Middle Earth PBM Games
2nd February 2008, 01:15 PM
>I find the map, etc. discussion to be an interesting illustration of
>the essential conservatism of PBEM gamers. *Any* change that the GMs
>make will be criticized; of course, it doesn't follow that any change is
>actually good :)
Yes we've found that. As Gavin said after a year most people get used to
the changes - but we want to make those changes reasonable, timely and
good. Note criticism is useful for us - I don't personally enjoy being
attacked (who does?) but that goes with the territory and I have a thick
skin. :-)
>One flaw of forums like this is that they tend to give inordinate
>weight to a relatively small number of folks who feel strongly about
>something.
I generally make sure I weight such opinions. I get a few players who are
vocal in their opinions and lots of that information is useful and we act
on it.
I also compare it to politics and other marketing subjects - basically if
you get it right very little comment, if you get it wrong lots of comments.
>It *might* be worth having Harly do a survey of their gamers - say,
>selecting 1/10 of the players at random and offering them a carrot
>like a free turn in exchange for some detailed feedback on recent changes.
Unfortunately we can't afford to pay a free turn for that
information. Most players who do anything for us (programs, reviews etc)
do so for much under the market cost in the "real" world.
>I would think that this would be handy for Harly, and having some hard
>data on what the typical users like/dislike would quantify some of the
>objections, etc.
We've generally got a good feel for what players want and ask for feedback
a lot. We are happy to listen to critique (whether praise or
otherwise). If we've got it right then that's useful to know, if we've got
it wrong that's also useful to know. For most people it will be somewhere
inbetween most of the time (we actually find that those are overtly
praising to us have a tendency to drop out after a year - too keen! - and
those who are more critical have a personality more able to take knocks and
changes in lifestyle so stick with us!)
We've basically hovered around 60 games running concurrently (was
increasing until we got clobbered by tax and that hit our player base, and
after that it's been climbing again - compare that with GSI and Allsorts
who had a big decrease in players over a similar period - 25% over 4 years).
>Personally, I feel that the payoff for something like Palantir in
>terms of the improved quality of play for typical teams is quite high,
That's the hope.
>and color is welcome (and, if anything, overdue).
Mostly positive feedback on this. We've reduced the size of the file (now
60k on average cf 40k before) and will work on the printing out for b&w
(hopefully later this week) so that it is clearer and then I feel that it
would have dealt with most of the problems this has thrown up.
>But it would be quite interesting to see what the overall base feels about
>this.
Yes - if anyone would want to do a questionnaire that we can print in Bree
that would be fun and useful. :-) Personally I find the way people
interact and approaches to diplomacy fascinating... :-)
Clint
>the essential conservatism of PBEM gamers. *Any* change that the GMs
>make will be criticized; of course, it doesn't follow that any change is
>actually good :)
Yes we've found that. As Gavin said after a year most people get used to
the changes - but we want to make those changes reasonable, timely and
good. Note criticism is useful for us - I don't personally enjoy being
attacked (who does?) but that goes with the territory and I have a thick
skin. :-)
>One flaw of forums like this is that they tend to give inordinate
>weight to a relatively small number of folks who feel strongly about
>something.
I generally make sure I weight such opinions. I get a few players who are
vocal in their opinions and lots of that information is useful and we act
on it.
I also compare it to politics and other marketing subjects - basically if
you get it right very little comment, if you get it wrong lots of comments.
>It *might* be worth having Harly do a survey of their gamers - say,
>selecting 1/10 of the players at random and offering them a carrot
>like a free turn in exchange for some detailed feedback on recent changes.
Unfortunately we can't afford to pay a free turn for that
information. Most players who do anything for us (programs, reviews etc)
do so for much under the market cost in the "real" world.
>I would think that this would be handy for Harly, and having some hard
>data on what the typical users like/dislike would quantify some of the
>objections, etc.
We've generally got a good feel for what players want and ask for feedback
a lot. We are happy to listen to critique (whether praise or
otherwise). If we've got it right then that's useful to know, if we've got
it wrong that's also useful to know. For most people it will be somewhere
inbetween most of the time (we actually find that those are overtly
praising to us have a tendency to drop out after a year - too keen! - and
those who are more critical have a personality more able to take knocks and
changes in lifestyle so stick with us!)
We've basically hovered around 60 games running concurrently (was
increasing until we got clobbered by tax and that hit our player base, and
after that it's been climbing again - compare that with GSI and Allsorts
who had a big decrease in players over a similar period - 25% over 4 years).
>Personally, I feel that the payoff for something like Palantir in
>terms of the improved quality of play for typical teams is quite high,
That's the hope.
>and color is welcome (and, if anything, overdue).
Mostly positive feedback on this. We've reduced the size of the file (now
60k on average cf 40k before) and will work on the printing out for b&w
(hopefully later this week) so that it is clearer and then I feel that it
would have dealt with most of the problems this has thrown up.
>But it would be quite interesting to see what the overall base feels about
>this.
Yes - if anyone would want to do a questionnaire that we can print in Bree
that would be fun and useful. :-) Personally I find the way people
interact and approaches to diplomacy fascinating... :-)
Clint