Over the past few years, there have been some great updates such as guilds, the friends update, the map expansion, roleplay events, quests (for the most part), presets, discoveries, and a new brewing mechanic. However there have also been some odd ones:
- Gear
- Soulshard Wars
- Reputations
- 'New Businesses'
- Woodshire
Now whatever you may think about these updates, most people should be able to agree that they were either not asked for or shrouded in too much mystery - often to their own detriment. Variety in duelling was desired but not a completely new reworked system (gear). Soulshard wars came 4th in a poll of 5 games. People wanted more repeatable content but Reputations wasn't the direction the playerbase wanted. Some people want a busier map but a new town doesn't have overwhelming excitement in the community.
^
To solve this there are a few things that should be done:
- MORE polls! Polls are great and wildly liked by the communiy and the staff team should always be encouraged to do them frequently, even on the bigger issues and updates (and also the response should be taken seriously). Sometimes, it seems that polls have been forgotten but they are still crual in running a good server.
- Continued Head Staff Q&A's and Droobletalks. The Droobletalks and Q&As are great ways for the community to get information as they are often more approachable and detailed than forum posts (though these are also very appreciated).
- Focus long-term gameplay on existing forum suggestions. When looking for an overarching direction to take the server, the first place should be to look at the current suggestions, rather than any outside ideas.
- Stick and develop an update instead of moving straight to another one and make it clear when a directional shift is taken (one of the main problems with Revelius was an abrupt switch from Professions to Gear).
- Discord announcements. More announcements should be easily viewed on the discord rather than always requiring someone to click a link. This means more players will know about planned updates.
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Finally, I'd like to suggest a new way of thinking about the server. I think that right now a trend has emerged where staff seem to be working FOR the players, rather than WITH the players. Both Reputations and Woodshire were/are largely cast into mystery with most of the playerbase, meaning the staff were/are unable to get proper feedback before it is released. This is much the same with guilds, the Revelius professions rework, the return of Quabbleball, and to some extent: gear. It has become apparent that the staff team are still wanting to have *hype*, surprise moments rather than truly working on an update with the playerbase and sharing the progress, decisions, and motives. This would indeed come at the expense of the shock factor of an update, but as a whole it would make Potterworld feel more friendly and active (it is able to do these things because of the tight-knit community that has carried the server through the past 8 years). Potterworld should always see itself as being in BETA and should never shy away from looking for suggestions when it comes to big updates, even BEFORE they are released - a great example of this would be the testing of Talents.
I do see that Potterworld has become clearer on its plans for the future (e.g. Developer Blogs, Daily Diviner, Droobletalks) and this is greatly appreciated, but every now and then there are updates that are mostly unknown to the playerbase beforehand. I hope that the staff team will look at some of these suggestions and be willing to consider them - until then, thanks for reading!
- Gear
- Soulshard Wars
- Reputations
- 'New Businesses'
- Woodshire
Now whatever you may think about these updates, most people should be able to agree that they were either not asked for or shrouded in too much mystery - often to their own detriment. Variety in duelling was desired but not a completely new reworked system (gear). Soulshard wars came 4th in a poll of 5 games. People wanted more repeatable content but Reputations wasn't the direction the playerbase wanted. Some people want a busier map but a new town doesn't have overwhelming excitement in the community.
^
To solve this there are a few things that should be done:
- MORE polls! Polls are great and wildly liked by the communiy and the staff team should always be encouraged to do them frequently, even on the bigger issues and updates (and also the response should be taken seriously). Sometimes, it seems that polls have been forgotten but they are still crual in running a good server.
- Continued Head Staff Q&A's and Droobletalks. The Droobletalks and Q&As are great ways for the community to get information as they are often more approachable and detailed than forum posts (though these are also very appreciated).
- Focus long-term gameplay on existing forum suggestions. When looking for an overarching direction to take the server, the first place should be to look at the current suggestions, rather than any outside ideas.
- Stick and develop an update instead of moving straight to another one and make it clear when a directional shift is taken (one of the main problems with Revelius was an abrupt switch from Professions to Gear).
- Discord announcements. More announcements should be easily viewed on the discord rather than always requiring someone to click a link. This means more players will know about planned updates.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally, I'd like to suggest a new way of thinking about the server. I think that right now a trend has emerged where staff seem to be working FOR the players, rather than WITH the players. Both Reputations and Woodshire were/are largely cast into mystery with most of the playerbase, meaning the staff were/are unable to get proper feedback before it is released. This is much the same with guilds, the Revelius professions rework, the return of Quabbleball, and to some extent: gear. It has become apparent that the staff team are still wanting to have *hype*, surprise moments rather than truly working on an update with the playerbase and sharing the progress, decisions, and motives. This would indeed come at the expense of the shock factor of an update, but as a whole it would make Potterworld feel more friendly and active (it is able to do these things because of the tight-knit community that has carried the server through the past 8 years). Potterworld should always see itself as being in BETA and should never shy away from looking for suggestions when it comes to big updates, even BEFORE they are released - a great example of this would be the testing of Talents.
I do see that Potterworld has become clearer on its plans for the future (e.g. Developer Blogs, Daily Diviner, Droobletalks) and this is greatly appreciated, but every now and then there are updates that are mostly unknown to the playerbase beforehand. I hope that the staff team will look at some of these suggestions and be willing to consider them - until then, thanks for reading!
