Ah, we are getting closer, we find ideas that we both agree to, and get a better perception of the differences by this. That's good.
Your thoughts about this are far from uncommon or unusual, it's essentially the basic idea of the "player dynamics" mindset: Make bad interactions impossible/unattractive by design.
But as I wrote before: That's a goal. A very good goal, no doubt. But finding a goal is not the hard part. There is no need to discuss about that goal, we already agree on it 100%. We should leave the clouds of ideology and goals but get down to earth instead, discussing how to actually reach those goals.
There is no need for thoughts to be uncommon or unusual. Best ideas are simple (or so common, that ev1 says: I could have thought of that too).
But they are only useful, when they find their way into the project.
Where I disagree to you is that phrase to "leave the clouds of ideology and goals but get down to earth instead". For a few reasons:
- us customers do not know the innards, we don't know the code, we don't know the database design, so our ideas can only be up in the sky, between the clouds, where we look at the game and do not know about the details. (That is, why I often think of developers to join discussions like this, cause they know and would be able to direct our ideas into directions of practicability.
- there is no agreement about goals, eve in this thread a few see the mail goal in punishing/banning, others see the main goal in avoiding/impossibility. These goals must not necessarily exclude each other. One can follow the other.
- I do NOT see finding goals to be the easy part. Most projects that fail have no clear, fixed goals ... but just clouds of ideas. So, setting the goals, which might need put several teams together (customers, comm managers, quality team, developers, proggers) very often is the tricky part
So my question to you is: How would you actually reach this goal? Not in some other game or in general, but specifically in the actual game Clash! in Rail Nation.
First (still up in the clouds) I would clearify the goals, set the objectives. You and me agree to a certain point, but does ev1 else involved?`
So first would be goals, SMART goals:
S = specific, sensible, simple, significant ... Is there REALLY a goal that can be described in simple words? Is is simple enough? Does it make a significant change?
M = measurable, meaningful, motivation ... do the goals motivate customers to enthusiastically look forward to next years clash? Can it be measured, when it is reached, or what is still missing?
A = achievable, attainable, agreed ... do all involved parties agree, that is can be reached? Can the team of developers and proggers reach it? Have all parties agreed to it?
R = reasonable, realistic, ressourced, results-based ... are the goals reachable with the manpower and budgets available? Are they realistic, and will they reduce the anger of customers dramatically? Are they realistic with the ressources your company can apply to these goals?
T = time based, time bound, time/cost limited ... One of the most tricky points in setting goals, cause almost all goals not reached where those, who had no set time limit. You will not be able to achieve changes this round, but you CAN set the time frame to next year, when clash starts again. So you have one year (possibly together with us customers) to evaluate logs, elaborate brainwave ideas into realistic objectives, calculate time, ressources and costs ... and DO IT.
And, as one year is a very very long time, I would strongly suggest to split up your goals about clash into steps, goals or milestones for each of the next 2-3 months periods till clash starts again.
And as customers look like being very interested, I would suggest to include customers into goals and solution finding as well as QA and proggers.
Not the answer that you asked for. "How would you actually reach ..."
I would set a goal like:
When we start clash again in September 2021, it will make all tricks used by cheaters impossible, just like some more tricks that we can think of. We do this in cooperation of progger teams, customers, quality team, communicators and developers. We will also change the perspective of the game a bit, so that all tracks definitely show same length. And we will add some limited response function, so customers can report fairness, fun and motivation.
In first step (till christmas) we will collect ideas of customers, proggers and developers and bring them together, to change ideas and stormed brain work into reachable and reasonable goals.
3) Cheaters are smart, at least some of them. If radical behavior (like winning ALL THE TIME against the same person) gets you banned, they adapt and simply behave less obvious.
I agree. I know teams of cheaters and hackers (but none in RN), some of them being even friends. One team also liked helicopter flying, and HOW they fly is like sailing a small sailing yacht through a force 11 storm (so, somewhat familiar to me). But it is so much worth to know them, their ideas, their thinking ... which gave me ideas to prevent my software from being hacked and my games to be motivating cheaters.
Listen to them, know them ... let them try and fail ... enjoy being more clever than them ... cause banning them only motivates them to try better.
Well, I put up 2 ideas here. Just ideas, not yet goals.
As HMR says: they do not work with small player load, so maybe your proggers can change them into something that is possible with just the few players that long for winning clash.
