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[trisha_brooke]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to announce that we'll be doing a Q & A with Ted and John on Tuesday, January 29th at 3pm Pacific Time. It will be in the same format as our last Q & A. We will answer as many questions as we can that are posted ahead of time. After the answers are posted, Ted and John will answer follow up questions for about an hour.

I know that everyone here is awesome, so I ask that you continue to be awesome and keep the questions clean and kind.

Thanks!

[greatexpectations]

all questions and vote totals are current as of 7pm eastern on january 28. any Goko personnel viewing this list are encouraged to click through to the questions to address the question as asked by the poster.
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i'm going to try to organize/rank the questions like i have for the previous Q&A sessions with Goko.

• questions will be ranked by the upvotes they receive, so throw a vote at the questions you want to see answered.
• please try to read through the existing questions to see if your question has already been asked. i will be trying to keep this list as up to date as possible.
• please try to limit things to one question per post. it helps ensure that the Nth question in a post doesn't slip by, and it makes it easier to gauge what questions the community actually wants to see answered. but of course, feel free to include a related followup question or any necessary clarification.
  
• i might edit any question for brevity or clarity. if i do i will mark it as such in the list with a * before the question. if one of my edits makes the intent unclear (or you have some other issue) feel free to PM me.
• if you are not familiar with goko, consider checking out some of the following resources:
• Goko Q&A #1
• Goko Q&A #2
• Goko on the Dominion Strategy Wiki

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Goko Corpororate/Business and Other Products
+8 - Do you have a target set date for when Dominion will officially be out of beta and will be officially launched? What do you hope to improve/achieve before Dominion is "officially" launched?
+7 - Is Dominion Online ever going to be a finished product, or will it continue to receive updates and maintenance long after Dominion finishes (with the release of Guilds) and as long as Goko is around?
+7 - What are your long-terms plans for Goko?
+6 - *How much money has this project cost? 
+5 - *What is your attitude towards Dominion players/community helping you to develop the site?
+5 - What are your current priorities for Dominion? I think we've been told that getting Alchemy is top of the list, but what's the order of things after that?
+4 - Could you quickly compare/contrast yourselves to Zynga?  What do you think of their business model, is that the direction you see Goko going, etc. (related discussion)
+3 - Could you explain the Goko slogan: "Goko is games that go anywhere" a little to us. Why did you choose that particular wording in particular?
+3 - *Whatever happened to RTFG and treasure & traps?
+3 - Are you able to tell us how long you have the rights to Dominion for? Or is sort of information confidential?
+3 - Can you give us a status update on non-Dominion games such as Settlers of Catan?
+2 - *Were there layoffs after the first launch? Have there been new hires since to make fixes and implement new cards/features? Did you learn anything as a company and/or person from the experience?
+2 - Will Dominion/Goko support pure webkit based browsers like that on the Wii U?
+1 - Will there be an actual public launch (or re-launch, rather)?
+1 - Has testing of Guilds begun at Goko?

Goko Dominion: Connectivity, Security, and Platforms
+12 - Can you provide us some assurance that you are staying ahead of new security concerns? For instance, do you have a third party doing periodic checks on things? (related discussion)
+6 - Will the iOS/Android versions feature offline play?
+5 - We know that iOS/Android versions are in the works, is there a time frame on them?
+5 - *How do you intend to handle disconnects?
+3 - What's your timeline for full iOS support, and what do you need to add before you are ready to fully support iOS devices?

Goko Dominion: Gameplay and Interface
+16 - How is the progress coming on an auto-match feature?
+12 - *What are the reasons behind multiplayer lobbies limited to 50 players each? Do you plan to get rid of this limit at some point, or at least divide players between lobbies in some other way?
+10 - *Are there any plans to implement some form of text log inside the game window?
+7 - *Will you (please) institute an alternative way to obtain the Promo cards?
+7 - *Is there any chance of a "guide to the website" or FAQ for the Goko dominion website?
+6 - *The avatars are creepy. Any plans to change the way they look?
+5 - Regarding promos/campaigns, will it be possible to get all the promos by completing all the campaigns? (answer)
+5 - *Is the music ever going to be changed?  As is, it's a tad on the annoying side.
+4 - What can you say about translations? When will they be released? What languages are currently planned? Will the interface be translated too or only the cards itself? (partial answer)
+3 - When can we expect release of the adventures for Cornucopia, Hinterlands and Alchemy?
+2 - *For auto-match, is it foreseeable to use the most expansions between the people auto-matched to prevent people from gaming certain setups they are good at?

