State of the Game Address. Please get involved!
I apologize in advance for the length of this post.
A general summary of the purpose of this post is my concerns about where the game is heading. Those who know me know I'm a fairly positive person all around, and have been consistently supporting to give Jolt/OMAC a break and/or keep discussions regarding them mature. I'm probably one of the last, if not the last, that has said I have faith in their capabilities -- regardless of my honesty in that they're doing something wrong.
For those that don't know me, it's fair for me to say that anyone I've come across it's been on good terms and I've for the most part never done any harm to anyone in the game in my stay. Well, except for Mikeland - during diplomacy I sent a picture of a grandma tranny as my ending statement. <3 Ava and Chrissi :P. I am a carebear when it comes to people's real feelings. So I feel, given that said - even those that don't know me, you can trust that what I have to say is fairly just and true in intentions. I hope you take the time to involve yourself and additionally talk to others as well.
The issue is this at this point - I lack the ability to close my eyes anymore, or not so much close my eyes - but keep my chin up and smile in regards to it. This again, those that know me - also know that as well while I'm fairly positive and nice, I can also be one of the loudest straight-forward c***-suckers in the room once I disagree with something, normally vehemently.
Notes to those who read and respond:
1. Mind over matter.
Keep a serious mind, I don't mean you have to respond seriously or entirely intellectual - but understand the purpose of this post is well intentioned.
2. CAUTION! Do not feed the animals.
Try to abide to the forum rules and keep flaming/swear to a minimum. If anyone sees anyone flaming, try to defuse the situation to the best you can and PLEASE do not feed trolls.
3. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless like water...
I encourage every person to get involved - top/low KD players, retired players, moderators, community managers, and so forth. I encourage you to all speak freely without an underlying motive.
4. Can't we all just get along?
Moderators I ask you do not delete any threads in this post, even if some break numerous rules.
Try to use editing instead, and if it's swearing - use *** to block out the prefix letters rather than change the words. Changing the words would normally adjust the content flow of what someone is saying, anyone that can understand what F*** means is old enough to use the word, those who can't - are protected from it, not that really need any protecting in any case. And if you have to edit a persons post completely out, clearly denote why and if possible summarize the purpose of the person's post.
Use at your own digression but consider the general fired up attitude of the community before you make any rash decisions. For the most part I've seen good work from the moderators, namely Patience has been doing amazing - flawless in my opinion. Bishop has been doing great too, but has stepped on a few toes - but his personification in his moderation is respectful. Lydias as a community manager has been amazing. She should get a fat raise in my honest opinion.
Holey moley Jabroni, get to the point!
As you can tell, this will probably be a bit on the long side given the precursor is already at this size. And again, I realize that it may seem lame to some that I take the time to right this, especially when I'm on temporary retirement as is - but this is by far the most intriguing game I've ever played, and I've considered myself a fairly accomplished gamer. While the game itself at this point is relatively unimpressive anymore, the community itself I still have sincere feelings for. But as you can see from mergers and disbandment of long standing KDs followed by the detainment rate of new players, both new and old are unable to see reason to continue.
Without further adue:
This was posted in the Bugs Report section, in Luth's wonderful "Outstanding bugs - PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING" post. What was said, while I say this with dismay, couldn't be more truthful. Having played years on dial-up, I can honestly attest the game's response time is slower than a 56k modem and you'd be hard pressed to prove it was much better than 28.8k. And these were during times where the server population had been as low as they are now to closer to ten fold it's current retainer.Originally Posted by Luth
Initially, I must ask this:
Can we get a solid official response about the current plan of things, what's being done, who's doing it and so forth. And I'd appreciate not just a dinky response, but a solid response that explains a bit in detail. This additionally, should be a joint response from those who have a better understanding of the actual current milestones and future plans - so developers should say what they're doing and what problems they've run into, as well as community managers should make a clear statement of what they're doing now and what is planned for the game.
Additionally, even though I requested a jointed response - I think all players would appreciate a human response (Brian & Sean have been pretty good about that when they were making dev. posts) rather than a robotic one which would only leave us to question your actual intentions and ultimately make your response futile.
Now onto my actual grievances:
I normally don't talk ill of others in the IT field, especially in regards to programming/development -- but you guys have really had a ton of time on your hands to get the game done. All these problems should be addressed already.
In both my opinion and professional view - at this point, given the amount of time that's been laid available to you, performance issues should be at equilibrium. Additionally, if anything it should be faster, however if not - it should be no less than equal in speed and stability. All player management facets should be working, such as training times and Attacks. Your ad system should be working properly. User account functions should be working as promised.
So where should you be?
Personally, I feel that at this point - you should be at a milestone where you're looking to improve performance further, streamlining the game design, and adding game functionality. This could be in-line with sponsorship as well, but could be prior to public announcement.
