Your Survey Irritates Me

[Kilgs]

Why are we waiting for it? It's a survey.
Why is it only open to those who subscribe to your newsletter?
Why are you not simply working on the features mentioned in this forum... it is coincidentally titled "Realm Works Feature Requests"

It is fairly obvious which top 5 features need to be implemented from a simple paging through the forum. At least two of them have been screamed since day one... export and calendar.

At this point, waiting for a survey seems like a stalling tactic.

[Chemlak]

Okay, but of the other 311 feature requests, which ones should be done first?

Which ones will make the users happiest, and which will seem like a waste of time?

[MaxSupernova]

At this point it's a good PR move, because there seems to be a bit of a swell of "Well, what's holding this thing up?".

However (as seems to be a common issue) it was announced well in advance of the time that it was actually ready without a release date and (also a common issue) since the announcement all we've heard is "soon", "soon", "no really, soon".

Communication and transparency are good things, but transparency is best when the things you reveal about your company and your process actually make your customers happy instead of making them doubt.

[Exmortis]

All giving release dates do is fuel the fire when things get delayed. Even EA, microsoft and Ubisoft, some of the largest software companies routinely have delays with products. LWD is a small company and will face them as well, but worse, they have not the resources of those juggernauts to call upon.

Giving a release date before you are 200% sure you can make it is suicide for a small company. The fact they are still here, communicating, and working with us (survey ahem), keeps me happy and satisfied that they are listening and doing the best they can to provide what we the customer(s) want.

And for the record, its customerS, the survey is a perfect way for all of the people here, willing to share their voice to have that voice within the boundries that LWD can provide. Accepting random and uncontrolled feature requests in a forums with out structure and guidlines is like peeing into the wind, sure it sounds like fun at the time, but all it does it get you wet.

The survey gives us the customers the ability to help guide LWD with the features added to Realm works, with structure and planning. Chaotic anarchist feature requests irrates me, it gets no one anywhere useful. Everyone has an idea, everyone has a demand, no one has help to get there. The survey will structure our request and expectations, so LWD can meet those expectations.

[AEIOU]

While I agree with the OP, not everyone reads the forums.

[ShadowChemosh]

Paizo for its last two playtests have used a "Survey" system instead of the forums only. They learned that many of their customer base are not on the forums and their voice is just as important to be heard.

A non-forum based survey should allow for a much better result.

[Acenoid]

Well I suggested it in another thread, there bug systems out there that manage "themselves" if used by the users. Items will be rejected / advanced and tallied against.

But in general, I think that people have to calm down. It's software development we are talking about. They try to be communicative, but if there are no good news - for whatever you are doing - they is no way to do it "right".

If you say nothing ppl will ask.
If you tell them a date, even if you do not have an exact one, you will be measured against that.
If you give them your a representation of your current status e.g. soon / 70% finished etc... you will also win only a little.

So I can just recommend to ignore the timed-announcements to avoid being disappointed. It's not necessary.

There are specific requirements to make a survey representative. I suppose LW has the email adresses of all buyers, so they could easily check how many ppl have bought the product and participate in the survey. If such a person has not oped out from newsletters and such, maybe it makes sense to contact them.

Also I hope that this survey has a real effect. I'm really interested if this custom calendar will be #2 or lower ....

[liz]

Originally Posted by Kilgs

Why are we waiting for it? It's a survey.

If we put out a survey with every single feature request listed here in no particular order, no one would take it. Okay ... maybe a few people would take it, but then it wouldn't be representative of our users. It's important that we design it to gather a lot of information, but in a way where it's not overwhelming to the users. We want people to feel that they can make their voice heard.

Originally Posted by Kilgs

Why is it only open to those who subscribe to your newsletter?

There are laws around mass emails. As such, we send our mass emails through the same service that we send our newsletter. This ensures we follow the law. If you purchased our product within the last year, you're on our mailing list for our newsletter. However, if you opted our of our newsletter, we cannot (legally) include you in our email unless you opt back in.

Originally Posted by Kilgs

Why are you not simply working on the features mentioned in this forum... it is coincidentally titled "Realm Works Feature Requests"

As others have mentioned, there are Realm Works users that aren't on our forums. Additionally, this survey will give us better quantitative data than just gauging interest by looking at posts on a feature request thread, or some other method.

It's also important to point out that this survey will split up "big features" from the "little features". Sure, there are some features on the definite "to-do list", like Calendars and Journals, that are going to take a lot of time. However, there may be smaller items that people really want that could take a few hours for a developer to crank out while waiting to meet with someone on a larger feature. Those smaller items may be hard to determine by just looking at the forums.

I hope that clarifies things a little bit.

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by liz

As others have mentioned, there are Realm Works users that aren't on our forums. Additionally, this survey will give us better quantitative data than just gauging interest by looking at posts on a feature request thread, or some other method.

........

I hope that clarifies things a little bit.

Not to speak for Liz, but to clarify the clarify.....
From Kilgs>"Why are you not simply working on the features...."

Who says they aren't????

It isn't like LWD is sitting waiting on the results of the survey.. I'm pretty sure Rob isn't just cutting a pay check to the troops while they wait for the results of the survey.....

The Survey is a sanity check to insure the focus is in the right places.

[Kilgs]

I opted out of the newsletter and yet am active and interested. So why not a link to allow participation if someone is not on the newsletter list?