Shazaam

12 Years.... Type /playtime in game. It will only max out to when Gold2 started after the hardware failure of 2007. [11:44:53] You entered through the portal to Wurm on day of Tears, week 3 of the starfall of Diamonds, 980. That's 3430 days, 4 hours and 8 minutes ago.

Enchanted Stuff (Xanadu) Selling various enchanted items. PM me if you need something specific. BOTD items are Blessings of the Dark (coc+woa effects) and are my specialty. Most CoC/WoA items are priced to go, so if you want a bunch give me a reasonable offer and they're yours. CURRENT STOCK FOR SALE (09/15) TOOLS WEAPONS

Is this a "who takes Zoloft" thread?

I do mapping professionally, there's a few options for you (and open-source too!). The problem is how detailed you want the map, how accurate, and how much bandwidth you have to spare when creating pull requests. This doesn't include time for users to create features, and management thereof.

Then how is it possible that a very severe bug like this can get through, that is found within an hour of server up? The sad part is this isn't uncommon. It means one of a few things: 1- You didn't actually test anything, or listen to anyone testing, or no one cared to report it. 2- You do not actually have a proper staging server that actually replicates the live servers. 3- You do not have a cohesive QA strategy. 4- You do not care enough, and are willing to risk loss knowing this will happen (see: mmo gaming development fallacy) Will you at least address the part where a CM found this bug on the test server on August 26th, and yet it's still here almost 2 weeks later? (if true). I honestly do not even have to think to post this stuff anymore...

Seriously?! Was it submitted or just 'chat'? Either way it doesn't matter.

Chances are the code was merged and pushed to a stable build before this "warning" went up. This 'discussion' was more about letting you yell about it, but nothing will really be done in the end. Too lazy to actively reach some reasonable response. They will assume the 'anger' will subside, and that it's 'ok' after a certain period. Look at your subscribers for a wake-up call. None of them will answer any relative questions, even honest ones. I dare them to address my real concerns.

You clearly have no concept of public relations. It's as i said, poorly thought out. There's a missing element of translations in the process, both internal, and externalized. See my suggestion for a better solution to every concern you've mentioned.

I do not believe for a moment there is some sort of 'wider picture' beyond ad-hoc fixes aimed at trying to associate 'progression' and in actuality promoting 'regression'. The reasons 'why' are jumping around and are not clear for likely a variety of reasons. How simple would a 'skill check' on vehicles to see Animal_Type versus Animal_Husbandry_Skill (or Taming) be to indicate Allow:Commander/Hitch/Unhitch. This is done in a lot of places. You leave the aggro, leave the ability to hitch-4-life and create some goofy lore backstory that old Hell Horses are too dangerous to handle and hitch. Let's calculate the results: Value(*ALL) + Skill Aimed Progression(1*Aligned) + Anger(0) + DevTime(-1) = WINNINGS See my other post if you dont understand this :

