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Of course the majority of the comments will be "haven't they already done that" but lets actually have a discussion. They are officially changing the expectation from each Monday having something to it really only being once a month.

Seems like they are going for the end of the month as a release point for all of their updates. They have done this in the past, but its nice to know that updates are coming at the end of the month and then they use the month to build hype for that update, kind of like how they announced Desperate Measures 20 days before its release.

As a whole I think this is a good thing, for both the players and Jagex. We don't need to log in every Monday to see that there isn't something new and instead can focus on the last Monday of the month and by the time it comes around we will know what the update is.

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over 3 years ago - /u/JagexHooli - Direct link

That's the goal.

The last three months have been a reflection of the impact to productivity that working from home has had on the team, as people work around their home lives - in less than ideal setups, managing childcare or homeschooling, the mental stresses of working where you live etc. I can speak to my own experience, moving half way around the world for this job only 6 weeks ago, to say how hard it is to do this from home vs the studio.

Simply put, sticking to the existing plans we had simply wouldn't work for either us as developers or you as players - the gaps on those bigger pieces of content would be much bigger than anyone would like to see.

Instead, the team took the initiative and adapted our approach to the reduced capacity. What this new approach does is minimize the chance of significant gaps between additive content, with a goal of delivering on a monthly cadence as soon as we can.

The team are throwing themselves at this challenge and working super hard to make that happen. Honestly, I'm pretty excited about the plans as a player.

over 3 years ago - /u/JagexHooli - Direct link

Originally posted by gluepot1

This came across as very PR "The team are throwing themselves at this challenge"

We all know covid has affected things. But the excuse doesn't hold up for everything. In the period that Archaeology and PVM hub were getting ready for release, there must have been others working on something else since the start of the year which many would have expected to be getting ready for release a month or two after archaeology, but there hasn't. Then working from home happened and for me personally I got next to nothing done for the first month due to technical problems. But it got better and by the 3rd month I was back up to full speed, maybe even more efficient than working in the office since there was no annoying meetings and beurocracy taking up time.

So after 3 months of working from home, there's one update almost ready. There's still something wrong there. Some people will have it worse than others due to family etc. But by this point technical issues should be sorted out. Jagex should be supplying employees with the necessary equipment to do their job if this is a long term thing. The tech and games industry should be one of the best suited sectors when it comes to working from home.

\Rant over.

Two questions:Adapting the approach to the reduced capacity sounds like this monthly update thing is temporary until you can work from the office again? Or is it a permanent thing to manage workload?

What are "existing plans"? It would have been nice to know these before the plans were shelved. Are these gaps a 3/6/12 month gaps between large update/expansions? And by changing plans does this mean no longer doing large updates/expansions?

Honestly, I'm fine with that if it did sound a little PR'y because they really are throwing themselves at it to be honest.

A team actively look to react and find opportunity in a situation that impacts production output is very rare in my experience. It would have been easier from a development standpoint to stay the course and just accept the slower delivery cadence - and many teams would pick that option and throw out the COVID excuse.

Speaking as a witness to it, pivoting direction is no small task. There's a huge knock on in so many areas - brainstorms upon brainstorms, scoping, reformatting teams, working out how to make meaningful content on much smaller timeframes and so on. That all takes time, effort and a lot of coordination - and then you have to go execute on it. But, ultimately, the hope is that this is the right way to go to deliver more additive content and prevent big gaps.

On the WFH front, your case is the same for some others here at Jagex too, but not for most (especially those with children or less than ideal work environments). We have internal Wellness surveys that people respond to along with Production Estimates that have shown the gradual decrease in productivity - last estimate was over 30% down. I can safely say I'm definitely more mentally taxed and not working at my best in these conditions. It's a tough situation for many.

RE Your Questions:

On temporary or permanent approach: This is an adaptation to our situation right now. We want to go back to those huge Archaeology sized content hits in the future. That said, if this approach is really popular, I can't imagine we wouldn't take cues from that in our post remote-working plans either.

On the existing plan: This refers to the stuff we announced at Runefest - which were mostly all big pieces of content. The timeline for Desperate Measures is a prime example of that extended length of time things take at our current productivity.

We announced Orthen is still in the works today and that - more long term - EGWD has a very small team continuing to move that forward slowly over time. The goal is to deliver meaningful Small and Medium additive content more often (like the next Alchemical stuff we mentioned today), with occasional hits of larger content (something like Orthen).

In terms of that cadence or dates for larger content hits, we have plans on how often we'd like that to be but it's not something that we're in a position to communicate today. As we get into the rhythm of this new production approach, we'll start to build a more consistent picture and talk timelines in a bit more confidence.

over 3 years ago - /u/JagexHooli - Direct link

Originally posted by Rsnickclaus

But the real question for you is... who was behind your curtains during the stream?

Legitimately had no idea where the haunted comments came from all stream. Was my curtain moving or something?

over 3 years ago - /u/JagexHooli - Direct link

Originally posted by joe32176

I’ll believe it when I see it. Jagex has had a history of saying all the right things, getting people hyped, then not delivering what they said they were going to deliver. Community complains, Jagex finally says the right things, promises things will change, people get hyped, then they under deliver. Repeat.

Warden promising to be more transparent and stay tuned for the roadmap in January!!! We got nothing and he has now finally said no roadmap is coming...

We are getting monthly updates, arch is great and all, but it was the January update that came in April. What about those other 3 months? What about all these patch weeks?

You finally announced the new quest, kind of had to with all the unhappy players. Telling us Gwd3 is in development is not an update. It’s was supposedly in development for months, until some mod said it’s in design phase in a twitter post.

I’m done with the words. Show us you are changing and we’ll believe it. I get it you weren’t here for all of it, but Jagex has a steep road to climb.

Exactly. The main thing we hope you all took away from yesterday is a better understanding of where we are development wise, what our challenges are right now, and some key things we're working on.

The goal for us as a team is to find a better balance in our communication so you feel this 'in the know' every month without stepping into announcing things too early territory. It's why there was no big Roadmap Post instead.

What matters to us is the continued conversation from this point, not the result of one stream. It may take some time, we may make mistakes along the way, but we'll get there.

over 3 years ago - /u/JagexHooli - Direct link

Originally posted by pharlax

Your curtain was sort of blurring from time to time but it seemed more like the camera being weird than ghosts...

RIP my sleep?