In Light Of Recent Distrust

[ArabellaDrummond]

Hey All,

I just wanted to take the time out of my day to say that i have always held high hopes for the revival of pirates online. Ever since another remake, i have not once stopped showing as much support as i can possibly give. Time and again i have done so through another remake, The Game Barrel and now TLOPO. That is more than a years worth of my time i have given to seeing pirates online restored to it's former glory.

Even so, each time i have noticed a general lack of trust, honesty and in another remake's particular case a lack of general progress which is what i am hoping to address today. Back when i first started out with another remake, i was ecstatic at the chance of a game i truly enjoyed being brought back to life even after the events which occurred between August 20 and September 19 when potco was officially shut down by disney.

It was a shame but such things are bound to happen, whether its a couple years from now or several years later. With The Game Barrel, i again devoted myself to a second chance at seeing a game i loved brought back, but alas i was yet again disappointed. Despite how much i had given and lost, i still held hope that another chance would present itself and lo and behold TLOPO. Since i first returned to the world of pirates online, i have noticed an incredible amount of progress (To which i say to every developer, game tester, the community and everyone else who has continued to give it their all don't give up hope), there is still a chance we can pull this off and bring back POTCO.

But sadly like before and in light of the recent livestream, i have noticed a lack of trust and honesty between the developers and the community and all others involved in this project. During the said livestream, questions were asked particularly of Mike Wass.....asked but not answered. The level of hostility was astounding, here was a group of people (Both developers and people who were offering the very best advice they could give) who had devoted themselves to making TLOPO a reality at odds with each other.

I ask why? Why so much distrust and hate, are we not in this together? As i had mentioned to Mike Wass who had mentioned there was a handful of content that was being withheld, what reason was there for withholding that content? Why not put it out there for the game testers themselves to take a crack and see what they could do to fix it? To show that there was progress? Why not be more open and honest with the community?

If there is one thing i have learned in the time i have spent for POTCO, it is that a project such as TLOPO can never succeed without the community. The community itself is the very soul of this project and many others. It is the community that is the sheer driving force, without it everything falls apart.

The next issue as mentioned during the livestream is the general lack of a privacy policy and the tight reins of a tos that permits the devs to do pretty much whatever they like for any reason. This is not how you gain a community's trust and respect, you gain it by showing that you are open and honest and willing to show to everyone here that hey we can do this but not without you.

So to top this off, developers is there nothing that will convince you to be more open and honest with all of us?

With Warm Regards,
Anne Bonny

 

[Tom O'fury]

Hey All,

I just wanted to take the time out of my day to say that i have always held high hopes for the revival of pirates online. Ever since another remake, i have not once stopped showing as much support as i can possibly give. Time and again i have done so through another remake, The Game Barrel and now TLOPO. That is more than a years worth of my time i have given to seeing pirates online restored to it's former glory.

Even so, each time i have noticed a general lack of trust, honesty and in another remake's particular case a lack of general progress which is what i am hoping to address today. Back when i first started out with another remake, i was ecstatic at the chance of a game i truly enjoyed being brought back to life even after the events which occurred between August 20 and September 19 when potco was officially shut down by disney.

It was a shame but such things are bound to happen, whether its a couple years from now or several years later. With The Game Barrel, i again devoted myself to a second chance at seeing a game i loved brought back, but alas i was yet again disappointed. Despite how much i had given and lost, i still held hope that another chance would present itself and lo and behold TLOPO. Since i first returned to the world of pirates online, i have noticed an incredible amount of progress (To which i say to every developer, game tester, the community and everyone else who has continued to give it their all don't give up hope), there is still a chance we can pull this off and bring back POTCO.

But sadly like before and in light of the recent livestream, i have noticed a lack of trust and honesty between the developers and the community and all others involved in this project. During the said livestream, questions were asked particularly of Mike Wass.....asked but not answered. The level of hostility was astounding, here was a group of people (Both developers and people who were offering the very best advice they could give) who had devoted themselves to making TLOPO a reality at odds with each other.

I ask why? Why so much distrust and hate, are we not in this together? As i had mentioned to Mike Wass who had mentioned there was a handful of content that was being withheld, what reason was there for withholding that content? Why not put it out there for the game testers themselves to take a crack and see what they could do to fix it? To show that there was progress? Why not be more open and honest with the community?

