suggestions

Would be a good addition. First question could be whether or not you like the PvP focused energy system.

I'm not so into the design by committee thing.

I have a long-term plan for the game that I want to build and that's most of the fun for me. I think forums/chat serve me well enough for getting the temperature on things and so I don't want to deal with defending myself on another front if I have to go against popular opinion. And I don't think a lot of people playing really understand the implications of a lot of the things they say or really think things out to the extent necessary for game design. I see a lot of knee-jerk reactions to things and don't want those people controlling the direction of the game.

For example, the biggest complaints about the clan system during closed beta were that there weren't enough targets and that regen was too big a factor. This was true, but it was only true because of how few players there were. Most people just couldn't see past what existed then and didn't understand that these issues would change dramatically when more people were added.

TL;DR - This is a dictatorship, no vote for you.

'I'm not so into the design by committee thing.' I've heard that before ;)

Also, will there be quoting added to the forums?

yay dictatorship!! all hale lord ender!

> Also, will there be quoting added to the forums?

Yes.

:)

Grrreat!

Hmm, perhaps if I hadn't added in the 'first question' I would have gotten a more positive response.

I think it's a quick, easy way to gather info on things like:
- What browser do you use?
- Will Jans build a half-decent bot without help?

>- What browser do you use?
>- Will Jans build a half-decent bot without help?

We can ask those things in a normal thread and get pretty direct answers, until it gets around post #35 or so... Then the thread gets pretty watered down. Point is, if there is something we need to take sides on, it can work on the forums.

Yeah, not that I think about it there is no need for polls. Just bmail the guy? Haha

>> Also, will there be quoting added to the forums?
>
>Yes.

I hope this doesn't mean a 'quote' link with every post? Not only does this look messy as heck, a lot of people use it in the wrong way too. Quoting a big ass post, just to add 'LOL!' to it. Or worse, fucking it up by adding their own comments within the quoted section.

Just a simple markup will do :)

Maybe a word limit for the quote? So that it doesn't look stupid but at the same time if a small post gets mixed up with others you can bring it out.

>>> Also, will there be quoting added to the forums?
>>
>>Yes.
>
>I hope this doesn't mean a 'quote' link with every post? Not only does this look messy as heck, a lot of >people use it in the wrong way too. Quoting a big ass post, just to add 'LOL!' to it. Or fixing spelling or >grammar errors. Or worse, fucking it up by adding their own comments within the quoted section.
>
>Just a simple mark will do :)

Fixed. You're welcome. LOL!

What % of users actually post in the forum? What % would actually reply to a question? I wouldn't bother.

As far as I'm concerned most of the 'important' threads (Energy, strengthisopdexsuxfixit, clan dynamics, etc) around here are a misrepresentation of the bots community as a whole. Thus I believe a non-forum poll (Underneath the sidebar) would be a very easy way to get a better idea of what users want/think.

E.g. latest suggestion thread with >20 posts: http://bots4.net/forum/4/808
11 people posting, only 3 of which are using names I haven't heard of previously. One can't generalise but I believe it's the same for any other thread with somewhat in-depth discussion. I realise the player base at this stage is primarily so called 'veterans' but Ender should really want to know what little Sammy Sprinkler on level 39 thinks of getting energy and if he likes the showroom.

@Level100: all valid points. But in Ender's place, i wouldnt be too interested in what every player has to say either. Ask someone who has played the game for a couple of days what he wants, and you'll get horrible answers. A bank! Trading equipment! Easier showroom! Generally speaking they want easier access to more for less. And being veteran is no insurance either.

Bottom line, i think he's doing just fine. There are active, vocal people who suggest and discuss things, he listens to all sides, and in the end decides what he thinks is best. Democracy is not going to work.

Basically what Jans said. All very true about forum users not necessarily being a representative sample of players, but in the end I want to make the game I want to make, not the one people (think they) want. Maybe that's selfish, but I think things will turn out well for everyone like this.

And as Jans also mentioned, tons of the suggestions are just about making the game easier. A lot of people only think about how things will benefit them in the short-term, not what will make for a long-term compelling game (which is what I'm going for). Maybe I'll add silly polls at some point in the future, but I don't think I'd want to use them as a means of deciding on the direction of the game.

(And btw, I already get browser statistics (and much more (yes I'm nesting these)) through Google Analytics.)

That's fair enough. Of course the opinions of new players can be varied, uninformed and ultimately unhelpful, but at the other end of the spectrum many of the more experienced players (Which make up the player base atm) appear to be quite stubborn and opinionated; making them also quite unhelpful.

In essence I suppose what the above paragraph does is discount the opinion of nearly everybody playing this game concurrently, negating the need for any kind of opinion poll. Don't you hate it when that happens :)

/thread

So basically, nobodies opinion matters... Well played...

It seems that way doesn't it.

Well Ender´s opinion counts. And I have complete fate in his decisions :).

I wouldn't be here responding to this thread if I discounted everyone's opinion. I said I didn't want people to blindly vote on game-changing topics; I will listen to reasoned arguments though.

/going... going...gone

Ender [48]2011-04-06 12:33:32
[2 minutes ago]
Welcome!

"Out of curiosity, did you find the game on YouTube?"

& here we have a good example of what polls could be used for ;)

I was responding more to the suggestion of using polls to make game decisions. I'm be fine with silly/mundane polls.

And for what it's worth, I actually have a pretty good handle on aggregate traffic data through Google Analytics. It tells me a lot more than a simple poll would too. For example, I know YouTube has sent 12 visits in the past 30 days, 7 of which were new visitors. 5 of those visits bounced (viewed only the homepage and then left), so I should probably make the homepage a little more enticing with screenshots or something (I've been meaning to do this). This aggregate data of course doesn't include the more detailed personal side of things though like exactly how and why they ended up here. That's why I ask those kinds of questions to people.

Here's the top 10 traffic sources over the past 30 days in case anyone is interested:

http://i.imgur.com/mB00w.png

We need to get Kongregate sending more people over. Wasn't there a traffic spike from K before open beta?

You're thinking of Stumbleupon.

I'll focus more on advertising the game once it's officially released.