Important facts about the first V:EKN set in development

Seen this before in volunteer development of online games. Its relatively easy to fix.

The IC should define a system of how decisions will be made (either by majority of the design team or by top-down decision making by leadership) and then go back and look at the design team emails and forum record.

If the "Design Leader" was not doing his job (giving instructions or helping in the design process), remove him.

If there was cronyism, remove the individuals responsible for that as well. (If the Inner Circle cannot make this kind of decision, then the whole VEKN idea is doomed. Additionally, the IC should have an odd number or some way to prevent tie votes.)

If the need for a Production Manager is there, give them actual decision making power and accept the decisions made.

From where I sit, nothing was revealed in this post that breaks an NDA. The only new details were "dirty laundry" and while many find it distasteful or a "betrayal," whistle-blowing always has one good effect, people are talking about what is going on and people are feeling pressured to fix it.

Jeff may have made it so he is never allowed to be involved in any of VEKN inner workings again, but if his actions result in a properly produced new expansion for VTES and perhaps help fix some serious problems in the way this VOLUNTEER organization is operated, my hat is off to him.

Robert Dudock

Azel wrote:

Again, I hope we can play.the.game. (courtesy of... was it Ashur?)

Pretty sure that was Ankur Gupta.

Kushiel wrote:

Azel wrote:

Again, I hope we can play.the.game. (courtesy of... was it Ashur?)

Pretty sure that was Ankur Gupta.

I've heard Ankur say it several times. Reyda uses it a lot too.

Well said Rob.

Having been a former playtester with VTES I can certainly empathize with Jeff's dilemma. There were times during Anarchs playtest where it became obvious to me that there were problems at the top. To their credit, some great expansions have been released since, but I would likely never get involved in playtest again because of the one-way flow of information and (at that time) poor decision making.

It takes a lot to step out and ostracize yourself the way Jeff did. Perhaps if some of us had the courage to do so back when Anarchs was being developed the set would have resulted as less of a Turkey.

One thing I find a bit odd is hardlining at 35 cards. You're releasing a PDF so no physical media is being printed. Not understanding the inflexibility if a few extra cards actually fit concept and bring something to the table.

BernieTime wrote:

One thing I find a bit odd is hardlining at 35 cards. You're releasing a PDF so no physical media is being printed. Not understanding the inflexibility if a few extra cards actually fit concept and bring something to the table.

I'm guessing designers (understandibly) do not want to flood the game with non-physical cards while there is still a chance for the game to be re-marketed in the future.

Driven to the extreme and understanding that each set focuses on interlocking mechanics, one could feasibly get to the point where your deck consists of 60-80% proxied new cards. Not a desirable situation, I believe.

Other than this, I await for VEKN's official response on the main subject.


Drain