All of that said. A new roadmap is something that we are interested in pulling together. I think if we establish early on that these are concepts and ideas and are not guaranteed to see release, it's something we could all move forward with. It could provide some transparency of what's happening behind the scenes and it could give us all an idea of what we should look forward to.
Thanks for this whole post Jax that was a really great insight
I think what I've quoted here is the way to go, some members of the community take it as gospel that whatever in a roadmap will happen, and if it doesn't then there is some sort of failure to hold kabam to account for - even if the vast majority ends up added to the game.
If you really, really spell out in huge capital bold letters that nothing is guaranteed at all and that all it is, is an insight into what might happen in the future then I think you've created enough clarity. And then anyone who does end up mad that there was a "broken promise" will rightly just be reminded of what a roadmap is. If you make sure it's clear that a roadmap is a plan for what may be, and not what will be, then the only people getting mad will be those that have misunderstood due to themselves - not because of a lack of communication.
I love reading roadmaps, it keeps me excited for the future of the game - and not just for specific things, but for the fact that such a range of things are planned. I really hope you guys can find a way to get one out, but I understand the misgivings about why you may not want to.
Jax, if this is the case, then for a lack of a better term “Do not over promise and under deliver”. Your team should not say “we’re working on Raids” when the community is looking for something more interesting than AQ and AW to then later say internally “This isn’t feasible, let’s not tell the community”. I personally was hoping for the Wish Crystal, because of how much choice it gives me since the game does not give you much of a choice in champion acquisition.
If anything, I would suggest to under promise and over deliver so that our expectations can be blown away if you do great things.
If Kabam came out and said “we can promise you two champions a month (except for December), an event quest, and a side quest, and nothing else” and called it a road map, there would be riots.
The problem isn’t missed goals. I actually love hearing about aspirational ideas for the game even if they don’t happen, because it gives insight into what the devs are thinking about. The problem the community has had with the previous road maps is 1) not understanding that these are aspirational documents subject to change rather than concrete, already completed projects; and 2) failure on Kabam’s side to communicate when a road map project has been scrapped or delayed or for whatever reason not happened within their previously discussed timeline.
I get it if the technology for Wish crystals doesn’t work in the game. I understand if Masteries 2.0 has been put on the back burner due to other more pressing issues. The world’s been on fire for a few years now, plus MCOC has had all of these input issues to deal with on top of it. It happens. And I think the community would (mostly) be understanding if Kabam had come out and said “Mastery reworks are tabled for now while we adjust to XYZ new thing that has gone horribly wrong.” It’s just that last part that’s missing.
I think another problem is lack of communication. It's cool to have roadmaps of things to maybe come, but that's all we would usually get. If you're gunna make a roadmap there should also be bi monthly updates on it or some sort of communication to let people know these still are being looked at. At the end of the day, communication comes back as the main issue between kabam and the community
Yeah, in the past I’ve held up the practices of Bungie (the company behind the first 3 Halo games and now Destiny and Destiny 2) as a good example. They do a weekly blog post on Thursdays that just gives a little peek behind the curtain to discuss some of what they are working on and why they make the changes in game that they do. Destiny 2 is obviously a bigger game than this and with more moving parts, so it requires more frequent updates. But if Kabam did something like this just like alongside their monthly updates to say “here’s what is happening this month, and here’s a look at some stuff coming down the pipe in future updates,” that would be awesome.
But I get why game developers don’t want to overshare. Bungie, again, is an example. When they break bad news to the player base, a certain element of it goes rabid and starts personally attacking members of the communications or dev teams. If you’re a member of a team like that, and you know your communications with the community could bring that result, why would you do it? Silence is much easier and doesn’t bring that kind of focused fury on you.
So yes, I would love it to see more open lines of communication. But I very much understand the reluctance from the game team. We as a community need to demonstrate that we aren’t going to fly off the handle at the slightest bit of bad news, but we can’t demonstrate that unless we actually receive that information.
We'd love to pull together a new roadmap. But, let me explain our hesitation, first.
I was not here when the previous roadmaps were created. Obviously, the world was flipped upside down in the last few years, and some specific features from the previous roadmaps were side-lined. Some of that may still be in the works, some of it may have been moved to a back burner in favour of some of the newer content we have released or planned, some of it may never surface.
