GenCon Discussion

[Thore_Ironrock]

Now, if Kevin and the guys from fantasygrounds were doing that all gencon, I assure you all, they were pretty beat after that. I commend his outstanding patients and ambitious attitude after 4 days of demos. Thanks man, I cant wait to get my group started.

Thanks Axe! While a part of me (always) wishes that Gen Con would never end, my knees were glad it was only 4 days. I think I demo-ed FG more on Sunday than any other day, and the exhibit hall is actually open two less hours. Everyone we talked to about the software was completely impressed with what they saw, especially when it came to the dice and the fog of war.

Well ... there was one guy that turned up his nose and uttered a few unkind words at FG, but only because he couldn't run it on his four year old MAC.

Thanks again Axe. Look for more Arcana Evolved stuff very soon ... and a big announcement in a related genre in the next month.

[Auly]

It was good seeing and talking to the Digital Adventures and the Smiteworks guys at Gen Con. Bought a full copy of FG there and the full SRD cd. Now I can't wait to get into a game.

Take Care
Auly

[Azrael Nightstar]

Gotta say it's really nice to see a thread that was quickly degenerating into a flamewar turn into a welcome of new users For those of you reading this and new to the boards, let me assure you the frustration level all around is WAY out of whack

Speaking of frustration (not to get back into that mode, though) I think that's really what we're seeing there. A lot of the community is frustrated with the lack of updates, after 4 days of GenCon Thore was frustrated with the "when's 2.0?" routine, etc. Everyone's doing their best, but let's face it, when you have a vested interest in anything you want to get your nose into it as much as possible, and it's frustrating all around not to know EXACTLY what's going on, no matter how infeasible that may be.

I myself am a bit frustrated with the lack of updates, especially as someone who spends most of my time on the boards on helping out with support. But at the same time, I'm confident that the reason we don't hear an update from Smite that might take only 15 minutes to give us is that the devs would rather spend those 15 minutes getting that much closer to release, or perhaps meant to write one right after lunch, but lost track of time finishing the area of code they're working on and didn't get to it (or lunch for that matter, which I can relate to, and I'm sure I'm not the only one).

I also thought Thore's post sounded a bit condescending, but again, understood. I figured that was the least of his intentions, and that the stress factor probably played into the unintended tone (and going to a 4-day con will stress you enough, forget working one).

When several people's frustrations come to a head at once and stress and misunderstandings get tossed in the mix... there ya go. But, it sounds like we're due an update this week, and that ought to alleviate a lot of the user-end frustration. I'm also really hoping that we'll see more consistancy in community updates; again, we're really not looking for much, maybe a weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly "we worked on the combat system and got it about halfway done, should be moving on to the chat system by a week from now". I think that'd be manageable, and would be plenty to keep the board from any hints of despair. Even if it was "we can't tell you what we worked on this week, but made a lot of progress".

The bottom line is really that everyone wants to know what's up because we love the program and are really looking forward to the upgrade. Everyone here wants the best for FG, whether user, developer or partner, and we need to bear that in mind when things get a bit frustrating. We all have different roles in the program's success, but the goal is the same. Try to keep that in mind, because better communication is in everyone's best interest, and will get us all where we want to get quickest, easiest, and with the least stress all around.

The FG community is by far the most helpful, civil, and intelligent online community I've ever been a part of, so... well done everyone. I'm not much for group hugs, but high-fives all around And thanks to the devs and partners for their great products, to the resident gurus for their help and hard work, and to the rest of you for making this board interesting.

Oh, and I just can't resist...

Well ... there was one guy that turned up his nose and uttered a few unkind words at FG, but only because he couldn't run it on his four year old MAC.

What, no one was upset it wouldn't run on their cell phone?

[Larac]

Was searching for that update from a few weeks ago, I seem to not be able to find it.

The one covering the release of the new FG patch.

Can someone direct me to it.

Thanks
Lee

[Larac]

Glad to know how wrong I am.

Thanks for telling me.

Lee

You couldn't be more wrong.




Again, you could not be more wrong. I really don't understand why everone has to dip paranoia into all this.




From everything that Tero has told me, much of what they want to do will mean a redesign of a large part of FG. This often happens when a program evolves like FG has. I trust Tero and his dev team to do what is right; and anyone that has met and talked to him would feel the same way. I realize you have only my comments on this, but I'm sure others will chime in as well.




I have been told there will be no pay upgrades for the new version. That is what we told everyone the entire weekend.




Tero has told me that the way adventures work will not change. However, rulesets will to some extent. The good news is that SW will put out a comprehensive FAQ on what will need to be done if you have your own ruleset, and my team of developers will also be available to help out.

I hope that answers some of your questions.