If there is one thing i have learned in the time i have spent for POTCO, it is that a project such as TLOPO can never succeed without the community. The community itself is the very soul of this project and many others. It is the community that is the sheer driving force, without it everything falls apart.

The next issue as mentioned during the livestream is the general lack of a privacy policy and the tight reins of a tos that permits the devs to do pretty much whatever they like for any reason. This is not how you gain a community's trust and respect, you gain it by showing that you are open and honest and willing to show to everyone here that hey we can do this but not without you.

So to top this off, developers is there nothing that will convince you to be more open and honest with all of us?

With Warm Regards,
Anne Bonny

You made some great points here. I hope those that this is meant for will take the time of day to read it.

 

[Bart Gunshot]

Oh boy I think they are pretty transparent about it all. They don't know when development will be done (and they don't claim to either). They are developing features, mainly fixing bugs. They don't release everything to the alpha until they have made it stable (whats the point in releasing something that is buggy but you already know of the bugs?). I honestly can't think of a question asked that hasn't been answered at some point (either with a real answer or a I don't know is also an acceptable answer) besides dumb questions such as "can u show a unreleased weapon!!!111!!"

 

[Cheysa Finn]

All of those involved with making TLOPO possible are literally giving us something we thought we had lost forever. To get it done, it requires a massive amount of work and time which I'm assuming many of us cannot fathom because we don't know how to build or restore a game. The community should be encouraging the TLOPO staff. We owe them that at the very least; they owe us nothing. It is an amazing privilege to be able to play and test TLOPO in these early stages, and we need to treat it as such. Keep in mind, it would be impossible for the TLOPO staff to make everyone happy in this endeavor. Let's make their job as easy and as fun and enjoyable as playing the game itself is. Without them, the alternative is no game at all.

My apologies for this not being in a better format - typed it out on my phone.

 

[Captn Jaq]

I don't think the issue is trusting the devs to get the game done. it's about overall level of communication to the community. TLOPO, another remake, or any other game meant to bring back potco isn't like a Title A game and corp, where they have a massive fan-base and leaving updates and press releases would suffice -- because they are not OF the community. our game devs are doing this to make other ppl happy and have fought against receiving funds because of it. not because of the legality of being sued due to "selling" a pirated game of disney; because it's a gift. you don't pay someone for having received a gift.

we yearn for communication (as within any relationship) while still trying to respect the space of the devs and not have them burn out again.

 

[PirateJasonS]

You also have to keep in mind that the devs like surprising us. How can they surprise us if they keep answering all of the questions!

This is a post from the TLOPO Alpha Screenshots thread:

Had a lot of fun with @Johnny Sea Slasher @Drewski0199 and @Vector . This is the stuff POTCO/TLOPO is made of. View attachment 66680 View attachment 66681 View attachment 66682 View attachment 66683 View attachment 66684 View attachment 66685 View attachment 66686 View attachment 66687 View attachment 66688 View attachment 66689

In the 3rd to last screenshot, View attachment 66687, @Vector says "That's a good question Jason, I guess we will have to wait and find out". This his his response to me asking if green hair will be added for St. Patrick's Day.
You'll notice that he keeps answering the questions in a very vague way. This is because he doesn't want to divulge any info before it is publicly released. It adds to the suspense!

Also: @Mike Wass was mentioned in the first post multiple times, so I'll tag him

 

[Sparky Wonderwolf]

For someone like myself that tends to be much more skeptical than the average devoted pirate around here, I have found that the hostility is generally directed towards those with the bigger questions picking at things. I think some of the questions are unnecessarily perceived as something they're not and in turn answered in such ways that can be very unnecessary. The mere fact of the matter is TLOPO does as it pleases and while at times it has done better than other attempts, there is a question of ability to answer questions straight up without the general "You dare question us?" tone. I do agree that I could see a reason why they'd be a bit bothered that people might ask them the most trivial of things "new weepens?!1?1" per Bart but there are also plenty of points since inception that there has been hostility just because of a few poking questions.

 

[katnypp]

Ugh. Watching part of that livestream last night, I saw nothing that provided constructive suggestions. It was more of a "rant" as the title of the stream stated. Based on the "crew" I saw in there, it's not surprising that statements were twisted to suit the pervasive need to spread toxic malcontent among the community. A disappointing shame that the two forum communities cannot simply coexist and seemlessly allow community members to enjoy both. It makes it look like sour grapes and immaturity.

