Through The Looking Glass - June 01, 2007

In what capacity is the Tusked One back?

shinpseudo wrote:

In what capacity is the Tusked One back?

I'd assume he's back in the office and is doing what the stereotypical office manager does.....


Nagging Rarebit while asking how good or bad his tie looks like. XD

As long as it involves him working on the game and randomly saying "The time has come!", I don't really care

PS: I am now dubbing Rarebit "The Carpenter"

Hmm... Very short... "Article" you have there. Walrus was gone? Alright. Other than that, have to say it may have been a mercy that it was so short. Past my bedtime.

Sykin wrote:

Hmm... Very short... "Article" you have there. Walrus was gone? Alright. Other than that, have to say it may have been a mercy that it was so short. Past my bedtime.

Unfortunately not a whole heck of a lot to tell but I did want to share some of what went on at the Meet and Greet. Event recaps will resume next week and there is a good possibility that there will be some dev stuff.

I'm gonna give you the straight dope, dude.

All you said was "I was there, there were costumed Star Wars people, it was fun." Sharing what went on would entail at least a paragraph or two of detailed information.

To say these articles are disappointing is an understatement, mostly because none of them really say anything. At the most we hear "marketing is doing something" or "I'm working on a secret project I can't tell you about that has nothing to do with The Matrix Online!" or "You'll get buddy keys eventually."

To make this any sort of usable or reliable article, you need specifics. As it stands, it has no purpose.

Oh, and I'm glad to hear that Walrus is back from wherever he was.

Raijinn wrote:

Sykin wrote:

Hmm... Very short... "Article" you have there. Walrus was gone? Alright. Other than that, have to say it may have been a mercy that it was so short. Past my bedtime.

Unfortunately not a whole heck of a lot to tell but I did want to share some of what went on at the Meet and Greet. Event recaps will resume next week and there is a good possibility that there will be some dev stuff.

I'm gonna give you the straight dope, dude.

All you said was "I was there, there were costumed Star Wars people, it was fun." Sharing what went on would entail at least a paragraph or two of detailed information.

To say these articles are disappointing is an understatement, mostly because none of them really say anything. At the most we hear "marketing is doing something" or "I'm working on a secret project I can't tell you about that has nothing to do with The Matrix Online!" or "You'll get buddy keys eventually."

To make this any sort of usable or reliable article, you need specifics. As it stands, it has no purpose.

Oh, and I'm glad to hear that Walrus is back from wherever he was.

Unfortunately i have to QFT.

I have nothing against Raijinn, i really don't, but all these articles are now is faffle, faffling about that never seems to have any sort of solid information, news, timeframes or indeed overall, point.

I don't know if it's just the writing style, i really dont know what it is, but these don't involve, excite, tease or entertain. At all. For me my mind's response is always the same - Thats nice. *move ons to the forums to see if anything interesting is being discussed*.

I think a resonating point from last thread speaks for itself too - "these used to be the highlight of my mxo week".

As for the unavoidable "gawd mr. negatives" - im not being negative, im just being truthful.

Hmm...At this point I'm thinking of just discontinuing the article, it seems to me that everyone feels it has no place and frankly I don't have any additional information to add to the articles to really make them any more beefy.

So there it is, I may simply just not do them or I may only do them when we have things to discuss, but as it stands right now they will remain in limbo.

Would you be able to say anything about the contests that go on now and then sometimes? Like when the CSR people come in and put disguises on people like you see sometimes! I think it is a really neat surprise thing that maybe not a lot of people know about and would like to!

Hmm...At this point I'm thinking of just discontinuing the article, it seems to me that everyone feels it has no place and frankly I don't have any additional information to add to the articles to really make them any more beefy.

So there it is, I may simply just not do them or I may only do them when we have things to discuss, but as it stands right now they will remain in limbo.

