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NQ Devs forced to play DU Solo


DecoyGoatBomb

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If you don't know NQ Devs are forced to play DU solo and are discouraged to play with the community. This is virtually unheard of in the Games Industry. In fact companies are usually doing everything they can to make sure the devs are playing the game. It is no surprise that these Devs end up just not playing the game at all. The result is they have no clue how people are actually playing the game and continue to develop the game in a vaccum. If the worry is that devs will cheat and use insider knowledge to get ahead then maybe be more transparent with your development so they will have very minimal advantage. The game is suffering exponentially more for having a dev team that is completely divested from the live game and community. All I ask is that NQ change their policy about devs playing the game as it is doing nothing but harm to the development. 

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35 minutes ago, DecoyGoatBomb said:

The game is suffering exponentially more for having a dev team that is completely divested from the live game and community. All I ask is that NQ change their policy about devs playing the game as it is doing nothing but harm to the development. 

yeah, but why would they play the game at all except for the minimum required to test...? 

 

do devs have dedicated time each day where they can just take a break and play...? Or does NQ expect them to play on their free time when they'd rather be doing anything else...? 

 

unless they are being paid to just play instead of coding, it is a lot to ask them to spend hours playing the game so they can "understand it better", especially when most devs have zero control over the project's priorities and they are busy crunching to hit dev milestones. 

 

what advantage would the devs really get from playing? better perspective? who cares when their suggestions aren't really listened to, anyway...?  

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48 minutes ago, DecoyGoatBomb said:

If you don't know NQ Devs are forced to play DU solo and are discouraged to play with the community

I also beleive this is the case but how do you know this information? I didn't think they played at all tbh. If they even played solo they would feel the pain, certainly as a new player.

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2 hours ago, RumRunner25 said:

I also beleive this is the case but how do you know this information? I didn't think they played at all tbh. If they even played solo they would feel the pain, certainly as a new player.

It’s true. NQ policy is they cannot be part of any org or group etc. NQ also ensure they do not run any risk of being accused of favouritism.

 

Edit: explained from an NQ post with yamamushi.

 

We would also like to take this opportunity to explain what are our internal rules when a member of our community becomes a Novaquark employee:
 

  1. His/her personal accounts are suspended for the time he/she is a Novaquark employee.
     
  2. He/she is given an anonymous player account so he/she could still continue to play the game, however, some specific rules apply to such an account:
      a. The Novaquark employee behind should not reveal his/her real identity and/or he’s part of the company. 
      b. He/she shouldn’t join a player-run organization with this account either, for neutrality reasons.
     
  3. He/she is given a NQ account, mostly to test things, and occasionally to communicate with the community in-game (if such opportunity arises). Nothing done on this account (coming usually with more powers/rights than a player account) will be transferred on any personal account.

 

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1 hour ago, blazemonger said:

This policy is hardly new, unique to NQ or special. It's pretty common and honestly, makes sense.

I'm interested in why you think it makes sense? I'm not in the games industry, but in other software industries like application/web development it's highly encouraged to use the product. The theory being the more you use the product the more likely you are to discover issues to fix and to be invested in improving it. Is the cost of an employee using their position for an advantage in game so high that it outweighs the benefits? 

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9 hours ago, DecoyGoatBomb said:

If you don't know NQ Devs are forced to play DU solo and are discouraged to play with the community. This is virtually unheard of in the Games Industry. In fact companies are usually doing everything they can to make sure the devs are playing the game. It is no surprise that these Devs end up just not playing the game at all. The result is they have no clue how people are actually playing the game and continue to develop the game in a vaccum. If the worry is that devs will cheat and use insider knowledge to get ahead then maybe be more transparent with your development so they will have very minimal advantage. The game is suffering exponentially more for having a dev team that is completely divested from the live game and community. All I ask is that NQ change their policy about devs playing the game as it is doing nothing but harm to the development. 

It's a moot point.  The person in charge of making decisions is not a game designer, he's a rocket scientist.  JC makes all the calls and I doubt he takes any feedback from the devs.  There is just no way that anyone who is experienced enough to get a job at his company in the first place would make any of the decisions we have seen so far. It's like "game design 101 gone wrong".  I often wonder if they even have a design document to work off of or if they just fly by the seat of their pants all the time.  I'm betting the latter.

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I was watching some videos about mmorpgs this morning and then this video was suggested to me.

 

 

 

It's all the funnier because I had already spoken to a friend about it a few weeks earlier. And lo and behold: an interesting conclusion.

 

Then reading through the comment section... Sounds familiar.

Quote

What made MMOs fun was the social aspect. There is too much now. Facebook, discord, twitter. There is no reason to socialize anymore, and mmos are updating in ways where you can just solo everything now. At least, this is my problem now with WoW. Nobody talks anymore. Nobody plays together. Guilds aren't this hype anymore unless you join one of the top of the 1%.

Drawing this conclusion on DU I wonder if anyone has played a mmorpg at NQ at all. 

DU will not work the way it was thought to work for the KS campaign. On paper, maybe. All suggestions made by 2000s mmorg players that had any form of social aspect were ignored.

 

My scepticism continues to grow with each passing day.

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51 minutes ago, SirJohn85 said:

Drawing this conclusion on DU I wonder if anyone has played a mmorpg at NQ at all. 

 

Those that did/do have left as the game NQ is creating currently doe snot reflect a MMO in the sense you'd expect. It is driven by the idea of one man who is convinced his idea is unique, will draw in millions and is so different it will succeed just because of that.

 

Meanwhile it is increasingly clear that the game actually needs what is missing.. common and generally accepted elements of MMO style game that make them tick.

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5 hours ago, SirJohn85 said:

I was watching some videos about mmorpgs this morning and then this video was suggested to me.

