Nick, Step to the podium

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January 9th, 2015
PerkyCox

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cbt

Thanks for the responses. The maps are a real issue, but it was the same thing with diamond rings a couple months ago and you shut that down, so you can probably do the same thing with maps. Soon, please.

But if it happens with bolts and planks, let it alone, right? ha ha ha ha
January 9th, 2015
Nick[Supercell]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mtgirl

You really need to read all the posts or at least look for to see if a member of the sc team posted something.

Nick, thanks for explaing what you could and that you guys are looking into what can be changed. You are right, the events can't be to easy= not fun, or to hard= dissapointment. I for one can't wait for the next update and or maybe a new kind of event. Welcome back!! We missed you.

We will look into this, as we always do. :) Even if this particular topic is a hot one, we treat all feedback with same level of importance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PerkyCox

Thank you, Nick, for coming to the forums and posting this answer.

I have a few comments, which are given in the spirit of learning and going forward, not beating on people.

First, I personally believe a lot of the anger and negativity you see here on the forums could have been avoided if you or someone else from SC had come in here earlier and said something about the failed event(s) -- especially the Christmas event. I realize you were traveling and not available over Christmas (as were so many of us with our families, religious obligations, etc), but I learned as an elected official to GET IN FRONT OF A BAD NARRATIVE, because you cannot ever catch up to it once it gets rolling.

I hate to blame anyone or anything for such things, but this time we were caught up in bad timing. I know, it's a poor excuse, but that's just reality. We try to be as upfront and active as possible (and transparent) but sometimes things go wrong. Even though I have been doing this stuff for many many years, I will never be perfect. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by PerkyCox

I understand and agree that these kinds of investigations are necessary, and they take time. I hope that SC will communicate with us regularly as this process goes forward, letting us know what the staff's gleanings are, and giving us an indication of what SC is thinking, and how the process is being tweaked going forward.

I also will say that in my view the event was guaranteed to fail because of two factors (1) the personal goals were not achievable without hiring Tom, which meant that the global goal was set WAY TOO HIGH and (2) the timing was very badly chosen: people don't farm as much on holidays because they are doing other things (like travel, church, cooking, shopping etc).

We will, as usual, be as transparent as possible! I am not sure if our findings will alleviate the discussions, may the findings/learnings be technical, human errors or whatnot. The important thing is to learn, and make the events better for all players. That's our goal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PerkyCox

I respectfully offer my opinion as to why the participation fell off a cliff: People were burned from the recent failure of the Christmas event, had heard nothing from SC, and gave up playing the event when they saw another likely unattainable global goal at the New Year's event. Go back to the forums - the negativity started almost immediately.

I doubt the reason for the New Year's event not reaching the goal is down to one reason. It usually isn't. In most cases it has to do with multiple reasons. One reason is most probably the mood being down due to the Holiday event, but there most probably is something else as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PerkyCox

I think we are seeing some of the hangover from the 2 failed events in this event. Right now, we appear to be trending behind where we need to be to reach the global goal, and these are truck orders. Should be easy to do 100 of those, right? Everything in the barn is available, you can choose from the order board, and etc. No machines are shut down making 1 thing, no special crops need to be grown. I think this is players showing their feelings about losing the bell and gramaphone. Folks worked hard, especially at Christmas, and many hired Tom, all for nothing. Same for New Years (without so much need for Tom). Now this event comes along and people are exhausted with the failures and dispirited.

The current event is a new one we have never done before and I do agree that the timing to test something new is perhaps not the best. The fact is that these events are planned way ahead, and changing them on the fly is technically not possible. At least for now. We may need to look into that as well for future updates!

Quote:

Originally Posted by PerkyCox

I think some of these feelings could have been soothed and the negative emotional reaction blunted by earlier supportive communication from SOMEONE at SC. Read the forums - see the crazy conspiracy theories and the anger. That was allowed to fester for a LONG TIME, and it has colored people's approach to the game now. I think it can be recovered, but it will take a lot of repair work by SC. Your post is a welcome start :)

We do read as much as we can, but as I pointed out in one of my replies above, the timing was just off the charts. :) Again, something to learn from and we will definitely communicate better in the future if this would happen again!

Quote:

Originally Posted by PerkyCox

I would also appreciate another shot at the Holiday decorations that disappeared unexpectedly. I know a lot of folks got iTunes gift cards for diamonds that they were going to use in game for décor, but the décor went away before they could buy. I need another Lady snowman, and a couple more soldiers. Memorial Day is coming up.

We'll look into this! I can't say if we will be able to bring them back (the winter theme will soon-ish be turned off anyway) but a good point!

Quote:

Originally Posted by PerkyCox

This cannot be the sole reason for thousands of maps hitting the DD all at once. I saw a farm yesterday with 2000 maps for sale, at level 60. You cannot tell me they have nothing in their barn but maps, and you cannot tell me that they had held them all forever to drop them all at once when the maps have nothing but coin value. N

It seems to me that if it was a simple oversupply from fully-expanded legitimate players, we would see maps in the DD in smaller groups -- one or two bins at a time. We aren't seeing that -- so it is reasonable to surmise that nefarious things are afoot -- good to know that the game is on to find the culprits!