Hmm...At this point I'm thinking of just discontinuing the article, it seems to me that everyone feels it has no place and frankly I don't have any additional information to add to the articles to really make them any more beefy.

So there it is, I may simply just not do them or I may only do them when we have things to discuss, but as it stands right now they will remain in limbo.

Oh I know! I didn't mean announce them, but just maybe something like, good places to hang out at for someone wanting a chance to catch them (even though it could be anywhere,) or maybe what kind of contests they have done before! Or maybe just saying they sometimes happen

Just an idea to try to help whether its good idea or not hehe

Raijinn wrote:

Hmm...At this point I'm thinking of just discontinuing the article, it seems to me that everyone feels it has no place and frankly I don't have any additional information to add to the articles to really make them any more beefy.

So there it is, I may simply just not do them or I may only do them when we have things to discuss, but as it stands right now they will remain in limbo.

I dont think that a good sign just giving up compleatly, Surely you can phone the other office and get the information or what ever? Maybe you need to get rid the looking glass altogether  and just a compleatly new monthly thing. We need a regular article from those on the inside of the game to let us know whats going on. As has been said many a time add community issues into the debate. Walrus often talked about manging us because we're hectic comunity and just simply discontinuing would prove everyone right about your appointment.

Oh I know! I didn't mean announce them, but just maybe something like, good places to hang out at for someone wanting a chance to catch them (even though it could be anywhere,) or maybe what kind of contests they have done before! Or maybe just saying they sometimes happen

Just an idea to try to help whether its good idea or not hehe

I agree there should some kind of coverage on the CSR events.

Whether thats in or out of this article or not.

Perhaps the player of the week/month idea you had going?

Or host some parties in game and do a write up y'know something like that.

Also, I'm looking forward to next weeks since you should have some more info from Walrus to feed us. So hopefully there'll be a bit more =D

*Edit*

You can't win, if you write them people will complain. If you don't, then more will :pp

It is the nature of such things

I agree there should some kind of coverage on the CSR events.

Whether thats in or out of this article or not.

Perhaps the player of the week/month idea you had going?

Or host some parties in game and do a write up y'know something like that.

Also, I'm looking forward to next weeks since you should have some more info from Walrus to feed us. So hopefully there'll be a bit more =D

*Edit*

You can't win, if you write them people will complain. If you don't, then more will :pp

It is the nature of such things

I do agree, part of the problem probably was that Walrus had a lot more information available to him on the whole dev stuff and that the naming of the article probably had people compare your article with his. When really, they are better off looking at yours individually and something different.

So perhaps a new title might help along with some fun extras!

I do agree, part of the problem probably was that Walrus had a lot more information available to him on the whole dev stuff and that the naming of the article probably had people compare your article with his. When really, they are better off looking at yours individually and something different.

So perhaps a new title might help along with some fun extras!

Yasamuu1 wrote:

I do agree, part of the problem probably was that Walrus had a lot more information available to him on the whole dev stuff and that the naming of the article probably had people compare your article with his. When really, they are better off looking at yours individually and something different.

So perhaps a new title might help along with some fun extras!

I think the best thing moving forward will be a fresh new start, new name, and new perspective. This should happen on Friday of this week.

Don't forgot all those names we thought of either...

Beyond The Code

Behind The Code

Beyond The Screen/s

Behind The Screen/s

The Weekly Code Decryption

The Source

Words From The Source

Down The Rabbit Hole

Here In Wonderland...

Meanwhile, In Wonderland

The Real

The Desert Of The Real

Echoes From The Real

Voices From The Real

Living In A Dream World

The Weekly Redpill

For example

I for one always loved Walrus' idea of a centralised article for community stuffs, i was actually quite sad to see it go with the new set up. Maybe having all new activities like the suggested coverage of CSR stuff, discussions currently going on within the community AS WELL AS confrontation of community issues might well make it a worth while article.

Bottom line? Dont be afraid of us, get in the thick of it and report back, simple as.