I'll take this next level for you. My sarcastic and witty replies earlier were censored, and that's fine, so here's the real approach. You want opinion and constructive criticism? Pay attention if you actually care. --- (Assumptions: I do not know any processes, methodology and structure in place or lack thereof) Business Strategy and Value: Ask yourself why things lately are receiving a growing negative responses. Do your decisions align with business strategy, and is there strategy in place that becomes a common goal for all staff? If your changes negatively impact the user, what value have you created to compensate for this loss? Your priority is obviously to keep subscriptions growing, and just as important as maintaining current ones. You should have blunt priorities, and with them comes a story of ‘why’ and ‘how’. Included with this should indicate risks and a knowledgebase of known issues and relational problems. In this case, a ‘bug’ that has been left far too long has morphed into an untended consequence of a long implemented feature. When it’s become a crutch within the game mechanics, a ‘feature’, you need to address it differently and not as a tactical change, but as an initiative for further feature development. As a developer, if you cannot clearly answer “how does this affect the user and does this bring value to the business?”, then you should consult someone who can. Priority for this change is low, as the impact is nil (AFAIK). Add a new feature reworking animal hitching and breeding, link it and determine if it can be in the next milestone. If this is impacting performance (hardware/software) and in turn, bottom line, then you need to completely remove the feature or provide a reasonable alternative until a fix is made. Players have no problems dealing with severe hardware risks that negatively impact their perceived gameplay, as long it’s truthful and logical. Do not patch issues such as this, in an attempt to avoid public hostility or promote some ideological perspective of ‘game progression’. Again, what risks were involved in doing nothing, doing everything and then ‘patching’ a solution? If you misread or didn’t appreciate these risks, and the result is what you read now, do you understand why or how? If not, there is a perspective issue here. There should always be a postmortem analysis of what exactly you need to address when issues such as this go sour. Do not discount this to "whiny players" or "the vocal minority", and make assumptions that players will simply "get over it". For example, the Refresh changes proposed. You offer a new feature, Food Overhaul, that directly addresses what you see as a ‘game progression’ issue (refresh). It marginalizes the 'issue' by creating better value (and progression), and therefore is resolved. Removing refresh at this point carries only risk and provides negative value as it has negligible impact. The fact that this is still perceived as a ‘good idea’ despite reneging on it shows a complete lack of business judgement and risk aversion. The same applies for the fountain-pan situation. Poor judgement overall. Culturally, I see a big problem in the way things are handled. Development seems a zero-sum game from a player and a developer’s perspective lately. This is toxic for everyone, and has clearly affected the business line. The game is over 10 years old (I’ve been playing since late 2004, early 2005), and that’s no excuse to have these issues. The fact it’s lasted this long should be something to be proud of, and the fact it keeps people interested in a extremely unique setting. You have a very real problem when your premium count is down year-to-date over 35%. Commit to change, innovate your process and have a vision for your business. I know your resources are limited, but there are ways around this. Well-thought out and innovative game mechanics will come as a result of positive change, both satisfactory for you and your customers. For reference, this is Wurm in the grand scheme of things, and what should happen: Now, if I make improper assumptions above with the previous statements, you can move on to the next issue. Communication: You do not address your audience properly through communicating game-play changes. Building social capital here is beyond crucial, and there doesn’t seem any systematic method of doing so. It seems unprofessional and very reactionary at times. Most of you are volunteers, I understand, but you choose to take on the responsibilities of your positions. Patch notes are no exception, and this is treated like a forum post a lot of the time, like most amateur online gaming businesses do. The last few ‘updates’ have caused a wealth of negative feedback in part due to this. Whether it is a communications issue between those with control and those relaying messages, it is of no concern to the user. This includes anything that the user has no impact or control over, such as any performance or productivity issues. You are supposed to communicate value, not excuses. Address issues properly, connect and relate with your audience. Be clear and state the purpose; work out a story line that isn’t convoluted if required. Honesty can go a long way if it’s addressed properly, and can buy some much needed time and patience for complex issues. Remember Wurmageddon in spring of 2007? No one crucified Rolf et al. because they didn’t backup frequently enough, they were fuming mad sure, but the apology and overhaul of development practices lead the way to growth during Gold enhancements. The key is the active communicated value that kept the customer base from regressing too much. That’s a huge win during a catastrophic and potentially business ending situation. Building a brand, marketing and communications is completely void in my opinion however. I understand the online gaming world has its own set of challenges with such a public outlet, but fundamental practices shouldn’t be avoided. If this requires extra resources, invest in it!! It’s single handily one of the most important structural pieces to your business success. You notice the stagnation and loss of customers right? It’s equally important to start here to save your existing subscriptions, and work on gaining new ones. As it stands, you have a lot of trust to rebuild in promoting this game with how recent decisions have unfolded. Attempting to communicate with your audience with the sole intention of conducting some sort of business intelligence should also be a priority. You might find out a lot more about what priorities might need shifting this way. Think of it as post-marketing research, you need to understand the response and outcome to drive the next stage (iteration cycle). Analytics and metrics do not lie, just ensure you are getting the right data to drive your decisions (see: perspective). It starts here. I do love this game, and unfortunately for you I’m annoyed enough with recent events to promote my evil self-serving agenda: Overall Growth and Success. Done.

Thrilling is the past, never the future here. Business common sense lately is lacking. I'm not getting paid to tell you why, so you'll have to figure it out on your own apparently. I have plenty of materiel to provide at cost to assist however...

Yeah, i really enjoyed my 'patch notes' humorous post going missing, along with every comment referencing it. Good times.

I don't know, how about not taking half a step forward, then a cartwheel back with development and alienating a large portion of your player base because of -insertnoneconomicalreasonhere- ? I mean...difficult right?

I like how the few here who say this is complaining obviously have zero comprehension behind why people have problems with the PoL changes (that were reversed, thank god). Is it just your 'neckbeard-economics' that prompts these replies? I fail to really understand the minority who always equate : 'Moar involvement = Moar time in game for me to do trivial stuff! I'm immersed in my digital autism!!' I'm honestly curious... I also still have a concern with 'random character bonuses', does this equate a linear random bonus per character? or will it be "random skill bonus" on any random food? This 'cooking' update is about 7 years overdue, and i know it's a pet project for a few of you. Just, please, do not over complicate it....too much time in Wurm history has been devoted to useless development endeavors that do very little for game/player immersion or progression. Release a sample set, and then continuously integrate more as you go based on feedback/bugs. Pretty simple risk mitgation, really. Nerfing anything at this stage should always be a last resort unless you have ample evidence that a mechanic is negatively impacting the playerbase (economic, etc) or marginalizes a new development that offers your customers a better (see: not tedious) overall experience.

