NQ-Naunet

Hello Noveans,

The upcoming 0.24 Update includes a plethora of enhancements to elevate the look and playability of Dual Universe. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at two of these: biomes improvements and new voxel features.
 
BIOMES IMPROVEMENTS

In this first phase of a significant, ongoing graphics update, we are improving the biomes of our planets to make them more visually diversified. Combining Speedtree, a procedural generation software, with the Quixel Megascans assets library for the textures and meshes, we now have many new tree models!
 
The Quixel Megascans library also provided many new rock models, which our artist team has then reworked.
 
Moreover, to achieve maximum realism, our ground textures now utilize scans of authentic terrestrial soils. In addition, we have improved the rendering to increase the textures’ visual quality and performances even further.
 

 

Rendered models from our Engine Editor.


These new rock assets will replace all the previous ones and add variety to the environments.
 

 

We have a new night lighting! To offer a better visual by nighttime, the tree models have been calibrated in order to fit the new night lighting.
 

 

All tree and rock assets are placed in the game world using procedural generation spawning.
 

These scans ground textures are the materials from Quixel Megascans used to replace previous ground textures.
 
NEW VOXEL FEATURES

One of the most compelling aspects of Dual Universe is its fully editable world. Through the art of manipulating voxel structures known as voxelmancy, the possibilities for channeling your creativity are endless. Our goal is to provide the players with as many tools as possible to edit voxel shapes, and we want these tools to be user-friendly and efficient.
 
 
The suite of voxel tool shapes is now even sweeter with the addition of the cone shape. Using it is similar to making cylinders. Use the mousewheel to increase the size of the base, and drag up or down to increase or decrease the height.
 
 
The new line tool allows you to select an area using any of the available voxel shapes and then hit the Alt key to delete them. Hopefully, you will now find it less tedious to remove voxels than with the previous system!
 
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Are you looking forward to being surrounded by the luscious new sights and textures of the graphics update? How will the new voxel tools compliment your constructs? Let us know in this discussion thread. ?
 
 

Hello Noveans,

The upcoming 0.24 Update includes a plethora of enhancements to elevate the look and playability of Dual Universe. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at two of these: biomes improvements and new voxel features.
 
BIOMES IMPROVEMENTS

In this first phase of a significant, ongoing graphics update, we are improving the biomes of our planets to make them more visually diversified. Combining Speedtree, a procedural generation software, with the Quixel Megascans assets library for the textures and meshes, we now have many new tree models!
 
The Quixel Megascans library also provided many new rock models, which our artist team has then reworked.
 
Moreover, to achieve maximum realism, our ground textures now utilize scans of authentic terrestrial soils. In addition, we have improved the rendering to increase the textures’ visual quality and performances even further.
 

 

Rendered models from our Engine Editor.


These new rock assets will replace all the previous ones and add variety to the environments.
 

 

We have a new night lighting! To offer a better visual by nighttime, the tree models have been calibrated in order to fit the new night lighting.
 

 

All tree and rock assets are placed in the game world using procedural generation spawning.
 

These scans ground textures are the materials from Quixel Megascans used to replace previous ground textures.
 
NEW VOXEL FEATURES

One of the most compelling aspects of Dual Universe is its fully editable world. Through the art of manipulating voxel structures known as voxelmancy, the possibilities for channeling your creativity are endless. Our goal is to provide the players with as many tools as possible to edit voxel shapes, and we want these tools to be user-friendly and efficient.
 
 
The suite of voxel tool shapes is now even sweeter with the addition of the cone shape. Using it is similar to making cylinders. Use the mousewheel to increase the size of the base, and drag up or down to increase or decrease the height.
 
 
The new line tool allows you to select an area using any of the available voxel shapes and then hit the Alt key to delete them. Hopefully, you will now find it less tedious to remove voxels than with the previous system!
 
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Are you looking forward to being surrounded by the luscious new sights and textures of the graphics update? How will the new voxel tools compliment your constructs? Let us know in this discussion thread. ?
 
 

Hey there.

"Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself. A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations..."

