No Cord of the Rings today?

[Brutus778]

Pretty sure it was still scheduled just a while ago.

[Cordovan]

Sorry, the show is still on break but will be coming back later this year. I have kept it on the schedule as a placeholder, but you are correct, I should remove it for now.

[Brutus778]

Sorry, the show is still on break but will be coming back later this year. I have kept it on the schedule as a placeholder, but you are correct, I should remove it for now.

Ok good to know, no worries.

[MourneBlade]

Sorry, the show is still on break but will be coming back later this year. I have kept it on the schedule as a placeholder, but you are correct, I should remove it for now.

So what exactly is your job then?

[WeirdJedi]

So what exactly is your job then?

Well, we've all seen what happens when Cordovan goes on vacation. No one is around to get the patch notes together, post them on time, make sure all the notices are in order for when the worlds are active, and make sure the weekly promotion codes get posted to all the media sites in all the languages. Let's not forget that this isn't the only game he has to look after. He does have DDO to take care of too.

The main reason for not doing the Beacon or Cord of the Rings is so he can update all the Release Notes onto the main site and make the guides more professional. Have you seen the new festival guides? I love them! They have pictures, information, and even coordinates! He once stated that Cord of the Rings was his project that he does on his own time, basically on his lunch break. I don't feel like he was ever obligated to do it.

[Sovereign50]

Well, we've all seen what happens when Cordovan goes on vacation. No one is around to get the patch notes together, post them on time, make sure all the notices are in order for when the worlds are active, and make sure the weekly promotion codes get posted to all the media sites in all the languages. Let's not forget that this isn't the only game he has to look after. He does have DDO to take care of too.

The main reason for not doing the Beacon or Cord of the Rings is so he can update all the Release Notes onto the main site and make the guides more professional. Have you seen the new festival guides? I love them! They have pictures, information, and even coordinates! He once stated that Cord of the Rings was his project that he does on his own time, basically on his lunch break. I don't feel like he was ever obligated to do it.

A community manager should be more involved with the community. End of discussion. Festival guides are great, but for many of us FibroJedi fills/filled that role (with pictures too!). Cordovan needs to wade into the muck that is discussion over small rep accelerators.

[TearMaker]

Whilst I will not be the first person to jump on the community managers back because we all realise that Cord of the Rings is a very small % of his job but really? You cannot fit an hour into your schedule to even just answer a few live questions with the usual "maybe, we could be, I will ask someone else who may know or dropping the occasional faux pas to liven up the troops"

I believe there must be something else behind this other than, "I'M too busy" !!

[Pavoff]

So what exactly is your job then?

Will be silly if get 15 sec freezes while streaming

i may be naive, but it think this is the main reason srteam to be off.

[Cordovan]

Right, technical issues that frequently happened in the months before the break was indeed part of the reason, but mostly it was to temporarily re-prioritize my work schedule to allow for additional required work to be done. I don't get upset when people think their community manager doesn't do enough; anyone who actually knows anything about it knows that is not even slightly true, and there's nothing wrong with demanding as much community interaction as possible from your game company. It is true that the whole "livestream thing" was something I essentially forced into existence back in the day pre-SSG, and it has never been a formal part of the job, just something I give up two hours (reality: fourish hours give or take cuz of prep/postproduction/etc) per week for. I agree, though, that in general this kind of thing is mostly expected in 2022, which is why it won't just be coming back but we're working to get at least one more face on stream. Hopefully when +Cord of the Rings returns it'll be better than it was both in terms of quality and production. That's the goal, anyway.

[Arantha]

Right, technical issues that frequently happened in the months before the break was indeed part of the reason, but mostly it was to temporarily re-prioritize my work schedule to allow for additional required work to be done. I don't get upset when people think their community manager doesn't do enough; anyone who actually knows anything about it knows that is not even slightly true, and there's nothing wrong with demanding as much community interaction as possible from your game company. It is true that the whole "livestream thing" was something I essentially forced into existence back in the day pre-SSG, and it has never been a formal part of the job, just something I give up two hours (reality: fourish hours give or take cuz of prep/postproduction/etc) per week for. I agree, though, that in general this kind of thing is mostly expected in 2022, which is why it won't just be coming back but we're working to get at least one more face on stream. Hopefully when +Cord of the Rings returns it'll be better than it was both in terms of quality and production. That's the goal, anyway.

I really appreciate all the work you do, the invisible and the visible. All is important and I hope SSG takes the right decisions.

