If the game were out (or even humming along well into beta) I'd completely agree with you. At present it's not. From my perspective they appear to be a package deal. There are people in this very thread that have commented on how limited the community's activity is without more game information for us to discuss, so as such it seems a little off kilter to get amped up about one without the other to support it.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a supercrazyawesome forum but let's be honest here, we're certainly not struggling without all that (we're having this very community discussion after all!).
When the beta comes out, then we'll really have a need for community support!
The fact the game isnt out yet has nothing to do with the problems related to this site. And this site isnt the only problem, its the marketing blunders thusfar that are frightening.. In my opinion the last 3/4 of a year has been bridled with a monumental lack of communication to the level that I am not sure PW/Cryptic quite understands even the very basic levels of marketing or advertising. ZERO updates released before during or right after the largest game convention/trade show of the year solidifies my belief.
I get the feel PW is playing bocci on Mars, and Cryptic is playing bocci on Venus. I see zero cohesion, zero effort by either company to welcome this community into their family of games. No thank you to the CHARGE ZEN and MY WALLET spam that sits atop the button bar that tries poorly to emulate some type of "community".
Im sorry, but if this website's role was supposed to somehow impress us, I cant see how its anything but a dismal failure thus far.
Again, this is just my opinion, and I expect it to improve as we get closer to closed beta... but I've seen nothing on this website developed by PW to get me excited thusfar... qumi0 is 100% right.
It's actually a result of there not being a lot to discuss yet. The original post was about wanting more forum bells and whistles, not a criticism of how
Thats not true. There is plenty of media, plenty of game information they can release to get us more excited (and to help us with the wiki <
HINT HINT!!!!!!). But its not happening.
They are plenty close enough to start getting the ball rolling, and getting some more information in people's hands.
So far we know they put on a good show. That's all we know. Now its time to SEE THE GAME.
Im sorry, but if this website's role was supposed to somehow impress us, I cant see how its anything but a dismal failure thus far.
Well... the website's role never was to impress us.
A website just needs to be functional and easy to use. Which, btw, it is. If there is anything to impress us, that should be the game first and foremost.
It was to impress us. Seriously, I cannot comprehand how people can be so... under. I don't know how to call it... I mean, it's not healthy to think of ones own needs as inferior. Treat them as equal.
If it was only about fuctionality then we wouldn't have this fancy layout, not to mention the E3 and PAX events where devs spent a lot of time, money and resources just to impress the public. It's marketing - the game will need to pay the bills so people need to be interested and so does the hype around the game.
0
vindiconMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
It was to impress us. Seriously, I cannot comprehand how people can be so... under. I don't know how to call it... I mean, it's not healthy to think of ones own needs as inferior. Treat them as equal.
If it was only about fuctionality then we wouldn't have this fancy layout, not to mention the E3 and PAX events where devs spent a lot of time, money and resources just to impress the public. It's marketing - the game will need to pay the bills so people need to be interested and so does the hype around the game.
Why exactly do you need a game site to be impressive?
You sure need the game to be impressive and functional, because without those things you simply won't keep playing it.
You need a game website to be functional, because otherwise you won't keep using it.
But impressive? You don't need that. Sure, it's good for it to be impressive, but after the few initial logins, all that matters is if there is something worth coming back for (news, tools, info, people in the forums) and if it's functional. And PWE may not have the flashiest sites out there, but it has one of the most functional designs.
It's not being "under". It's just pointing out what the important things are, and disregarding the unimportant ones. Sure, companies like Frogster, Riot, or even the original Wanmei, have much flashier gamesites with much more stuff in it, but when it comes to functionality they are simply not as good. Riot for example may be far supperior when it comes to site features, but their forums are horribly organised, and their search function is so badly implemented that they might as well not have included one...
BTW, what exactly is the "fancy" layout? It's not fancy, everything's minimalistic as hell...
I don't find Riot forums horribly organized. In fact, they are very well divided into categories.
And maybe you haven't noticed, but our forum isn't exactly the quintessence of functionality. Dev posts still aren't visible, we have no moderators - just stormshade and devs. The information on the website is old and classes are still "invisible". There are no avatars, no reputation system, old posts are annonymous, dev track is not working. This forum is not functional at all. It's very basic and very raw.
Forums are quite minimalistic, but the website is not. The art is very nice and very fancy.
I also see, in my opinion, one very basic error in your thinking - working on website and sharing information does not equal less time spend on making the game. Different people are responsible for that and one does not interfere with the other. A programmer will not spent hours on writing an article for the website, that's somebody's else job. For all we know - only Stormshade does that and I really feel sorry for him because he is burdened for all mishaps of the forums. He should have at least an assistant.