Star Wars-esque constructs and/or events fall within "fair use" (not sure what it's called in Canada/France, so forgive the US terminology).
 
We appreciate the concern, however. It's always good to surface subjects like this to ensure we continue to be compliant. ?

I'm winding this thread down and locking it, because I think everyone has made their respective points. I'll keep it up for posterity.
 
The reason for yesterday's moderation is not a question to be debated. The post technically breached the forum rules we have about naming and shaming *and* doxxing. In an attempt to demonstrate a moment of grace and understanding in light of the valid frustration I witnessed, I did not take full moderation action (ie. issuing a ban). Next time, there will be no leniency. Do not doxx, do not 'light doxx', do not even 'doxx adjacent'. No doxxing, period.
 
As for questions of toxicity, let's review the rules together right now to clear up any misunderstandings that might exist about our expectations of how people should behave in order to participate in this community.

Additionally, I personally begin to consider behavior toxic when it's repetitive, malicious and can't be reasoned with. Some of the posting patterns I see here fall under that personal definition for me, but I digress. Copied directly from this post: 
 
"We want this forum to be a place where everyone feels empowered to have an open and friendly discussion with us (the Novaquark team) as well as other community members. To help make this possible we have created rules we feel will keep things positive and ensure that proper netiquette is observed.

By posting on this forum, either publicly or through private message or other means, you explicitly agree to follow the rules and guidelines posted here. If you do not agree with these rules – in whole or in any part – then do not post. All members will be treated as if they have read and understood these rules and guidelines.
 
(I) Be respectful and courteous.

The Dual Universe forums and community site are provided for Dual Universe players and those interested in discussing topics directly related to Dual Universe. We understand that community members may disagree with each other, and even with us, but we expect opinions to be expressed in a reasonable and polite manner.  It is important to maintain an atmosphere of civility and respect, so that all voices may be heard.
 
(II) Communicate constructively.

All communication, whether between players, moderators or Dual Universe staff, must be constructive. Posts without constructive commentary can distract from the topic at hand, reduce the visibility of valuable communication, and discourage others from participating in the conversation.
 
(III) Following actions are prohibited:
Posting off-topic replies or replies that are likely to drag the discussion off topic. Necroposting on old threads (unpinned threads in which the last reply is older than 2 months). Spamming on a specific topic. This includes creating multiple discussions on the same topic in the same or multiple forums. Cross-posting a specific reply. This is also a form of spamming. Posting an image without a meaningful text. A meme is not a response to a discussion. They are usually disruptive and can be easily misinterpreted. The same is true for animated GIFs. Calling out other players or community members by name to shame them for actions or opinions you may disagree with. Naming and shaming is not tolerated. Posting in any manner that disrupts an official thread. Official threads are topics created by the Novaquark team for the purpose of collecting feedback and opinions. Threatening legal action. Unfortunately, this kills all conversation immediately as we must refer all further discussion to our legal team. To preserve the conversation intact and unaltered these types of responses may be immediately archived. Trolling (provoking) people. Flaming (insulting, attacking) people. Picking fights isn’t a good way to make your point. It usually means you don’t have one and are just trying to cause trouble. Using profanity. Including creative spelling or character substitution to bypass word filters. Using the report system in an abusive manner. This is a form of harassment and a tremendous waste of time for both staff and moderators. Discussions and comments involving real life politics, ideology or religion. These can be incendiary topics and will usually lead to inappropriate behavior and uncomfortable situations. Publicly posting any private discussions, conversations, or other material between a user and a Novaquark employee (confidentiality policy).  
Violating these guidelines may trigger a warning, followed by either a temporary or permanent suspension of forum privileges depending on the severity and frequency of the violations.
 
(IV) The following actions may result in the immediate suspension of forum privileges:

There are some actions severe enough to result in immediate temporary or permanent suspension of posting privileges without prior notification. Serious or sustained offenses may result in suspension of not only the user's forum account but game account as well.
 
