Our suggestions and bugs are forwarded to the development team 

why doesn't someone on the dev team not just read these threads?  it would be faster and they would see the progression of the issues and input from the players - they have meetings and someone on their team would be able to provide first hand information rather than possible misinformation from a mod or community manager - once the thread is read they can close it the suggestions are for the dev team for the most part so once they have the information it can be marked as read and closed.

the way it is now one person says they will forward the information to the devs - we have no idea what they are actually being told or if they are clearly stating what the suggestion/issue is ... 

I can visit the forum and view new posts under all the relevant topics in less than 10 minutes while i sip my morning coffee - personally if I were trying to resolve issues I would want to have all the relevant information and not just a summary from someone who picks out what they deem important 

I have held management positions in real life the only way to resolve issues is to have the full story :))

JEZEBEL said:

Our suggestions and bugs are forwarded to the development team 

why doesn't someone on the dev team not just read these threads?  it would be faster and they would see the progression of the issues and input from the players - they have meetings and someone on their team would be able to provide first hand information rather than possible misinformation from a mod or community manager

the way it is now one person says they will forward the information to the devs - we have no idea what they are actually being told or if they are clearly stating what the suggestion/issue is ... 

I can visit the forum and view new posts under all the relevant topics in less than 10 minutes while i sip my morning coffee - personally if I were trying to resolve issues I would want to have all the relevant information and not just a summary from someone who picks out what they deem important 

I have held management positions in real life the only way to resolve issues is to have the full story :))

Tbh I think its related to accountability. I never played any mmo game before that had so little interaction with the devs. Have a CM that keep forward things to the devs, I guess there to shield the devs from the questions they don't want to hear. Even worse is we get no proper feedback either. Talk to the hand is a saying that fits very well here... Lack of communication between Plarium and the players is a big issue. Maybe its some bizzare version of Willy Wonka's factory and they all ompa lompas and cant communicate, idk....

I think the system that was used before where players could post threads with questions and suggestions was better, but of course that would put some more work on moderators and CMs. God forbid if moderators actually got some moderator work -) Issue with that was usually threads could derail from original suggestion and people keep added new things to it. 

Sir Dan Saul Knight said:

The gold plated way to run community interaction is out there already, in how CCP runs Eve. No difficult thinking required, just copy everything they do.

They have a council of players elected by the players one a year to consult on the game developments. They fly them for to Icelaand for multi-day meetings with the devs twice a year and are in constant contact and consultation with them. And they make significant alterations to proposed features based on the feedback, even to the point of which projects to even prioritize and undertake in the first place.

There are fan fests all over the world and a major fan fest each year that sets out the game direction and development.

The game roadmap is openly discussed and shared on their forums. People get to interact directly with the key devs. People know who the devs are, their history and experience. What parts of the game they work on. How CCP are structured. 

They have a really mature approach to most common game problems. You can sell your account through CCP (I doubt they like that but it seems thought at least it was better done in a controlled way with no con merchants / fraud).

Big difference though. It's a subscription game (the only major one left that I know of). That makes the players and the developers intertwined around making EVE the best game it can possibly be. The better the game, the better the players enjoy, the more people that play and the more money the devs make. The set up fosters a deep symbiosis, completely the opposite of the adversarial one we have.

They probably don't like us to talk about other games. Just want to chime in though. EVE also gone f2p in addition to sub model. But there is no pay 2 win involved even micro transactions possible for like f2p players. Also they removed the typical "gold sellers" or in stormfalls case "masters" of the game completely, because there was no profit what so ever to be made for them there. They came up with a system where players could buy PLEX for real world money. this they could sell in game to other players for the ingame currency. Here is the kicker. The players that bought this plex for ingame currency could covert this PLEX into subscription time. Basically, if you don't mind grind and spend some effort, you could play for free. This symbiosis did totally remove the "gold seller" types from the game. 