I don't find Riot forums horribly organized. In fact, they are very well divided into categories. If you compare it to other PWE forums, there are many categories absent and classification of classes category is not well done. Also they haven't thought about how they will change categories when more stuff comes up - they might have to categorize all over again.
And maybe you haven't noticed, but our forum isn't exactly the quintessence of functionality. Dev posts still aren't visible, we have no moderators - just stormshade and devs. I don't think we need a lot of moderators now, we need someone like SS for info leaks and stuff. Otherwise I guess the community is managing itself well. If new user faces a problem with technical stuff, me you or someone else can redirect them to how to make a ticket etc.
Forums are quite minimalistic, but the website is not. The art is very nice and very fancy. Agreed. especially this page no other page comes near to creativity and art in this one.
In general I do agree with qumi but with some differences.
Also additionally, since I am using phone to access forums in free time between bus stops and all, I feel that empty space of blackness all around is very unfriendly towards limited screen of touchphones.
0
iamtruthseekerMember, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
I don't find Riot forums horribly organized. In fact, they are very well divided into categories.
And maybe you haven't noticed, but our forum isn't exactly the quintessence of functionality. Dev posts still aren't visible, we have no moderators - just stormshade and devs. The information on the website is old and classes are still "invisible". There are no avatars, no reputation system, old posts are annonymous, dev track is not working. This forum is not functional at all. It's very basic and very raw.
Forums are quite minimalistic, but the website is not. The art is very nice and very fancy.
I also see, in my opinion, one very basic error in your thinking - working on website and sharing information does not equal less time spend on making the game. Different people are responsible for that and one does not interfere with the other. A programmer will not spent hours on writing an article for the website, that's somebody's else job. For all we know - only Stormshade does that and I really feel sorry for him because he is burdened for all mishaps of the forums. He should have at least an assistant.
First off, please do not forget melanderi! He has been one of the most active Cryptic employees on this site! (Kudos to you for that melanderi!)
Secondly, as listed above correctly, the marketing and development/programming departments are different. We don't expect ad makers and prose writers to code and coders to make their own press releases (they can, but big companies have differnt divisions and Cryptic is one of those big non-independent ones.) So saying the website needs improvement would take away from the game is not true. The game has a co-op to MMO major retooling, and now is a good time to build hype with that marketing department while the development department continues do do their thing.
Thirdly, the decision to remain quiet with game information until close to any release (beta or otherwise) is Cryptic's decision to do it this way.
Finally, even if that is their marketing decision, the website and its flaws (mechanical and atheistic) still reflect upon the game and company itself to a level of confidence (or lack thereof in this website's case) which is why fixing these things brought up is so vital.
Not even seeing a brief response on the errors mentioned in the website (no dev tracker and what the progress is on that promise to fix it, the difficulty to read text/colored text on the black background, the non-parity of features compared to other Perfect World game sites yet the forced "Merging" with Perfect world including the bear similies and yet Star Wars Online and Champions Online did not seem to have to do this, etc.) is troubling and brings up questions why there is no community support in a consistent mnner or spread so thin?
If this is supposed to show how a game can be a F2P jewel AAA game in the west, yet there is not a dedicated team promoting this even on its own site, then how am I supposed to believe that support will be there when say season six of Star Trek Online demands support, or the next big thing in another game owned by the company?
Dedicated support is the answer and cleaning up a major portal of this forum area if you will is a vital first step, even with things like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other social apps.
Okay, that should state my concerns on Neverwinter and the forum clearly enough. I hope it can lead to a productive and dynamic growth to this forum and Neverwinter at large.
Or it won't.
But can they really afford to take that risk right now? That's the call that has to be made.
...the decision to remain quiet with game information until close to any release (beta or otherwise) is Cryptic's decision to do it this way.
Finally, even if that is their marketing decision, the website and its flaws (mechanical and atheistic) still reflect upon the game and company itself to a level of confidence (or lack thereof in this website's case) which is why fixing these things brought up is so vital.
...the decision to remain quiet with game information until close to any release (beta or otherwise) is Cryptic's decision to do it this way.
Finally, even if that is their marketing decision, the website and its flaws (mechanical and atheistic) still reflect upon the game and company itself to a level of confidence (or lack thereof in this website's case) which is why fixing these things brought up is so vital.
This is it in a nutshell. So perfectly worded it had to be pulled out, bolded and highlighted.
...the decision to remain quiet with game information until close to any release (beta or otherwise) is Cryptic's decision to do it this way.
