More Communication between Admins/Devs and Players
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More Communication between Admins/Devs and Players
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Posted 2022-05-05 12:59:31
Without even an iota of what to expect about the upcoming site maintenance, users are already speculating about what it could be, and naturally getting their hopes up. Downtime for site maintenance isn't a common occurrence, so it's easy to think this will be something big. So when it's a small tweak to a non-essential feature, or something the majority of the players won't use (calling it right now - like mod and admin tools for groups), the people hoping for an event or big gameplay update are going to be disappointed. Letting us know what to expect next would have many benefits, including tempering expectations of the playerbase and giving us something to focus our excitement on. It would barely need to be extra effort at all! There is already a news post, so even something tiny, like "We are scheduling a small downtime to roll out some of the pending group updates that we mentioned in Development Update #17!" would be a welcome addition. Or something like, "Get excited for some small hunting changes we talked about in Development Update #16!" would let us know what to expect so speculation doesn't run rampant. Being left in the dark just... doesn't feel good. I remember a past outcry when a feature was changed without so much as a site announcement or notification. People were getting riled up about it, but then an admin stepped in to give their side of the story and let everyone know what was going on. We immediately calmed down and thanked Kitty for their time and effort, and after that it was easy to come to a mutual understanding. If that sort of open communication was more commonplace, it would prevent any hard feelings before they even start. Another memorable time where the vague promise of an update was announced happened during the game's one year anniversary. There was a red banner at the top of the site and a note at the top of the chatbox saying they will post an update "soon."  Turns out that "soon" was about 24 hours later, and during that time everyone was going crazy thinking up what the new development update could be. It was raffles, which was nice, but probably not what most people were thinking about because it was just one thing in the long list of promised updates and new features that we've had to scrape together from previous polls and announcements: - Lunar decor X - New enemies - Full yearly, month-long event X - Pack relationship/personalities - Talent trees - More minigames - Explore expansion X - Raccoon Wares decor wave (X?) - Seasonal biome-exclusive decors - Clans X - New Pose X - New lethal - Natural looking new mark - New craftable base - Animal masks X - Raven encounters - Custom Decor X - Raffles X - Raffle Studs X - Karma - Pup and Adol training X - Enclave X - Enclave currency/shop - Bookmarks X - Wishlist - Nesting pose - New scars, and ways to get them - New body ornament decors - Henna markings (beyond panda) - Ambience decor - New eyes - Hunting Overhaul - More group features - Group themed decor The resulting disappointment in chat led to this official message: (read top to bottom, I pasted it together)  But chat is fleeting and impermanent, and a lot of people just didn't see that message or happen to be online during that time, which is really unfortunate. So this isn't a new qualm or surprising realization. None or transient communication has been commonplace, but I am urging the admins to reconsider this longheld belief. Telling us what is currently in the works or dropping little teasers here and there on social media would be really appreciated! Any communication is better than nothing. Plus, official updates generate buzz about the site and could encourage people to play more often to gear up for the new feature. Radio silence for weeks at a time makes it easier for Wolvden to simply fall off people's radars, and it can be a hard hurdle to overcome if you've missed a few updates and want to log in, but think you'll be too far behind. It's true that deciding on teasers and crafting social media posts can take time out of the day that admins could be spending doing "more important" things. But that isn't even what I am asking for - just a small text announcement would be enough, minimal effort required. Of course, if they wanted to put out another official teaser like the last time, I would be even happier! Pre-launch the official Tumblr was so active - that's actually how I found out about this site. What happened? The last true hint at what's to come, posted before the actual update, was for the enclave and dark mode. Nearly a year ago. I also understand that if something was promised and not delivered it could be even more of a disappointment, so keeping the teasers general or releasing them only after the feature is done and ready to be rolled out seems logical. Going back to the recent announcement of site downtime - they should already absolutely know what changes are going to happen. Why keep us in the dark about it? It's clear that the team is working hard on this website and are listening to their players, like the call for feedback on feeding/care changes or what we want to see with groups. And it's really great to see the suggestions put into practice, like the remnant system and the option to call your group a clan, guild, or lodge, which were popular suggestions. But with no communication, it's sometimes hard to remember that. |
 Zea #27549 |
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Posted 2022-05-05 18:45:50
one thing i would like to see added is more non lethal mutations for both primal and secondary mutations. |
 magicwhitewolf #25645 |
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Posted 2022-07-16 11:24:32
Best case scenario we have a set date every month to expect a developmental update on - exactly as Lioden does. This may not be too hard to do because dev updates do seems to be pretty consistently sometime at the end of a month but this could also put an unwanted time crunch on them being Wolvden is a new-ish game and still has a lot of kinks to work out. Personally I like a mix of the schedule and the Tumblr idea. Make it concrete that we get one dev update a month and a week or so before they are to launch we get a teaser post with an image, a riddle, a phrase, SOMETHING to give players A. Knowledge the update is coming And B. Area to speculate and get excited for what is to come. Heck, I remember and loved the art streams Xylax did and coding stream (Abbey, I believe it was) did during beta. These were always a fun way to give people speculation as to what is to come and allow devs to communicate with everyone. It'd be fun to see the occasional dev stream again. As Web mentioned this will also allow for further advertising of Wolvden being their social media would be more popular and active when updates are announced BEFORE their release and not after. |
 Lily (GH!) #3016 |
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Posted 2022-07-16 19:38:08
A game that ive seen execute this amazingly is called Empires Of The Undergrowth, their game has been in early access for 5 years and updates are extremely slow (at most 1 update a month) with their story related update having been stalled back for years, normally you'd expect such a project to be in shambles on their communitys end, but their community isnt uneasy at all, theyre excited for new updates, chatting and patiently waiting for it. Why? Because the devs communicate directly to their community through discord, they post random screenshots of things theyre currently working on(with and without context), they chat with their players directly at times to get opinions/ just hang with their community time to time, people have a rough idea on what is happening and that keeps them holding on Players are far more patient than one would think, though there is a caveat. We players do not like to be left in the dark, we become impatient when left in the dark, even the slightest perception of what goes behind the curtains would stop us from getting impatient because we are able to understand the situation. devs working on lioden? thats fair we dont expect to be prioritised. staff are on holiday? sure we're all human and need breaks too. Taking a break from working on feature X so you can do something else that seems more important? Oki doki we can wait longer for that thing |
 Derpy #6646 |
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Posted 2024-06-23 00:11:42
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 ๐๐Caelumฮฮ๐๐ #65437 |