<Bigfoot343> First I want to thank you for your availability for this interview and for your contribution to the journal of community OGame.br
<WeTeHa> Not a problem...I am always glad if I can offer some useful info. :)
<WeTeHa> :D
<Bigfoot343> We can start the interview with one presentation of who is WeTeha and what is your function within the GF
<WeTeHa> OK. Who is WeTeHa is very easy...it's me. ^^ I am OGame player since a very long time...started already 03...had a break...and "restarted" in 04. Mostly we fleet accounts if I had some time. After a while I became interested in the .de team and wanted to be part of it.
<WeTeHa> So I became mod, smod...left the game to become admin in two other games (magefight, heropolis...both already offline ^^) and came back to ogame as smod and later BA. And on one of our team meetings someone asked me if I am interested in working for GF...
<WeTeHa> This way I became a CoMa...and after a very short time responsible for OGame in general (as a coma) and much later for the com ogame.de (after I had .se and .com.es).
<WeTeHa> And for now my position is still something about OGame...now as Product Community Manager...something like a CoMa with a bit more power to slap the boss and the developers and the qa and so on...
<WeTeHa> So I also help to collect feedback, problems, feature requests, found and test bugs sometimes aaand try to keep the game design on a nice level...
<WeTeHa> and together with my QA JoKy we have some hard fights with our game designer very often to get the best for the com. ^^
<Bigfoot343> How is manage OGame in general, manage one normal community (DE) and other with international players of several countries suggestion areas, tools and more recently a test server?
<WeTeHa> With thanks to our OGame Origin project and our fantastic team there it is much easier than without it. ^^ To handle a large Com like .de is always very interesting, with all pros and cons. You have good days...and not so good ones. A huge team needs a lot of time...and the same counts for a huge amount of players on the forum.
<WeTeHa> With collecting the feedback I have some help. Our Community Managers forward all their feedback in their weekly reports to me, we have the international test server where you can send us all your feedback and suggestions directly, and we have the whole Origin project where we can discuss and collect topics from all given countries.
<WeTeHa> This way it is far easier than reading every single board and it is also easier to give feedback. Much more effective to do it on just one single area (e.g. origin) than 30 times always on another forum.
<WeTeHa> And since Origin is in use for tools, suggestions, bugs, requests, discussions, test server and everything else you could imagine...we found a really smart way of doing it. :)
<WeTeHa> But...yeah it still needs a lot of time to do it properly...and I still have not enough of it. Especially during more active times like now with noob protection discussions, the ongoing merge and some more stuff in preparation.
<WeTeHa> Think last night I went to bed around 2am and had to woke up already at 4.30am ... not really much. I hope for some calmer times. ^^
<Bigfoot343> eheheh, I believe in that :P
<Bigfoot343> how the GF sees the Origin? It will be a pioneering project to be used in other games?
<WeTeHa> Hm...this is hard to answer. My bosses know about Origin and other colleagues as well. But they also know that it is still a lot of work to create something like that and that you need an active and self motivating team to handle all stuff in there. For example I never could handle Origin on my own...and without for example Francolino it might be already down again...
<WeTeHa> Especially in the beginning (and still today) he was a great help and did a fantastic job in "collecting" some more mates who helps us with the whole project every single day.
<WeTeHa> Sometimes I even have not enough time to look on it for one or two weeks so I need my team there to slap me with important stuff and to kick my ass if they need something to be done. And they did it. ^^
<WeTeHa> So yeah...it is a really huge and really important project...already now I can not count how many improvements of the game were based on our collections from Origin. And how it helps us with the pioneers server and discussions and surveys about the noob protection.
<WeTeHa> I am sure this project is also interesting for other games as well...but you need some time on your own (as a coma) and you will need a really active team on your side. If any product coma will get those stuff together...why not doing it for other games as well. :) *
<Bigfoot343> about merge, still have this year in other communities?
<WeTeHa> My lovely merge. :) Be sure our community managers poke me with this topic every day...and I poke my product directors every day as well to finish the planning so that we can announce the whole stuff. Since the merge itself will need some weeks it is hard to do it for every country this year...but for sure we could start with the announcements and with activating the process of choosing
<WeTeHa> your target universe.
<WeTeHa> But since we offer 3 or 4 weeks to choose it...so that every player can notice the merge (also with sending emails to them) the merge itself would be at the beginning next year...So...starting to choose the target for the first universes this year...merge itself beginning next year.