Comparing TLOPO to another remake is ridiculous. Why is there a need to constantly dredge up the past? Perhaps because some people cannot seem to let it go. People who "left the party too soon" are unhappy about no longer being in control, and are left to wait with everyone else. I am not sure of the reasons, however I will say that the two groups have very little in common. The people involved with TLOPO work very well together and are not run ragged by someone demanding immediate results and deadlines.

As far as the level of transparency... are you kidding me? TLOPO is very transparent. The community is well represented with the teaming up of Piratesforums.co As @Davy Darkrage said in his post announcing the partnership, he is involved with the decision making and direction of TLOPO. He is included in developer discussions and knows what they are working on, what they are having trouble with, and what they are talking about. Talk about community representation!

As far as the TLOPO tos and whatever rules/privacy issues you may have, keep in mind that because they are recreating a Disney game, they have to try to maintain that image for the game. In game Whispers are just that, whispers, they are NOT private. Anyone with good hearing can hear a whisper and that is why Disney chose that word instead of PM. If you remember correctly, Disney did in fact, read your whispers and took action accordingly. If you dont like that action, well keep in mind that you are not paying for this game, it is not your "right" to play. Stop being self entitled and follow the rules, be a good pirate and try to have fun.

This game is in it's Alpha stages, so of course features are being withheld! They aren't ready. People lost their minds when a "boss" accidently made it into the production server and then was removed. Get over it, it had to be done. It was fun while it lasted, however it shed light on yet another issue that the devs need to fix. Those of you that are not recreating your own game, creating your own AI to run the game, etc, may not understand that just because something "appears" to work, does NOT mean it is not messing up another aspect of the game, creating instability.

It's a shame that it seems the same group is always looking to stir the pot. Sorry you feel your questions, demands, and what not aren't being addressed. Try to have patience. Stop taking yourselves so seriously, it's just a game. And it's free, enjoy it.

 

[Mike Wass]

Hey All,

I just wanted to take the time out of my day to say that i have always held high hopes for the revival of pirates online. Ever since another remake, i have not once stopped showing as much support as i can possibly give. Time and again i have done so through another remake, The Game Barrel and now TLOPO. That is more than a years worth of my time i have given to seeing pirates online restored to it's former glory.

Even so, each time i have noticed a general lack of trust, honesty and in another remake's particular case a lack of general progress which is what i am hoping to address today. Back when i first started out with another remake, i was ecstatic at the chance of a game i truly enjoyed being brought back to life even after the events which occurred between August 20 and September 19 when potco was officially shut down by disney.

It was a shame but such things are bound to happen, whether its a couple years from now or several years later. With The Game Barrel, i again devoted myself to a second chance at seeing a game i loved brought back, but alas i was yet again disappointed. Despite how much i had given and lost, i still held hope that another chance would present itself and lo and behold TLOPO. Since i first returned to the world of pirates online, i have noticed an incredible amount of progress (To which i say to every developer, game tester, the community and everyone else who has continued to give it their all don't give up hope), there is still a chance we can pull this off and bring back POTCO.

But sadly like before and in light of the recent livestream, i have noticed a lack of trust and honesty between the developers and the community and all others involved in this project. During the said livestream, questions were asked particularly of Mike Wass.....asked but not answered. The level of hostility was astounding, here was a group of people (Both developers and people who were offering the very best advice they could give) who had devoted themselves to making TLOPO a reality at odds with each other.

I ask why? Why so much distrust and hate, are we not in this together? As i had mentioned to Mike Wass who had mentioned there was a handful of content that was being withheld, what reason was there for withholding that content? Why not put it out there for the game testers themselves to take a crack and see what they could do to fix it? To show that there was progress? Why not be more open and honest with the community?

If there is one thing i have learned in the time i have spent for POTCO, it is that a project such as TLOPO can never succeed without the community. The community itself is the very soul of this project and many others. It is the community that is the sheer driving force, without it everything falls apart.

The next issue as mentioned during the livestream is the general lack of a privacy policy and the tight reins of a tos that permits the devs to do pretty much whatever they like for any reason. This is not how you gain a community's trust and respect, you gain it by showing that you are open and honest and willing to show to everyone here that hey we can do this but not without you.

