All Archive
Thread: This how you work with the community...(not against it)
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KwongWah
Thu Nov 10, 2005 2:26 pm
#1
A mjor failure here within the entire SOE/LA organisation concerning SWG has been communication. We all understand you want to make the game better, but the ways you have done things with the CU and NGE has been a very bumpy ride at best.
What really needs to be done when you want to change something should be along the lines of.
1.Obtaining feedback
1.1. Use focus groups to determine problems and get some ideas of what is wrong with the game and what is working
1.2. Using the information from these focus groups, construct a questionaire and/or polls to determine if these same feelings from the focus groups are representitive of the community at large.
1.3. Using this information, ask both focus groups and community how to improve the game
2. Evaluation and shortlisting
2.1. Pick several ideas (mimumum of five) which are feasible from the list of ideas. Cause certain ideas would not be possible
2.2. Poll these shortlist ideas and see which the community and focus groups like most. Repeat this step until there is a clear majority in the poll. (Each subsquent poll removes the idea with the least votes.)
3. Implement the finalised idea
4. Further feedback and fine tuning.
If all this had been done in the suggested manner or even followed in a somewhat close fashion, you would not have had this outrage in the first place. Just relying on focus groups does not help gauge the feelings of the overall community and is only asking for trouble as has been shown in the past week or two.
Yes this is a very time consuming process. But when you want to make a great game, you gotta do what it takes. One thing you could very well learn from blizzard. They do not release games they do not feel are ready.
Regards.
What really needs to be done when you want to change something should be along the lines of.
1.Obtaining feedback
1.1. Use focus groups to determine problems and get some ideas of what is wrong with the game and what is working
1.2. Using the information from these focus groups, construct a questionaire and/or polls to determine if these same feelings from the focus groups are representitive of the community at large.
1.3. Using this information, ask both focus groups and community how to improve the game
2. Evaluation and shortlisting
2.1. Pick several ideas (mimumum of five) which are feasible from the list of ideas. Cause certain ideas would not be possible
2.2. Poll these shortlist ideas and see which the community and focus groups like most. Repeat this step until there is a clear majority in the poll. (Each subsquent poll removes the idea with the least votes.)
3. Implement the finalised idea
4. Further feedback and fine tuning.
If all this had been done in the suggested manner or even followed in a somewhat close fashion, you would not have had this outrage in the first place. Just relying on focus groups does not help gauge the feelings of the overall community and is only asking for trouble as has been shown in the past week or two.
Yes this is a very time consuming process. But when you want to make a great game, you gotta do what it takes. One thing you could very well learn from blizzard. They do not release games they do not feel are ready.
Regards.
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