Gatto wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 5:08 pm
so he's just roleplaying.
I thought of quoting you first because I had to group up the answers, so I kept your reply since I had to merge posts.
Omegus wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 2:23 pm
I was under the impression that the purpose of the focus groups was that they were run by the CM team to help gather feedback for the Devs. When did that change to the groups making announcements about upcoming changes and "getting things done"?
Edit: to clarify, I'm quoting gravord but the questions are for Gamesbond
The CM team oversees all focus groups, and we've created an effective and reliable stream of feedback for the developers. Over the months, we've looked into ways to make it a smoother process that saves time and delivers feedback to the Developers. One of these solutions was adding the Developers to the focus groups, originally each developer where he'd work on the most. This has created a managed space where occasionally we'd submit a topic, prepare the channels, the time to discuss it and then start receiving feedback from the focus group. The developers there will also engage with feedback on the spot when it makes the process faster. To sum up:
- The CM team oversees all focus groups
(4 of them, each their own field) and ensure that communication there is seamless and accurate. Basically we make sure everybody is doing their job, the ones who should listen are listening and the ones who should share their opinions are doing so objectively.
- The Balance Focus Group is spearheaded by the developers. While proposals, feedback and follow ups is done by the members of the focus group (just like any other focus group), the final decision will always reside in the developers hands.
- The best part is that everything that's being discussed between the members and the developers is checked by the Community Managers and thus when issues like the AP change popped, we precisely knew who to hold accountable and talk to. This helps the community on the long run.
nat3s wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 12:57 pm
Are you part of the RoR team now? Suggests Zarbix was right which is concerning. You have so much passion Grav, but not sure your ideas are popular... And the game needs popular ideas. All of this "we're removing/nerfing x for the integrity of the server" nonsense has to go, design for fun and keeping people playing. Not aggravating people in some hope of creating some pure form of competitive play.
Design arouund "Concentrated Coolness" - a term Greg Street coined when he was lead designer for WoW.
Being part of the focus group isn't something major or uniquely exclusive to someone. It's a group and by its name, team work and group decisions is the only way to come up with proper proposals and well-funneled feedback. There are in total around 30 members in the focus groups, we do not announce their names because it doesn't matter as they're there to provide feedback and actually work on proposals. If they do not do the minimum, they will be replaced. Focus Group aren't laid back places, everyone who's part of them occasionally has something to do.
Haojin wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 2:46 pm
I think some of your questions are answered by Secrets in a "panic-deleted" thread ;D
The thread was definitely not deleted in panic, you personally know how quickly similar posts are usually locked and the author suspended. We did not see the need to do so as a lot of details were incorrect and we wanted to reserve the time for everybody to express their discontent while we listen. You could also spot many posts that usually would trigger a warning, but we barely warned 2 posters for really being disrespectful.
The thread was later on archived because it started a disrespectful feud between players, one that also had a lot of speculations and false assumptions from both sides.
Kenshiken wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 3:06 pm
Do we know who else is in this "focus groups" and how they got in them?
or we live in a Gravord world now?
Just like different programs, such as Realm Champions, we do not forcefully expose the members. We surely do not hold them back from saying that they're currently and temporarily part of a focus group, whichever it was. At the end of the day, we judge their objective feedback and thoughtful proposals. We also judge how their input impacted the community.
Since you mentioned the player's name and that he has publicly written about it, I'll let you know that Gravord is one of over 30 members inside the focus groups. There are RvR leaders, PvE addicts, QoL creatives and others. If you're speculating that the balance focus group members will not do well, I think that's too early. But, we will all get the chance to review their work and only then our feedback would be accurate.
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To sum up:
- Sharing feedback where there are eyes watching is much better than sharing feedback in direct messages. Sharing feedback on the forums is a broader way to get feedback, while in parallel there is a narrowed way via focus groups. The groups are players, who want the game to succeed and are simply providing feedback and proposals to the developers.
- If you'd like to apply and join the focus groups, reach out to a community manager and they will guide you from there. A proven way of writing proposals and writing constructive feedback is needed as we expect people to be proactive inside focus groups.