Author Topic: No love from MUSE on these Boards?  (Read 20582 times)

Offline Cid Ferringer

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No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« on: October 24, 2013, 10:24:46 am »
It seems to be all about facebook.
I've been reading these boards for a few weeks and I've never seen any WIP or upcoming feature posts from MUSE.
Yet on facebook there's been concept art, talk about voice overs, etc.

Of course MUSE are free to direct their marketing where they see fit, but it would be nice if we could at least have a small thread in a corner somewhere, were this stuff also ends up.   ::)

Offline dragonmere

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2013, 10:59:29 am »
I agree. There could definitely be a benefit to having a single post that contains, verbatim, any game-related updates that get posted to twitter/facebook. All patch update notes do get posted here eventually, though.

That being said, I'd say the vast majority of players who love the game enough to end up here already know how awesome and involved MUSE is. I completely understand why the spend more time  posting through more visible channels.

Offline Echoez

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2013, 11:05:35 am »
I don't use Twitter and absolutely hate Facebook's layout, let alone I just made a facebook account after 19 years just so I can get updates about my university classes, I barely use these 'social' sites, what about people like me?

I understand that they want to be seen, but quite honestly, not posting anything on their own forum is kind silly and unreasonable.

This lack of information about update material is an other factor this game loses players rapidly each time, there is nothing to keep them hooked if they don't at least know what's coming, we barely got any info about the Hades before it came out and only people in the test server actually knew what it was about before it got released. That's costing MUSE a lot of players that don't have the same patience as others.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2013, 11:07:58 am by Echoez »

Offline dragonmere

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2013, 12:00:02 pm »
This community is quite passionate. If they were to post every proposed tweak and change on these forums in public, I can only imagine the amount of speculative debate. And that's not really productive. Things already get a bit heated, at times, on the Dev App board.

The Dev App exists to find bugs, and test balance. That's it. It's not meant to be a public 'patch-preview' or a way for players to get a competitive edge through early information. And I don't see it being used that way. If you're suggesting that people are literally quitting the game because they don't have in-depth analysis of new features before they're implemented, I fully disagree with you.

If it's really that big of a deal to you personally, why not just sign up for dev app access? That way you'd get to 'know things', and you would be doing a great service in helping the dev team balance and test. :) http://steamcommunity.com/groups/GoIEC

Finally, the social media pages are public. You never need to sign-up or log-in to view them:
https://twitter.com/GOIOnline
https://www.facebook.com/GunsOfIcarusOnline
So no biggie if you don't 'use' twitter/facebook. You can still see everything. If one's hatred for Facebook/Twitter is so intense that they can't even view a public page on the sites, that sounds like an entirely different issue ;)
« Last Edit: October 24, 2013, 12:12:37 pm by dragonmere »

Offline Cid Ferringer

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2013, 12:13:33 pm »
True, all of it is public..

But I'm with Echoez here.
Players who check out these forums need their carrot to stick around.
The facebook page brings in new people, while the forums makes them stay.
So it's just as important to keep old players enthusiastic as it is to bring in new players.

It's strange that this forum is right under the devs noses, yet this is where it's most quiet.
If the forums aren't the primary source of information about the game, then it loses value to the players.

zlater75@hotmail.com

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2013, 02:25:33 pm »
Maybe an active mod could help them to copy over the news here? Just to let muse continue with more important things and let those (like me) who don't (and never will) use facebook or twitter as their own decision get a clue of what's going on? win - win? Except for the poor mod who needs to do the work of course.  :-\

Offline Thomas

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2013, 03:18:52 pm »
Maybe an active mod could help them to copy over the news here? Just to let muse continue with more important things and let those (like me) who don't (and never will) use facebook or twitter as their own decision get a clue of what's going on? win - win? Except for the poor mod who needs to do the work of course.  :-\

I think we found a winner.

Offline Echoez

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2013, 05:21:38 pm »
This community is quite passionate. If they were to post every proposed tweak and change on these forums in public, I can only imagine the amount of speculative debate. And that's not really productive. Things already get a bit heated, at times, on the Dev App board.

