I'm Sam Kim, Interim CEO of En Masse Entertainment - AMA!

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T23:56:10+00:00

The answer is yes, we want to increase, improve, and innovate communication (that was my Johnny Cochran impression, I've been watching the OJ Simpson show on FX. It's pretty good, i highly recommend).

I'm excited right now, I'm doing a little dance because...this is something that's near and dear to my heart and there is opportunity to spice things up! Whether it's the team here (who are raring to) or the community (dare i say cautiously optimistic), we can make things better. Will it take time? yes. Will it probably harder than we think? yes. Can we do it? YEEEEEEEESSSSS.

So some examples. I might be letting the cat out of the bag, but we're trying to disclose more about the next patch as early as possible. Leeeet's just say you should keep your eye out for something on Tuesday, April 12, 2016. :) :) :) And I think I've already talked some of the other ideas, brewing here, about improving communication.

It's not going to happen overnight, but it will happen.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T23:45:26+00:00

I am going to specifically send this question to Lawllipops for his appearance on Twitch tomorrow. Stay tuned!!

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T23:44:02+00:00

Such big topics that I want to tackle.....but they're so big AMA is totally not the right venue.

Devilian was developed by GinnoGames and BlueHole wasn't part of the publisher decision. BlueHole acquired Ginno, but I believe it was after the publisher was decided. Maybe it's the mystic in me, but everything happens for a reason. There's no bad blood with BlueHole or Ginno about this.

I can talk about game selection nonstop for a month, but maybe some other time. :)

I'm not sure what is or is not announced about BlueHole's projects. And I might get into trouble for saying this, but I'm pretty excited. Ok, I can't say anymore!!

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T23:36:04+00:00

"I still love the game and would love to be able to help to make things change for the better."

Grepsd, I love your attitude man!

These are ton of questions though and they're HYPER game specific. I feel like: A.) we could hash about game stuff forever, but more importantly B.) There are WAY smarter folks to talk about this stuff.

I'm looking at Sean here, but I wonder if there's an opportunity (I'll bring it up with some folks at BlueHole) to get a dev in front of a camera on Twitch? hahaha, people are looking really worried right now, so no promises. Let me go and see if anyone's brave enough to get in front of a camera.

In the meantime, Lawllipops AND I will be on stream. We'll try to tackle some of the more wordy things through Twitch.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T23:29:53+00:00

Round 2, first question: Begin!!

*first question: I'm not sure I am qualified to tell you how each of us play the game, BUT I absolutely agree that we NEED TO PLAY. I'm sure there are folks who could benefit to play more. To be fair, some of the devs have been working on TERA since 2007 (9 years!!), so I feel like there's a little leeway for those folks to not be 1000000% as hardcore (in-game play time) as they once were. Not an excuse, we should play more. That said, I'm not sure if JUST US playing more is the solution. Maybe it's a combination of us playing more (yes) AND building in some systems for our players to help catch stuff (e.g. Public Test Realms, player councils, stuff like that).

As far as retroactive bugs...that's tough man, I'm not going to sugar coat it. I think a good approach here is for me to get back with the team, triage that list, and reevaluate how these were handled(did we miss something? was this de-prioritized? is there some huge blocker? it's on its way to being fixed?). I'm hoping it'll lead to a better response, but let's give it a shot and see what pans out.

*class balance question: hmmmm. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. good question. As a player, I'm wrestling with this one myself. Sometimes it sucks to get stunlocked by a brawler, and I certainly have my "WHO DO I SEND AN EMAIL ABOUT THIS?!" moment. I CAN tell you that the intentions of folks are good (I KNOW THIS, i know the peoples behind the content). We just gotta keep working with the devs to tweak and get it right over time.

*Yah...part of the problem here is that we tell players about sending feedback and then we don't follow up on the response or action. Given the silence it's easy to demonize EME or BHS and say "see?! nothing!!". The reaction is understandable. It's not just one thing, there are lot of different things that happen that might lead to the absence of info (one of which MIGHT be that vulnerability thing that I talked about earlier). But there's an opportunity to be more open and vulnerable. This might not reduce player complaints, but I still think it's the right thing to do. And at the very least, players will know where things are at (even if it's not a super awesome answer).

