How much of our ideas and complaint are implemented being picked up by the Devs and Marketeers?

Hi All,

I hear lots of people complain that the Devs don't listen to 'us'. Is that true i ask myself. And I was wondering how much of our ideas and complaints are being picked up by Rovio? The matchmaking, the problems with floaters, the problems with weapons which can kill other weaker players in one shot and weapons which are nerfed, to name but a few. I have not seen any changes or read that the Devs say 'you are right, we are going to something about it'.

In the game chat someone told us that Rovio's revenue were not up to expectation. So, would it not be better to listen to the players more, read the customers? A happy customer will spend more money than an unhappy one. Simple as that. I have spent money also, but stopped because of the disappointed and unbalanced matchmaking for instance.

I like the game and the people I meet in there. And I am complaining and spilling ideas because I want to help to improve the game.

And we all want this game to be a success, for Rovio and for ourselves. So, should they listen more or are we nitpicking?

What are your thoughts on this matter?


Kind regards,

Flint

 

I think that's an untrue statement in most game companies. It's pretty much universally true that game companies DO care unless they get a lead designer who thinks he's a rock star. The original of this is Brad McQuaid and Everquest. He was famous for saying, "I know what you want more than you do." In the end, though, that's more the exception than the rule. After all, your customers are the ones who pay the bills. Even me as a F2P player serves a critical function in paying the bills for Rovio. Of course they care. Wouldn't you?

With Battle Bay in particular, I'm not arrogant enough to think that Rovio employees are waiting with baited breath for my next post. I did, however, want to see changes in the incentive structures and the guild quest system and they did, in fact, make some of the changes I was hoping for. Either they were listening or, more likely, came to similar conclusions on their own. Either one works for me

 

In my opinion Rovio has done a very very good job with battle bay, specially with the idea of it. It’s a one of a kind game. Nevertheless they don’t manage well the “psicology of the game”, the feelings that the game transmit to the players.

The game is simple, different types of boats shoot each other with different types of weapons while saling through waves and obstacles in maps and you can fight in guilds. But there’s little more. There aren’t special maps or different game modes, no special events, little customization, new maps haven’t been added in a long time...

The key to get new players is to have a good game, but the way to keep them is to add new interesting things to the game from time to time. In my opinion Battle Bay is lacking that. The game gets repetitive and boring if they add new things every 3 months. I would like it better if they added less things but in less time.

And this is for sure, they need to be way more efficient in balancing the game. Stop over boosting or overnerfing items.

 

A lot of people are complaining in the game itself and cursing Rovio about all kinds of things, but that is not the way. First of all we don't need to be rude, second I don't think all the in game forums are read by Rovio. Just too many posts there. And third if we want improvements, then post it here. But that is the problem, most people don't.

 

I can confirm this. Ever since I've joined the forums it's been pretty clear that updates were including a ton of features suggested by players. Even if they don't like or comment on your posts, assume they always read them!

 

Seriously matchmaking again? Please give them an idea on how to improve matchmaking, don’t just say ”matchmaking sucks, do something”.
They do listen to us, they do care, but this game has 14 devs + mods. They simply can’t comment on everything, also because they don’t want to say they’ll do something, and if they end up not doing it, we would complain even more.
So just have faith that they read everything here.

 

Video game companies definitely care about the happiness of their customers.
The fact that they have a forum that they clearly visit frequently shows that Rovio is no exception.
The sheer volume of posts (especially on days where I'm bored) is probably a lot to manage, but they seem dedicated to at least reading all of it.
They generally respond to direct requests for responses -- assuming those requests were made respectfully, and it's something they are able to answer (more on this later).

They seem quite reserved to respond with anything that could be construed as any sort of affirmation or opinion on potential changes/buffs/nerfs/suggestions/etc.
They very clearly do NOT want to be caught in a situation where someone thinks they "promised" something or other. So they are quite careful with their words.
They seem more reserved than some other video game companies I've seen in terms of engaging in "what-if" type discussions.
They are careful not to weigh in on requests for buffs/nerfs.
They are careful not to say any particular suggestion is "good" or "bad".
They are careful not to propose potential ideas or questions to the community and say "give us feedback on X" or "what do you guys think about Y?"
I think they just want to avoid people complaining later about something they may have only even just hinted at once upon a time...
I don't blame them for this.

Regarding Brad McQuaid's "I know what you want more than you do." quote...
I think that's often true. Communities usually know when they're "happy" or "unhappy", but I have seen precious little evidence that they can accurately analyze (or clearly articulate) why or what to do about it.
So, I don't blame Rovio either for thinking this too.

I think one area they could do a lot better is patch note communication.
They never discuss ahead of time what they intend to do in the next patch.
But if they're not going to do that, then when that patch comes out, I think most line items in the patch notes (especially the potentially controversial ones) should come with some sort of explanation.
If they made a change based on data, what were the trends they saw, why do they think the fix will help?
I think if they explained their rationale for decisions they just made, it would go a long way toward educating the community as to what they consider important and worthy of priority.
And in some cases, if a known bug wasn't fixed, why not, and what is the plan.
As it is, if we get no input prior to the patch notes, we're left to reacting (sometimes hyper-reacting) after we see them - but some preemptive communication could probably stem a lot of that off.

Rovio has made some mistakes in the past. We all have.
I only ask that they continue to be open minded to all thoughtful responses and suggestions, and not be tied too tightly to any previously held ideas or designs, especially after they're proving to no longer seem to be the right course.

Thank you, Rovio, for caring.
Thank you for reading.
We all want you to be successful.

Here's to continued improvements and success in 2018!

 

Beautiful. It almost seems like you just got a promotion lol.

 

None. Thank you ! Good night !

 

I will surely accept your idea.Battle Bay is my first and best favourite game now.But I have already told about the new EVENTS idea in the thread "Suggestions for EVENTS and New GAMEPLAY MODES".Battle Bay is constantly developing,I am sure about that.But we need more players now.More players in the Bay to play with us.Then matchmaking problem will be solved.Your idea "expecting small updates in lesser time" is all we want.So,how could we invite more players to this game to make BATTLE BAY famous?Anyone give me ideas,please.

 

I would love to see a rotating 'map of the month' type scenario. Each month has a special map, but only for that month. As time goes by these maps can be tweaked until the Devs are happy with them, at which point they become a permanent addition to the bay.

 

I like it.+1

 

This idea is lit, take it to the pinned thread New Gamemodes, Events or whatever it's called.

Edit: nvm you already did it haha

 

Sadly, this is unlikely, as it adds a risk for intellectual property lawsuits.

 

Still waiting on any sort of reasonable way to play more than one ship at a time 10 busy threads later..
Crew specs are still always a week and a hassle away.

If I want to play my shooter I have to wait a week for training to end, then retrain crew for half a day before it's a viable ship.
Of course that means being stuck on shooter for the next week, or wasting precious training time.
It's absurd.

How does this glaring flaw keep on existing, seemingly completely ignored by every update?

 

https://forum.battlebay.net/threads/icons-shop.16490/
do you plan to implement the customization of ships? This financial model brings a lot of monetary gains in other games.