I knew you ******** us on the wings... UPDATED

[Jayce Reinhardt]

biglanky14

Hi everyone,

I know that we're being a bit vague about our plans at the moment, and that can be frustrating. But we're also doing that intentionally, not because we're not working on it, but because we as a company have been pretty bad in the past about promising stuff and then not delivering. That's something I want to avoid as much as possible because that just sets everyone up for disappointment.

Alchemy was a very ambitious feature, and it's extremely complex. Changing something in one place can cause major ripple effects elsewhere, which is why we're being very careful with our changes. But as Peppertea mentioned, we're focusing our efforts right now on making it easier to get started. Now, "easier" is a subjective word, but we're starting by looking at the early formulas and which components supply/price is out of whack with what you get out of it, and then adjusting them - basically trying to balance it out much better (which will have to be an ongoing process since the marketplace is dynamic). We'll see how those changes affect the system, and then make more based on what we're seeing, as opposed to making sweeping changes all at once and likely making everyone completely upset with unintended consequences.

None of this may make you feel better about Alchemy or where it's going, but hopefully it at least gives you a little more detail on what we're doing - and that we're actually working on it.

Biglanky

Can I ask why proposed changes and suggestions in the Alchemy suggestion thread were not taken more seriously days after after Alchemy was introduced on Thu Aug 18, 2011?

Why did we have a staff member (Pepper Tea) outright tell us no changes at all would be made to alchemy recipes in a thread designed to garner user opinion about alchemy on Sat Aug 27, 2011? Nine days later and everyone was working on alchemy already is very difficult to swallow. What exactly is the point of asking user opinion and suggestion if the staff is unwilling to hear any of it?

Now, six months later we are here at this point. . . . . With user concerns/issues once again being minimized or just outright ignored.

This whole system has nothing at all to do with hard work. Hard work is when I quested for four years to earn a rose corsage. Noone would have a problem if it actually was a lot of work but the fact is, that it is not work at all.

Alchemy is a luck based system and if you have no luck, you have to BUY what you need.

Why does Gaia willfully alienate its users?

[O.T.L.]

Shintouyu

Gundamu

MistressMinako

Gundamu

That much?! Really? For a recolor of a gold shop item? Something that maybe should have been release in the gold shops to begin with?

Well you see, it was hard to make

I see. Those Tsunami K.O. recolors must have been a b***h to make...

Those abs are too perfect.
The answer is that they clearly give you ORGANIC JETPACKS.

Anybody who gets this reference gets a cookie.

I got the reference! ( heart Dr. McNinja!)

[O.T.L.]

biglanky14

I know that we're being a bit vague about our plans at the moment, and that can be frustrating. But we're also doing that intentionally, not because we're not working on it, but because we as a company have been pretty bad in the past about promising stuff and then not delivering. That's something I want to avoid as much as possible because that just sets everyone up for disappointment.

Kinda like when we were promised backwings would be available to all users (with hard work) via the Quest system, and instead we got... this monstrosity. (Sorry, I know you may be trying to work on Gaia's reputation on that front, but the entire backwings situation is one that's going to stick in many a user's craw - mine included - for quite some time, methinks...)

[biglanky14]

The Undead Suitor

biglanky14

Hi everyone,

I know that we're being a bit vague about our plans at the moment, and that can be frustrating. But we're also doing that intentionally, not because we're not working on it, but because we as a company have been pretty bad in the past about promising stuff and then not delivering. That's something I want to avoid as much as possible because that just sets everyone up for disappointment.

Alchemy was a very ambitious feature, and it's extremely complex. Changing something in one place can cause major ripple effects elsewhere, which is why we're being very careful with our changes. But as Peppertea mentioned, we're focusing our efforts right now on making it easier to get started. Now, "easier" is a subjective word, but we're starting by looking at the early formulas and which components supply/price is out of whack with what you get out of it, and then adjusting them - basically trying to balance it out much better (which will have to be an ongoing process since the marketplace is dynamic). We'll see how those changes affect the system, and then make more based on what we're seeing, as opposed to making sweeping changes all at once and likely making everyone completely upset with unintended consequences.

None of this may make you feel better about Alchemy or where it's going, but hopefully it at least gives you a little more detail on what we're doing - and that we're actually working on it.