Finally, even if that is their marketing decision, the website and its flaws (mechanical and atheistic) still reflect upon the game and company itself to a level of confidence (or lack thereof in this website's case) which is why fixing these things brought up is so vital.
This is it in a nutshell. So perfectly worded it had to be pulled out, bolded and highlighted.
But did it have to be neon yellow? I do prefer this shade of Deep Sky blue better.
So a few hours after the Star Trek Online forum upgrade the Dev Tracker is working again, meanwhile in Neverwinterland ...tumbleweed.
Yeah, that is a bit aggravating.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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iamtruthseekerMember, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited June 2012
And that forum didn't have a PWE merge AND allows only gold (pay sub) people to post. Not votes of confidence for what should be done here or consistencies what have been done here.
Personally, I'd rather see the beta start than have an updated forum. Once beta starts the forums will probably get updated as some resources are freed up from the heavy development cycles and alpha testing.
At least, that's how it works in theory. b:laugh
0
iamtruthseekerMember, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
Personally, I'd rather see the beta start than have an updated forum. Once beta starts the forums will probably get updated as some resources are freed up from the heavy development cycles and alpha testing.
At least, that's how it works in theory. b:laugh
Having beta start without an effective community forum for communication (even if it's private) is foolish at best, and risking more members leaving at worst. Thus having the forum ready for beta is prudent. This coming from a person who isn't in their first beta rodeo.
Community and thus forums is more important to the success of the game than a good beta. Why? Because if beta is bad, we can heal each others wounds with soothing words and keep everyone optimistic. If beta is good we will cheer together and feel nice, warm and throw axes at each others head in good humor.
So yeah beta would be important but community is more important.
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zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
Having beta start without an effective community forum for communication (even if it's private) is foolish at best, and risking more members leaving at worst. Thus having the forum ready for beta is prudent. This coming from a person who isn't in their first beta rodeo.
Community and thus forums is more important to the success of the game than a good beta. Why? Because if beta is bad, we can heal each others wounds with soothing words and keep everyone optimistic. If beta is good we will cheer together and feel nice, warm and throw axes at each others head in good humor.
So yeah beta would be important but community is more important.
Comments
The fact the game isnt out yet has nothing to do with the problems related to this site. And this site isnt the only problem, its the marketing blunders thusfar that are frightening.. In my opinion the last 3/4 of a year has been bridled with a monumental lack of communication to the level that I am not sure PW/Cryptic quite understands even the very basic levels of marketing or advertising. ZERO updates released before during or right after the largest game convention/trade show of the year solidifies my belief.
I get the feel PW is playing bocci on Mars, and Cryptic is playing bocci on Venus. I see zero cohesion, zero effort by either company to welcome this community into their family of games. No thank you to the CHARGE ZEN and MY WALLET spam that sits atop the button bar that tries poorly to emulate some type of "community".
Im sorry, but if this website's role was supposed to somehow impress us, I cant see how its anything but a dismal failure thus far.
Again, this is just my opinion, and I expect it to improve as we get closer to closed beta... but I've seen nothing on this website developed by PW to get me excited thusfar... qumi0 is 100% right.
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Thats not true. There is plenty of media, plenty of game information they can release to get us more excited (and to help us with the wiki <
HINT HINT!!!!!!). But its not happening.
They are plenty close enough to start getting the ball rolling, and getting some more information in people's hands.
So far we know they put on a good show. That's all we know. Now its time to SEE THE GAME.
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!
Well... the website's role never was to impress us.
A website just needs to be functional and easy to use. Which, btw, it is. If there is anything to impress us, that should be the game first and foremost.
If it was only about fuctionality then we wouldn't have this fancy layout, not to mention the E3 and PAX events where devs spent a lot of time, money and resources just to impress the public. It's marketing - the game will need to pay the bills so people need to be interested and so does the hype around the game.
Why exactly do you need a game site to be impressive?
You sure need the game to be impressive and functional, because without those things you simply won't keep playing it.
You need a game website to be functional, because otherwise you won't keep using it.
But impressive? You don't need that. Sure, it's good for it to be impressive, but after the few initial logins, all that matters is if there is something worth coming back for (news, tools, info, people in the forums) and if it's functional. And PWE may not have the flashiest sites out there, but it has one of the most functional designs.
It's not being "under". It's just pointing out what the important things are, and disregarding the unimportant ones. Sure, companies like Frogster, Riot, or even the original Wanmei, have much flashier gamesites with much more stuff in it, but when it comes to functionality they are simply not as good. Riot for example may be far supperior when it comes to site features, but their forums are horribly organised, and their search function is so badly implemented that they might as well not have included one...