<WeTeHa> Just due to the long time it needs...
<Bigfoot343> The version 3.0 with the new noob protection was tested for about month and a half, and in the end of that time some changes were made and almost immediately was announced that it would be implemented in existing universes. Isn´t it better for example reset the server and start the test?
<WeTeHa> We don't think that this is necessary. About the basics we are already really sure as well as we think that the given improvements fits best to it. Especially that we linked the fleet escape to the protection itself and with the really low settings for old universes. Now we still think about the whole honour points system and some more advantages of using them.
<WeTeHa> Currently players think, especially in already given universes, that it´s not worth it to collect them and to be a honourable player. But we already have some more stuff in mind for later updates. :)
<WeTeHa> But about the topic itself...we found all problems within this version (so far...something else always could happens), we did the necessary and from the players requested changes, and we found a smart setting. We have the results we wanted to have from the server and think we already can go online with it. Not much more we could learn from a restart of this server. :)
<WeTeHa> oh
<WeTeHa> and I think some players would kill us if we reset it now... ^^ but that´s another point :D
<Bigfoot343> eheheh, now need reset one day, will prepare for this :P
<Bigfoot343> How has been the feedback from the testserver?
<WeTeHa> In the beginning it was not that good since we mostly received the same as we already got it from the discussions on our forums. Also we had some problems, for example server offline for several hours or the backup problem where we had to add an 8 days old backup and our players lost a lot.
<WeTeHa> But with all the useful feedback and our improvements based on them the mood changed a lot. Currently, even with receiving less feedback in general, the feedback is ok. Sometimes a small bug, mostly some more suggestions about nice improvements and sometimes also just some nice comments like "hey, I like the changes you did." or "nice stuff, will it be online on my server as well?"
<WeTeHa> ...
<WeTeHa> And as usual with large changes in OGame...we always have players who dislike it at all. Same problem appeared with the officers, with the redesign, and with other balancing changes (maybe you remember the time where you could raid res with probes? ^^).
<WeTeHa> Sadly it is not possible to find the best solution for *every single* player...but we tried to do the best.
<Bigfoot343> I know about the probes but I think I went after that, or was still so noob because I never did anything :)
<Bigfoot343> I asked to Joky about the closing of communities due to lack of players and the ability to join communities that speak the same language to have more players per server. he said he had only heard of the idea but did not know if you had something on your desk. You know something about that possibility in future?
<WeTeHa> Those suggestions appears with the whole merging topic, yes. Mostly since some coma´s forwarded requests of their community. *Currently* this topic is not in our mind but for sure it could be an option later on. But only in cooperation with the players in the affected countries. We can not say "hey now .br have to merge with .es...not important what you want". ^^
<WeTeHa> Same counts for scandinavian countries for example with just very small amount of players.
<WeTeHa> It could be an option if the players wants it...but not at the moment. :)
<Bigfoot343> The Forum of each community has a great number of players, however there are many players who didn´t attend and some of those attending are not participatory. A more dynamic and participatory Forum will not be able to attract more players to OGame? (For example a greater availability of GF to offering coupons or free gifts to give to the winners of competitions and initiatives)
<WeTeHa> Communication to our players is still a big topic on our list for the future of the game. There are some thought about an ingame forum for every alliance where we also could show for example the news area of the "real" forum and link to it so that players will notice it much easier and have an improved way to visit the official forum.
<WeTeHa> And we have ingame announcements in mind where you also could spread events and link to the forum and whatever you want. :)
<Bigfoot343> The DM is optional but sometimes there are players who say they haven´t how acquire, there is possibility of increasing the partners and offer more DM as in SponsorPay and SuperRewards?
<WeTeHa> We always have a look for more / new interesting payment partner in our countries. If you have any who could be interesting, you can slap your CoMa and he / she will inform us so that we can collect info and check it a cooperation is possible. But in general it is not a problem.
<Bigfoot343> Many players claim that there is a lack of advertising to OGame compared to other games in the GF. What do you think about this?
<WeTeHa> Problem is that it is easier to get some nice advertisement with huge versions...so for example we did some with the redesign, we send mails about the merge and we will offer email advertisement for the new noob protection. Also we will add the usual banner through the internet. That´s mostly everything we do, also for other games.
<WeTeHa> We tried advertisement in tv with other games...but it´s not worth it...mostly.
<WeTeHa> So we have the usual mails and banner in other games and on the web...but for the moment sadly not more.