The Dev App exists to find bugs, and test balance. That's it. It's not meant to be a public 'patch-preview' or a way for players to get a competitive edge through early information. And I don't see it being used that way. If you're suggesting that people are literally quitting the game because they don't have in-depth analysis of new features before they're implemented, I fully disagree with you.

If it's really that big of a deal to you personally, why not just sign up for dev app access? That way you'd get to 'know things', and you would be doing a great service in helping the dev team balance and test. :) http://steamcommunity.com/groups/GoIEC

Finally, the social media pages are public. You never need to sign-up or log-in to view them:
https://twitter.com/GOIOnline
https://www.facebook.com/GunsOfIcarusOnline
So no biggie if you don't 'use' twitter/facebook. You can still see everything. If one's hatred for Facebook/Twitter is so intense that they can't even view a public page on the sites, that sounds like an entirely different issue ;)

As someone that already has access to the Dev App Test server, I was aware of pretty much everything, but that was entirely NOT my point, my point is that people that play the game need something to look forward to and MUSE gives them nothing on that respect, nobody knew anything for the new update other than it would come and if Sunderland hadn't posted that discussion from a game review site about a 'Magma gun' most wouldn't even have a clue it was even coming.

I'm saying that there need to be more updates about the 'updates' if you get what I mean. For everyone and for it to be accessible by the official forum, not some secondary site. That's common practice, not something new.

Also I hate Facebook and Twitter and pretty much any similar site yes, as I said already, I hate Facebook's layout and I don't see why would there be no info about everything there on the actual official forum.

Offline Cid Ferringer

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2013, 06:29:34 pm »
Not to mention that it's a bit of a pain to keep checking on different sources..
So most people can't be bothered.

Offline geggis

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2013, 05:42:03 am »
Not to mention that it's a bit of a pain to keep checking on different sources..
So most people can't be bothered.

Exactly, and that applies to the forums too. As somebody who's relatively new to them, I find them pretty horrible to navigate and keep up to date on. There's the Feedback and Suggestions board, The Classroom and its child boards, Gameplay, General Discussion, Community Guides, News and Annoucements -- and they're just the boards I tend to gravitate towards. It's just a pain to keep abreast with what's happening here because everything is so spread out. I'm not a particularly active user on Facebook (and don't have a bloody clue about Twitter) but it's an incredibly easy thing to just hop on and get a good idea of what's going on in the world of Muse and Guns of Icarus Online. It's one page you scroll down. Done.

The thing is, short of Muse making Guns of Icarus Online pay to win, you folks aren't going anywhere, you love the game and know waaaaaay more about it than the average player. You don't need carrots, you really don't, because you appreciate the game as it stands and know the developers well enough to see where it's heading. And besides, as far as I'm aware, every player of Guns of Icarus Online get those e-updates detailing what's going on with the game and what's planned and being worked on. As far as I'm concerned those emails are instrumental in bringing people back into Guns of Icarus Online if they've drifted off for whatever reason (school, GTA V, life, cheese sandwiches). They brought me back a few patches ago after many months away. Emails popping up in your inbox and Facebook/twitter updates are far more pervasive than blog and forum updates for most people and that's what's ultimately keeping the community ticking over/expanding (and it is expanding, albeit slowly http://steamcharts.com/app/209080#All. And if it's not expanding, it's certainly stable and healthy -- there are few communities I know that are as civilised, accommodating and friendly as GoIO's).

I'm not saying the forums aren't important here, they absolutely are, but we're talking about where Muse should be 'directing its love' which translates to me to: 'where they should be spending their energy'. It'd be great to keep everywhere updated but I believe that the more centralisied all the info is, the better. Same goes for all the ships and guns stats -- I'm hoping Wilson's notes etc. are where the accurate up to date info is rather than in some wiki or a forum entry.

The facebook page brings in new people, while the forums makes them stay.

I'd rather the game make people stay! ;)

This lack of information about update material is an other factor this game loses players rapidly each time, there is nothing to keep them hooked if they don't at least know what's coming, we barely got any info about the Hades before it came out and only people in the test server actually knew what it was about before it got released. That's costing MUSE a lot of players that don't have the same patience as others.

