You mean hoping 
Do we need the update for the new kingdom?
pretty sure since there are some new traits in the kingdom
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Just to clarify, we are very busy. However, the AMA was cancelled due to meetings and calls that couldn’t be moved. It’s not always about time, but timing. (Especially as our publisher is in a different time zone. It means we have to be a little more flexible.)
I’m very sorry that we had to cancel this. I’ll see what I can do to make it up to everyone.
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Suppose that a new troop has Mana Shield.
It would work as intended as it is right now. Then after the update the troop description would change to include 3.3 Mana Shield description.
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So I want to address this point a little.
So it wasn’t that 3.3 update was having any trouble, it’s just that both Sirrian and myself unfortunately ended up really busy and in the middle of meetings when the AMA was scheduled.
After we submit and before it releases we have to coordinate both internally and with our publisher what’s going to happen and when. There’s a lot of people behind the curtain who work with us on Gems of War, and we have to make sure each team is aware of what it going on and has the latest information about each update. As Salty mention our Publisher is in a different timezone, sothese meetings this week need to happen when everyone is available, some of which unfortunately happened to be when the AMA was scheduled.
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It’s probably a good idea I am not a developer, I would cap it at 1500 and just bask in the glory of the rage.
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Geee… Thanks for ruining all the “doomsday speculation” about the next update! What are we gonna do now? 
We appreciate the comunication Nimhain.
I don’t think we need a second sun on our solar system, but that’s just me… 
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Am I actually the only person who is glad that the Q&A had to be moved?
Thing is, 3.3. will happen the way it will happen with or without previews or spoilers at this point. Asking the devs about these things might satisfy a bit of curiosity, but nothing more.
But if the Q&A happens after the whole thing is out, it’s way more productive. Remember the particle thing and how a Q&A was held a week after that patch had come out? It was an issue that was then asked about in the Q&A and the devs answered what would happen/what they were willing to change.
I feel asking questions after 3.3. is out has more value than asking them before 3.3. is here. Spoilers don’t change anything. Questions and feedback about something that has happened and causes issues in whatever form (gameplay-wise, balance-wise, health-wise…) are far more valueable in letting us players help influence things directly and get answers from the devs.
To stay with the example: If the devs had given us an answer about “what’s new” before 3.2.5. with “We will add some pretty effects to the game”, that would have basically meant nothing to me. By having the Q&A after 3.2.5. and us being able to give actual feedback and asking about a matter, they were able to say “We heard you and are looking into it, but it will take time, there will be no hotfix and they cannot just be turned off”. Feedback we didn’t get in that (personal) way on the forums.
So basically, I find spoilers useless since they don’t change anything. But talking about something that has happened already isn’t, because our devs listen.
A rescheduled Q&A has a million times the value one on Monday would have had, in my opinion.
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I’m not saying you’re wrong with any of what you said, but there can be more than one Q&A, so it doesn’t necessarily mean anything good or bad if the Q&A had gone as scheduled.
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Well, there’s one per month, usually, and 2-3 months between each big patch, so it’s not like they’re super-bountiful. I also feel like what Salty is previewing in her streams and posting here is enough spoilers, honestly. I’m always surprised why people here want to know about everything beforehand… I feel some surprise is nice. And the past has proven that even if we get shown something, us not liking it doesn’t result in any changes being made at that point (usually because they only preview stuff that’s already decided on and can’t change their tight schedule anyway). The guild task window or the order of the chests in the chest menu come to mind…
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Some of the surprises, I wasn’t too keen on seeing. UI change, Sparkle effects, changing summon stones…
In fact, I wish the surprises I enjoyed most weren’t the gifts like Christmas, 3 Year Anniversary, or Shoctopus, because I would love to say something nice that wasn’t freebies… Some of the events are fun though I guess, like Moa, or this weeks 2x traitstones.
Most of my favorite features lately are just undoing some of the new features, like the chest scrolling left to right.
My favorite moment on Gems of War the last 6 months had to be pulling a Mythic from a Summon Stone, which I can’t do now. Pulling them from chests don’t mean much to me.
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That is true - while I love the new summoning stones, I agree with the other things you mentioned - but even if I had seen them before, it wouldn’t have prevented them from coming. And in the end, it makes sense not only because the devs are on a schedule, but because it’s not much use to complain about something that hasn’t even happened yet. No preview of the sparkles would have told me how much they would impact my health. So I could only give real feedback after they had happened, hence a preview Q&A wouldn’t have helped anyone - neither me, nor the devs (as everyone usually is upset with change at first and only when things have been largely tested can be seen what’s really an issue and what needs getting used to).
That said, I do absolutely dread some of the upcoming things. Especially the new traits on the Shentang troops and the change to Mana Shield - I know most people want Mana Drain protection, but I personally would rather keep Psion being a pain and not trade that for undrainable Anariel and Nyx, who are both even now worse than Psion for me.
You’re… also not wrong with that. Though I do feel like adding the soulforge in general was a good thing; I enjoy the dungeons and the forge.
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On several occasions, like before the release of GW, the spoilers have allowed players to give some useful feed back which induced the devs to make some changes before they released the update.
I think that a Q&A would have been much more useful when things could still be changed than after the release when it will be too late.
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Q&A is “community outreach”. It makes players feel like their feedback matters, or at least creates the feeling it can be given.
My opinion is if stakeholders in GoW don’t value community outreach enough to let the game’s community-oriented people do it, the stakeholders don’t really value the community around GoW. That makes me think more “revenue extraction” than “building a long-term game”.
That said, it’s not like I’ve got my fingers on the pulse of the devs and fully understand exactly what kinds of meetings they were. That means I don’t really know enough to argue if it was “important enough” or not.
But I do hope future planned community events are more set in stone. I had some pretty good questions planned, some of them fun, and my buzz was killed when I found it’d all been unceremoniously canceled shortly before it was to start. That’s my big thing: deliver on promises. If the devs want to be silent and only let us see updates “when ready”, then own it. If you want to be transparent and show us things, then do that and own it.
I planned an evening around the AMA, and this made me think “Wow am I really letting something related to a game make me sour on my birthday?” Making me think things like that isn’t conducive to keeping me around.
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I wasn’t around when GW happened and quite frankly, afterwards, community feedback on spoiler mattered none. As I said before, a good example was this here, where basically the whole community agreed that the guild task window revamp preview really sucked and… yeah, nothing happened. If I would have ever gotten the feeling that our feedback upon spoilers mattered, I wouldn’t think like I do.
Actually, this. 100%. The Q&A before this one was rescheduled as well. Salty short-term notice pushed back her stream for several hours as well before. This is not cool. People plan around these things and doing this to them again and again is just not okay. I know I’m probably just super-upset every time this happens because I get up at 2am in the morning for this, after two hours of sleep, and often can’t fall back asleep afterwards while others are in a more fortunate timezone, but really… especially the Q&As, which are the big stuff, need to be scheduled in a way that they are possible.
And if it’s not possible to guarantee that, then the way things are handled should be adjusted. I personally would rather have a guaranteed Q&A where Salty collects questions here and the devs answer them in a big post here on the forum two days later when they had the time to type the answers up instead of saying “hey, you have one hour on date X” and then cancelling things.
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I agree with 95% of it, the 5% are reserved for “What if there is an emergency?”
As it went we were informed we wouldn’t have the AMA, because Sirrian’s and Nimhain’s schedule were full at the date… Hopefully this oversight will be avoided next time.
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