Vrain Matari
ZionTCD
1070
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Posted - 2013.10.10 13:16:00 -
[1] - Quote
Great feedback, Hans. Thank you.
Not knowing what topics to focus on and when - i.e. because they are likely to make it into an upcoming sprint - is frustrating for sure. One can speculate on a roadmap from a very different time and 'place', and infer from CCP's public statements, forum comments and interviews, ofc, but it makes trying to focus on the most timely and pertinent parts of the massive 'DUST' discussion a bit of shooting in the dark.
There is a persistent misunderstanding on both the player side and the dev side, however. Players often ask for information on development candidate topics well ahead of the sprint so that the forum community can have a healthy discussion before decisions are made and coding starts.
Players often phrase this request as asking for the 'patch notes' ahead of time, to which CCP has replied on multiple occasions that 'they can't release the patch notes because the final decision on what features will make it to release is not known yet because coding isn't complete'. That is 100% true as far as it goes, but i believe it's also a bit disingenuous. The intent of the player request is clear whether proper nomenclature has been used or not: the player is looking for a pre-design list of candidate topics for the upcoming sprint, ofc.
Whether intentional or innocent, this misunderstanding leaves the player request for possible contents of upcoming sprints unacknowledged and unanswered.
These are the optics of the situation - how the situation reads to myself and i'm sure many others. And it's all been said before, ofc, but it's worth restating simply as one more potential piece of data to somebody somewhere behind the development wall.
That being said, the vehicle rework stats that CCP Wolfman posted are a great counter-example, and True Grit also deserves recognition for their communication and crowdsourceing efforts. These efforts are welcome and appreciated, but unfortunately are also exceptions to the rule.
At this point, my sole hope for early player input in the development process lies with the CPM charter. |