Almost all smaller competitive teamplay centric multiplayer games lose players rapidly after sales and content updates. And I say this as both a Guns of Icarus Online and Natural Selection 2 player. They're games that pretty much live and die by communication and co-operation; without those two, they're considerably less satisfying. Games like Chivalry, TF2 and Counterstrike hit a sweet spot where teamplay is important but monkeying around on your own is still a hoot too. Those things simply aren't possible in GoIO or NS2 (less so with the latter). Without a commander or captain, you're screwed. Without decent comrades, you're screwed. And in pub games, neither of those things are guaranteed. This, I believe, is why these games bleed players after large influxes: the uncoordinated newcomer pub game versus how the game is ideally played.

Depending on how Adventure mode works and the upcoming co-op mode I think Muse are going down the right track to appeal to players who aren't keen on focused competitive play. I think with those pillars in place the game will be in a much better position to maintain players of all kinds. At present, Guns of Icarus Online demands a certain type of player which explains why it has such a good community and why I'm not too concerned about PS4 players joining the fray. I don't think that that type of player is one who constantly needs reassuranace that new things are coming because the game is already unique, deep and downright awesome as it is. If those things aren't enough, then they probably weren't going to stick around anyway to be honest.

Eeesh. That was long.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2013, 05:52:44 am by geggis »

Offline Echoez

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2013, 08:45:48 am »
I thought this thread was about MUSE not posting the facebook/twitter material here.

Is it realy that hard to just post the important stuff here as well? As a player that already uses the damn official forum I think that I personaly shouldn't have to visit external sites at LEAST for the upcoming game update announcements and or info related to them.

Offline geggis

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2013, 10:12:27 am »
Yeah it is, but you mentioned the game losing players as a result of the lack of information on updates when I don't think that's the root cause of that particular issue (besides, I think Muse do a better job of keeping players in the loop than many other developers out there). It's tangential but related.

I think if you head over to Facebook Echoez, you'll see that there aren't many (if any) big announcements that haven't been mentioned on the forums or the front page somewhere. A lot of the updates on Facebook are just nuggets and yeah, they could certainly appear on these forums or the front page but I get the impression this place is more for solid News and Announcements rather than PR confetti, which social media kind of lends itself to.

Finally, the social media pages are public. You never need to sign-up or log-in to view them:
https://twitter.com/GOIOnline
https://www.facebook.com/GunsOfIcarusOnline
So no biggie if you don't 'use' twitter/facebook. You can still see everything. If one's hatred for Facebook/Twitter is so intense that they can't even view a public page on the sites, that sounds like an entirely different issue ;)

I concur. Why reproduce the effort of mirroring the updates on these highly visible and accessible sites when you can check them out yourself at the click of a button, or hell, the tap of a screen? The forum isn't that nice to use on your tablets or phones either.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2013, 10:36:50 am by geggis »

Offline Garou

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2013, 11:44:05 am »
Muse is putting their efforts into making the game better. I don't think it's so big a deal to meet them halfway by occasionally clicking a twitter link.

Offline Echoez

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2013, 12:21:58 pm »
Yeah it is, but you mentioned the game losing players as a result of the lack of information on updates

I probably worded that incorrectly then, it's the lack of content in general, not realy the lack of info, but lack of info can harm a good deal of more casual players that don't want to get involved for good but still spend some time with the game. I've seen it happen, lack of info about important things and updates slowly, but steadily, kills off any hype the game might have.


Muse is putting their efforts into making the game better. I don't think it's so big a deal to meet them halfway by occasionally clicking a twitter link.

It's their game, I'm not demanding anything, I'm asking them to do it if they want to.

Offline Serenum

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Re: No love from MUSE on these Boards?
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2013, 12:56:10 pm »
Muse is putting their efforts into making the game better. I don't think it's so big a deal to meet them halfway by occasionally clicking a twitter link.

No, but I do think that a more active forum is better then a less active one, don't you?
If we could get more bits and pieces of info here it wouldn't hurt anything.