Changes at Goa

[Tip]

Right back atcha.

was aimed at sollers comment, little defensive arnt you?

 

[IainC]

Requiel, plz tell me that WAR, both US and EU servers, will be patched simultanious(spelling?)? This will be the diffrence where we end up playing.

There will be simultaneous launches and patches for the US and Europe. You can read some frequently asked questions about our plans for WAR on the European WAR website. Note that this is only a placeholder for the moment, a new site is being launched at the end of this month which will have a lot more information and functionality. Keep an eye on it for more details as the beta progresses and we get closer to the launch date.

 

[Takhasis]

An open question to all the whiny people who have replied to this thread.

Do any of you still play on the English Cluster?

If not, why are you so whiny on this thread, or is it just to have a go at Req? Is that your only reason for continuing to troll these forums?

 

[Dukat]

An open question to all the whiny people who have replied to this thread.

Do any of you still play on the English Cluster?

If not, why are you so whiny on this thread, or is it just to have a go at Req? Is that your only reason for continuing to troll these forums?

I know this isnt directed at me, but I'll answer it anyway

I dont play daoc, infact as of this friday it will be exactly one year to the day that I stopped playing.

Why do I still post? Mainly because I play other games with people who post here, and still communicate and spam up the offtopic, general and half life sections of FH.

Occasionally I'll see a thread title come up on the "new posts" list that I might find interesting, so I take a look, in most cases I dont reply now, except on rare occasions where I'll either be bored enough (like now), or on other occasions where the topic might be something about which I have a valid contribution to make.

Mostly its because I know most of the regulars here, when I turned off DAoC, I didnt cut all ties to the people who I met whilst playing the game, and I suspect the same is true for alot of others, FH is "home" for quite a few people who have since moved on.

 

[Takitothemacs]

An open question to all the whiny people who have replied to this thread.

Do any of you still play on the English Cluster?

If not, why are you so whiny on this thread, or is it just to have a go at Req? Is that your only reason for continuing to troll these forums?

I still play on Dyvet... and can say that those whines all state what I was going to say but didnt as it would just be another Taki goes mad at GOA/Requiel rant so you can take it from me the feeling of those of us with legitimate gripes still playing on dyvet is well represented by the whines within this thread.

now can I have a cookie?

If only those who are sticking up for GOA and the actions of the past didnt have E&E on their sig I might be a little more inclined to believe their sincerity, however if they have the love spuds to stand up for whats right rather then sucking GOA's cock so much then GOA might have got a few more things right in the past. Remember Ive been there done that so I know what went on in the programme, however I stood up for what i believed and took shit for saying what so many were thinking.

Fair play to those that really try, but being a lapdog for GOA isnt a pasttime I would choose for myself... and there are so many to choose from atm. Last night in emain the statements that the GOA police were patrolling were mentioned a few times.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

There will be simultaneous launches and patches for the US and Europe. You can read some frequently asked questions about our plans for WAR on the European WAR website. Note that this is only a placeholder for the moment, a new site is being launched at the end of this month which will have a lot more information and functionality. Keep an eye on it for more details as the beta progresses and we get closer to the launch date.

Interesting. GOA recruiting back where I was born and in a line of work I do.

 

[Cromcruaich]

An open question to all the whiny people who have replied to this thread.

Do any of you still play on the English Cluster?

If not, why are you so whiny on this thread, or is it just to have a go at Req? Is that your only reason for continuing to troll these forums?

I expect you could answer that question yourself, but anyhow - people who left left for a variety of reasons, including perceived community mismanagement - so when the community manager who many of those people feel had a hand in that mismanagement announces he is moving then they, for some inexplicable reason, are interested.

Hopefully this move will encourage more people back to the server.

Oh and I still play duvet, and I considered just making a post of the 'wishing you luck' ilk, but then thought no, i'll give my honest opinion, but what good I can do is to back who so ever is Reqs replacement and wish them the best of luck.

I've also come to realise that ive been under a serious missaprehension over what Reqs community manage job description meant - I thought it was to look after the community, like a shepard looks after his flock - whereas I think it was more manage the community like a spin doctor manages the media. My error then.

 

[IainC]

Remember Ive been there done that so I know what went on in the programme, however I stood up for what i believed and took shit for saying what so many were thinking.

I don't want to dig up ancient history but I am honestly astounded that you feel this way. When you said that you were going to step down from the E&E program I spent a long time talking to you on MSN to try and keep you on board. You were one of the better E&Es and I wanted you to stay if possible. During our chat I tried to explain what was happening and why things were the way they were. I gave you as much information as I possibly could because I wanted you to understand and I wanted you to see that we were doing as much as we possibly could in the circumstances. At no point did I 'give you shit' for your opinions. I acknowledged that you had legitimate grievances and tried to show you what we were doing to address them. When you then went and left anyway no-one was more sorry than I was and I made it clear to you at the time that if you wanted to come back you'd be welcome. That offer was valid right up to the point where you went into bridge burning mode.

