Transparency & accountability

[Minisynn]

All the pro-transparency CMs end up leaving (or getting booted by you know who) eventually.

Hazmy was just the most recent, and while I was never able to trust him after the whole Evil situation, he was one of the best additions they ever added to the team in regards to mapping and sharing information as far as development goes

All that is to say don't get your hopes up for increased transparency of decision making on RoR from anyone other than Zumos

[Coocooclock]

In the hope you agree that both transparency & accountability are important.
I want to bring that simple suggestion to 'bring it'.

The past months has been fueled with rumors and stories behind the scenes.
Wherever it's:
Gravord being booted out of the balance team
Or the ban of Evilspinner
Or their relation with Hazmy
Or departure of Hazmy

And while I kind of understand the need to keep some stories secret, I don't think it help the community as it escalate. People lose faith in the team behind the scene, and people are at each other throat whenever any problem occur.
Secret: Bad, Rumors: Bad
Right ?
Not communicating on the reasons of balance changes is even worst.

And the community (I don't want to say 100% because it's a stupid made up number) share the feeling that some balance changes are questionable.
Or not going in the (their?) right direction.

Now, understand me. The reason I preface this stupid post with dirt sheet is that they goes hand to hand.
If you don't communicate to people for why this or this balance is made they will made it up in their mind.

So what do I suggest ?
More transparency and accountability.
When a balance change is made:
* explain the why it is done
* add the ig name of the person who push the change

Why the name ? Same reason why it was necessary 'way back' then (remember the shady stuff that damage the game and the reputation of the team?). Also, I see people shitting on other people assuming they were the author of the (balance) change.
As said, the community is slowly and surely losing faith in those changes, and it infect the discord, the forum and IG.
How many times do we read order/destro biais ? How many times do we see grown ass man spreading lies, or profiting of such rumors ?

I don't think it is an environment I want to be in, and maybe I'm alone to think that.
But lately the game, the forum and even the discord went more toxic (people calling other 'Bitch', or imply they are retarded, people naming names insulting two people at the same time)

I agree with OP about the part of naming players or dev names to be held accountable for issues. Reason - according to ToS section General Rules and Guidelines #4 do not use your real name to begin with. So everyone here should be using an alias, label, or tag to start with. It is very well and it is righto to use each others alias, label, or tag that they are using in the game and in the forum to identify where a concern came from. And possibly how to fix it. I dont want anyones personal info so you should not be using your real name anywhere on the forum or game.

[Aluviya]

This last patch is a good example of what I see on a daily basis in my job as a software engineer. Developers tend to think they'll do better than the others although they usually won't.

Even big companies can't do patches like this with such confidence; changing everything everywhere. it's obviously impossible to track the actual output of such patch unless you have a huge testing infrastructure.

My only conclusion would be to change completely how they work: make very small patches and track the results on a weekly (or two) basis based on carefully collected metrics NOT feelings. Reveal publicly these metrics and adapt the figures.

The MMO gaming world live on balance changes, the genre struggle since its birth and make it a living as well.

KISS strategy with disclosed metrics would be a major improvements to straighten the communication between ROR teams and the community IMO.

Yeah I think this is so far the best approach. Balancing is a living part of the MMO I absolutely agree with this and I wish the approach here would also be less static as it was in the past.

[Apocaliptico]

"Man, I agree with you, I don't know if everything, ok. But within the RoR team itself there are toxic people who take pleasure in being like that... And one in specific, if someone insinuates their name, they get a BAN on the time."

This is exactly what I talk about with my friends about the balance sheet: On what basis do they decide that this should be changed and that not? We don't understand and we are forced to accept it, because obvious things remain untouchable, when others are changed as if it were a punishment for that class.

Unfortunately this is very bad for the lifespan of the game. It's no secret that other server projects are in their testing stages, others launched and we are seeing every month players here leave and never return.

I'm sad, because I started playing here when there was only T1. I had a great relationship with DEVs at the time who then, for whatever reason, left. Anyway, yes, the community is becoming more toxic every day and the lack of closeness with the RoR team also contributes to this.

I hope for better days.

[normanis]

dont know about ather ppl from balancing team byt some nerfed ib and buffed elf.
some of balance team play more destro than order, noone will ever nerf their clases what they play. it was with guardian white lion (as for example).
juts my pov. they get into balance team , to buff classes what they play. not balance realm. they have their own friends who suggest this and that, wich again lead to shity balance.
if u are balancer u should work for both sides not 1 side/class biased and put softy on rest.