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4:16pm Mar 13 2021
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Normal User
Posts: 674
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I've been a bit confused by a lack of communication from staff. I would like to see more interaction instead of just having things done without even understanding why?
For example, with the daily rewards update, it was not known that it was a problem and wasn't seen as abusing the system (in fact, staff members in the shoutbox said they also got the third tier selling barter tokens and cheap food and were blindsided by the update). We didn't get any answers why until someone mentioned barter tokens being abused, which makes sense, but why not say something?
Additionally, I've seen a lot of new OAKs (a retired effect that cost 1000CP back in the day) being given to past staff and current staff. It does not seem right that staff would benefit in this way, especially as I believe it's been stated OAK effects are never coming back. Why add more if they aren't coming back? Especially since regular users had to pay 100 USD to receive one. At the very, very least if staff are going to get these users should receive answers instead of leaving us to guess why there are more OAKs suddenly appearing.
I don't really see much staff beyond moderators in the suggestions forums agreeing or disagreeing with opinions, or offering their own suggestions for this game, and yet there are still updates being put out? Yet there are still other things that seem to be in need of a fix/change that are going ignored.
I just want to know that my voice is heard sometimes, and I think having like a log of what staff might be working on/things the staff wants to change that the users may be unaware is wrong... I don't think that's unfeasible, I truly just don't want to feel like I'm in the dark about every change Res goes through because it is quite disheartening.
  Art by Zen |
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12:31am Mar 14 2021
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Normal User
Posts: 1,443
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It looks like the new OAKs are coming from the art forum. I didn't realize that we could turn art we commissioned into OAKs. Is that something we can do? If so, that should be made clear somewhere so other users can do the same.
I do strongly agree that we should have a small changelog with smaller changes (ones that might not warrant a full update) as they happen. The SB has discussed it a few times and I think it would be really helpful with transparency and it wouldn't feel like users have to learn things by word of mouth all the time. I think it would go a long way toward making users feel included and just better overall.
A log of things staff is working on would be cool too. I know I post in the bugs forum sometimes and I have no idea if the bug has even been noted down because there's no response a lot of the time.
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7:37am Mar 14 2021
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Normal User
Posts: 674
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Oh thank you for pointing that out! If that’s the case staff should not be allowed to use this art as a custom effect if other users purchasing this are not allowed to. Seems extraordinarily unfair.
Art by Zen |
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11:28am Mar 14 2021
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Moderator
Posts: 910
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I prob wasn’t supposed to say why the feature was removed which is prob why it wasn’t in the update. But I totally feel you guys and agree that perhaps there could have been communication to try to stop the use of barter tokens before removing the feature entirely. Also, the change was made and literally no one on staff was consulted first or knew about it. That’s why there was a significant delay in the update. We didn’t know either. Hopefully I don’t get in trouble for saying that. But if you were in the SB that day you would’ve seen our shock as well as we logged in and saw the change and weren’t sure what was going on!
I am not really sure what to say about the OAKs other than the reason they were turned into site art is probably a reward of service which is why it’s not being advertised to users. Someone else would prob have a better statement on that. The people who have been granted them have played pivotal roles in developing content and trying to keep this site going and fun when no one else would... and they were on staff for a very long time. But anyway, I’m not sure what the future is like for OAKs. I just simply see these as a reward of service.
Also I’d love to see what stuff is being worked on as well. I’d like to see a lot of issues fixed but I think the reason they’re not is because only Patrick can fix them. He’s been making some improvements and changes and bug fixes but I think the things you may be referring to are probably more difficult to fix which is why they haven’t been fixed yet. And he’s also got a full time job and is really busy. The content and stuff we have been seeing put out is from the Development team and what Dan can put together! Hope that clears things up!
Also myself and some other staff would love to see a change log as well. A lot of us brought that up again after the change the other day to dailies that literally no one knew about.
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11:47am Mar 14 2021 (last edited on 11:49am Mar 14 2021)
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Normal User
Posts: 674
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That's also part of my issue is I feel that staff as a whole aren't able to communicate with each other. I know I felt that way when I was on staff as a CM - and was ultimately why I decided I wanted to be/was a Writer for the rest of my time on staff before the positions were merged. Despite being a 'content manager,' I never felt I had any idea of what content we were actually putting out. Nor was I ever listened to when I did put my own inputs in on things.
If OAKs from an art commission are allowed for some, they should also be allowed for others who are commissioning that same artist. It shouldn't just be a staff reward, especially after I know that both Patrick and Dan have said custom effects/OAKs are never coming back multiple times. Why would they come back ~conveniently~ for staff/past staff only?
I'd like to finally say thank you for responding Shark, I never meant to come off as rude or overly negative about anything, especially towards you, I have just been very frustrated by change after change with no explanation and no communication from the people making the changes.
Art by Zen |
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5:25am Mar 15 2021
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Content Manager
Posts: 3,132
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I can't say anything about most of this but OAKs for past staff have been a thing for a while, I'm just unsure if some are ever uploaded? I am aware that both Kirara and Wolf have OAKs done for being staff for so long (Kirara's is very cool!), and Llama may have one for that reason as well.