CCP realized very early on a good symbiosis and communication with the players/community was essential for success. I played it since 2003, and still do. Thats 15 years, and I got friends in the game that played just as long as I have. How many can show for such in other games around? How many of you play Stormfall for years have a lot of friends still in the game since day 1 you started play?

You can use CCP as an example, but they are not the only ones having open channels to their players in that way. Lets look at probably the biggest money grubber currently and not even released. Star Citizen. They raised so much cash from fans and people ponders will the game ever be finished and released. But one thing you can't really bust them on is lack of communication with the fan base. 

Hello, Christine!

Thanks a lot for creating this topic! One of the tasks I have in my "To do" list is to optimize the work with players' suggestions.

Gadheras said:

Sir Dan Saul Knight said:

The gold plated way to run community interaction is out there already, in how CCP runs Eve. No difficult thinking required, just copy everything they do.

They have a council of players elected by the players one a year to consult on the game developments. They fly them for to Icelaand for multi-day meetings with the devs twice a year and are in constant contact and consultation with them. And they make significant alterations to proposed features based on the feedback, even to the point of which projects to even prioritize and undertake in the first place.

There are fan fests all over the world and a major fan fest each year that sets out the game direction and development.

The game roadmap is openly discussed and shared on their forums. People get to interact directly with the key devs. People know who the devs are, their history and experience. What parts of the game they work on. How CCP are structured. 

They have a really mature approach to most common game problems. You can sell your account through CCP (I doubt they like that but it seems thought at least it was better done in a controlled way with no con merchants / fraud).

Big difference though. It's a subscription game (the only major one left that I know of). That makes the players and the developers intertwined around making EVE the best game it can possibly be. The better the game, the better the players enjoy, the more people that play and the more money the devs make. The set up fosters a deep symbiosis, completely the opposite of the adversarial one we have.

They probably don't like us to talk about other games. Just want to chime in though. EVE also gone f2p in addition to sub model. But there is no pay 2 win involved even micro transactions possible for like f2p players. Also they removed the typical "gold sellers" or in stormfalls case "masters" of the game completely, because there was no profit what so ever to be made for them there. They came up with a system where players could buy PLEX for real world money. this they could sell in game to other players for the ingame currency. Here is the kicker. The players that bought this plex for ingame currency could covert this PLEX into subscription time. Basically, if you don't mind grind and spend some effort, you could play for free. This symbiosis did totally remove the "gold seller" types from the game. 

CCP realized very early on a good symbiosis and communication with the players/community was essential for success. I played it since 2003, and still do. Thats 15 years, and I got friends in the game that played just as long as I have. How many can show for such in other games around? How many of you play Stormfall for years have a lot of friends still in the game since day 1 you started play?

You can use CCP as an example, but they are not the only ones having open channels to their players in that way. Lets look at probably the biggest money grubber currently and not even released. Star Citizen. They raised so much cash from fans and people ponders will the game ever be finished and released. But one thing you can't really bust them on is lack of communication with the fan base. 

That sounds similar to LOTRO.   I haven't played it yet, though.   I've just been looking over it since the MQs went to 30 and 120.  If it is, then that appears to be at least 2 long running games that the devs could look into.

Aegon Targaryen said:

Gadheras said:

Sir Dan Saul Knight said:

The gold plated way to run community interaction is out there already, in how CCP runs Eve. No difficult thinking required, just copy everything they do.

They have a council of players elected by the players one a year to consult on the game developments. They fly them for to Icelaand for multi-day meetings with the devs twice a year and are in constant contact and consultation with them. And they make significant alterations to proposed features based on the feedback, even to the point of which projects to even prioritize and undertake in the first place.

There are fan fests all over the world and a major fan fest each year that sets out the game direction and development.

The game roadmap is openly discussed and shared on their forums. People get to interact directly with the key devs. People know who the devs are, their history and experience. What parts of the game they work on. How CCP are structured. 

They have a really mature approach to most common game problems. You can sell your account through CCP (I doubt they like that but it seems thought at least it was better done in a controlled way with no con merchants / fraud).

