TaleWorlds, We Need a New Mexxico

[Nalgasucia507]

RIP MostBlunted. He is a hero in my book.

As I have thought, it felt like right around 1.5.7 when death was enabled, something happened at TW where the devs who communicate with us so well almost went silent, like higher ups stepped in for some reason, TW is just a poorly run and managed company that if it weren't for mods would be a nothing, TW makes an OK game, Modders make it amazing. I just want it finished so I can get modders to fix all the dumb things they have done and refuse to listen and change.

+1.

 

[Zorion_no]

We dont need a New Mexicco per se .. this comes of as blunt and harsh prolly, but we need community manager to step up and do their job.

More or less thats the role he filled besides being a dev(Mexx), he did the community work aswell.

I know this seems harsh but I think this is the core issue, the lack of communication/feedback on proper things.
Dont get me wrong they are doing a good job, but imo not a great job, thus I feel ppl like the mentioned devs in the thread "did their job and some".
Interacting, finding solutions, adressing issues.

 

[Dabos37]

We dont need a New Mexicco per se .. this comes of as blunt and harsh prolly, but we need community manager to step up and do their job.

More or less thats the role he filled besides being a dev(Mexx), he did the community work aswell.

I know this seems harsh but I think this is the core issue, the lack of communication/feedback on proper things.
Dont get me wrong they are doing a good job, but imo not a great job, thus I feel ppl like the mentioned devs in the thread "did their job and some".
Interacting, finding solutions, adressing issues.

I am not sure about this. A community manager is probably not able to discuss about a topic in the same way a dev is able to do. A dev is able to translate the people ideas directly to the code, and is able to perfectly explain code limitations, etc.

Community managers in TW probably have coding knowledge too, but it is pretty positive when a dev who is coding a specific feature, engage the community to share ideas and ask for feedback. Just check the snowballing thread where Mexxico talked about the code pretty often, explained when something was too hard or not possible to do, the reasons, etc.

 

[Lord Grindelvald]

I am not sure about this. A community manager is probably not able to discuss about a topic in the same way a dev is able to do. A dev is able to translate the people ideas directly to the code, and is able to perfectly explain code limitations, etc.

Community managers in TW probably have coding knowledge too, but it is pretty positive when a dev who is coding a specific feature, engage the community to share ideas and ask for feedback. Just check the snowballing thread where Mexxico talked about the code pretty often, explained when something was too hard or not possible to do, the reasons, etc.

Community Managers are however able (or atleast should be) to gage the community, see what they need and relay that internally. And as its his responsibility he should also be the one to motivate and move the devs internally to engage with the base. Especially in Early Access where these two groups should feed off of eachother instead of ignore.

 

[TripleThreat]

It's pretty concerning when a single developer gave more valuable and honest community engagement than the team whose sole responsibility is to engage with the community.

Now, that's not me saying there hasn't been any good communication from anyone else, but there's a reason why mexxico's name comes up time and time again in threads like these.

I'm sure he'll go on to do great things while a handful of others will continue their careers as journeymen doing the bare minimum to retain their position.

 

[Zorion_no]

I am not sure about this. A community manager is probably not able to discuss about a topic in the same way a dev is able to do. A dev is able to translate the people ideas directly to the code, and is able to perfectly explain code limitations, etc.

Community managers in TW probably have coding knowledge too, but it is pretty positive when a dev who is coding a specific feature, engage the community to share ideas and ask for feedback. Just check the snowballing thread where Mexxico talked about the code pretty often, explained when something was too hard or not possible to do, the reasons, etc.

What grindewald said about the matter in his reply, he "got what I was aiming" for I think.

 

[Aurex]

As someone pointed out before, the whole point of EA is to communicate with your playerbase and collaborate with them when possible.
At the very least put up a roadmap - it's really not that difficult. Twenty minutes with photoshop. Or even Word, for God's sake.
IMO, the reason they don't put up a roadmap or try to engage with the community in any meaningful way is the same reason Mexxico left (just speculating, but I've been in toxic work environments before.) That reason being: they are badly organized, lacking in talent, direction and even common sense. And their avoidance pattern is also shady as hell, the kind you'd expect from a company who's about to put a "FEATURE COMPLETE" seal on the product, call it a night and move on with something else, maybe something in space.
This is not coming from a casual (no offense to casuals, it's just a matter of investment) but from someone with a combined M&B, Warband, PoP and Napoleonic Wars playtime of around 4000 hours. I used to be a borderline fanboy for this company.
Was sad to see Mexxico go (or get kicked out, for all I know) and also sad to see MostBlunted banned. Most of his criticism was very much on point. Sure, he might have been a little obnoxious, but he wasn't offensive or anything. (Plus, most of us folks are a little obnoxious in our own ways.)

