The lull…
One of the hardest things about being a community manager is the lull between game releases. Right up to game release there is a lot of content to post, and right after game release there is a lot of information to post. But what about in between? There are contests, concept art, tournaments, etc… but what else can be done to keep the community happy?
June 13th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Summer is coming and it’s a perfect time for a lull. Tell these kids to go out and get some sun. Then after the summer is over hope and pray Starcraft II doesn’t steal your entire fan base
June 13th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
I guess this was brought on by that thread maybe?
I wouldn’t worry much, the at CoH players are doing fine because there doesn’t seem to be any real problems with the game.
Same with the DoW lot, there are a few minor issues but these have just been blown out of proportion, there hadn’t really been any real complaints but i guess a few people just exploded at once
you’re doing fine, seeing you and other relic employees check up on DoWS every once in awhile is good enough for most people, some others are pretty young so you can’t really expect muchos maturity all the time
hark, wise ojka shall enlighten them ;[]
June 13th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
If you want to keep us all on our toes, a few more sneaky hazy blurry fuzzy noisy new-game-shots would do. I’m still not sure what that last image was supposed to be, but it was damned fun playing with it in Photoshop and trying to figure it out…
June 14th, 2007 at 12:44 am
Perhaps some more video interviews? Atleast I always enjoy those
June 14th, 2007 at 12:47 am
Yeah, one called ‘Wacky Wacom whacking tips’ should be fun…
June 14th, 2007 at 3:40 am
Video interview with the audio team!
Anything with the audio team!
Audio team, audio team, audio team!
June 15th, 2007 at 12:39 am
How about free food?
June 15th, 2007 at 3:30 am
Video interviews would be cool, especially since its a lull and not “pressure” time to get a game finished.
I’ve love some instructive ones - not just interviews, who knows what game designers / programmers / audio / art can think of to show everyone! examples of stuff from previous games, how production is done (because a lot don’t know) and so on.
Maybe go back over old games - get people knowledgeable about Homeworld and Impossible Creatures - like old artwork, story work, if there are people around in the company who are still here from that time too, they could probably provide some nice insight.
Could expand this site to include some more media (not just blog posts and links to jpeg’s - but a gallery, and suchlike), or contribute such materials to places like Relicnews (although that, too, lacks a gallery and suchlike).
Maybe looking at the community modding work too (bit biased there) and showing off some of the stuff that gets done, I am sure would be good (and alleviate some boredom).
I also would love the campaign manager Dark Crusade bug fixed to make me entirely content
I mean, you work at a game developer, there must be some cool stuff going on all the time. Other companies have more technical stuff blogged (along with non-technical stuff) like Introvision Software, and some developers have cool blogs which pick up on various things.
Hope you find something good too do and keep us all coming back! (which is the point
).
June 15th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
office nerf wars, reenact some battles from COH
June 15th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Hey Buggo,
I really appreciate what you have done so far for the relic gaming community, keep going on !
I just found your blog recently and its pretty cool, I enjoy playing all relic games like CoH, DoW or Homeworld and hey ! They are the best I ever played, seriously CnC3 and SupCom are nomatched by them. The only thing that rather pains me is the upset DoW community, being a part of it I’ll just ask the question everyone would, will there be another patch for DoW:DC ? Because at the moment the game still has some(although largely reduced by patch 1.2)issues and major imbalances. the thing is, the community doesn’t want to push Relic hard to make another patch when it’s busy with making DoW2 
and other games which i surely won’t want to miss, but if a patch doesn’t come soon it will leave the game stuck at a very uneasy level the issue being not the imbalances, but the fact that players blame everything on them(including bad weather). the DoW community just needs a morale boost, something to hope for, to look forward to, it certainly is DoW2, but that’s too far into the future. So at the moment, the question is: Can Relic make new and supportive patches ? A no answer wouldn’t be a problem if it wouldn’t just make the game stuck on one spot, the solution perhaps is releasing some moding tools or letting the community make official patches itself(the community is very supportive and will obviously do this for free with little effort needed from Relic itself) or perhaps alowing mods to become more official (having their ladders on the original website) and perhaps giving the players the choice to download them as they enter the online lobby.
Cheers Laq
p.s.: Have fun surfing, its great !
p.s.s.:Often the only thing needed to make a community happy is being in contact all time, but the best thing to do is …. actually becoming a part of the community by playing the games it makes others feel like if you are more involved and it creates a magical bong of sympathy,empathy and solidarity between you and your fellow players
June 15th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Meant to say bond, but bong may do as well
June 16th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Maryjane, reefers. They are great when you just want to chill.
June 16th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Finaldeath’s idea is excellent. I would love some more information on Impossible Creatures
. How about some stories? IE: choose a character in a game and tell us how he/she got to be how they are today - from concept and design to ingame. Or maybe the history behind some of the 3D Models (the has to be a story behind the Space Marine. There just must).
June 17th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
I agree, hearing some stories about game development and influences on the game would be interesting to hear. I remember in the early days of the Company of Heroes previews, a lot of them mentioned that some members of the CoH team served in the Canadian Army, and it helped them create the game. Stories like that would be awesome, hearing what experiences and events went into the game. Company of Heroes is the most historically accurate of all Relic’s games, so it’d be cool to hear things like the research and experiences that went into creating that.
June 19th, 2007 at 3:01 am
Pink stickies.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:15 am
I think that new content IE: maps, would be Appreciated by All players. There are so few maps for COH and IF Relic released a NEW MAP with EVERY Patch or even just a map by itself every 3 months I am sure that it would constantly keep the game Fresh.
June 19th, 2007 at 10:55 am
I have to echo one of FinalDeath’s suggestions, and own up to some of the same bias… I think it would be great if you’d feature stuff from some of the mods in the community, or perhaps interviews, etc., with some of the mod leaders or other important mod community members. I mean, there are some amazing mods for DoW that are moving ever nearer to completion (I’m sure that there’s great stuff for CoH as well, but I can only speak about what I know.) Not to mention all of the custom AI work that’s been done for both games…
June 20th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Actually, reading your blog makes me feel happy, because it is interesting and new stuff everytime u post 1 =)
June 21st, 2007 at 9:21 am
I think someone should be posting some Opposing Fronts information
.
June 25th, 2007 at 12:33 am
Since most of the mods in DoW are almost in completion,maybe Relic could do something like what Epic did a few years ago by releasing a Editor’s Choice Edition of DoW,packed with professionally made mods and ai.Maybe,Relic could add some more things to the existing 7 race and fix more imbas.
That would definitely make the game fresh again.
July 30th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Hi
Any chance you can pull some strings to get the CoH Wiki on Modding updated please? Perhaps include a tutorial on scripting?
Thanks & Regards