So to top this off, developers is there nothing that will convince you to be more open and honest with all of us?

With Warm Regards,
Anne Bonny

The reason why I was hostile is because the people in that call have caused nothing but trouble in the past for us (why is it always the same clan of people causing trouble?).

I have worked closely with @Tom O'fury in the past and frankly am not thrilled with my experience with him. He's arrogant, aggressive, and likes to bully people. The ONLY reason he brought up a privacy policy is because he was terminated because of messages sent in a whisper(the only reason I will disclose this is because Jacob has said it publicly many times already). This is not something special for TLOPO, Disney read whispers/guild chat/crew chat/public chat, etc. There was no expectation of privacy on POTCO with the chat system. TLOPO is actually more lenient about the chat system. We DO log all chat messages, but we don't review every single one. We respect the privacy of our users and most of the time will only review those messages if there was a report submitted. Even if we wanted to read EVERY single message said in-game, it'd take up a month to get through one release. There's a large number of messages sent over the server, like 10,000 a day? So if we have a version out for a week or so, that's about 100,000+ messages to review. yeah.... no. Not gonna waste time reading those(which is why we love when people report issues!! This way we know exactly what to read and not waste time reading things that are perfectly fine).

In the logs panel whispers are not separated from public messages, they are listed in chronological order sorted by each account that sent the message(s); and when a player is reported we have no of knowing whether a whisper was the reason why somebody was reported or not. So, when somebody is reported we review their entire chat history for the session. If we find anything bad we check off that message and click a button that says "Add Ban". That then brings up an email prompt and we can then modify the canned email to the situation(i.e more info/ban length modification), or just ship off the email as-is. The canned email response is for a 24 hour chat abuse ban. Due to those being most common. Trust me, we don't sit there and read messages just to snoop on people. We don't care about the stuff people are talking about in-game so long as they are following the rules. If somebody isn't, we'll get a report and then we'll look at the messages.

Somebody brought up that we were kicking people after the boss was discovered in Misty Mire. We are not ready to release enemies because there are a few exploits, we as the developers are working as hard as we can to get these things released. Most of us put in easily 8+ hours a day working at TLOPO (FOR FREE!). We have an internal date in mind for when they'll be released, and that date is coming up fast. Before you know it you will all be sailing on the seas and looting trying to find the lost sword again.

We just released clothing, and have other updates lined up. To put something in perspective, Toontown Rewritten released their alpha in late October and ended it in mid-April. They then brought beta back early-mid May and released the PlayLine/PlayTime system June 3rd.

Their alpha lasted just about 6 months. Our alpha has been going since 9/11/15, which is 5 months. We have a TON in store for all of you, and it will definitely be worth the wait.

This whole show is ran by 1.5+ million lines of code, almost 40 hours a week by almost every developer, about 30,000 monthly followers on our website. This whole thing is ridiculously huge, I would've never expected that many people to be following us. I'm truly thankful for being able to be involved with all of this.

Below are some stats on TLOPOs in-staff progress.

Game src commit number:

That means there were 3,016 individual edits to the repository, that's a huge number of commits. We've made about 1,500 commit since alpha started.

This shows our overall activity since the creation of the repository.
(I just noticed this while looking it up, this repo was made exactly one year ago today. Happy Birthday src repo).

So, what does this graph say? Says at one point we had 150 commits a day. and in recent times we're averaging about 40-60 commits every day. That drop-off at the end is just because those stats aren't done being made yet. They're updated every couple days or so if I remember correctly.

Here's the site commit number:

Here's the site graph:

Notice the bumps before September, and also around November and December. Remember when there were quite a lot of site redesigns? We were fixing site bugs and enhancing usability. The site has come a loonnnng way from when it was originally released.

I have a screenshot of what it was going to look like, what we released it as, what it was redesigned to, and yet redesigned again to(current site).

This is the launcher repo commit number:

This is the launcher repo graph:

There are spikes around the time of each update. The launcher was pretty easy to make, it's all C++ and is made using Qt. the bump around the 2016 number is from OS X support(which was very painful to release, lots of weird bugs).

