STS' Owners' Blogs -- not my idea

[PianoWizzy]

Again I disclaim this to be my idea but I had to post it here immediately! Credits goes to FlashBackFlip, click on this post and thank him!

Hi JustG and all STS crew!

I think it would be interesting for many to know who is the 'owner of SL' now?

What is his name? His favorite scifi book and movie.. His hobby maybe..

Lol actually I'm talking of the new feature of STS Forums - owners' blogs!

If this guy who is developing SL now will take some time and post his thoughts now and then - describing his ways of thinking on SL future, then:

1) we, players, will be more patient knowing we all are getting somewhere

2) you, STS (and particulary this 'owner' dude), will get from us heaps of ideas for hundreds of years to implement lol

3) the best part we could discuss and sort out yours and ours ideas and develop this game together with the 'SL owner'


P.S.

Please, don't make new vanities platinum (at least not all). As was said above - there's no motivation in just wearing them doing nothing

Better raise the drop rate of new vans and spread them through various level zones - this will motivate us to rerun old maps and farm for them with friends (also this will give chances for new players to get their first vanity drops, motivating them as well)

If we wanted just 'a game to play' we'd be playing Angry Birds LOL

We r here for social gaming

Peace

[flashbackflip]

huh! i'm out of 'thanks' for today (all spent in 'All Guilds' thread lol) but i surely thank you, PianoWizzy, for finding my idea useful and putting it here!!

really.. JUST IMAGINE:

a dedicated developer - "owner of SL", project leader and strategic planner starts to wright a blog (or, better - start a global thread on forums AND wiki)

first he posts his bio - tells us why he loves sci-fi, what parts of it he loves most (Star Trek or Star Wars LOL), what books he reads and what modern researches he follows (quantum stuff or nano tech or Mars terraforming systems)... and we all share our stories as well )

then he explains us how he sees the SL UNIVERSE.. what is going on back on Old Earth? How is our mission going globally - does humanity succedes? Any major tech breakthroug was done and how will it affect our game world? More lore is great for furhter inspiration

surely, we will discuss all those topics and possibly inspire this 'owner' dude for some interesting features for the future - not in style of "suggestions and support", but in conversation and co-creation

sometimes we even can bring up a G+ "hangouts" sessions - it's like video conference with multiple participators - to discuss hot in-game matters like: "Voleria-5. Underwater or New Pirate Strike?" to decide what way to proceed the story

and of course, we will stay patient and dedicated on this path as we will know which way the game is growing with our help and how is this process going

c'mon STS - this is not that hard! use social media to the fullest, dudes)) in terms of implementation it's like making part of your workflow transparent.. Whatever soft you use whether it's yammer or bootcamp or any other - some global touchpoints of the process could be made public and even changed

it will be the first all-platform MMORPG being made with the co-creation power of fans and devs together - how about that?

[Snakespeare]

I like these ideas, but I feel I should say something to cool your expectations. So I'll share what history I know.

Early on, when PL was a baby, JustG, Cinco, and Asommers frequently responded to posts. You have to realize that they were three of four devs who kept the company alive at the start by working without pay in their office in Austin. (The fourth is Jakis, responsible for art development, and I guess he just isn't social in that way.)

That early messageboard involvement was done as a way to crowd source. All we had were some zones with zombies and a few bosses. There were no towns, no guilds, no quests, no PvP, etc. Their goals included all of these things, and they provided a road map thread of when they hoped to accomplish these things. They were also depending on us players to report bugs. Things were buggy enough that Cinco has been quoted as saying that they lost a lot of players early on and they aren't sure if they will ever come back.

We were also experiencing a lot of racist hate, for no explicable reason. As a result, JustG and Asommers became like the PL Police.

Add to that the necessity of curbing the profanity in-game, especially after they added PvP. The devs themselves don't have a problem with profanity, but they were somehow required to ban people who swore. JustG admitted it was his least favorite part of the job.

This continued for almost the entire first year. They were basically running with a team of about 12 people total. Think about that! 1/6th of their employees had to come here and go in game just to be cops! Samhayne had been employed by them early on to help with the messageboard, but he was unable to be hired direct because he didn't live in Austin.

Then... yay! they got a HUGE investor. I'm not sure of the details, but I think it was a New York firm. Many things changed after that!

For one thing, they posted that they would hire a full time social media developer, but he would have to re-locate to Austin. Sam applied for the job and got it and he moved to Austin with his guitars and his lovely family. Yay #2!!