We are investigating the map issue as it came out of the blue. We need to understand what is happening and how to fix it. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by PerkyCox

Speaking only for myself, I would prefer to have the map issue and global goal issues fixed before a new update. Fix what you have out of balance now, then update later.

The events is not something we need to fix per se, rather improve the way how we estimate them. The map issue is being investigated as well. Neither of these will affect the development of the next update however. Our team is capable of multitasking, and thus I am not worried about us going forward with both looking into the map issue & events, and creating new fun features to the game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PerkyCox

Speaking only for myself: I accept and appreciate your apology. I think you have a bunch of passionate players, which is a good thing. Passionate players = invested players. Make the commitment to respond, and fix, and communicate, and I think the forgiveness will flow like the River Jordan!! :)

We have one of the best communities I have ever experienced, that's a fact! :) Passionate players, who love the game. It's my, and our team's main goal to create a game which feels right and is fun to play.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestajunior

As glad as I am that Nick responded, this response in itself is another non response. It does seem that sc is always "looking into it". Unless they have a crystal ball to gaze into, perhaps raising your heads sc and looking around at the multiple posts, complaints, groans, etc. i think your answers are there.

No game developer has a crystal ball. :) Would be nice tho! ;) But in all seriousness, "looking into it" is what we do. What has happened can not be undone. We can't travel back in time to change things, thus we need to look into the feedback, data etc. and then see what should be done. I know it's a "vague" reply, but that's where we are at the moment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestajunior

I agree Herbladyann this event is a no brainier. It was tossed at us with no regard for the past few events and the just plain big ol' YAWN happening in Hay Day land.

The events are planned way ahead of the start of it, and we can't change them on the fly. That's a technical limitation, at least for now. Maybe we can change it in future updates, but that's out of my zone really (tech stuff).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestajunior

I don't think we as players are asking for something for nothing (I am not anyway) but fair play and actual answers would be nice at this point.

Fair play is what we strive for in all designs. We are still humans, and sometimes things don't work out as planned. That's just being human. The worst thing would be if we wouldn't learn from these kind of events (no pun intended). We learn from each event, each feature, each feedback etc. and are dedicated to build a better game based on that.

Cheers,

Nick
January 9th, 2015
GladeMaid

Hi Nick

Thank you for coming to the fore and letting I us know you were concerned from the start, it's just a shame you didn't let us know back then that you had met to discuss the problem. That said, I understand everyone was on holiday and working on your holiday is not something any of us want to do.

I agree with everything Perky said in her response. Well said, Perky.

I would prefer that, instead of working on new design features, the team works on sorting long running problems such as the help alerts sticking and players utilising unfair practices to flood the market with maps. While I'm sure some people are genuinely selling maps they obtained legitimately in the town, there is obviously something else going on, as has been revealed in one of the map threads.

if you do feel the need to provide us with another update and new features, please, please aim them at the higher levels, rather than burdening the lower levels with yet more hand-wringing decisions as to which of the umpteen machines available at each new new to buy. They are drowning in challenges, yet we, your most loyal customers, have nothing to strive for, certainly not the prizes offered in this latest global challenge, nor 5 measly diamonds. Sure, there will be cries of, " there was nothing for the lower levels", but they have ample machines for which to save and buy, but it's been forever since I couldn't purchase each new machine and achieve the appropriate production levels immediately upon release.

Thanks for listening.
January 9th, 2015
pilothaggard

I, too, appreciate Nick's appearance and comments. A couple of things:

(1) As I've said here and elsewhere, I'm done participating in these "global" events unless its readily apparent (a) there's a shot at achieving them and (2) the rewards are interesting enough to get me to fork over the items requested by the event. I use Tom 24/7 so I'm spending real dollars on this game, and I'm no longer lending him to lopsided events with no chance of a real reward. I'm so very done with any event that comes across as lame. The truck order rewards definitely fall into the "lame" category. I finished the first level (4 orders which represent a number of goods produced), went to see what the global info looked like, only to find a sticker over the front saying I must first complete MORE levels before I can participate in the global event. Don't know who came up with this but its like pouring fuel on the fire. I'm done with the truck order event as of the appearance of the sticker.

(2) Again, I've stated it elsewhere but will repeat it here. If SC wants to continue with "global" rewards, fine. Not my game, not my rules.

However, I would very much like to see a personal "global reward". A grand prize that doesn't rely on anonymous community members of unknown numbers and unreachable goals. Talk about lopsided! What I mean is that the five awards for progress are almost always marginal at best. The global reward goals have been absurd twice in a row and about to become so again with the truck event. (That will be three strikes and we all know what happens when you get three strikes - you're OUT.)