This is the deployment repo(automation for backend stuff for releasing stuff):

This is the runtime repo(the compiler that generates the secure client you download):

Most of the security is in the runtime/server. We have never had any security vulnerabilities exploited, but we constantly role-play as hackers and try to find exploits. If we find one, we patch it. Most of the recent updates are just cleanup and optimizations. Or commits of each versions configuration.

We have a developer server that's turning into more of a QA(quality assurance) server. We've invited some of our closest friends onto it so they can test big features before their official release. Every tester on QA has been very kind, and we like em' a lot.

When we do penetration testing on the game, we do it on a locally setup copy of the server/runtime, or just connect to QA and have fun. QA is set up exactly as the main production server everyone logs into from the public. So if something breaks on QA, it'll break on prod. So it gives us a feel for what the game will be like when we deploy something. (There HAVE been issues where we deploy stuff and bam it doesn't work, even though it works fine on local copies.)

I don't know if I'm even allowed to show these graphs or give this much of an in-depth look, but oh well. This is how active we are, this is how much we're working at to get this out to you all. Don't be super upset over us taking out an enemy, we will have them back on there soon. The reason why they were taken out was a good reason.

We have a ton in store for you all, just be patient and stay tuned.

 

[ArabellaDrummond]

The reason why I was hostile is because the people in that call have caused nothing but trouble in the past for us (why is it always the same clan of people causing trouble?).

I have worked closely with @Tom O'fury in the past and frankly am not thrilled with my experience with him. He's arrogant, aggressive, and likes to bully people. The ONLY reason he brought up a privacy policy is because he was terminated because of messages sent in a whisper(the only reason I will disclose this is because Jacob has said it publicly many times already). This is not something special for TLOPO, Disney read whispers/guild chat/crew chat/public chat, etc. There was no expectation of privacy on POTCO with the chat system. TLOPO is actually more lenient about the chat system. We DO log all chat messages, but we don't review every single one. We respect the privacy of our users and most of the time will only review those messages if there was a report submitted. Even if we wanted to read EVERY single message said in-game, it'd take up a month to get through one release. There's a large number of messages sent over the server, like 10,000 a day? So if we have a version out for a week or so, that's about 100,000+ messages to review. yeah.... no. Not gonna waste time reading those(which is why we love when people report issues!! This way we know exactly what to read and not waste time reading things that are perfectly fine).

In the logs panel whispers are not separated from public messages, they are listed in chronological order sorted by each account that sent the message(s); and when a player is reported we have no of knowing whether a whisper was the reason why somebody was reported or not. So, when somebody is reported we review their entire chat history for the session. If we find anything bad we check off that message and click a button that says "Add Ban". That then brings up an email prompt and we can then modify the canned email to the situation(i.e more info/ban length modification), or just ship off the email as-is. The canned email response is for a 24 hour chat abuse ban. Due to those being most common. Trust me, we don't sit there and read messages just to snoop on people. We don't care about the stuff people are talking about in-game so long as they are following the rules. If somebody isn't, we'll get a report and then we'll look at the messages.

Somebody brought up that we were kicking people after the boss was discovered in Misty Mire. We are not ready to release enemies because there are a few exploits, we as the developers are working as hard as we can to get these things released. Most of us put in easily 8+ hours a day working at TLOPO (FOR FREE!). We have an internal date in mind for when they'll be released, and that date is coming up fast. Before you know it you will all be sailing on the seas and looting trying to find the lost sword again.

We just released clothing, and have other updates lined up. To put something in perspective, Toontown Rewritten released their alpha in late October and ended it in mid-April. They then brought beta back early-mid May and released the PlayLine/PlayTime system June 3rd.

Their alpha lasted just about 6 months. Our alpha has been going since 9/11/15, which is 5 months. We have a TON in store for all of you, and it will definitely be worth the wait.

This whole show is ran by 1.5+ million lines of code, almost 40 hours a week by almost every developer, about 30,000 monthly followers on our website. This whole thing is ridiculously huge, I would've never expected that many people to be following us. I'm truly thankful for being able to be involved with all of this.

Below are some stats on TLOPOs in-staff progress.

Game src commit number:
View attachment 66765
That means there were 3,016 individual edits to the repository, that's a huge number of commits. We've made about 1,500 commit since alpha started.

View attachment 66766
This shows our overall activity since the creation of the repository.
(I just noticed this while looking it up, this repo was made exactly one year ago today. Happy Birthday src repo).

