1st of all. I would like to thank Andrew for making the post about the weather system and to let us know about some of the updates in another thread.
I would just like to let you know a little about one of the biggest games of the past 2 years - Minecraft... Well, Minecraft updates to be more precise and is one of the very reasons to why MC is as big as it is today.
Notch worked on MC on his own at the start and didn't have time to make endless threads about what he was / wasn't working on, so he opened up Notch world.
This was a place to keep everyone informed of what he was doing and trying to do with the game as frequent as he could.. but he would only put a simple few words of what it was.. eg.
Fixes.
Blocks re-appearing.
To many Iron blocks generated.
and so on.
Updates.
Blocks of stairs.
Food - Potatoes.
and so on.
Once he fixed or updated something, he would release a snap shot of it for the comminity to test and give feedback to.
He would also update the list with a simple. Done at the end...
but he was open and honest about everything and didn't mind telling people if he was having issues with some bits or what ever.. to the point of one update saying.
"Update - Fishing.. Aghh.. Still working on it, still can't get it working and it's driving me crazy."
Open and honest.. It went down a storm with the MC guys because no one from EA / Codemasters / Activison would dream of being that upfront with their own gamers...
If the developers could have a thread through the homepage like this, it would calm the forums down no ends... because that is the main issue here, we don't know what you are working on, what you are updating and so on..
Make it so the gamers can't reply as well. They can talk about updates still in the forums if they wish..
You could add it as a "Blog" or something to that effect and put it as a "Tab" on the home page with the league news...
All you need to do is a few words for each thing you want / are working on. For example-
Weather system fixes.
New driver attributes.
Jave connection fixes.
Tyres overheating on certain tracks.
and so on..
Update the blog as -
Weather system fixes. (Working on - Will take some time.)
New driver attributes.
Java connection fixes. (Fixed)
Tyres overheating on certain tracks. (Working on.)
and so on..
If it's causing some issues, then just say so.. being open and honest would go a long long way.. and make many loyal fans of the game.