I would like to see PERSONAL recognition for the effort. There are many, many posts reflecting that players don't feel they're getting rewarded for the time, effort and REAL MONEY they've pouring into this game. What if there were PERSONAL GRAND PRIZES for reaching an additional goal that was (A) a realistic challenge but (B) actually attainable through individual effort. Personal grand prizes like the Xmas bell, the gramophone, or the windmill, just to name a few. Rewards that are unique to the events and thus reflect an achievement when placed on the farm. (The windmill needs to be moved from the mystery package anyway. You are creating lots of anger there as well when saved coupons "always" get bugs on flowers or some other item which is cool the first few times, but stops being special after you've gotten it for the 20th time.)

Another option would be to apply a value to the number of orders/items/etc completed and then deduct that from a value (shown in advance, from the start) for the global prize. Players could then use vouchers, diamond, or coins to pay the difference and still get the global prize. The key here is to be up front about everything: Value of orders completed, cost of the prize, and how the difference would be paid.

Just a couple of suggestions. You MUST do something to correct the way this game works or you're going to go the way of Farmville. They dropped from 90 million average users month to less than 16 million. Why? (a) greed and (b) ignoring the irritation of their customer base.

Again, thank you Nick. for your comments, feedback and information.
January 9th, 2015
sabyasachi123

Quote:

Originally Posted by prasanna

I think hay day s gonna be axed, they gonna stop this game soon. Thats y they dont care about us anymore 😞😣very disappointed.

Do you have any concrete proof? If not then please refrain yourself from posting such baseless comment.
January 9th, 2015
Nick[Supercell]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GladeMaid

Thank you for coming to the fore and letting I us know you were concerned from the start, it's just a shame you didn't let us know back then that you had met to discuss the problem. That said, I understand everyone was on holiday and working on your holiday is not something any of us want to do.

Even if we are on holidays, you guys come first. That's for me a given. This time, the timing was just off. :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by GladeMaid

I would prefer that, instead of working on new design features, the team works on sorting long running problems such as the help alerts sticking and players utilising unfair practices to flood the market with maps. While I'm sure some people are genuinely selling maps they obtained legitimately in the town, there is obviously something else going on, as has been revealed in one of the map threads.

Bugs, issues etc. are never forgotten when we create something new. Sometimes some annoyances (not bugs per se) don't get fixed/tuned for the next update, but bugs have a high priority! Help alerts is one of them. I can't say for sure, but I believe it has been looked into, and could possibly be fixed in a maintenance (don't quote me on this, as I am not 100% sure). The map issue is being investigated, that I know for sure. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by GladeMaid

if you do feel the need to provide us with another update and new features, please, please aim them at the higher levels, rather than burdening the lower levels with yet more hand-wringing decisions as to which of the umpteen machines available at each new new to buy. They are drowning in challenges, yet we, your most loyal customers, have nothing to strive for, certainly not the prizes offered in this latest global challenge, nor 5 measly diamonds. Sure, there will be cries of, " there was nothing for the lower levels", but they have ample machines for which to save and buy, but it's been forever since I couldn't purchase each new machine and achieve the appropriate production levels immediately upon release.

Thanks for listening.

This is the tricky part - how to balance the new features. It's one of the more tricky things when planning features. We try to give something to everyone, but there's only so much we can cram into one update. In a perfect world, every update would have something new for each level, but that's not really feasible. :) Hay Day has so many levels, that it just wouldn't make sense. That being said, we are not done yet. Far from it. :) We are dedicated to update Hay Day with loads of new cool (and fresh) features and updates for all players. Without forgetting the high level loyal players! ;)

Cheers,

Nick
January 9th, 2015
grfields

Well said perky and glademaid.
Thanks nick last night I was ready to give up I m level 80 have no need for the "great prizes" the event offers and will not be doing the event...sorry!However your reply gives me hope that this game will move forward and provide challenge for us all ...so I continue to play.:)
January 9th, 2015
Nick[Supercell]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grfields

Well said perky and glademaid.
Thanks nick last night I was ready to give up I m level 80 have no need for the "great prizes" the event offers and will not be doing the event...sorry!However your reply gives me hope that this game will move forward and provide challenge for us all ...so I continue to play.:)

We have some really sweet ideas/plans for this year, and we just started! ;) I am super excited about all the new features, improvements to old etc. we have planned.

BTW, have you guys thought about the funny little fact that Hay Day is turning 3 years (!!!!!) old this summer? :) That's just aMOOzing!! Not too shabby if I may say so! :)

Cheers,

Nick
January 9th, 2015
snakiddy

Thank you, Nick. I am so glad you are here. I do feel so much better after reading your posts. I hope you had a nice vacation but please don't go anywhere again. Thanks. ;)
January 9th, 2015
AkPat

Nick, would you do me a favor, please?

Would you look above and read the post by "pilothaggard"?

And then, re-read it.

That is how you win back your customer base, which you are well on the way to losing.

Cheers.

Pat

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