So, what does this graph say? Says at one point we had 150 commits a day. and in recent times we're averaging about 40-60 commits every day. That drop-off at the end is just because those stats aren't done being made yet. They're updated every couple days or so if I remember correctly.

Here's the site commit number:
View attachment 66767

Here's the site graph:
View attachment 66768
Notice the bumps before September, and also around November and December. Remember when there were quite a lot of site redesigns? We were fixing site bugs and enhancing usability. The site has come a loonnnng way from when it was originally released.

I have a screenshot of what it was going to look like, what we released it as, what it was redesigned to, and yet redesigned again to(current site).

This is the launcher repo commit number:
View attachment 66769
This is the launcher repo graph:
View attachment 66770
There are spikes around the time of each update. The launcher was pretty easy to make, it's all C++ and is made using Qt. the bump around the 2016 number is from OS X support(which was very painful to release, lots of weird bugs).

This is the deployment repo(automation for backend stuff for releasing stuff):
View attachment 66771

This is the runtime repo(the compiler that generates the secure client you download):
View attachment 66772
Most of the security is in the runtime/server. We have never had any security vulnerabilities exploited, but we constantly role-play as hackers and try to find exploits. If we find one, we patch it. Most of the recent updates are just cleanup and optimizations. Or commits of each versions configuration.

We have a developer server that's turning into more of a QA(quality assurance) server. We've invited some of our closest friends onto it so they can test big features before their official release. Every tester on QA has been very kind, and we like em' a lot.

When we do penetration testing on the game, we do it on a locally setup copy of the server/runtime, or just connect to QA and have fun. QA is set up exactly as the main production server everyone logs into from the public. So if something breaks on QA, it'll break on prod. So it gives us a feel for what the game will be like when we deploy something. (There HAVE been issues where we deploy stuff and bam it doesn't work, even though it works fine on local copies.)

I don't know if I'm even allowed to show these graphs or give this much of an in-depth look, but oh well. This is how active we are, this is how much we're working at to get this out to you all. Don't be super upset over us taking out an enemy, we will have them back on there soon. The reason why they were taken out was a good reason.

We have a ton in store for you all, just be patient and stay tuned.

This is exactly what i like to see, an open and honest discussion. Well done @Mike Wass.

 

[Pretty Polly]

Well I just want to say a big 'Thank you' for all the hard work you guys are putting in. I feel very fortunate to be invited to play after POTCO played such a huge part of my gaming life. I know there are big pockets of the community just waiting to return (I still play with most of them lol) Pirates is still very close to out hearts. It was a place we made great friends, had so much fun and was devastated it closed. I can now see that TLOPO will fill that gap again when it opens its doors to all. Until then we just have to be patient and wait. Be happy with that thought and we'll soon be back sailing the high seas.

 

[Tom O'fury]

I have worked closely with @Tom O'fury in the past and frankly am not thrilled with my experience with him. He's arrogant, aggressive, and likes to bully people. The ONLY reason he brought up a privacy policy is because he was terminated because of messages sent in a whisper(the only reason I will disclose this is because Jacob has said it publicly many times already). This is not something special for TLOPO, Disney read whispers/guild chat/crew chat/public chat, etc. There was no expectation of privacy on POTCO with the chat system. TLOPO is actually more lenient about the chat system. We DO log all chat messages, but we don't review every single one. We respect the privacy of our users and most of the time will only review those messages if there was a report submitted. Even if we wanted to read EVERY single message said in-game, it'd take up a month to get through one release. There's a large number of messages sent over the server, like 10,000 a day? So if we have a version out for a week or so, that's about 100,000+ messages to review. yeah.... no. Not gonna waste time reading those(which is why we love when people report issues!! This way we know exactly what to read and not waste time reading things that are perfectly fine).

I am 100% positive that Disney did not ban people solely for stating something sucked about a game... I voiced it all the time. I am also.. 100% positive that my whisper was not reported in any shape or form. Considering I was talking to an ex. Whom I still have outside contact with and talked to the day after. It's alright Mike, I remember when I was in your situation with my family, friends, etc. If you think I'm that important to literally stalk me around the internet... funny how we didn't see any devs on one of those streams before I made an appearance... and that you felt it necessary to write an entire paragraph just about me.... man. I'm famous now huh?

