Has the community been abandoned?

Community is the heart and soul of any online game and right now it seems to be struggling to understand the new changes and overall direction of the game.

Developer comments seem to be nonexistent, major concerns and issues are ignored or threads deleted,

I can honestly say it doesn't feel welcoming here and I often leave with more questions and concerns than when I arrived to research an issue that has no official comment or something vague from months ago.

I really hope Kabam understands the atmosphere they are allowing to fester. Discouragement amongst many I speak to is growing daily with absolutely no reason to think it will turn around,

Good morning Kabam,

Don't forget those who put the passion into this game because it seems we are the only ones who care about it.

Comments

OxC

We are a 7.7 mil alliance (previously over 8) and we've lost 5 of our top players in the last two weeks.

I've heard similar stories from other alliances - losing alli members who have been playing since the beginning because Kabam keep making unecessary changes whilst ignoring the existing issues that need solving.

I too feel a bit cautious of posting here at times and cannot understand why posts are deleted without any warning.

People are losing interest in the game because Kabam are leading the game down the direction they want (i.e. focused solely on increasing in game spending through frustrating gameplay), rather than making the game fun and challenging with good value offers that would encourage more spending.

This is my last AQ/AW before I am taking a month off. I spend around £300/400 a year - not exactly a big spender, but more than a casual player - I believe this is the user bracket that is going to disappear from the game if it continues down this path.

The game has become a chore and with the erratic unfair gameplay and weird lags/glitches in Event Quests and AQ, I have even resorted to recording my matches using my ipad camera whilst playing on my iPhone.

If after the month there are improvements, I may be back but can't imagine Kabam pulling anything magical out of their hat in the next month.

Heywood

Only thing that makes any sense is that they want people to retire from the game for some reason.

R4GE

I have no reason to doubt the mods are reading as many threads and comments as possible and I hope they are pushing the users issues and concerns up to the developers or whoever can resolve the issues.

I like seeing Miike comment on threads to acknowledge them, but there just seems to be many threads where users would rather see a developer communicating with them to address the concerns and issue. I feel a lot of tensions could be put to ease.

OxC

R4GE wrote: »

I have no reason to doubt the mods are reading as many threads and comments as possible and I hope they are pushing the users issues and concerns up to the developers or whoever can resolve the issues.

I like seeing Miike comment on threads to acknowledge them, but there just seems to be many threads where users would rather see a developer communicating with them to address the concerns and issue. I feel a lot of tensions could be put to ease.

I have repeatedly asked on multiple posts, threads and forums the following questions and have never received an answer:

- why, when fighting against a higher rated champ, does the frequency of buffs/debuffs decrease? If your champs rating vs opponents rating alters the rates/chances, surely we should know what they are - otherwise the abilities stats shown for each champ are worthless.

- After completing the most difficult paths on the last level of a master mode event, I get the end boss on an easier path with all champs, get the bosses help down to about 30% and all of a sudden, they become immortal and kill all 5 of my champs (but as soon as I pay to revive, they are easy to beat again). Why does this happen?

If a Kabam mod can come on here and answer these two questions, i'd be happy to stay! If a Kabam mod would like me to record my fights so I can provide them with proof of this happening, i'd also be happy to oblige.

R4GE

OxC wrote: »

R4GE wrote: »

I have no reason to doubt the mods are reading as many threads and comments as possible and I hope they are pushing the users issues and concerns up to the developers or whoever can resolve the issues.

I like seeing Miike comment on threads to acknowledge them, but there just seems to be many threads where users would rather see a developer communicating with them to address the concerns and issue. I feel a lot of tensions could be put to ease.

I have repeatedly asked on multiple posts, threads and forums the following questions and have never received an answer:

- why, when fighting against a higher rated champ, does the frequency of buffs/debuffs decrease? If your champs rating vs opponents rating alters the rates/chances, surely we should know what they are - otherwise the abilities stats shown for each champ are worthless.

- After completing the most difficult paths on the last level of a master mode event, I get the end boss on an easier path with all champs, get the bosses help down to about 30% and all of a sudden, they become immortal and kill all 5 of my champs (but as soon as I pay to revive, they are easy to beat again). Why does this happen?

If a Kabam mod can come on here and answer these two questions, i'd be happy to stay! If a Kabam mod would like me to record my fights so I can provide them with proof of this happening, i'd also be happy to oblige.

Believe me, I understand the frustration of not getting answers. I'm aware mods don't always have the answers to questions to game mechanics since they aren't the developers, just simply forums moderators. Which goes back to my previous comment of hoping they are sending the issues/concerns to someone with the answers for them to relay answers back to us. Thats also falls in line with "wishing" a developer could hit up the forums to answer many topics on game mechanic issues or just to see the communities frustrations with some of the content they are creating.

Palanthrax

I think the Kabam mods are powerless.

Netmarble is steering the ship and they want fast profits regardless of the cost. They gave 12.0 the green light days after closing the deal and it served as a mission statement for everything else that is to come in the game's future.

