Then you'd better get to criticizing Derrick for releasing a housing patch that have benefited certain players that was later pulled, without warning in both directions (wind housing patch). In fact, you can do one better. You can argue that Derrick was exercising blatant favoritism for certain group of players' opinions when he changed the speed of a katana from known listed numbers to a lesser number based on a single forwarded e-mail about a player who doubted the speed of the katana, all while ignoring far more reliable evidence. Not only did he exercise poor judgement and thoughtlessly implement such patches, he did so at the advice of specific players without the best forms of evidence! The terrible injustice of these actions should be criticized, right?Treysta wrote:Anarcho's level or lack of activity has nothing to do with my criticism. My criticism is rooted in his actions. If other GMs were both more active AND implemented unfair stealth-patches and micromanaged what I could have in my signature, I would criticize them as well. Just as I would if they were inactive and implemented unfair stealth-patches. Did you miss the part of my post where I simultaneously called Mammoth active and didn't criticize him?xynosis wrote:Treysta's post is a great example... a PERFECT example of why GM's have little to no motivation to bring back events OR have much of a presence in game, in forums, and IRC. In this case, if you are Anarcho, aka the only "active GM"... you get the most criticism and guff from the people who simply play the shard without any sort of responsibility.
The harder you work to help, the more crap you get.
Or, the far more rational position could be taken that changes were made with what was considered the best information at the time, which sometimes means that we'll find information that might point in a different direction - a fact that sometimes causes mistakes. The same logic could be applied to patches that are implemented, and found to have a mistake in them. Do they sometimes benefit some players? Yes. Does that provide any reasonable footing by which to accuse us of favoritism, corruption, or thoughtlessness? Hardly. But given your accusations on these subjects, the idea that mistakes happen doesn't seem to cross your mind.
And what about the major problem of micro-managing what is in your forum signature? Its not like we have forum rules & shard rules regarding the types of things that players should and shouldn't be saying, including in their forum signatures. So what could possibly cause a member of the staff even bother you about something like that? The logic you're applying is astounding when you go after someone for doing their job.
Finally regarding "stealth patches", you'll find - if you spend any time to look, that virtually none of our patches are announced ahead of time, which makes all of our patches into dreaded "stealth" patches. This isn't new, nor is this unheard of, and it certainly isn't some terrible injustice when something is added in that later has to be pulled because it didn't work properly. Yes, this sometimes means that some players will benefit while others won't but that's just how these things happen sometimes.
To me, an apparent rule of any honest discussion is not to lie. If I gave you a concrete statement on what would happen that you would likely deem transparent at this time, I would be lying about what was going to happen, because I don't know exactly what will happen. I've told you everything that I can at this time, which includes the fact that we will do whatever we feel can appropriately be done within the mandates of the server, and that we'll do it when time allows us to do so. I've also told you exactly what won't happen in that regard, but beyond that, I have no answers. Yet, that doesn't seem like an acceptable answer to you, and instead you're content with straw-maning what I said as a lack of transparency, despite me giving you whatever I can. Hell, you can't even be bothered to ask me to clarify what I meant - you just assume that I believe players aren't worthy of any transparency (I really wonder what I've been doing for 6 years if I think that players are unworthy of things).Treysta wrote:Here's an example of something I wouldn't say because it makes UOSA members feel like we aren't worthy of a genuine, transparent answer:
Kaivan wrote:Whatever we feel can appropriately be done will be done when it can be done. This does not include drumming up population by adding in automated events.
I thought that I had 153 patches worth of answers to the question of "what changes?" - I apologize if it wasn't apparent as it has been in the past. We have a mandate of attempting to re-create the mechanics of the era as best as possible, and as we can see from the entirety of the patches made before now, that is what we are focused on when we release patches. Thus, getting "back to releasing patches" means just that, getting back to releasing patches to fix mechanics.Treysta wrote:Even Kaivan's followup reply is the opposite of transparent:
What patches? What changes? I realize GMs are petrified of creating expectations and then failing to deliver. That's highly understandable. But what's stopping GMs from having open discussions with the shard on what type of ideas they've had and the direction the future patches are headed? The people here want a shred of hope, and nobody is prepared to deliver one at the expense of vets and new players dropping left and right.Kaivan wrote: I can't speak for any of the others, but my opinion is that we should get back to releasing patches on a much more regular basis. While I can't quantify, nor even necessarily guarantee that a population increase will occur along side the patches, releasing patches will at least show a commitment to our core goal, which is fundamentally important to the server overall.
If you require something more concrete than that, then here's a good one: actually implementing T2A era housing correctly, which includes the removal of co-owners among other things.
The problem lies in the part that I bolded. We aren't a business, and we aren't attempting to monetize UOSA. If we were, we'd obviously have a micro transaction store like most other free servers, and we'd ride any perceived hype for anything that people wanted changed because they would find it enjoyable in the short term.Treysta wrote:Xynosis' post is a great example... a PERFECT example of why change is so difficult. Something that's free is still a product. It still has a market, it still has people working on it, and it still has people who look forward to logging on in the evening. Saying that we can't criticize or offer suggestion (as I believe you meant when you used the word "complain") just because something is free is asinine.xynosis wrote:We are lucky to have this FREE shard. It is FREE. You cannot really complain about something that is free unless you are spoiled.
Google is free. Should we not complain if Google services start sucking? League of Legends is free. Should gamers not complain when the servers are down or unstable for weeks on end? If anything, free products fundamentally rely on criticism, especially if they're not being optimally monetized, like UOSA.
Of course, this isn't to say that we are opposed to criticism, we've been open to people discussing things with us, and I've responded to threads like this for over 6 years, but it's certainly reasonable to point out that we aren't run in the way that you think we should be run.