2013-08-31 - Monthly Release

[SpiritWolfe]

Thanks for telling us, TJ!

Now I have to unlock myself...

[LipizzanerKgirl]

That's fine with me.

 

I can't wait to find out what it is!

[Arwen17]

I didn't even know there was a pattern to the releases. It always felt random to me. That's why I've been checking the forum and my scroll for years, every single day, ever since I missed the fireworks badge. I viewed my scroll on that day but I wasn't logged in so I didn't get the badge.

It's very important to login every day because of crap like that.

 

[daba555]

Huh. In response to some points made above

 

1. I personally didn't like having to wait a week due to people not being able to set a reminder for "first Sunday" instead of "first Saturday", but why complain - we're lucky TJ even wants to do monthly releases.

 

2. It's a learning process, I would have expected any reasonably intelligent person to realize that as with many new things, you don't know if something will or won't work till you try it. Just the fact that it was changed before it even started should have spoken volumes. Again, I'm just happy TJ is doing it.

 

3. I'm very sorry that those in other time zones have more problems than those of us living in DC time. But also, my personal opinion is that I wouldn't rearrange my life just for this - it's a game. I volunteered to work today, knowing I expected a release, but there's a project that needs to get done, and urgently. Real life responsibilities have to come first, even if I don't like it.

 

4. Although TJ did say first Sunday of the month, after it was skipped one month because of the anniversary release, I expected that it wasn't written in stone and that any change may occur at any time, for any reason.

 

5. If it had been announced during the week that there would definitely be a release scheduled for last night (the first Sunday of the month), and then changed, I'd be complaining too, but it wasn't and people were uncertain, so I figured I'd wait and see. I was quite pleased to see this thread, and not have waited up till midnight and not had one!!!

 

I still feel lucky that we can even expect one next week. Thanks, TJ!

 

I'm hoping for a pygmy dragon Haven't seen one of those yet this year

Edited September 1, 2013 by daba555

[Katie]

Thanks for letting us know TJ! Now I can be more prepared when the new release comes.

[Feathers]

Well, it's good to know I didn't miss anything. X] Thanks for the warning!

 

~Feathers

[senyi]

Thanks for letting us know TJ.

[Wahya]

Thanks for the heads up!

[WildRiv]

Aw man, no release today? But no biggie, gives me more time to prepare for it then by having all 7 spots empty and waiting for new eggs (especially after the horrible way I'd missed the last few releases -.-)

[IvoryRaven15]

I just don't understand the mind set I suppose. All of the "Now I HAVE to bet up at x amount of time on X day..." and "I HAD to stay up all night for nothing!" ....nobody is making anyone do anything. This is a game provided for free for our enjoyment.

Nobody is 'making' anyone play. Just relax. There will still be a release...next week. I sort of wish we would go back to the unknown and completely random release dates. That way nobody can accuse and blame and otherwise rage at anyone other than themselves when they miss one. >_>

[SkyMet]

And I thought I'd finally figured out the method to the apparent madness.

 

Well, now I do know for real.

 

Guess I can go egglock myself now.

[pinkgothic]

3.  I'm very sorry that those in other time zones have more problems than those of us living in DC time.  But also, my personal opinion is that I wouldn't rearrange my life just for this - it's a game.  I volunteered to work today, knowing I expected a release, but there's a project that needs to get done, and urgently. Real life responsibilities have to come first, even if I don't like it.

 

It's a game, yes - and like all games, some people are exceptionally invested in it. Ever since the copper release, faith that dragons can be gotten days after a release or even just hours after the release has dropped significantly, so... I personally find it entirely understandable that people would want to be there from the start.

 

Despite working during the week, I tend to stay up late on Fridays and Saturdays to RP on IRC, so for me it just takes some more pushing to stay up until six in the morning (midnight cave time)... so I saw the announcement, and it let me go to bed at a time I would otherwise likely have gone to bed anyway.

 

But... I was very surprised it came as late as it did, because I know that a lot of people in my timezone play, and I'm fairly sure most of them would try to get up for it, rather than staying up for it. To me, this was entirely predictable behaviour in the player base, and posting 'late' despite that is a bit of a shame.

 

Some notice is certainly better than none at all, but the thing is, this way, some people had notice and others - the ones most affected, in fact - did not.

 

Don't misunderstand me, though, this is genuinely not meant to be a complaint - it's an observation. As far as I'm concerned, this was a bit mismatched and unfortunate, but... we're all human. I do hope that if this happens again, there'll be a 24 hour notice about it, so the people most affected will know, but that's the future. I do think it's okay to be upset that it wasn't announced sooner, too. Ultimately, though, I also think it's a totally forgiveable mishap.