Fair play to those that really try, but being a lapdog for GOA isnt a pasttime I would choose for myself

As you well know there's no requirement for E&Es to be 'lapdogs'. We don't stop them from speaking their minds and very often their feelings are different to ours, we've had many E&Es who have been openly critical of us from time to time and we think that's a sign of a healthy relationship. Those people are still E&Es and do a good job, you don't have to toe the company line, you just have to keep an open mind.

 

[knighthood]

. A judge uses him common sense to sentence people aswell.

Not if u live in England, then he uses his common sense to let peadophiles walk the streets after a year or so, or even better doesnt even send em to jail cos our goverment is too lazy to build more prisons (or fuck EU human rights bollox and bring back hanging) , or gives a measly 8 fuckin month sentance to twats who breed illegal dogs that then kill thier niece.. just 2 examples of our lovely juridicional system(nerf spellin) ...

Ofc that has nothing to do with this , i just wanted to vent my hatred towards everything..

As for on topic, Goodbye Req, personally think u did a very good job and Xalin , wether Daoc is sinking faster then ever.. well that doesnt bother me, so long as it holds on enuf till War comes out , have been expecting it to go down for a long time really, not to say i dont have fun playing it ofc, but i havnt took it too seriously for a while

 

[IainC]

I've also come to realise that ive been under a serious missaprehension over what Reqs community manage job description meant - I thought it was to look after the community, like a shepard looks after his flock - whereas I think it was more manage the community like a spin doctor manages the media. My error then.

That raises an interesting point. My new job won't be the same as my old one. For DAoC, I was a sort of hybrid doing CSR/GM stuff as well as community management. There's community management though and community management. As far as DAoC was concerned what I did was look at problems that the community was facing and bring them to the attention of my managers. I also answered questions posed by the community and tried to clarify things where there was confusion. As far as possible I tried to be the face of Goa that the community could identify with so you didn't feel that you were talking to some shapeless entity called Goa but rather to a chap called Requiel who was listening to what you had to say.

I freely admit that I made mistakes. I made posts that in hindsight I shouldn't have done, I took some decisions that weren't right and everytime I did that I made it right again and learnt from it. One of the things I learnt was that there are always more than two sides to every problem and that it's not possible to make decisions that will keep everybody happy. Even in relatively clearcut cases there will always be people who don't agree with the decision you made. In those cases, it's important to do what is right, which isn't necessarily what the majority of people want you to do or what the loudest posters are asking for. Do what you need to do and then explain it to those who don't understand. Sometimes we have to do things that are unpopular and at those times it's my job to do the explaining. We don't do it because we hate a certain section of our playerbase or because we don't understand what you want, we do it because on balance it's the right thing to do and we're looking at the entire community not just the part of it that is shouting at us.

I told you what I could and I only ever told you the truth as it was at the time. Sometimes there was nothing I could say but I'd rather tell you that I had nothing to say than to say nothing though. Getting an answer you don't like has to be better than not getting an answer at all.

 

[Esselinithia]

But goddamn some people cannot throw away their own pettiness to simply wish folks well for the future.

Xalin and Requiel steped down as GMs, but do you know if they will stop playing the game as players? Have they said anything about that? If they aren't but Requiel said he will play even after WAR launch and will stay and will try to fix population problem, then I see no reason to treat this as goodbye thread. He informed us about Changes at GOA.

When it will be about Requiel / Xalin stoping playing on UK cluster that is another story, and when they say they not only stoped playing, but they are leaving the community behind and need a goodbye thread that will be entirely different topic.

So far we talk about changes at GOA and what can we except from them. This is why you see the comments. Because people understood this difference

 

[Phantomby]

Getting an answer you don't like has to be better than not getting an answer at all.

On this note could you inform us of the plans to save the cluster?

 

[IainC]

Xalin and Requiel steped down as GMs, but do you know if they will stop playing the game as players? Have they said anything about that? If they aren't but Requiel said he will play even after WAR launch and will stay and will try to fix population problem, then I see no reason to treat this as goodbye thread.

After today I am nothing more than a player as far as DAoC is concerned. I will stay in contact with the DAoC team but I won't be working with them directly. You need to realise that the GMs are not the people working on the population issues. We were consulted way back when the plans were drawn up but beyond that we aren't involved other than dealing with player queries about it. All the work on that is being done by other teams and by management.

 

[Gear]

Good luck with whatever you'll do in the future both of you.

If I play war most likely it'll be on the US servers, same with a lot of ex-daoc players i know. Nothing personal req, but your company is pretty shit man. I think Xalin did the right thing tbh.