[maartena]

Right, technical issues that frequently happened in the months before the break was indeed part of the reason, but mostly it was to temporarily re-prioritize my work schedule to allow for additional required work to be done. I don't get upset when people think their community manager doesn't do enough; anyone who actually knows anything about it knows that is not even slightly true, and there's nothing wrong with demanding as much community interaction as possible from your game company. It is true that the whole "livestream thing" was something I essentially forced into existence back in the day pre-SSG, and it has never been a formal part of the job, just something I give up two hours (reality: fourish hours give or take cuz of prep/postproduction/etc) per week for. I agree, though, that in general this kind of thing is mostly expected in 2022, which is why it won't just be coming back but we're working to get at least one more face on stream. Hopefully when +Cord of the Rings returns it'll be better than it was both in terms of quality and production. That's the goal, anyway.

I'm looking forward to it!

It doesn't have to be weekly either, if you get another person doing official streams, maybe do it bi-weekly.

[Strider5548]

Right, technical issues that frequently happened in the months before the break was indeed part of the reason, but mostly it was to temporarily re-prioritize my work schedule to allow for additional required work to be done. I don't get upset when people think their community manager doesn't do enough; anyone who actually knows anything about it knows that is not even slightly true, and there's nothing wrong with demanding as much community interaction as possible from your game company. It is true that the whole "livestream thing" was something I essentially forced into existence back in the day pre-SSG, and it has never been a formal part of the job, just something I give up two hours (reality: fourish hours give or take cuz of prep/postproduction/etc) per week for. I agree, though, that in general this kind of thing is mostly expected in 2022, which is why it won't just be coming back but we're working to get at least one more face on stream. Hopefully when +Cord of the Rings returns it'll be better than it was both in terms of quality and production. That's the goal, anyway.

Looking forward to it! I did enjoy the weekly streams quite a bit and eager to see them come back. Hopefully there will continue to be live gameplay even though you'll have another person on with you.

[auximenes]

Hopefully when +Cord of the Rings returns it'll be better than it was both in terms of quality and production. That's the goal, anyway.

Thanks for hosting it.

[DavidmeetHal]

I really appreciate all the work you do, the invisible and the visible. All is important and I hope SSG takes the right decisions.

Same here. I really appreciate all that you do.

[Sovereign50]

I don't get upset when people think their community manager doesn't do enough; anyone who actually knows anything about it knows that is not even slightly true, and there's nothing wrong with demanding as much community interaction as possible from your game company. It is true that the whole "livestream thing" was something I essentially forced into existence back in the day pre-SSG, and it has never been a formal part of the job, just something I give up two hours (reality: fourish hours give or take cuz of prep/postproduction/etc) per week for. I agree, though, that in general this kind of thing is mostly expected in 2022, which is why it won't just be coming back but we're working to get at least one more face on stream. Hopefully when +Cord of the Rings returns it'll be better than it was both in terms of quality and production. That's the goal, anyway.

Look, I get that Cord of the Rings is something taken out of your time. My comment was referring to the apparent gag order over small reputation accelerators. Everyone can see you're actively locking posts and selectively replying to threads, but ignoring a developing (and legitimate) concern is a massive faux pas.

[Cordovan]

Look, I get that Cord of the Rings is something taken out of your time. My comment was referring to the apparent gag order over small reputation accelerators. Everyone can see you're actively locking posts and selectively replying to threads, but ignoring a developing (and legitimate) concern is a massive faux pas.

We are aware of the community's feedback on this change, but at this time we have no plans to add these accelerators back to Skirmishes. The ability of players to farm these accelerators with essentially no time or effort forced this change. We will be looking at ways to make sure there are plenty of in-game opportunities to earn these accelerators, but we did have to make this decision for the long-term health of that particular item.

[Seregthol]

We are aware of the community's feedback on this change, but at this time we have no plans to add these accelerators back to Skirmishes. The ability of players to farm these accelerators with essentially no time or effort forced this change. We will be looking at ways to make sure there are plenty of in-game opportunities to earn these accelerators, but we did have to make this decision for the long-term health of that particular item.

Seriously? Wow.

Did you ever consider "making sure there are plenty of in-game opportunities to earn these accelerators" BEFORE you ripped them out of the game without prior notice?

And incidentally, the reason significant numbers of customers have used those rep accelerators from the Skirmish camps (despite SSG nerfing them already) is that your company has deliberately made the rep process more-and-more of a grind over the past several years. So once again, you make the problem worse, and then remove the solution that many players struggle to find.

[Hephburz-2]

We are aware of the community's feedback on this change, but at this time we have no plans to add these accelerators back to Skirmishes. The ability of players to farm these accelerators with essentially no time or effort forced this change. We will be looking at ways to make sure there are plenty of in-game opportunities to earn these accelerators, but we did have to make this decision for the long-term health of that particular item.

