Question: Monthly MindArk newsletter?

[Few Scars]

Hi MindArk team

I see some large MMOs put out monthly newsletters, describing progress on current projects and featured ingame activities.

It would be great if MA did this. Why not involve the player base in the development phase instead of keeping the silence? Why not get the team involved with Taming give an update on their progress and a few sneak previews. Topics can include future plans for space, new planet partners. Also do interview with the people who make it happen, the programmers and artists involved.

We as a community crave information about the game. Very little information is forthcoming via this Ask MindArk forum? Hope you can reply to this and give some feedback to the player base. I see the Dev notes has started, but we need more communication from you guys.

The newsletters could be posted in this forum


Cheers
Bjorn

[Bjorn|MindArk]

Monthly newsletters are something that we would love to get going in 2012, hopefully early in the fall.

We welcome any suggestions or ideas about the types of articles or content you would like to see in such a newsletter, so feel free to post them here!

[Nor Alien]

Originally Posted by Bjorn|MindArk

Monthly newsletters are something that we would love to get going in 2012, hopefully early in the fall.

We welcome any suggestions or ideas about the types of articles or content you would like to see in such a newsletter, so feel free to post them here!

Very nice!!

[Cly]

I would love to see a regular newsletter, and if you're looking for ideas for monthly content, I suggest you include the following items that you can ALWAYS guarantee you will have something to say on:

1) Roadmap Progress
Not a full disclosure of what you're working or even what you plan to work on the rest of the year, but a simple statement saying for example that
"This month we were all working frantically on the new Graphics update".
Include a few minor insights if you like into the challenges involved, where you think this will lead or where you're hoping to take it, etc.

And if some things are stalled or on hold pending other items now.
This might be presented for example from a Team Lead / Project Manager sort of view level, with maybe some anecdotal bits from developers.

I think it would be a great idea to make note of when the "platform release date" is, along with the current intended items to be put into that release.

And if you can actually assemble lists of planet partner content release dates and the projected items to be included in those as well, that would also rock.

2) Dev Notes items
Not sure if you'd be able to get to these once a month, but you could incorporate the forum posts you have made on these topics into the newsletter as well.

3) Known Bugs list or Issues being faced / fixed
I do realise it's an unusual thing to present constantly to the public, but doing this offers a number of useful returns for both us and you.

a) it lets us know that you are actually aware of the various issues and trying to isolate / address them
b) it gives you a platform to state that abusing a specific game feature is considered against the EULA or that you acknowledge that the feature is, for the next month, a known issue that can be used without breaking the EULA but that this may change once the evaluation is complete. IE: it shares insight into the current "official stance" on something, and even though we accept that the stance is subject to change, at least we're all on the same page for the short to medium term etc.
c) it allows for those interested in perhaps helping you simulate or debug the issue to gather or collect data if desired

4) Planet Partner Updates
I suggest as an idea that asking each Planet Partner for a small entry if they have one to be added to the newsletter, sort of as a "State of the Universe" update would be nice. Then each of them would have the scope to add some blurb in about their own upcoming releases and what they are working on (or have achieved) too.

So that would give you a nice succinct start and a solid core for a monthly newsletter.

Other optional Feature Stories might be things like
- Business Development News that is able to be shared
- Updates as to Conventions or other expositions you will be attending

I'm sure others will have loads of other ideas for you too

[Ido]

Bring back "The Gate" : )

i.e. for those noobs out there who have no idea what it is:
http://www.entropiaforum.com/downloa...gate200211.pdf

j/k about the noob part but necroing this makes me feel like a grandpa

Ido