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A phone call with Figmentia and a chat with PrimusFigius reposted

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« on: November 06, 2011, 01:52:53 pm »

Reposted here:

Quote from: Flambridge
To All,

For those of you that were in live chat, I had the opportunity to speak with Figmentia on the phone today.  There was not much said in terms of what happened, but I thought I would share what I could from our conversation.

first and foremost, Figgy wants you to know how much you all meant to her.  She said the community gave her a reason to smile each day at work.  She loved hanging out with everyone on Overbuild the day before the bombshell.  It made her feel a bit like she got a chance to say good-bye.  Unlike many of the other employees at Play Well Studios, Figgy had a job lined prior to the announcement.  Talk about perfect timing.  She was actually considering not taking the new job because of her love for the community.  But certain circumstances necessitated the need for her to leave.

I specifically asked her about NFC and contests and if LEGO would honor the prizes that were promised.  She informed me that it would be a decision by the LEGO legal team and that Primus was already in contact with them and starting discussion.  I also specifically asked about what LEGO was going to do to keep the current players there fro the next 3 months.  She said she knew of nothing.  Apparently LU had about 100K paying subscribers...the rest (1.9 million) were all F2P players.  LU has been a cost to the company for the past 6 years.  The goal for 2012 was to simply lose less money.

On Thursday, all employees received and e-mail stating that they could go home at 3:30, but that there was a mandatory meeting at 9am.  Figgy actually stayed late at work because she promised to be at the contest that was organized by the LUPs at Red Blocks later that evening.  So, she said it was a spooky feeling in the office because no one was there.

That morning, she got an e-mail from me about my new prop and go to watch the first 30 seconds before she had to go to the 9am meeting.  She said the meeting lasted 10 minutes.  When it was over, she rushed to her comp to try to say goodbye.  Her access was already taken away.  WOW, that fast!  Door access codes no longer worked, e-mail gone and cell phones turned off.  Then, if things could not get worse, they posted the closing of LU under her name when it was not even her.  That killed her.  She said she loves you all so much and is sad for everyone.   Open source will never happen.  We talked about some of the new props that were going to come.  I already knew about them because of my trip to the office.  Sorry, I am still under NDA and if their is a possiblity that the game could keep going, they will want to use this stuff.

Another item of concern is that with the mod team not there, no one will be moderating props.  Now, she does not know if this is the case, so I have to ask if ANYONE had a prop moderate on SATURDAY?  ANYONE?

So, we will miss Figgy tons, just know that she truly cared for all of you.  Lucky for me, I have her e-mail and cell number.

Now, I have been trying to get a hold of Primus ever since the news went down.  Today I was able to reach him on skype.  Here is our chat.  Items have been changed and edited to hide our true names:

[12:49:57 PM] Flambridge: Listen, I know you are not on and I will try the best I can not to bug you.  I am just trying to get to things answered for the community in that they look to SamuraiMaster and I for stuff.  He on Overbuild and me on Storm

[12:50:31 PM] Flambridge: 1.  What is the fate of the Nexus Force Championships? and other contests?

[12:51:00 PM] Flambridge: 2.  What is the plan of the community team to keep players around the next three months? Or is there any plan at all?

[12:52:46 PM] Flambridge: Listen, if you need more direct contact, my cell is ***-***-****.  Call anytime.  You know we want to help out in this painful time anyway we can.

[5:47:23 PM] Primus: Hey Flam, I am still waiting for answers on all of this stuff too. Contests will be my 1st challenge to figure out what we are doing including the championships

[5:47:40 PM] Primusl: We are working out a plan next week

[5:48:50 PM] Flambridge: Thanks, I spoke with Figgy on the phone earlier.  She said you would not know yet

[5:49:58 PM] Flambridge: I am so sorry for all of you, what  heart break.  The community is in tears literally.  There is concern that props will not be moderated, if so, there is no point to building

[5:50:09 PM] Primus: Yeah man I was given little direction and am getting eaten alive on the mesageboards. THANK YOU for posting something!!!

[5:50:29 PM] Primus: I wil have to ask about that too, I have no idea where the mod team stands at this point

[5:51:09 PM] Flambridge: Well, we want to do what we can to help, there is another site called Lunibook where a lot of players chat, and I speak with them a lot

[5:52:01 PM] Primus: alright well when I get more direct messaging for the community I will share it with you guys so you can help me spread the word. I would assume that would happen sometime this coming week

[5:52:55 PM] Primus: Gotta run to dinner, I will be in touch with everyone next week and wil plan a voice chat with you guys too

[5:53:09 PM] Flambridge: alright, well, I won't bug you anymore.  This has kind of consumed my friday between chats and posts.  Just let us know

Primus: Ok thanks buddy! Wish this wouldnt have happened... but upper management had to make a call I guess. Just seems rather dramatic. Anyways I will be in touch this week. Dont worry about "bugging" me! Thats why Im here! Smiley




Alright, this post is a mile long, but I just wanted to get all this info, or lack thereof, out to all of you guys.