The latest iteration of AW is a continuation of this, along with the fact that they've been trickle-feeding elements of 12.0 into every update since the climb down of 12.1. The game will soon achieve 12.0's original intent, if it hasn't already.

Kabam developers know perfectly well that we all hate the new AW, they are pressing ahead because Netmarble wants a quick return on its investment. Only a downturn in revenue will tip the scales in the players' direction.

OxC

My personal opinion as a coder myself is that the game suffers from multiple issues which are either the result of extremely overworked/under-qualified developers or are blatant attempts to increase consumer spending within the game.

These issues are:

- bugs/glitches being re-introduced with new updates. If the same bugs are re-occurring, this is either poor version management, deliberate attempts to re-introduce those bugs, or in extremely unlikely cases, the same bug resulting from different changes.

- ignoring significant issues which impact the consumer and can be solved relatively quickly, yet instant action on fixing issues that would be of a disadvantage to Kabam, such as the gold bug a couple of weeks ago. This again, is either overworked developers or a display of utter disregard for consumers' views and showing a sole focus of squeezing every drop of revenue possible out of consumers.

I imagine Kabam have some kind of rule/code that prevents their developers from speaking directly on the forums or communicating with consumers.

hydrogohard

Yup no lie in the last 2 weeks my alliance loss 8 members.. we are down to 22 now.We had an alliance with 30 members for as long as I could remember.

OxC

hydrogohard wrote: »

Yup no lie in the last 2 weeks my alliance loss 8 members.. we are down to 22 now.We had an alliance with 30 members for as long as I could remember.

I think the AW changes are the 'straw that broke the camel's back'.

Palanthrax

OxC wrote: »

My personal opinion as a coder myself is that the game suffers from multiple issues which are either the result of extremely overworked/under-qualified developers or are blatant attempts to increase consumer spending within the game.

These issues are:

- bugs/glitches being re-introduced with new updates. If the same bugs are re-occurring, this is either poor version management, deliberate attempts to re-introduce those bugs, or in extremely unlikely cases, the same bug resulting from different changes.

- ignoring significant issues which impact the consumer and can be solved relatively quickly, yet instant action on fixing issues that would be of a disadvantage to Kabam, such as the gold bug a couple of weeks ago. This again, is either overworked developers or a display of utter disregard for consumers' views and showing a sole focus of squeezing every drop of revenue possible out of consumers.

I imagine Kabam have some kind of rule/code that prevents their developers from speaking directly on the forums or communicating with consumers.

Coder here as well. I think it's a bit of both.

I don't buy for a second that they don't have the resources available to fix many of these bugs (some of them, such as Vision and OG DD dragging on for months). I do think the bugs themselves are genuine mistakes, but I think the prioritisation of bugs fixed is very much deliberate (Kabam > player).

R4GE

OxC wrote: »

I imagine Kabam have some kind of rule/code that prevents their developers from speaking directly on the forums or communicating with consumers.

I'm not close to positive on this, but thought a while back there was a developer pop onto the forums. Its been to long for me to remember.

Mcord11758

The developers have popped on before but not often at all.

General_Vis

I think there's a huge disconnect between what the users expect these forums to be and what Kabam want them to be.

Those of us who have used other game forums are used to an open dialogue between the user base and the game team, whether that's through developers or moderators. We get Q&A, bounce ideas back and forth and open debate on areas of the game.

Kabam have made it clear on a number of occasions that's not their vision for these forums. It's a place for the users to discuss the game between ourselves. It's not for interacting with the game team.

Rixob

What bugs are you guys talking about? I dont exp really any bugs

DrZola

R4GE wrote: »

OxC wrote: »

I imagine Kabam have some kind of rule/code that prevents their developers from speaking directly on the forums or communicating with consumers.

I'm not close to positive on this, but thought a while back there was a developer pop onto the forums. Its been to long for me to remember.

It was around 12.0 backlash time if I recall correctly, @R4GE.

What's missing is any connection with the end user. The feeling is that the primary points of contact--mods, support--have no clue what it's like to play the game as faithfully as many do. You need evidence of that? Just recall Miike's comment (not to single him out) about people stopping in AW with 2 viable champs because they didn't want to give more kills to the opponent.

There's no attempt to leverage the community for ideas or help with new content or with improving existing offerings. There's no tangible interest in fixing long running problems that plague the player. And there's more effort spent to shut down commentary on the forums than there is to provide substantive responses.

If you want to know why there's cynicism and often venom on the forums, that, in my opinion, is a start.

Dr. Zola

unknown

They also police the forums to keep negativity out of them, regardless of what they say. They will lock an active thread and tell you there is already a thread about the same thing...but it's over 100 pages long, which is why the New thread is active. They just want to bury the problems then send you nastygrams in pm threatening to lock you up because you have broken some forum rule. Technically, besides coming on here and saying hi,bye, or this game is great, you're gonna break a forum rule. So sad. Another good game going down because of a lack of listening to the player community.

