Advice from the CEO

[TheJudgedClan]

What needed to be beta tested that is not working?

1. PBT is still bugged.
2. Player reaction? - Part of beta testing is getting feedback from your loyal players. If they had allowed actual players to comment on intended changes, then some of this nonsense may have been avoided.

To those of you who like the update, great. The rest of the player base has opposite feelings. My entire clan is made up of adult players who would fall into the "casual" category. 100% of them hate the changes and are unsure if they will continue to play long-term. Every one of them at one time or another has purchased gems for Hero upgrade finishes during war.

This is the type of information they could have solicited before taking the update live. Maybe they would have altered some changes, maybe not.... but it would have at least given the player base and idea of what was coming instead of being slapped in the face with wide-sweeping changes.

[xyzzjp]

did you also graduate in the top of your class in the navy seals?

[ConvexityEffects]

It's amusing that people here are questioning whether the OP is actually a CEO, not whether the points are valid.

I'm not a CEO, but my livelihood heavily depends on software development, and tend to agree with the major points (ie their strategy was not reality-tested and ill-timed).

And I agree, there's a more-likely-than-recognized shot that the game's success thus far has been more luck than skill. Supercell has tried to over-optimize CoC to suit their vision and introduced needless complexity - which is the cardinal sin of good software (game or not).

[Freyja1]

I agree. And it seems that some people forget that there are really two types of testing. One it to test the application to make sure it is doing what it is supposed to do. The other is playtesting to see how well the game plays is the code is​ working.

We can say one thing for sure: they only gave th11 2 new troop upgrades and anyone with any sense at all would have tested the all witch attack. Our th10s do it on any idiot with both infernoes to single.
so they nerf witches , now th9& th10 have to pay for that mistake with less powerful gowiwi's.
if they didn't test witches thoroughly, what else didn't they test?

[TurmBo]

The OP is spot on, irregardless of his professional status or your disbelief. The change was too comprehensive, poorly planned in it's implementation, and has alienated a segment of it players (the percentage is unknown, but exists). Change for the sake of change is never good. The introduction of TH11 was predictable, and necessary to keep money coming in from the whales that buy their bases and upgrades. Changing the rest has only resulted in the slow of forward progress for newer players that is frustrating and will ultimately lead to their departure from the game. If you want further proof, look at what a wonderful job GREE is doing at destroying Knights and Dragons.

[ThatAsianBradah]

I'm the CEO of a substantial game development company in Vancouver, BC.

I've been in charge of the company for 12 years now, and we mostly produce PC games. I won't name the company but you've heard of it.

SC - it is clear that you broke your top game. Without discussing (too much) my amazement that you don't have a beta server that is open to players (we focus group and include every category of our players on our beta servers) who could have tested your update properly - I will say that I'm surprised that you changed as many things that you did within a single update. Do you not understand scientific method?

With Scientific Method (very applicable to game operations) you change one major element at a time and gauge the response. In this way, you can ensure that you maintain the game balance for ALL PLAYERS in all areas before you change something else.

Here, you introduce TH11 along with new hero and new defences. That is a huge update by itself. Why in the world would you also try to get rid of bots in the same update? The bot killing content was so overbroad that it destroyed the ability for TH7-9 to maintain casual gamers. That was reckless imho

But my main issue, the one that demonstrated to me that you are not a professional operation (in the sense that you must be run by inexperienced management and C-level staff) is that you made these changes in the holiday season.

Why in the world would you have made ANY change other than introducing new content (TH11) over the holidays when you KNEW you wouldn't have the staff to respond to complaints, and when you knew you wouldn't have the staff to correct issues and re-patch or revert to prior, and when you most needed to keep the community happy because all the players have extra time to play???

In my opinion, doing a major patch over the holidays and even risking user unhappiness is incompetent. A community will forgive a game developer for ruining their ability to enjoy a game for a few days or even a couple of weeks if there is COMMUNICATION about the issue, and a somewhat quick resolution to it. But once a few weeks goes by, the most disenfranchised users will find a new game to play and you will have lost them forever.

Sadly, I believe this game was balanced well, but it was luck not skill on the part of SC. The game balanced for casual players by allowing loot from dead or suspended bases that could be snipped. The cost of progress was balanced because sniping gave sufficient loot that upgrades could be made even by casual players, but they would then gem to speed the update or speed army build-time. That was unintended, but it was very lucky on the part of SC.

The game was balanced for serious gamers by the introduction of clans and wars, as well as win bonuses at high levels - not luck, but as intended by SC.

In these ways, game balance worked at both the low and high end for gamers, and SC got the Whales and small fish to pay for gems.

I would have fired (not joking) anyone who pushed this update between Thanksgiving and New Years. It never would have happened here, of course, as we would have just pushed the TH11 component, and then tested the rebalancing one patch at a time over about 3 months. But shoot, I guess that's what happens when you get a game that works because of luck and not design.

I would think a "CEO from a substantial game development company" would rather be managing their company or relaxing in a mansion with their wealthy family getting fed turkey, steak and lobster, or out enjoying the great things in life like nature, traveling, and being with other great friends and family of upper status rather than being heavily drawn to a video game and its forums.

Then again.. I suppose my idea of CEOs is for them to be "filthy casuals" 😉

[logos]

did you also graduate in the top of your class in the navy seals?

LOL good one

[hoopstime98]

It's amusing that people here are questioning whether the OP is actually a CEO, not whether the points are valid.

I'm not a CEO, but my livelihood heavily depends on software development, and tend to agree with the major points (ie their strategy was not reality-tested and ill-timed).

And I agree, there's a more-likely-than-recognized shot that the game's success thus far has been more luck than skill. Supercell has tried to over-optimize CoC to suit their vision and introduced needless complexity - which is the cardinal sin of good software (game or not).

His points are terrible and sound like someone with no real experience in business, which brings into question his assertion of CEO which he is clearly using as a way for his poor analysis to be taken seriously.

[ConvexityEffects]

I would think a "CEO from a substantial game development company" would rather be managing their company or relaxing in a mansion with their wealthy family getting fed turkey, steak and lobster, or out enjoying the great things in life like nature, traveling, and being with other great friends and family of upper status rather than being heavily drawn to a video game and its forums.

Then again.. I suppose my idea of CEOs is for them to be "filthy casuals" 😉

CEOs are just like you and me, they're nothing mythical and not above complaining on the internet.

[Zeitgeist1]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