Future Streams and AMAs

nitocris83

Hail adventurers!

For anyone who's had to write a post-mortem report, there's a lot to be learned when analyzing events or occurrences. In this case, we learned a lot from the recent Systems Design Stream and AMA that we hope will help guide future events. We haven't finalized the process but here are some of the changes we're looking at implementing:

Stream
1) Topic focused: with fields such as systems design, it becomes quickly apparent that breaking it down to a subset of topics will allow us to address player interests in a more detailed fashion. For example, a stream that focuses on PvP mechanics vs discussing dungeons and rewards.

2) Select X number of questions ahead of time and clearly state how many will be selected in the original Question gathering thread. The volume of questions was more than we could physically handle within the time Devs have available.

3) Divide the stream time between pre-selected questions and live ones. Live streams are done to allow for a direct engagement and dialogue, if we only do pre-written questions we might as well do a pre-recorded Q&A session (which would require the use of the video team and other resources so not the easiest of alternatives).


AMA
1) No longer pre-seed questions. Due to the volume of questions for the stream, I had an inkling there would be a heightened interest for the AMA but even I was surprised at the nearly 300 questions when compared to past AMA events. While there is a benefit to being able to prepare and organize some thoughts ahead of time, it really goes against the spirit of AMAs and it just makes everyone feel disappointing (You players for not getting that many answers, and us for feeling like we let the community down).

2) Use a panel of 3-4 devs for an AMA event. Having Robert and Tony both there helped a lot in increasing answer rate and also having them be able to discuss among themselves who was better equipped to answer something.


Player Feedback
Players expressed some frustration over some of the answers given during these events. We understand that specific dates or exact features would be appreciated but that is information we can't really provide. Timelines change, the scope of releases are impacted by various factors, and communication has to be aligned with our Publisher and other partners.

A second piece of feedback was players pointing out that certain topics had already been discussed by the community, threads made, posts written, etc. We try to be in tune with the community as much as possible and keep up to date on what information is available, but, as Robert mentioned during the stream, we sometimes need information pointed out to us when it is relevant to what we are or will be working on. The community weekly reports serve to recap the last 7 days in terms of popular discussions, game issues, and feedback. When we are ready to work on a larger feature or QoL update, we will spend time going through past community feedback but also put out a request for updates or list of the top points.

Additional comments we've seen is that we spent time answering certain questions some players saw little to no value in over other topics. While we try to address the hot topics or ones of interest to our more dedicated players, we also want to make these events are welcoming to the more casual players. Some of these questions also provide a natural break or respite for the Developers, allowing them to relax and re-focus before taking on another question that requires lengthier and very detailed answers.


We wanted to thank you all again for joining us during the Stream and AMA. We've been following your feedback but if you have specific suggestions for future events such as these, let us know in this thread!

darthtzarr

Is there any reason why the team cannot revisit an AMA thread after its "completion" instead of just moving on to the next topic? It feels kind of silly to have to repost the same set of questions (that is likely increasing in size with each AMA/Stream) in each AMA. Pre-seeded or not, I know I will still be copy+pasting a subset of questions from my notes that haven't had a response yet.

I understand that time is limited, but if there is time for another AMA, why not start where you left off last time?

I do enjoy seeing the dev's responses though. If I didn't I wouldn't have posted so many questions on the AMA thread
Thanks!

azazel

Is there anyway the Devs could address questions that come up more often than others? Watching the stream and reading over the AMA. I noticed certain subjects weren't touched upon at all,despite multiple people asking(buff bar,loot roll placement,the lacking damage of SW's)even if there isn't an answer could we get some kind of acknowledgement? Maybe we can get some kind of guidelines for what they can answer? There were alot of questions about Tr's and Sw's and we got a vague answer to one Tr question and no Sw questions were answered as far as i could see, all while 3 Dc questions were answered in great detail.

micky1p00

nitocris83 said:

Hail adventurers!
1) No longer pre-seed questions. Due to the volume of questions for the stream, I had an inkling there would be a heightened interest for the AMA but even I was surprised at the nearly 300 questions when compared to past AMA events. While there is a benefit to being able to prepare and organize some thoughts ahead of time, it really goes against the spirit of AMAs and it just makes everyone feel disappointing (You players for not getting that many answers, and us for feeling like we let the community down).