For another thing, they hired devs to develop Star Legends. Yay #3!!!

Over the next year or so we saw JustG, Cinco, and Asommers less frequently. Sam was handling the bans, the language issues, the Facebook presence, and the structure of the forum... and who knows what else. For me and some of the regulars in the early days, it was like losing a social media pal, a little sad but completely understandable. JustG was hooking up deals with big companies like Verizon and SONY for the release of SL. Asommers was hiring. Cinco was very involved on the design level.

And frankly, whenever they did come onto chat, that Sam installed, we shamelessly flooded them with question after question about SL and content updates to PL. As a result, they only came by when they had enough time to answer our questions.

Also, I believe there was a philosophical shift. Instead of crowd sourcing, they began to trust their own intuitions. The limitation of crowd-sourcing is creativity. As Steve Jobs explained it, if you ask a customer what they want different in a phone, they will only say they want it cheaper. He found he had to make the phone HE wanted to use and trust his own judgement. For STS, that meant trusting Cinco's creativity* (and probably Jakis', but he's the quiet one ... except when predicting release dates when cameras are turned on, LOL!).

Finally, they turned to a company who sells hired guns for moderators. At first they had names like Moderator5 and Moderator 42. I'm not 100% sure, but I'd put money on it that these mods report to Sam.

As you can see, it has changed a lot. The new way is that the forums are in Sam's area of expertise and I don't think he needs to get much in the way of permission. For all practical purposes, Sam is King of the Forums.

So, as I said, to cool your expectations or hopes, it would probably be wise to think about the financial aspects. The dev in charge of SL has to hold down that fort while development goes on for the DL update, Humania, and also marshall the team for Scorn II. So it might be a little unreasonable of us to ask him to give some non-billable time to assure us that he's alive.

I think we would have less chance of dashed hopes if we think of Sam as the intermediary between us and the devs, and we simply feel thankful when the developers do take the time to visit us. And now I will click [Post Quick Reply] lol

I'd love to see a developer blog for SL, but don't get your hopes too high.

_____________
* = I'm basing this on something Cinco said about the year of DL development and "thankfully, Spacetime has my back".

[StompArtist]

^ Someone needs a special forum title "STS Historian".

[flashbackflip]

I like these ideas, but I feel I should say something to cool your expectations. So I'll share what history I know.

Early on, when PL was a baby, JustG, Cinco, and Asommers frequently responded to posts. You have to realize that they were three of four devs who kept the company alive at the start by working without pay in their office in Austin. (The fourth is Jakis, responsible for art development, and I guess he just isn't social in that way.)

That early messageboard involvement was done as a way to crowd source. All we had were some zones with zombies and a few bosses. There were no towns, no guilds, no quests, no PvP, etc. Their goals included all of these things, and they provided a road map thread of when they hoped to accomplish these things. They were also depending on us players to report bugs. Things were buggy enough that Cinco has been quoted as saying that they lost a lot of players early on and they aren't sure if they will ever come back.

We were also experiencing a lot of racist hate, for no explicable reason. As a result, JustG and Asommers became like the PL Police.

Add to that the necessity of curbing the profanity in-game, especially after they added PvP. The devs themselves don't have a problem with profanity, but they were somehow required to ban people who swore. JustG admitted it was his least favorite part of the job.

This continued for almost the entire first year. They were basically running with a team of about 12 people total. Think about that! 1/6th of their employees had to come here and go in game just to be cops! Samhayne had been employed by them early on to help with the messageboard, but he was unable to be hired direct because he didn't live in Austin.

Then... yay! they got a HUGE investor. I'm not sure of the details, but I think it was a New York firm. Many things changed after that!

For one thing, they posted that they would hire a full time social media developer, but he would have to re-locate to Austin. Sam applied for the job and got it and he moved to Austin with his guitars and his lovely family. Yay #2!!

For another thing, they hired devs to develop Star Legends. Yay #3!!!

Over the next year or so we saw JustG, Cinco, and Asommers less frequently. Sam was handling the bans, the language issues, the Facebook presence, and the structure of the forum... and who knows what else. For me and some of the regulars in the early days, it was like losing a social media pal, a little sad but completely understandable. JustG was hooking up deals with big companies like Verizon and SONY for the release of SL. Asommers was hiring. Cinco was very involved on the design level.

And frankly, whenever they did come onto chat, that Sam installed, we shamelessly flooded them with question after question about SL and content updates to PL. As a result, they only came by when they had enough time to answer our questions.

