Next patch?

Fasting today to feast next week sounds awesome to me, too. Still, can't please 'em all.

But I stand by what I said in the 1.0.10 patch thread: Gaslamp gives Quality Customer Service. Kazeto is probably right- asking for new changes after the patch goes live will handle that feature creep problem nicely, but that level of attention to the community is something special.

 

I recognise that I'm not representative either, but as someone playing on linux amd64 who's gotten into the habit of saving every couple of rooms so as to not lose much to the next crash, I think there's something to be said for pushing out fixes and updates quickly

 

Nicholas, How do you all feel about a Gaslamp Community Spokesperson? Someone who does much of what Daynab does now, but be allowed to post/compile the info from the various communication outlets. I'm sure if you all indicated you would want this, one or more of your IRC'rs would be interested.

Daynab. I know and appreciate you already do a lot and have time constraints as well. My nomination is half serious and half a ribbing. You do seem to have the dev's ear(s) and you seem to check the various info outlets. So you are an obvious choice, if this is something the Devs want to persue. I'm thinking someone much like Gstaff on the Bethesda forums, for those who are familiar with his voice there.

Also, keep in mind that after the .10 uber awsomeness patch, the devs will only be praised thereafter.
All will forget how late it is and compliment the devs for listening to the community and the feature creep that ensued. There might be one or two whingers/squeaky wheels for a bit, but they will be properly ignored by the rest of us. By time patch .12 or the next DLC comes around, the devs will only be receiving praise on the current .10 release issue.

.02
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R.E. the communications and stuff - I've got an idea. Use the blog as the central base. It's your website, and you can always point people towards it. That should be your priority, IMHO. If you say things over Twitter or the forums that you feel appropriate to point out, perhaps do a summary at the end of each week. If nothing else, the summary could just say you guys are all okay and that progress on X, Y and Z is going A-OK.

It's a minor change that shouldn't require a lot of effort, and keeping the feedback in the familcomments will be a more reliable and time-friendly way of monitoring it - it's there on your blog, it's not lost to the semi-unfriendly interface of Twitter nor anything else. Use what you've got, but use Twitter et al to bolster that. But your blog, IMHO, should be your primary method of communicating to your fans. It's the first place some people will look.

Bethesda, for example, do things exclusively on their Twitter feed but largely link back to their blog. Their problem is that they state important things (release dates, status updates, information) in their comments and don't put it into the blog itself. That's a pain for customers, and I'm sure there's a number who don't know that they even reply to comments.

 

I want one of those Automatic Programmer Whipping Devices. Where do I get it?

 

I found one for you.

 

It's the default equipment of anyone who works in IT and takes deadlines with all the seriousness they deserve and then some more. Other than that, it's impossible to buy it anywhere.

 

Ptchsssss!

 

*opens dredmor forum*
*what's new*
*next patch thread*

*fullscreen pic of a girl showing off cleavage with a whip*

OH HEY WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS DOING HERE?!

*saves pic*

(EDIT: Is that emma watson or the emma watson lookalike? Like I give a hoot, I can't tell one from the other)

 

It's a fairly good photoshop of emma watson's head on someone else's body. Don't ask me how I know.

 

Whoa, my g/f was right then.

You know because of the pixels and from having seen quite a number of shoops in your lifetime. That, or the teats.

 

Emma Watson.. LOL. I seriously did not notice. I had focused on leather and "Cubbybear". I must be getting really old. The cleavage (the amount of, that is) escaped me as well. Hope the pic wasn't to suggestive for here.

 

Yet here you are, responding without your company being very centralized, Nicholas. It's not a matter of centralizing. It's a matter of making it a priority for one person to communicate what's going on that's important to players in the blog. That's all. You don't have to worry about becoming part of the Games Industry, wearing suits and moving into headquarters with a palm-shaded atrium, just because someone from GG responds about the patch in a timely fashion where it's going to be read. Trust me on this one.

 

Problem is you wanted an answer, writing a blog post takes more time than a simply forum reply and just delays things even more. They are an extremely small company with a new project being developed on top of moving offices, etc. So for them to even give you a response in the amount of time they have speaks a lot to their company.

 

It's really been a pretty interesting discussion, here. I hope you don't mind--I'll save time by quoting from my post at the bottom of the last page, beginning by noting that GG already has a blog they regularly post in...

"...but the information wasn't placed in the blog. It's safe to say that many of us weren't aware of it--still aren't, in fact. That's a second issue: if you're delaying a bug fix/patch/feature change considerably past the time you've announced it, keep your buyers regularly aware of work still being done in a centralized location where most of them will read your posts. Such as a blog..."

I'll cut here, and get to the rest of what you wrote.

Again, from my post:

"To anyone who reads, here: none of this is a sudden palm strike to the throat, folks. I'm not stating anything that isn't covered in basic company-consumer relations, or simple common sense human communications. Let's not get a little defensive when a company we like announces a patch for delivery in one week's time and haven't provided it in one month, prompting someone to mention this. They're ultimately the arbiter of whether they choose to accept or reject the advice I've provided above, and a defensive ring around them isn't really necessary when they're not under attack."

This was the post Nicholas responded to. Thanks.

 

But you called them out on the forums. So they are going to respond to you on the forums. Did you want them to make a personal blog post responding to your question so it is centralized? I dont think that would be a very good idea since unless some one saw this discussion they would have no idea where the blog post came from. So they tend to respond to questions and issues in the forums with forum posts. You got an answer to your question and instead of accepting that you called them out on not centralizing that answer.

 

What we've been discussing--what some want, and others don't--are a few points, discussed further back in the thread. Now you and I have both responded to Nicholas. Thanks for your views.

 

Points for levelheadedness and grace.