 

[noaim]

Sometimes there was nothing I could say but I'd rather tell you that I had nothing to say than to say nothing though. Getting an answer you don't like has to be better than not getting an answer at all.

So the reason we heard nothing about the invisible changes or your long term plans to fix the situation is...?

 

[Congax]

. We were consulted way back when the plans were drawn up but beyond that we aren't involved other than dealing with player queries about it.

Dealing with player queries about it? For God's sake Req, none of us are informed what will happen to the server. Tell us more about these plans then, it may be that you do not know the full development of them but atleast you know the basics of it.

 

[Takitothemacs]

At no point did I 'give you shit' for your opinions. I acknowledged that you had legitimate grievances and tried to show you what we were doing to address them. When you then went and left anyway no-one was more sorry than I was and I made it clear to you at the time that if you wanted to come back you'd be welcome. That offer was valid right up to the point where you went into bridge burning mode.


As you well know there's no requirement for E&Es to be 'lapdogs'. We don't stop them from speaking their minds and very often their feelings are different to ours, we've had many E&Es who have been openly critical of us from time to time and we think that's a sign of a healthy relationship. Those people are still E&Es and do a good job, you don't have to toe the company line, you just have to keep an open mind.

It may not be a requirement but it happens.

Also as I read back my post I didnt say it was you that gave me shit did I? Perhaps it was those that are still arguing the toss that gave me shit... as you said I had/have legitimate grieveances but anything said was always (it felt) ignored... and not just what I personaly said but a lot of other people.

At the end of the day I liked you when we met, so i wish you the best but professionally we certainly don't see eye to eye and for that reason I maintain that you have done a terrible job in your role, if thats because you have your hands tied so be it but you shouldnt allow yourself to carry on in that fashion, have some more respect for yourself.

Advice for WAR... :
1. be open and honest to the customer... they pay your wages.
2. never ever think your customers are stupid
3. never think your customers cannot offer you advice
4. listen to your customers
5. make the comittment to be true to the truth, even if you dont like it
6. never put your name to any PR message that you are not 100% behind... let some other schmuck in marketing do that... loss of your credibility sticks like shit to a blanket.

now having burned all my bridges... have fun and good luck in WAR, I think you are likely to need it.

 

[Dukat]

I think that its a measure of requiels success that there is so much whine in this thread.

People are not happy with GOA, and requiel has, in succeeding (imo) to be the 'face of GOA', made himself the target for such pent up anger.

Dont get me wrong, I'm not jumping on any bandwagons here for or against, I myself disagreed with some decisions made but who was I? I paying customer maybe: but one of many.

I dont really know what I'm trying to say here, just that I think maybe the attitude here is a little on the harsh side. Everyone has thier opinion though and the right to voice it, I just hate to see this sort of siutation where neither side seems willing/able to budge from thier Points of view.

 

[Cromcruaich]

...

You know where the major beefs have been - for me it wasnt a question of whether something should be handled - but the way it was/is handled. If your sheep wanders from the trail, you shepard them back, you dont shoot em.

 

[Cromcruaich]

...

*edit - mm bit of a posting mess up from me, so an edit was in order.

I hope the new team will take a less officious approach, and be prepared to engage people in conversation before actually handing out suspensions that simply serve to split up the community, such as it is.

 

[Sollers]

SHUT UP!

if you havent got anything nice to say then say nothing at all

drivveling whingebag!

If I feel I, and with me a whole community are wronged, I will speak up. It's that simple. If that's too much for you go watch sesamestreet.

 

[Imgormiel]

This is a hard post for me to make and no doubt people will analyse and deconstruct it to the nth degree. There are no hidden meanings, you don't need to read between the lines or extrapolate from my actual words. What you read here is how it is and I'm going to try and be as plain and forthright as it's possible to be.

There are quite a few changes happening in Goa at the moment related to our expansion and some of these are happening within the English GM team. Xalin is leaving this week to take up a position with another company and we wish him well with that. I will be leaving to be the community manager for WAR. My last day on the DAoC project will be this Wednesday.

I appreciate that many people might assume that bodes badly for DAoC and that we are abandoning a sinking ship but I want to assure you that is not the case. A lot of experienced and valuable people are still looking after DAoC. Taryx will remain, and we have just today hired a new DAoC English GM who will no doubt introduce himself to you as soon as he's settled in. All your ingame problems and RightNow queries will continue to be answered just as fast as they always have (within 24hrs and mostly sooner before the resident comedians pick up on that). All in all I'm confident that the game and the community are being left in very good hands. The staff staying to look after DAoC are passionate about the game and will work hard for you. You may also have noted the job advert in the last Friday News as well.