 

--

 

The response to the complaints that I'm seeing some people give here distantly reminds me of the time the Halloween event got rescheduled and the people who had taken time off of work to be around for it got venomously ridiculed. Can we please not do that sort of thing? This has an actual impact on people's lives; even if you (general 'you') disagree with that it should ('no one should invest this kind of time into a game'), which I can completely understand as a point of view... it doesn't take much empathy to at least respect it. Keep in mind it's those people, the ones invested deeply into the game, that likely donate to the site or buy subscriptions. Gradually running them off is not a good idea.

[skauble]

It's a game, yes - and like all games, some people are exceptionally invested in it. Ever since the copper release, faith that dragons can be gotten days after a release or even just hours after the release has dropped significantly, so... I personally find it entirely understandable that people would want to be there from the start.

 

Despite working during the week, I tend to stay up late on Fridays and Saturdays to RP on IRC, so for me it just takes some more pushing to stay up until six in the morning (midnight cave time)... so I saw the announcement, and it let me go to bed at a time I would otherwise likely have gone to bed anyway.

 

But... I was very surprised it came as late as it did, because I know that a lot of people in my timezone play, and I'm fairly sure most of them would try to get up for it, rather than staying up for it. To me, this was entirely predictable behaviour in the player base, and posting 'late' despite that is a bit of a shame.

 

Some notice is certainly better than none at all, but the thing is, this way, some people had notice and others - the ones most affected, in fact - did not.

 

Don't misunderstand me, though, this is genuinely not meant to be a complaint - it's an observation. As far as I'm concerned, this was a bit mismatched and unfortunate, but... we're all human. I do hope that if this happens again, there'll be a 24 hour notice about it, so the people most affected will know, but that's the future. I do think it's okay to be upset that it wasn't announced sooner, too. Ultimately, though, I also think it's a totally forgiveable mishap.

 

--

 

The response to the complaints that I'm seeing some people give here distantly reminds me of the time the Halloween event got rescheduled and the people who had taken time off of work to be around for it got venomously ridiculed. Can we please not do that sort of thing? This has an actual impact on people's lives; even if you (general 'you') disagree with that it should ('no one should invest this kind of time into a game'), which I can completely understand as a point of view... it doesn't take much empathy to at least respect it. Keep in mind it's those people, the ones invested deeply into the game, that likely donate to the site or buy subscriptions. Gradually running them off is not a good idea.

^This, all of it.

 

Also, I think it's time that we stopped trying to silence all complaints. As long as posts meet the guidelines for the forums, this kind of feedback is actually very valuable, because often it's not just the complaint itself that is meaningful, but getting an idea of the percentage of people upset.

 

I don't know what happened to make this announcement come so late, maybe he just started hearing things from players who were confused about whether the release was now or next week and, at that point, realized that it might pose a problem. We've had issues about timing come up before in this way, so I can see why this might have seemed like a reasonable choice.

 

Still, it's a fairly easy fix to make to check over a list of things that could derail a release a few days in advance to be able to provide an earlier warning. Will some things still pop up unexpectedly? Sure, but if there's an effort to give earlier warning whenever possible, then the times that can't happen will be better tolerated.

 

But TJ might not know how important that is to people if we stick with this "don't get upset" thing we've gotten so good at.

 

Of course it's just a game, but as pinkgothic pointed out, people get invested in it. "Don't care so much about my product" is something that is often said by almost no successful business person, ever. Emotional investment creates loyalty - upside! Downside? People are going to get out of bed at 5 am to hunt dragons and then not be all that cheerful that it was for nothing. TJ's a smart guy, and I'm sure that he understand that from a business standpoint, people rearranging their weekends to be at your site means that you're doing something right. And now, with the new information here he can do it even...righter. That doesn't seem like it should be a word, but there it is.

 

On a personal note, I had eggs I couldn't dump, so I dodged a new release bullet. Now I just need to not convince myself next time that I'll get that lucky twice so I should totally hunt and breed everything I own.

 

 

[Blue Nadir]

Methinks the common thread in all the "complaints" is consistently poor communication from "Management". Communicating in a timely fashion with ALL of your userbase will probably squash a lot of disgruntledness....ess...

Edited September 1, 2013 by Blue Nadir

[DragonLady86]

I can not believe how many people are complaining about not getting enough notice that the release wouldn't happen yet. First, you don't have to catch them on the first day. And second, We could go back to the random, only happens every 4-5 months where your only warning is "Hey, I've never seen that egg description before, I should check the forums!" At least this way, you know for the future.

 

Thank you TJ for all you do.

[rubyshoes]

Going to go ahead and close this now.