Posts by Klabbauter

Ah, I love communities giving some special greetings to each other on special occasions ... like holidays for example.

I also love to add some pictures to it, though my photoshop skills are not that good. But here is my pic for the German forum today:

No English version of that text ... but my wishes for you are the same:

We have had a very special year 2020 ... so my first wich for 2021 is: HEALTH.

Let us all make 2021 the year we defeated Covid19, by vaccination, by continuing to protect each other, to take care of each other.

Staying healthy means we can set up goals for 2021: being successful, being happy, having fun ... set your goals for the new year and GO for them!

Thank you so much, Samisu, for your holiday greetings and information. Very much appreciated. I really love the English forum part ... it's just my feeling, but for me it's so much cooler and so nicely accepting informal friendly interaction here.

As you came up with a christmas picture, I would like to add mine, that I made for the German forum (I know, not the best photoshop work, but both: funny and connecting RN and christmas). A young pair, sitting in their lounge room, enjoying the advent time with champain and cookies. And like most of the RN employees they are so enhusiastic about their jobs, that they keep at least part of their company clothing even when celebrating christmas. Also: watch the great choice of modern art, that they hang to their lounge wall!

Merry Christmas to everyone, RN employees, RN volunteers, supporters, forum teams ... and to all players, customers and friends.

Hi Nikki. First of all: Welcome to our community.

Maybe I misunderstood, but I think you are German and live in Germany. So my first question is:

Will you do your introduction and a thread like this in the German forum too?

I really appreciate that you started in English, as very often I feel, us Germans get the information first, and though (my opinion) discussions in English forum are so much cooler, I would love to see you introduced to my German friends too.

My second question:

Looks like you are one of those to sit between the two chairs: between us customers (well, when I hear "community" the picture in my head shows the community of customers and forum and fb users) and the company. Salix often could not answer quickly, cause he had so many internal tasks to do. So the question is: on your position between customers and company ... where are you looking at most of your time?

One big theme will be: the bugs. There are so many here in the forum, users, workers, programmers, IT specialists, normal people using software ... whose experience is to shout and blame even few bugs. Or expect, bugs to be fixed within the same year (too often: fix that till tomorrow morning or pay the fine for breaking the contract). Well, I know, the F2P business model gives you more freedom, more excuses, more rights ... but wouldn't you agree, that a number of bugs that goes into the hundreds, is not a good base for a good partnership between customer community and the company?

And something that HMR mentioned already: RN is a strategy game that very much builds groups of players (customers): associations, cities, regions, friendships, fractions ... so communication between players is essential. But neither the ingame chat nor the news system are by any means only acceptable. Both create some letters, somtimes to rarely, but most of the time they are unable to chat with or to give information to others (and find it back). So, a big PLEASE: please put in all your influence to make the team create something, that we can communicate with. And please put that on top priority.

OK, I will stop here. I am called a novel writer in this forum. Too long, too much. So I will stop at 4 topics today.

Thanks for your introduction ... and have fun in your new job ... be sure, we are all friendly, all enthusiastic RN players, ... but that might be the reason, why we sometimes (rarely) shout and cry and whine ...

MSVblader wrote:

Was ist mit dem Neustart DE 402? Sollte der nicht um 14:00 Uhr sein? Ich sehe den Server bei mir nicht

German answer:

Die ersten konnten einloggen. Die Serverprobleme im RN-Netzwerk sind ja kurz vor Serverstart aufgetaucht ...

MSV is worrying about starting P-X server Schwarzschild ... looks like the server problems hit that server start too.

Many cannot log in, also on German servers, some get bad gateway errors.

So, looks like Travian has some problems in their server network.

Well, first of all, let me say this: any company has all rights to set rules as they want. It is THEIR company, so they have the right to set up a rule, that at the end means that anything they consinder harmful ... at the end IS harmful and can (or even will) be punished (or not) according to THEIR decision. So, on first thoughts there is nothing wrong with a rule that allows them any interpretation using language that feels like dense fog.

Well, they have those rights, but that doesn't mean, that I like rules like that one.

Why?

First:

It's a one sided rule. And I hate one sided rules, because they destroy trust and confidence ... and cause discussions that at the end also make people who stand up to ask for an appeal, for support of the punished, ... to leave the game.

Second:

90% of all fights about rules are caused by misunderstandings. There ARE cases that cannot be misunderstood, like offers to trade illegal stuff, for example. All other fights almost never have one wrongdoer and one who can be 100% sure about his judgement. A little piece of "guilt" will always be on both sides.

