know it has been in development a while but my statement still stands.) This being said, bugs can take time to fix. Let the devs do their job and get it fixed. The devs themselves probably don’t even see your complaints as they are likely filtered by the community team anyways.
- Changes: Are there changes that seem like the developers are not listening to us? Yes. But again, this is a combination of the developer looking out for the longevity of their game as well as adding in changes that have likely been on the development board for weeks or months. It’s not always that they are not listening, but they had already had planned and worked on things prior to our suggestions. At the end of the day, it is still their game and they have the final say. Yes it is important to listen to the players that bought your game, but you also have to remember that they are technically the owners and professionals in this situation.
Overall, I love this game and can’t wait to see where it ends up.
To the AGS team: thank you for all the hard work you do and keep up the good work. Remember to let the players know what is in store. Community team needs to do a thorough job of passing along information to development team to ensure they are properly informed. The dev stream seemed to show lack of overall knowledge of community reports.
To the players: Be patient. Be kind. But still let your voice be heard. Remember, you can voice your opinions and suggestions without being toxic. Positivity is what helps bring motivation. Motivation turns into results that the players can enjoy.
I have chosen to specifically not talk about AGS support as I have no first hand experience with the subject to comment on.