I think dev chats are a good idea always both before and after a game launch.  I plan on talking with Frogboy about some of my ideas in the near future, so if Kryo or the others at SD don't beat me to it I will definitely mention this.

I come here because I am a Stardock customer. If you choose to take my opinions as negative (when they are really just observations born out of experience) so be it.

For example my post commented how a small, limited chat would only annoy many of the ten's of thousands of customers who's voices don't get heard and in the end offer nothing of significance.

Your post just moaned about my posts.

So which of us is making the useless posts?

[Ignored XSive_Death's post]

i agree TheMystic, proper developer <--to--> consumer discussion and communication is needed before AND after release.  if those in this community aren't mature enough be able to do that then i think taking the time to find those that are willing and able to is very important.

I'd just love to talk about items for example. Or the potential of them making your clock map. And so on

yea, i'm also very interested in getting to chat to the real deals.  building an idea is so much easier when u know what can't work. 

getting back to the OP thou, i would almost say its more productive for the game dev to spend say 1 hour a week all collectively chatting with (the more mature) community than taking that time to work.  if the developers can see the excitment and ideas brought forward to from this community it would definately at least motivate them.  if all u hear are complainst forwarded through Frogboy then u tend to hate ur job.  however if u actualy see how excited people get over new content and feature u might actualy want to come into work in the mornings

This is an excellent point, ScottishAlien.

Any thoughts Stardock?

Don't take Kryo too seriously. Like everyone else he has a temper and he's known to let it show. Anyone who ever visited competetive gamer forums or "free speech" american political forums knows what flaming and trolling looks like.

Demigod is a fuzzy ball of harmony compared to that.

My comment about the potential productivity of a live chat is basically the same thing Brad has said re community toxicity. Things seem a bit friendlier now with the latest 1.2 journal, but how long the more vocal types will remain happy, who knows. No intent to disparage to those who have contributed constructively, but the loudest voices set the tone.

In any case, if you guys do have any particular questions, post away and I can see if Brad will do a FAQ journal at least.

All right, kryo. Want to talk ScottishAlien on IRC or something? Anyone else want in on this?

i'm up for that... which channel do u use?

I like the idea of it but while it'd be interesting to shoot the breeze with the devs over the game I don't really have a lot of questions for a FAQ type thing.

Here are some questions that I feel are asked directly or indirectly pretty frequently

1. What's your general perspective on minion 'swarm' builds at the moment?
   1. Has the horn of battle been altered in 1.2?
2. What your current perspective on team matchmaking. Do you see it in the near future, on the horizon, or not at all?
3. Are there any plans to make stats visible in game?
4. How do you guys feel about pantheon/skirmish at the moment?
   • Do you feel pantheon drains players off of skirmish matching or vice versa in a detrimental way?
   • How well has the light/dark seperation played out?
5. HP stacking seems to be the proper gear choice 99% of the time. Are you guys happy with current item balanc?
   • Personally I think the artifact shop items are extremely versatile and well made, did they precede or follow the creation of the regular item shop items?
6. Do you guys have a working list of bug fixes that have been nailed down?
   

The green subquestion is just a personal inquiry, it's not something I've seen repeated by anyone else on the boards, but for the most part I think this short list covers much of the most frequently asked stuff.

I usually am idling in #demigodgame.

I'd agree Stardock appear to be almost willing the community to be this way, certainly seems no different from any other publisher or developer forum.

Tals

Good point, I really wish more of the standard items were like the artifacts. If there was a set of gloves that was a very toned down version of the bracelet of rage, or a set of armor that could function like the bulwark for 5 seconds etc. I think item shoice would be a lot more interesting. You might see people who favor a flat stat increase while others will go for items that can significantly buff them for a short period every 45 seconds, at risk of putting their eggs in one basket.

Lemme point out on exception on the standard item shop inventory - the Orb of Defiance is, imo, the coolest and most interesting item in the game.

Definite QFT.

I know it isn't SD's style to get involved in heavily moderating but surely it's time to think about doing something if you're having to say that?

You can't say "it's not working, those folks spoilt it for everyone by not playing nice" because this is the only way of giving feedback on the game short of emailing ideas through, and that's in no way less prone to people sending vile and uunhelpful comments so will end up equally ignored if it becomes popular.

Heck, there's not that many helpful posters, you could even just give the posters who make a couple of constructive posts the keys to some secret feedback clubhouse on an individual basis. Anything's better than completely isolating yourself from the community because some sections are running riot.

Also, constructive criticism doesn't technically have to be nice, and some people have trouble holding their temper when they have a problem but can still make a solid arguement. It takes a thick skin to read the rants and separate the ones out that have a legitimate point too. But it would help get the most out of any feedback if you can separate "angry and dumb" from "angry and impolite, but kinda right".

Droopy, I think the issues people want to address are too contentious for a really constructive dialog to exist...yet. Even within the more constructive members there are a lot of differing points of view that...may not provide a huge well of useful information when put together, too many elements are going to contradict one or the other, and people approach to issues in the game are going to create a potential...dissonance. If there were single themes from the thoughtful members of the community that could be put into a coherent concise batch of opinions, I think it would be likely that those things would change, but I don't see that being the case, I see a lot of difference amongst the more reasonable members. 

I'm not saying that argument will arise, or that conflict will be the problem, but that no concensus exists on the problems. There are a couple of things people could probably agree on, but I think a lot of meaty issues are going to be too contentious for concensus. weird little alliterative phrase there....

Edit: I'm thinking that maybe if they produce a poll, that would be constructive. The problem with some people getting to chat with them and not others is one of elitism...at least in part, the disregard of some members thoughts. If they asked questions like, Do you see any technical issues that still need to be addressed? And if so what are they? Do you think the game has balance problems that need to be addressed, if so what are they? And were able to compile something like that easily, perhaps they could provide more specific questions than the ones I suggest, and probably they should. This doesn't exclude anyone provides an organized collection of data for them to address, and the ability to see trends. Just a thought.

It has already been necessary here (and done, whether visibly or otherwise) for some time. Which is frustrating, as it's been a point of pride that we've always been hands-off and that regular locks and deletions have never been necessary in our communities. The bottom line is that those trolls have discouraged Brad from interacting directly on a regular basis (as you're all aware), which is what the primary feature of a live chat would be since he is involved with GPG more than anyone else here.

So I'll reiterate, go ahead and post your questions and we'll see if they can go into a journal. A live chat would basically be the same thing anyway, just with a faster turnaround. It also eliminates the scheduling issues with a live chat.

Alright, yeah I saw the sticky last month about unleashing the ban hammer, I just figured if you folks might have been holding back a little if you're still not happy with the results. I've seen much stricter rules than have been laid out here still that didn't stifle discussion too much. I doubt that a stricter atmosphere would have no drawbacks at all, but it might still be an improvement and, with luck, after an initial purge a rule change often enforces itself.

I get what you mean about conflicting views about the game itself hipgnosis. I have some probably fairly contentious views on generals and the skill diversity between demigods that would simply come down to differing opinions on what I want that the majority possibly wouldn't. I just hope that if people are honestly trying to be reasonable, and without other people trying to incite an arguement, it doesn't take much mediation to help everyone sort out what are diferences in opinion and what are flaws in reasoning. The numbers of who wants what can be counted up afterwards.

(That and maybe a couple of reminders might be needed at first that you can't really argue constructively against anyone's opinion, just the reasoning behind it.)

Lemme point out that some of my questsions were answered already on the july 24th update, so kudos to frogboy and the DG team.