devtrackers.gg
That roadmap answer is pathetic. They kept us hanging on for half a year for that answer.... really awful management. Even went as far as to blame COVID when the roadmap was planned to drop in January.
That roadmap answer is pathetic. They kept us hanging on for half a year for that answer.... really awful management. Even went as far as to blame COVID when the roadmap was planned to drop in January.
We don't disagree on the leaving you hanging front. While I believe Warden made a mention here or there about moving away from road maps in streams a few months ago, it obviously didn't come across (which is on us, not you as players). That's the reason we made sure to tackle it head on today.
As we mentioned on stream today, this is what should be considered an opening of the door. This was intended to be a honest look at where we are development wise, indications of what to expect, what we are aiming for, and what we won't be doing. It's only a first step, but it's a step.
Moving forward, the goal is to offer a better level of transparency and access into what's going on around the game - but not in the form of a roadmap. There's memes around content announcements vs delivery in this community for a reason, and we want to leave that reality as a by-gone era for Jagex.
Again, this doesn't mean an intention to keep the curtain fully drawn. We'll just be measured in how we balance keeping you informed / in the know with announcing things when the time is right.
It's a line we're going to learn to walk, and we're likely not going to get it right all the time. But we want you on that journey with us - beginning with clearly laying out development goals (like the increased cadence of smaller but impactful additive content due to COVID capacity) and then followed by a continual dialogue on that front.
This is all words, and action is what matters - but hopefully that shed some more context on this for you.
It's actually great you gave us a release date on the quest. But Hooli, this is the third time i tell you this.
- Tell the players what projects are being worked on, only those you're allowed to talk about ask the other Jmods first if needed.
We CAN handle the truth, if you're only going to fix Typos, Change Colors on the trees, Update the Cat/Dog Models or whatever. TELOS! please, Tell your playerbase that's what you will do.
Don't try to surprise the players because you're not getting an:
- OMG what a great surprise update!
You'll get this response instead:
- F*Cking Finally! What took them so long...
You're new around, and i get it, but at least listen to the old Reddit players who understand where the collective anger comes from.
Speak to us, communicate.
That's what we're saying about walking the line. We don't want everything to be a surprise, but we do want to talk about things at the right time in the right way.
The intention we are driving as a Community Team right now is provide ways to give better insight into what we're working on, provide regular development updates and so on - but not necessarily by just revealing and promising content. It's about keeping you informed while also talking about the right things at the right times.
We want to move away from our past hit-rate of announcement accuracy, but not at the cost of keeping you in the dark entirely about what's kind of things are in development, where we are headed and so on.
Why can't Jagex come out and say "things are going to be a little slow for a while. But rest assured with are working hard to get enjoyable content out as we struggle the pandemic"? Give people honest answers and they'll respect you a lot more. Hiding in the shadows, passing patches, Yak Track off as content, cancelling Q&A's just doesn't work. Obviously COVID has hit the development of RS3 significantly harder then what's being made pubic. OSRS doesn't look like it's slowing down.
That's exactly where we want to be - having these conversations early, frequently and honestly.
We consider this stream a new starting line for our approach to how we talk with all of you, but it's about how we do that consistently over the years ahead that matters.
"That's the reason we make sure to tackle it head on today."
To your credit, it was a question you forced the Warden to answer just as the livestream was attempting to wrap up. So I wouldn't say it was tackled head on. Thanks for getting an answer though, as pathetic as the answer was.
It was something we had planned to cover. As I've said elsewhere, Mod Warden was a huge part of why this stream even happened and he wanted to answer questions like this.
The only reason it was raised at the end was due to me monitoring what major community questions we hadn't covered. We all went into this stream wanting to talk about the Roadmap and I just made sure we didn't miss the chance to get you an answer on it.
There's been some issues with our communications this year, but it shouldn't be taken as a reflection on Warden's stance on communication at all. It's more a reflection of trying to achieve that new balance and, as a team, overcorrecting on the cautious front during a time of massive uncertainty (COVID impact).
Hey Hooli, is there a response to how we have heard this same dialog from Jagex multiple times over the past 3 years, only for it to get worse and worse each time? Is there a genuine reason for any of us to beleive what you guys say now?
Honestly, we went into this stream knowing there would be doubt to anything we say. And that's totally okay.
This stream wasn't meant to change minds, but to bring you closer to the development. We hope you now have a better picture of what we're doing as a team and how we are adjusting to our new production impact rather than being in the dark.
Trust is earned, not told. If you are sceptical today, keep on it. Hopefully, through both our actions and keeping you better informed, we can win that trust back.
We had like 2 of these information streams this year Hooli please i know you know Shauny as you 2 know eachother for a while already. Please pick up his old thread about communication to the player base, and don’t follow the thread of Warden... if you are a player then you know what i mean from last runefest to this day it is going down hill fast with the community lines... i know they invested like half rs3 devs into the ninja team but give us honest information, talk with us and atleast give us reasons if something is gonna be set back so other things can get prioritized. Like we know GWD3 is comming (this year i hope) from runefest but they have littarly said nothing about it only that they are working on it... they only say we are working hard... where are you working hard on?? Just give concrete information... i buy the yearly premium package every year based of the runefest and year ahead.... but for me seeing 1 content update this pst 6months felt like a punch under the belt. I know runefest is canceled but i am fearing based of Mod Warden his new technique of only say: “we are working hard” we aint gonna get a peak of what is comming next year... i hope that you can be the opposite of him and that you are willing to talk to the community like Shauny did.
I mentioned this in another post, but Mod Warden is a big believer in community comms. Since I joined 6 weeks ago, I can speak to how he's been pushing us on additional things he'd like to see from the team too.
The issue everyone raises is, in actuality, a couple of miscommunication issues. It's no reflection on anyone to be honest - especially when it comes to intent - but just a casualty of the times we've faced.
Warden very much inherited the Roadmap announcement at Jagex, which is why he referred to it coming later in his opening statement.
As a new EP for the product, Warden identified our not-so-great 'hit rate' on announcements and wanted to spend some time assessing why that was and, in turn communicating cautiously. While that makes sense, it was never clearly stated or explained to you as players (I believe it was mentioned very lightly once on a stream IIRC).
Just before Archaeology left the building, COVID also arrived and, retrospectively, there was an overcorrection of caution when talking about 'future things' because we simply didn't know what the impact would be. In the end, it was significant (at least 30% productivity loss).
Again, while that makes sense, retrospectively we could have done more to communicate in that time to better keep you informed and updated with the challenges we were facing development wise.
These are lessons learned for the team and it's why we want this to be the start of a dialogue rather than a 'news stream'.