I didn't watch the whole thing but it's pretty much anything and everything you could want to know about the Techknight costume. Since it's not really a topic of interest for me I have not sat through the whole thing. They do bring in the artist that worked on it so I'm sure it's got interesting tidbits and maybe there's a hidden gem of info here or there but from what I caught it was pretty much all techknight/costume discussion.
There was a 30 minute tangent followed by the same thing being said over and over.
I'm all for the Devs having their "coffee talks" to help spread useful information to the playerbase. But if they don't have enough information (that can be publicly released) to cover having one of these things every... single... week... then I don't see the need for them to go through the motions. Maybe they could switch to having coffee talks only when they've saved up enough new info to make each one of them that much more useful/interesting. *shrugs*
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Except that from what I understood the point of these is NOT ONLY to share NEW info.
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Originally Posted by Lothic
I'm all for the Devs having their "coffee talks" to help spread useful information to the playerbase. But if they don't have enough information (that can be publicly released) to cover having one of these things every... single... week... then I don't see the need for them to go through the motions. Maybe they could switch to having coffee talks only when they've saved up enough new info to make each one of them that much more useful/interesting. *shrugs*
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Tunnel Rat stopped by.
That is all.
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Originally Posted by Snowzone
There was a 30 minute tangent followed by the same thing being said over and over.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Tunnel Rat stopped by.
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This was perhaps the most skippable Coffee Talk ever... considering anyone who wants to know about Techknight can simply log into Beta and take a look. At least the "Logitech Ad" wrapped in a Coffee Talk had something for the hardware enthusiasts among us.
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Just suggesting that maybe doing it too often defeats the purpose, whatever that is.|
Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
Except that from what I understood the point of these is NOT ONLY to share NEW info.
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Sometimes things like this are actually cooler and more relevant when they -don't- happen all the time. *shrugs*
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but tunnel rat is soooo cuuuuuute!
And Dr. Aeon snuck on the Dev-Only Server and starting throwing meteors at Zwill.
That was fun.
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Well, it depends on the purpose. I think their goal is to let the community get to know them, as people. To make more of a personal connection with the players. I won't judge how well they succeed, but I think that's a big part of the purpose of these talks, and I don't think frequency defeats that purpose. If anything, the fewer people who bother to show up, the more personal the connection is for those who do. |
Originally Posted by Lothic
Just suggesting that maybe doing it too often defeats the purpose, whatever that is.
Sometimes things like this are actually cooler and more relevant when they -don't- happen all the time. *shrugs* |
I never watch them myself. Forming personal connections ain't how I roll.
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I totally get that there are some people here who like the idea of "getting to know and spend time with the Devs". I've watched plenty of these "Dev interaction" videos/chats over the years and I do think they are pretty cool people for the most part. I genuinely like the idea that the Devs of this game desire to share "facetime" with the community in general.|
Originally Posted by peterpeter
Well, it depends on the purpose. I think their goal is to let the community get to know them, as people. To make more of a personal connection with the players. I won't judge how well they succeed, but I think that's a big part of the purpose of these talks, and I don't think frequency defeats that purpose. If anything, the fewer people who bother to show up, the more personal the connection is for those who do.
I never watch them myself. Forming personal connections ain't how I roll. |
I suppose I just sometimes find myself wondering that if they only did these things like 75% as much as they do now that we might get 25% more improvements on the game. I realize there's no way to quantify that kind of trade-off, but ultimately I'm paying these people for access to a game that I enjoy playing, not because I want to be their "friend" directly.
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Zwill doesn't work on the game though. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing. If he pulls someone away from a cubicle to talk for a few minutes it isn't going to keep anything from happening development-wise. They are keeping a line of communication with the players. Good news, great news or worthless tangeants.....who cares? They are reaching out to the playerbase in ways most games don't. We're pretty lucky.
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The problem with the coffee talks for me is that all the stuff I want to know about is also the stuff they're not allowed to talk about yet. The Tech Knight set is cool, sure, but I'm not even close to Tier 9 and won't be for several more years (assuming I don't lose my job or the game doesn't close in the meantime), so it's just them waving something I can't have in front of my face.
Meanwhile, I am interested in the little slip of a tongue from last week's show (Stone Armor changes) and information about the other Origin-based power pools (I really like the looks of the Tech-based pool, if the CoH Wikia is accurate), but they're apparently not allowed to (or just don't want to) talk about those.