Threatening other members or Novaquark staff. No, “just joking’ is not a defense. We take this very seriously. Publicly revealing account or personal information of any person, community member or Novaquark staff. Posting harmful links pointing to viruses, malware, worms or trojans. Posting sexually explicit content. Including posting links to such content. Hate speech is not tolerated in any form. Attacking any ethnic group, religion, gender or sexual preference/identity. Promoting exploits, cheating programs, piracy or any sort of illegal activity. Attempt to impersonate Novaquark staff or another member of the community.  
Violations of these rules may result in further steps taken with outside authorities or agencies. This may include your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and local or national Law Enforcement agencies.
 
(V) Abide by moderators and Novaquark employee’s instructions.
 
If you disagree with a moderator or employee's actions, do not discuss or challenge the matter in forum posts. Send an e-mail to forum@novaquark.com, and be sure to include your forum handle (name displayed on the forum), but NOT your password, and clearly state your concerns.
 
IMPORTANT: Forum content is moderated at Novaquark's sole discretion, and content may be modified, removed, or otherwise restricted by Novaquark employees and/or moderators.
 
Best Regards,
The Novaquark Team."

Hi y'all, DU players, NQ staff, visitors...
 
Did you ever think to cooperate with your worst rivals ?
A strange idea nah ?
 
What if there was something far more important
than grabbing a few kilo-tons of resources
or playing the one with the biggest (ship) ?
Something like, for example,
the construction of stellar gates to travel from galaxies to galaxies, or the annihilation of a meteorite that would threaten to destroy Alioth, or again, the development of a terraforming technology (not the tool every player can already enjoy) to create new planets ...  
Of course, accomplishing these goals should be proportionately more difficult* and complex *
than what the game already offers or will offer when released, in single player gameplay, or within an organization ...
and should take several months or even years to be set up (which should give developers time to work calmly?).
 
* Difficult due to the amount of resources that it would require and the investment at all levels of its implementation
and complex due to the logistical resources to be implemented, the possibility of specific parts and elements to be produced, specific buildings to be constructed ...
 
... There could be so many reasons to create long- or medium-term accomplishments
and to stimulate massive cooperation between DU players...
 
I imagine that to ensure the sustainability of such MEGA objectives, 
it would have to consist of almost obligatory civilizational steps
and unlockers of new functionalities, in-game contents or even territories to explore ...
 
In addition, to avoid the multiplication of disparate initiatives,
it would have to be managed by the NQ team
or, at least an in-game representative, such as the Alephia organization.
 
Morover, to motivate the players all the more, they should be regularly rewarded for their investment
and offer them in-game services as far as possible and reasonable (protection for example?).
 
Finally, I think it's a very good idea because it would put the player at the heart of the game
by making him responsible for its sustainability and its posibilities.
 
It remains to be seen whether this is as interesting for other players and dev team as it sounds to me ;
Sufficient to make new players want or to motivate former players to continue playing ?
and therefore to pay a subscription and therefore to make this game live economically ...
 
Well, thanks for reading !
Whish you all to have fun on DU !
 
---
P.S. : If your r interested into the industry in DU, u coul be interested by my overall synthetic diagram of the inDUstry : 
 

I get this perspective, but LinkedIn is really bad at setting reasonable privacy defaults and presenting easy privacy settings. they will sue people for trying to scrape data, but won't make much effort to protect it... 
 
there have been many cases of people trawling LinkedIn to doxx -- I mean...it freakin' gives you the ability to find people by organization along with full name and general location...it isn't hard to figure out a home address from that. it's far too easy to target an org you don't like and extract personal details of employees -- that's like a core feature of their site. 
 
Even technically competent devs don't necessarily think about the risks of doxxing as they make their online profiles, or have the patience to dig through somewhat obscure settings to protect them from a situation no one really thinks will happen to them. and if they do protect their privacy, it might affect their ability to find a job by reducing their visibility.
 
how many devs reading this post have set their last name to private and prevented organization searches? 
 
the fact that this got resolved in a civil manner is generous on NQ's part, because many other communities would slap bans and even pursue criminal charges. yes, sharing an already-public linkedin profile can be considered a crime in some (very few) contexts and jurisdictions. 
 
please remember that next time you're tempted to post links (especially to linkedin) -- just because it is public on the internet doesn't mean it is legal (or ethical) to post. i know that makes no sense to many of us, but that's life in 2021 after it has been repeatedly (tragically) proven how this data can be weaponized...it's more about how the data is used/intended than the fact that it is already on the internet. 