I think the biggest issue here is that, everything you and pepper-tea have said you are doing to fix alchemy,

which I have to point out only happened because we harped on you guys for 5 months and forced you to finally have a whole meeting to talk about it,



is the same stuff that the devs have been saying they're doing to fix alchemy since the beginning



so basically, we've fought to convince you to do nothing new

Hi Undead,

Good to see you again (with the couple year absence). And sorry for the delay - I'm in and out of meetings this afternoon.

Again honestly, I personally don't know about what's happened in that regard over the past year because I've only been back for the past few months. And if we've been saying this without doing anything, then that's a completely valid point and I apologize, and totally understand your skepticism. Hopefully we can start undoing that a little bit now.

[Calelith]

Narumi Misuhara

Official statement.

The data we reviewed was very very detailed, but no I'd rather the specifics that we were looking at not be released at this time.

Not to sound like an a*****e or anything, but seriously? That's all you have to ******** say about everything we've all been complaining about for the whole time alchemy has been out?

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

[Jayce Reinhardt]

Calelith

Narumi Misuhara

Official statement.

The data we reviewed was very very detailed, but no I'd rather the specifics that we were looking at not be released at this time.

Not to sound like an a*****e or anything, but seriously? That's all you have to ******** say about everything we've all been complaining about for the whole time alchemy has been out?

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

Naru has nothing to do with Alchemy and is only trying to keep us informed.

I would appreciate if you didn't drive away one of the only staff members willing to even speak with us.

I get your mad, you should be, but be mad at the right people.

[Calelith]

Jayce Reinhardt

Calelith

Narumi Misuhara

Official statement.

The data we reviewed was very very detailed, but no I'd rather the specifics that we were looking at not be released at this time.

Not to sound like an a*****e or anything, but seriously? That's all you have to ******** say about everything we've all been complaining about for the whole time alchemy has been out?

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

Naru has nothing to do with Alchemy and is only trying to keep us informed.

I would appreciate if you didn't drive away one of the only staff members willing to even speak with us.

I get your mad, you should be, but be mad at the right people.

..So wait, it's fine for other people to question Naru and make blanket statements to him, but I cannot because I might drive away a staff member who is speaking to us? That makes total sense.

I'm aware Naru has nothing to do with Alchemy, but considering the fact that Naru is pretty much the only one talking to us, aside from biglanky14 (who just started posting), and he is pretty much now the go between, I think my post was to the right person.

Then again, it's not like I can post in the sticky and actually direct my post to the person it SHOULD go to.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

[Jayce Reinhardt]

Calelith

Jayce Reinhardt

Calelith

Narumi Misuhara

Official statement.

The data we reviewed was very very detailed, but no I'd rather the specifics that we were looking at not be released at this time.

Not to sound like an a*****e or anything, but seriously? That's all you have to ******** say about everything we've all been complaining about for the whole time alchemy has been out?

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

Naru has nothing to do with Alchemy and is only trying to keep us informed.

I would appreciate if you didn't drive away one of the only staff members willing to even speak with us.

I get your mad, you should be, but be mad at the right people.

..So wait, it's fine for other people to question Naru and make blanket statements to him, but I cannot because I might drive away a staff member who is speaking to us? That makes total sense.

I'm aware Naru has nothing to do with Alchemy, but considering the fact that Naru is pretty much the only one talking to us, aside from biglanky14 (who just started posting), and he is pretty much now the go between, I think my post was to the right person.

Then again, it's not like I can post in the sticky and actually direct my post to the person it SHOULD go to.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

Killing the messenger won't do diddly squat.

Anything that starts "not to sound like an a*****e but" usually is clear that the person intends to.

What the ******** do you expect Naru to say?

[Calelith]

Jayce Reinhardt

Calelith

Jayce Reinhardt

Calelith

Narumi Misuhara

Official statement.

The data we reviewed was very very detailed, but no I'd rather the specifics that we were looking at not be released at this time.

Not to sound like an a*****e or anything, but seriously? That's all you have to ******** say about everything we've all been complaining about for the whole time alchemy has been out?

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

Naru has nothing to do with Alchemy and is only trying to keep us informed.

I would appreciate if you didn't drive away one of the only staff members willing to even speak with us.

I get your mad, you should be, but be mad at the right people.

..So wait, it's fine for other people to question Naru and make blanket statements to him, but I cannot because I might drive away a staff member who is speaking to us? That makes total sense.

I'm aware Naru has nothing to do with Alchemy, but considering the fact that Naru is pretty much the only one talking to us, aside from biglanky14 (who just started posting), and he is pretty much now the go between, I think my post was to the right person.