The "crying" is about the changes not making any sense and alienating the current "refreshers" without any valid economic reason to do so. In a game this old, the last thing you want to do is take things away and not offer anything better back. You know, bring value back to the game? It's always about stupid piece-meal changes with no foresight. If anything, refresh becomes marginalized with the new system, so why even bother with it? Shows a real lack of understanding. Also, entitlement is an expectation. This 'feature' was a given, and has been for some time. Lol, and that exactly is what is wrong with Wurm.... Whomever mentioned "can i code plz?!" really made me laugh.

Food, fine. I'm not holding my breath this actually is well thought out with "random personal bonuses". Scared people might eat certain food to gain certain bonuses to get better skills? The PoL changes for refresh are beyond stupid. I've crapped on you guys before for this completely lack of business sense and vision. Extra POL account feeds main account 99% nutrition every 18 hours. Who cares? Your new system is about bonuses, not nutrition % skill gain (1% is laughable). That account will likely be unsubbed, as lots keep refresh/enchant ones around for precisely that. How is this warranted again? You've annoyed pretty much everyone besides Tallios who obviously wants people to play 18hrs a day to get anything done. I'd say that's reason enough to reconsider this, as there's only negative consequences.

Bumping this. Remove it, there is no need for a domain requirement, and now that altar influence has changed (not for the better), it's even more required that this is removed.

Those that think it's OK are not the casual, let's-premium-up players that Code Club should be aiming for during these events. This is a business, and my post is directly saying that they are failing when it comes to attracting subscriptions outside the regular core group. Communication and marketing is clearly doing the opposite of what it should.

Each year, i go on a vacation for 2 weeks. It's a yearly anniversary. Every 10 years, I take a 1.5-2 month vacation to celebrate. It's a decade-long anniversary. But wah i dont understand! Most games have milestones like this for an extended period of time, or provide automatic 'gifts'.

Yeah, I am whining to a degree because 'i want my stuff', but i really was angry enough to post, expecting a lot of "QQ moar!!" replies. This isn't some small event, its a 10th anniversary and should be treated not only as a reward, but as a potentially good marketing tool. Unfortunately, as pointed out, they obviously didn't understand the impact of "free stuffs!!" as anything more than some silly weekly event. The real impact is 4 accounts will not be sub'd, and a further 7-9 accounts -might- have potentially come back but 100% will -not- because my anger vented out on them. Its consumer driven focus that should perpetuate these events, but they do not, either for a lack of resources, understanding, or cohesion.

Love you too Lunn~

So many gone.. Obligatory post about lack of reading comprehension-skills and canned phrases eliciting a lack of education and awareness of the subject matter.

I'm really curious, why was the gift event only a measly 7 days? I cant be the only one who missed out on the gifts, considering it was enough to get me to re-sub for the time on multiple characters. This quite literally made me want to re-sub now than at some future point. I can only assume this was the driving point behind this particular event, and considering it's the summer a good idea right? Because i was away, i got nothing, and immediately regretted subscribing again. So again, why limit it to 7 days? Who was the target audience for this, existing daily premium players? You can see how this is a bit annoying to say the least, not just for me, but should be for you as well. This isn't some random event, it's supposed to be something important, strategic, and business driven, or is it? So here's my 10th anniversary story from a guy who's playing this game since 2004: - Left game a number of months back out of boredom. - Oh look, anniversary event? cool, let's resub after hearing about some fun unique items, 10th only comes once right, so must be good! - Resubscribe a few accounts, likely more. So much character hours and prem time!! - Get nothing. wtf. - Find out you had to read deeper into the forums for patch notes indicating the days required. Too bad so sad, get out of my store. - Yell at your inactive townies because you are pissed off, generally turning them off on coming back. Sounds whiny and complain driven right? It is, but the fact remains something that trivial is enough for an 'n' number of people to subscribe, including me. For me it's a failure, as had i known there was nothing to be had, i would not have subscribed. Lots of my inactive town members were keen to re-sub on multiple accounts but did not based on me being annoyed. Here's your primary source consumer data for next time. So in short, make events longer or you could start by putting dates/times into the main patch notes on the client and website instead of deeper in the forums. How many people actively read the forums versus those who play? Exactly. Imagine someone reading directly that they -have- to get premium by a certain date to get items or extending events based on results! EUREKA!! $$$! -Done.

updated, back again.

Explain how 'bending the rules' was because of a developer error? I'm assuming you've given your silly post absolutely no thought, considering you fall under my previous post of "they have more!! that's unfair!! take everything away!! i have no reason for anything!!! duurrrr!". I can only hope someday soon i see some epic childlike whining come from you, or others like you, because of something completely irrelevant like this fix. Of course an aspergers-quality post just makes me laugh anyways. Getting rid of this item serves absolutely no business purpose, and seeks only to have negative impact on consumers. If it was used primarily for something that's not implemented, who cares if a few are lying around? Does it take away the game's immersion, does it affect server stability or performance, does it stop people from subscribing?