Additionally, as this thread was shared internally I have received a response regarding the validity of the claims presented here: "I can confirm that we did not pay anything. We're not even in contact with this journalist."
 
This publication created a feature without our involvement, and it's clear to anyone reading that they're not up to speed on what's actually happening inside of Dual Universe as of 2021-02-16. ?‍♀️

Feel free to disregard the article, or just enjoy it for a laugh if you'd like.

With much warmth, the phrasing in this post is a tad sensationalized. Nobody is being forced to do anything.  Yes, we have rules about how to conduct ourselves while using our NQ Dual Universe accounts, but the rules are not all that surprising, unique or scandalous. They're also public, as I see some forumers have already quoted our official communications about 'em here. 
 
We are encouraged to interact with the community in-game. We just can't participate in certain aspects of gameplay like, for example, joining a player Organization under our NQ names. Doing so would absolutely cause negative ripples re: favoritism. I can imagine it now... players coming to me with things like:

- "Why did you join their Org and not ours? What do they have that we don't? I'm sus."
- "NQ is signaling support for one Org over another, officially, and that's not fair - look at how much recognition they're getting! Why can't my Org receive official backing!!?? What's really going on here?"
- "Omg, what special advantages is NQ giving that Org that we won't get?! I bet they'll be fed insider knowledge about the next patch!!1 They must have friends in high places..." etc.

Please also consider that our accounts are "fully loaded"/have "God Mode" abilities, which would give staff an unfair advantage (within the context of regular play) no matter how you slice it. It makes sense to me that we'd want to maintain a firm boundary between staff and player accounts to avoid any conflicts of interest or cries of unjust behavior.
 
Someone, somewhere will find a way to take issue with whatever any game dev staff choose to do or not do in-game. It's just how the cookie crumbles in MMO-land. We have personal accounts we play on to experience the game as you all do. I personally paid for a subscription, because I strongly agree with the point that products must be thoroughly explored and understood by the employees that touch them.  (Edited to add this note: employees are not obligated to pay for subscriptions to personal accounts! I chose to prior to being hired because of my interest in Dual Universe.)

PS - This was a valid and interesting subject to bring up, and I appreciate that you have all remained civil about it. Disagreeing with the rules we lay out is fine, and I hope my two cents provided some clarity. Keep those critical thinking caps on!
 
 
 
 

Additionally, as this thread was shared internally I have received a response regarding the validity of the claims presented here: "I can confirm that we did not pay anything. We're not even in contact with this journalist."
 
This publication created a feature without our involvement, and it's clear to anyone reading that they're not up to speed on what's actually happening inside of Dual Universe as of 2021-02-16. ?‍♀️

Feel free to disregard the article, or just enjoy it for a laugh if you'd like.

This thread has been locked: do not put NQ staff member LinkedIn profiles here! I shouldn't even have to say that. I'm really disappointed.

You can express your upset with the game and speculate about us all you'd like, but leave windows to our personal lives OUT of this arena. Please.

I don't want to come to work worried about what I'll see of myself here - some of us may be public facing, but I implore all of you to treat us with respect. Respect our privacy, please.

Pick apart problems, not people. 

Thanks for validating the information I brought back from the team, le_souriceau.  It's nice to be able to close that loop.

IMO it's no longer a case of being convinced or choice. That time happened at the end of alpha.
They simply do not have the budget to change direction.
What ever they committed themselves at the summer of 2020 they either go with it until the end or they fail to deliver a game before budget ends.
 
At this point, any feature that is not scheduled and requires coding will not happen.
And any change they squeeze into the code decreases the chances of delivering a viable game.
 
IMO I even think that they already past the point of no return. They already know that the game will not be viable with the current budget, but they are hoping that this last fight to complete it can bring new investment or subscriptions.
 
