Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
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Invite streamers into functional freehold.
Areann
Member, Alpha Two
Hello
There's growing frustration about the state of the alpha, the release of new systems, 'broken promises', ...The big difference between the freehold showcase and their state in the current phase comes up again and again. So how about Intrepid invites a couple of streamers into a fully functional freehold, or even invite them into a build where they can make their own freehold. While doing so, explain clearly and in detail, why it isn't possible to have this functionality in the current phase. Not 'story points, roadmaps, canban, agile, iteration...' but Josh needs to do this and Diane needs to do that, and we need to buy that server tec and we need to finish building this and that ... Pretty sure enough people would stay attentive for an hour to understand this and once they do a lot of endless debate and frustrations could be avoided.
Advantages:
Gives streamers meaningful content
Gives players access to information
Lets Intrepid generate goodwill and understanding
Proves 'freeholds are real'
Reminds players of how much Ashes still needs to grow
Refoccuses the alpha as a testing enviroment instead of a game
...
There's growing frustration about the state of the alpha, the release of new systems, 'broken promises', ...The big difference between the freehold showcase and their state in the current phase comes up again and again. So how about Intrepid invites a couple of streamers into a fully functional freehold, or even invite them into a build where they can make their own freehold. While doing so, explain clearly and in detail, why it isn't possible to have this functionality in the current phase. Not 'story points, roadmaps, canban, agile, iteration...' but Josh needs to do this and Diane needs to do that, and we need to buy that server tec and we need to finish building this and that ... Pretty sure enough people would stay attentive for an hour to understand this and once they do a lot of endless debate and frustrations could be avoided.
Advantages:
Gives streamers meaningful content
Gives players access to information
Lets Intrepid generate goodwill and understanding
Proves 'freeholds are real'
Reminds players of how much Ashes still needs to grow
Refoccuses the alpha as a testing enviroment instead of a game
...
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0
Comments
First, streamers can fuck off. They are the ones causing that frustration in the game, not Intrepid. They are the ones that want a game they can stream to get views, when Ashes is trying to run an actual test. So yeah, they can fuck right off.
Second, Intrepid should never, ever, say that "this employee needs to do this piece of work in order to get this thing in to the game". Due to the online nature of an MMORPG, that would be directly against employment laws in many parts of the world, and a dick move in the parts where it isn't outright illegal.
Instead, what I think should happen is more posters should be telling other posters on these forums that the game is in alpha, you should be expecting a test rather than a game, there are no timelines, it shouldn't always be fun to test, it should take years, and this is what you signed up for.
Oh i just meant to make it very concrete, doesn't have to be with any specific name. could be team, or job tile as well. Ok, maybe some guild leaders then?
The specifics aren't all that important. Whatever bridges the community expectations and the alpha's realizations.
The big problem with "concrete" is that game development (software development in general) doesn't work that way. Development is more elastic than concrete - you can't give concrete information on something that is elastic.
On top of that, you have two other issues.
The first other issue is that Intrepid have attempted better communication in the past and been punished for it, by the community (largely streamers and other content creators). Once bitten, twice shy and all that - the communication the community is getting is a result of the communities previous actions.
The second of the other issues is that while you may want more information on freeholds (as do I), others want more information on naval content, or on fixes to corruption, on secondary classes, or on literally any other aspect of the game. Everyone is asking for more information on the part of the game that they are most curious about, which puts Inteepid in the position of not being able to prioritize any one thing.
If you want more information on freeholds, you don't *just* ask for it. Sure, you post that you are interested in it (as you have done), but you also try to generate discussion on it.
This does a few things. If that discussion doesn't really take off, it means both you and Intrepid know that people generally aren't too interested in freeholds just yet, and so there are other things that they should focus on communicating. On the other hand, if it does get good engagement, it puts freeholds on Intrepids radar as being something worth talking about more, and potentially even trying to get on to the alpha servers in some form.