Asking for your opinion, guys, since I'm kinda in between regarding this blog right now. It has been a long 2+ years long road, and it's obviously time to change. Or quit... First is better, though :)
So,
Point ONE. What topics would you prefer to be covered in here in near future? Share your thoughts, I will make a list, and do my best to provide the requested materials. Just don't ask for impossible. :)
Point TWO. On a related note, what do you think of making this blog a platform for user-generated content as well (I will still be around)? Are there any potential contributors among you willing to participate? What topics you cover as an author? Or can you recommend others as authors? Give them link to the post then!!
If the whole "platform" idea is welcomed, I'm going to share my contact details to talk things through.
Discuss in comments. Your opinion counts!
So,
Point ONE. What topics would you prefer to be covered in here in near future? Share your thoughts, I will make a list, and do my best to provide the requested materials. Just don't ask for impossible. :)
Point TWO. On a related note, what do you think of making this blog a platform for user-generated content as well (I will still be around)? Are there any potential contributors among you willing to participate? What topics you cover as an author? Or can you recommend others as authors? Give them link to the post then!!
If the whole "platform" idea is welcomed, I'm going to share my contact details to talk things through.
Discuss in comments. Your opinion counts!
Silent Stalker and his "associates"
ReplyDeleteAsweel as the rest of the crew from the FTR [:
DeletePredictable. Though there might not be much sense in duplicating info.
DeleteWhatever news you have on WoWs is also always welcome. :)
ReplyDeleteWaiting for E3, planning to show WoWS there.
DeleteOk, thanks. :)
Delete1. And you are most interested in .. ?
ReplyDelete2. above
Personally, I think there are various people (I was interested in working with in first place), who wouldn't work with FTR for whatever reason, but who have really big knowledge. Listy and Raptor_Fulcrum (British and Italian tanks) come to my mind at this moment. They might help.
ReplyDeleteBut let's face it: most people come here for various "insights" into Wargaming. If I was a developer and wanted to catch attention while appearing human, I'd start some sort of diary. Sure, I mean - you can't tell everything, but a lot of people would welcome an insight into how a Wargaming office works (but very honestly, like The_Chieftain does on US server - he's a WG person too, but he's not afraid of criticizing some certain WG decisions - after all, a good naysmith acts as a system stabilizer). Plus, some exclusive hints like before, ambiguous answers, *wink wink*... such stuff.
Right now I'm trying to balance between good material and little time consumption. Can't spare that much time these days - which a diary obviously requires.
DeleteInviting Chieftain and others does sound like an idea though :)
Oh yes, he's great tbh. By far surpasses anything the EU server has (excluding you of course, but as you said, you're a busy man).
DeleteClear. thx
ReplyDeleteAnswering back to front - I see this as a developer blog, not as a community blog. That said, this blog could function as several things all at once.
ReplyDeleteThe Diary idea mentioned by SilentStalker above, perhaps a weekly recap or something. Journals of the various conventions, your visits to various museums.
While I would not want user-generated content being posted in the main feed, where are your links to community sites like For the Record or even wot-news? Build up that community. Link to a particularly interesting historical thread on any of the forums, or gameplay discussion (given many players tend to avoid forums for one reason or another), or blog post. Perhaps link each week to a favourite replay or two - or even post some of your own!
This blog is not part of "official" wargaming (only have to look at the url to see that). But it is part of the Wargaming community, and it seems to be it is excellently placed to help strengthen that community.
Some valid points, thanks.
DeleteI would like to hear more about the English WoT Collectors edition. I hearded from a Russian guy that a Developer mentioned on the RU forum two months ago that its was in development. Actually i am quite wondered that thats not done yet.
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard of this - mostly publishing decision while I focus on development side of things. Can try to clarify.
Deleteinsights in the reasoning behind some WG decisions would be much appreciated, mostly talking about wot here, as others said bringing the_chieftain in would be nice too, I also like the archives posts a lot
ReplyDeleteAny decisions specifically or just in general?
Deletethe most important ones mostly, stuff like major rebalances(spgs in 8,6 for instance) and gamemechanics changes
DeleteI'd like to second this. An example of a game that does this well is EVE online and their dev blogs. I think alot of people would not only like to see what changes are coming, but WHY those changes are being made, what the devs thought process was behind those changes and what sorts of goals the devs are trying to reach. I think that if players could see why certain changes were made they might be more willing to accept and support those changes.
DeleteOk, this is doable. To some extent news / videos on the portal do that. However we could do a deeper insight for those who are interested.
DeleteUse this as a way to comunicate with the people that care about the games, the casuals will not find this blog and most likely will not care. You have done this before asking questions.
ReplyDeleteAlso keep up the updated you have done like the visit the ship and recording tank sounds. It give nice little hints whats coming. :)
Quality content like the ones SS said would not work with him, or Chieftain would be nice too.