<WeTeHa> But we will increase the amount of advertisement with larger update like the noob protection and later versions of the game. :)
<Bigfoot343> and use more social networks to a more direct contact with the players? For example a game of GF has the direct login through Facebook and OpenID ...
<WeTeHa> Facebook for example is on the list for the near future...like fb connect and *maybe* a fanpage in your own language...not just .de / .en
<Bigfoot343> you are a "old school" player, what the best and the worst of OGame during your lifetime?
<WeTeHa> oh and we started a g+ page but also in english / german for now
<WeTeHa> hm...best and worst...
<WeTeHa> best was always my next personal hall of fame...always to get one more bigger hit...the feeling during the attack...the last few seconds before the impact...the adrenaline in your veins...and the fantastic feeling if it works and you won the fight...after a very long night. ^^
<WeTeHa> But if we´re talking about changes in the game...it might be the redesign. OGame was really nice in the old design as well...but the redesign was a huge and necessary improvement to go on with OGame...
<WeTeHa> And the worst parts...can not remember "the" worst thingy. For me mostly if something crashes due to updates, if I have to work till 3 or 4 am due to it...and have to stand up and go to work already one hour later...and this for several day...that´s also a really big pain. ^^
<WeTeHa> Yeah and I dislike the probe change...had around 100k and could delete them after it was not more possible to raid with them :D
<Bigfoot343> I think it is time to let you rest, you deserve :) Want to leave any word to the community BR about present or announce any news or changes to 2012 or for the future?
<WeTeHa> Maybe during december we can offer some more news about the future development of 2012...funny but tomorrow we have a planning meeting about our thought on that topic. ^^ For now let us start with the merge and the noob protection. next major update with a lot of nice stuff is already in queue and will be available soon. And we will go on with our development and tons of new stuff.
<WeTeHa> Just stay tuned and we will implement a lot of nice stuff into ogame...we´re far away from the end :D
<WeTeHa> thats all for now ^^
<Bigfoot343> I´m very grateful for the extra time after normal time of your daily work and at a time when you are full of work to make this interview. I wish you the best luck in your career in GF and good luck in life out OGame too.
<WeTeHa> Thanks. :)
<Bigfoot343> good night and thanks :)
<WeTeHa> good night :)
<WeTeHa> Not a problem...I am always glad if I can offer some useful info. :)
<WeTeHa> :D
<Bigfoot343> We can start the interview with one presentation of who is WeTeha and what is your function within the GF
<WeTeHa> OK. Who is WeTeHa is very easy...it's me. ^^ I am OGame player since a very long time...started already 03...had a break...and "restarted" in 04. Mostly we fleet accounts if I had some time. After a while I became interested in the .de team and wanted to be part of it.
<WeTeHa> So I became mod, smod...left the game to become admin in two other games (magefight, heropolis...both already offline ^^) and came back to ogame as smod and later BA. And on one of our team meetings someone asked me if I am interested in working for GF...
<WeTeHa> This way I became a CoMa...and after a very short time responsible for OGame in general (as a coma) and much later for the com ogame.de (after I had .se and .com.es).
<WeTeHa> And for now my position is still something about OGame...now as Product Community Manager...something like a CoMa with a bit more power to slap the boss and the developers and the qa and so on...
<WeTeHa> So I also help to collect feedback, problems, feature requests, found and test bugs sometimes aaand try to keep the game design on a nice level...
<WeTeHa> and together with my QA JoKy we have some hard fights with our game designer very often to get the best for the com. ^^
<Bigfoot343> How is manage OGame in general, manage one normal community (DE) and other with international players of several countries suggestion areas, tools and more recently a test server?
<WeTeHa> With thanks to our OGame Origin project and our fantastic team there it is much easier than without it. ^^ To handle a large Com like .de is always very interesting, with all pros and cons. You have good days...and not so good ones. A huge team needs a lot of time...and the same counts for a huge amount of players on the forum.
<WeTeHa> With collecting the feedback I have some help. Our Community Managers forward all their feedback in their weekly reports to me, we have the international test server where you can send us all your feedback and suggestions directly, and we have the whole Origin project where we can discuss and collect topics from all given countries.
<WeTeHa> This way it is far easier than reading every single board and it is also easier to give feedback. Much more effective to do it on just one single area (e.g. origin) than 30 times always on another forum.
