Well, more of an implied question regarding who/how better to communicate.
"It’s very difficult to find the balance between too little and too much information. If anyone has any recommendations or examples of who has done it well throughout history, please pass it on."
I dont have a suggestion of a person, but I do have some suggestions. Lets start with the uo.com website and the Herald. There was a reason it had sections before. Ease of communication. It has since been changed to a "blog" format, because that was what Sanya preferred. The problem is, Sanya was more "chatty" than Jeremy is. That isnt a criticism of Jeremy, it is a simple fact. Jeremy is good at gathering information and transferring it to the correct people. She isnt real great at keeping up a running dialogue. I have several suggestions on this topic.
1 - Bring back the "In Concept" and "In Development" things. Add in an "In QA". Now, I do not suggest that everything be laid out there for the world to see. I suggest picking 2 or 3 things that qualify and post them up.
"In Concept" would have a statement "These are things we are talking about, might like customer feedback on, but they are NOT in development and are NOT promised to become reality."
"In Development" would have 2-3 things that are being prepared for the next 1
-2 publishes. A good example of this would be "New Plants" and "Tenth Year Vet Rewards" as well as "Halloween Content" or "Christmas Gifts" and "Publish 55 Live Content".
"In QA" would literally be a few snippets from the upcoming patch/publish. You could simply move the "In Development" things up to "In QA" so people can see that the process IS moving.
2 - Change the Five on Friday to the Weekly News. Let it follow the format of this weeks FoF (08/29/08). QA Requests, Townhall News (if applicable), Fansite News & In Game Events, and What's To Come.
Add in a section for Weekly Developer Update. Use this section of the "FoF" to get a little blurb from at least one developer. Something like "Leurocian says: I am busy this week working on the artwork for the new plants" or "Sakkarah say: This is the down-low on the new plant system ...."
Give it its own section or link on the front page so that it is easily referenced.
3 - Instead of gathering up questions to answer once a week, Jeremy can use the "blog style" Herald to answer them as she gets the answers. That means more posts on uo.com more often and more reason for people to go there. It also means a better feeling of communication.
If Jeremy gets a question like "What do I do if I am not happy with a GM's actions" then she knows the answer right away and can post it immediately that day. If she gets a question like "What is the formula for firebreath damage" she can shoot off an e-mail for some code diving (or do the code diving herself, as I hear she is learning to do) and post the answer as soon as she has it.
It would be a good place to address community concerns. "We banned 150 accounts yesterday for duping or being in posession of unusual amounts of duped items" as well as "Guest Post from the Producer"
She can also add in things like "We noticed something strange when looking for this, so we are gonna take a closer look." If she made an effort to post something at least three times a week - even if it is just "Well, the live team is in Japan this week training their counterparts in ... (whatever) and enjoying sushi". If it is going to be a blog-style Herald, then use it in a blog style! It would also be the obvious place to announce any shard or server issues.
4 - Known Bugs. Put a running list on the website. Obviously exploits and dupes could not be put there, but things like "Joining the Thieves Guild" and "Quiver's that hold too many arrows". Add a link going to this section on the Log In page! Not everyone reads the fansites ....
5 - Instead of having the Live Events as a banner at the top of the page (which alot don't realize is even clickable), give it an obvious link or section. Then, when Draconi updates it, Jeremy can say so in the Herald.
A couple other things. Instead of hearing from the various people who are above Jeremy and the Developers once a quarter or less, you guys need to come up with something to say at least once a month, and have it put in the Herald. "Cal's Month In Review" and "What Is To Come" would be fine. You know "This month we have had the release of Publish XX and the Mad Mage event. Our team is still hard at work on moving the event forward and we are very excited about the next publish. We got some great ideas from the community and the Japanese team we are investigating. The art team is busy fixing the male paperdoll for KR ..." and so on. In other words ... TALK TO US!
Last, can we PLEASE have a list of the current developers and team easily accessable and viewable?! When the list changes, change the list!
(And Jeremy, I know you are here! I don't have an e-mail address for Mr. Crowner, so if you would be so kind as to pass a link on to him ...)