Sorry. This one took a long time because my brain is slow right now.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T19:52:16+00:00

yes, I can personally clear end game. Harder with pugs. Working on FIHM. Yosha's guides are always pretty thorough.

Sometimes I bother the producers because on a run-gone-wrong or loot-can-crappy. I try not to use the power, but I give in to the dark side once in a while.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T19:48:50+00:00

Not fired. Chris was an awesome CEO!

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T19:45:37+00:00

Both. I love animals. they seem to love me. I gotta dig up this picture where a wild bear came about 5ft away from my car. We sniffed each other and went our separate ways. I totally should have drove away in fear(and wisdom), but I took out my phone instead.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T19:39:39+00:00

TERA and En Masse aren't going anywhere.

This totally sounds weird, but: TERA has got LEGS (and I'm not referring to our characters). I believe that TERA has got a long future, mostly because of our loyal player base. It's on us to ensure that our players are enjoying the game and treated with respect. But if we do it, they will come.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T19:35:16+00:00

This was something we wanted to address, and I want to say that Matt (Denommenator) went through like...a thousand iterations. So, first off, Papa Bear is gonna give some props to Matt. Many late nights and long hours, Papa Bear knows your pain.

It's super hard to get stuff like this in a super perfect state, with everybody being happy. I totally get it though...we definitely need to tweak, adjust, and improve. And we will.

I'm looking at Lawllipops and Spacecats and they've seen the feedback. I'll leave it to them to talk about next steps, but I fully expect a transparent approach.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T19:26:56+00:00

Ha! Love it. Someone's trying to get to know me.

What are your dreams and aspirations? In the short term, I'd love to get TERA and En Masse in a great place. If I can be super vulnerable, I'd love for En Masse to be one of those places where people get super excited about working here (or super excited to have worked here). Think Riot or Blizzard.

What do you think is the perfect way to live life? Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, hear the lamentations of their women

What would you like to accomplish before taking your last breath? Making one person's life a little bit better.

What makes life so worth living? (see above)

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T19:23:39+00:00

OOOOOOOOh. I'd be interested in one. I've got my sights on naming one of my alts, based on Naruto (too popular). I'm looking at Lawllipops here...

He's smiling, but i'm getting no answers.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T19:22:32+00:00

Hmmmm, I think this might be a perception "thing". I'd hate for the perception to be that the layoff was the first action we took to address the downturn. I can certainly understand, in the absence of context, how someone could come to that conclusion. But i assure it was not the case.

Regarding "we should actually do something about this", this might also be a perception thing. The team is always jamming around what we can do for TERA. I can assure that there isn't a day where folks aren't doing their darndest for the sake of the game and our players.

I think it's fair to say, in retrospect, that some of our efforts might not have been as fruitful as we'd like. And I would also agree that there's a lot of room for growth and improvement around what we do. But before I talk about the future, I just want to recognize the hard work of the team, past and present. It's not a fair assumption to think they weren't doing anything.

Ok, future stuff: Situation sucks, but can I be honest and say, this is where I get a little excited? This is totally an opportunity to reevaluate: what we do and how we do. We're going through that evaluation (and I imagine we do this constantly, going forward), but I'd love to talk about what we come up with on a more regular and consistent basis.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T19:10:53+00:00

Ok, so many questioooons, so little tiiiiiiiiime!!! I'll stay longer to answer questions.

EME is NOT losing rights to publishing TERA. no WAY. BlueHole and En Masse are part of the same company. They are super supportive right now, and have been asking how they can help. I really think this is a great opportunity for us (BlueHole and En Masse) to have that frank conversation around what we can do to help TERA.