That being said... There is a lingering sense from some of the community that anything that didn't see release was an "undelivered promise" and it comes up often enough to cause hesitation. Roadmaps are not promises, but rather concepts and ideas that the team are working towards. If they get to a step of development and decide a feature isn't going to provide a good player experience, or cannot feasibly fit into our game in its current state, they should step away from it and refocus.
If we don't circle back to the old roadmaps, some players will scoff at the new ones and claim everything is unlikely, or yell about what wasn't done ("why not do X like you said, first?"). If we do address the old roadmaps, it's open season for another group to argue that we didn't do enough, or that the reasons for not pursuing an idea were too weak.
If we do proceed with a new roadmap, we will have people that are mad about old roadmaps and we'll have people that will be disappointed if the features don't come to fruition, thus opening the situation to repeat itself on cycle.
You can see evidence of this type of thinking on this post and almost every other one about any previous roadmap. It's very nearly a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" type of situation.
All of that said. A new roadmap is something that we are interested in pulling together. I think if we establish early on that these are concepts and ideas and are not guaranteed to see release, it's something we could all move forward with. It could provide some transparency of what's happening behind the scenes and it could give us all an idea of what we should look forward to.
That’s all well and good. But there one issue with what you are saying. Yea people do say where is this and that from past road maps. Like the wish crystal…players wouldn’t be asking where something is if YOU at kabam actually communicated this stuff. This has always been an issue with kabam is the lack of communication from kabam with the player base. Always promises that it will improve yet never has
Sometimes you’ve got give the people what they want and the people want a road map. We want something to be excited over. It’s like when you go on holiday, you make plans of all the exciting things you’re gonna do, all the sites you’re gonna see, all the gelato you’re gonna eat. But then when you get there you hear about an amazing new thing you have to go do, so you change your plans and miss out that cave you were gonna see on day 2. We’ve all seen caves before and you have the opportunity to go on a speed boat!!! Then day 5 rolls around and you decide to go into a casino, it’s awesome and exciting but you lose half you’re money. So now instead of that expensive meal you were going to go out for you’re now sitting in the hotel with a bag of crisps. You buy a lotto ticket the next day and win all you’re money back! Yay the luck is on. Time for that awesome meal, we’re back on track baby! But then you get COVID and the rest of the holidays ruined and you have to quarantine because life isn’t fair.
Plans change but we still like the excitement of making the plans, hearing the plans and hopefully the best stuff from them comes off. If something comes up a long the way that delays the plan then that’s life. If you keep us informed ok, we may not like it but we’d understand we’d still love you. It’s the telling us of plans and then radio silence that makes us want to go nuclear. Hopefully we can all plan for gelato and have gelato. I really need to go back to Italy, they have the best gelato. But yes, roadmaps please.
Sometimes you’ve got give the people what they want and the people want a road map. We want something to be excited over. It’s like when you go on holiday, you make plans of all the exciting things you’re gonna do, all the sites you’re gonna see, all the gelato you’re gonna eat. But then when you get there you hear about an amazing new thing you have to go do, so you change your plans and miss out that cave you were gonna see on day 2. We’ve all seen caves before and you have the opportunity to go on a speed boat!!! Then day 5 rolls around and you decide to go into a casino, it’s awesome and exciting but you lose half you’re money. So now instead of that expensive meal you were going to go out for you’re now sitting in the hotel with a bag of crisps. You buy a lotto ticket the next day and win all you’re money back! Yay the luck is on. Time for that awesome meal, we’re back on track baby! But then you get COVID and the rest of the holidays ruined and you have to quarantine because life isn’t fair.
Plans change but we still like the excitement of making the plans, hearing the plans and hopefully the best stuff from them comes off. If something comes up a long the way that delays the plan then that’s life. If you keep us informed ok, we may not like it but we’d understand we’d still love you. It’s the telling us of plans and then radio silence that makes us want to go nuclear. Hopefully we can all plan for gelato and have gelato. I really need to go back to Italy, they have the best gelato. But yes, roadmaps please.