Means, if I (and I mean ME) start a PN fight with a moderator or CM (or boss) we are BOTH right, and we are BOTH wrong. I we cannot come to a conclusion, we EITHER have differend perceptions on that case, different background, different experiences in life, different views (there is no "truth [tm]")... so we could agree to think different, agree to disagree, but value the other one as a human being, worth to be listened to. OR ... we can carry on, telling our opinion, until the side with more might gives up (but who is the one with more might? The company whose rule allow to excluse customers from community, or the customer who stops plaing and thus creates less income for the company) ... OR we can discuss in a way with the intention, the objective, to find a solution, a compromise, a workaround ... OR we can call others to assist us by starting a mediation, by bringing in a third perception for example.

There is only one of these many ways made possible with that rule: RN decides about "harmful" and punishes at there discretion and never continues discussion.

Third:

Well, I also think of how we do punishments in RL. There are courts and judges for that. And if real harm is done, bad enough to exclude a person from the communiy of the others for a long time, there's (at least in the US and Europe) never a judge deciding everything. Appeals are always possible in our countries. Judges in the US will have to follow the decision of a jury, a jury of normal people. In Europe the jury people sit beside the judges, count - though being normal people - as judges and can outvote the installed judges.

Also, each wrongdoer may ask for an appeal and will be supported by ... well by an attorney, and they can bring up witnesses who support their perception of the harm done.

And mediation procedures are more and more preferred instead of lawsuits ... and mediators should be neutral, not being bound to the company.

How we deal with right or wrond or with harmful or not in RL, should at least tell us a little bit about how to deal with

Well, these 3 points tell, why I somehow hate one sided rules. But I also accept that RN has the right to set up a rule like that.

And I fully agree to that rule, if someone for example would start to sell porn ingame or in the forum.

Also, there MUST be a rule that allows them to protect their company (and product) if they see it under harmful attacks that are not mentioned in other rules.

Nevertheless I would love to see the willingless to offer appeals that do not only suggest a mail to "complaints", but also considers listening to witnesses, including mediators, giving the wrongdoer a chance to tell their perception ... yes, that will take some more time, some extra action, but will increase the trust in the decisions of the company. And make customers blamed for wrongdoing possibly change into long time customers.

(I can only repeat my experience. When I was admin of the largest forum I ever supported, I once had to ban a user from it for a week, according to one of the rules. But I staid in contact with him, ask him to return and he became my successor, and did a great job. Means: wrongdoers are not always bad people, very often they would give anything for the game, product, forum ... but will be chased away by one sided rules)

The forum software allows to quickly set up a part, where only the CM, the supporter, the wrongdoer, the witnesses, the mediators and a friend of the wrongdoer (their supporter, lawyer, attorney) and maybe a jury of experienced gamers are allowed to post and to find a good solution TOGETHER.

That's a suggestion, not a claim. A suggestion to think about. I do not ask for appeals and mediations ... I just ask to think about to use one sided rules together with an explanation, that you consider to listen to the other side too, even if in your perception a lot of harm is done.

- - - - -

Edit:

I wrote too long, Samisu was shorter, quicker, and ... better. Thank you so much for your answer, Samisu.

But I think, I will leave my text here, as there might be tiny little diamond fragments in it, that RN might think about.

Maselbart just informed us, that there will be no snowball game in the lobby this year.

Hilti was quicker ... and more detaillied.

About the starting question: there is a blog entry about the winter event, the advent calendar started today and about the snowball game in the lobby I just got the promise that the German CM will ask the team.

Explaing it to our German friend:

bernd2851 wrote:

Hier ist ja alle nur Englisch. Wie komme ich ins deutsche Forum

Offensichtlich hat bei dir der Foren-Sprachen-Bug zugeschlagen, der uns immer wieder in das englische Forum zwingt.

Geh auf dein Profil (der Kreis vor der Glocke im Menu oben rechts) und dann auf Einstellungen - Allgemein (Settings - General) und stell da wieder die Forensprache Deutsch ein und mach den Haken bei English weg. Ganz unten ist der Button zum Abspeichern.

Dann siehst du die englischen Threads nicht mehr.

In German forum part an employee postet, that there will be more information about Xmas Event on Monday.

So I guess, we have to be patient during the weekend.

Hopefully it will be this Monday, Nov. 30th in 2020.

Ah, such a fun thread revived!

Remember the famous 300 movie, starring William as "Lukas, The Conductor"?

But there came a sequel lately, maybe even better:

Support told me (and it worked already two times for me):

Copy&paste the code into the text field, then delete the last part ( after the last - ) and redo that part manually.

Then, no matter if the button looks active or not, it will work.

That's a bit less work than to manually copy the complete code.

Looks like they added new codes with a longer last part, but the shop does not accept it (yet), when copied and pasted, but some script that checks manual inputs corrects that. So, it's a bug in the new shop. Maybe RN will find some time to fix that, perhaps already in 2021.

They could possibly tell the workaround, maybe here in the forum, or even better in the mails that spread the codes.

I don't think they will tell us.

