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Increasing the longevity of the KAG/TR engine as a viable product in today's market.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Fellere825, Apr 24, 2015.

  1. Fellere825

    Fellere825 KAG Guard Tester

    Messages:
    890
    King Arthur's Gold has a problem with player retention. [1] Some may argue that it is just the life cycle of a game of this nature. Other's may argue that it is because of lack of sales and/or promotion. Others still may argue that it is because of the community or the game itself being bad or unfinished. Whatever the issue, King Arthur's Gold is a game that does not have a large impact on today's market and does not have the ability to retain the community as it is right now. While this issue is acceptable to the TransHuman Design "THD" developers in charge of this game [2], I feel this inability to retain players and the lackluster impact of the game currently forebodes a dangerous precedent on THD's future marketing and subsequent sales of games, especially if they are planning to, "dominate the world with the most entertaining multiplayer games of all time!"[3] In this essay I will discuss what the KAG community requires to thrive all the while postulating possible actions that can be done in order to reinvigorate this community not only for KAG but for all future THD endeavors.

    KAG, being an online multiplayer game, is heavily reliant on its own community in order to sustain a player base in a long term format. While the term community has been used throughout this forum and we all know what a community entails, despite this many members of this community do not know what a community requires in order to thrive. In a paper [4] by a group from Intelligent Multimedia Group VU University on what an online gaming community requires to thrive, the group postulates that an online community like any other community requires: purpose, commitment, context, and infrastructure. The KAG community has deficiencies in each requirement. With regards to purpose this community does not share a singular concrete purpose of existence. This community is currently flawed in that the only purpose is a vague notion that we are all attempting to "support KAG" when the developers have essentially moved on. (While each individual has their own reason to being a member of this community active participation and the purpose for that participation are all variances of fixing, assisting, playing, critiquing, and all around just supporting this game.) With this vague purpose, the only active members of this community will be those who in vain try to fix an already finished product that in itself will lead to the inevitable, that people will stop playing this game for those changes were not implemented. This has already occurred to a certain extent as evidenced by the waning player base and the exodus of many of the early KAG players. The early player base had a sense of purpose and felt they had the ability to make a difference in the development of the game, as evidenced by the multitude of suggestion threads in contrast to the other discussion threads.[5] The purpose of the community was more of "helping develop KAG" then fixing KAG. This combined with the developers being responsive to the community helped to create a stable community until the game's release. With the actual release of the game the community lost its initial purpose and with the onset of the new purpose, "support KAG" the community is now in decline. While the purpose of the community back in the day was effective at creating a stable and active community it is not a viable option for this community to take for TR and future THD projects; as it will end in the same results and would only delay the issue. Thus it is necessary to make the purpose of this community to be something more then helping to create a video game. One of the purposes of this community that I was able to think of that was shared by many but was not actively pursued was to make KAG into an E-Sport. I reason that we, as a community, should change the wording to be more forward thinking, concrete and achievable. The reason of THD as a company and this community should be to create an independently developed video game and transform it into a commercially viable E-Sport. This purpose being both concrete and long term allows the KAG/TR community to have a greater incentive to meet the second requirement, commitment of the community members.