I can't speak as to current OAKs, however, as I'm unaware of that side of things. Just wanted to clear that bit up!
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2:45pm Mar 27 2021
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Administrator
Posts: 394
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Thanks for your input. I appreciate your point of view on this.
We have just added a tle="" target="">changelog to help surface changes that might otherwise go unnoticed to our users. You can access it from the updates. page. |
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1:38pm Mar 28 2021
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Support
Posts: 1,762
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I can agree there's hardly any communication when you're staff as well. I wasn't told (nor anyone to my knowledge) when I randomly got switched from CM to Mod. Never really being on the Sb it was kinda a bummer. Wish I had at least gotten a heads up. I'm not staff anymore but there really should be more communication between the staff departments as it'd make things a whole lot less frustrating.
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2:51pm Mar 28 2021 (last edited on 2:58pm Mar 28 2021)
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Normal User
Posts: 674
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I can confirm that as well as a past writer. I let everyone know that I was unavailable for a month or so because I had no internet for that time, and got kicked off staff for being inactive ^^' I had gotten no warning about being potentially kicked off and had assumed it was fine since I had posted that I was unavailable and would be away. Among other problems, it is very frustrating.
@Pat, thank you for making a change log!
@Juke, regardless if OAKs for past staff have been a thing, they haven't been made new until Kirara made her art forum from what I can tell. She is no longer Res staff and is being independently commissioned by more than just past staff and current staff, and I don't see how it's fair that these past staff members who have already received compensation before while they were on staff are receiving more when regular users are not getting that option of having the art they pay Kirara for (who is again no longer an official Res artist so why is her work being put as official effects on Res). It still seems very shady and very lacking on communication for all users to me, even with that explanation.
I do agree they are very cool though! Just not the way I would have liked to see them be put on site.
EDIT: Just noticed browsing the forums that there does seem to be a beta forum in Rescreatu Discussion for users to get OAKs once again. This is great! But again a lack of communication because nowhere is this advertised as being up, especially since the forums are so dead. Why not put that in updates somewhere?
Art by Zen |
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12:09am Mar 29 2021 (last edited on 12:09am Mar 29 2021)
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Content Manager
Posts: 3,132
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Because the feature isn't ready yet, simple as that.
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7:18am Mar 30 2021 (last edited on 7:21am Mar 30 2021)
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Normal User
Posts: 674
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Then staff/past staff should not be allowed to make their own OAKs yet either, unless staff is willing to announce publicly about this. Maybe it is pessimistic of me but I can see this never being ready for regular users while staff and past staff are still allowed to make OAKs and it doesn’t solve any sort of communication problems that I am frustrated about.
Art by Zen |
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2:31pm Mar 30 2021 (last edited on 2:31pm Mar 30 2021)
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Administrator
Posts: 207
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I realize you’re upset regarding a lack of communication, but frankly, we don’t have to communicate everything we do to users, nor should we. We do have the change log now, however it won’t include everything we’re working on. If we promise something that we work on and it never comes out, we would have users upset at us for not fulfilling our promise of releasing said feature, even if we just mentioned it and didn’t promise it. For every feature we release, we have two more that get scrapped. We’ve had a fishing revamp in the works for probably two years now, but we don’t have it complete. Yet, if we announced that we planned a new fishing feature two years ago, we would have people daily in the shoutbox complaining they can’t fish yet.
I would say we currently have 30+ features in the works, and maybe 15 of those will end up going fully to release. Some of those, quite obviously, are just in beta concept development and are a year or more in the future. From a development standpoint, it just isn’t logical to announce everything, even when adding things that show up on the site. Daily rewards changes were pretty sudden, but we hadn’t yet fully figured out how we would update the daily rewards, and we didn’t want to say we were going to change it and have users upset for the couple of days it wasn’t changed, constantly asking when it would be finished. At the same time, we couldn’t allow barter token to be exploited any longer, as it was defeating the purpose of daily rewards, so we removed it ASAP before pushing out the other changes.
Due to the strong response and want for OAKs by users, we are working on a way to bring them back, and have been for a few months now. But, it isn’t ready yet, so we haven’t released it or publicly mentioned it. We have it mostly fleshed out and ready besides a few final details, which is why you’re starting to see some info about it popping up on site. Staff and ex staff got an early access to it, by my choice alone, so don’t group all staff into that criticism - the reasoning behind that was to see if anyone noticed and if anyone was chomping at the bits to get their own OAKs commissioned, which they were and still are, so therefore I consider the beta run a complete success. |
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6:30am Mar 31 2021 (last edited on 6:54am Mar 31 2021)
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Normal User
Posts: 674
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If staff don’t have to communicate for features they are testing (when it would be so easy to open up a discussion instead and ask for input), I shouldnt be criticized (which has come entirely from staff and past staff) for being upset. Quite frankly, it makes me feel like regular users do not matter, which I realize is an unfair thing to say, but I’m just trying to share my opinions here.