Comparing TLOPO to another remake is ridiculous. Why is there a need to constantly dredge up the past? Perhaps because some people cannot seem to let it go. People who "left the party too soon" are unhappy about no longer being in control, and are left to wait with everyone else. I am not sure of the reasons, however I will say that the two groups have very little in common. The people involved with TLOPO work very well together and are not run ragged by someone demanding immediate results and deadlines.

Look here! Another post about me! I'm super excited again. According to the general populace around here... apparently I just really love hanging out with you all. So, let's talk about this. I am 100% that if you offered any kind of position to any of the people on that stream last night, you would probably get some cursing and a no. I know I certainly would tell you that. Since, you continue to refuse to talk to me about anything. It's alright. Doesn't bother me too much anymore. You know what's funny though. You all think I would rather spend time here with all of you and that I need some sense of power. Oh yes, definitely. I mean, I totally don't already have enough on my hands.

So, please enlighten me on why I would ever want to put a POTCO remake before my baby (another on the way) and my 5 fur babies? I'm a little lost at how ya'll think I care so much. The only real reason, I'm even around here anymore is a PM with a couple of my friends here, and my buddies over on that Community Website. Steveo, Ian, and Navi. Sorry guys, but we don't really just look at TLOPO. We do other things to... we're ya know.... friends... that do things.... other than a remake..

 

[Kate Goldwalker]

Once again, for the record, I can attest to the fact that Disney did ban people (in my case was a week) from the game based off what was said in a whisper. I was not reported by anyone that day either. They gave no reason for reading my 'private chat' in whisper form either. Its all in what they either decided to read or if a word triggered something. And this was BEFORE their filter they added in game with the warnings. Just saying...

 

[Sparky Wonderwolf]

I'm a bit confused as to why it is such an outrage that some of us have a difference of opinion on the matter. If we aren't supporting TLOPO 100% with unquestioning loyalty it is a crime. I apologize, but that seems a bit childish because some of us actually attempt to ask and pose constructive criticism regardless of "How great TLOPO is" it seems a bit of a double standard at times too.

 

[Kate Goldwalker]

@Sparky Wonderwolf, I think what the problem with all this is the continuing circle of the complaining that has been going on since the days of another remake. It's like there is no satisfaction. The developers are seen as not giving enough info regardless of how much they give. The developers are not giving the testers enough stuff. Would we rather has something mostly fixed to test or something broken that could screw things up more? That is why people have been asking for patience. Asking questions of things is not the problem.

 

[Sparky Wonderwolf]

@Sparky Wonderwolf, I think what the problem with all this is the continuing circle of the complaining that has been going on since the days of another remake. It's like there is no satisfaction. The developers are seen as not giving enough info regardless of how much they give. The developers are not giving the testers enough stuff. Would we rather has something mostly fixed to test or something broken that could screw things up more? That is why people have been asking for patience. Asking questions of things is not the problem.

Well I understand, but if what is said about them is true according to katnypp-that they have to maintain the image of its predecessor (POTCO)-shouldn't there at least be some patience with the community, and being former POTCO Players, a bit of understanding that some of us don't necessarily trust right away or will ask constructive questions on matters that concern us? Considering the fact that Disney & DIMG messed with us for a while, my point I am trying to make is shouldn't there be some understanding? Some patience? I am sure we have all felt the same way on the same page or that others have felt the way some of us feel now. Where is the crime in perhaps patiently answering, or giving a somewhat honest answer at certain times? I would like to at least feel that my voice is going to be heard because I am like everyone else here someone who played POTCO. Someone who like everyone else has been jerked around all the same. Some of us are a bit more weary than others... and for that we ask questions in as mature as we can way.

 

[ArabellaDrummond]

I am 100% positive that Disney did not ban people solely for stating something sucked about a game... I voiced it all the time. I am also.. 100% positive that my whisper was not reported in any shape or form. Considering I was talking to an ex. Whom I still have outside contact with and talked to the day after. It's alright Mike, I remember when I was in your situation with my family, friends, etc. If you think I'm that important to literally stalk me around the internet... funny how we didn't see any devs on one of those streams before I made an appearance... and that you felt it necessary to write an entire paragraph just about me.... man. I'm famous now huh?