So, yeah, I'll pass on this week's show. Maybe next week.
While I tired of the coffee talk "format" after a couple, I wholeheartedly encourage the process. For those like Golden Girl and others that have the time and patience to watch, they do provide a much needed direct connection to the devs and sometimes GREAT information.
I feel that the importance of that allows me to give them a pass on the "format" parts that suck pretty badly.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
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Given the brief time that devs drop by to chat, it isn't much productivity lost. If anything, an argument can be made that this improves your experience in-game:|
Originally Posted by Lothic
I suppose I just sometimes find myself wondering that if they only did these things like 75% as much as they do now that we might get 25% more improvements on the game. I realize there's no way to quantify that kind of trade-off, but ultimately I'm paying these people for access to a game that I enjoy playing, not because I want to be their "friend" directly.
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1) maintaining a connection to the clients helps developers keep a grasp on what participating players see as important and get immediate feedback on processes under development. This can lead to a product that better fits the players' needs.
2) this can serve as a useful and necessary break from the grind. Programmers and artists often encounter things similar to "writer's block" where simply sitting at a desk and staring at a screen isn't going to help them create good material in a timely manner. Several studies have shown that these professionals feel free to get up, walk around, have a change of venue, even play a few rounds of ping-pong, and return to code often have fewer errors introduced into their code while still meeting deadlines as well as those forced to sit and stare at the screen.
In fact, these employees also rate their job satisfaction as higher and their stress levels lower... contributing to less overall costs in the workplace. Attrition is lower in places where job satisfaction is high (recruitment costs money) and the use of unscheduled leave (sickdays) is greater in workplaces that report high stress levels, leading to lost productivity.
3) One frequent point of dissatisfaction that MMO players often have is that the "devs don't listen to us" or "devs don't communicate enough." Novel methods of communication, like a video chat, give visible evidence to players of other dev-silent MMO's that things are different here. This positive value can contribute to a new player's decision to try this game or for a "free" player to convert to a "paying" one. Video is especially valuable for this, as it gives a face and personality much better than a webpage post does- retail companies have known for decades that people are more willing to part with their money when they can relate to the salesperson, and in many ways, the dev & community managers serve that role in the chats.
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I don't really care if Zwill talks to us all day long. I suppose I was referring more to the other Devs who, more often than not, just drop in just to eventually say things like "Sorry, I can't talk about that". Sure some of them are cute to look at and all but I don't really need to see Devs in general sitting in front of a camera like that shooting-the-breeze telling me they can't tell me anything. |
Originally Posted by MentalMaden
Zwill doesn't work on the game though. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing. If he pulls someone away from a cubicle to talk for a few minutes it isn't going to keep anything from happening development-wise. They are keeping a line of communication with the players. Good news, great news or worthless tangeants.....who cares? They are reaching out to the playerbase in ways most games don't. We're pretty lucky.
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These are all valid points. Again I'm just saying that seeing Devs on a chat screen is ultimately not why I'm playing this game or paying for it. I think it's cool they do these coffee talks, but I could probably live if they only did them half as often as they do now and save up some meaningful content to share with the community.
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Originally Posted by Chase_Arcanum
Given the brief time that devs drop by to chat, it isn't much productivity lost. If anything, an argument can be made that this improves your experience in-game:
1) maintaining a connection to the clients helps developers keep a grasp on what participating players see as important and get immediate feedback on processes under development. This can lead to a product that better fits the players' needs. 2) this can serve as a useful and necessary break from the grind. Programmers and artists often encounter things similar to "writer's block" where simply sitting at a desk and staring at a screen isn't going to help them create good material in a timely manner. Several studies have shown that these professionals feel free to get up, walk around, have a change of venue, even play a few rounds of ping-pong, and return to code often have fewer errors introduced into their code while still meeting deadlines as well as those forced to sit and stare at the screen. In fact, these employees also rate their job satisfaction as higher and their stress levels lower... contributing to less overall costs in the workplace. Attrition is lower in places where job satisfaction is high (recruitment costs money) and the use of unscheduled leave (sickdays) is greater in workplaces that report high stress levels, leading to lost productivity. 3) One frequent point of dissatisfaction that MMO players often have is that the "devs don't listen to us" or "devs don't communicate enough." Novel methods of communication, like a video chat, give visible evidence to players of other dev-silent MMO's that things are different here. This positive value can contribute to a new player's decision to try this game or for a "free" player to convert to a "paying" one. Video is especially valuable for this, as it gives a face and personality much better than a webpage post does- retail companies have known for decades that people are more willing to part with their money when they can relate to the salesperson, and in many ways, the dev & community managers serve that role in the chats. |
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Now see, they talk up the Tech Knight costume set, and it just may give you desire to shell out money to become Tier 9.|
Originally Posted by Thunder Knight
The problem with the coffee talks for me is that all the stuff I want to know about is also the stuff they're not allowed to talk about yet. The Tech Knight set is cool, sure, but I'm not even close to Tier 9 and won't be for several more years (assuming I don't lose my job or the game doesn't close in the meantime), so it's just them waving something I can't have in front of my face.