One thing will change and that is there will be less direct contact through forums such as this one. That doesn't mean that we are cutting ourselves off from the community though. You will still be able to talk directly to a GM on the server or to ask general questions, make comments etc through RightNow and the team will continue to monitor forums even if they don't post. That part of the job was something I did because I personally felt that it was important to be active within the community and it was something I actually enjoyed despite the unbelievable levels of personal abuse it attracted. The new team aren't willing to put themselves through that wringer at the moment and I can't say I entirely blame them. In time someone may step up to don the fireproof suit and specially thickened skin. Make their time here worthwhile and you will be rewarded for it.

Other things aren't slated to change very much from your point of view as our customers. The technical teams who are dealing with the game, the servers and issues such as the low population servers are staying in place so work on that and the regular patch schedule won't be interrupted. The same general staffing levels will be maintained overall so there will be no reduction in service or our commitment to the game.

For myself I had always imagined that when the time came for me to move on, I'd make a long and indulgent post where I'd hark back on my favourite memories and thank a bunch of people for all their help over the years. That doesn't seem appropriate at present and so I'm just going to say that it's been a privilege to do this job for the last three years and I wish all of you the very best in this game or wherever you are at present. If you show up in WAR then I hope you'll enjoy that as much as I'll enjoy working with you all. Finally I want to make a special mention of thanks to all our E&Es past and present. Every single one of you made my job easier even when you didn't agree with what I was saying. Even those of you who parted ways with us did a good job to the end and I want to thank you for that.

Goodbye and my best wishes to you all.

Good luck Req, hope things go down well in Ireland. Pop over to Liverpool when ya got time for a beer or 3 eh?

 

[Overdriven]

You'll be back in 2 weeks!

Cya Req, cheers for answering the tedius amount of questions ^^

 

[Nate]

Would have been nice if on his last day he gave us some good news for once, ah well.

 

[Esselinithia]

After today I am nothing more than a player as far as DAoC is concerned. I will stay in contact with the DAoC team but I won't be working with them directly. You need to realise that the GMs are not the people working on the population issues. We were consulted way back when the plans were drawn up but beyond that we aren't involved other than dealing with player queries about it. All the work on that is being done by other teams and by management.

Requiel: Remember what I suggested long time ago: Player made screenshots, wallpapers, to show that many players are happy with the game, as it is good advertisement.

You don't have to be in DAOC team, and don't need to work at GOA to promote the game as a player So I still think that even exGMs have a role in fixing population problem.

 

[Wholdar]

Good luck Requiel and Xalin!

On the topic of the GOA-fix to the population-problem:

What I hope GOA realizes is that time is quite essential here. The longer it takes for any "solution" to the population-problem to appear, the less likely it will make any differance what so ever.

The more time passes, the ones who have left are starting to feel more at home at their new place, and more alien to their former EU-DAOC-home.

I sincerely hope GOA realizes that.

/j

 

[Jupiter]

Good luck Req, hope things go down well in Ireland. Pop over to Liverpool when ya got time for a beer or 3 eh?

wtf we dont want him over here

I freely admit that I made mistakes. I made posts that in hindsight I shouldn't have done, I took some decisions that weren't right and everytime I did that I made it right again and learnt from it.

Oh really, people who make mistakes usually have the balls to put their hands up and admit they have, u just kept digging

 

[Cylian]

Interesting. GOA recruiting back where I was born and in a line of work I do.

resist the temptation!









...less trouble to decide for the US servers then.

 

[Bikkus]

By the way, could the last person turn the lights off when they leave.

 

[Bugz]

It may not be a requirement but it happens.

At the end of the day I liked you when we met, so i wish you the best but professionally we certainly don't see eye to eye and for that reason I maintain that you have done a terrible job in your role, if thats because you have your hands tied so be it but you shouldnt allow yourself to carry on in that fashion, have some more respect for yourself.

Advice for WAR... :
1. be open and honest to the customer... they pay your wages.
2. never ever think your customers are stupid
3. never think your customers cannot offer you advice
4. listen to your customers
5. make the comittment to be true to the truth, even if you dont like it
6. never put your name to any PR message that you are not 100% behind... let some other schmuck in marketing do that... loss of your credibility sticks like shit to a blanket.

now having burned all my bridges... have fun and good luck in WAR, I think you are likely to need it.

What a wanker post.

Why the fuck has Req. done badly in his role? No doubt his bound to secrecy for some things (no doubt re: the situaiton with the cluster) and no doubt his made mistakes but how in sweet fuck does that equate to him doing 'terribly in his role.'

Req. has had MORE than overfilled his role.

As for your advice - what a load of shit. Never have I seen a time when Req. has not been honest and open to his customers. In some cases, his too fuckin honest - which leads to shitbags flaming him for every god-damn thing. I've never seen him assume his customers are stupid, as warranted by his long posts and constant dedication to the community (even on a forum he doesn't need to be on). I could attack the other points but I see no point.

There's those people who bid farewell and say that they haven't agreed with decisions made by Req. etc., and there's those that spout crap like yourself.