Big difference though. It's a subscription game (the only major one left that I know of). That makes the players and the developers intertwined around making EVE the best game it can possibly be. The better the game, the better the players enjoy, the more people that play and the more money the devs make. The set up fosters a deep symbiosis, completely the opposite of the adversarial one we have.

They probably don't like us to talk about other games. Just want to chime in though. EVE also gone f2p in addition to sub model. But there is no pay 2 win involved even micro transactions possible for like f2p players. Also they removed the typical "gold sellers" or in stormfalls case "masters" of the game completely, because there was no profit what so ever to be made for them there. They came up with a system where players could buy PLEX for real world money. this they could sell in game to other players for the ingame currency. Here is the kicker. The players that bought this plex for ingame currency could covert this PLEX into subscription time. Basically, if you don't mind grind and spend some effort, you could play for free. This symbiosis did totally remove the "gold seller" types from the game. 

CCP realized very early on a good symbiosis and communication with the players/community was essential for success. I played it since 2003, and still do. Thats 15 years, and I got friends in the game that played just as long as I have. How many can show for such in other games around? How many of you play Stormfall for years have a lot of friends still in the game since day 1 you started play?

You can use CCP as an example, but they are not the only ones having open channels to their players in that way. Lets look at probably the biggest money grubber currently and not even released. Star Citizen. They raised so much cash from fans and people ponders will the game ever be finished and released. But one thing you can't really bust them on is lack of communication with the fan base. 

That sounds similar to LOTRO.   I haven't played it yet, though.   I've just been looking over it since the MQs went to 30 and 120.  If it is, then that appears to be at least 2 long running games that the devs could look into.

Many here have been suggesting the sub model for a while now, including myself.  The devs appear not to care, though perhaps the new company might.  A sub server shouldn't be difficult to implement, as its more about removing things than adding them.   It may be too late for SF, but it seems to me like it would be an easy net profit for minor effort on the devs part.  I suppose they may fear losing the coiner income on the other servers if the sub server really takes off.

Well, it all boil down to what they want... a population that give a monthly income regardless, but is based on server population and perhaps additional cash shop for vanity and items of convenience, rather than base income on big coiners and trinkle from minor ones. They would notice a bigger hit of big coiners leaving, that for sure. I would throw money at a sub based version of stormfall, or a game similar to it tbh. Where my time and effort spent playing was actually rewarded, and not had to buy it with cash. 

Back to issue about suggestions.....

Make us able to post new threads..... Gather the threads with different topics in a sticky. Then the players can check the sticky post to check if a thread already exist with a suggestion or topic they are interested in, and they can either create a new thread if none exist for that topic or chime in with their view in a thread that already exist. 

And if someone goes off topic in a thread... moderators do what a moderator supposed to do -)

Most of this isnt off topic as each comment does have suggestions in them even if they can come from a different game a good system that works fast and efficient should never be changed, 

What I'm trying to gain here is an easy interaction for all stormfall players when they want to put forward ideas they believe would improve the gameplay that does not require to much time to be implemented because for each implemented idea into the game we will see it as an update and cant play game in which many get annoyed about. 

It is far more beneficial to all of us to have a simple easy to use suggestion system for Plarium, the CM and MOD team as well as all the players of the game, Plarium does listen, I have experienced this in the past myself and if we can make the suggestion part of the forum a very simple easy to use system the Plarium team will implement it for us all

Christine Hare said:

Most of this isnt off topic as each comment does have suggestions in them even if they can come from a different game a good system that works fast and efficient should never be changed, 

What I'm trying to gain here is an easy interaction for all stormfall players when they want to put forward ideas they believe would improve the gameplay that does not require to much time to be implemented because for each implemented idea into the game we will see it as an update and cant play game in which many get annoyed about. 

