OGame.Origin

Quoted

Gameforge:

Is this meeting only busywork and why is it held? Will there further meetings?

I consider it part of my job to hold meetings with the community from time to time, so this will definitely happen more often. Needless to say that I cannot reveal all our plans in the course of this event, but I will try to answer your questions as far as possible. I hope to present you some new information and do want this to be considered busywork.

In the future these meetings will take place approximately once every quarter unless there is a special need (for example a major update). This is part of my new tasks after the structural changes have been completed, which I greatly appreciate.

Does the GF recognize mistakes regarding communication or would they do it the same way again? Will there be a change of thinking in customers relations?

We are happy with the development even if it should have happened faster and has to in the future. For example the redesign took much more time than we had planned for it. In regards of customer service we are trying to present ourselves faster and more open and I consider us to be on the right track.

We try our very best to provide our community with all the necessary information. If you have any suggestions on how to improve this, feel free to contact us. Thanks to the restructuring the community managers have to look after less communities and now do have the time to take care of it.

How about the developer capacities avaiable for OGame?

We have between 1 and 3 developer working on Ogame for quite a while now. A newly completed restructuring also helps them to focus more on the game. This also applies for other departments which can now concentrate more on the product 'OGame'. I, for example, now represent all OGame communities towards our project management.

In the past there were also around 1 to 4 developers working on OGame, but those were not able to concentrate since they also had to take care of other projects at the same time. This has been fixed now and the new structures have been established for about one month. If necessary we will of course also hire new developers for OGame, we are also generally looking for new staff members in the game development field. The direction of the future development will be discussed by the entire product team. While the team leader will of course have the final word but he relies on our valuations.

Was the criticisms about the innovations (redesign, battlecruisers, officers) not listened to? How important is constructive criticism for the team and the Gameforge AG? Is it appreciated at all?

Of course we are reading and considering criticism found on the board or forwarded to us through the team, but we also have to hear both sides. Sadly especially positive comments are often butchered by other users.

Constructive criticism is always very important for us even though these threads often space out. We take those into consideration but also have to keep our plan for OGame in mind.

We have a very distinguished plan for the future development of OGame, which of course also includes economical aspects. Nevertheless we also pay attention to the suggestions and ideas of our users and integrate those into our plans as well. In the future players will be able to influence the development more directly through the origin project, which will be announced separately. This will offer dedicated and interested users to exchange and forward their ideas.

The decision not to fully integrate all the features of the redesign into the old universes is fixed for now but will be discussed again in the near future.

There is only one way to find all the constructive criticism in the forums: read everything. This is why we do not have to time to comment on every aspect of every single thread separately. Furthermore there will be other ways to forward criticism in the near future, for example the origin project or our new test server.

Why is there no television advertisement? Will there be another change of the advertising strategy?

At the moment we mostly concentrate on digital advertisements through websites and emails. But the use of other ways is also possible un the future, we are currently reviewing corresponding offers.

As mentioned television advertisement is not ruled out yet, given that there is an according offer. In addition to that we are also using other advertisement mediums (for example the cable car in Karlsruhe and banners at the Karlsruhe train station) and are currently considering merchandising (cups, shirts, etc.) as well. Furthermore we are thinking about using social networks like facebook and twitter to provide information for our users. YouTube and MyVideo channels are possible as well.

What does the Gameforge AG think about the user count? Can we expect new players soon?

We always keep an eye on the number of users but we are expecting things to lighten up soon. This will become more obvious once we have finished our current developments and are able to win some new players over.

Of course it is our goal to increase the number of players again (let's say by around 50%). But even if several changed won't lead to the solution of the problem we will not turn around but keep going until out goals are met. There may also be some new features before we start working on this problem but that is only because our developers are working on more than one matter at a time. Since stopping the loss of users will take some time it would not be the best idea to delay new developments for that long.

We cannot refill the old universes with only a new feature or advertisements. We will need ways to put the players from the different universes together.

How much money does the Gameforge AG make out of the dark matter? Are the actual prices justified?

We do not generally talk about our revenue. If we would not consider prices as justified we would change them.

Is OGame already over the hill or is there still hope? Will Ogame be closed down if it is no longer profitable?

We have been working for quite a while to get OGame ready for the future, for example by making the expencive redesign, and we will keep working on further developments. There is no way OGame will be closed down, quite on the contrary: We are currently working on new features that will make OGame once again more attractive to new players.

The Gameforge AG started out with OGame and will never forget this even if the game operates in the red. As far as the new features are concerned it might be useful to read these answers carefully. There are definately one or two hidden hints.

It is correct that we withdrew our games from Asia but that because of the political situation in those countries and had nothing to do with our games. Concerning the removal of long time inactive accounts I have been thinking about solving this by using dark matter coupons. So far nothing is decided though.

Are we proud of OGame as a whole?

OGame as a whole is hard to estimate because it is still in development today. But of course we are proud of OGame and will be even more after the next developments.

As said before we are proud of the current status of development of OGame from our perspective. The latest restructuring affected the entire company which is why they took a while.

Quoted

Future Development:

Why is the further development of Ogame currently kept secret and when will it be exposed? Will Ogame further be invested in?

At this point we don't want to reveal too much because ideas and features can change during the progress of development. It would not make much sense if the community discussed about things that haven't been fully developed yet.

Furthermore we will start to pay attention to ideas concerning the redesign, which we didn't accept before; for this the suggestions area will play an important role once again.

We are planning to involve the community a lot more. Later on there will be more information concerning this topic.

Beside combatting against empty universes and new features we are definetly planning to remove existing bugs. Of course we haven't forgotten about this.

Why have the priorities changed (features before decrease of users)? Why new universes instead of further development?