I fail to see how not letting people to write questions beforehand will help. MAking more AMAs can help, but not allowing to pre-seed will only add to a flood of questions at the given time, a voting mess, and at the end, justifiably angry players because you answered some HAMSTER instead of good questions because you saw the HAMSTER first.
Also it will surely be night / work time for someone somewhere and I'm sure they will be thrilled about not being able to post their questions.

I don't see why we need to adhere to this 'spirit of AMA', especially if it will be detrimental to the effectiveness of the whole process .

cilginordek

If people read through the questions and upvoted the ones they had in mind instead of posting duplicates, the questions community wants answered the most could be the ones that get priority

micky1p00

cilginordek said:

If people read through the questions and upvoted the ones they had in mind instead of posting duplicates, the questions community wants answered the most could be the ones that get priority

The thread was in contest mode, it made all the score hidden and the list random. So reading it was difficult.

darthtzarr

micky1p00 said:

cilginordek said:

If people read through the questions and upvoted the ones they had in mind instead of posting duplicates, the questions community wants answered the most could be the ones that get priority

The thread was in contest mode, it made all the score hidden and the list random. So reading it was difficult.

I believe it was switched to contest mode to try and reduce the number of mass downvotes on controversial issues, since it automatically hides those questions if they get too many downvotes.

cilginordek

micky1p00 said:

The thread was in contest mode, it made all the score hidden and the list random. So reading it was difficult.

If anything that only makes it fair, so all the top level questions have equal chance of being read.

micky1p00

cilginordek said:

micky1p00 said:

The thread was in contest mode, it made all the score hidden and the list random. So reading it was difficult.

If anything that only makes it fair, so all the top level questions have equal chance of being read.

IMO, there are two issues:

The votes were cast before, so obviously the vote rush was over by the time. At the same hand the vote rush can happen after the mode removed, so there will be no much change there. But it does make it hard to follow, and why following does have merit? second point:

IMO, not all questions are born equal. It was clear that 300 questions will not be answered, even reading 300 questions takes time. Hence there is a vote system, yes it's not the best, and good questions but controversial can die because of it, but it still better than random order and equal opportunity for 300 questions.

So reading in order allows me to vote.

kreatyve

micky1p00 said:

cilginordek said:

micky1p00 said:

The thread was in contest mode, it made all the score hidden and the list random. So reading it was difficult.

If anything that only makes it fair, so all the top level questions have equal chance of being read.

IMO, there are two issues:

The votes were cast before, so obviously the vote rush was over by the time. At the same hand the vote rush can happen after the mode removed, so there will be no much change there. But it does make it hard to follow, and why following does have merit? second point:

IMO, not all questions are born equal. It was clear that 300 questions will not be answered, even reading 300 questions takes time. Hence there is a vote system, yes it's not the best, and good questions but controversial can die because of it, but it still better than random order and equal opportunity for 300 questions.

So reading in order allows me to vote.

We will be better prepared next time. This was a bit of a learning experience for all involved.

hiddenginja

I agree with the first comment, there were alot of questions about the lacking DPS of SWs and TRs. TRs were addressed but still SWs have no acknowledgement at all. There were plenty of well formed questions regarding the damage of SWs. Im not even asking for 'whats going to be done' 'how will you buff SWs', just a plain and simple 'we're aware of the damage problems with SWs'. If we atleast knew the devs are aware of the issues and are working on them, even without all the details people would be alot happier knowing their issues are acknowledged.

ravenskya

hiddenginja#2174 said:

I agree with the first comment, there were alot of questions about the lacking DPS of SWs and TRs. TRs were addressed but still SWs have no acknowledgement at all. There were plenty of well formed questions regarding the damage of SWs. Im not even asking for 'whats going to be done' 'how will you buff SWs', just a plain and simple 'we're aware of the damage problems with SWs'. If we atleast knew the devs are aware of the issues and are working on them, even without all the details people would be alot happier knowing their issues are acknowledged.

This seems to be the sticking point across most of the issues. The player base wants acknowledgment from the devs that there is an issue, and they want to hear that they actually understand the issue.

Just having a running thread that only the Devs can comment in that says "Known issues" and is maintained would be a start. In addition stating at the beginning of the next stream "The TR is lacking in PVE, the Warlock needs love, we need to decide if the Templock is going to be able to queue as a healer, WE HEAR YOU, WE AREN'T IN A BOX BLINDLY MAKING MORE FISHING MODULES" - That is what the players want.

Acknowledgment from the people that actually fix things. That would go a long way. Oh, and something more than a rank 5 in MSPC

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