State of DomiNations: A Community Perspective

[maggiepie]

The mood in the community surrounding the state of the game is palpable. The devs seem to think things are going pretty great- but the community has a slightly different perspective.

DomiNations Prime presents two of those view points on our website.

GailWho delivers a raw account of her feelings surrounding the current atmosphere of the game in an open letter to BHG (https://dominationsprime.com/an-open...er-of-zombies/).

I'm sure by now most of you have read the recent [a]listdaily interview with Tim Train. In our second post, I respond to some of the statements made- and, of course, rejoice in the fact we may have eight more years of DomiNations to look forward to (https://dominationsprime.com/good-ne...-8-more-years/).

So pop by and get your read on! Sit in quiet contemplation; then let the comments flow!!!!

 

[FroggyKilla]

Apparently we have to pull their heads out their asses.

 

[Master Contrail Program]

Well said and eloquent, I fear it's just more preaching to the choir though. Honestly, their lack of communication or, communicating by meaningless responses we've read dozens of times, is turning me away from this game more than the litany of bugs are.

All of my workers are going to be occupied for 10-12 days, ridiculous for a mobile game. Castle and merc camp, so no wars to pass the time either. 10-12 days to reflect on what's wrong with this game instead of what's right about it. Still, I bet that's more time spent reflcting than the people who can actually change things do in that timeframe.

 

[LordJestix]

The mood in the community surrounding the state of the game is palpable. The devs seem to think things are going pretty great- but the community has a slightly different perspective.

DomiNations Prime presents two of those view points on our website.

GailWho delivers a raw account of her feelings surrounding the current atmosphere of the game in an open letter to BHG (https://dominationsprime.com/an-open...er-of-zombies/).

I'm sure by now most of you have read the recent [a]listdaily interview with Tim Train. In our second post, I respond to some of the statements made- and, of course, rejoice in the fact we may have eight more years of DomiNations to look forward to (https://dominationsprime.com/good-ne...-8-more-years/).

So pop by and get your read on! Sit in quiet contemplation; then let the comments flow!!!!

I wish i was as good with words as the authors of these letters/articles.

 

[Blacknife686]

Very well rounded responses to the on going issues, hopefully we'll see some improvements soon.

 

[GailWho]

Thank you for your kind words It was written from the heart. I've put a lot of my heart into this game and it's breaking seeing what's happening here. I know there are much more important things in life than a game but during this phase in my life, it's what I devote my attention to and I hate for it to be wasted. Some people paint paintings, others sink thier free time into sports fandom, I play games and hope to spread some joy to the people I play with. Games are meant to be an escape from the pressure Life thows at you not add to the stress and I feel that is what it's become. Hopefully BHG/Nexon can turn this around. I'm looking forward to hearing what they have to say, if/when this new person comes on board as their press secretary.

 

[Prodigal Clint]

Great articles on the state of the game GailWho and maggiepie. Well written and articulate as always, these perfectly sum up the feelings of a large player base in the game. Hopefully things turn around soon as I fear that last update(which drastically changed a lot of long standing game mechanics and introduced numerous bugs), drove many players away, many of whom I know were big spenders in top alliances. Perhaps the revenue loss will be enough for BHG/Nexon to sit up and finally take notice and listen to the player base that knows its game better than they do.

 

[Old Farmer Bob]

Hear hear and seconded

 

[Nb4powerup]

I won't be leaving anytime soon I get the frustration but the attacks against myself will stop.

 

[Nb4powerup]

The mood in the community surrounding the state of the game is palpable. The devs seem to think things are going pretty great- but the community has a slightly different perspective.

DomiNations Prime presents two of those view points on our website.

GailWho delivers a raw account of her feelings surrounding the current atmosphere of the game in an open letter to BHG (https://dominationsprime.com/an-open...er-of-zombies/).

I'm sure by now most of you have read the recent [a]listdaily interview with Tim Train. In our second post, I respond to some of the statements made- and, of course, rejoice in the fact we may have eight more years of DomiNations to look forward to (https://dominationsprime.com/good-ne...-8-more-years/).

So pop by and get your read on! Sit in quiet contemplation; then let the comments flow!!!!

I appreciate the open letter. Both Nexon and BHG are committed to ensuring that DomiNations is a game that lives for many years to come. We're also very thankful for the amazing community that we have. Player feedback has helped make DomiNations the game it is today. Our next state of the nations is due very soon and I would love to hear everyone's thoughts when it's released.