But please keep the low quality content out.
What's low quality content for you.
DeletePersonally i would like the question of how to address interest of long term players. Im personally in that position and to be honest the Clan wars Thing and current project STILL is not going to do it... trust me on that one.
ReplyDelete99.9% of players look at "pro" teams and gives them arghhh or puke thoughts, also trust me i researched on that. So a more broader solution like a huge ladder system or a divisions system, like football would be more in hand (for instance a bad team would compete in the 100th division but would STILL be a part of it)... also teams of 7 for this is a good move.
When it comes to content itself of the blog, current one is good... actually its the ONLY PLACE where i feel SOMEONE from WG actually listens, since im an EU player, i guess you know what i mean...
i would change the blog platform and looks, and get more active content coming in... recruit a few good writers and researchers, asking some prospect articles to evaluate them :-)
Thanks for listening.
EPHEX from SNR
(SENIORS CLAN, yes our players average 40ish but we have 70ish ones)
As you might know, we are planning to push hard on e-sport side of things, including automatic built-in tourneys, ladders, improved functionality to create and find teams, i.e. promote competitive play within the game client. That's one of the priorities for 2013.
DeleteThx.
Don't worry OL, I'm not here to rag on WG, at least not this time XD Just a few quick insights.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite connected to the WoT community on the NA server, and because of this and insights from my friends, I've come to the conclusion that most people do not care much for World of Warplanes, given the fact that War Thunder simply has a better version of the same thing, and WoWP is not terribly well designed to begin with. Most people who are into these games are into WoT, and these same people care much more about World of Warships than World of Warplanes. I'm not saying WG should completely abandon WoWP necessarily, but it's definitely the biggest loser of the group, and many people simply don't want to play a plane game anyway, myself included.
I've enjoyed the information you've presented thus far on your blog, but in the future, I believe it would be beneficial to focus more on WoT and WoWS than anything else. Those are what people are really interested in, I've heard very few people state otherwise.
Regarding WoWP, the team has done amazing (yes, I think so) progress with 0.4.x - series so far. The new 0.4.3 is going to bring some nice interface improvements, tech trees reshuffle, new aircraft, crews and crew skills, reworked tracers, noticeable graphics improvements. And the community is somewhat responding to the overall positive direction we are heading - I do see less negativity now, and CCU numbers continue to grow. E.g. we have had 8.2k on RU server earlier today which is good.
DeleteWoWS is being favoured right now, no doubt.
Hi Overlord,
DeleteSounds awesome, is this already the British patch?
I'm also seeing a lot more people playing the Beta,
was motivated enough to get all tier 6 airplanes and my first tier 8. Is there a rough date for 4.3? (a month or two)
The only thing that annoys me is the amount of ramming, accidental and otherwise. Maybe make the wings not count for ramming other planes, or something like that.
No, it's not the British patch (will come later). 0.4.3 is already on Supertest, so shouldn't take long.
DeleteI came to this site for insights into WoT (I believe the first entry I read was about unlisted patch notes and the reasoning behind some of the changes), and would have stuck around purely for that. I really enjoy the rest of the entries, though, especially tank photos and the recent tour of the bunker (those probably take a lot of effort on your part, so I'd feel bad asking for more of them). Blueprints of existing tanks and vague hints of upcoming content are always fun, too (especially if it's of a premium American TD!).
ReplyDeleteI haven't spent much time on WoWP or WoWS (just a brief, broken beta at SXSW...watching other people's games was fun, though), so that content doesn't do as much for me, but I'm sure once I start them it will grab me. I did enjoy the tour of the USS Texas, though.
As far as user-generated content goes, I'm not really sure what that might entail. Exceptional fanart might be interesting, but that's hard to come by without posting a lot of thoroughly average art, which is less interesting. As a user, the best I could contribute is photos of tanks from the Texas Military Forces Museum, but that would probably be just a single article. I'm not sure what the makeup of your readership is, but if any of them are WW2 devotees or have interesting tank information, that could be interesting. I come strongly from the gaming side of things and I think people like me would have less to contribute, unless you want to turn the blog into something that provides articles helping players to improve their skills (like ElitistJerks but with tanks), which I think the wiki covers pretty well.
I'm one of your women readers, so I'm not sure how representative I am of your readers as a whole, but those are my thoughts. I really do appreciate having this blog; it's one of the sites I check daily for new posts, and I always enjoy them. I hope it stays worthwhile for you (I know something like this must be a lot of work).
Thanks for regular visiting and reading.
DeleteMR, I expect you're in the Austin area - did you get to Mabry for the reenactment on Memorial Day? I'm thinking about posting some pics and video from that event (and the museum). What do you think?
DeleteThe Chieftan is amazing. The fact that he doesn't toe the party line means that when he does its actually believable.