<WeTeHa> And since Origin is in use for tools, suggestions, bugs, requests, discussions, test server and everything else you could imagine...we found a really smart way of doing it. :)
<WeTeHa> But...yeah it still needs a lot of time to do it properly...and I still have not enough of it. Especially during more active times like now with noob protection discussions, the ongoing merge and some more stuff in preparation.
<WeTeHa> Think last night I went to bed around 2am and had to woke up already at 4.30am ... not really much. I hope for some calmer times. ^^
<Bigfoot343> eheheh, I believe in that :P
<Bigfoot343> how the GF sees the Origin? It will be a pioneering project to be used in other games?
<WeTeHa> Hm...this is hard to answer. My bosses know about Origin and other colleagues as well. But they also know that it is still a lot of work to create something like that and that you need an active and self motivating team to handle all stuff in there. For example I never could handle Origin on my own...and without for example Francolino it might be already down again...
<WeTeHa> Especially in the beginning (and still today) he was a great help and did a fantastic job in "collecting" some more mates who helps us with the whole project every single day.
<WeTeHa> Sometimes I even have not enough time to look on it for one or two weeks so I need my team there to slap me with important stuff and to kick my ass if they need something to be done. And they did it. ^^
<WeTeHa> So yeah...it is a really huge and really important project...already now I can not count how many improvements of the game were based on our collections from Origin. And how it helps us with the pioneers server and discussions and surveys about the noob protection.
<WeTeHa> I am sure this project is also interesting for other games as well...but you need some time on your own (as a coma) and you will need a really active team on your side. If any product coma will get those stuff together...why not doing it for other games as well. :) *
<Bigfoot343> about merge, still have this year in other communities?
<WeTeHa> My lovely merge. :) Be sure our community managers poke me with this topic every day...and I poke my product directors every day as well to finish the planning so that we can announce the whole stuff. Since the merge itself will need some weeks it is hard to do it for every country this year...but for sure we could start with the announcements and with activating the process of choosing
<WeTeHa> your target universe.
<WeTeHa> But since we offer 3 or 4 weeks to choose it...so that every player can notice the merge (also with sending emails to them) the merge itself would be at the beginning next year...So...starting to choose the target for the first universes this year...merge itself beginning next year.
<WeTeHa> Just due to the long time it needs...
<Bigfoot343> The version 3.0 with the new noob protection was tested for about month and a half, and in the end of that time some changes were made and almost immediately was announced that it would be implemented in existing universes. Isn´t it better for example reset the server and start the test?
<WeTeHa> We don't think that this is necessary. About the basics we are already really sure as well as we think that the given improvements fits best to it. Especially that we linked the fleet escape to the protection itself and with the really low settings for old universes. Now we still think about the whole honour points system and some more advantages of using them.
<WeTeHa> Currently players think, especially in already given universes, that it´s not worth it to collect them and to be a honourable player. But we already have some more stuff in mind for later updates. :)
<WeTeHa> But about the topic itself...we found all problems within this version (so far...something else always could happens), we did the necessary and from the players requested changes, and we found a smart setting. We have the results we wanted to have from the server and think we already can go online with it. Not much more we could learn from a restart of this server. :)
<WeTeHa> oh
<WeTeHa> and I think some players would kill us if we reset it now... ^^ but that´s another point :D
<Bigfoot343> eheheh, now need reset one day, will prepare for this :P
<Bigfoot343> How has been the feedback from the testserver?
<WeTeHa> In the beginning it was not that good since we mostly received the same as we already got it from the discussions on our forums. Also we had some problems, for example server offline for several hours or the backup problem where we had to add an 8 days old backup and our players lost a lot.
<WeTeHa> But with all the useful feedback and our improvements based on them the mood changed a lot. Currently, even with receiving less feedback in general, the feedback is ok. Sometimes a small bug, mostly some more suggestions about nice improvements and sometimes also just some nice comments like "hey, I like the changes you did." or "nice stuff, will it be online on my server as well?"
<WeTeHa> ...
<WeTeHa> And as usual with large changes in OGame...we always have players who dislike it at all. Same problem appeared with the officers, with the redesign, and with other balancing changes (maybe you remember the time where you could raid res with probes? ^^).
<WeTeHa> Sadly it is not possible to find the best solution for *every single* player...but we tried to do the best.
<Bigfoot343> I know about the probes but I think I went after that, or was still so noob because I never did anything :)
<Bigfoot343> I asked to Joky about the closing of communities due to lack of players and the ability to join communities that speak the same language to have more players per server. he said he had only heard of the idea but did not know if you had something on your desk. You know something about that possibility in future?