---

As for a new article, as long as it has actual content, is written in a half interesting way with actual enthuiasm then it might just work.

I for one always loved Walrus' idea of a centralised article for community stuffs, i was actually quite sad to see it go with the new set up. Maybe having all new activities like the suggested coverage of CSR stuff, discussions currently going on within the community AS WELL AS confrontation of community issues might well make it a worth while article.

Bottom line? Dont be afraid of us, get in the thick of it and report back, simple as.

cloudwolf wrote:

---

As for a new article, as long as it has actual content, is written in a half interesting way with actual enthuiasm then it might just work.

I for one always loved Walrus' idea of a centralised article for community stuffs, i was actually quite sad to see it go with the new set up. Maybe having all new activities like the suggested coverage of CSR stuff, discussions currently going on within the community AS WELL AS confrontation of community issues might well make it a worth while article.

Bottom line? Dont be afraid of us, get in the thick of it and report back, simple as.

The article for the most part will be a weekly recap and any other goodies that come up, but those goodies are few and far between at times thus the change in direction.

So exactly the same as it's meant to be now?

I think you must've misunderstood what the other sides were then... they were always meant to be a recap. A recap of the week in MxO, in the community. What was discussed, asked, debated. What the team was up to, what was going on in the world of the matrix as well as out there in the real world.

We're not asking for megaz0mg dev news (even though thats obviously nice too) we're asking for some sort of solid commitment to a community and whats going on within that community. CRM. Clues in the name.

From what i've seen you seem to handle it plenty well over in PS. At least for me i feel our articles have always been an afterthought to blow us off for another week.

Raijinn wrote:

cloudwolf wrote:

---

As for a new article, as long as it has actual content, is written in a half interesting way with actual enthuiasm then it might just work.

I for one always loved Walrus' idea of a centralised article for community stuffs, i was actually quite sad to see it go with the new set up. Maybe having all new activities like the suggested coverage of CSR stuff, discussions currently going on within the community AS WELL AS confrontation of community issues might well make it a worth while article.

Bottom line? Dont be afraid of us, get in the thick of it and report back, simple as.

The article for the most part will be a weekly recap and any other goodies that come up, but those goodies are few and far between at times thus the change in direction.

So exactly the same as it's meant to be now?

I think you must've misunderstood what the other sides were then... they were always meant to be a recap. A recap of the week in MxO, in the community. What was discussed, asked, debated. What the team was up to, what was going on in the world of the matrix as well as out there in the real world.

We're not asking for megaz0mg dev news (even though thats obviously nice too) we're asking for some sort of solid commitment to a community and whats going on within that community. CRM. Clues in the name.

From what i've seen you seem to handle it plenty well over in PS. At least for me i feel our articles have always been an afterthought to blow us off for another week.

cloudwolf wrote:

Raijinn wrote:

cloudwolf wrote:

---

As for a new article, as long as it has actual content, is written in a half interesting way with actual enthuiasm then it might just work.

I for one always loved Walrus' idea of a centralised article for community stuffs, i was actually quite sad to see it go with the new set up. Maybe having all new activities like the suggested coverage of CSR stuff, discussions currently going on within the community AS WELL AS confrontation of community issues might well make it a worth while article.

Bottom line? Dont be afraid of us, get in the thick of it and report back, simple as.

The article for the most part will be a weekly recap and any other goodies that come up, but those goodies are few and far between at times thus the change in direction.

So exactly the same as it's meant to be now?

I think you must've misunderstood what the other sides were then... they were always meant to be a recap. A recap of the week in MxO, in the community. What was discussed, asked, debated. What the team was up to, what was going on in the world of the matrix as well as out there in the real world.

We're not asking for megaz0mg dev news (even though thats obviously nice too) we're asking for some sort of solid commitment to a community and whats going on within that community. CRM. Clues in the name.