It is quite sad to see this project go from "relaxed" to "emergency" like this.
Proper management should be to coordinate the several parts and teams of the project and establish a proper timeframe for each of the objectives for each group.
There are (technical and other) questions that were only asked at the end of alpha. Most of those questions could be predicted and answered before that time.
 
Most of those questions were not technical challenges and could be answered back then.
Examples:
Pending operations -> This is a very hard technical challenge. We acknowledge that NQ asked that question at the correct time and that betting on the wrong technology (home made UDP proto) was delayed its fix. Management does not have a big deal of responsibility here. The technical lead was invested too much time in the development of a technology that already existed before choosing to abandon that idea and buy the existing solution. The lack of meaningful specialization -> this was not a technical challenge. NQ had warnings about this by the players for years. 1st they delayed any development about specialization to late alpha. Then they let PPL sink in the development for a year and only figured out that there was an issue after beta came out. Was it that hard to understand the problem 4 years ago? If 1 or 2 players could detect the problem back then, alone, how can a full team fail to detect it? How can a full team ignored the player warnings?  The lack of excitement in 99% of the time players spend playing DU. Any current cellphone app currently successfully has 1000 metrics about the engagement of players on their app. And we are talking about free to play phone apps! how can NQ management fail to understand how vital this was? How is this only a problem of 2020-2021? How was this a technical challenge? To me its 100% clear that NQ management style was like a coded program. With several things that had to be done and a sequential order to do them. And in this sequence several very important questions were delayed to even be asked to a very late time.
 
 
Why am I saying this? What is the advantage of me bashing NQ on this?
Several reasons:
1 - I hope, but don't expect, that DU is a success. In case NQ manages to salvage this, it is quite clear that in the future(after the storm as passed), management and development needs to adopt a different model.
2 - If DU fails, I want other current and future game developers, use this as an example of what not to do. So we don't get this frustration in a future investment.
3 - That players understand how too late "now" is, that they can calm down, reflect on the past. And hope for the future, without illusions that things can change just by talking to NQ. 
4 - That some NQ staff know that we know that you guys are not all part of the problem. We know some of you warned your management about the issues you were seeing and predicted. We know that some of you did your best and your best was quite good. And from your perspective it may seam like we are putting you all on the same bag, we are not. 
It is easy to thank exposed NQ staff like discord helpers, in game GMs, Forum staff for all their dedication in emergency situations. But if you are a programmer we know that bugs happen, we know that your conditions were not ideal, we know that you tried. We do not blame you.
We only blame you if you decided to ignore the warnings, if you disregarded your fellow programmer concerns without even taking the proper time to think about them. We blame you if you fired ppl that tried their best to give you advice.
 
 
There is nothing else to do but wait. Wait for release or wait for fail. Just wait while pray that the game is viable at release and hope if DU survives this, NQ learns and changes their management style.
Now it's not a time for NQ to change Staff, or management. Now it's not the time for NQ to change features. Finish what you are doing NQ. And GL

Ok, I wanted to alopogize too for my exessive detective-tin-foil-cap issues and fury.

And do a bit of clarification.
 
I contacted Philipp (author of publication in question) and he was kind enough to provide me with some additional comments.
 
1) He confirmed, that wrote this article on his own initiative, without contact/premediation with NQ (borrowing some official NQ media images to illustrate it).
2) Acticle based solely on his personal/buddies group gameplay experience (several hundred hours).
3) Most important part. Philipp explained, that arcticle, by his idea (and nature of his media), made for more broad and casual (external) audience, so he adapted info and presentation for them. While we, being more hardcore players can have different perception on game mechanics (0.23 patch) and priorities.
 
Personaly I strongly disagree with such approch to coverage, but still its great, that Philipp bothered with reply. 

doxxing is really not a fun thing and no one should fear the online mob just for showing up to work.  
 
