Sierana, it doesn't matter if they asked whether it was a good or bad move to have in-game advocates. We are PAYING to play this game and as such are entitled to opinions as to how it can/cannot be improved.
EI may own Horizons, but that doesn't mean they know any better. I mean think about it.. how much experience do these guys have? Close to zero.
Not listening to the community's feedback is the worst any company could do.
100/100/90 Ancient dragoness of Order - Retired
I, too, have some serious reservations about choosing (and comping) a few players to act as "mini" WM's.
First off, and as has been pointed out in other posts here, there are any number of players on Order (and I assume Chaos and Unity as well) who already perform the same sort of "duties." And have been doing so for a long, long time--most without any need or desire for recognition, much less compensation in any form. They populate the New Player channel whenever they are logged in. They stock the New Trismus consignor with low level and low cost items for new players. They're the first folks to answer the call to build community structures and/or slay event beasties. They take their playing time and hang around New Trismus throwing buffs on new players and tutoring them in the ways of the Land. They've been there, and they're doing that.
In addition, we're a fiercely independent lot who bridle at the mere notion of one or even a group of players pretending to be our lords. We'll subject ourselves to the vassalage of the developers, of course, but never even entertain the notion of being liege to another player. We've had just such experiences twice on Order when a player or two decided to announce themselves "leaders" of the Order community, and we laughed in their faces. Then ignored them.
If you need assistance running an event--if you want or need advice or even guides for an event--just ask. I assure you that a goodly number of the community members of each server will promptly volunteer. For fun. For free.
Before you criticize anyone, walk a mile in his shoes. Then, when you criticize him, you'll be a mile away. And you'll have his shoes.
I'm sorry but I am tired of hearing people flame EII for every step they take and every change they try to implement in this game. Have you ever thought that some of these ideas might be to fix some of this problems?? If so, STOP flaming them everytime they try something NEW!
I have played for a long time in Hz, and I've come to admire this community for how much of an actual GOOD community Hz is. I am sad to say that that admiration has considerably dropped. The community isn't even trying to give EII a chance to make Hz better! Patience is a virtue this community seems to have lost. Every says that "other games have tried this and its ruined the game completely!", well this is not "other games". This is Horizons: Empires of Istaria. We have in my experience and I'm sure many others the best gaming, and supportive community I've seen in a game so lets start acting like it.
Okay, I am not stating whether I am for or against this being implemented...
But I do want to know Why. Without knowing the full scope of the position, it is hard to determine if I would be interested in having Advocates in game, or if I may even be interested in being one.
Can we get a little more detail, EI?
Thanks,
Lex
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Need I remind everyone reading this that Horizons is played in three different continents across a dozen different time zones
The idea being posted here would in my mind need quite a few people within these time zones to even look at being any sort of success.
And as a few have pointed out the community now has mixed feelings about alot of issues with h.z
good/bad or indifferent if the ' advocates' became the stopfix to fill the gap in w.m's/devs it wont work no matter how hard these players put their time in.
If I have burst any bubbles with comment I'm sorry but the reality is there needs to be a working dev team that these advocates can work in with and we aint got any devs yet.
Originally Posted by Dremora
Dremora I have looked at it this way and no they dont have the experience that most who play would like them to have. I agree completly and yes we are entitled to our opinions. But once again please try to understand!
If you went in and applyed for a job you had no experience in but you knew you could do it and then your entire family (which is what we are to EI) and the boss of the job you are doing said no you cant i dont see experience here and have no faith in you. It would probably depress you and possibly make you mad.
Hence when EI stated they are doing this and only one or two people out of the community said ok i Dont agree but its worth a try. It doesnt say things for the GREAT community that I know I am a part of. EI didnt spend the money ( amount doesnt matter ) to watch it fall apart. They are trying is my point here and all people can seem to do is fuss about what they are doing. I dont understand how everyone can claim to love this game the way that I and a few others i know personally do. If we have no faith in EI how can they have faith in us.
Cebiliis,
You make a pretty acute point here and I hope my post earlier wasn't something that was interpreted by people as flaming or flame bait. It can be a fine line anyone walks between trying to be concerned and constructive and not coming across as overly pessemistic.
I hope my post was taken in the way I intended it as a constructive suggestion to ease people's minds about the possiblity of an Advocate. I've thought about being an advocate, I lack a few of the qualifications they've put up as requirements so it's a moot point, but before I'd accept a hypothetical Advocate position I'd like at least that level of clarification/job description.
Favoritisim is a legitimate concern, we don't want any Advocates to slide into a case of 'tin-god syndrome' so to speak. However this could also work, let's see if we can't get a little bit more information about things from EI and make an informed decision. I'm not for this idea, nor am I against it, I just want to know more about what EI means for an Advocate to do before I pass judgement.