The development of combatting the decrease of users will definitely take some time (no, not as long as the redesign). Introducing no reforms at all during this period of time would only make the situation worse or rather offend the community further. We initially removed some bugs because of this and will continue to do so, as well as working on features. With more than one developer it is quite possible to work parallel.

New universes have nearly nothing to do with the development and don't influence it. They will be opened as soon as there is more need for space.

Will there be further changes in balancing (e.g. new ships, research, notations)? Will you do more for the active gameplay or will the miner direction continue?

With the redesign we mainly changed OGame's outward appearance as well as countless small alterations and additions. Now, in the process of developing, we surely will work on the game itself. There definitely is room for alterations of existing or completed reforms. We will be very open to this topic, especially concerning the suggestions area.

We will also do something for the more active gameplay (or fleet players). For example: one point we are discussing about at the moment is the relation of stars on the overall view or the moon.

There have been a lot of interesting features in the past which were short-lived. Maybe we will revive some of them.

If we introduce the 'full RD' in the old universes, it will of course contain ALL alterations. Even the altered notations for deuterium production. Possibilities for older things could be for example the scrap merchant, we are open to ideas concerning these.

Are you thinking about abolishing the noob protection?

No.

It is quite possible that we will adjust the noob protection at some time to make it 'friendlier' for beginners.

Will there be new (payment-)features? Will there be changes on the current payment/premium (merchants/officiers)?

I cannot say much about this right now, but there will be changes in this area. However, these will mainly concern simplification or adjustment. Things like buying raw materials still won't exist.

Will new ideas of the community be realized? Why hasn't this happened already?

Some small idead have been involved during the process of development as well as countless suggestions for improvement. There will be more about this topic later on.

We are especially paying attention to tools concerning OGame and use them sometimes to come up with new and interesting ideas. Of course we are eager to incorporate some of these possibilities themselves

Why are threads and actions (ideas, petitions) concerning the decrease of users being ignored?

These threads are definitely recognised but we are pursuing our own concepts (in which we partly work in ideas of the community). Just because we don't take part actively in some of the threads doesn't mean we ignore them.

This doesn't mean that we refuse the fusion or similar possibilities. The petition, mothership-ideas and other suggestions are taken into account but their realization is not yet ready for publication. Still we would like to reduce the number of universes or reduce them to a level where there are enough active players in every universe.

Now that the RD is completely online we will reconsider old ideas which have been rejected beforehand and see if they are reasonable. It is possible that some of them will be realized too.

Will the home page be revised?

Not at the moment. Of course it could happen, if we discover a more elegant concept. Small changes are always possible.

Should there be better concepts, we are open to them. We are keen to look ar the team site again, maybe it can be divided in a better fitting way. There will not be two parallel versions of the home page.

Will the performance be further improved ? Will it be possible to play fluently with IE & FF?


f we discover any problemes concerning the performance, we will work on them. Of course, different browsers react differently to the given code. A good example for this is Chrome, which we do not support officially (like IE or FF), but which can handle OGame faster.

FF4, which is currently under development, will make a big step forward and because of some changes it will be faster, similar to how Chrome is now. I can't say much about IE right now but the upcoming version should be faster as well.

Will 'real' skins be supported again some time?

Currently there are no plans for this. Still it is possible that this point will be reconsidered. I am very happy myself about how creative some players have been in relation to there own styles via addons (stylish) and what can be possibly done because of this.

Furthermore, tools like the Chrome addon 'Cogame' offer the possibility to set skin paths.

Will there be universes with more possible players?

Right now the limit of players is relatively settled, since the free planets would run out, i there are too many players in one universe. Increasing the amount of players would therefore only cause bigger problemes.

The amount of players currently orientates itself towards the available space in the corresponding universe. If too many players just had no more free planet to colonize, there would be a problem.

Will it be possible to move a planet?

This concept has already been succesfully tested in another GF-game (Ikariam). It is quite possible that we will introduce it in OGame.

A move of planets surely would have to be restricted. On the one hand to ensure that players do not move daily, but also to give targets a chance and not positioning the fleet directly next to them. This is a premium feature in Ikariam.

Will there be artificial enemies?

These already exist on expeditions. There are no more plans in this direction.

It is also not planned to generate artificial players for empty universes

Quoted

Other:

Now that everything else is done, I'd like to talk about two other topics:

Test universe:

As mentioned before we would like to include the community a little more into the development of OGame. As a first step we will soon start a new test universe which we will mainly use to test changes on the balancing. Of course we will consider your feedback to fix mistakes and include your suggestions.

More information about the test universe will follow within the next days. It will probably be 4x speed and in English language. The game speed might be changed from time to time, there may also be resets (even if you have premium features). The rules will be a little less strict, small scale multiaccounting won't be a problem, insults however will be. The old test universe 670 will be deleted.

OGame-Origins project

A few weeks ago we, in cooperation with all international teams, started a small project called 'OGame-Origin'. Though originally only planned for collecting and discussing ideas of the community, the project has blossomed out to be a place for collecting, developing and exchanging ideas, skins, tools, bugs and FAQs. Its foremost goal is to bundle all available information and finally present it to all players in form of lists of allowed tools & skins, extended FAQs or tutorials or the passing on and discussion of ideas.

This project wil soonl be opened to interested players, according information will follow. Of course the players will have the choice to either just look arround or even contribute directly. This is another step foreward to working closer and more effectively with the community and preventing the loss of important information.


The link to this project will follow soon; currently there isn't much to see, since we are still building up the public areas. If you have real interests in working ate the project, you can sign up there. One of the main goals is to collect and pass on information from and - more importantly - for the communities.