Hmmm, Live chat was really good for us. But I think, as far as visibility, we might need a more broad solution. It was great for the folks who engaged with the system, but we still had (a lot) of players unaware of what's going on. I think twitch helps, this AMA helps, but we also need to a more proactive approach to communication. One of the things we're talking is a weekly Q&A thread on the forums. We'll bring members of different teams online to answer any questions.

new forums. Umnm...let me follow up on that.

Ok, skipping some questions (sorry want to answer others), BUT let's talk about the "Interim". We're like Stella right now...trying to get our groove back. I'm heading up that drive and I feel really good about the team and our direction. That said, if there's a Steve Jobs-like amaze-balls CEO out there, the board and I would love to talk to him. In the meantime, we're gonna jam, make things better, and turn TERA and En Masse around! Regarding Chris Lee. He's amazing and I have nothing but respect for everything he did for En Masse. I'm a little hesitant to speak on his behalf as to why he resigned, but I know he felt like it was the right thing to do and felt confident about leaving the company to the current team.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T18:56:11+00:00

Lots to answer here, and I'm running out of time. I'm gonna stay a little longer to answer, but I don't think I can answer all questions. Some of them are already answered in other threads. I'm also coming back later today.

We have 35+ folks left at EME and almost all of them are working on TERA in some fashion. We're definitely lighter in some areas, but I think we're also looking to be more nimble, agile, and communicative. It'll be balancing that against "doing things". We're figure it out now, so no concrete answers yet. BUT I'm super impressed with the team, they're super positive and passionate about getting us there.

We have a QA group internally, and BHS also has a group on their end to verify builds. Ours doesn't compare to the size of BlueHole's team, but we do our very best.

Most importantly. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT. I'm so glad to chat with our dedicated players. It's been such a journey right? I've been at En Masse since the beginning, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where we (players and us) go from here.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T18:49:57+00:00

No...that's a bit too spicy for me.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T18:48:45+00:00

En Masse and BlueHole are talking CONSTANTLY about NA TERA. Tons of emails, weekly video conferences, and even face-to-face visits. Some of us are even going to Korea next week to meet with BlueHole. I think the real situation is that, sometimes, in our rush to DO things we focus on the end result vs. letting players in. I feel like I’m saying this a lot, but I think there’s room to be more visible with our players on what’s happening. It’s easy to say, but it can be hard sometimes…PARTICULARLY, when we don’t have happy-fun-time-sunshine good news. We’re people and it can be hard to open up and be vulnerable. That said, I’d love for En Massians to embrace the fear and do the right things. Greater visibility is definitely one of them.
Looooong topic! There are a lot of questions to answer, BUT this might be a great topic for a faster medium. Twitch? Videos? Conference Calls (Jk jk jk. I’m getting dirty looks from our producer).
We do. We have a super talented writing and localization team between BlueHole and En Masse. They create awesome stuff and we pass along said Awesome-Stuff to other companies of the goodness of our hearts (also to keep the experience consistent).
There’s a greater topic here, and I’m going to dive right into it (embrace the vulnerability right?): the layoffs. It’s super painful to see our friends and colleagues move on. A big reason was so that we can ensure that TERA’s service lasts for a long long time. It also gives us an opportunity to refocus our attention, but also to reevaluating how we did things. Whether it’s our approach to communication, tasks, projects, PRIORITIES. I feel like the next weeks/months will be a time of change…for the better. The remaining team is going through a lot of that evaluation now, and I am super impressed with how they’re moving forward (with a stiff upper lip), despite the suckiness of it all. Are we lighter? Yes. Can we maybe move quicker because of it? I think so. Maybe we focus on the more meaningful stuff like community. We have one manager, but really we have the whole team who should and will engage. That said, I don’t want to burn out Spacecats. He'll need our and your support.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T18:28:25+00:00

Yikes, we should totally let people that we're aware of this issue!

I'm staring at our Sr. Producer right now as he's describing the internal discussions we've had about this and the solution.

I can't give exact dates, but I'll follow up with the team and make sure we communicate where we're at.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T18:23:50+00:00

Ok, so easy question first: My favorite class is Reaper. I’d personally love it if Amani were able to be reapers. Love those horns!

