For the love of zOMG! - more devs please [UPDATED, sad news]

More developers for zOMG?

Yes please! Dx	88.8%	[ 293 ]
Nah, I don't care about zOMG anyway. Let it die.	4.2%	[ 14 ]
Other.	7.0%	[ 23 ]
Total Votes:			[ 330 ]

[Reyla Vangis]

For the love of zOMG, please increase the developer team.
The zOMG developer team is ridiculously understaffed.
I am an avid fan of zOMG and it pains me to see it fall by the wayside. It only has two full time developers (update: no more full-time developers) and they're both artists, so there's only so much they can do. The staff can't put an ETA on anything because there's no telling how far things could be pushed back. For example, some areas that were marked for Halloween or earlier were pushed back to next year. The Buccaneer Boardwalk area is finished, even, because the artists have created it, but the actual content is yet to be added. The scripter for zOMG is a part-time developer, so a lot waits on him to get the content scripted and added.
Even today (which is now a while back; check my post time), they were trying to add several great updates, but due to a serious bug, they had to revert to the previous version of zOMG. Poor Swarf was trying to figure out the problem but it had to wait until later because he needs help.
I feel for the the devs, and I want them to have more help.
Please do something about this.
I don't want zOMG to be "just another dead feature".

Full time developers:
None. No more full-time developers as of September 2010. [ JK ] and Mavdoc used to be the only two full-time developers. Since they're artists and can only work on the art aspects, this honestly doesn't make much of a difference.

Part time zOMG developers:
[ JK ] is the art director for zOMG who also greatly interacts with the zOMG community and fanbase.
Around the 25th of September, JK will be gone for supposedly three weeks, since they're pulling him out to work on another project.
Mavdoc is the an artist who mostly makes the environments for zOMG, they are also who gave us most of the zOMG! Behind The Scenes series.
Around the 25th of September, Mav will be gone to work on another project as well.
bronstahd is a scripter, who's working on another project at the moment.
Bron is currently away, and is not working on zOMG.
swarf is the lead programmer.
flajeu is the flash developer.
mlos is the lead QA engineer.
Kuzuan is a QA engineer.
aiagreat is a programmer.
Kaia9 is a php developer.

-Developer Quotes-
>>>JK - the focus for making zOMG successful<<<
>>>Kuzuan - user base is small<<<
Looking for a flash animator
Delay of the Buccaneer Boardwalk area
About the dreaded weekend lag
Swarf needing more help
Lack of resources for vivox
More coming!

Things you can do to support zOMG---
Enlarge the zOMG Team! [PETITION]
Snail Mail Letter Campaign
Rotate servers on the weekends (petition)

Don't forget to give this thread a thumbs-up if you agree with me!
Also, several people have mentioned that all of Gaia is understaffed. My concern here is the zOMG portion of this. If you want to complain to the higher-ups about the lack of devs in general, feel free to make your own, separate topic.
--- Feel free to let me know what I can do to improve this topic, and keep it as accurate as possible. ---

[wyg]

I completely agree with this. Hopefully this will help Gaia wake up and support its, in my opinion, greatest feature. zOMG is one of the only reasons I still log on.

Think of how much greater zOMG would be with the proper funding. Less bugs, more areas, etc. You have to spend money to make money.

[Flying Dicks]

If you think the zOMG team is understaffed, consider that they have five people for all of the events AND sponsorships that we get.

That said, Gaia seems to be having the "understaffed, overworked" problem in a number of areas on their site. It kinda concerns me, cause that'll stress out and possibly burn out the employees they do have sad
So, I agree that Gaia should snag the zOMG devs some help if they can.

[Patrick Jiuliani]

I completely agree Exiled. I became so hopeful for the game when the devs began to post more and yet I find that hope dwindling as the staff and even part time staff gets slashed. Today I was so excited to see the Clan chat actually working and to hear of the other fixes and things they had done to the game but now we will have to wait even longer due to the fact that the staff does not have that perminate scripter or a programer to help fix the bug that people were running across.

[wyg]

That's true Flying. I think that Gaia needs to spend more money on staff than all those advertisements. And definitely put much more staff towards projects not involving the cash shop. xD

[CleoSombra]

As much as I would love to see the zOMG staff be bigger, who says that they're understaffed? Have you heard any of the actual developers say that they're stressed out, or do you just want more stuff faster?

No amount of threads or signatures is going to get the more zOMG developers. The only way that team is going to expand is if zOMG starts making money, which it's not doing.

I made a thread in the zOMG forum about Gaia Cash and zOMG but it got very little feedback, which leads me to believe that not a lot of people are overly excited about more cash tie-ins with zOMG. Ergo, it won't be makling money unless they do something very big.

[Universal Paradigms]

If I heard correctly... Gaia has stopped funding the project because Gaia was not satisfied with the income it was receiving.

Still... I agree. We haven't gotten an update for a couple of months (until now) because Gaia has not aided the project. ninja

[Patrick Jiuliani]

Actually yes Cleo. At the dev meetings the Devs state all the time they would love to get things done but are so understaffed, spreed thinned, and just dont have the resources at the moment to do it until Gaia gives them more help. They cant even add new contact without Bron. As for getting more money to the game yes that would help get the mainsite to give it more attention but without doing so how on earth are the devs to make something that would sell. Something like a ring takes a lot of time and effort and is not even doable at the moment without an animator to help with a ring animation.

[Flying Dicks]

iTamako

If I heard correctly... Gaia has stopped funding the project because Gaia was not satisfied with the income it was receiving.