Then answer me this;

A) Why has it taken you over a week to respond to this change when there was significant uproar on the day of the release notes.
B) Knowing it was likely to cause uproar why sneak through the change on a days-notice?
C) Why, only now do you consider these items a problem when they have existed at the Skirmish Camp for more than half of the games existance - I would even have accepted another price increase over their removal entirely, which frankly, is what SHOULD have been done.
D) You do realise this change has not affected any veteran player who had the ability to login before the patch and has accumulated thousands of these (like myself, sitting on a comfortable 5,000), and that in effect all this change does is harm NEW players, who one would assume it would be your desire to KEEP in the game, no?
E) "the long-term health of that particular item" as in, you didn't sell enough of them via the LOTRO store so you remove them almost out of the game completely so now we (not myself) are forced to the store to buy them?
F) "essentially no time or effort" and whos fault is that? You give us nothing else worthwhile buying with Marks, or Meds, yet continue to throw ridiculous amounts at us in instances and raids, don't blame the players for YOUR failings.

Your (SSGs) lack of communication remains abysmal on key (player upsetting) issues, and this statement is utter rubbish.

[alwaysbroke]

... your company has deliberately made the rep process more-and-more of a grind over the past several years. So once again, you make the problem worse, and then remove the solution that many players struggle to find.

I figured out a pattern. In areas without rep item drops you can complete kindred with questing, possibly requiring regional daily's. In areas with rep item drops the easiest way to kindred is a combination of regional quests and deed completion. Works everytime.

I do understand more communication would be preferred. Just making changes without engaging the community leads to outrage. I don't see a big deal with this change. It's exactly as everyone thought --rep should be a grind according to SSG. Sounds reasonable. Literally everything in the game is a grind. They just want to keep you busy. It's a tactic designed to buy SSG time to work on other things. Not surprising at all.

[Arnenna]

We are aware of the community's feedback on this change, but at this time we have no plans to add these accelerators back to Skirmishes. The ability of players to farm these accelerators with essentially no time or effort forced this change. We will be looking at ways to make sure there are plenty of in-game opportunities to earn these accelerators, but we did have to make this decision for the long-term health of that particular item.

Where did you get the idea that marks and medallions were earned with no time or effort? the only reason longer played players have millions of them is because you let the skirmish camp die a death. Not because it takes no time or effort to earn them.

You do know that this currency is earned through running level cap instances and raids right? Do you know that running a Gundabad instance, at level 130, nets about 10 marks and 2 medallions per chest. That's about 20 runs - per accelerator. No time and effort? What?? Granted, level cap players running higher tiers on level earn more, but its still not massive amounts. They are the least likely to need these items, having already done and left behind the landscape areas and the rep grinds. Lower level players working through the landscape are the players that need these items, and they can't earn marks and medallions at a decent rate. I stopped playing Anor because a level cap 6 man instance on t2, run on level, earned me 18 marks and 5 medallions per chest.

Either SSG don't know the game, or this is . . . as already stated . . . utter rubbish.

[alwaysbroke]

Where did you get the idea that marks and medallions were earned with no time or effort? the only reason longer played players have millions of them is because you let the skirmish camp die a death.

You get way more marks/medallion in skirmishes at higher tiers and it can be done at low levels. I suppose it depends on the class but an undergeared hunter can ace any skirmish content on level. That's easy. If I can take my hunter with lv60 gear into a level 68 skirmish and get way more marks/medallion (depends on encounters) that sounds like it might be considered too easy.

[TesalionLortus]

We will be looking at ways to make sure there are plenty of in-game opportunities to earn these accelerators, but we did have to make this decision for the long-term health of that particular item.

How about decreasing the rep point grind with older non-cap factions with stories attached to them, Cord? Or just disattach the storylines from reps. Have you considered this? Men of Ringlo Vale, Reclamation of Minas Morgul etc

I figured out a pattern. In areas without rep item drops you can complete kindred with questing, possibly requiring regional daily's. In areas with rep item drops the easiest way to kindred is a combination of regional quests and deed completion. Works everytime.

This very well may be so. But I'm sure it DOESN'T work with the more grindy extra factions, such as the ones I mentioned above and even if - deed completion method sounds like a nightmare for a player who would like to *just* complete a storyline and then move on to the next content (so like... there was this quest with Jajax and his brother leaving on a boat towards Umbar in Central Gondor and unless they've already changed something I don't know about... it's locked behind this massive rep grind).

[Hephburz-2]

Either SSG don't know the game, or this is . . . as already stated . . . utter rubbish.

Both

[LuckyShot]

We are aware of the community's feedback on this change, but at this time we have no plans to add these accelerators back to Skirmishes. The ability of players to farm these accelerators with essentially no time or effort forced this change. We will be looking at ways to make sure there are plenty of in-game opportunities to earn these accelerators, but we did have to make this decision for the long-term health of that particular item.

Tone deaf response implying that this company does know or play this game.

[Rimenuir]

. I agree, though, that in general this kind of thing is mostly expected in 2022, which is why it won't just be coming back but we're working to get at least one more face on stream. Hopefully when +Cord of the Rings returns it'll be better than it was both in terms of quality and production. That's the goal, anyway.

I like the sound of a second person on stream, but please don't let it be Druidsfire.