For those who are technically aware in regards to web dev. trends, comparatively - this game is, in it's current state -- however long standing, is worse than Magento's E-Commerce load. The required architecture between the two are on two different plains all together additionally, Utopia should be considerably less complex in comparison - yet it still suffers these type of performance issues on a well respected cloud, compared to Magento which could retain better service with equal hits on a lax shared environment? (This is me talking out of my ass - but I'd still bet on it)
Child-like Critcism, oh my!
The management of this game appears to me, and I'm sure many others (Given the emotional consensus I see from others), to be quiet frankly - ass backwards. Now I'm not saying I could do a better job in a professional position, because I couldn't - but they're sound issues in regards to this game that have repeatedly shown either complete disregard for the community or responses that would serve best in iambic panto-meter in Shakespearean tragedies.
"I have balls of steel."
I have not seen failure like this ever in gaming history outside of 3D Realm's handling of Duke Nukem': Forever, which has been "in-development" for 13 years. However, with that being said, they are additionally two different campaign spheres. One being straight-shooting vaporware and the other being destroying an already existing game that wasn't really all that broken in the first place. Yes, we cried out to fix CGI errors - but NO ONE should have been altering the internal game code outside of simple Age shifts, until you had a solid and stable product to release in place of it. Additionally, had you been altering code - there should have been plenty of backups and file-version control for a project like this.
The above said is simply an example of concern, but the past is the past and you need to recognize faults to improve yourself as a whole, but it seems that even up to current date this is failing as well.
Crouching tiger, hidden penis!
In recent issues, our forum has been removed from the list. Below is cited reasoning for this action, and I'll note before hand - DO NOT hold Bishop responsible to this, this is an official response:
This is cited within this thread, Q: Why are we removed from Browser Game Communities?
While I can take and respect actually responding to our questions on the subject, I find it odd that this would be a reasonably deemed option. I respect that they are already working on relieving this issue by offering a new style, but again - why do this?
I hear voices...
This is where paranoia can be driving point in my case, but I'm going to avoid pushing that as a point. While I agree the questionable motives, such as the possibility of trying to push the community out and/or destroying the game in a cunning version of Mao Zedong's Art of War (Personally I compare it to KGB-style antics). It appears that chess pieces are being placed appropriately to push us into what are seemingly foreseen controlled responses. Additionally, I'm seeing hints of power plays at the same time.
But I'll avoid all that as I do not want to taint my post (Haha, he said taint!) -- my concern is how they view the community by doing this? What is completely demoralizing is that they're completely comfortable saying "We're completely comfortable hiding your community as your views do not reflect ours."
/facepalm
Really? You're actually okay disabling our ability to attract more players, which will digress our game to an even lower state at it's most fundamental level. FURTHER MORE this is just because we don't agree with the design chosen? You could have simply stated you will begin working on a new design to quell the masses but in the mean time try and use the current one, and if it's that much of an issue - manually change to a style that is more fitting to your personal taste.
Yes, I understand the cry-out of the community was childlike in nature. However, it's hard to deny that the art work at the top was a slap in the face to the Utopian populace, as it's a fairly majority view that Utopia Kingdoms relies on it's art work (Yes, I had to refrain myself quoting gobsmacking) to attract and the game itself is a slap to all of us that you claim it's what Utopian's have wanted. Yeah, I'm fairly certain we all want advancements to the game - but not at the expense of losing the core FORCED game focus: community. Did you think having a character of the game we loathe at the top was going to rub us the right way? Basically, in the most obscene metaphorical value - you tried to shove a pineapple up a bears ass, whilst saying "lemons" for reasons unknown. You can't expect to not receive an overtly hostile response to that.
While I feel that our reaction was a bit tasteless - you should suck it up and take responsibility rather than slink to a lower level. We're not loud because we're ungrateful bastards, we're loud because they're actual problems to address. If you review the community in the past, you'll see that their have always been problems - but additionally, there was a lot more self-restraint.
The goooooooood Ol' days
We were very loud with Mehul as well at times. The difference is this, Mehul normally stepped up right to the plate and held responsibility for things. Hell, a lot of the time his response time was nearly flawless with fixes. Why is it can one man (Blake did help though in multiple facets) can accomplish all this, but a well grounded company with a much larger capable scope can't even amount to a fraction of his work?
I will NOT say you're incompetent, because I do not believe this. While I want to come up there and go MMA on your asses for what, yes, feels like incompetence - I understand and respect your accompany and it's employees are accomplished. However, I feel you need to take a major turn and adhere to a bit of insight from your community to actually get things done.
With that being said, I suggest the following:
1. Lets put on some big boy pants.
Address the community on questions concerning what is there biggest problem with the game. Catwalk made a post/poll fairly in-line to what I'm stating here, but I feel that Jolt should come forth and initiate - it should not be our responsibility to involve ourselves so much into this, as there is little to no gain.
The post noted is here: Which of the following bother you the most? Pick 3
I feel so pretty, Oh, so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and bright!
