The Time Has Come.

Our beloved Walrus stepped down on April 2, 2007 as the Community Relations Manager to better focus on Producing the Matrix Online and The Agency. Every week before he stepped down (for the most part), he would write a Producer's Letter, of sorts, entitled "The Other Side of the Looking Glass". In these articles, he would provide us oysters of information that kept us in the loop on what was going on in the developmental realm of the Matrix Online. It was great. Coupled with the Ask a Dev thread, the Matrix Online Community was one of the most well informed games because we were in constant connection to our Developers and Producer. Very rarely, we could complain about not knowing about something outside of the storyline realm. While that may take the fun out of the little stuff that we find in each patch, it gave us a the knowledge that the game was continually being worked on to the extent that the Developers could.

Now, however, things have changed. We do not get development tid-bits every day from Rarebit or weekly updates from Walrus about the state of the game. For a while, I was alright with that. It was fun looking through the patch notes, not anticipating anything. I wasn't setting myself up for any form of disappointment, either. I could be whole-heartedly surprised at what I saw (or did not see) in the patch notes. I began to realize, though, that I do not like not being in the loop. I do not like not knowing that something amazing is going to be developed. The last I've heard, as I'm sure it's the same for many of you, is the information garnered from Walrus and Rarebit at Fan Faire. None of that information we were told was very conclusive, either.

Now, I realize that Walrus is working a lot (he hasn't even logged onto the Forums since early August), but he set a standard for himself way back on November 17, 2006, when he defined "newsworthiness." Remember that? We complained the week before about his previous OSOTLG. He had made a huge deal about the /afk command, and we thought it was ridiculous that he made such a big deal about it. In his response in the November 17th issue, he indicated how lucky we were, as The Matrix Online, to be getting a Producer's Letter once a week, even though "most other games get that once a month or, more likely, once a quarter. " Needless to say, in one week, it will have been six months to the day that we will have not had a Producer's Letter. Last I checked, six months is not a quarter. We should have received a Producer's Letter two months ago.

In his announcement that Raijinn would be taking over his position as CRM, he indicated that "this is far from the last time you'll hear from me." Furthermore, he even noted that "In {his} continuing role as producer for MxO, {Walrus was} sure {Raijinn}'ll be bugging me for producer letters and other development content, as all good community relations managers do." In no way has this been done. In no way do we know what is going on in the Matrix Online's Development. Both Walrus and Raijinn have not fully kept us in the loop.

On August 31st, 2007, things looked up. The Matrix Online Development team was scheduled to have a meeting the following week to "hash out a bunch of upcoming things." I immediately thought that Walrus would be writing us a huge Producer's Letter, and he would have only been a month late. When I asked about it in the "Week in Review" discussion thread, Raijinn simply noted that the team could only reveal developmental ideas, not storyline ideas. In no way did he say that he was going to ask Walrus to write a Producer's Letter. I grew worried because it didn't sound like he asked Walrus to write one. No Week in Review came for the next week. No new information on a Producer's Letter.

There is still no new information on a Producer's Letter, and the developmental meeting happened over two weeks ago. I promised that I would make a thread if we did not have one, and here it is.

We were promised a Producer's Letter. The Matrix Online Community can make itself heard more than any other community that I have ever been a part of.

I, for one, want a Producer's Letter from Walrus. I, for one, want to know what is going on in the Matrix!

(In no way is this meant to start a flame fest. Please do not turn it into one.)

Skull101 wrote:

They would rather let Action speak louder then words.

In the case of Raijinn, there isn't any action.

As for the Devs, Rarebit has been keeping us in the loop, and Walrus used to have time. But the main complaint, as you'd gather if you read this thread, has swung away from the request for development information and onto the request for certain people to do their jobs. We're not asking them to do anything they're not supposed to be doing.

Hmm...I've been watching this from the outside for a little over a month...and I'll just say, the situation looks really bad to anyone that would want to be joining the game right now.

Even if he is working hard on the outside, he still makes random comments on f@h sometimes and on other off-topic stuff. He can't post a little blurp in here telling everyone that he's busy with something?

MotorZ wrote:

Hmm...I've been watching this from the outside for a little over a month...and I'll just say, the situation looks really bad to anyone that would want to be joining the game right now.

Even if he is working hard on the outside, he still makes random comments on f@h sometimes and on other off-topic stuff. He can't post a little blurp in here telling everyone that he's busy with something?

Well, even if he did, currently he's busy in San Diego without power due to the fires. But I fully expect a ANYTHING when he gets back.

But please, let's not turn this discussion into a "fate of MxO" thread. It's redundant.

I will keep repeating myself, even to the point of redundancy (of course, not to the point of spam).

It has been 2 months almost to the day that we have not had a single update from Raijinn. I expect answers. And if not answers, then I expect you to start doing your job, and prove me wrong that you are able to handle the job.

I say we keep the thread active, though I'm hesitant to press the matter while the San Diego offices are still experiencing difficulties.

Personally I hope that he is doing something productive that he truly can't talk about. Perhaps he has to help with Algorithm:Black and that consumes his MxO time, or is trying to deal with marketing to let us see Fan Faire questions, etc. Still, by this next week, those fires should be pretty much just a memory (unless his house has sustained damage, in which further absence would be excused), and he should have had time to think of what to tell us.

Fight for what you want and never give up

Raijinn is back in the office.

Not like much will change.

Not that I'm not saying they can't. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he'll try.

Please, try hard Raijinn. Show us that you've changed... and maybe I'll stop keeping this thread active.

Oh, and by the way, almost two months to the day that we haven't heard anything from Raijinn.

lastbesthope wrote:

Fight for what you want and never give up

You're a man after my own heart LBH.

To be honest, if I had the funds to, I would be more than willing to drive to San Diego and giving Raijinn this thread directly to his face. That's probably the only way he'll respond.

Folks,

I realize that a good amount of the problem stems from the lack of information and we can only communicate to the community what we know of and what isn't storyline based. As of right now there isn't a whole lot of news that I can share with the community that isn't storyline based. Also we have been pushing for a producer's letter but it hasn't come about just yet, however I'm certain that it'll come to fruition eventually.