25th April 2024, 11:13 AM
JV and the Games Community Feedback
Over the last couple weeks, there has been some obvious discontent with players both towards the game and the staff member. As a CA, it was part of my responsibility to acknowledge said discontent and try to be the message bearer to improve and provide happiness.
That being said, I went around and asked different community members (mainly the most active ones) on their feedback towards JV/The Games, concerns, and issues with staff members. If I did not ask for your perspective, I deeply apologize, you may wish to include whatever thoughts as a reply to this thread. I sent both a summary and the raw (anonymous) messages to the admin team @bls1999 @Eternal @Dangevin for their response.
I think an important part of this though is open communication and transparency. Yes, I can relay messages back and forth all we want and if you ever have something you want to say but cant say it directly to a staff member feel free to come to me. However, I'd like to open this for public discussion.
Thus, see below a summary of the community perspectives, their issues with the games/staff, and the staff response.
Community Feedback Summary
Game Concerns and Updates:
- Negativity in Forums: Users are troubled by the negativity and some bordering on harassment, suggesting a need for moderation against non-constructive criticism.
- Split Views on Game State: There is a division in the community:
- Some praise features like teleport blocks and desire more innovations.
- Others call for foundational changes, such as new game modes and creative block types like elevators.
- Feature Requests:
- Strong demand for incorporating "PR3's superior level editor" into PR2.
- Requests for customization options like color-changing blocks and interactive blocks to introduce new gameplay mechanics.
- Desire for new content such as music, hats, and user-generated stickers and backgrounds.
- AI Opponents: A notable push for adding AI opponents in maps to provide a more dynamic and challenging gameplay experience.
Staff Feedback:
- Performance Views:
- Some acknowledge the staff's efforts under limited resources.
- Others critique the minimal support and slow updates, fearing the game might stagnate.
- Development Community Involvement: There is a strong call for opening up the game’s development to the community to rejuvenate its development.
- Transparency and Communication: High frustration regarding poor communication from administrators, with a demand for more transparency and quicker community feedback responses.
- Event Engagement: Suggestions to reduce barriers for contest entries and to host more live events to enhance community engagement.
Administrator Response to Perspectives
- Acknowledgment of Issues: The administrators recognize the feedback and the need to address community concerns effectively.
- Resource Constraints: They discuss limitations due to PR2 being in "legacy support," meaning not many groundbreaking changes are planned.
- Community Involvement: Responses suggest openness to community suggestions that align with the current game infrastructure and do not require major overhauls.
- Communication Efforts: There's an admission of lacking in communication and a commitment to improve interaction with the community.
- Future of PR2:
- Eternal mentions that PR2 will never return to its "glory days" and is now more about maintaining and supporting nostalgia.
- Bls mentions difficulties in sharing PR2 client code as per Jiggmin’s stipulation but encourages community contributions to the server code.
- Admin Challenges: Admins discuss their personal commitments outside of PR2, which affect their availability and response times to community issues.
Quotes from Discussions:
"I feel like there are some people that are a little bit pessimistic/negative/toxic in the forums, not mentioning names. They're not doing anything against ToS or anything but I believe that there should be taught the difference between constructive criticism and bullying/harassment." - Community Feedback
"The lack of updates might be killing what little there is left of the pr2 community." - Community Feedback
"The current administration feels like a bit of a skeleton crew. It feels like it is rather just do enough to keep the game running, or give up on it. So I am excited that the game is even still going and happy for everything the admins do." - Community Feedback
"I can understand this perspective, as I was once the one critical of Jiggmin for not doing more for the community." - Bls
"We aren't pushing new content on a regular schedule. We aren't making ground-breaking changes..." - Bls
"Communication has definitely been lacking from me, and I regret that that has been the case." - Bls
"AT THE END OF THE DAY. PR2 will NEVER see it's glory days again. It's the unfortunate hard truth that has to be stated. Flash games and web-games in general are experiencing similar fates. Kongregate is a prime example." - Eternal
"If you have a good idea for a contest, pitch it in CaM. Stay persistent. I can guarantee we answer every and all CaM threads." - Eternal
"I would simply ask that if we haven't responded in a few days to a thread you made in CAM that you simply bump your post. We promise that we'll get back to it eventually." - Dangevin
"If you have a question about something you can always DM me or ping me on the JV server." - Dangevin
Closing Remarks
Please feel free to continue the open discussion below.