Linked is especially bad for throwing up all your personal info and not having great tools to control what is or isn't public.
 
it is way too easy to use that info to track back to home addresses because it gives your full name and general location. 
under settings->visibility, restrict "who can see your last name" -- this helps prevent address lookups and should absolutely be the default. under "edit public profile", disable for non-logged in members -- this helps prevent low effort search engine lookups targeting an org under 'account preferences', set "showing profile image" to "network only" if you don't want randos seeing your face  I'm sure i'm missing something, but linkedin's privacy settings are trash. they'll sue people for scraping public data, but will make zero effort to actually protect it or make it easy for users to control what is or isn't public. 
 
TLDR: linkedin sucks, set your last name to not be publicly viewable, and treat your full name like sensitive information 

Additionally, as this thread was shared internally I have received a response regarding the validity of the claims presented here: "I can confirm that we did not pay anything. We're not even in contact with this journalist."
 
This publication created a feature without our involvement, and it's clear to anyone reading that they're not up to speed on what's actually happening inside of Dual Universe as of 2021-02-16. ?‍♀️

Feel free to disregard the article, or just enjoy it for a laugh if you'd like.

With much warmth, the phrasing in this post is a tad sensationalized. Nobody is being forced to do anything.  Yes, we have rules about how to conduct ourselves while using our NQ Dual Universe accounts, but the rules are not all that surprising, unique or scandalous. They're also public, as I see some forumers have already quoted our official communications about 'em here. 
 
We are encouraged to interact with the community in-game. We just can't participate in certain aspects of gameplay like, for example, joining a player Organization under our NQ names. Doing so would absolutely cause negative ripples re: favoritism. I can imagine it now... players coming to me with things like:

- "Why did you join their Org and not ours? What do they have that we don't? I'm sus."
- "NQ is signaling support for one Org over another, officially, and that's not fair - look at how much recognition they're getting! Why can't my Org receive official backing!!?? What's really going on here?"
- "Omg, what special advantages is NQ giving that Org that we won't get?! I bet they'll be fed insider knowledge about the next patch!!1 They must have friends in high places..." etc.

Please also consider that our accounts are "fully loaded"/have "God Mode" abilities, which would give staff an unfair advantage (within the context of regular play) no matter how you slice it. It makes sense to me that we'd want to maintain a firm boundary between staff and player accounts to avoid any conflicts of interest or cries of unjust behavior.
 
Someone, somewhere will find a way to take issue with whatever any game dev staff choose to do or not do in-game. It's just how the cookie crumbles in MMO-land. We have personal accounts we play on to experience the game as you all do. I personally paid for a subscription, because I strongly agree with the point that products must be thoroughly explored and understood by the employees that touch them.  (Edited to add this note: employees are not obligated to pay for subscriptions to personal accounts! I chose to prior to being hired because of my interest in Dual Universe.)

PS - This was a valid and interesting subject to bring up, and I appreciate that you have all remained civil about it. Disagreeing with the rules we lay out is fine, and I hope my two cents provided some clarity. Keep those critical thinking caps on!
 
 
 
 

NQ kill board is fairly empty with just Deckard on there ?

With much warmth, the phrasing in this post is a tad sensationalized. Nobody is being forced to do anything.  Yes, we have rules about how to conduct ourselves while using our NQ Dual Universe accounts, but the rules are not all that surprising, unique or scandalous. They're also public, as I see some forumers have already quoted our official communications about 'em here. 
 
We are encouraged to interact with the community in-game. We just can't participate in certain aspects of gameplay like, for example, joining a player Organization under our NQ names. Doing so would absolutely cause negative ripples re: favoritism. I can imagine it now... players coming to me with things like:

- "Why did you join their Org and not ours? What do they have that we don't? I'm sus."
- "NQ is signaling support for one Org over another, officially, and that's not fair - look at how much recognition they're getting! Why can't my Org receive official backing!!?? What's really going on here?"
- "Omg, what special advantages is NQ giving that Org that we won't get?! I bet they'll be fed insider knowledge about the next patch!!1 They must have friends in high places..." etc.

Please also consider that our accounts are "fully loaded"/have "God Mode" abilities, which would give staff an unfair advantage (within the context of regular play) no matter how you slice it. It makes sense to me that we'd want to maintain a firm boundary between staff and player accounts to avoid any conflicts of interest or cries of unjust behavior.
 
