Player listening session idea

TLDR: Have a listing session with a twist: players listening to the EV team discussing what plans they have for EVs economy. Perhaps polled/voted community questions?


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Obviously there is some questions people have to varying degrees on the matter. From what I can understand enough time has past since it was last brought up that either little has changed (just factually, not in a negative way), enough to warrant a discussion on what exactly is happening in the game today.

Now, I believe this has been brought up before as a traditional listening discussion. However, due to that and due to the length of time that has passed, perhaps having a listening session for the players would be more beneficial. It's a big topic to cover, and i think that it's at the point where listening to the admins discuss their ideas on how to address the issue would be more productive.

It would also give the opportunity to perhaps inquire and ask questions to help promote healthy discussion on the topic. It would also be quite easy to put up some polls based on how the listening session goes to help gauge all (the non discord denizens) players interest on what they would like to see.

I know it's been done before, but I do not think the standard format would really be conducive of positive discussion, but rather rehashing what has already been brought up before. And it would be important to understand that the session is purely for hearing things out and testing the waters, not solid, concrete answers.

I think it would be really fantastic and promote a healthy discussion and shed some light on the topic.

I would also suggest maybe doing like a pre-poll or pre-voted question that we as a community can vote on so it's a little less off the cuff and more prepared, that way we have time to discuss a well prepared question and response session C: 

Last edited on 2020-10-21 at 05:51:26 by ᵍ ᵒ ᵃ ᵀ☀

I think it would be interesting to hear from the mods, because so many suggestions have been made recently that it would be good to find out which of these are feasible and which aren't. Is there a chance for anything to happen in the near future or rather not too soon?

I would say it would be like a monthlong endeavor of making sure everything gets a due process; between organizing the players questions and the mods forming a response, and then and listening sessions/discussions afterwards.

Totally doable though!

This is what a listening session is for, asking questions and hashing out some possible answers! If a topic is too broad for one session it can be roundabouted into the next one like what happened with the club discussion.
If you're interested in the current shareable plans they're listed in the Development Roadmap topic and a more up to date Google Doc linked in the first sentence on that topic.
More official polls and discussion topics have been happening and hopefully we can continue to all share ideas together in a constructive manner.

Also to clarify, us mods don't actually have a ton of influence on game direction or features selected. We just provide input as a little team before the general public sometimes. 

Right, traditionally listening sessions are just going down a checklist of things and saying: yes/no or input.

I am suggesting that instead of that format, there is a session where the players present questions either for the mods or to Abbey to hear. Basically to discuss: What is possible/what is realistic, and have a constructive discussion on how we as players can expect this topic to be handled. 

I think polled community questions are the best way to get a read on how we are are feeling and it would leave a really open schedule for when everyone actually has time to sit and discuss, be it on discord or via a newsletter. It would allow everyone's voice to be heard and the questions can have time to be mulled over before being replied to.

The general feel I have personally gotten was:
1) economics has been brought up before in a traditional listening session
2) it presumably was unproductive for whatever reason (seeing as how it is past tense and I can't find anything about what has changed)
3) nothing came of it and it was a drag on both ends (player side and mod side; as you say you don't have much control over things, other than 'we hear you' which is fine/understandable)

People obviously care enough about this topic for it to be brought up repeatedly. The roadmap is largely cosmetic things, with quality of life stuff thrown in the mix. This is more of an open discussion of what the future of the game looks like for players.

Last edited on 2020-10-22 at 03:07:45 by ᵍ ᵒ ᵃ ᵀ☀

We do have a question section in our listening sessions for players to ask any questions they have about the game. It takes place at the start of them before we get into the listed topics for discussion. This is also why a topic for players to mention which suggestion topics they would like to be discussed was posted in the Equiverse Chat. We also table future discussion points from our question times on the listening session or any topics that have come up repeatedly while discussing something else i.e the open session dedicated to club improvements. We don't have the time to discuss every single thing that comes up but we're sure to include it in future sessions. As Sabriel said we don't have the power as mods to implement anything but we do provide some input and testing before things go live and it really helps to gather member opinions like this. 

Polls are used to involve players in most site wide decisions that impact everyone, like extending the length of time foal art is shown for, but they don't allow for a lot of feedback. Closed questions without context don't necessarily provide an accurate representation of feelings, when not everyone experiences the same gameplay, i.e what's annoying for one player might not annoy another (hand showing vs autoshowing is one such aspect). That is why we use suggestions with lots of site support, to discuss the pros and cons and the feasibility of an idea in a session, as well as to form a more up to date feeling on the suggestion.

Economics wise- it's very much a player controlled market, there's no one factor or change will fix all the problems people might see in the game. This is why it's important for suggestions to be supported and discussed and potentially be implemented. At this time there have been changes to the game that have pointed the economy in a better direction than previously, particularly with rebalancing shows, player level limits, money sinks, curbing exponential wealth (the recode transfer cap, no interest after 50m), riding schools to help players who had generations of precode horses with high nss stats before cubes were introduced, and with further changes planned- some of which are outlined in the roadmap Sabriel linked. 

However, the game has always been intended for players to play how they want to play. If people want to covet their horses or breed as many as they want then that's their choice, but there are plenty avenues and safety nets for everyone to use if needed.

Last edited on 2020-10-22 at 08:30:27 by maplɛ