 

[Memoefe]

When did I become sensitive? He knew the risk he was running when he posted it, and even openly acknowledged it several times before. It's more a pattern of behavior thing, not a particular horrific incident. He was also approached privately about it by other moderators in the past, and was told in no uncertain terms where the line was drawn & what to expect.


Are you asking for more engagement personally? I've been kicking around this forum for 16 years, long enough to get new responsibilities that take up more and more of my time. Forgive me if I'm not fighting in the trenches every day anymore.

You did right, he was a toxic person. In fact he was the only person that was blocked by me.

 

[FizCap]

As someone pointed out before, the whole point of EA is to communicate with your playerbase and collaborate with them when possible.
At the very least put up a roadmap - it's really not that difficult. Twenty minutes with photoshop. Or even Word, for God's sake.
IMO, the reason they don't put up a roadmap or try to engage with the community in any meaningful way is the same reason Mexxico left (just speculating, but I've been in toxic work environments before.) That reason being: they are badly organized, lacking in talent, direction and even common sense. And their avoidance pattern is also shady as hell, the kind you'd expect from a company who's about to put a "FEATURE COMPLETE" seal on the product, call it a night and move on with something else, maybe something in space.
This is not coming from a casual (no offense to casuals, it's just a matter of investment) but from someone with a combined M&B, Warband, PoP and Napoleonic Wars playtime of around 4000 hours. I used to be a borderline fanboy for this company.
Was sad to see Mexxico go (or get kicked out, for all I know) and also sad to see MostBlunted banned. Most of his criticism was very much on point. Sure, he might have been a little obnoxious, but he wasn't offensive or anything. (Plus, most of us folks are a little obnoxious in our own ways.)

It's obvious Mexxico was rare talent in the dev team and had low moral. He wanted to do great things for the community and game but due to the low cunning of management and his fellow dev team, he came to many realizations when it came to the present and future of this company and realized it was best to leave the sinking ship.

 

[MaRzz]

Good luck getting the server. SA doesn't even have one yet.

 

[LuciusDomitiusAurelianus]

Mexxico is a huge professional and super passionate, you usually do not see a dev like this, anywhere.

I do agree that the community managers should probably step up the communications, but they should not be expected to be a the technical level of Mexx, he is a rare breed to articulate technical, community and business decisions.

When I worked at Amazon Web Services, the role that fulfilled the communications + tech depth was a Product Manager. I am unsure if TW has them, likely not, given the breached timelines and just wonky build/deploy/QA/feedback loops. But I think an apt replacement would be a dedicated BDM or Prod Manager who can get into the technical weeds so @Blood Gryphon can keep blessing us with sweet Excel BI but also can placate the angry folks here by giving tangible roadmap feedback and take suggestions that are viable back to the dev org.

 

[vonbalt]

As someone pointed out before, the whole point of EA is to communicate with your playerbase and collaborate with them when possible.
At the very least put up a roadmap - it's really not that difficult. Twenty minutes with photoshop. Or even Word, for God's sake.
IMO, the reason they don't put up a roadmap or try to engage with the community in any meaningful way is the same reason Mexxico left (just speculating, but I've been in toxic work environments before.) That reason being: they are badly organized, lacking in talent, direction and even common sense. And their avoidance pattern is also shady as hell, the kind you'd expect from a company who's about to put a "FEATURE COMPLETE" seal on the product, call it a night and move on with something else, maybe something in space.
This is not coming from a casual (no offense to casuals, it's just a matter of investment) but from someone with a combined M&B, Warband, PoP and Napoleonic Wars playtime of around 4000 hours. I used to be a borderline fanboy for this company.
Was sad to see Mexxico go (or get kicked out, for all I know) and also sad to see MostBlunted banned. Most of his criticism was very much on point. Sure, he might have been a little obnoxious, but he wasn't offensive or anything. (Plus, most of us folks are a little obnoxious in our own ways.)

couldn't have said it better, i was a massive fanboy of TW since the original early access of the first game but the way they have handled bannerlord's development and community engagement (which is the point of an early access) even with a full blown team of around a hundred employees is so much worse than the age of Armagan and his wife developing the first game just by themselves.

I'm still around cause i love this series and have hopes they'll manage to fix things and listen to the community, if it proves to not be the case i'll be very skeptical of any future titles TW might release.

Of all my friends whom were hyped for years about bannerlord only i sticked around after more than a few weeks into EA, they all jumped ship and will maybe check the game later when it officially releases to see if they managed to make it enjoyable.

 

[stevepine]

Well, at least they have promised a kind of 'Road Ahead Dev Blog' sometime soon ... as they said in the last one. But it better be damn fantastic if they want to even get anywhere close to winning back community support and enthusiasm.