    In McArthur's and Bruza's "The ABC of an Online Community" they define the community's commitment as, " repeated, active, participation committed to the purpose of the community. Observe that repeated, active participation is not sufficient for sustaining community – the participation must be directed towards the purpose of the community."
    [6] In order to analyze exactly what the issue is the community's commitment it is necessary to analyze the developer's actions on a more human scale. The interaction between a gaming community's developers can be likened to a relationship. It is essentially the interaction between two parties in order to facilitate a connection. It requires communication, respect, purpose, and a desire to stay connected. [7] However like any relationship emotions tend to mess with a party's ability to meet these requirements. It goes without saying that Michał "MM" Marcinkowski and Max "Geti" Cahill have emotions. They are affected by them and choose later to act upon how these emotions have effected them. Early on in development when the forums were opened MM interacted with the community very closely, often confronting those who voiced dissatisfaction with the game and responding to these individuals. He would get caught in the euphoria that came from the praise from the masses of his hard work and would say things that often could be misinterpreted to offend an individual if they did not know MM's personality. Geti too had a sense of innocence and enthusiasm that was hard to miss in the early stages of development. The euphoria and the interaction changed after two incidents. The first incident was when MM inadvertently insulted John Bain 'TotalBiscuit" around October 2011 [8]. MM, Geti, and then forum moderator Lucas "Furai" Grzegorczyk proceeded to censure their more "emotional" postings and proceeded with an attempt at a more professional demeanor. Subsequently MM seemed more disconnected from the community; most of his subsequent interactions were more technical and less emotional as they were previously. The second incident consisted of two events. Geti's announcement of Overworld [9] and the subsequent inability of the developers to meet these announcements and the lowered standards (in comparison with Overworld) of the finished product. [10] These actions go hand in hand with how relationships are dependent on expectations. Geti's actions created a new sense of respect. (I feel like I have to clarify what is meant by respect. Respect in its barest sense is admiration yet to truly admire someone you give them what is due them and pay attention to them. To respect is to look at someone over and over again. The etymology of respect is as such: Re meaning again and Spect meaning to look. Thus our "Re Spect" was to look and pay attention to the developers again and again.) We saw the developers in a new light. When Geti announced Overworld he inadvertently created a higher standard of expectation and when the developers were unable to deliver these announcements the community lost its respect. Many members lost their desire to look at the developers again and again. The community had lost its purpose, "To help develop KAG." Thus we lost our commitment. The damage was done and with this mistake Geti and MM became hardened individuals who viewed the game development process in a more cynical light. While some may argue that Overworld is not relevant to many of the current members of the community, it certainly did set the tone for the developers and their continued work with KAG. The euphoria and any sense of innocence was replaced by feelings of guilt and an urgency to finish a game that would at most be just satisfactory in comparison to the ideas presented in Overworld. Many members of the community were unable to forgo their expectations and those that had expected Overworld were largely unable to enjoy the final product. Like a relationship this community required the developers to commit to certain expectations. As a community we were committed to communicate with the developers if we wanted to stay in this pseudo relationship. Many did not want to stay. With the steam release and a few patches, of what the most outspoken in the community felt was an inferior product, MM had decided to completely move on from KAG. Geti then stepped up to the plate as the emotional connection between the developers and the community. I applaud Geti's actions as they are nothing short of heroic, but they were not viable long term. With only a single member of the THD team actively working on the game, setting up hot-fixes, and responding to the vitriol Geti quickly became burnt out with KAG. [11] [12]

    McArthur and Bruza define context as, "attributes whose values remain more or less fixed or stable, thereby providing the secure foundations on which the community can be built. We identify the following forms of context: implicit knowledge, beliefs, and constraints."
    [6] In laymen terms context is the interaction between each member of the community, the term interpersonal-glue is thrown around in McArthur's and Bruza's article. Since Geti has effectively stopped development on KAG and has only done minimal maintenance, the connection with the developers and the community in regards to KAG has effectively been lost and any vestiges of the original purpose of "helping develop KAG" and the current purpose of "supporting KAG" will eventually become nonexistent as KAG becomes more and more dated. With Geti being burnt out the community is dependent upon the modding subgroup to keep KAG relevant. [13] Currently the KAG modding subgroup does not have incentive to create a mod as the benefits are mainly personal fulfillment and a sense of completion, intangible things. Modders can only monetize their work through donations or by creating something that is adopted into vanilla KAG. [14] Which distances the modders who wish to create vastly different projects with KAG's engines as MM is doing with TR. With the current system of servers automatically providing the user with the needed files to play the mods there is no demand as the system automatically provides the files. I postulate that if the developers allow modders the option to turn off automatic mod downloading on the servers and allow them the option of downloads from a secondary source this will allow the modders to potentially monetize their work which will provide incentive. Nonetheless this is only a potential solution to the problem of player retention and further community growth will be dependent on those modders actually releasing a well made and enjoyable product.