R4GE

unknown wrote: »

They also police the forums to keep negativity out of them, regardless of what they say. They will lock an active thread and tell you there is already a thread about the same thing...but it's over 100 pages long, which is why the New thread is active. They just want to bury the problems then send you nastygrams in pm threatening to lock you up because you have broken some forum rule. Technically, besides coming on here and saying hi,bye, or this game is great, you're gonna break a forum rule. So sad. Another good game going down because of a lack of listening to the player community.

Like my comment that was apparently removed from this thread

fabbass

Stop spending and the will care

R4GE

Its odd, comments keep getting deleted and the thread was temporarily closed

JRock808

It appears someone is paying attention because this thread was just heavily edited.

Anyway, my intent is not to pile on about AW, gripe about individual bugs, ask for compensation, RDTs, etc., or ask anyone to boycott anything they are happy with.

It was just a long time coming. The community is your soul, and right now it feels crushed. Please rethink your stance on communication and transparency. We don't need to know every detail, we would just to know what you are aware of and what you need help with.

[Deleted User]

JRock808 wrote: »

Community is the heart and soul of any online game and right now it seems to be struggling to understand the new changes and overall direction of the game.

Developer comments seem to be nonexistent, major concerns and issues are ignored or threads deleted,

I can honestly say it doesn't feel welcoming here and I often leave with more questions and concerns than when I arrived to research an issue that has no official comment or something vague from months ago.

I really hope Kabam understands the atmosphere they are allowing to fester. Discouragement amongst many I speak to is growing daily with absolutely no reason to think it will turn around,

Good morning Kabam,

Don't forget those who put the passion into this game because it seems we are the only ones who care about it.

Hey op, thank you for leaving this feedback. I'm disheartened to see you feel this way. There are a few things in this thread that I'd like to clear up.

First - our intent is never to ignore anything that is said or done in the forums. We see a lot of duplicate topics, and we tend to not weigh in too many times on the same thing, in an effort to focus on getting answers to new topics. It is also feasible to suggest that there will be things we do not always get to. We've always been mindful of setting the expectation regarding spaces like this - which is that while it is an avenue for players to engage directly with us, it is also meant to be an avenue to engage with each other. This is why we have rules such as not addressing threads to Kabam or to moderators. We also don't step into threads where another community member has accurately explained or addressed something.

Since launching our new forums, we've seen about a 25% increase in activity and usage than before - which is great to see

It also means there is more for us to manage! We have added 3 new staff members to our team, two for general engagement and one with a specific mandate to focus on bugs. This team increase has also increased our presence around these parts. This has been a slow process and our newest staff members are now only a few weeks 'old' - they're ramping up nicely but still in the process of on-boarding. With their addition, we now have coverage 7 days a week - which previously only happened if Miike or myself (or both) worked 7 days a week - which did happen on occasion. This way, our players see dedicated interaction 7 days a week without fail (barring any illnesses on my team). So in these very easy to measure ways, we are both making progress and illustrating a dedication to our community. When I first started two years ago, there was just me!

We're working to increase programs that we use to work directly with players - first we started running small betas for Act 5 quest content, and we are now in the slow process of rolling out a formalized Content Creator program. From there, we have a few more exciting things up our sleeves but it's a bit too soon to talk about those juuuuust yet. By the time 2018 rolls in through the door all shiny and new, there will be several ways we will be engaging with our player base that we were not doing at the start of 2017.

Last, I want to tackle this 'moderator and developer' mentality. 'Moderators' at Kabam is a bit of a misnomer. Our team is directly imbedded in the live team, and we truly are part of the development team. We actively participate in development meetings, conference calls, and the design process of MCOC and it's new changes. Every single day, we are actively checking in with the design team to bring them feedback, concerns and comments raised within the community. It's a discredit both to my team here in the forums and to our developers to suggest that we do not engage in the important aspects of development of MCOC, and I'm sorry that it feels that way. The people that provide you with answers or feedback are doing so with information that comes straight from the source.

When we see a slew of feedback coming in on something important (let's use the new Alliance Wars changes as a recent example) it takes us a lot of time to review it all, sort it, analyze it and determine the next best steps. Changes in the game take many months of planning and development, and when we get valid and important feedback (like we've received on AW) it's important for us to get the next steps right. So what we've said is that we're reviewing the feedback and agree that there is more we need to address there, and we will be able to share more information on that as soon as we can. While waiting for further details would assuredly be frustrating, I would hope that our desire to take a careful and proper approach would be comforting in some ways. There were certain goals that we wanted to achieve with AW, and as many have pointed out there are still some things we need to do before we can say we've actually achieved that. We're working on it.

OP - if you've got more thoughts on this topic please feel free to send me a PM. I am still digging through a ton of Content Creator applications so I am admittedly a bit slow to respond right now (why is cloning technology not a thing yet? maannnnnnn) but I can say I WILL respond and would love to engage with you further on this.