 

[momo1]

well ****
now i feel less confident in the future of this product

Read the last paragraph.

https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/information-about-developments-at-snowballing-problem.434547/page-66#post-9675077

Every now and then there is some confusuion about moderation team being part of TaleWorlds, and/or vice-versa.
Both of which isn NOT correct.
I don't know, maybe it's because of the similar red flags under avatars

Because we are a part of the community and not part of TW.
Most of us have also criticized many aspects of both the game and community management that each of us personally thought deserved to be criticized; not that i think we should create a hostile gap between "us" and "them" in the first place.
In many ways the mod team knows as much as the next forumite, so simple question or not, one can't answer what one doesen't know.

I'm always glad to help in any way, providing the answers i do know.

It is 100% because of the flag. The only way someone would know that moderators don't work for Taleworlds, is if they looked into becoming one.

 

[momo1]

Every now and then there is some confusuion about moderation team being part of TaleWorlds, and/or vice-versa.
Both of which isn NOT correct.
I don't know, maybe it's because of the similar red flags under avatars

Because we are a part of the community and not part of TW.
Most of us have also criticized many aspects of both the game and community management that each of us personally thought deserved to be criticized; not that i think we should create a hostile gap between "us" and "them" in the first place.
In many ways the mod team knows as much as the next forumite, so simple question or not, one can't answer what one doesen't know.

I'm always glad to help in any way, providing the answers i do know.

It is 100% because of the flag. The only way someone would know that moderators don't work for Taleworlds, is if they looked into becoming one.

 

[Zorion_no]

couldn't have said it better, i was a massive fanboy of TW since the original early access of the first game but the way they have handled bannerlord's development and community engagement (which is the point of an early access) even with a full blown team of around a hundred employees is so much worse than the age of Armagan and his wife developing the first game just by themselves.

I'm still around cause i love this series and have hopes they'll manage to fix things and listen to the community, if it proves to not be the case i'll be very skeptical of any future titles TW might release.

Of all my friends whom were hyped for years about bannerlord only i sticked around after more than a few weeks into EA, they all jumped ship and will maybe check the game later when it officially releases to see if they managed to make it enjoyable.

Just a heads up though, keep in mind that alot of the issues that the community request etc is already sorted out by modders of the game over at for instance Nexus.

I have not used any mods though, cause for me the point of EA is to provide feedback on a pure/clean version and not have a mod potentially lead to issues on its own.

So if the game is lacking at release, we have modders who'll save it as a small comfort
The problem though is in your last line "make it enjoyable" this is the core issue, what some enjoy, others hate with a passion.

For me the best example is their bundle of life&death instead of how they had it seperate.
One of my fav things in the game is actually "tutoring" the kids, but haveing 3-4 lords die in battles every now and then just tanks the fun hard.
They die to frequent overall imo, this is one of the issues that there is quite a few threads about and yet there is crickets of feedback on it(this have actually been sorted by modders over at nexus, so I could just use that and enjoy it).

So this is a part of the issues someone in the development team thinks the system of life and deah in the game as it is now is a good thing, meanwhile I hate it with a passion, different ppl different strokes, but again some feedback or more of it would be welcome..

Thats where Mexxico excelled he gave good feedback on some of the issues that was "ruining" the game, engaging with the community to find solutions/feedback etc.(Snowballing being the prime example.)

 

[ggttcc2]

Looking at MostBlunted's last post, he was basically asking for a ban as the title suggested it.
So I think Mods just gave him what he wanted: A little break to chill out.

 

[Demoulius]

Ive only seen maybe the last 2 weeks of his posts but they dident reach above 'passive agressive' levels of sass and/or were outright rude and insulting.

I can understand that people get jaded over time but voicing that on the forums to (mostly) people who cant change anything about it isent the best way to spend your time. Maybe the timeout is a good thing. Step back from the game abit and come back later. I do that myself with EA titles as eventually you get burned out on them and since the games change over time anyway coming back later to see whats changed is often a good idea.

 

[MavDrac]

I think the criticism is directed at people that are directly involved with the game development after all, those are the ones keeping this community in the shadows, not you.

 

[Stratigo]

First, mexxico cared about the community and helping which no other Dev has done in months since about 1.5.7 communication has been near zero. And question me on that that TW and I'll prove ya wrong
Second you notice how most responses from TW never address our concerns, the response from a mod in here was to the guys ban, not about communication or better relations with the community, they can't answer simple questions
and third that's why I have a Youtube channel, so my voice can't be silenced when I only speak my mind and thoughts and it differs from TW, can't silence the Kitten

So answer me this mod or TW dev, if you care about us as a community, how can you make a massive change to the game i.e. turning death on in combat, not put in patch notes and then take 2 weeks, yes 2 full weeks to make first communication as to what was happening when people are asking every day in the beta branch thread without a single response.. Answer why you think that is proper communication with your community, and that is just one example of many that I could give where mexxico and before 1.5.7 Duh would never make us wait

The mods have no inside look on the game development. They're volunteers.

I mean, they should be paid to moderate the forum, but, like, capitalism dictates why pay someone for lesser work they do for free or some ****.