Look here! Another post about me! I'm super excited again. According to the general populace around here... apparently I just really love hanging out with you all. So, let's talk about this. I am 100% that if you offered any kind of position to any of the people on that stream last night, you would probably get some cursing and a no. I know I certainly would tell you that. Since, you continue to refuse to talk to me about anything. It's alright. Doesn't bother me too much anymore. You know what's funny though. You all think I would rather spend time here with all of you and that I need some sense of power. Oh yes, definitely. I mean, I totally don't already have enough on my hands.

So, please enlighten me on why I would ever want to put a POTCO remake before my baby (another on the way) and my 5 fur babies? I'm a little lost at how ya'll think I care so much. The only real reason, I'm even around here anymore is a PM with a couple of my friends here, and my buddies over on that Community Website. Steveo, Ian, and Navi. Sorry guys, but we don't really just look at TLOPO. We do other things to... we're ya know.... friends... that do things.... other than a remake..

Not trying to be harsh, but there is no reason to continue arguing with mike wass. It's best if that is left in the past where it belongs. And if this is simply too much for you, why are you here?

 

[Kate Goldwalker]

Well I understand, but if what is said about them is true according to katnypp-that they have to maintain the image of its predecessor (POTCO)-shouldn't there at least be some patience with the community, and being former POTCO Players, a bit of understanding that some of us don't necessarily trust right away or will ask constructive questions on matters that concern us? Considering the fact that Disney & DIMG messed with us for a while, my point I am trying to make is shouldn't there be some understanding? Some patience? I am sure we have all felt the same way on the same page or that others have felt the way some of us feel now. Where is the crime in perhaps patiently answering, or giving a somewhat honest answer at certain times? I would like to at least feel that my voice is going to be heard because I am like everyone else here someone who played POTCO. Someone who like everyone else has been jerked around all the same. Some of us are a bit more weary than others... and for that we ask questions in as mature as we can way.

Patience has to go both ways. We seem to be seeing all the questions from those who lack patience. OR from those who are stirring the pot of controversy.

 

[Flint]

The Perspective of a new Member

As a reasonably new member of this community (Learned about the revival of POTCO about a month ago) I'd like to share what my experience is with the communication between developers and the community and the progression of the game. It might differ from the experience someone had that has been a member of this community for a long time, or not.

Compared to other titles, the communication between the developers and the community appears to be very transparent to me. I think it's at the place where it should be. I love the fact that you're easily able to contact developers either in irc, ingame or on the forums. This atleast to me gives the feeling of trust and safety. Since they're recreating a Disney game, I think the way they handle things should be mostly the same, and they seem to be doing that. However, I do think maybe some automatic bans in the chat can be quite harsh. (Accidently swearing, talking in caps etc.) Maybe a warning message or simply censoring the specific words (Maybe like in World of Warcraft something like: ''%&*#$&@") would be a solution for that, and it might leave people less agitated. Of course when someone keeps breaking the rules there should be the right penaltys for doing so.

The game's progression seems to be top notch. Almost every week there is an update to the alpha, and sometimes even more frequently. Compared to other MMO titles this is simply great. The Developers are simply doing a great job. As Michael said above, the amount of work they put into it is incredible (without even being paid!). People who keep demanding more features in the game should be more patient. Clearly they don't understand the process of developing this game. I think all in all my experience so far has been positive. I'm really exited and grateful that I'm able to play this gem of a game again. And I love being able to make videos about it too!

 

[Pretty Polly]

To be honest I don't really care for the childish games some seem to be playing. All I care is that the POTCO we know and love returns. If the chaps of TLOPO don't want to tell all then surely we should respect that decision? I'm not going to throw my rattle out the pram because I don't know everything they are working on, or because they hold content back. I'd rather not play a game that breaks at every occasion because things were introduced to quickly because the community were champing at the bit and demanding more and now! Remember they do this for no financial gain. That to me says enough. They do it for the love of the game and the community who want it back in their lives.
another remake didn't gel with a lot of us in the community (I'm talking my veteran POTCO playing friends). I even said I would never play any remake of POTCO again, and I meant it, but TLOPO seems different. I am excited again at the prospect of playing as I'm sure others are. Remember a lot of us weren't kids when we started playing, we're old and bolds. I was in my early 40's when I started playing. I've been around long enough so I've learned how to wait lol So HURRY UP! No... just kidding The chaps ARE doing a good job, let's let them get on and do that. They need our support not our criticism.