The thread announcing the
survey was locked, but I don't see anything in it forbidding us from posting our answers in public and discussing them with others.
The following is, more or less, what I answered. More elaboration where the survey didn't allow for it, but less comments not allowed in public.
1. How do you believe we can be more transparent?
By telling us what you're doing or plan to do, and why.
This includes:
- Complete and detailed update notes (including the bad news, which you've been leaving us to discover on our own, and including detailed lists of event requirements and rewards. Put them in spoiler tags if you're afraid it will get too long).
- Bug tracking: which bug reports is QA aware of, what they've passed along, which bugs are actively being worked on, and what priority the other bugs have been assigned.
- Suggestion tracking: which suggestions have been passed along to the team, which have been accepted (and when they might be implemented), which have been rejected (and why), which have been tabled (and why).
- ToS and related policies: tell us what the punishment is for various offenses, tell us (through ticket response) when a hacker we've reported has been investigated (and whether they got banned or not), tell banned players what they were banned for (in sufficient detail so they can try to defend themselves).
- Forum rules: don't enforce rules before publishing them.
- Give us decent advance notice of sales. At the very least, put all planned sales and cash events for the week in the Wednesday notice, instead of editing them in 12 hours before they start (Double Miracle Time, Daily Deals, etc).
- Staff availability: let us know when our CM is away, so we know when we can't expect our input to be seen. In general, be truthful about when or whether any staff look at the forums. For example, do GMs ever look at the Stuck Characters section?
You did not have a question about "How do you believe we can be more communicative?" So I'll just answer that here:
- Listen to us. Read what we have to say, on the forums, on reddit, on fb, in-game, everywhere. Yes, it's a lot to read, so maybe the CM needs an assistant or two. Making the VFMs do that work for free (by forwarding what is worthy of employee attention) is unprofessional.
- Respond to us. Share your thought process regarding what we said.
- Listen to our feedback on what you just told us.
In short, converse with us, rather than posting a notice "this is what's going to happen" and then locking the thread or merely ignoring anything we say about it.
2. Where do you feel transparency is most lacking?
Hackers and banning process
However, I do object to the fact that you made us choose just one. It doesn't cost more to be open about more topics. Just get in the habit of telling us everything.
For reference, the other options were:
- Updates and bug fixes
- Promotions and sales
- Other (please specify)
3. Where do you feel communication is most lacking?
Updates and bug fixes
However, again, the correct answer is "All of the above". Listen to us, regarding everything.
For reference, the other options were:
- Hackers and banning process
- Promotions and sales
- Other (please specify)
4. Do you feel any of these items can help improve the flow of communication and transparency?
Official MapleStory Discord - No. Too casual. Good for socializing, not for the transfer of information.
Weekly Livestreams - No. Judging by the one stream we had: too much time wasted for too few answers, inability of the presenters to follow chat, and the streams get deleted unless explicitly saved.
Developer Notes - Yes. Provided they include an insight into developer plans or at least thought processes, rather than meaningless platitudes.
More presence on Reddit and other fansites - Yes. And the official forums. And by presence I mean answers provided and conversations held.
Also, more detailed and timely notices on the website.
5. What areas of the game would you like to see most improved upon?
Overall server stability and bug fixes
Again you force us to choose just one. For me, the correct answer is "2, 3, and 4".
For reference, the other options were:
- More in-game events that encourage social and player interactions
- Consistency with events and in-game content
- UI and Launcher
- Other (please specify)
6. What is your highest priority non-game issue we should fix? Related to website, forums, etc...
The company's apparent attitude towards the players and the game.
7. Why do you play MapleStory?
Other (please specify)
Habit
For reference, the other options were:
- Social element and friends
- Time invested into the game
- Gameplay and diverse classes
- Character customization and cosmetics
- Enjoyable as a whole
8. Why do you visit the official MapleStory forums?
Socializing with people of common interests is enjoyable - No.
To bring attention to game related issues that may go unnoticed - Yes. And also to learn of game-related issues that other people have run into.
To suggest improvements and personal feedback on the game - Yes.
For information on news and to participate in forum contests - Why are these two on the same line? Coincidentally my answer is "No" for both (I get the news from the website and I don't bother with most contests) but I can easily imagine people who want one but not the other.
I don’t visit the official MapleStory forums - No.
This question is really poorly put together.
- The next-to-last option has two unrelated reasons on one line
- "To ask game-related questions / ask for tech support" option is missing
- "To help other players", is also missing. Which is kind of odd considering all game-related questions asked on the forums are expected to be answered by other forumers or the VFMs. Staff never do it. And rarely respond to technical issues either.
- "I lurk the official forums" option is missing. I don't know how it is here, but generally speaking, most forums have ten times as many lurkers as active posters. Most people would rather passively read, to keep themselves informed of what is going on with their game, but don't ask anything or make any comments of their own.
- The "Other (please specify)" option is missing,
9. Why don’t you visit the official MapleStory forums?
(not answered)
10. How would you rate our services (Updates, events, stability, support, and communication) in the past year?
2
11. What was the reason for your rating?
It's not a 1 because the game generally runs and gamebreaking bugs are dealt with.
