Well, I've sent a couple of messages through the Kickstarter and a Message through the Contact. No response from either source. Am I being black-holed?
Not that I really believe that. I understand that you are a team of volunteers, but as someone who had a job where all I did all day was answer tech related emails for an web provider, I understand what can, and can't, be done.
Basically, I guess, I'm looking for some sort of ETA on how long we can expect to wait to receive a response, even if the answer is 'I don't know'. Meaning the response to the email and not the response to this.
For most of my questions, I am fine with just posting in the forum, as I'm sure this post is showing. Should I post those things I don't want to post publicly via PM or is there some other option that could be done to get this handled?
Friendly question here:
What type of question do you want to ask that you can't post on the forums?
Honestly the MWM staff posts pretty often on stuff, and right now I imagine there is about a million and a half things going on behind the scenes as they get over the initial freakout of the money influx they are seeing.
Supporting how I can, Starting up a DA group for art, stories, and concepts to be collected
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Please join up if you plan to make or collect CoT related art.
Yup. Busy times.
But at the same time they better get used to it because when the game is running it wont get less busier it probably will get more busy, when having to deal with bugs, tweaks, suggestions, in game bugs, errors, tech support, moderation of the in game, shifting through bug reports, questions, account errors, forums, login/password problems, the servers, and the running of a game 24/7 while working on the improvements, new content, costumes, and reading and answering questions and suggestions about the game and up coming features, marketing, the facebook page, the twitter page, the articles, the business end of income reporting, hours worked, taxes, paper work, and any other legal stuff that may happen.
If they are already feeling bogged down now, man, they have an uphill battle ahead unless they get more paid staff.
Since I am a teacher all i can equate this time period to is the week before school opens...
You are learning 23463325 new things that administration decided to implement. You have to completely fix your room because god knows who messed it all up over the summer. You have to get your first month of lesson plans hashed out... even if you cant use any of them you need them as a plan to show. You have to order your supplies. Parents are already emailing you. You have to update your webpage. Clean out your drives and make all the new folders.........
Eventually you get into the swing of things, and when school opens... the first few weeks are 6am to 10 pm every day.... including weekends, and life is terrible.
Then all that pre-planning comes to fruition and suddenly you are getting out of work almost on time. At that point I can start doing things like... answering emails daily, setting up art displays for the students, running clubs....
Right now they are laying all the groundwork that will open up the time to address the masses..
I mean just look at how many new "I want to volunteer" posts they get per day.... Then think of the logistics of checking those peoples qualifications, assigning them to teams, getting their NDA paperwork in order. That alone is a huge chunk of time for several people to handle at the moment. Multiply that by all the stuff they are trying to secure once the kickstarter ends. They will want to buy buy buy and get to work the second the kickstarter is over and they have money in hand.
Supporting how I can, Starting up a DA group for art, stories, and concepts to be collected
http://city-of-titans.deviantart.com/
Please join up if you plan to make or collect CoT related art.
A major difference between right now and when the game is up and running, is the fact that right now they are unpaid volunteers, working on this when they aren't actually working at their day jobs to pay bills and such. When the game is up, all that stuff will be done by people that are getting paid to be there and do it.
I wonder though, will the volunteers eventually be compensated for their work, especially if the game make it big?
I very much doubt it, if you check the Volunteer section below, they are specifically asking that volunteers sign over their IP rights for anything they create in the game.
Alright then. As long as they got that covered in actual certified contract form. Don't want someone later to get angry or don't like the direction or use of their work by the paid guys later or after realizing they could have made mid 5 figures to low 6 6 figures for their work that they signed away.
And as long as they can legally profit from that work and the other side completely understand that they are giving up their claim to their work.
If you expect to make money... don't ever be a volunteer =)
If you expect your volunteer position to become a paid position.... don't ever volunteer =)
If you want something on your resume, a talking point socially, or just a good feeling as you run around in the game you helped make.... volunteer. =)
Supporting how I can, Starting up a DA group for art, stories, and concepts to be collected
http://city-of-titans.deviantart.com/
Please join up if you plan to make or collect CoT related art.
Since the OP's post, we responded via KS messaging. Just so you all know. :)
Former Online Community Manager & Forum Moderator
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
yeah there isn't any better way to put it than that right there.
Assuming they are indeed using volunteers within the laws of a company and or corporation. Which is something I seen asked about a few times but have not been addressed. But I assume they checked that out carefully when deciding what kind of organization they was going to be.
jag we have consulted legal with our ip's and contracts to protect our artist's, writers, coders.. well all of our employees/volunteers interests while working with us. Everyone who has signed on with us in any department is aware that these are all non paying positions. A lot of us have sacrificed paying work and jobs to put in time on this project. I even have an artist who's wife told him they could go single income while he worked on this project with us. I am also no longer doing paying work to focus all my time on this project and my husband is supporting us and has given up all of his paying freelance jobs to put time into this project. We are all painfully aware but we all care about each other and are looking out for each other. In the end when we have a game to play together all of our combined efforts and donations and sacrifices will of all been worth it. :)
[color=#ff0000]Art Director[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Well alright then. As long as it's all straight and squared away.