 

 

 

It's all the funnier because I had already spoken to a friend about it a few weeks earlier. And lo and behold: an interesting conclusion.

 

Then reading through the comment section... Sounds familiar.

Drawing this conclusion on DU I wonder if anyone has played a mmorpg at NQ at all. 

DU will not work the way it was thought to work for the KS campaign. On paper, maybe. All suggestions made by 2000s mmorg players that had any form of social aspect were ignored.

 

My scepticism continues to grow with each passing day.

DU is not a social game, and you can tell such by how chat works:  chat windows are not visible by default, even after making chat visible it will not stay visible with inactivity, no visible indication that a player is typing or has said something, default settings do not show user names, no form of in world chat bubbles over players heads, even default social settings are antisocial (can’t repair another’s vehicle by default, allow repair settings are complex to explain over chat).

 

a designer that cared about sociability in a game, would not have allowed the silly oversights above.

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I myself came to DU because it was said in a promotional video that you could build a civilization here without any restrictions, that you can develop freely and that there are no regulations that you have to follow. The same was said in the tutorial. There was no mention of having to join others, nor was there any indication that PvP would be mandatory. Likewise, I could not see that you are enormously dependent on various elements when building ships. Who please builds 200 wings or umpteen engines/... on an airplane? That's an enormous cut into the game world and the creativity of the players. Can't there be different engines and more wing choices? Why is this being limited so much? Worse, the game consists of what feels like 90% ore farms underground, it's monotonous and boring. You don't search for ores for fun, but because you need them to be able to "play". I want to play more, be more creative, create more, bring my ideas into the game, but every time I first have to go under the earth and search for hours monotonously ores.

 

 

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21 hours ago, DecoyGoatBomb said:

If you don't know NQ Devs are forced to play DU solo and are discouraged to play with the community. This is virtually unheard of in the Games Industry. In fact companies are usually doing everything they can to make sure the devs are playing the game. It is no surprise that these Devs end up just not playing the game at all. The result is they have no clue how people are actually playing the game and continue to develop the game in a vaccum. If the worry is that devs will cheat and use insider knowledge to get ahead then maybe be more transparent with your development so they will have very minimal advantage. The game is suffering exponentially more for having a dev team that is completely divested from the live game and community. All I ask is that NQ change their policy about devs playing the game as it is doing nothing but harm to the development. 

 

With much warmth, the phrasing in this post is a tad sensationalized. Nobody is being forced to do anything. :P 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!

 

 

 

 

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19 minutes ago, NQ-Naunet said:

 

 

With much warmth, the phrasing in this post is a tad sensationalized. Nobody is being forced to do anything. :P 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. :) 

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!

 

 

 

 

As far as I know the rules only apply to the main production server. As for PTS, the gloves are off and NQ can get in the gunner seats *hint hint* ?

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7 hours ago, NQ-Naunet said:

 

 

With much warmth, the phrasing in this post is a tad sensationalized. Nobody is being forced to do anything. :P 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!

 

 

 

 

I'm more referring to NQ when they are on their personal accounts.

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23 hours ago, Physics said:

We would also like to take this opportunity to explain what are our internal rules when a member of our community becomes a Novaquark employee:
 

  1. His/her personal accounts are suspended for the time he/she is a Novaquark employee.
     
  2. He/she is given an anonymous player account so he/she could still continue to play the game, however, some specific rules apply to such an account:
      a. The Novaquark employee behind should not reveal his/her real identity and/or he’s part of the company. 
      b. He/she shouldn’t join a player-run organization with this account either, for neutrality reasons.
     
  3. He/she is given a NQ account, mostly to test things, and occasionally to communicate with the community in-game (if such opportunity arises). Nothing done on this account (coming usually with more powers/rights than a player account) will be transferred on any personal account.

 

@Naunet This is what I'm talking about. Nothing to do with God Mode official NQ accounts. Obviously no NQ God Mode account should be in an org. The fact that if someone is part of NQ (designing game mechanics) cannot really play the game as it is actually played by the community there is an inerrant disconnect. You will not get the real DU experience playing it solo. This creates a environment ripe for NQ development to be paper designs instead of taking into account how people are actualy using the game mechanics. 

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You would be surprised how many gm's/guides/cm's whatever have been fired over the years for befriending and doing personal favors over the years.

 

I used to have multiple pocket gms who would rez me or just teleport me to wherever I wanted or lock the other way hacking. Lol favoritism is real and there is a good reason to avoid it at all costs. You wouldnt also believe how many guilds have also had their own pocket gms doing their bidding for pvp or territory wars as well in other game. When devs takes sides everybody loses. But hey this game is going down in flames so enjoy it while it lasts I suppose.

 

Solo is the real experience. If you have beta keys you got your own crafting core and dont really need people. Its a shallow game and as much as they try to force group play it changes nothing in the end really. If there was any sort of actual danger in this game. When the market is the only real aspect of danger in a game something has gone terribly wrong.

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On 2/15/2021 at 11:20 PM, DecoyGoatBomb said:

If you don't know NQ Devs are forced to play DU solo and are discouraged to play with the community. This is virtually unheard of in the Games Industry. In fact companies are usually doing everything they can to make sure the devs are playing the game. It is no surprise that these Devs end up just not playing the game at all. The result is they have no clue how people are actually playing the game and continue to develop the game in a vaccum. If the worry is that devs will cheat and use insider knowledge to get ahead then maybe be more transparent with your development so they will have very minimal advantage. The game is suffering exponentially more for having a dev team that is completely divested from the live game and community. All I ask is that NQ change their policy about devs playing the game as it is doing nothing but harm to the development. 

Ok, I am calling BS, what is your source for this information?

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