Thanks go out to Kevin from The Server is Down for the link to this interview. Today Warhammer Conflict posted an interview with EA Mythic’s Community Coordinator Richard Duffek. The interview focused on, conveniently, the hurdles that Richard and his team will have to overcome when dealing with such an enormous MMO release. If you play or ever did play Dark Age of Camelot it is likely that you remember the Camelot Herald. What an amazing addition to the community and game that website was, am I right? Commonly referred to as the Herald, this website bridged the gap between the devs and the players by offering a feedback system and many common tools that players would actually need and want to use! Remembering back to the early days when DAOC was still in it’s prime there was a constant struggle for control in the Frontiers and it was often not easy to find who controlled what keep and frankly it was never easy to know where the heck any of these places were. I remember always checking the Herald for information on server status, maps, and important announcements from the devs.
Warhammer Conflict asked Richard what plans are in place to make up for the lack of any official forums. The answer actually makes sense! Similar to the Camelot Herald, there will be a feedback system for players to send in complaints, suggestions, praise, questions, bug reports, and more. Many people out there are still, I’m sure, skeptical about the lack of communication between players and devs and whether or not without forums there will be any communication at all. Personally I feel that the Camelot Herald system worked and if brought up to speed it can work again for Warhammer Online. A quote from Richard should put all of your minds at ease: “We’ve found over the years that the signal-to-noise ratio is FAR FAR lower with this type of setup over having “official forumsâ€. And of course we’ll still maintain a presence on all the community Fansites to gather information and feedback from there as well.” He has me convinced.
There is great potential in the WAR Herald. If it lives up to the expectations being placed upon it we could easily have the greatest community of developer-player interaction ever. Richard is awesome. I have great faith in his ability to coordinate our community and sustain a thriving link of communication between the devs and the blood thirsty fans. Having seen first hand his dedication to the community I feel that we are not only good hands, but the best hands possible. I look forward to seeing this community evolve.
I’ve read quite a few reply’s of Richards from fansites and found him to be quite sarcastic at times, but I guess time will tell how good he is.
I think that quote was originally Mark Jacobs as well.
Didnt vangaurd try this approach of no offical forums and ‘support’ the community sites ?? that worked well, didnt it.
It appears the herald is going to be an ivory tower to house the devs etc and protect the Warhammer name from the usual forum ‘banter’
Will be intersting to see if the lessons learned from vg can be implemented successfully this time around …
You have a good point Pixie about VG and their lack of forums. The difference is, they didn’t have any alternative method in place for feedback. They were supposedly out on the fansites, but who knows.
Mythic has done this before, successfully with DAoC. So they know how to get it done. I think the Herald does insulate them from some negative things, but they can’t be too insular or their fans will feel completely disconnected. I just think comparing what VG’s plan was and how they carried it out is vastly different from what War will do with the Herald and how it will be implemented.
didnt DAOC have forums as well though … anyway still on the fence with this, you can send feedback through the site, but really it dosnt seem to help build a central community focal point for the game, seems to me its going to fragment the community and hinder more than create …
DAOC did not have forums, instead if relied heavily on fansite boards such from the Vault Network and other reputable sites. The Camelot Herald really was the focal point of community to dev communication. Like Richard said in the interview there is a much better signal-to-noise ratio when it’s done from a “herald” type site with a proven feedback system.
Richard is sometimes sarcastic but I think he still does his job very well. The community respects him so far and that’s important. Right now we really don’t have ‘too’ much to base any of this on other than his back and forth talk on boards and in interviews. When the game actually releases and we have real issues to deal with then the truth will be known – for good or bad.
Pixie made a good point in regard to Vanguard. No, it did not have an official forum. However, they also did not have the amount of active fanistes that WAR has, either. Also, since Vanguard was largely unfinished at release, there really was a mentality of “fix everything”, instead of specific bug reports.
Regarding games with no “official forums” – I point you to Guild Wars, which remains one of the most popular games right now. So, it CAN be done. The WAR community is extremely large for a game that is still relatively far from release. It’s also a diverse community. We shall have to wait and see if what Richard Duffek told me in the interview will come to fruition. I certainly hope so.
[…] This is currently hearsay so take it for what it’s worth. Rumor has it that Richard Duffek is no longer with EA Mythic. This news comes as a complete shock to me especially after having written such praise for Richard in yesterday’s blog entry. […]