At the top, I just want to say that I have edited some of the previous posts that were specifically naming and attacking particular staff members, especially those being called out in incidents that have been resolved. We all want to bridge the player-staff divide, but targeting individual people for their past mistakes only widens that divide.
I definitely agree that there are still issues that we are having to work through as both a community and a network. But before everyone jumps onto the negativity, "ship is sinking" bandwagon, I wanted to pitch in my perspective on things to dispel misconceptions and provide further clarrification on things that regular players might not have visibility into.
Hit Registration and Anti-Cheat:
I can't comment personally on the hit registration and the anti-cheat issue, but I know that it is a critical issue that Chad and the Devs are aware of. With that being said, I have heard them lamenting that the quality of the reports coming in have diminished in number and usefulness over time; in September, we had enough useful reports with relevant information to use to improve things, but now they instead mainly hear reports of such issues in Discord messages, forum posts, and tweets saying how they are garbage human beings because the block game they work on is bad and they should feel bad. To expect useful bug reports but then get personally attacked for not fixing a bug that you don't have the resources or information to fix is demoralizing, and I fear that such hostility is only holding such improvements back.
So a message to everyone who still wants to help with the Hit Reg and AC issues: stay strong, document everything, and send it in as a bug report. /report still logs information, but we also appreciate things like recordings that include relevant information such as when you were online, what server it occurred on, and whether this is a reoccurring issue or not.
I'm not gonna lie and say that silver bullet miracle fixes are right around the corner if we all wish really hard. But I will say that work is continuing on those issues (including implementing a unique machine learning system to improve hacking detection, I believe), but the issue is complicated and difficult enough that progress will likely feel more like a steady slope of incremental improvements. That's just how these things work, but we can't just force progress just because we want it sooner.
If we all just throw up our hands and admit defeat, then we really are beaten. The way I see it, development issues are like wars of attrition: you only lose when you decide to stop fighting.
Mapping
I can't speak for all of the Mapping Team, so if any of them would like to chime in I'll let them speak with more authority on this matter.
In terms of the chest tiering, Kraken made comments in previous threads complaining about the tiering changes that gave his and his team's opinions, perspectives, and ideology on the matter. I think that, while not all changes made were well received, some level of constant change is what is needed for us to both keep the game fresh and figure out optimal arrangements for chests. Just like how CS:GO, Overwatch, CoD, and other competitive games constantly tweak their maps and game systems to address competitive issues in-game, we are trying to accomplish much the same; we're just figuring it out for the first time, this time.
I like those community map learning event ideas, though. Maybe we can do like a, "Map Beta" system in the future, and award people who participate and provide good feedback!
Community Engagement
Firstly, minor correction: the first OMN had 12 performers that evening, quite a bit more than 2. I know it's not as big as it was in the past, but I wanted to correct that statement so as to not disparage the efforts of the people who both arranged and participated in the event.
Secondly, I agree that we have not done enough in-game events in the time that we were around. And to be honest, I blame myself for that. Throughout Alpha and early Beta while we were waiting for MCSG Maker to arrive, I put a lot of emphasis on the CET on non-gaming matters, namely a few Q&A events that fell through and some information-gathering projects that were not public-facing. When Maker did arrive, I kept pushing for those other in-progress projects to be completed first under the belief that they would be finished soon. Only when the opportunities for the Q&A's finally dissolved and the other projects completed did I personally realize just how much time had passed. Pair that with CET's relatively small numbers, and getting proper community events started has been unfortunately slower than we'd like. That is my fault for being nieve about realistic windows of opportunities for those other tasks and for not being better prepared for games when those opportunities did arise.
With that being said, my goal for 2020 is to make Community Games a top priority for the network as a whole with regular recurring games (at least one per month). We will actually be starting our first Community Games event in January of 2020 on either the 4th or the 11th. It will be a SoloSG tourney of sorts, and prizes for our winner includes $25 of my own cash along with some other non-monetary prizes such as a custom forum title and maybe some digital goodies from MCG (if they are released on time). We are excited to officially host MCG's first competitive Community Games event, and we hope to learn a lot and have a lot of fun with everyone here. Stay tuned for the official announcement and sign-ups!
We are aware of both situations, and Staffing dealt with them appropriately; furthermore, the first picture does not show the full context of the situation, which is key in displaying that the situation was not one of one-sided bullying. While we agree that those were definitely unflattering moments that could have been avoided with some forward-thinking on both sides of those situations, they were not punishment-worthy. If we punished people for making embarassing situations, we would have no staff or players to begin with.
I personally was made aware of that situation and dealt with it immediately, along with other members of our staff's leadership team. We agreed with everyone that there was definitely inappropriate actions that were taken, and the matter was resolved appropriately according to policies. There was a lot of regret and remorse immediately after the fact, and we hope that learning from such occurances will prevent them from happening in the future.
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Look, I get that everyone is very frustrated and angry at some of the decisions being made or actions not being taken, and some of that is both understandable and perhaps justifiable. But I think that the worst thing that we can do is give into the defeatism and say, "this place sucks and is doomed". Because by doing so, saying so, and believing so will ultimately make it so, and I don't think any one of us genuinely wants that; if they did, they would already be gone.
Whether we wear the red name, green name, or any other color, what unites us is the drive to make MCGamer a viable and successful community. We may differ on how best to accomplish that, but we must always strive to at least work together on some aspect of the community if we are to have a chance of succeeding. It won't be easy, nice, or always successful, but we must always keep trying. Because one day we will try something that works, and that success will lead us towards the next success. So please, bring your complaints, ideas, reports, and suggestions to me at any time so that we can see what can be done to address them.
I, for one, am here to find ways to make this complicated system work. And I hope everyone here will help us make it work too.
Also, Merry Christmas everyone! I started this post on Christmas Eve, and it's now rolled into Christmas Day. I hope that everyone takes the day to spend with their friends and families, and leave this drama behind.