Someone, somewhere will find a way to take issue with whatever any game dev staff choose to do or not do in-game. It's just how the cookie crumbles in MMO-land. We have personal accounts we play on to experience the game as you all do. I personally paid for a subscription, because I strongly agree with the point that products must be thoroughly explored and understood by the employees that touch them.  (Edited to add this note: employees are not obligated to pay for subscriptions to personal accounts! I chose to prior to being hired because of my interest in Dual Universe.)

PS - This was a valid and interesting subject to bring up, and I appreciate that you have all remained civil about it. Disagreeing with the rules we lay out is fine, and I hope my two cents provided some clarity. Keep those critical thinking caps on!
 
 
 
 

With much warmth, the phrasing in this post is a tad sensationalized. Nobody is being forced to do anything.  Yes, we have rules about how to conduct ourselves while using our NQ Dual Universe accounts, but the rules are not all that surprising, unique or scandalous. They're also public, as I see some forumers have already quoted our official communications about 'em here. 
 
We are encouraged to interact with the community in-game. We just can't participate in certain aspects of gameplay like, for example, joining a player Organization under our NQ names. Doing so would absolutely cause negative ripples re: favoritism. I can imagine it now... players coming to me with things like:

- "Why did you join their Org and not ours? What do they have that we don't? I'm sus."
- "NQ is signaling support for one Org over another, officially, and that's not fair - look at how much recognition they're getting! Why can't my Org receive official backing!!?? What's really going on here?"
- "Omg, what special advantages is NQ giving that Org that we won't get?! I bet they'll be fed insider knowledge about the next patch!!1 They must have friends in high places..." etc.

Please also consider that our accounts are "fully loaded"/have "God Mode" abilities, which would give staff an unfair advantage (within the context of regular play) no matter how you slice it. It makes sense to me that we'd want to maintain a firm boundary between staff and player accounts to avoid any conflicts of interest or cries of unjust behavior.
 
Someone, somewhere will find a way to take issue with whatever any game dev staff choose to do or not do in-game. It's just how the cookie crumbles in MMO-land. We have personal accounts we play on to experience the game as you all do. I personally paid for a subscription, because I strongly agree with the point that products must be thoroughly explored and understood by the employees that touch them.  (Edited to add this note: employees are not obligated to pay for subscriptions to personal accounts! I chose to prior to being hired because of my interest in Dual Universe.)

PS - This was a valid and interesting subject to bring up, and I appreciate that you have all remained civil about it. Disagreeing with the rules we lay out is fine, and I hope my two cents provided some clarity. Keep those critical thinking caps on!
 
 
 
 

With much warmth, the phrasing in this post is a tad sensationalized. Nobody is being forced to do anything.  Yes, we have rules about how to conduct ourselves while using our NQ Dual Universe accounts, but the rules are not all that surprising, unique or scandalous. They're also public, as I see some forumers have already quoted our official communications about 'em here. 
 
We are encouraged to interact with the community in-game. We just can't participate in certain aspects of gameplay like, for example, joining a player Organization under our NQ names. Doing so would absolutely cause negative ripples re: favoritism. I can imagine it now... players coming to me with things like:

- "Why did you join their Org and not ours? What do they have that we don't? I'm sus."
- "NQ is signaling support for one Org over another, officially, and that's not fair - look at how much recognition they're getting! Why can't my Org receive official backing!!?? What's really going on here?"
- "Omg, what special advantages is NQ giving that Org that we won't get?! I bet they'll be fed insider knowledge about the next patch!!1 They must have friends in high places..." etc.

Please also consider that our accounts are "fully loaded"/have "God Mode" abilities, which would give staff an unfair advantage (within the context of regular play) no matter how you slice it. It makes sense to me that we'd want to maintain a firm boundary between staff and player accounts to avoid any conflicts of interest or cries of unjust behavior.
 