    KAG's moddability has the potential to increase the longevity of this product and create a new community not centered on "helping develop KAG" or "supporting KAG" but many little communities centered on the purpose of making a commercially viable E-Sport with the KAG/TR engine. Just as DotA and Counter Strike were originally mods before their ascension to becoming E-Sports I feel that KAG's engine despite its limitations can become a foundation for a new E-Sport. Nonetheless the current infrastructure for modding is lacking. While allowing modders to monetize their work is a potential way to provide incentive to make better products, it also has negative effects if not properly regulated. These negative effects are called perverse incentives.
    [15] Without proper regulation and infrastructure a monetized system will create a community that is driven for money alone. This is evident in the launch of the monetized steam modding system and is flawed. [16] [17] [18] While in some instances capitalism may be beneficial I feel that in a small community such as this, that we are dependent upon the connections between individuals. As what happened with the KAG developers above, when those connections are weakened, in a community centered on an online multiplayer game, the end product suffers. The end goal needs to be the creation of an environment which provides the potential for monetary compensation and provides incentive with other forms of intangible (emotional) compensation. MM and Geti could not run on money alone and ultimately fell prey to the emotional aspects of game development. The modding community is similar. Each individual in the modding community can not run on money alone; they also require a positive nurturing environment in order to succeed and feel the desire to create a better product.

    These beliefs are based upon conjecture and personal opinion and in no way do I expect that this "essay" will change the status quo in regards to this community. Nonetheless I hope that this essay has helped illustrate that KAG's problems with player retention is a multifaceted issue with no easy fix and that THD's next endeavor into online multiplayer gaming will require a different approach with regards to building a lasting community and maintaining it.


    [1].
    Steam Charts KAG.png
    http://steamcharts.com/app/219830

    [2].
    Geti Saying We Are Moving Away From KAG.png
    https://forum.kag2d.com/threads/lack-of-players.19016/page-4

    [3].
    MM Multiplayer world domination.png
    http://pr.transhumandesign.net/


    [4]. http://www.marekvandewatering.com/texts/online_gaming_communities.pdf

    [5].
    Suggestion Forum Evidence.png
    https://forum.kag2d.com/

    [6]. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.21.1183&rep=rep1&type=pdf


    [7]. http://www.cmhc.utexas.edu/vav/vav_healthyrelationships.html

    [8].
    Me quoting Total Biscuit's twitter.png

    https://forum.kag2d.com/threads/wtfree-total-halibuts-new-series.1381/page-2

    [9]. https://forum.kag2d.com/threads/overworld-and-adventures.1518/

    [10].
    Unable to meet expectations Geti.png
    https://forum.kag2d.com/threads/the-price-of-kag-premium.10861/page-3#post-174708

    [11].
    No longer desires to work with KAG engine, Geti.png
    https://forum.kag2d.com/threads/leg...ion-mod-to-non-kag-players.23324/#post-340853

    [12].
    Wikipedia summation of the 12 phases of burning out.png
    https://books.google.com/books?id=A... Freudenberger and Gail North burnout&f=false


    [13].
    Reliance on modding for continued development.png
    https://forum.kag2d.com/threads/is-the-kag-team-still-working-on-it.21269/#post-302966

    [14].
    Policy on paying for mods.png
    https://forum.kag2d.com/threads/there-is-a-storage-is-there-coming-more.19128/#post-272520


    [15]. http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/19/in...-bonuses-leadership_perverted_incentives.html

    [16]. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.874391-Paying-for-mods-Steam-gone-too-far

    [17]. https://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/611704730313709437/

    [18]. http://steamed.kotaku.com/steam-users-see-big-problems-with-charging-for-mods-1699803962
     
    makmoud98, MrIcarus, Tern and 16 others like this.
  2. NinjaCell

    NinjaCell Haxor

    Messages:
    358
    This was really informative. [citation needed]
     
    Asu, blackjoker77777 and Fellere825 like this.
  3. FuzzyBlueBaron

    FuzzyBlueBaron Warm, Caring, Benign, Good and Kind Philanthrope Global Moderator Forum Moderator Donator Tester
    1. The Young Blood Collective - [YB]

    Messages:
    2,508
    Mmm. Good range of sources; reasonable initial & secondary layers of analysis, resulting in credible observations and the occasional insight; overall essay structure could use reworking.