BTW, what exactly is the "fancy" layout? It's not fancy, everything's minimalistic as hell...
And maybe you haven't noticed, but our forum isn't exactly the quintessence of functionality. Dev posts still aren't visible, we have no moderators - just stormshade and devs. The information on the website is old and classes are still "invisible". There are no avatars, no reputation system, old posts are annonymous, dev track is not working. This forum is not functional at all. It's very basic and very raw.
Forums are quite minimalistic, but the website is not. The art is very nice and very fancy.
I also see, in my opinion, one very basic error in your thinking - working on website and sharing information does not equal less time spend on making the game. Different people are responsible for that and one does not interfere with the other. A programmer will not spent hours on writing an article for the website, that's somebody's else job. For all we know - only Stormshade does that and I really feel sorry for him because he is burdened for all mishaps of the forums. He should have at least an assistant.
In general I do agree with qumi but with some differences.
Also additionally, since I am using phone to access forums in free time between bus stops and all, I feel that empty space of blackness all around is very unfriendly towards limited screen of touchphones.
First off, please do not forget melanderi! He has been one of the most active Cryptic employees on this site! (Kudos to you for that melanderi!)
Secondly, as listed above correctly, the marketing and development/programming departments are different. We don't expect ad makers and prose writers to code and coders to make their own press releases (they can, but big companies have differnt divisions and Cryptic is one of those big non-independent ones.) So saying the website needs improvement would take away from the game is not true. The game has a co-op to MMO major retooling, and now is a good time to build hype with that marketing department while the development department continues do do their thing.
Thirdly, the decision to remain quiet with game information until close to any release (beta or otherwise) is Cryptic's decision to do it this way.
Finally, even if that is their marketing decision, the website and its flaws (mechanical and atheistic) still reflect upon the game and company itself to a level of confidence (or lack thereof in this website's case) which is why fixing these things brought up is so vital.
Not even seeing a brief response on the errors mentioned in the website (no dev tracker and what the progress is on that promise to fix it, the difficulty to read text/colored text on the black background, the non-parity of features compared to other Perfect World game sites yet the forced "Merging" with Perfect world including the bear similies and yet Star Wars Online and Champions Online did not seem to have to do this, etc.) is troubling and brings up questions why there is no community support in a consistent mnner or spread so thin?
If this is supposed to show how a game can be a F2P jewel AAA game in the west, yet there is not a dedicated team promoting this even on its own site, then how am I supposed to believe that support will be there when say season six of Star Trek Online demands support, or the next big thing in another game owned by the company?
Dedicated support is the answer and cleaning up a major portal of this forum area if you will is a vital first step, even with things like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other social apps.
Okay, that should state my concerns on Neverwinter and the forum clearly enough. I hope it can lead to a productive and dynamic growth to this forum and Neverwinter at large.
Or it won't.
But can they really afford to take that risk right now? That's the call that has to be made.
...the decision to remain quiet with game information until close to any release (beta or otherwise) is Cryptic's decision to do it this way.
Finally, even if that is their marketing decision, the website and its flaws (mechanical and atheistic) still reflect upon the game and company itself to a level of confidence (or lack thereof in this website's case) which is why fixing these things brought up is so vital.
This is it in a nutshell. So perfectly worded it had to be pulled out, bolded and highlighted.
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!
But did it have to be neon yellow? I do prefer this shade of Deep Sky blue better.
I believe that it would look even better coloured in the crimson of the blood that is shed by valiant warriors in the battlefield.
Or, alternatively, by little elven children sacrificed to Lolth b:sin
That's "colored". But now we are getting into proper word usage, such as the drow/drows battle royal thats going down in another thread!
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!
Actually the older and more used way to spell it is colour and thus coloured.
Color and colored is the new american version of spelling the word.
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/coloured
I mean we all know "usa" english isn't really proper english anymore than "quebec" french is proper french lmao.
Neverwinter Thieves Guild
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
Yeah, that is a bit aggravating.
When ever soon arrives of course.
At least, that's how it works in theory. b:laugh
Having beta start without an effective community forum for communication (even if it's private) is foolish at best, and risking more members leaving at worst. Thus having the forum ready for beta is prudent. This coming from a person who isn't in their first beta rodeo.
So yeah beta would be important but community is more important.
Please roll 1d100 for your loot!
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I agree whole-heartedly.
"Want some Rye?" "Course ya do!" - quote from Return to Zork. http://www.gamesradar.com/the-40-most-repeated-game-quotes/
"Holy mackerel Batman, you're RIGHT!" - quote from Robin, Batman TV show and comic books.... and now Aandre from Neverwinter
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!