It is far more beneficial to all of us to have a simple easy to use suggestion system for Plarium, the CM and MOD team as well as all the players of the game, Plarium does listen, I have experienced this in the past myself and if we can make the suggestion part of the forum a very simple easy to use system the Plarium team will implement it for us all

simple and easy for mods and cm's usually mean not very user friendly for the players/users. Moderators there to moderate, not to have it easy after all. Try be a moderator on a forum that have 1000's of active users/posters a day. yeah there is games out there that have that,....

The current suggestions thread(s) is a total mess, and not very user friendly at all for the players to read up on. Its a horrible scrambled mess. At least in the past when we had individual threads it became easier for the players to participate and chime in on a topic. Problem was things some times went off topic, or you got slapped with a wall of "oh, this is not up for discussions, nope we cant do this". even players wanted to discuss it further.

The most VITAL is the complete lack of feedback from Plarium. Communication is a two way street, if not it just end up as solitary rambling. 

Gadheras, thats why I made this thread,  if we keep it positively constructive with fast efficient ideas Plarium listens, they will read the ideas and hopefully take on the best ones to create an easy to use new suggestion section because that is where we all have a voice to get our ideas into the game itself if Plarium think these ideas will be good for the game improvements, 

When they first brought in Hamlets they had XP for only attacking hamlets not capturing them on the facebook server 1 Dark Plains, I pointed this out on the facebook page back then when Alexander was in charge of it, I was able to explain to him constructively in a positive manner that this whole game with attacking and defending is based on XP points and to capture a hamlet  from another player is still attacking and defending which should always earn XP, Plarium listened and changed the game so capturing hamlets would also earn XP points. (this is my own personal experience of Plarium listening to a player)

Having a comment that reads negatively gets nowhere with Plarium, thats why I always try to keep my posts and comments constructive and in a positive manner

PS: moderating is not easy but I never sign up for anything that is to easy 

Christine Hare said:

Gadheras, thats why I made this thread,  if we keep it positively constructive with fast efficient ideas Plarium listens, they will read the ideas and hopefully take on the best ones to create an easy to use new suggestion section because that is where we all have a voice to get our ideas into the game itself if Plarium think these ideas will be good for the game improvements, 

When they first brought in Hamlets they had XP for only attacking hamlets not capturing them on the facebook server 1 Dark Plains, I pointed this out on the facebook page back then when Alexander was in charge of it, I was able to explain to him constructively in a positive manner that this whole game with attacking and defending is based on XP points and to capture a hamlet  from another player is still attacking and defending which should always earn XP, Plarium listened and changed the game so capturing hamlets would also earn XP points. (this is my own personal experience of Plarium listening to a player)

Having a comment that reads negatively gets nowhere with Plarium, thats why I always try to keep my posts and comments constructive and in a positive manner

PS: moderating is not easy but I never sign up for anything that is to easy 

Comparing facebook version, to what we have here. is.... not very good. Even the the cost and pricing of coining is cheaper on facebook. My experience here for the past years is mostly "talk to the hand"...... with next to no feedback what so ever from Plarium. At one point we had some "community chats" going on, and there was a chance of hope you could get some sort of response on a question, but they shut them down. So go figure. You have to shut/block out all you have in your head in regard of stormfall and facebook, because it does not apply here. Its two different worlds. And I don't say that to be mean, its just my opinion. Create an account and start play on our desolated wasteland of a server. and experience our joy.....

Hmmmm facebook hasnt had the interactive community chat with the CM for atleast over 1 month now or more that I have seen as I used to always try to be online to participate in those,

 I have an account here on the plarium server, I started off in a league called Fuzzy Bunny Slippers of all league names lol, my castle is currently seiged and not leagued as this server has always had a mostly empty beaconfield and i do play sometimes from under the seige, hidden and un noticed so I can grow 

Now the facebook server is much the same, only areas well defended are the borders with only up to 10 beacons being held in the inner areas by any 1 league but most of the inner area is deserted as well so it is much like the plarium server and the game mechanics seem to work the same except for the upgradeable catacombs ofcourse