We'd love to pull together a new roadmap. But, let me explain our hesitation, first.
I was not here when the previous roadmaps were created. Obviously, the world was flipped upside down in the last few years, and some specific features from the previous roadmaps were side-lined. Some of that may still be in the works, some of it may have been moved to a back burner in favour of some of the newer content we have released or planned, some of it may never surface.
That being said... There is a lingering sense from some of the community that anything that didn't see release was an "undelivered promise" and it comes up often enough to cause hesitation. Roadmaps are not promises, but rather concepts and ideas that the team are working towards. If they get to a step of development and decide a feature isn't going to provide a good player experience, or cannot feasibly fit into our game in its current state, they should step away from it and refocus.
If we don't circle back to the old roadmaps, some players will scoff at the new ones and claim everything is unlikely, or yell about what wasn't done ("why not do X like you said, first?"). If we do address the old roadmaps, it's open season for another group to argue that we didn't do enough, or that the reasons for not pursuing an idea were too weak.
If we do proceed with a new roadmap, we will have people that are mad about old roadmaps and we'll have people that will be disappointed if the features don't come to fruition, thus opening the situation to repeat itself on cycle.
You can see evidence of this type of thinking on this post and almost every other one about any previous roadmap. It's very nearly a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" type of situation.
All of that said. A new roadmap is something that we are interested in pulling together. I think if we establish early on that these are concepts and ideas and are not guaranteed to see release, it's something we could all move forward with. It could provide some transparency of what's happening behind the scenes and it could give us all an idea of what we should look forward to.
Dear Jax, a normal roadmap process should be (1) Planning (2) Implementation (3) Review (4) Feedback and (5) Revision or adjustment. Your explanation for fear of empty promise or “over expectation” by some players is mainly because your company roadmap process skipped (3) (4) and lack of transparency for (5).
Taking former Dev Diaries as an example. A lot of things which have been missing the mark, like New AQ AW format, Mastery 2.0, Wish Crystal, Practice Room, etc. It may be because of different reasons from Kabam perspective to delay or withdraw it against the planned roadmap. However, there is little or no communication to the community about the reason behind. Therefore we saw a lot of roadmaps in Dev Diary since 2019 yet we never see how Kabam review their process and their feedback to the community expectation. Whenever you said you will do something within 6 months 12 months and / or 24 months, concerned players would like to know why it didn’t happen after that period.
Besides, I’m always uncomfortable to see why your team delete some posts asking about the progress. I don’t understand your team criteria but I just saw a lot of normal posts “tracking” the progress by different players being deleted. Which gives me a pretty worse impression as your team used to say something when shut down a post, whether reasonable or not, but removing posts is like cancelling the voice.
I mean, your communication did improve the transparency and change the confrontation attitude for some of your team did. Nonetheless, communication should not be limited to acknowledgement and we do hope to understand why those items being listed in roadmap were not implemented and whether your Dev team would drop it out or revising the schedule. The former interview of game designer Kabam Broccoli impress a lot of players because of his straight and frank talk on a lot of topics, yet it only happens when he leaves. I think many players want to hear that voice from the game team, in which you can be the bridge of that channel.
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But I get why game developers don’t want to overshare. Bungie, again, is an example. When they break bad news to the player base, a certain element of it goes rabid and starts personally attacking members of the communications or dev teams. If you’re a member of a team like that, and you know your communications with the community could bring that result, why would you do it? Silence is much easier and doesn’t bring that kind of focused fury on you.
So yes, I would love it to see more open lines of communication. But I very much understand the reluctance from the game team. We as a community need to demonstrate that we aren’t going to fly off the handle at the slightest bit of bad news, but we can’t demonstrate that unless we actually receive that information.
Jax, have you heard of… Bases?
Plans change but we still like the excitement of making the plans, hearing the plans and hopefully the best stuff from them comes off. If something comes up a long the way that delays the plan then that’s life. If you keep us informed ok, we may not like it but we’d understand we’d still love you. It’s the telling us of plans and then radio silence that makes us want to go nuclear. Hopefully we can all plan for gelato and have gelato. I really need to go back to Italy, they have the best gelato. But yes, roadmaps please.