Ask the admin (10/17/2011)

[msbossypants]

Hi guys! First ATA *shivers with excitement*

Two questions:

1. How are new features decided upon? Is it based solely on community feedback, or someone randomly having a light bulb go off who screams 'hey, guys, this could be wicked!'

2. Do you have a favorite Gaia Halloween? If so, which one and why?

[Professor Varnham]

Will Aekea ever get an event?

More robots!

[Sifen Yamishi]

Lanzer, this is a question on behalf of a friend:

Do you need to live in California to work for GAIA Online? If not, can you work long distance to do the work, etc. for you guys? Can you explain how working for you guys can be done if we can do it long distance?

And a question from me:

If I wanted to work for you guys, what degree would I need to obtain? I'm currently trying to get a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Am I making a mistake?

[Lanzer]

That was a joke. biggrin Jack does all sorts of bad deeds but whatever those are they're not to my knowledge.

Not really, there isn't any NPC on Gaia that are tamers currently

Gaians who contact us through admins, PM, and more so the Gaians who attend conventions and participate in the feedback sessions, plus actual usability testing all contribute as feedback, and of course, your comments here on ATA counts too. We check whenever we have time, in no particular order since work piles up at different times of the week.

Fractale

1: I can't help but feel a little disturbed at your comment to my question two weeks ago: “what does Jack do year round, when it's not Halloween?” You commented with “he bakes delicious pumpkin pies”. Since Jack is a pumpkin-head...creature...thing, wouldn't his baking pies of pumpkin be like killing off his own kind? And Jack is ok with this? (or does he just use chunks off his own head? Which is still pretty disturbing) O_o

2: Are there any NPC's who are secretly Moga Tamers? Before the removal of some Moga in the Mogadex in its early stages, I noticed there was a Moga Twinkle. Could Hatsya possibly be a Moga tamer, since she has a Twinkle?

3: There was a post where Fleep once said

“fleep”

and remember, Site Feedback is NOT where the majority of the feedback we consider comes from

“fleep”

This is a much better way to get quality feedback from a broader range of users -- including those who don't use forums at all. We definitely always check Site Feedback to get a pulse on what people feel, but we have tons of different ways in which we get feedback from users.

- so I'm wondering- where do the staff take the majority of their feedback from? Focus groups? Email queues? Polls? Market research? How regularly do the staff actually check Site Feedback for user suggestions and feedback?

4: Can you dish the dirt on the Ringmaster's invisibility? Is he invisible by choice, and can control whether he's visible or invisible at will? Or did he have an unfortunate run-in with a whole lotta invisible ink at some point in his life?

[Mage The Red]

Dear Lanzer,

Regarding some of the issues in zOMG!, I pose the current question.

1: Why have there been no new Devs hired to the team, lately? I’ve watched over the last 5 months as everyone in the z!F Community bought summons and amulets, trying to support the game that keeps dying because of a supposed ‘lack of interest’.

2: When will there be a supposed 'Defibrillate' for our game? We want to know, sir!

[Panagrammic]

1. We've talked about this but there are some large barriers that need to be overcome. a) it would require substantial changes to the game, both on the backend (to support FB properly) and on the front end (to make the UI fit the FB canvas). Additionally, it really doesn't seem like the type of game that would be very popular on Facebook. FB lends itself to shallow experiences that take 5-20 minutes max and don't require other people to be online at the same time; zOMG is almost the opposite of that.

2. We've been tweaking drop rates up; on the list for this week is to take a look at rarity rates and see if components are getting dropped enough. Not sure what artists' egos have to do with anything.

Kain-Senpai

1. zOMG! is an important part of the site. It is the game many users have wanted since the famed phrase “Battle System” has been said. It hasn’t received the most love on this site, and I find that appalling. My question is, would the Staff Members be willing to discuss adding zOMG! to Facebook and bring more users to the game? This may include creating a “generic” style user for the FB-Only users to play the game. My reason for asking this is, because of the popularity of Monster Galaxy on Facebook. ( I understand this question may not be a satisfying question to the zOMG! Community.)

2. While the Alchemy Feature is something worth exploring, many users shun away from it for various reasons. For me, that reason is the rarity of Components on the site. Will the components rate drop increase any time soon? I am not talking about adding more to Bid Blast. I am talking about adding them into Dumpster Dive, so users would be able to grab them and use/sell them. I can understand this may hurt the Artist’s egos, but how can users enjoy the items they make when the rarity of the components are so low.

[In Shadows You Succumb]

Lanzer

Not really, there isn't any NPC on Gaia that are tamers currently

Because you made Monster Galaxy exist in an alternate dimension and won't explain it. I'm on to you.

[PQ and Retrostacja]

I don't know who I could actually ask, but here it goes:

Does anyone know who the artist for Kiki and Friends is?

And how hard would it be for the artist to move the Roro doll to the OTHER side of an avatar as an alternate pose?

[Panagrammic]

Yeah, you pretty much need to be in the Bay Area.

We tend to hire artists and software developers more than anything else. We hire bunches of interns during the summer.

Sifen Yamishi

Lanzer, this is a question on behalf of a friend:

Do you need to live in California to work for GAIA Online? If not, can you work long distance to do the work, etc. for you guys? Can you explain how working for you guys can be done if we can do it long distance?

And a question from me:

If I wanted to work for you guys, what degree would I need to obtain? I'm currently trying to get a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Am I making a mistake?

[Nekoofdeath]

Hi Lanzer!

Is the new full EI Prince of the Sea going to be as full of poses as the great EI's of the old exciting Fridays, or is it going to have less evolutions like the Antique Shop?

[xBetelgeuse]

@Pan:

Y U NO RELEASE MOAR PAN SD DOLLS?

@Lanzer:

Regarding zOMG!, what is planned (if anything) after the bucanner boardwalk is finished?

if you can't tell us that, can you tell us whats going on with dead mans shadow?

[Lanzer]

Event wouldn't start until closer to Halloween, and there will be trick or treating once again in Towns.

The true purpose is meant for Gaians to find out, so I can't ruin the surprise for everyone. :O

Dog costume, hot dog costume, chef costume.

Crystal Sparda

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I saw Real Steel and thought it was total badassery!
Having Hugh Jackman in it didn't hurt. ;D

Can't wait for the event to begin!
Speaking of which, when is the event expected to begin?
Very soon, considering towns will be changing soon?

Will the true purpose behind the alchemy keys be released soon?
Any semi-vague estimate of time frame for when?

Any estimate as to how long Spring Cleaning will last this year?
Like, when is the proposals forum going to close and proposals be accepted?

Question for any/all devs/admins out there:
If you could combine three costumes for Halloween, what would you be?
Ex: Zombie Pirate Superman, devil banana ballerina, etc.

How are sponsor items created?
Does the brand tell you to make X item, or do they just
hire you to advertise and you guys just do everything else?

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[Panagrammic]

I think we're close down the proposals forum this week, and then start knocking off bugs.

Crystal Sparda

Any estimate as to how long Spring Cleaning will last this year?
Like, when is the proposals forum going to close and proposals be accepted?

[The Undead Suitor]

In Shadows You Succumb

Lanzer

Not really, there isn't any NPC on Gaia that are tamers currently

Because you made Monster Galaxy exist in an alternate dimension and won't explain it. I'm onto you.

Monster Galaxy, like zOMG, is one of those things where the base of the entire game would change the entire site's plot and landscape.

Characters wouldn't be doing what they're doing if they were neck deep in tameable creatures. Same with animated.