ReplyDeleteSnippets that WGs researchers have dug up are cool. Most of us don't have access to archives, those are really interesting to read about.
Upcoming WG info is cool, preferably with explanations. For example if you could get someone to give you a few paragraphs about why arty matchmaking is going to let them be top tier or why T8 tanks will now have to face the most powerful arty in the game that'd be good. Getting it from someone else would save you time too.
Why do you have to have a blog in the first place? Or why does it have to be separate from the EU and USA forums?
ReplyDeleteWhy can't you just have a section on the forums where you can engage the rest of the World of Tanks players and instead of splitting the communities, you bring it together? You asked for feedback before about the community teams which clearly showed you've never met or interacted with them or have a clue about what they do and who they are. You asked your readers to give you feedback like you were going to make sweeping changes and what happens? Nothing.
With all the shit the EU guys get about the current Q&A i'm sure they'd welcome you with open arms! Why are you the only person acting on your own?
I've never understood the reason for the separate blog, It's like you always want to be separate from the regular community teams and it doesn't make sense. If you're a dev and you speak English, then go answer the Q&A threads!
I'd like to see you have your own section on the forums, that way the community grows stronger because you're part of it.
Frank's work on the Q&A is awesome, but the rest of the time he just bitches about the EU staff. He's turning into an anti WG rage kid whenever he's not kissing your ass or the Chieftain's and that shit is getting old fast. Outside of the Q&A he doesn't have much else that is interesting.
My advice, ditch the blog and post what you post on the forums. I don't understand why the one English speaking, dev realated guy doesn't post on the forums, nor does he know who the community teams are. Seems to me like you've had a fall out and rather work together for the community, you're being stubborn because you want to do your own thing.
Having dev blogs on the actual forums would increase the traffic there which in turn boosts posts and player interaction. Why tell players "go away from our official forums if you want to know stuff"
Given the forums being tied to game accounts, which are tied to the respective servers, the blog is a better place for Overlord to be posting info. If he was posting on the EU forums, I as a NA player would never be able to post replies because those aren't my forums.
DeleteRight, Blizzard36.
DeletePlus, you, as readers, have more freedom here - no bans, less strict rules. Same for me.
I think a journal or log that came out once a week that discussed what happened, IE what you worked on, during the previous week and any additional insight would be helpful to the community. Just a simple "worked on XX developmental idea" or "scrapped XX idea due to XX"
ReplyDeleteI get that you don't have access to everything but I would always be interested to hear and learn about the things you are working on that you can share ofc. Even if all it ends up being is a small note its better then listening to what is usually silence. Unless you read the FTR Blog daily.
A lot of people do inquire and ask about what is going on and when XX is going to happen on the forums. And it pains me to see that they are asking that when they have a good 2k + games under their belt. So... I keep sending them to the FTR Blog or try to answer their question from what I have read on the blog.
It gets worse in game on the general chat where a surprising number of people are even more out of the loop on what is going on and will be going on with WOT.
The more communication that goes on between the community and the company the better. It does not need to be a spill all of plans and leaks but it does need to be consistent and reliable in the information it does present.
NEMO.
used to read overlord blog, but to few updates and not enough interesting content made me choose to read the only good wot source/blog around >>> http://ftr-wot.blogspot.cz/
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'd stop coming here to read if it contained user-generated content. That's what the forums are for, and they are, more often than not, full of misinformation/trolling/brony wars.
ReplyDeleteI've been following your blog since the beginning; partly because (at the time) you were about the only visible Dev, and actually cared about the players being informed. Your activity in the comments was always of great interest, and often filled a lot of official gaps.
Time moves on, though, and your focus has, as well. That's not a slag against you, your role changed, so of course your focus did. I've come to enjoy the varied info now, but, like Captain Nemo said above me, it'd be really nice to have a bit more about the regular dev goings-on.
If you do decide to shut down, I will definitely miss coming here to read, but it'd be totally understandable, too. Either way, thanks for the time and effort you've put in to date. It's been appreciated. =)
Thanks. That instills some motivation to move on.
DeleteHmmmm
ReplyDeletePoint 1:
Developments in WG in general and WOT/WOWP/WOWS, what the future is going to look like, tempting hints from the top maybe? The place to come to see new tanks/modules game types etc for the first time (not from Russian wot news sites!)
Point 2:
Please for the love of mankind don't open it up to the public... we have a forum...
I suggest that for topics you use your current specialists as suggested above like challenger and his counterparts from all the countries. Therefore a commune of WG authors.. so all you have to do is just act as Lead editor... this should free your time for other things ;-)
Content I'm interested in is:
ReplyDelete-Info on future changes to the game; commentary about them (what the expected effects are, why the changes were decided upon in the first place; !info on future maps and how they're designed etc!)
-Info on the gameplay itself (how certain mechanics work, how to use tank X, tactics on maps, anything with practical application).
