As a Public Relation major, I'd like to add my 2 cents.
Cysion has been widely successful at promoting the game towards casual players (aka noobs) on GR. That "market" is not something he has to worry about. They do not worry too much about balance changes, as long as there are more civs and techs to play with.
Now if he wants to get players on Voobly to play it, he would need to do several things imo:
1.) Get a wholesome version supported on Voobly.
That process is underway, we can do nothing but wait now. However, there is the perception out there that the FE team has not done its best to help Voobly. There are still people out there saying Cysion "screwed up". The FE team needs to communicate that everything is smoothly underway to dispel all doubts. Thumbs up to the Voobly team for helping.
2.) Communicate to the aoczone community more on all changes.
The change log and the bugs and balance threat was a great thing to do. However, some changes were not announced before hand and thus could not be discussed. The plum archer nerf took everyone from expert to noob by surprise. Funito, Whack and Viper were all surprised, meaning they had no prior knowledge, meaning they were not consulted. These 3 have shown great sympathy and support towards the project in the past. The FE team should have never tried to pull that plum nerf on their own. Every step along the way should be expert consulted and openly communicated to the community. Now, not all people may agree with a change, but at least they should have the chance to voice their opinion. As for rest of the community, they too need to be enaged to avoid the perception that it's a "secret room". You hold the reign, but you need to engage. The FE team has done that, it just needs to do a bit more to avoid something like this. Now talking and discussing with people on Internet boards can be time consuming. I think you should have a FE team member designated for that task, as Cysion doesn't have the time to respond to everything. Communication should not be taken lightly. Turkman (though not an FE team member) is a good candidate. He has the combo of media presence and decent aoc skills.
3.) Avoid the perception "Made for noobs, by noobs" like the plague.
People playing on Voobly are highly competitive. Those spending a good chunk of their free time playing AoC, reading strats, studying build orders, watching recs and streams are hardcore players and view the word "noob" if used on them as derogatory. If any of them risk being labelled as a "noob" or even feel "nooby" for trying out FE, they will stay away from it. This goes back to having experts help you. Having them giving the product a thumbs up is crucial. Experts are looked up to in the community. They're opinion leaders whose words while few carry tons of weight. And in this thread I'm quoting Funito: "shocking", Whack: "I never saw any topic discussing", Viper: "I 100% against the range nerf". This is not good. You need expert support to look legit. Please don't let your egos or your own opinion of balance get in the way. I'm not saying you must do everything they say, but you need to consult them as well as discuss it with the community. Whack's profile is on the testing team. Why wasn't he consulted? Expert's approval will dispel the view that it's an imbalanced noob game. You may not play it becuz you don't like it, but not becuz it's a noob game. That will help a lot.
The AOFE team has shown great ability to quickly respond to feedback and correct wrongs. Good job with the hotfix! You need to keep it up! If more discussions and testing show that the plum archer nerf is too much, hotfixing it instead of waiting for the next patch would be a good move public relation (the public being aoczoners) wise imo.
Again, thank you for your hard work. I hope this is taken as constructive criticism as I love FE and would like to see it hold its own in Voobly as well as GR. I'm sure some negative sounding people criticizing are like me as well, they just can't articulate it in a more pleasant way.
Cysion has been widely successful at promoting the game towards casual players (aka noobs) on GR. That "market" is not something he has to worry about. They do not worry too much about balance changes, as long as there are more civs and techs to play with.
Now if he wants to get players on Voobly to play it, he would need to do several things imo:
1.) Get a wholesome version supported on Voobly.
That process is underway, we can do nothing but wait now. However, there is the perception out there that the FE team has not done its best to help Voobly. There are still people out there saying Cysion "screwed up". The FE team needs to communicate that everything is smoothly underway to dispel all doubts. Thumbs up to the Voobly team for helping.
2.) Communicate to the aoczone community more on all changes.
The change log and the bugs and balance threat was a great thing to do. However, some changes were not announced before hand and thus could not be discussed. The plum archer nerf took everyone from expert to noob by surprise. Funito, Whack and Viper were all surprised, meaning they had no prior knowledge, meaning they were not consulted. These 3 have shown great sympathy and support towards the project in the past. The FE team should have never tried to pull that plum nerf on their own. Every step along the way should be expert consulted and openly communicated to the community. Now, not all people may agree with a change, but at least they should have the chance to voice their opinion. As for rest of the community, they too need to be enaged to avoid the perception that it's a "secret room". You hold the reign, but you need to engage. The FE team has done that, it just needs to do a bit more to avoid something like this. Now talking and discussing with people on Internet boards can be time consuming. I think you should have a FE team member designated for that task, as Cysion doesn't have the time to respond to everything. Communication should not be taken lightly. Turkman (though not an FE team member) is a good candidate. He has the combo of media presence and decent aoc skills.
3.) Avoid the perception "Made for noobs, by noobs" like the plague.
People playing on Voobly are highly competitive. Those spending a good chunk of their free time playing AoC, reading strats, studying build orders, watching recs and streams are hardcore players and view the word "noob" if used on them as derogatory. If any of them risk being labelled as a "noob" or even feel "nooby" for trying out FE, they will stay away from it. This goes back to having experts help you. Having them giving the product a thumbs up is crucial. Experts are looked up to in the community. They're opinion leaders whose words while few carry tons of weight. And in this thread I'm quoting Funito: "shocking", Whack: "I never saw any topic discussing", Viper: "I 100% against the range nerf". This is not good. You need expert support to look legit. Please don't let your egos or your own opinion of balance get in the way. I'm not saying you must do everything they say, but you need to consult them as well as discuss it with the community. Whack's profile is on the testing team. Why wasn't he consulted? Expert's approval will dispel the view that it's an imbalanced noob game. You may not play it becuz you don't like it, but not becuz it's a noob game. That will help a lot.
The AOFE team has shown great ability to quickly respond to feedback and correct wrongs. Good job with the hotfix! You need to keep it up! If more discussions and testing show that the plum archer nerf is too much, hotfixing it instead of waiting for the next patch would be a good move public relation (the public being aoczoners) wise imo.
Again, thank you for your hard work. I hope this is taken as constructive criticism as I love FE and would like to see it hold its own in Voobly as well as GR. I'm sure some negative sounding people criticizing are like me as well, they just can't articulate it in a more pleasant way.