There is a good reason and a human reason for it. One reason is: they want to keep it open and decide on each case depending on how much a wrongdoer that customer is. The other reason is: if the bad people of this world know the limits, they will always act right in vicinity of those limits.

So, for example, if the punishments book tells: "6 times found as a multi accounts means permanent ban" ... they will do it 5 times, even if they considered to try it once or twice.

My perception and opinion on permanent bans is: the world of RN will end for that customer. They will never ever be able to return into the world of RN. Somehow that sounds like a death sentence ...

On the other hand: thousands of customers have done it already the other way round: they permanently banned RN from being played (and paid money) ... and the little bad guy in my ear tells: "Some forum rules talk sooo much about punishments, why not talk more rules about what the forum does for the customer?"

Good question. Maybe the answer comes from where they say: "It's not a bug, it's a feature"

Or ... where people ask: "Why is there no dog in a hot dog and no chocolate in my computer cookies?"

Thanks for the answer. Maybe I misunderstood. Maybe I like interaction too much, so I do not see Q&A as a one way road ... just because I have learnt, that questions are the best way to initiate thinking on the other side. So, for me a "question" is not (only) the expression of "Sir, I don't know about this, please explain" but so many questions start great ideas, great creativity, great new thinking. I see that in this forum, Samisu is a master of that sort of questioning. He starts a thread with a question, and there is no way so simply answer yes or no, you have to tell more and great discussions start, filled with ideas and creativity ... and so many customers can do it the same way.

I don't care, how you call it, Q&A or user insights or surveys ... any of these must not be one way roads, they can all be more than information about a final decision, they can also be a start of a decision finding process ... on boths sides, yours and ours.

Anyway ... my suggestion is to act earlier. Teams for Platform X are set up already, friends have formed groups already, they are questioning each other ... and all their questions could have been answered 3-4 weeks ago. Nevertheless I really like the offer to do a session next Thursday.

So, a yes from me again, I am interested.

Salix wrote:

And a general question to all of you: Would you be interested in short livestream Q&A (questions and answers) session about Platform X next week Thursday together with our Game Designer?

Yes I would.

However: next week Thursday is one (1), only one week before Platform X start. Which means: it would be a one sided session, as within that one week nothing would possibly change. You would just inform us, nothing of the great ideas and suggestions brought forward would change the current version, only just another go in the future.

A general suggestion for Q&A sessions: plan them proactive.

Plan a Q&A session for the next big event 4-6 weeks before event start. Make use of all the creative responses of your customers, all the great ideas, answer all the questions .... not a week before start, but at a time, when changes are still possible. This would improve cooperation and partnership between you and us, and the feeling, that our ideas and our creativity matters at least a little bit.

10 k players each day means 3333 games each day, which makes 139 per hour.

Assuming it takes 1 minute to shuffle them together and 2 minutes to play, that is 3 minutes per game, making 417 game minutes needed every hour (with 60 minutes) ... so with that assumption there are alsways (on average over the day) 7 games running at the same time.

And again, 7 parallel games mean 21 players to be shuffled ... so as I see it, Naike's idea together with my little extra database table would not mean too much waiting time, if playing with the last 5-6 opponent is excluded (if the table contains 6, there are still 14 candidates not in that table).

Maybe the cheaters will meet again every 4th or 5th game that way ... that at least takes some of their motivation.

However, listening to HMR, the assumption of 10k players sounds very ... hopeful. Also there are times with lower player load, when that little table might better be switched off (until the cheaters find out and/or better ideas came up).

Naike ♏ wrote:

there is a sponsored youtuber, Colonel Failure if I'm correct.

Yes, that is the English speaking youtuber, in German it's Nordrhein TV ... maybe there are more in other languages or on other social media sites.

Salix wrote:

Nope. TV ads are f*ing expensive (both production and airing them) and do not really have an immediate effect of player numbers. They have other purposes (like brand awareness), but for this particular purpose it would be as close as "literally throwing money out of the window" as you can get

Thanks for that answer. It correlates exactly with my thoughts.

But how about thinking on in that direction? You have just made (at least) two experiments with influencers on youtube. How about one, who plays clash in July (with some of your employees or on PTR), creates his vid and offers it all over August, so people would be curious in Clash-September.

Salix wrote:

Any thoughts about possible solutions for that?

Adding NPC to clash after a timeout. The NPC should be randomly skilled players. Not all the same. I think you progged them already and used them for training in the very first clas version.

Or: in times of low player count, clash could allow to play 1 vs. 1

Or: doing a promotion. Like those forum challenges, that suddenly bring hundreds of forum users for a few hours, just because you can win 10 gold.

So: if player load is low, clash could give 1 gold or 1 free ticket for each application that gets 3 points at least ... just for 1 or 2 hours.

Or: Create tv ads about clash and run them in August, so that might invite more players to Clash-September. And also add RN players for best season (autumn and winter) for online games.