This month’s letter is actually one of the hardest of the year to write because with the Expansion launch having rolled out, the Scandinavian holiday season in full swing, and getting the new studio in Montreal up and running, this month is very much the ‘in-between’ month.

It is actually the time of year when we do a lot of planning. While we have some things in progress post the expansion (like adding in the rest of the new tier four raids, which we will probably talk about in a little more detail next month) we are also at our annual metaphorical cross roads when we discuss what has worked this year, what hasn’t, what we think we need to do next, assessing what we are already working on, looking at what we could work on, and generally trying to decide on which plans or schedules we might want to change, adjust, or add in to the mix.

Since, as we explained last month, we have set aside the next few months for the upgrade to our underlying Dreamworld technology platform, that also gives us an opportunity to spend some design time working on what will come after that. A little bit of introspection never goes amiss and it allows to take some time and shape the updates for the rest of the year and beyond.

There is always a list of possible additions to the game, a list longer than a development team could do in any short period of time. Probably more than they could do in a long period of time in fact! That means the biggest challenge that faces us is almost universally the decision on what to prioritise. That kind of a decision is made by taking many factors into account – our own statistics and measurements, talking to players, players feedback, the forums, playing the game ourselves and spending some time assessing all the designs.

Feedback from the players themselves is an important element, and we wanted to take this opportunity to involve you all a little more in that process with a summer survey. Kind of a player census and opinion poll as it were. Usually when we do surveys we use smaller target groups of people via email to ask specific questions to specific demographics, but with this one we wanted to open it up wider, and involve as many players as possible.

The massive summer player survey

We have split the survey into several sections. That means it isn’t one marathon survey, and allows you to only answer the sections that you want to. You can answer one, some, or all of the surveys; it is completely up to you.

You can find the surveys here:

  • General Questions: Here
  • Gameplay questions: Here
  • PVP questions: Here
  • Guild Questions: Here
  • Raiding questions: Here


Disclaimer time

Now, before you start, one important disclaimer for all those of the conspiracy theory inclined persuasion. Just because there is a question about x, y or z subject, potential change, possible addition or direction, doesn't mean that it will happen! This process is about getting good feedback from players, on a wide variety of possible changes, directions or decisions, as it always helps with the decision making process. It isn’t an indication that the subjects or options included in the surveys are anything other than things that are likely to be discussed as possibilities, and asking a question about any given subject is certainly not a promise it will be done!

A little incentive…

Some of these surveys will probably take ten minutes or so to fill out, they aren’t the shortest surveys in the world, but we feel the data we can gain from the exercise is worthwhile and so we want as many people as possible to participate.

To that end there is also a special incentive attached to completing the surveys. On August 15th we will hold a prize draw for all of those who completed a survey and provided their valid Age of Conan account email address. There will be one draw for each survey, so five separate draws (so if you complete each survey you will have five chances to win), with the prize being one life-time complimentary account to Age of Conan per draw (that complimentary time will start from whenever your current subscription period ends, or straight away if you aren’t currently subscribing).

A feedback opportunity

Player feedback is an important part of the process, and I hope that as many of you as possible can take this opportunity to let us know what you think. That kind of feedback always helps shape future content, systems and decisions. Now while we can’t possibly agree with everyone, and I can never guarantee your personal voice will be the one that results in any given decision, given the vast differences in opinions out there, it all genuinely helps us build a better picture of our player base. That is a very positive thing for the developers when they come to consider certain updates, changes or additions.

So even if you think you might be in a minority on any given subject it is always worth giving your opinion. The more we know about our players the better suited the future content can be.

The little things…

…all of the above is of course kind of focusing on the big picture…what comes next for major updates…but equally important for many are the day to day tasks and follow-ups that are still being worked on. There is of course a list of things that we have talked about here on the forums that are ongoing. We will be rolling out fixes and improvements for the tier four raids in an update relatively soon. Then there is the ongoing assessment of the progression rates in the expansion content. With the recent changes to the drop rates on the Trophies we are getting close to where we want those to be, and will be looking now towards the other token type drops, and the rate of faction gain as the next areas for improvement. You will definitely see further adjustments and improvements there as well in both the short and long term. So there will continue to be some smaller update and improvements while we move through the testing phase of the Dreamworld technology integration.


Until next month!