 

[Wendy]

. Player feedback has helped make DomiNations the game it is today.

So it's our fault???? lol
jokes aside, looking forward for the new state of nations, this time, i don't know why, i'm positive about it.
maybe because things can't be worst than they are right now...
thanks nb4, you know that even if we complain we all love the game or we wouldnt' be here!

 

[Christopher-Outlaws!!]

I perceive the problem to be dialogue. Though the information and writing is on point, it doesn't allow for the opening of a dialogue but with one person. Nb4powerup . Who rightfully feels attacked. Mr. X to my knowledge will be a compliment to him, by no means a replacement of. Furthermore based on this notion the dialogue has been opened to allow for focus, deliberation, and positivity to be injected by means of clear, concise communication. I am extremely hopeful to be provided the opportunity to bring this forward!

 

[LordJestix]

I perceive the problem to be dialogue. Though the information and writing is on point, it doesn't allow for the opening of a dialogue but with one person. Nb4powerup . Who rightfully feels attacked. Mr. X to my knowledge will be a compliment to him, by no means a replacement of. Furthermore based on this notion the dialogue has been opened to allow for focus, deliberation, and positivity to be injected by means of clear, concise communication. I am extremely hopeful to be provided the opportunity to bring this forward!

Being the face of the company/game to the community its known he will take the brunt of all of our frustrations. We have no one to vent towards, discuss, complain or any other form of communication besides him.

I rarely see him show up in the forums unless banning someone, closing a thread, deleting a thread, or giving generic, "they are working on it or know about it" responses. Those responses really dont add to conversation. There are several threads in the Ideas board that i just assume are being ignored because i dont ever see a post that states, "ive given your idea to the devs or anything of the sort." I dont ever see his opinion on any ideas either. Does he play the game? Surely he does and has an opinion as well. Is he not allowed to share his opinions? If not i understand but i havent seen anything posted anywhere that he isnt allowed to share his opinions.

Im guilty myself. Im not good with words and i wear my emotions on my sleeves. Im trying myself to be more calm.

My perception is we as the community have no representation we only have a between man that works for the game and doesnt have OUR best interest at heart or at the very least he has his hands tied behind his back and cant really do his job properly because the company wont let him. We need someone like you that has knowledge of the game, of how things work in the IT world, and that will challenge the company and devs when they make decisions that may not be in the best interest of the game or community.

Ignoring the problems hoping they will just go away ruins relationships. Relationships that last are the ones that problems are openly discussed and taken head on in hopes to fix the problems. We have already seen a lot of divorces and im sure going forward we will see "too little too late" divorces as well.

 

[S_How]

Beyond the fact there is a problem with dialogue (I agree), I have no idea what you just said, can you help clarify?

 

[maggiepie]

I'd like to thank everyone that's taken a moment to read and comment above on the recent https://dominationsprime.com articles! I believe it's important that we as a community continue to speak our minds and describe where we hope to see improvements in the game. As Nb4powerup mentions above, I do believe BHG considers the feedback of players, and that is evidenced in many game elements that I've seen players describe here in the forums being implemented in the game. There are, however, still longstanding issues that need to be addressed, and I agree that there is a breakdown in communication over those issues; which is where I believe much of the community frustrations stem from.

As for comments #11 and #12, I think these may have been meant for another thread that's been recently posted, as they speak a little more to the content of that other thread (but I appreciate the bumps nonetheless!!) The articles posted on https://dominationsprime.com were either explicitly addressed to BHG or referencing comments made by BHG's CEO (as opposed to being directed at the Community Manager here, as suggested). The comment directed at our Community Manager referenced a moniker derived via another platform, and is not discussed in the recently published articles. However, maybe it's worth a reminder that employees of companies are hired to preform specifically authorized tasks, and in this case a Community Manager or Moderator (whether existing or incoming) isn't going to be providing personal commentary on threads, but rather authorized responses- whether we like those responses or not isn't an issue with the individuals providing them but rather the companies controlling the distribution of that information. Additionally, I think it's worth a reminder that communication with the companies that provide us this game isn't a special privilege granted to a single person. We are all in control of what we say and to whom we say it to. I think it's important that we as a community continue to express our hopes for improvements in the game, as well as our need for improved communications with the developers and distributors, as necessary.