From what i've seen you seem to handle it plenty well over in PS. At least for me i feel our articles have always been an afterthought to blow us off for another week.

So, yeah I understand your point of view. With MxO I'm going to try to have everything that went on during the week (events, et al)  in this weekly recap. I really am not going to have much dev stuff to discuss most of the time because the majority of it  (for now) is storyline things and storyline stuff is better as teasers closer to their launch date than anything.

If I hear of something juicy I can share, I do, but honestly there just hasn't been much to share as of late.

I wonder why *glares at soe's "commitment" to the game*

I pray you're trying to do something behind the scenes about that too, that you cant talk about. A game should never reach the point where movements are being made to try and make their owners take half decent care of them.

I recently read smed's pretty little posting on the new Vanguard boards since the acquisition, a dev team the same size of EQ2? Planned larger expansions? We never got any of it and i for one am p1ssed at how differently they're treating that to essentionally a similar situation that happened over here.

*runs into thread... again. Drops a data packet of utmost importance*

Khr0n1k wrote:

Raijinn wrote:

As a community, we're all in this together. One of the major things that I see here with the MxO community is that they love the game, what it stands for, and more importantly how much they care for their community. I think it's safe to say that we have one of the most dedicated communities right here in MxO.

I'm glad to see how passionate everyone is about their feelings, yes they do have a place here on the forums as long as it's not flaming, disrupting, or in bad taste.

Remember I'm here to listen to everyone, have some fun, do things for and with the community, but most of all we're in this together so lets make it so that everyone here can have a great time.

Alright I have some suggestions that are in need and overdue and I am sure most of the community agrees with some or all of these.
-Make a guide for the game to put where the faded out Guide button is
-Get the web team to make the pvp rankings based off of CQ for the site that Rarebit was wanting to get done
-More general content for the website this could include more wallpaper, videos, interesting articles and other random website content.
-Get the web team to work on our site more or even at all.
-I don't know if this is part of your job, but get Marketing to work on this game a little more, the community feels like we are the unwanted game for SOE just so they could get the rights to the DC MMO, this may be true but if you guys are going to run the game you need to make it more worthwhile for you. It has taken a really long time for MxO to be integrated more and more into the SOE community. On the sony sites the random banners and images are mostly fillled with EQ and PS characters and images and slowly MxO images are being thrown in there (Example: http://www.soepress.com/release.asp?i=97 the banner on top of this page) get the game fill more part of the overall SOE community. Also get us some ads on sites, news for big name game sites, maybe even little articles in magazines anything is better than nothing, get us some contests, get the word out about the game!
-There are a ton of more things you could do but I am sure this is enough to get you started

Great Ideas there mate. I've jotted them down to evaluate. 

I wonder why *glares at soe's "commitment" to the game*

I pray you're trying to do something behind the scenes about that too, that you cant talk about. A game should never reach the point where movements are being made to try and make their owners take half decent care of them.

I recently read smed's pretty little posting on the new Vanguard boards since the acquisition, a dev team the same size of EQ2? Planned larger expansions? We never got any of it and i for one am p1ssed at how differently they're treating that to essentionally a similar situation that happened over here.

Raijinn wrote:

cloudwolf wrote:

I recently read smed's pretty little posting on the new Vanguard boards since the acquisition, a dev team the same size of EQ2? Planned larger expansions? We never got any of it and i for one am p1ssed at how differently they're treating that to essentionally a similar situation that happened over here.

I believe moving forward a "Weekly Review" article is something that is possible featuring everything that's gone on and possibly some peeks into what's to come but it's something that with the title the expectations will be of a review but there may be some added pizzaz.

What I am doing is trying to help facilitate players events and focus on what a fantastic community MxO has. I'm willing to hear out any ideas that the community can think of to help promote what goes on in MxO. There is no way I would question the commitment of the MxO community, it's fiercely passionate about the game and what it stands for and I'm a supporter of what everyone in that community wants to do (except for breaking the TOS in one way or another).