~Flambridge
« Last Edit: November 06, 2011, 01:55:02 pm by MsRowdyRedhead » Report Spam   Logged



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« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2011, 06:46:05 pm »

No matter what Lego does, even if they recant and bring back LU, I will not work for them now without SEVERE contractual protections.  I understand locking someone out (with a father who dealt with security issues in the Navy, I understand better than most the dangers of not severing a terminated employee's access rights immediately), but then posting as them afterward?  That's impersonation, and depending on where you are, it can have severe legal consequences.  No, I can't trust a company like that, and if you can't trust someone, you can't work for them.

It's a shame, really.  Another month or two, they might have had me under contract, already working for them at an entry-level position.  Now?  Now, if they want my creativity and skill, they'll have to work for it.
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« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2011, 11:49:33 pm »

And just what are we supposed to gather from this?
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« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2011, 11:56:08 pm »

It is additional info about the closing of LU.
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« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2011, 09:55:45 am »

I just had a bad thought about that 'the goal for 2012 was simply to lose less money' comment... They're essentially paying for the Bioniclestory website to stay up so the storyline could continue, correct? What if that goes next? =/
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« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2011, 11:11:52 am »

BionicleStory hasn't been updated since that godawful no-interacting-with-anyone-under-13 rule went into place. Undecided that was not long before BZP closed Undecided
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« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2011, 04:45:11 pm »

One of the major costs of LU is the moderation. Sadly, this cost was drastically above their projections. Some of that was legitimate, but a LOT of money was wasted by people trying to get mods to show up, or going out of bounds and getting stuck, exploiting glitches which then had to be closed, reporting things that didn't work and expecting instant fixes, asking the online mods questions that could have been handled via email, and calling for help when none was needed just to see a mythran show up in game. I don't think some of the players understood or cared about the concept of "man hours" and what they could mean to the bottom line. They cost delays of updates, and new features as well, which diminished the sellability of subs. I can clearly remember a huge debate about thin on LEGOUni before it closed... and some players insistence that they weren't hurting anything. Now I cannot help but wonder how much they "didn't" hurt...
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« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2011, 06:52:32 pm »

One of the major costs of LU is the moderation. Sadly, this cost was drastically above their projections. Some of that was legitimate, but a LOT of money was wasted by people trying to get mods to show up, or going out of bounds and getting stuck, exploiting glitches which then had to be closed, reporting things that didn't work and expecting instant fixes, asking the online mods questions that could have been handled via email, and calling for help when none was needed just to see a mythran show up in game. I don't think some of the players understood or cared about the concept of "man hours" and what they could mean to the bottom line. They cost delays of updates, and new features as well, which diminished the sellability of subs. I can clearly remember a huge debate about thin on LEGOUni before it closed... and some players insistence that they weren't hurting anything. Now I cannot help but wonder how much they "didn't" hurt...

While I agree, I also feel that to a degree everything was a bit over-moderated.  I would have preferred a stance along the lines of, "If you go out of bounds, it's your own fault, we won't get you out."  If several people ended up OOB from a glitch or something, fine, they'd respond, but if you got yourself stuck, you'd have to wait for them to fix the problem when they chose to.  Repeat offenders could be left back there for a few days to teach them a lesson.  Likewise for hacking/etc; if you hack your game, not only do you get banned for X amount of time, they are no longer responsible to fix your game.  There's contracts that allow you to do that, and IMO LU would have been MUCH easier to police with a firmer stance this way.

I also think that a "hidden" reputation system would have been helpful; kind of like MLNO forum rep, but invisible except to Mythrans.  People who behave well are rewarded, and their Lego.com I.D. gets moved up on the automatic priority list; those who break the rules and whom players complain about get shunted to the lower end of the priority list, and have to wait for everyone else's problems to get solved before they can get time with the Mythrans.

(Also, a slightly more visible Mythran presence could have been useful--we know they were there, but invisible, but I think a visible Mythran every few minutes would have deterred some of the worst behavior, as well as clearing a little of the mystique around them so they aren't bombarded with stupid questions all the time.  Just IMO.)

EDIT: You know, when I was writing Mines of Doom, I had this idea for a "Community Helper" system, where the most mature users (based on behavior) would be asked to be informal moderators; they wouldn't get any special powers or anything, except for one thing: their reports would have maximum priority, and generally their recommendations would be acted on without more than a cursory review.  This would increase the number of eyes on the ground, without having to pay as many people for constant monitoring.
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« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2011, 06:55:51 pm »

BionicleStory hasn't been updated since that godawful no-interacting-with-anyone-under-13 rule went into place. Undecided that was not long before BZP closed Undecided
Wasn't it updated shortly after BZP went down for upgrades, with the end of Sahmad's Tale?

