[2019] The Bank Update and Jagex Communications

Originally posted by smrkn

Hey Sova, thanks for taking the time to reply, but I'm afraid this is going to be a bit of a rant.

I agree entirely regarding keeping the cat in the bag, I wouldn't tell my coworkers to expect something until I had formulated at least a deployment plan and even then I'd test it to avoid raising hopes.

6+ months ago we had no estimates, no scope, nothing to give other than we want to get it done.

Given the long standing popularity of the request topic I'm blown away by the fact you didn't have so much as an estimate, scope or shred of useful information to give though, because whilst RuneScape is a game that defines Jagex in part as a software company. If it's not on your radar then nobody expects you to click your fingers and have a remotely accurate estimate, but you're authoring software for one of the biggest MMORPGs as Jagex claim, the fact nobody could provide even a rough estimate for this is f***ing embarassing or simply shows Jagex aren't actually listening to the players.

Players have raised concerns previously about the QA that goes into updates, but with your information in mind I'm now concerned if Jagex even have qualified team leaders spearheading these undertakings since most IT services will happily provide estimates, even overshooting the required timeframe in anticipation of issues.

If you were a vendor providing software to our company, and you gave us that kind of response to any kind of query or request we would immediately take our business elsewhere and end all business ties because it shows you could seriously be lacking qualifications or experience.

Because getting people's hopes up for things and slipping is what we are trying to stop doing.

I'm extremely appreciative of this, even if this thread makes it seem like the opposite. I hope you don't take this as a personal attack and can see things from my perspective as someone who also authors software with a business use.

Sadly I don't see the shelved™ meme dying, but when it does I'll be the first to offer you a cold brew.

Originally posted by smrkn

I understand that a final product can take many forms and several hacky, kind of functional and outright failing iterations to finally achieve a desirable result and that yes, each customer has their own list of priorities as I have to tailor our internal software for specific use cases if required.

If I'm not mistaken the bank rework was marketed alongside the 2015 gold premier club package, I may have the year off by one or two, can you please confirm that you're stating that in this 4 year period despite requests, arguments on reddit/forums and being memed for shelving content not a single member of the team pioneering the next iteration of "the biggest free to play MMORPG" could provide even a rough estimate for a timeframe on this work?

I understand that projects can rapidly suck other teams into the fold, I understand that projects can expand to be huge compared to original expectations, I even understand shelving the bank rework whilst the item database is actively mutated to avoid issues if developing on the same base branch concurrently but I can't understand how a team of qualified software engineers working on something as big as RuneScape once was can't provide an estimate?

EDIT: I'm not just thinking back to six months ago. I'm thinking of every instance of "the bank rework is coming soon" for us to be left waiting, whereas with a qualified engineer at the helm the "coming soon" would have been released a week before the update.

Originally posted by smrkn

Found the guy who automatically assumes you're angry if your reply is longer than a tweet. ;)

Foreword: Please don't misunderstand, I am incredibly stoked for the bank rework and have been for it for an extremely long time.

I legitimately cannot understand the rollercoaster of a ride that the concept of a bank rework has been on, nor can I understand potential technical incomptency at a software development company being in the business myself. I know if I tried to pull what Jagex get away with, I would easily be fired without any remorse.

Have a pleasant day o7

EDIT: I should probably mention, I prefer going direct out of biological nature; autism spectrum disorder.