I really think MxO has crossed a threshold whereby you can say that now 99% of the players are 100% commited to this game.  The fly-by-nights are long gone, and even the most obnoxious anti-RP players are behaving themselves exceptionally well during live events, for example.  I mean, we are all such good loyal citizens now, does anyone actually get banned anymore?  

Really, I'm glad you are aware of how intensely loyal to the game we are.  Granted, we don't have 8 million players but with this game it is COMPLETELY quality over quantity.  I really don't believe there is any other MMO out there with this amount of loyalty and respect from their player base.

I like Nicks' idea of the CSR event write-ups.

Why not do a "Live Event" style writeup like what Rarebit does?  Have a few pictures of people running around looking like helicopters and add a few words in describing the event.  Also, definately keep up with the story summaries.  I loved those.

~Fen

I really think MxO has crossed a threshold whereby you can say that now 99% of the players are 100% commited to this game.  The fly-by-nights are long gone, and even the most obnoxious anti-RP players are behaving themselves exceptionally well during live events, for example.  I mean, we are all such good loyal citizens now, does anyone actually get banned anymore?  

Really, I'm glad you are aware of how intensely loyal to the game we are.  Granted, we don't have 8 million players but with this game it is COMPLETELY quality over quantity.  I really don't believe there is any other MMO out there with this amount of loyalty and respect from their player base.

cloudwolf wrote:

I wonder why *glares at soe's "commitment" to the game*

I pray you're trying to do something behind the scenes about that too, that you cant talk about. A game should never reach the point where movements are being made to try and make their owners take half decent care of them.

I recently read smed's pretty little posting on the new Vanguard boards since the acquisition, a dev team the same size of EQ2? Planned larger expansions? We never got any of it and i for one am p1ssed at how differently they're treating that to essentionally a similar situation that happened over here.

What I am doing is trying to help facilitate players events and focus on what a fantastic community MxO has. I'm willing to hear out any ideas that the community can think of to help promote what goes on in MxO. There is no way I would question the commitment of the MxO community, it's fiercely passionate about the game and what it stands for and I'm a supporter of what everyone in that community wants to do (except for breaking the TOS in one way or another).

There are some things that are being done behind the scenes as far as future events and promos but I can't really spoil them until we get closer to their launch date. It's better to know that we're 100% go on an event/promotion than saying that we may have one and not getting it after all is said and done. You kind of run into a slippery slope with that but it's best to promise something and make sure that you follow through on it rather than not.

I will continue to do what I do -- promote the community and everything that it stands for. Again if anyone has any ideas on what they would like to see I'll at the very least hear it out, I am, after all, here for you.

Look, that's all we are asking here. We get that you are trying, and most of us understand it is a developmental process. No one starts out perfect.

Cover the good and bad that is going on in the community. Especially the bad; things that we are griping about on these forums need to be addressed and you are the only guy who can do that. When there is an ongoing problem during the week, such as too many flaming threads in the community boards getting locked by mods, then that needs to be discussed. If something needs attention by the mods, we need you to make sure that is happening, and then you can report on it in the article.

With regard to the development of the game, I understand that it is difficult to get the information. But you ask, every week, 'cause those guys are always working on something (and if they are not, then that is news, too, like "so and so's on vacation this week". We want to hear about that stuff, no matter how small or trivial it may seem. If they don't give you anything, well, hover. If that doesn't get you anything, beat it out of them! (I keed, I keed. . . .but only a little, hehe). If you have something small for three weeks running, and then something really big, well, that's how this article used to blow us away.

Nobody expects perfection, Raij. No one wants you to be Wally Jr. But we do want the story, man! No reporter worth reading ever sat back and waited for the story to land on his desk. Not implying that you don't work for it, but just giving you something to think about.

Changing direction on you, can the "Links" page be updated with player faction sites?

Thanks for the hard work.