MsRR: Some of that isn't good, which I agree... However, when you're dealing with the target audience LEGO was dealing with, some of those things are things that should have been at least anticipated... I mean; kids do tend to expect things to happen instantly. I'm not defending the mythrun thing you were just mentioning, more the bug fix stuff you were saying.

And technically the whole out of bounds thing should've been handled slightly differently; I know of other stuff that had out-of-bounds glitches, that, while they couldn't be fixed, had a method of getting unstuck if stuck. For example, I've heard about a teleport feature... If there was a secondary feature that let you 'respawn' at the beginning of a zone if you actually chose to use that option, essentially reloading it instead of simply attempting to put you back where you were, then that might have cut down on a lot of help that was needed... If it was noticeable enough.
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« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2011, 07:35:34 pm »

BionicleStory hasn't been updated since that godawful no-interacting-with-anyone-under-13 rule went into place. Undecided that was not long before BZP closed Undecided
Wasn't it updated shortly after BZP went down for upgrades, with the end of Sahmad's Tale?

MsRR: Some of that isn't good, which I agree... However, when you're dealing with the target audience LEGO was dealing with, some of those things are things that should have been at least anticipated... I mean; kids do tend to expect things to happen instantly. I'm not defending the mythrun thing you were just mentioning, more the bug fix stuff you were saying.

And technically the whole out of bounds thing should've been handled slightly differently; I know of other stuff that had out-of-bounds glitches, that, while they couldn't be fixed, had a method of getting unstuck if stuck. For example, I've heard about a teleport feature... If there was a secondary feature that let you 'respawn' at the beginning of a zone if you actually chose to use that option, essentially reloading it instead of simply attempting to put you back where you were, then that might have cut down on a lot of help that was needed... If it was noticeable enough.

There was a respawn, it just didn't work out of bounds. IMHO, if a player got stuck more that two or three steps out of bounds, they should have been left there for a day or so.

One of the major costs of LU is the moderation. Sadly, this cost was drastically above their projections. Some of that was legitimate, but a LOT of money was wasted by people trying to get mods to show up, or going out of bounds and getting stuck, exploiting glitches which then had to be closed, reporting things that didn't work and expecting instant fixes, asking the online mods questions that could have been handled via email, and calling for help when none was needed just to see a mythran show up in game. I don't think some of the players understood or cared about the concept of "man hours" and what they could mean to the bottom line. They cost delays of updates, and new features as well, which diminished the sellability of subs. I can clearly remember a huge debate about thin on LEGOUni before it closed... and some players insistence that they weren't hurting anything. Now I cannot help but wonder how much they "didn't" hurt...

While I agree, I also feel that to a degree everything was a bit over-moderated.  I would have preferred a stance along the lines of, "If you go out of bounds, it's your own fault, we won't get you out."  If several people ended up OOB from a glitch or something, fine, they'd respond, but if you got yourself stuck, you'd have to wait for them to fix the problem when they chose to.  Repeat offenders could be left back there for a few days to teach them a lesson.  Likewise for hacking/etc; if you hack your game, not only do you get banned for X amount of time, they are no longer responsible to fix your game.  There's contracts that allow you to do that, and IMO LU would have been MUCH easier to police with a firmer stance this way.

I also think that a "hidden" reputation system would have been helpful; kind of like MLNO forum rep, but invisible except to Mythrans.  People who behave well are rewarded, and their Lego.com I.D. gets moved up on the automatic priority list; those who break the rules and whom players complain about get shunted to the lower end of the priority list, and have to wait for everyone else's problems to get solved before they can get time with the Mythrans.

(Also, a slightly more visible Mythran presence could have been useful--we know they were there, but invisible, but I think a visible Mythran every few minutes would have deterred some of the worst behavior, as well as clearing a little of the mystique around them so they aren't bombarded with stupid questions all the time.  Just IMO.)

EDIT: You know, when I was writing Mines of Doom, I had this idea for a "Community Helper" system, where the most mature users (based on behavior) would be asked to be informal moderators; they wouldn't get any special powers or anything, except for one thing: their reports would have maximum priority, and generally their recommendations would be acted on without more than a cursory review.  This would increase the number of eyes on the ground, without having to pay as many people for constant monitoring.

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« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2011, 07:38:25 pm »

MsRR: I'm not meaning the typical 'smash yourself and respawn' one I always hear about in reference to the out of bounds area. Wink I'm meaning more a whole 'reload' of the area for that character, placing the character back at the map's beginning area. (So like, if it was the Venture Explorer, that one area right where you start when you first log into the game. ... The only area I know of. =P)
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