-Historical info/documents.
-WoWs
I know some of this stuff is not in line with the spirit of a "developer blog", and some may not fit in with your time limitations and specific expertise. Still, that's what I'm interested in, and as long as there's some part of it covered, I'll keep reading.
Point One: this blog is my only source for WoT/WoWs etc. content, due the fact that the WoT sites are blocked at my workplace...
ReplyDeletePoint Two: only insider infos are relevant for me. For suspected, theoretic, well-known, etc. contents we have an official forum.
1. Where are you from ? Just curious
Delete2. Gotcha
I am working for an UK based company, so my internet access is filtered by weird rules, despite that I'm not in the UK. :)
DeleteI see. Just sounded like China for me :)
DeleteIt have sounded the same for me too...
Delete(WoT site are in "Games" cathegory, ... But some blogs and portals are also forbidden, and I have no idea why. That's why I call the rules weird. )
"insights in the reasoning behind some WG decisions would be much appreciated"
ReplyDeleteThis is great idea. I liked a lot Zlobny's post that Silentstalker recently translated - http://ftr-wot.blogspot.com/2013/05/accuracy-explained-wg-dev-on-086.html
I like current version of your blog and it is ok IMO, but I miss times, when you were giving more information about future changes.
I think that option with some posts from players is not good. It would make chaos. Many readers do not check, who is an author (you have seen it under ChrisK last great posts), so some things written by players would be soon repeated elsewhere as written by developers (or by you, Overlord). So IMO here should be content only from WG employees.
Understood. The problem behind giving some extensive reasoning to information about future changes is that I can not embrace everything that is going on with our multiple projects (don't work on WoW anymore) focusing mostly on mobile stuff. That's why it's hard to be a knowledgeable first-hand source these days.
DeleteCan get out some feedback from Zlobny, though.
Delete"I can not embrace everything that is going on with our multiple projects"
DeleteI understand it. I worked in some corporations with hundreds of employees and many projects so I know how it is. This is why I wrote that I miss it, not that I demand it ;).
It would be nice to see more info about internal life of WoT - like, map creation process and decisions behind it.
ReplyDeleteI wish it could stay a true developer's blog - that's what makes it unique and interesting.
Please do not turn it into yet another community site where people would just retranslate content from RU cluster or rehash books/articles found elsewhere on the net, while having nothing interesting or original to say about the game itself.
Well, map creation is extremely creative and .. chaotic )
DeleteAs several others stated, i liked this blog more when it had indepth wot info patch notes, etc, since then it has become more of a "general" blog withotu the update frequency it used to have.
ReplyDeleteI'm also in the boat of not caring about wop and waiting eagerly for WOWS.
for example(and it's been said before), FTR is right now the best source of info because it condenses everything in one place(he would be a good addition for user content, but alas he's very critical of WG and head devs and doesn't fear to leak info so i don't see that happening anytime soon).
chieftain doing articles would be very good too
Point one.
ReplyDeleteYou should keep to the current project you are working on, what ever it is WoT, WoWp or WoWs. (maybe encourage another WG employees to blog on the other games)
More frequent updates would be nice, with "what's cooking" atm
A more personal blog with your own views on matters and fun stories from your daily work :)
Hello Overlord,
ReplyDeleteI've written some articles for the EU server already. Trouble is I can churn articles out far faster than the EU content team can post them...
My two previous:
http://worldoftanks.eu/news/5235-dig-victory/
http://worldoftanks.eu/news/7014-steel-wall-queen-part-one/
I have ideas for other articles that is either too short or outside the scope of the WOT main page which you could stick up.
Very nice ones and they go in line with history direction. If you are interested, we (you) can post some of your works here.
DeleteSorry for the delay in replying,
DeleteYeah I'm game for that, we can at least have a chat about what you need.
I'm Listy on the EU server, Chally has my email, and I think I've E-mailed you directly before. Or failing that I can stick my Email up on here.
Thanks.
You've got my emal. Please send me a message to it.
DeleteI don't know about anyone else, but I'd like to see more info about WoT Generals. It's definitely my most anticipated upcoming game.
ReplyDeleteRelated to that, I like this blog being used as a "Coming Soon" area. The main sites don't seem to do much of that. It's also great to see some of the thinking that went into certain decisions behind the scenes, as the official Q&A threads are dead on the NA server. We get better answers reading translated answers from the RU questions.
"Coming soon" area is now a responsibility of PR mostly. I try to stay away from this. Thinking behind certain decisions is easier.
DeleteOverlord, you are doing an excellent job with your blog. I hope it will be here for a very long time. :)
ReplyDeleteI read your awesome blogs frequently. Keep up the excellent work.
Thanks.
DeleteBeing a software developer (and open source 3D game classic maintainer), I would like so articles covering technical (software) and game design stuff in more depth.
ReplyDelete