Community concerns (latest Status Report & +)

[scriptfactory 620]

Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion. It means nothing. Take everything I write with a grain of salt.

So this just dropped: https://dayzgame.com/blog/status-report-09-sept-15. There is no official forum post so I am just posting here. I will leave alone the fact that there was basically no information presented in the last few status reports. They were all lackluster, IMO.

 

What the hell is the "Community Combat Scrum" and why does it seem like a list of bad streamers? I don't even know who these dudes are so I checked out their streams. Nope. No, no, no, no, no. These people are going to influence and shape the future of DayZ SA combat? I am, honestly, shocked in a negative way.

 

The thing that made DayZ Mod so great was/is the community involvement. Meaning, the entire community. I say either make SA development entirely community driven (e.g. Trello/JIRA/Github voting) or decide everything internally based on a game design document with a fixed scope like a professional (as opposed to indie) game development studio.

Edited September 10, 2015 by scriptfactory

[Chaingunfighter 917]

The thing that made DayZ Mod so great was/is the community involvement. Meaning, the entire community. I say either make SA development entirely community driven (e.g. Trello/JIRA/Github voting) or decide everything internally based on a game design document with a fixed scope like a professional (as opposed to indie) game development studio.

Well, Bohemia Interactive is a business, and they develop their games for profit. We, the community, don't really get a say in how they operate or develop. Our involvement with the alpha has definitely helped shape the game and identify its weak points, and I'm almost certain that people's wants have had an impact on what is made, but in the end the devs do have a fixed scope for what they want done by 1.0. Everything they make is decided upon internally; that doesn't mean it's not nor shouldn't be subject to change.

 

I'm not sure why you're taking the "all-or-nothing" position on this, like they either have to let the community decide exactly what goes into the game or they should shut it out completely, because neither of those are desirable options, at least not for BIS. There's a reason why there are no true direct democracies in the world, and those same reasons apply to why the devs can't just let everyone decide for them. At the same time, community involvement has always been important to the game, so shutting it down completely wouldn't help anything either.

 

 

I can't remember a time during the days of the mod where the community really had a direct hand in where it went. Rocket always had his ideas for what he wanted, and yeah, the community was involved, but they never decided what went into the game for him.

[scriptfactory 620]

Our involvement with the alpha has definitely helped shape the game and identify its weak points, and I'm almost certain that people's wants have had an impact on what is made, but in the end the devs do have a fixed scope for what they want done by 1.0. Everything they make is decided upon internally; that doesn't mean it's not nor shouldn't be subject to change.

 

Good point. Even though they haven't released the firm project requirements to the public they must have something internally. I often forget this since they don't release their plans to the public apart from the abstract roadmap bullet points.

 

I'm not sure why you're taking the "all-or-nothing" position on this, like they either have to let the community decide exactly what goes into the game or they should shut it out completely, because neither of those are desirable options, at least not for BIS. There's a reason why there are no true direct democracies in the world, and those same reasons apply to why the devs can't just let everyone decide for them. At the same time, community involvement has always been important to the game, so shutting it down completely wouldn't help anything either.

 

I'm more against the idea that streamers are somehow DayZ evangelists and that their input will shape the future of the game. It is illogical to me but this is, of course, simply my opinion. Shutting down community input on game design would result in a faster development process. I am not talking about balance issues or bugfixes; the name "Community Combat Scrum" seems to directly hint that these guys will be shaping the future of DayZ as a game and that these "evangelists" are actually setting game standards and influencing design changes directly. It feels wrong. This is, again, only my personal opinion which means nothing.

 

I can't remember a time during the days of the mod where the community really had a direct hand in where it went. Rocket always had his ideas for what he wanted, and yeah, the community was involved, but they never decided what went into the game for him.

 

I remember it differently. There was significant discourse with community members when Rocket was around resulting in huge game design changes. Then again, I came to DayZ late (mid 2012) and I honestly feel that once the community took over (Q4 2012) everything got better. The game became much more fun, performant and stable.

Edited September 10, 2015 by scriptfactory

[boneboys 7988]

Topic title edited.
*There may be some technical reason why the Report has not hit the interwebz in the usual manner.
I will ask.
 
^{_{*This post will self destruct if found to be of no worth.}}
 
EDIT :

Note: Our Community Manager is out of the office with the flu, we'll return to the established Status Report format next week - appreciate
everyones patience!

[Noctoras 409]

hm, pretty much a no-news-report. As for the people mentioned to be included in development .... don't have time to check it all, but I so hope this is not going to be your "give me more weapons to shoot around" type of player again. Else the future of DayZ might look rather grim :|   Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst

[igor-vk 909]

What did we found out in this status report? Where cans of beans spawn.

[emuthreat 2837]

I'm pretty sure that the Community Combat Scrum is an organizational tool being implemented to further streamline the game as an open-world PVP shooter, based on the name, and the nature of the streamers listed.  At a glance, it seems like pandering to what the prevalent playstyle has devolved into with SA in its current incomplete state.  It seems somewhat unnecessary, as PVP is pretty much the  acknowledged dominant playstyle to date.  I noticed that Hicks also mentioned plans to organize a Survivalist Scrum.  This sounds about as pointless as the current two-party system of US politics; especially when the the chosen terminology is "evangelists."  So naturally I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what these terms actually mean, both semantically, and in terms of long-term gameplay development concerns.  For now, it looks like we have just enough information to speculate wildly on what it might mean.

 

I really hope that this does not mean that they are planning on greatly reducing the prominence of zombies on the 1.0 product.  I'm all for community involvement, but it looks like the devs might be caving to the trend of the roaming peaceful hermit playstyle vs. the marauding murderer playstlye.  What I'm hoping to see is a game where the harsh environment and personal health needs put immense pressure on all players to cooperate and form confederations to survive, from which factional skirmishes over territory and resources will be the emergent gameplay.  The zombie hoards and loot economy should all but preclude the lone-wolf playstyle, except for the most skilled, patient, and hardened survivors.  If the game caters too heavily to combat and facilitating PVP aspects, is it akin to a game of kickball turning into a dodgeball free-for-all before the fielders even take their places?  If that is the case, is it really such a bad thing?  As long as trees can be climbed by 1.0, I'm fairly indifferent to the outcome.

 

TLDR: Is a Community Combat Scrum just a fancy way of stating that they have caved to the prominent community of streamers using DayZ as a large-scale, high-stakes deathmatch arena?  From a business standpoint, it makes sense. DayZ PVP tournaments could be the next evolution in esports. And why wouldn't BI seize the opportunity to monetize the Human Hunter community and carve out a new niche?  But also, does it not betray the identity of the game, by actively furnishing playstyles emergent from the boredom of people playing with a largely incomplete concept?

[boneboys 7988]

Thank you all, any further discussion here please...

 

https://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/228781-staus-report-09-sept/#entry2305556