Still... I agree. We haven't gotten an update for a couple of months (until now) because Gaia has not aided the project. ninja

Do you have a source for that statement? Not trying to be mean, just wondering, cause that'd really suck if it was true- zOMG was anticipated for so long, that it'd suck for it to be only half-done forever.

[Flying Dicks]

ShadowFlame1721

That's true Flying. I think that Gaia needs to spend more money on staff than all those advertisements. And definitely put much more staff towards projects not involving the cash shop. xD

The cash shop team is separate from the other teams though, and I think most of the people working on the CS mostly just make item art- which may or may not be a help to zOMG, it seems like they need more programmers than artists. It is a bit disappointing that the cash shop team, whoever composes it, seems to always be well-staffed though while other areas flounder and have trouble getting any attention. I remember they were looking for some guys a while ago- Maybe they just need to publicize their job offerings more, who knows?

[Reyla Vangis]

CleoSombra

As much as I would love to see the zOMG staff be bigger, who says that they're understaffed? Have you heard any of the actual developers say that they're stressed out, or do you just want more stuff faster?

No amount of threads or signatures is going to get the more zOMG developers. The only way that team is going to expand is if zOMG starts making money, which it's not doing.

I made a thread in the zOMG forum about Gaia Cash and zOMG but it got very little feedback, which leads me to believe that not a lot of people are overly excited about more cash tie-ins with zOMG. Ergo, it won't be makling money unless they do something very big.

Actually, I'm very patient.
But I've heard it from the developers themselves that things are going slower than they'd like.
Like... it seems every Dev Meeting I go to, I start to really worry... because the devs seem to be worried over it.
JK even mentioned that if they pulled him off the zOMG dev team, he thinks he'd quit working at Gaia...

Also, I agree that zOMG needs to make money. That's why me and Syko were pushing for the Cash Shop Headstart ticket for Buccaneer Boardwalk.

[Universal Paradigms]

Flying Dicks

iTamako

If I heard correctly... Gaia has stopped funding the project because Gaia was not satisfied with the income it was receiving.

Still... I agree. We haven't gotten an update for a couple of months (until now) because Gaia has not aided the project. ninja

Do you have a source for that statement? Not trying to be mean, just wondering, cause that'd really suck if it was true- zOMG was anticipated for so long, that it'd suck for it to be only half-done forever.

I guess the lack of Developers should speak for itself. And the lack of updates. And Patrick Jiuliani explained some of it. But if you want more here you go o=

Quote:

swarf

Dark_shatter_of_heaven

Well dont get me wrong but if the zOMG team is going to take all that time to update the game why stop now? In my mind I think they should have finished what they started.

We did finish the update but there were really serious problems with it. So we had to roll back to the old version for now. We need to get the problems fixed so that people can play. We're working really hard on it, don't worry.

And also:

swarf

Exiled Poet

swarf

Dark_shatter_of_heaven

Well dont get me wrong but if the zOMG team is going to take all that time to update the game why stop now? In my mind I think they should have finished what they started.

We did finish the update but there were really serious problems with it. So we had to roll back to the old version for now. We need to get the problems fixed so that people can play. We're working really hard on it, don't worry.

Aw fudge. That sucks.
But it's understandable.
I just wish I hadn't sent a clan announcement only to find that the updates still had problems... >.>;
Any idea when you can fix the problem, and get the new version back up?

I don't have an ETA. We're missing a lot of resources this week. It's kinda just me here today sad

So I'm gonna do my best to figure out what's wrong but it'll probably require more help.

[Flying Dicks]

@iTamako
I guess what I'm saying is, is there a clear statement of "zOMG is not making enough money, so we cut staff"? Because they also understaff areas which obviously make them money, like sponsorships/events, and have in the past fired staff to downsize for other reasons unbeknownst to the common folk like us.

Its easy to see they're understaffed, and easy to see they're overworked, but its not right to just say "Gaia just made them that way cause they didn't turn a profit", it could really be any number of things, even just poor management.

Not saying there's not a problem- there is.. just saying we don't for sure know the cause.

[Universal Paradigms]

Flying Dicks

@iTamako
I guess what I'm saying is, is there a clear statement of "zOMG is not making enough money, so we cut staff"? Because they also understaff areas which obviously make them money, like sponsorships/events, and have in the past fired staff to downsize for other reasons unbeknownst to the common folk like us.

Its easy to see they're understaffed, and easy to see they're overworked, but its not right to just say "Gaia just made them that way cause they didn't turn a profit", it could really be any number of things, even just poor management.

Not saying there's not a problem- there is.. just saying we don't for sure know the cause.

I guess you're right.

[wyg]

Flying Dicks

ShadowFlame1721

That's true Flying. I think that Gaia needs to spend more money on staff than all those advertisements. And definitely put much more staff towards projects not involving the cash shop. xD

The cash shop team is separate from the other teams though, and I think most of the people working on the CS mostly just make item art- which may or may not be a help to zOMG, it seems like they need more programmers than artists. It is a bit disappointing that the cash shop team, whoever composes it, seems to always be well-staffed though while other areas flounder and have trouble getting any attention. I remember they were looking for some guys a while ago- Maybe they just need to publicize their job offerings more, who knows?

I know JK has been searching for a flash animator for months. I'm having trouble finding the thread though.

And yes, I can back Patrick up on various devs saying they do not have the "resources" as they call it, to do just about everything suggested. If they had a few more programmers and animators, there's no telling what they could do.