Then again, it's not like I can post in the sticky and actually direct my post to the person it SHOULD go to.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

Killing the messenger won't do diddly squat.

Anything that starts "not to sound like an a*****e but" usually is clear that the person intends to.

What the ******** do you expect Naru to say?

Doesn't change the fact that Naru is the messenger and being so gets to hear/read the good and bad feedback when posting a link that basically tells everyone that we're at fault and minimizes our complaints.

I wasn't trying to sound like an a*****e, but I knew it would probably come out as such which is why I started my post the way I did.

Maybe actually tell us why we're now to blame for the failures of alchemy and why it's taken them over half a year to finally make changes to the system when they originally told us...there would be no changes.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

[Jayce Reinhardt]

Calelith

Doesn't change the fact that Naru is the messenger and being so gets to hear/read the good and bad feedback when posting a link that basically tells everyone that we're at fault and minimizes our complaints.

I wasn't trying to sound like an a*****e, but I knew it would probably come out as such which is why I started my post the way I did.

Maybe actually tell us why we're now to blame for the failures of alchemy and why it's taken them over half a year to finally make changes to the system when they originally told us...there would be no changes.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

Pepper Tea blamed us though, not Naru.

All I'm saying is that if we want to continue to enjoy actually being in the know, you might not want to attack Naru.

[Calelith]

Jayce Reinhardt

Calelith

Doesn't change the fact that Naru is the messenger and being so gets to hear/read the good and bad feedback when posting a link that basically tells everyone that we're at fault and minimizes our complaints.

I wasn't trying to sound like an a*****e, but I knew it would probably come out as such which is why I started my post the way I did.

Maybe actually tell us why we're now to blame for the failures of alchemy and why it's taken them over half a year to finally make changes to the system when they originally told us...there would be no changes.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

Pepper Tea blamed us though, not Naru.

All I'm saying is that if we want to continue to enjoy actually being in the know, you might not want to attack Naru.

Where did I ever say Naru blamed us?

Naru posted the link to the post by Pepper Tea. Considering the fact that Pepper Tea's post is a sticky you cannot reply back to it (which is probably why s/he did it that way). Naru is the messenger, so he's going to get negative feedback from posting the link.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

[Jayce Reinhardt]

Calelith

Jayce Reinhardt

Calelith

Doesn't change the fact that Naru is the messenger and being so gets to hear/read the good and bad feedback when posting a link that basically tells everyone that we're at fault and minimizes our complaints.

I wasn't trying to sound like an a*****e, but I knew it would probably come out as such which is why I started my post the way I did.

Maybe actually tell us why we're now to blame for the failures of alchemy and why it's taken them over half a year to finally make changes to the system when they originally told us...there would be no changes.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

Pepper Tea blamed us though, not Naru.

All I'm saying is that if we want to continue to enjoy actually being in the know, you might not want to attack Naru.

Where did I ever say Naru blamed us?

Naru posted the link to the post by Pepper Tea. Considering the fact that Pepper Tea's post is a sticky you cannot reply back to it (which is probably why s/he did it that way). Naru is the messenger, so he's going to get negative feedback from posting the link.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

And I don't think that's right.

Just because Naru provided us info, doesn't mean he has to stand there and have people attack him.

As I said, I know you are mad and you have a legit reason to be but attacking anyone who works at Gaia doesn't give the right impression.

[Calelith]

Jayce Reinhardt

As I said, I know you are mad and you have a legit reason to be but attacking anyone who works at Gaia doesn't give the right impression.

Wait, what?

...I really don't even know what to say back to that.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

[Jayce Reinhardt]

Calelith

Jayce Reinhardt

As I said, I know you are mad and you have a legit reason to be but attacking anyone who works at Gaia doesn't give the right impression.

Wait, what?

...I really don't even know what to say back to that.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

Do you want them to take us seriously or do you want them to think we are just irate irrational bastards who will attack and demean staff members just to b***h about something?

[Calelith]

Jayce Reinhardt

Calelith

Jayce Reinhardt

As I said, I know you are mad and you have a legit reason to be but attacking anyone who works at Gaia doesn't give the right impression.

Wait, what?

...I really don't even know what to say back to that.

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."

Do you want them to take us seriously or do you want them to think we are just irate irrational bastards who will attack and demean staff members just to b***h about something?

Judging by Pepper Tea's post, they already see us as people who will attack and demean staff members just so we can b***h about something...

"There is nothing to fear when you have nothing to lose."