Meanwhile, I am interested in the little slip of a tongue from last week's show (Stone Armor changes) and information about the other Origin-based power pools (I really like the looks of the Tech-based pool, if the CoH Wikia is accurate), but they're apparently not allowed to (or just don't want to) talk about those. So, yeah, I'll pass on this week's show. Maybe next week. |
I know of at least one player who was nowhere near tier 9 and spent the money needed in a months time to become tier 9, just so they could access the tier 9 costume sets.
Will this work for everyone? No. Will it work on some? Yup!
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You could. But for every player who agrees with you, there's another player who enjoys the weekly coffee talk, knowing it may or may not lead to the info they want.
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Originally Posted by Lothic
These are all valid points. Again I'm just saying that seeing Devs on a chat screen is ultimately not why I'm playing this game or paying for it. I think it's cool they do these coffee talks, but I could probably live if they only did them half as often as they do now and save up some meaningful content to share with the community.
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A constant trickle of information gets people coming back and saves larger dollops for things like MMO/Gaming news sites Exclusives which can then tempt more people into the game. Also, there are things that Devs can't talk about because they are still in development, and if they change during the course of development there will be people who saw/heard the original ideas, get stuck on them and then huff when they are released differently.
Also, it gives time for Q&A sessions with various developers from the different departments, Character Design this week, Powers design last week, so on and so forth. Last night I was able to ask about Celestial Shields/Katana/Bows/Claws and new street clothes options, and get a nod from Community and Development that they do acknowledge that people want something.
In addition to what everyone else has said, remember, too, that forumites are not really the target audience here. The devs know that people who are all over beta, or the beta forums, know about the Tech Knight set. Those people are not the target audience. I believe Zwillinger has previously said that the goal is to communicate with people who don't obsessively read the forums, or don't follow developer Twitter, or don't get involved in betas, or what-have-you. Given some of the questions I see asked on these things, when I watch them, I think they're reaching that audience.
Put another way, if you were a player who loved costumes and hadn't heard of the Tech Knight set before, then saw this, you'd think this Coffee Talk thing was the greatest thing ever. Put yet another way, I think forumites tend to make the mistake of assuming everyone is a diehard forumite.
Finally, I'd just like to say that while I rarely watch them, I find it valuable to be have a reminder that the developers are real people, like everyone else, something that I think fans tend to forget.
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Hey if it's more job security for Zwill then more power to it.|
Originally Posted by BrandX
You could. But for every player who agrees with you, there's another player who enjoys the weekly coffee talk, knowing it may or may not lead to the info they want.
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Doesn't mean I'll -have- to watch it all the time.
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Should every coffee chat have to have new and exciting information? Can't it just be time to chat and talk to us and shoot the sh*t?
I love shooting pancakes. My pan is riddled with bullet holes.
I must have heard it wrong, because I can't be the only only one that picked up on this.
42:00 minute mark, give or take some. They're talking about asymmetrical shoulder pieces. The guest mentions that the "Black Knight has some" and then Zwi stumbles on words for 8 seconds.
I imagine most of us knew it was probably coming, but I don't think it's been announced. So, this is news, right?
Did I miss anything worth noting? There doesn't seem to be a discussion thread about it.
Goodbye. Not to the game, but the players. Goodbye. Everyone, remember to have fun. That's all I can say.