That is a good point Sierana, but the least EI could do is make SMART decisions. It's really quite obvious that there are already plenty of helpers on Horizons who are not asking for anything, and so therefore it's pointless to add some incentive to some job that is already there.
100/100/90 Ancient dragoness of Order - Retired
Silsarik,
Thank you and I appreciate what you said. Your idea I found to be refreshing and constructive. Forgive me for I cannot think of any better way to state this but my point of my previous post was simple...
To many of the people I have come to admire whether on the forums or on the face of Istaria, I have seen make pointlessly rude remarks about EII. It seems quite rampant to me, and its very depressing. This is my point of view, and I honestly hope I'm wrong. Please prove me so in a constructive manner. Horizons community, please either tell me you've given EII a chance to do right by this game, or at least pull an idea out of your head along with the "flame", that way your at least submitting a SOLUTION!
Cebiliis, I think the reason why everyone is so skeptical about EI is because they started out on the wrong foot, giving insecure billing and whatnot. But also, it's because some of us don't like change, however there is one thing we can all agree on: We love this game and wish the best for it, and seeing how EI doesn't even have experienced devs, the future doesn't look to bright.
They have to earn our trust, and making stupid decisions isn't a good way to go.
100/100/90 Ancient dragoness of Order - Retired
yes there are some people already doing these jobs. But I know on order I stay in marketplace alot, ill let you guess how many times i have heard the question is this broke??or these mobs aren't spawning right.. or when are they going to fix _________. with a advocate n game it could possibly cut down on ticket time response and also when someone started a griping session in marketplace and 20 other people joined in they could report ok you guys may have not gotten may tickets on this but in the community it seems to be a huge issue.
maybe stop some problems that the community has. Honestly when has a set of extra ears (not opinionated ones with rules and set ways to say and do things hurt at all)
For instance if when you were doing AROP if part had been broken you could have popped over into marketplace and said ITS broken. Without a advocate there you would have to file a ticket with one there they could contact the pwers that be and say hey this just broke and they could let you know right then that those powers were working on a solution.
Well Dremora,
Thank you for pointing that out. I know EII has had quite a few bumps already in there short history with this community (to be frank most of them are not small either) but they have been trying to make things right to my knowledge, and its taking awhile because there new devs must learn the behind-the-scenes workings of Horizons.
Stating that you love this game, and its community we have I think helps. I know we all love Hz, I just think we may get better responses and maybe not so many "bad ideas" if we stated our concern and some ideas as a response to EII's changes/ideas.
Having a set of extra ears is good, but think about this:
Let's say a bunch of people are having a bunch of different problems. An advocate(s) informs the folks over at EI, which is sent through email (I would think, correct me if I'm wrong). This only adds to the countless bug reports that are being sent via tickets, and to have EI check the emails from advocates more often than the customers wouldn't be acceptable.
100/100/90 Ancient dragoness of Order - Retired
i would think that it could be done by pm's, direct call, a irc for staff advocates only, It would also cut down on the tickets therefore there wouldnot be so many to have to go through.
Any of those things could be done by a customer whether it be pm's, direct call or IRC.
100/100/90 Ancient dragoness of Order - Retired
I would not think that they would want every customer in the game to call them everytime that they thought something wasnt right, thought that EI had done something wrong. With the forum post against EI every where I look i know i would be afrain to give all customers acess to bash my company that many different ways.
Heh, good point.
But if they haven't been so stupid from the beginning they wouldn't have this problem..
It's a bit too late to change that now though. =p
100/100/90 Ancient dragoness of Order - Retired
On July 21st, when DarkEnigmaa, Gizmo, and Danu all made appearances in game to talk with us, I remember Danu mentioning advocates to a group of us.
Therefore, it appears this is not an overnight idea... although I do not know how much time has been invested in researching its effects on the HZ community.
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How many time have you or friends or family done something that WAS COMPLETELY stupid dumb or however you want to put it. EI has admitted they had a few rocky weeks at the beginning and that they hoped to gain our trust. How can they do that if we dont forgive them and realize that they are humans and make mistakes just like the rest of us.
To be honest, I have seen no direct apologies for what they have done, not even for the insecure billing issue and the fact that people still can't cancel their accounts.
Forgiving them has nothing to do with the whole 'ingame advocate' concept.. if they want our trust they could, say, hire more devs AND ACTUALLY WORK ON FIXING THE GAME instead of helpers that are already there.
100/100/90 Ancient dragoness of Order - Retired
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