    I'll give it a high Credit. (see left most column, roughly puts it in the 80th percentile) ::):

    Joking asight though, I've been thinking about how best to structure things once "the KAG forums" becomes "the THD forums". Your essay gives much food for thought. Thanks. ::):
     
    blackjoker77777 and Fellere825 like this.
  4. ShnitzelKiller

    ShnitzelKiller Haxor

    Messages:
    590
    I remember when /v/ became convinced that the game was suddenly shit, back in classic. It was after the initial wave in which everyone on /v/ could recognize KAG as the flavor of the month. Some guy posted an IRC chat log in which one of the devs was discussing some griefer they had banned, or whose appeal they had rejected, and apparently the devs came off as "arrogant frat boys" or something, and suddenly everyone in the thread was convinced KAG was dead, claimed by the same ill-defined corruption that had devoured Ace of Spades before it.
    What I realized was that /v/ needed a sensationalist excuse to get bored of games.
     
    FuzzyBlueBaron likes this.
  5. PUNK123

    PUNK123 Hella wRangler Staff Alumni Tester

    Messages:
    1,275
    Why not use the soldat forums and leave us alone?
     
  6. NinjaCell

    NinjaCell Haxor

    Messages:
    358
    THD has more games than just Soldat.
     
  7. PUNK123

    PUNK123 Hella wRangler Staff Alumni Tester

    Messages:
    1,275
    I know that but there is a soldat forum they could put all this stuff on.
     
  8. well, for one, we have a Xenforo license, so we may as well use it over SMF2.0, which is significantly more simple. The Soldat forum is on SMF2.0 I think.
     
    PUNK123 likes this.
  9. FuzzyBlueBaron

    FuzzyBlueBaron Warm, Caring, Benign, Good and Kind Philanthrope Global Moderator Forum Moderator Donator Tester
    1. The Young Blood Collective - [YB]

    Messages:
    2,508
    Basically, the Soldat forums are managed by a different set of staff who are happy to do their own thing and don't really want a pile of other stuff dumped on them or their community. Ofc, it could be argued that the KAG community don't need other games dropped on it either, but that kind of reasoning leads to an awkward trail of little forums for each game, all separate from one another. While the idea hasn't been shouted about too much, I'm yet to hear of any concerns from KAG forums staff members about the idea; and, for normal members, honestly, what's so bad about having a single place to hang?

    Personally speaking, I know I'm going to be playing the duck out of TR when it goes public (and I get decent internet :QQ:), and I don't think I'm wrong in imagining that a lot of other KAG community members will also add TR to their repertoire. Honestly, I've been having ideas about having establish itself [YB] in TR as well; such that we can have CWs in either game. In fact, I've a few ideas sketched out in rough form that could constitute a kind of "THD Olympics" where people/clans can compete against each other across all of the MP games that THD has (and will presumably continue to) put out.

    It's actually very exciting. As Fellere has pointed out: the community needs a 'purpose'. My question is: why can't that purpose be "let's hang, and have fun, and spend snatches of our idle moments--for years to come--gibbing the duck out of each other in hilarious fashion". The purpose doesn't need to be "serious"; just concrete, coherent, and shared by a majority of community members. I see the idea of 'THD Forums' as the necessary starting point of crafting a space on the internet where people can take the THD tageline "Come with us if you want to play!" literally. It might sound all misty-eyed putting it like that, but the reality is that most forums spring up around a game; not the other way around. Here we have a rare change to shape the kind of community we'd like for games that haven't even been thought of yet!

    NB: And, I say "we" because, irrespective of the attitudes and actions of a few staff members, it's really those who make up the bulk of the forum--i.e. most of those who will read this post--who actually have the power to shape their environment and community atmosphere. We've a reputation for being a volatile community who're very hot/cold. But it doesn't have to be that way... ^_^