Someone, somewhere will find a way to take issue with whatever any game dev staff choose to do or not do in-game. It's just how the cookie crumbles in MMO-land. We have personal accounts we play on to experience the game as you all do. I personally paid for a subscription, because I strongly agree with the point that products must be thoroughly explored and understood by the employees that touch them.  (Edited to add this note: employees are not obligated to pay for subscriptions to personal accounts! I chose to prior to being hired because of my interest in Dual Universe.)

PS - This was a valid and interesting subject to bring up, and I appreciate that you have all remained civil about it. Disagreeing with the rules we lay out is fine, and I hope my two cents provided some clarity. Keep those critical thinking caps on!
 
 
 
 

This thread has been locked: do not put NQ staff member LinkedIn profiles here! I shouldn't even have to say that. I'm really disappointed.

You can express your upset with the game and speculate about us all you'd like, but leave windows to our personal lives OUT of this arena. Please.

I don't want to come to work worried about what I'll see of myself here - some of us may be public facing, but I implore all of you to treat us with respect. Respect our privacy, please.

Pick apart problems, not people. 

Additionally, as this thread was shared internally I have received a response regarding the validity of the claims presented here: "I can confirm that we did not pay anything. We're not even in contact with this journalist."
 
This publication created a feature without our involvement, and it's clear to anyone reading that they're not up to speed on what's actually happening inside of Dual Universe as of 2021-02-16. ?‍♀️

Feel free to disregard the article, or just enjoy it for a laugh if you'd like.

With much warmth, the phrasing in this post is a tad sensationalized. Nobody is being forced to do anything.  Yes, we have rules about how to conduct ourselves while using our NQ Dual Universe accounts, but the rules are not all that surprising, unique or scandalous. They're also public, as I see some forumers have already quoted our official communications about 'em here. 
 
We are encouraged to interact with the community in-game. We just can't participate in certain aspects of gameplay like, for example, joining a player Organization under our NQ names. Doing so would absolutely cause negative ripples re: favoritism. I can imagine it now... players coming to me with things like:

- "Why did you join their Org and not ours? What do they have that we don't? I'm sus."
- "NQ is signaling support for one Org over another, officially, and that's not fair - look at how much recognition they're getting! Why can't my Org receive official backing!!?? What's really going on here?"
- "Omg, what special advantages is NQ giving that Org that we won't get?! I bet they'll be fed insider knowledge about the next patch!!1 They must have friends in high places..." etc.

Please also consider that our accounts are "fully loaded"/have "God Mode" abilities, which would give staff an unfair advantage (within the context of regular play) no matter how you slice it. It makes sense to me that we'd want to maintain a firm boundary between staff and player accounts to avoid any conflicts of interest or cries of unjust behavior.
 
Someone, somewhere will find a way to take issue with whatever any game dev staff choose to do or not do in-game. It's just how the cookie crumbles in MMO-land. We have personal accounts we play on to experience the game as you all do. I personally paid for a subscription, because I strongly agree with the point that products must be thoroughly explored and understood by the employees that touch them.  (Edited to add this note: employees are not obligated to pay for subscriptions to personal accounts! I chose to prior to being hired because of my interest in Dual Universe.)

PS - This was a valid and interesting subject to bring up, and I appreciate that you have all remained civil about it. Disagreeing with the rules we lay out is fine, and I hope my two cents provided some clarity. Keep those critical thinking caps on!
 
 
 
 

Additionally, as this thread was shared internally I have received a response regarding the validity of the claims presented here: "I can confirm that we did not pay anything. We're not even in contact with this journalist."
 
This publication created a feature without our involvement, and it's clear to anyone reading that they're not up to speed on what's actually happening inside of Dual Universe as of 2021-02-16. ?‍♀️

Feel free to disregard the article, or just enjoy it for a laugh if you'd like.

This thread has been locked: do not put NQ staff member LinkedIn profiles here! I shouldn't even have to say that. I'm really disappointed.

You can express your upset with the game and speculate about us all you'd like, but leave windows to our personal lives OUT of this arena. Please.

I don't want to come to work worried about what I'll see of myself here - some of us may be public facing, but I implore all of you to treat us with respect. Respect our privacy, please.

Pick apart problems, not people.