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Open discussion: Dev Blogs have come to an end?

Luigi Broglio

By Luigi Broglio
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Luigi Broglio

Luigi Broglio

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I'd like to launch this discussion: Dev Blogs have come to an end?

First of exposing all the criticism I have, let me start saying a thing that I would like to mantain clear during the discussion: I love SQUAD and I love KSP. I expect that you do too, or at least you mantain respect for Dev's work.

That say, I have to express a bit of my upset for the way developing of KSP is comunicated to the community.

Let's start with number: since august 2013, we have had 5 Dev Blog entries, with bits of interesting information and near no images. But I see this tendency to have started some time before, near june.

What about articles? Our great PD and Maxmaps kept us informed, with their KSP weekly, about developing of the game in a way that I would define Heroic. But I have to say that, comparing with the past (and with no blames for PD and Maxmaps), articles from the devs were more expressive because they were full of images and source explaination on what was boiling in the pot.

In few words, I think that what IMO was a really good caracteristic of ksp interaction between developers and community is coming to an end, I see now clear than ever that devs are detaching this type of comunication from them, losing in expressivity.

I'm sad about this, every time I visit the forum I HOPE there's a new entry with consistent information and images, but since some months I don't find that.

I miss the ol' days where C7 and Harvester (and others) were posting something about their work.

Are you comparting this feel with me?

PS: I know, now you'll start saying "ok, but with 0.21 and 0.22 devs were really busy with implementing stuffs and no time to write something" yes you're right, but it doesn't change the fact that we have little infos about developing, and I think that 10 minutes a day exist for 1 dev (I don't say 2 or 3, I say only 1) to write or posting an image without writing. If not everyday, once a week but NOT with KSP weekly.

PPS: Sorry for bad english, I don't want right now to revise errors :) .

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Luigi Broglio

Luigi Broglio

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Nope, they havn't, you are just jumping the gun, we've just had 0.22 and the devs need some downtime, plus it's the weekend, they don't work the weekends.

Give them a chance, sheesh :)

Mmmh, as said, it's not a matter of right now, it's a matter I believe started with june, ok we had summer in it but summer was 2 week or a month only.

And I repeat that I love them anyway, not a question of chances 8)

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Luckless

Luckless

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Have you ever developed complex software? It is not easy to keep making short little 'updates' on work after a given point in development. You burn out, you have already said everything obvious about the project, and you become distracted by your focus on code and feature development. Rarely is it because the developers stop caring about the community, but far more often it is because they have no idea how long it has been since they've made a post that has zero impact on their software development.

It is part of the reason why having a dedicated community management team member is often a very good thing, as they are far less likely to 'forget' small details like dealing with the fan base instead of becoming overly focused on code and tools. A QA lead is often one of the better options to fill this role for smaller teams where everyone has to wear a few hats. They're generally focused on organization anyway, and get their fingers in everyone's pies to understand what is going on, so they're usually already in a position to give updates on the entire team. (Or you can always hire a contractor to do things for you.)

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UbioZur

UbioZur

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There is 2 things I believe that makes them blog a bit less often at the moment:

- They have been working a lot more into the back end of KSP (the code more than feature) in the last few updates, and so there is less to make a good blog post about.

- Squadcast, instead of blogging, every friday there is a dev talking in the squadcast, with live Q&A at the end.

As more new feature will come, i am sure there will be more blog going in :)

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Xyd

Xyd

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Well ladies and gentlemen, I don't want to be annoying but I think I'm right when I say that this is a period of careless about updating the community, look at what's happening with ksp weekly.

Ah the old psychological effect of fandom and what happens when a routine stops becoming a routine...

I really fail to see how a delay in the KSP weekly is going to be a period of carelessness. I've seen this many times before with certain specific people with specific traits, its a vicious circle of Delay>>ConsumerUnhappy>>ConsumerInsultsDevs>>Repeat ...

Now if turns out that KSP weekly has been done and dusted; you should bear in mind that it was a luxury and certainly not something that anyone in the community is entitled to. I really don't get the sense of entitlement when it comes to non-compulsory devblogs. Sure, if a developer turns off the lights, and nobody is home, then you can complain to your hearts content! But you've been getting updates, snapshots of whats to come.

A single delay out of the established norm of what is KSP weekly is nothing to moan about or to start throwing careless insults about.

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Luckless

Luckless

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I actually tend to avoid following game development too closely. But I'm 27 and generally busy with work, photography, and other projects, so game related stuff frequently goes on the back burner for months at a time.

And honestly I kind of find it nicer now that I rarely hear updates on some of the projects I follow. Like a few things I've bought in Kickstarter that got delayed. I had completely forgotten I bought them, and then get a cool surprise when the quiet dev pops up months later to say "Hey! I finished a working beta!". I don't suffer disappointments from delays, because the only time I really hear much or pay attention is when someone points out that the new working release is out.

But yeah, community management and interaction is a really hard thing to deal with, and it is very easy to have things sour and spiral out of control if a series of things happen to go wrong at the worst times.

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AmpsterMan

AmpsterMan

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Well ladies and gentlemen, I don't aant to be annoying but I think I'm right when I say that this is a period of careless about updating the community, look at what's happening with ksp weekly.

I wouldn't jump the gun on that one. Is it anomalous? Yes. Is it indicative of a new paradigm? No one can tell at this point.

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Bobnova

Bobnova

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I'd rather they spent their time making progress on awesome features for this already awesome game, personally.

There are a finite number of working hours in a day, would you prefer they were spent A) working on the game, or B) writing blog posts?

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Skyrunner27

Skyrunner27

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Talking about the Devs releasing images. Does anyone know what the status of Nova is? I mean he is on leave but it has almost been a year since the last update he worked on. Also the Dev page lists him as legacy. Was there ever a official announcement that he left Squad. I do not mean to start conspiracy theories but...yeah.

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JebIsMyHero

JebIsMyHero

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I'd rather they spent their time making progress on awesome features for this already awesome game, personally.

This. I can't even imagine how difficult it must be to implement all the fantastic ideas they've got flying around in their heads! They're doing great so far and I suspect that everyone is pushing to get career mode up and running. In my view, the skeleton of the game itself is very much taking shape still, perhaps we'll get updates more often when the devs can focus more on adding content and such rather than recoding the entire game. :)

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pxi

pxi

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Weekly's coming in a new format. Trying to get it out before the day's out, as well as a new blog on the matter.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/entries/1049-A-Weekly-five-times-a-week%21

Much appreciated, although on a scale of one to ten, with ten being 'the sky is falling', a delay on the weekly comes in about 0.2

:)

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