I'm happy to hear that BHG has taken notice of the posts we've published (thank you, Nb4powerup for personally seeing to that as well; your efforts are much appreciated by a great many players). I'm also very excited about the upcoming State of the Nations- as I always do look forward to those. The information presented is often very positive and the community can only hope that we see meaningful positive results from proposed improvements in-game.

 

[LordJestix]

The comment directed at our Community Manager referenced a moniker derived via another platform, and is not discussed in the recently published articles. However, maybe it's worth a reminder that employees of companies are hired to preform specifically authorized tasks, and in this case a Community Manager or Moderator (whether existing or incoming) isn't going to be providing personal commentary on threads, but rather authorized responses- whether we like those responses or not isn't an issue with the individuals providing them but rather the companies controlling the distribution of that information.

This is why i think we need someone that represents us and not the company but has direct communication with the company.

Lets just use Chris as an example here since he is going to have direct communication it seems.

Its obvious how much he cares about the game and the community. He can speak for us and can give us some insight into the direction of the game. There is going to be things he cannot tell us but i think he can do a good job discussing things and stating he cant get into great detail but the topic is being discussed at the dev level. Just knowing there is someone "working" for nexon in some aspect that is going to fight for the players would probably put a lot of the community at ease.

I have btw, seen community managers express their personal opinion on topics so it can be done. Usually those CM's play the game just as much as the player base and have a lot of insight from the player perspective to be able to discuss game aspects from a player point of view.

 

[Quovatis]

Well, two major things that we "asked for" that BHG took and twisted was

1) Limiting extra troop tactics on offense. The stronghold did that, but then they added troops on defense too, which was the start of pay to win. This opened to the door to purchased defensive buildings as well and totally ruined the skill balance.

2) We asked for extra workers because of the insanely long build times coupled with more workers required for later upgrades. They responded by offering a ridiculously overpriced estate that could only be purchased with money, not crowns. Not exactly what we had in mind.



Things we asked for that BHG did deliver on, more or less how we wanted it:

1) Food for walls
2) 2nd armory slot (1000 crowns was reasonable)
3) Decreased university research time (they added Hiawatha and Mansa)
4) Fix for stalemates (tiebreaker and stronghold fixed it for the most part, though stronghold implementation was horrible)
5) Friendly challenges (totally broken, but at least they tried)
6) Not selecting planes by default at the attack screen
...and probably others I can't think of right now

 

[maggiepie]

Fair enough, everyone is free to communicate with/through whomever they see fit. I hope we can remain on the topic of this thread here, though, as some conversation is starting to divert a bit

 

[maggiepie]

Well, two major things that we "asked for" that BHG took and twisted was

1) Limiting extra troop tactics on offense. The stronghold did that, but then they added troops on defense too, which was the start of pay to win. This opened to the door to purchased defensive buildings as well and totally ruined the skill balance.

2) We asked for extra workers because of the insanely long build times coupled with more workers required for later upgrades. They responded by offering a ridiculously overpriced estate that could only be purchased with money, not crowns. Not exactly what we had in mind.



Things we asked for that BHG did deliver on, more or less how we wanted it:

1) Food for walls
2) 2nd armory slot (1000 crowns was reasonable)
3) Decreased university research time (they added Hiawatha and Mansa)
4) Fix for stalemates (tiebreaker and stronghold fixed it for the most part, though stronghold implementation was horrible)
5) Friendly challenges (totally broken, but at least they tried)
6) Not selecting planes by default at the attack screen
...and probably others I can't think of right now

I think these are really great examples of both how our voices have been heard on some issues, and also how our communications have been perhaps re-interpreted. I think many of us are grateful for the game improvements, but this also highlights how we should still speak up when further improvements are necessary. Thanks, Quovatis

 

[Quovatis]

The list of things that have been asked for years that hasn't been acknowledged is much longer.

The stronghold was the begging of the end, and I think history will show that unless they do something. They took a good idea and turned it into the death knell of the game. This coincided with offering purchased defensive buildings and extra troops for money and turned what was once a great skill game into a pay to win nightmare. Unfortunately, they saw a way to make money in the short term, but didn't consider the long-term ramifications. There are better ways to make money and keep the players happy.