Also, I believe there was a philosophical shift. Instead of crowd sourcing, they began to trust their own intuitions. The limitation of crowd-sourcing is creativity. As Steve Jobs explained it, if you ask a customer what they want different in a phone, they will only say they want it cheaper. He found he had to make the phone HE wanted to use and trust his own judgement. For STS, that meant trusting Cinco's creativity (and probably Jakis', but he's the quiet one ... except when predicting release dates when cameras are turned on, LOL!).

Finally, they turned to a company who sells hired guns for moderators. At first they had names like Moderator5 and Moderator 42. I'm not 100% sure, but I'd put money on it that these mods report to Sam.

As you can see, it has changed a lot. The new way is that the forums are in Sam's area of expertise and I don't think he needs to get much in the way of permission. For all practical purposes, Sam is King of the Forums.

So, as I said, to cool your expectations or hopes, it would probably be wise to think about the financial aspects. The dev in charge of SL has to hold down that fort while development goes on for the DL update, Humania, and also marshall the team for Scorn II. So it might be a little unreasonable of us to ask him to give some non-billable time to assure us that he's alive.

I think we would have less chance of dashed hopes if we think of Sam as the intermediary between us and the devs, and we simply feel thankful when the developers do take the time to visit us. And now I will click [Post Quick Reply] lol

I'd love to see a developer blog for SL, but don't get your hopes too high.

Wow bro! That's THE most interesting post in months!

Thank you, Snake!

I totally understand the way it is going now - investors and deals consume the time, changing it into money

I'm not asking devs themselves to post often. Sketchy ideas approved for us to collaborate on. I don't trust Steve J. on the matter of co-creation. In his example he uses simple paradigm 'question-answer' - this stuff has already changed - new collaboration form is 'discussion-insight'

And of course, Sam is welcomed to lead this collab.. This is what is called 'social media amp'

Getting investments does not mean you should stop talking with your fans. It means that you expand 'the talking' through framework applied

[Snakespeare]

Developer's Blog would so rock! (just wanna emphasize that!!!)

[StompArtist]

^ Special title for the historian would rock too!

[PianoWizzy]

Snakes! Wow! Many thanks for your insight and context. That STS Historian title? I think would be well deserved :O

[Snakespeare]

LOL! thanks, but Fluff will be along soon with corrections.

[Kanozaki]

lol oh where be fluffy ?

[FluffNStuff]

lol oh where be fluffy ?

As a bear of little brain, it is going to take me about a 4-8 weeks to read his post. Until then, I suggest we all eat hunny.

[octavos]

I like these ideas, but I feel I should say something to cool your expectations. So I'll share what history I know.

Early on, when PL was a baby, JustG, Cinco, and Asommers frequently responded to posts. You have to realize that they were three of four devs who kept the company alive at the start by working without pay in their office in Austin. (The fourth is Jakis, responsible for art development, and I guess he just isn't social in that way.)...ECT...ECT...ECT

1. WOW, thanks snake for the insight, very pleasing
2. Historian...rocken title
3. and a developers blog...would be nice for all the kiddos with dreams of becoming a developer.

[PianoWizzy]

As a bear of little brain, it is going to take me about a 4-8 weeks to read his post. Until then, I suggest we all eat hunny.

Way ahead of you man. -steals from Winnie's stash-

[FluffNStuff]

Shakes a fluffy fist at piano!

[Snakespeare]

I don't trust Steve J. on the matter of co-creation. In his example he uses simple paradigm 'question-answer' - this stuff has already changed - new collaboration form is 'discussion-insight'.

I just want to be fair and make sure I didn't quote him wrong, so here's what the writer actually said.

"2. Customers cannot tell you what they need
“Apple market research” is an oxymoron. The Apple focus group was the right hemisphere of Steve’s brain talking to the left one. If you ask customers what they want, they will tell you, “Better, faster, and cheaper”—that is, better sameness, not revolutionary change. They can describe their desires only in terms of what they are already using—around the time of the introduction of Macintosh, all that people said they wanted was a better, faster, and cheaper MS-DOS machine. The richest vein for tech startups is creating the product that you want to use—that’s what Steve and Woz did."

From this article:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20...om-steve-jobs/

How this relates to the topic is this... I think the boards were initially a crowd-sourcing mechanism, and they still are somewhat, but they did it a lot more early on and not quite as much now.