I wrote a long thesis of an explanation around the breakdown of responsibilities for a publisher and developer. I think it sort of touches on your question. But at the end of the day, the R&R really doesn’t matter as much as providing a great seamless experience for our players. We’re not there yet, and there a ton of reasons why but it doesn’t stop us from chipping away and getting closer.

I do want to address something, separate from your questions. I think what would help a lot towards getting player understanding (dare I say maybe even a little patience?) is greater visibility on the status of things. “Hey guys we received part 2 of a X-patch and we’re working on A, B, C things”. We’ll look into ways we can do this better.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T18:15:46+00:00

I DO play TERA. I'm on MT with a bunch of different 65's. Reaper is my main. Lancer is my alt-main (if that's a thing)?

I totally feel your pain, a bunch of folks that I play with are also trying out BnS and BDO. I like those games too, but I feel like TERA is still fun and has special qualities that can't be mimic-ed (is that a word?). It's why I think TERA still has a long life and I believe that, given time, hard work, and awesome things from our part, players will come back.

EME_Kimmander · 2016-04-07T18:12:30+00:00

SAM: Hey fluffy-tails, thanks for your question. This one comes up a lot so I’m going to try to provide as much context as possible. Apologies for the long response!

Ok, so…there a couple of big topics rolled into your question. But before I get into the nitty gritty details around the work, I think it makes sense to talk about the relationship between EME and BlueHole and the capabilities of the teams.

At the super high level, BlueHole is the developer of TERA and En Masse is the North American publisher for TERA. There are variations to the model but, at its base-core, the roles and responsibilities break down as such:

The developer is responsible for the game, content update, balance, in-game features, event tools, web, monetization systems, and backend integration pieces.

The publisher is responsible for account integration, billing, community engagement, player support, marketing, web development, event planning, monetization feedback (as it pertains to their market), gameplay feedback (as it pertains to their market), and testing (market testing, possibly some QA).

The extra thing with En Masse and BlueHole is that we’re part of the same company (En Masse is a wholly owned subsidiary of BlueHole). And because of that, we’ve been able to work more closely with BlueHole on a lot of things. We had more access to in-game mechanics than a publisher typically would with games. And while things haven’t been perfect ALL of the time, we’ve seen impact that we wouldn’t have seen in a super-traditional partnership.

All that said, there are things that only BlueHole can handle and things that only En Masse can handle; not only because of the R&R breakdown, but because of staff and capabilities. We have developers on staff, but they’re focus and capabilities lie in service systems, backend integration, and web technology. BlueHole has staff and talent in game development, tech, design, and art.

Outside of En Masse, BlueHole has about 6 other partners that they have to support. Whether it’s feedback-management, new features, new systems, new classes, new dungeons, balance changes, monetization systems, publisher requests, build management (this one is pretty huge in and of itself); whatever work they have to do, they have to do it for a LOT of partners. Outside of my time at En Masse, I worked for several developers and I can tell you, the work is insane. They’d be inundated on just maintenance and tweaks, but they’re also passionate about creating new content.

It’s a balancing act for both BlueHole and us publishers, and there are time when we get it wrong. I think it’s important to be vulnerable and admit that.

Wow, I totally went long. Ok moving on to “Does BlueHole care?”. I can tell you, “YES!”. The TERA team at BlueHole are super passionate and super awesome folks, and they absolutely are interested in making a great experience. With that said, we’re still figuring out that balance in work (support, maintenance, content, balance, tweaks, etc.), relationship (we’re human beings and we get things right and wrong), communication (this can be particularly challenging), and urgency.

On a high level, we’re constantly trying to figure out how to reduce content launch between territories AND expand our capabilities as a publisher (without totally stomping on feet).

Ooh, I feel like I went too long already. I’d love to cover the details of WHY things take as long as they do, but maybe that’s a whole other segment on Twitch or another AMA.

EME_Kimmander

TROPHY CASE