I don’t mean that staff should be sharing anything that’s in the works. But I mean they should be sharing things that are finding their way as potential features (such as OAKs). No, I don’t want to hear about things that are not fleshed out. But the OAKs clearly have been fleshed out, and they were already a feature before, so it seems very, for lack of a better word, shady to reintroduce them as an experiment, especially in the way it was done, without just asking users if they’d be interested in seeing it make a return.
Regarding daily rewards, you seemed to figure out a better way for the system pretty quickly after users displayed their frustration at the sudden change. Meaning if you had been able to talk it out amongst all staff, it might not have been so sudden to everyone or seemed so drastic.
Again, I’m really not meaning to be overly critical of staff, I know firsthand that it’s hard work and that as a whole staff are staff because they care about the site. That’s implied by applying to be staff. But I am frustrated. I am upset that there is such a divide between what staff and users can have, and a gap that feels like it would never be bridged since there is such a lack of communication. I say these things because I care and al of my frustrations have built up, because none of my concerns have seemed to even have any stock for anyone I’ve talked to on the staff team.
Art by Zen |
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6:15pm Mar 31 2021 (last edited on 6:21pm Mar 31 2021)
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Administrator
Posts: 394
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This is not an appropriate venue to be discussing internal staff communication and processes, and I'd ask folks to refrain from doing so.
"Quite frankly, it makes me feel like regular users do not matter, which I realize is an unfair thing to say, but I’m just trying to share my opinions here."
I'm sorry you feel that way. I see things completely opposite, so it hurts when I hear people think such things. The players are the only reason we're still here doing anything.
Many staff volunteer their time for free and we try to do things for them that can show some of our gratitude for their efforts, but we don't make Rescreatu for staff. Everything we do is for our players both old and new. Most of what we've been doing over the last year or so has actually been for new players that aren't here yet. We are trying to get to a place on the existing version of Rescreatu to where we are comfortable expanding our user base again. I hope time comes soon.
"But the OAKs clearly have been fleshed out, and they were already a feature before"
The cat is out of the bag I suppose, yes OAKs are likely to return. However what you are saying here is incorrect. Yes, they existed in the past, but the current hurdles with OAKs have very little to do with the functionality in the game. They are much more-so about the processes that need to be in place, the operational overhead that will be introduced, and even some legal issues that need to be sorted out.
If everyone really needs to know why I have a new OAK, it was a gift from staff in memory of my best friend and loyal pup who passed a few months ago.
"Regarding daily rewards, you seemed to figure out a better way for the system pretty quickly after users displayed their frustration at the sudden change. Meaning if you had been able to talk it out amongst all staff, it might not have been so sudden to everyone or seemed so drastic."
I think it best if we agree to disagree on this one. I understand your point of view, and I get how things may have looked to some. Yes, we could have done better here. But I hope that you can also understand my point of view. Assume positive intent and give us the benefit of the doubt. We considered what was happening at the time to be a major breaking incident and the quickest way to resolution was to remove the mechanism that was having serious long-term, detrimental impact on the entire game - not just the experience from a single users point of view.
Please remember that this is a bootstrapped operation, of mostly volunteers, and mostly folks with full time jobs and other real life obligations. We made a decision to fix what was broken as quickly as we could which would then give us some time to more carefully consider how to rebalance everything. I am in complete 100% agreement that it would have been better had we been able to do the rebalance at the same time, but the simple fact is we do not always have the resourcing to produce the most ideal outcome. We do what we can. I don't know what else to say about this issue. I will simply end by saying that we will continue to try to do our best and will always aiming for improvement in our operations. |
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8:08pm Mar 31 2021
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Normal User
Posts: 674
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I only bring up internal issues here because my concerns were not addressed when I tried to bring them up after I was removed from staff for being ‘inactive.’ I will drop that issue now, and let current staff work that out.
Regarding OAKs... if there are still issues, why allow so many to be put out? I’m not trying to pick on anyone, but Dan, for example, does not need six new OAKs while the system still apparently needs tweaking. One for a hardworking staff member, sure. I could even see the reasoning for giving past staff early access. Again, I do feel like my concerns are being brushed aside about that. It gives me the pessimistic feeling that staff are going to keep getting OAKs and the feature will never actually be ready for regular users.
I do believe the change log especially will help everyone understand what goes on. I know that staff as a whole are volunteer staff. I get it. I was once among those that wanted to help make this game a better place for the players, and I still want to make this site a better place for all players, staff or otherwise. I get it. I’ve just seen a lot that went unexplained and I worry that if no one speaks up they would remain unexplained. I remember this happened before during I believe the Halloween event of 2019 - a lack of communication from staff about what an event would have, and users expecting things as they had been and getting nothing instead.
(I apologize if this post is jumbled, typing on mobile is difficult so hopefully I can edit this to make more sense later)
Art by Zen |
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