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ctown28
ctown28
Huntsman

Jun-28-2008 08:39

There have been some recent events on this game that warrant some concern. It’s no secret that there has been a lack of interest. Much of this may be attributed to the release of Shades of Mystery. If that is what people want to play, far be it from me to tell them not to play it.

That being said. I am still a paying customer of Sleuth Noir. As a paying customer there are some things that I expect. Ben has done a decent job at keeping the server up and running. We had a slight issue earlier in the week with not being able to travel and Ben did a great job of addressing the issue and getting it corrected. He always has done a great job of taking care of things. He has not however kept the game fresh and interesting. We recently had the expansion of the USS Sleuthetania. There was a buzz before the initial launch of it and we couldn’t wait to see what was in store for us.

Well what did we get? The opportunity to pay $20,000 to get on board of a ship and do nothing more than play cases. Sure there are some new characters and new items along with 2 new “coming soon” links. That’s it! I can’t help but to feel disappointed in the way this has played out. Two weeks later, the links are still coming soon and the interest of the boat has already gone away. I know I have no plans or reason to get on the boat and be cut off from my agency completely. I don’t know this for a fact, but I think a lot of people are disappointed with the boat as well and some may even be irritated and feel cheated by the whole development.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh and we are missing some secret that still needs to be unlocked on the boat, but if people aren’t playing, the secret will not be unlocked. I know that Ben is just one person and can only do so much. He has a lot on his plate right now with running both SOM and Noir. I’m sorry, but SOM means absolutely nothing to me as I don’t play over there.

Replies

Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Jul-20-2008 17:52

lol sophie. As they say, 'a camel is a horse designed by a committee' :) what... that's all I've got :p

Brasco De Gama
Brasco De Gama
Old Shoe

Jul-21-2008 01:32

Huglover: the review team is the pretty much the same as development team, and originally I wrote development team, but I changed it just to emphasise that development was Ben's remit. :)

Huglover
Huglover
Old Shoe

Jul-21-2008 02:11

Being not really sure about what work is already delegated, and what's not, I have some ideas about what a development team/team of superUsers, whatever you call it, only that we hope it would be organized in a way that ensures results...
* Follow up on technical issues, like the picture drop-out we had yesterday, and find information and update the community, and have the possibility to tell Ben on a "hot-line", if there is something we need him to do. This team may be could also have a look at other issues as well, like:
- how do you implement uploading of pictures?
- are there alternatives for subscription payments other than paypal that's easy and safe?
* Create a new FAQ with answers to those kind of questions that we "know" the answer of, and be the first-line contact and responders for questions to Ben, leaving to him give the answer the yet unsorted questions, and using the information of theese questions/answers to expand the FAQ.
* Easen the process of creating/doing avatars, so that the job left for Ben, when Secret Squirrel and his helpers have done most of the job, might be nothing, or only a quick review.
* Creating a "competition team", that will both be able to run various competitions, and have the possibility to "give" different kind of rewards to the winners.
* Perhaps creating a marketing team, that might have a small fund of either money or gift subscriptions to try to get more people to play sleuth? - this fund could be created by some kind of "fee" that are payed to be in certain competitions. (like 1 dayload of cases?, a certain amount of sleuth $?)
* Perhaps making an "item-creator" which enables more people to come with ideas for items to include in Sleuth? Could be so that what kind of "slanting" you are allowed to give the item you create are dependent on the experience your character got? - such items must pass a review of some kind, to ensure that it's still "sleuthy"
....

red_lips
red_lips
Well-Connected

Jul-21-2008 05:11

Okay, sorry about my above point, I know it was dodgy.

I agree with a lot of people that we do need to work with advertising to get newbies and I would like to talk about the wonders of gift subscriptions.

now i know they're really icky to hand out but I was the proud reciever of a gift subscription (I cam 2nd in the poetry comp) and without it, I wouldn't be here today. It gave me a taste of everything... I joined an agency, traveled, played more cases, experienced new things and THEN re-subscribed.

I know people don't like handing them out but I think that we should even just give people a taste of what it's like to be subscribed (maybe you play for a month, then get a weeks free subscription) because I know if that happened to me, I would've subscribed much earlier!

Sophie4
Sophie4
Gopher to the Sleuth Gods

Jul-22-2008 21:00

SS.
Heehee. They have a hump, hold water and spit tobacco.

Hmmm. except for the extra legs it sounds like the proto-type for the manager of a professional league baseball team.

I won't name names :p

Huglover
Huglover
Old Shoe

Jul-24-2008 15:55

If there is anyone who would like to try my TownieSweeper, it's now availiable at: http://www.freewebs.com/huglover/index.htm
The program is delivered to you "as-is", meaning that if you get it to work, then, nice, if not, then too bad. But, I won't take any responsibility for the program not working. Or, any damage it will do on your computer.
Also, don't test out the program if you don't really want to.
It's only useable to assist you in asking the townies in the city where your sleuth are some specific questions. - and meant to help you find out if a specific question will reveal some secrets that are not found yet.
- or to assist you if you need to ask sevral townies in a city the same question. (Yes, it's working in Shangri La too...)

ctown28
ctown28
Huntsman

Jul-24-2008 21:08

The program does work, a setting or two may need to be tweaked, I'll have some full install instructions and another copy of the file up on DPI's website in the next day or two. Was gonna do it tonight but ran into some PC problems of my own that I had to get resolved. Stupid ISP! :-S

Huglover
Huglover
Old Shoe

Jul-30-2008 15:38

I just had a short trip into Shades, and what I discovered when I logged out made me disappointed.
Whenever I log out of Noir, to change to another detective, I have to pass by the page which presents both the Sleuth games, so that I will be sure to be reminded what is hot and what is not...
BUT, when I logged out of Shades, I came directly to the Shades login page, and did NOT have to go by the page which presents both the Sleuth games....
Either this is a mistake, and I am sure Ben can quickly correct the problem to proove this was just a mistake, or it's done by purpose, which in my eyes feels ... well, the words I would use to describe it are not really positive...
I have a feeling that we in the Noir community from time to time feel neglected, and such small details don't actually help the impression.
I hope very much this is just a small mistake...

Paranoid_Android
Paranoid_Android
Story Teller

Jul-30-2008 17:11

Yes. That's been like that from day one. It's not ideal, but in the greater scheme of things, it's not earth-shatteringly important. Reading this kind of trivial gripe when Ben's come through with the goods for the ship just now really irks me, and, I suspect, probably makes Ben feel a bit 'neglected' and have a few less than 'positive' thoughts too. lol I also have quite few words left, but like you I'll stop here too.

Rosamund Clifford
Rosamund Clifford
Tale Spinner

Jul-30-2008 18:02

I couldn't agree with you more, Squirrel. People have been crying all over the boards for something new for months, and when they get it, there is hardly a word of praise for Ben, they go on with their endless complaints and lamentations over small things as if nothing has happened. I'll stop here too, and direct my positive thoughts to the Sleuthetania.

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