<WeTeHa> Those suggestions appears with the whole merging topic, yes. Mostly since some coma´s forwarded requests of their community. *Currently* this topic is not in our mind but for sure it could be an option later on. But only in cooperation with the players in the affected countries. We can not say "hey now .br have to merge with .es...not important what you want". ^^
<WeTeHa> Same counts for scandinavian countries for example with just very small amount of players.
<WeTeHa> It could be an option if the players wants it...but not at the moment. :)
<Bigfoot343> The Forum of each community has a great number of players, however there are many players who didn´t attend and some of those attending are not participatory. A more dynamic and participatory Forum will not be able to attract more players to OGame? (For example a greater availability of GF to offering coupons or free gifts to give to the winners of competitions and initiatives)
<WeTeHa> Communication to our players is still a big topic on our list for the future of the game. There are some thought about an ingame forum for every alliance where we also could show for example the news area of the "real" forum and link to it so that players will notice it much easier and have an improved way to visit the official forum.
<WeTeHa> And we have ingame announcements in mind where you also could spread events and link to the forum and whatever you want. :)
<Bigfoot343> The DM is optional but sometimes there are players who say they haven´t how acquire, there is possibility of increasing the partners and offer more DM as in SponsorPay and SuperRewards?
<WeTeHa> We always have a look for more / new interesting payment partner in our countries. If you have any who could be interesting, you can slap your CoMa and he / she will inform us so that we can collect info and check it a cooperation is possible. But in general it is not a problem.
<Bigfoot343> Many players claim that there is a lack of advertising to OGame compared to other games in the GF. What do you think about this?
<WeTeHa> Problem is that it is easier to get some nice advertisement with huge versions...so for example we did some with the redesign, we send mails about the merge and we will offer email advertisement for the new noob protection. Also we will add the usual banner through the internet. That´s mostly everything we do, also for other games.
<WeTeHa> We tried advertisement in tv with other games...but it´s not worth it...mostly.
<WeTeHa> So we have the usual mails and banner in other games and on the web...but for the moment sadly not more.
<WeTeHa> But we will increase the amount of advertisement with larger update like the noob protection and later versions of the game. :)
<Bigfoot343> and use more social networks to a more direct contact with the players? For example a game of GF has the direct login through Facebook and OpenID ...
<WeTeHa> Facebook for example is on the list for the near future...like fb connect and *maybe* a fanpage in your own language...not just .de / .en
<Bigfoot343> you are a "old school" player, what the best and the worst of OGame during your lifetime?
<WeTeHa> oh and we started a g+ page but also in english / german for now
<WeTeHa> hm...best and worst...
<WeTeHa> best was always my next personal hall of fame...always to get one more bigger hit...the feeling during the attack...the last few seconds before the impact...the adrenaline in your veins...and the fantastic feeling if it works and you won the fight...after a very long night. ^^
<WeTeHa> But if we´re talking about changes in the game...it might be the redesign. OGame was really nice in the old design as well...but the redesign was a huge and necessary improvement to go on with OGame...
<WeTeHa> And the worst parts...can not remember "the" worst thingy. For me mostly if something crashes due to updates, if I have to work till 3 or 4 am due to it...and have to stand up and go to work already one hour later...and this for several day...that´s also a really big pain. ^^
<WeTeHa> Yeah and I dislike the probe change...had around 100k and could delete them after it was not more possible to raid with them :D
<Bigfoot343> I think it is time to let you rest, you deserve :) Want to leave any word to the community BR about present or announce any news or changes to 2012 or for the future?
<WeTeHa> Maybe during december we can offer some more news about the future development of 2012...funny but tomorrow we have a planning meeting about our thought on that topic. ^^ For now let us start with the merge and the noob protection. next major update with a lot of nice stuff is already in queue and will be available soon. And we will go on with our development and tons of new stuff.
<WeTeHa> Just stay tuned and we will implement a lot of nice stuff into ogame...we´re far away from the end :D
<WeTeHa> thats all for now ^^
<Bigfoot343> I´m very grateful for the extra time after normal time of your daily work and at a time when you are full of work to make this interview. I wish you the best luck in your career in GF and good luck in life out OGame too.
<WeTeHa> Thanks. :)
<Bigfoot343> good night and thanks :)
<WeTeHa> good night :)