However! Please, recognize the beauty in that - as we still do as a reflection of how much we care and love our friends within the community, yet you can't obtain that same eccentricity for something, I feel, is a municipal gold mine. This extends to Earth as well, not just Utopia - but yes, more so Utopia given it's raw community drive and passion. You should use that care as a driving point in your care for the game, even if the community has been yelling at you. There is ALWAYS a mirror reflection of good or bad in anything. So take the time to admire the white light in what may appear so grim.
2. Whatcha need baby?
Ask what the community wants for this game. What needs to be tweaked? What needs to be re-affirmed (E.g. Rules and regulations)? What do you want to see new in the game and how?
Take the time to learn about what we want.
3. Technical Knockouts
Ask the professional community what is realistic in our wants and needs. Ask how we could accomplish things - in how to actually achieve the goal, what costs are involved, how long it may take and a general synopsis of concerns and why they feel one way may be better than the other. This doesn't just reflect the development of the game, this pertains to management as well.
Example, cheating
An example concern in management is Anti-cheating methodologies. Take in those that have actually cheated on a large scale and can be reaffirmed by a good portion of the community. Take into account those who do not cheat, but have a realistic view and understanding of methodologies.
Notably so, one person shouldn't be managing cheating alone. You should have a group of people reviewing cases and the information provided. Take into account logs from 3rd party programs, but don't take them as facts - as people are really that lame to forge logs for their own purpose. Take the time to piece issues together and investigate.
iRobot
Algorithms that have an evolving AI mechanism should not automatically act, actions should always be manual labor. However, I definitely suggest checks to warn and investigate.
Stay true to your word
Further more - once you make a choice, DO NOT (In my opinion) withdraw from it. Stand fast unless you are presented with absolutely irrefutable proof. If you get bull**** templates from people "Oh, I moved to so-and-so" - ****ing ignore it. Kingdoms do have templates of circumstantial issues to send to you to con you into re-instating. Not to mention, they also have brain storm groups to come up with unique ones if it's been over used or the situation is unique. It's sickening at the amount of time people put into cheating.
The counter arguments?
The concern by the community that do cheat, I've normally heard is as so:
So many cheat that it's unrealistic to assume you could compete. Additionally, claimed is that they try so hard to have their players reinstated because they enjoy their presence as much, which again - shows how we'll do anything to retain our community.
However this being logical reasoning, and I can definitely understand it from an emotional aspect - you're turning over a never-ending circle. You'd never have to face these issues if people didn't cheat. Some may claim "There will always be someone cheating", which statistically - is of contextual value, it doesn't change the fact that you're making the matter worse by succumbing to it. The more and more people cheat, the more people will be drawn to cheating. But likewise, the less and less people cheat, the more people will resolve from cheating.
I can only hope
So on a personal note, and I know most won't listen - I'd really like you to take in what's been said and take a stand in stopping yourself. What's disgusting is hearing claims from kingdoms that do cheat boasting about victories over kingdoms that don't cheat. So, given that expression of morality - I highly doubt anyone would really take in what I've said. But I can wish?
Anyway, I apologize for the tangent on the subject.
4. If you show me yours, I'll show you mine.
Take into account everything that's been suggested and present a game plan to the community. If you see a reasonably happy consensus (A poll would help counting this, but I'd encourage reading written accounts too.), then you're on the right track. If not - ask on how to achieve a better plan.
If people are being unreasonably nit-picky about it, then confirm towards a game plan that you deem is fit. But ensure that the plan's key focus is community and communication.
Communication
Yet again - with that being mentioned, updates should be made by both community managers and the developers on what's new with the game - regardless if there is not much to say. Additionally, I really suggest (And this is purely my personal opinion) taking the time to step away a little from professionalism and taking the time to personify yourself with us. We're about community, so I can't see us not caring about your real life - and I can actually see us being a lot less tense in regards to you all. I'm not saying dump a bunch of drama on us, but write with emotion as opposed to stone.
Development
I suggest you do not release bug fixes day-by-day unless they're critical bugs, but release them in packages each week aligned with your blog post. This, strategically, should ALWAYS give you something to talk about each week. You can use this as a catalytic reminder of posting each week.
5. Godspeed, Soldier!
Adhere to the game plan!
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That's pretty much it. The only suggestion I have about managing this, is having your concerns publicly addressed to us on the front page and/or in a notice somewhere on the game.
E.g.
"We want you! Join up in the discussions on how to improve our game <hlink>here</hlink>! We'd like to hear from everyone, new and old players alike!
The link should direct to a post on the forums, that either addresses all the issues there or summarizes your goals and links to posts of each of the discussions in phases.
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I'd like to hear from you all on how you feel about this and I'd encourage to you to keep this thread pushing if you really feel something needs to be done about this game. I'm not saying my ideas in the latter section are the best way to go, but I personally feel it's reasonable to request given the consistent failures and backwards psychology by Jolt/OMAC.
Ultimately, the facts presented are a major concern to me and I'd like to hear from everyone else in a constructive manner how they feel and what we should be doing or they should be doing to relieve our stresses.
Thank you all for reading my post!
With love to all of you,
Jesse E. Finn
Is Wizzy secretly a gay fish? 
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