It might have been 4 if you'd refrained from firing KThxBaiNao before a suitable replacement could be found, and 3 if you ended up hiring someone suitable. But you did fire him and you did hire someone who doesn't play the game and who immediately got into a fight with the community. This does not look promising.
For a better rating from me, you'd have to have proper development and testing (so fewer bugs go live and no bugs return after being patched), more information provided to players (see "how can we be more transparent"), decent customer support (instead of a bunch of human bots copy-pasting "sorry I can't help you" from a knowledge base), a stable client and convenient launcher, a handle on the hacking/botting situation, a consistent server timezone, fewer events that are more painful than fun (lag, chat spam, inventory clog, RNG-dependent rewards, buggy, exploitable, etc), WAY less greed (Pay2Win, RNG everything cash, and the absolutely disgusting nerf to Kishin), and a LOT more listening to your players.
and 7 others.
and 7 others.
Comments
1. Requested more transparency on Suggestions / Feedback / and Requests. If the thread wasn't ignored, staff (such as the CM or VFM) would often times reply saying it has been brought to their attention, they're looking into it, etc. The thread often dies following their response, but we never get a follow up on whether or not the suggestion is being considered and on the table (even if not a priority at the time), or just rejected. This has often led to similar or identical suggestions that are brought up multiple times throughout the year(s) and just wasted time on both sides.
2. 3. Those weren't the options I picked, so I can't recall.
4. Similar answers. Didn't think Discord or Live Streams were effective ways of communication due to conflicting player time zones, nor do they leave any record to reference. Believe they had a suggestion box, where I put Youtube Videos for accountability.
5. Can't recall if that was the option I picked.
6. Left blank, or N/A. Couldn't think of a non-game issue. Was thinking too hard finding something relating to the Website or Forum, your answer was a good one.
7. Remember selecting multiple options for this question. Habit, Friends, and Invested Time or something like that.
8. Yes to everything. Misread the last question, thought it was asked if I visited the Official Forum.
9. Not Applicable.
10. 3
11. Repeated some parts of my answer for #1. Disliked how CM and VFM are basically used as scapegoats because I don't think Nexon actually know how the game works. Examples and reasons being repeated complaints about outdated events and drops. The exact same bug(s) or suggestions, which have been fixed or implemented, being undone only to have to bring to their attention again to resolve.
1. The survey you get when you close Maple. I believe this was added early 2016. What was done with this information? What did you use the information for? What was the point of it? Can you please remove it now?
2. There was another survey around the time that poll was released that asked if we wanted to revert back the time zone change(to this day we still haven't heard from that either). This survey was just a general survey to see how everyone was feeling about the game and services.
3. And now there's this survey.
Why should we expect this time to be any different? This last survey took way longer to create than it was supposed to(not that it matters, but I expected it to be far more detailed given the time it took to make), was missing many things, and was also worded in a weird/bad way. I know surveys are supposed to be something for you, Nexon, to analyze and use to make changes. But your track record is not very good when it comes to being up-front with the information you collect.
In the survey, I wrote that the biggest issue right now is Communication and Transparency. If I really have to explain what I mean by this, you have not been keeping up with the forums at all. One huge step forward would be using this very survey to disclose just how the community feels about things. It would allow us the players to reflect just how much the community has in common and how we can come together to better assist you in making Maple a better game.
I'd be happy enough if they respond in a timely and meaningful manner to the overall results of the survey.
GMS Tespia failed for several reasons.
1. The people given access to it were chosen at random. As a result, very few of them were actually looking to test the new patch. Others treated it as a "private server" and used the special leveling-up and gearing functions to go fight bosses they never could or just mess around. Still others tested exploits (and didn't report them, of course).
2. The team was swamped with bug reports, many of them duplicates, unintelligible, or not bugs at all ("make me a GM!")
3. The server lagged, channels crashed, and these things were not dealt with promptly, losing much testing time.
4. Testing was ineffective because the testers were mostly busy starting, leveling up, and gearing characters to get ready to play the new content.
5. Bugs that were reported were not fixed and sent back to Tespia, so even if they were fixed for the live release, any further bugs hiding behind them could not be found.
6. Many bugs that were reported were not fixed before the patch went live. Possibly, not enough developer time was allocated to this.
So Tespia was closed.
The way it seems to me (and others), Nexon made a conscious decision to have the live servers be the Tespia. As you correctly pointed out, when a patch goes live, the big bugs in it are found within minutes, by people who aren't specifically testing anything, just playing their regular characters in their regular way. So, when there is an update, after sanity testing by their own QA, they bring the game up with the dev team standing by, fully expecting to have to take the servers down again for an emergency bugfix patch within hours of the update patch.
It may be more efficient from Nexon's point of view, but of course it's quite frustrating for us to "always" have an "unscheduled" maintenance shortly after a (usually long) update maintenance.
TL;DR: If Tespia is to return, it needs to have much more thought put into it, to make it effective.
You roasted them good, my nqa. 10/10. I support all the answers you gave for the survey. I'm glad to see you are still actively involved with the community and letting everyone know what's going on with the game and NexonNA staff.
Thank you.
the CMs cannot be CMs if they lie to the community ! honesty is a basic requirement !
https://clips.twitch.tv/CallousCallousApeVoteNay > when the CMs are lying in our faces !