So, I have been thinking about this a little. I know overall a lot of us aren't happy with Dominion Online right now. I know I'm not. Right now, it apparently erases all data to whatever folder it is downloaded to. It crashes and overheats for a lot of people. Adventures hasn't been implemented. It's still not on Steam, the web version is unplayable at least for me, the iPad version is not out (plus no offline, what's up with that?) Also, it is damn hard to see what is in play, especially when it matters like with Scheme. Plus, there are other issues as well that have never been fixed like first turn order after winning/losing a game after playing the same opponent again. So, I'm not saying they are the most competent developers around, but please here me out.
Overall, I feel MF wants Dominion to be a success. They aren't Goko. Goko was probably made just to make someone rich and had no intention of serving the fan at all or making a successful Dominion product. MF has other games under their belt. They may have paid money to get the rights from Goko, or maybe RGG was nice and let them have the rights since they already put work into it. Either way, they were spending thousands each month keeping the older servers up. They are paying people's salaries to work on this game. So, they are spending something on this project, which means it is an investment to them and they want it to succeed just as much as we do.
Now, I know progress has been slow. We saw little progress until recently. Actually, I would argue the bulk of the progress we have seen happened after Goko got shut down, probably because they realized they needed to show results, or who knows what. Anyway, I want to know what we can do to help them.
Overall, I feel the forum went in a negative direction after Goko was shut down and for understandable reasons which unfortunately led to a feud between two respected posters on here. No names mentioned. We all know what happened. Anyway, after the backlash of Goko being shut down, it seems MF has pretty much ignored us. Now, I know they listen if we contact them directly. But, I want to help change the perception they may have of the community at the moment.
So, here is my proposal, we try to work with MF, and I don't mean just tell them what we don't like about the product. I think they have some idea of what changes need to be made. What I am thinking is asking them if it would be okay to set up a donation page. Honestly, I paid Goko 3 years ago for a product, not MF, and I got thousands of games worth of my $45 investment. I have no problem giving MF more money if I actually think it will be put to good use. I know some of you may be against my donation idea, and that's okay.
My second idea is to maybe see if they are willing to work on the development with any of us that are really program savvy. SCSNs mod has helped a lot. If SCSN or anyone else is willing to donate time to the project so we get the best game possible, I think that would be great. Now, maybe SCSN or some of you are against the idea of working with MF. Or, maybe MF is against the idea as a whole. I'm just brainstorming ways we can help out and help restore the image of this community.
I love Dominion just like all of you. I want the online experience to be successful. I want MF to succeed. I want it to have all the features we would like and also all the features a mainstream crowd would like. I want it to reach as many people as possible and maybe even bring new people to the game. I would love it if we got tons of new members because of how successful the online implementation became. Now, that may or may not never happen, but I want the best for everything and everyone. I want our community to thrive and for us to look back on this time period as a turbulent time that tested us, but ultimately led to our community becoming stronger than ever and Dominion being stronger than ever.
Any suggestions or ideas to help MF are welcome.