"It’s very difficult to find the balance between too little and too much information. If anyone has any recommendations or examples of who has done it well throughout history, please pass it on."
I dont have a suggestion of a person, but I do have some suggestions. Lets start with the uo.com website and the Herald. There was a reason it had sections before. Ease of communication. It has since been changed to a "blog" format, because that was what Sanya preferred. The problem is, Sanya was more "chatty" than Jeremy is. That isnt a criticism of Jeremy, it is a simple fact. Jeremy is good at gathering information and transferring it to the correct people. She isnt real great at keeping up a running dialogue. I have several suggestions on this topic.
1 - Bring back the "In Concept" and "In Development" things. Add in an "In QA". Now, I do not suggest that everything be laid out there for the world to see. I suggest picking 2 or 3 things that qualify and post them up.
"In Concept" would have a statement "These are things we are talking about, might like customer feedback on, but they are NOT in development and are NOT promised to become reality."
"In Development" would have 2-3 things that are being prepared for the next 1
-2 publishes. A good example of this would be "New Plants" and "Tenth Year Vet Rewards" as well as "Halloween Content" or "Christmas Gifts" and "Publish 55 Live Content".
"In QA" would literally be a few snippets from the upcoming patch/publish. You could simply move the "In Development" things up to "In QA" so people can see that the process IS moving.
2 - Change the Five on Friday to the Weekly News. Let it follow the format of this weeks FoF (08/29/08). QA Requests, Townhall News (if applicable), Fansite News & In Game Events, and What's To Come.
Add in a section for Weekly Developer Update. Use this section of the "FoF" to get a little blurb from at least one developer. Something like "Leurocian says: I am busy this week working on the artwork for the new plants" or "Sakkarah say: This is the down-low on the new plant system ...."
Give it its own section or link on the front page so that it is easily referenced.
3 - Instead of gathering up questions to answer once a week, Jeremy can use the "blog style" Herald to answer them as she gets the answers. That means more posts on uo.com more often and more reason for people to go there. It also means a better feeling of communication.
If Jeremy gets a question like "What do I do if I am not happy with a GM's actions" then she knows the answer right away and can post it immediately that day. If she gets a question like "What is the formula for firebreath damage" she can shoot off an e-mail for some code diving (or do the code diving herself, as I hear she is learning to do) and post the answer as soon as she has it.
It would be a good place to address community concerns. "We banned 150 accounts yesterday for duping or being in posession of unusual amounts of duped items" as well as "Guest Post from the Producer"
She can also add in things like "We noticed something strange when looking for this, so we are gonna take a closer look." If she made an effort to post something at least three times a week - even if it is just "Well, the live team is in Japan this week training their counterparts in ... (whatever) and enjoying sushi". If it is going to be a blog-style Herald, then use it in a blog style! It would also be the obvious place to announce any shard or server issues.
4 - Known Bugs. Put a running list on the website. Obviously exploits and dupes could not be put there, but things like "Joining the Thieves Guild" and "Quiver's that hold too many arrows". Add a link going to this section on the Log In page! Not everyone reads the fansites ....
5 - Instead of having the Live Events as a banner at the top of the page (which alot don't realize is even clickable), give it an obvious link or section. Then, when Draconi updates it, Jeremy can say so in the Herald.
A couple other things. Instead of hearing from the various people who are above Jeremy and the Developers once a quarter or less, you guys need to come up with something to say at least once a month, and have it put in the Herald. "Cal's Month In Review" and "What Is To Come" would be fine. You know "This month we have had the release of Publish XX and the Mad Mage event. Our team is still hard at work on moving the event forward and we are very excited about the next publish. We got some great ideas from the community and the Japanese team we are investigating. The art team is busy fixing the male paperdoll for KR ..." and so on. In other words ... TALK TO US!
Last, can we PLEASE have a list of the current developers and team easily accessable and viewable?! When the list changes, change the list!
(And Jeremy, I know you are here! I don't have an e-mail address for Mr. Crowner, so if you would be so kind as to pass a link on to him ...)