Goko Dominion: Accounts, Ratings, and Competitive Play
+17 - *Could you provide us with full details of how the rating system works? As a community quite into the statistical side of things, we'd really like to know exactly what's going on 'under the bonnet', if you will. (related discussion)
+13 - Currently, it is easy to game the rating system by just refreshing or closing your browser before you lose the game. Once the reconnect feature is implemented, do you have plans to reset players ratings?
+11 - A while back you mentioned tournaments. When can we expect this feature and can you give us any more details?
+8 - *Is there any chance your system can store login information for longer than about 72 hours?

[Tables]

I guess we should also try and keep to one question per post to help with that question organisation, right?

Could you explain the Goko slogan: "Goko is games that go anywhere" a little to us - why did you choose that particular wording in particular?

[Beyond Awesome]

A while back you mentioned tournaments. When can we expect this feature and can you give us any more details?

[Beyond Awesome]

Can you give us a status update on non-Dominion games such as Settlers of Catan?

[Beyond Awesome]

Do you have a target set date for when Dominion will officially be out of beta and will be officially launched? What do you hope to improve/achieve before Dominion is "officially" launched?

[Insomniac]

Regarding promos/campaigns, will it be possible to get all the promos by completing all the campaigns?

[Insomniac]

Is Dominion Online ever going to be a finished product, or will it continue to receive updates and maintenance long after Dominion finishes (with the release of Guilds) and as long as Goko is around?

[Beyond Awesome]

Currently, it is easy to game the rating system by just refreshing or closing your browser before you lose the game. Once the reconnect feature is implemented, do you have plans to reset players ratings?

[Donald X.]

Regarding promos/campaigns, will it be possible to get all the promos by completing all the campaigns?

Yes.

[Tables]

Could you provide us with full details of how the rating system works? Right now I think we've been told there's a hidden uncertainty variable, with very little detail of what your number really represents. As a community quite into the statistical side of things, we'd really like to know exactly what's going on 'under the bonnet', if you will.

[1wheel]

Feel free to ignore this one -

I talked to one of their ex-employees this weekend at my toddler's play date. I learned that the launch was possibly rushed due to pressure from its investors. He felt that human resources had been spread way too thin on too many things related to the platform rather than focused on a great working game at launch. Then when they bungled the launch, they laid off a number of people, my play-date friend among them.

http://pockettactics.com/2012/12/03/disappointment-of-the-year-2012/

Were there layoffs after the first launch? Have there been new hires since to make fixes and implement new cards/features? Did you learn anything as a company and/or person from the experience?

[Insomniac]

We know that iOS/Android versions are in the works is there a time frame on them?

[Insomniac]

Will the iOS/Android versions feature offline play?

[Insomniac]

Will Dominion/Goko support pure webkit based browsers like that on the Wii U?

[Tdog]

How is the progress coming on an auto-match feature?

[Tdog]

The only real absolute stopper on the UI side (at least in my opinion) is the inability to display a text log inside the game window. Are there any plans to implement some form of this?

[cyberkev63]

Will you (please) institute an alternative way to obtain the Promo cards?

I want to have access to all the cards - like IRL - but I *hate* being chained to the requirement of successfully completing hundreds of games against the bots.  I'm quite happy to throw money your way for the cards, though!

[werothegreat]

Will there be an actual public launch (or re-launch, rather)?

[werothegreat]

This is probably the last thing you need to be worrying about with everything else going on, but is the music ever going to be changed?  As is, it's a tad on the annoying side.

[Kirian]

Is there any chance your system can store login information for longer than about 72 hours?  Forums and the like do so for nigh-indefinite periods; isotropic seems to have about a 30-day limit.  But I seem to always have to re-enter my Goko passwords.

[hsiale]

What is your attitude towards Dominion players community helping you to develop the site? I feel there are several areas where Goko is lacking and to get help it is enough for you to come and ask for it  (most people here want you to succeed as this is the best way to have a good place to play Dominion online).

Things that come to my mind are:
- adding more campaigns (as you can see, one post from Donald X was enough to get the works started),
- writing a good, comprehensive and interactive Dominion manual to include at Goko (what you have currently is, frankly speaking, terrible, it's impossible to learn the game at your site if you're new to it so I can't recommend your site to anyone before I can learn him playing in person),
- translations (I know you have German translation in development and once one is done, adding other language versions should be easy and increase number of people who can play) - for example, I have a Polish translation of cards close to being finished, if you'd like to use it I could give it to you and gradually make a manual to go with it, I guess for every language in the world with significant number of people speaking you will find someone here willing to help with translating or adopting existing translations.

[hsiale]

What are the reasons behind multiplayer lobbies limited to 50 players each? Do you plan to get rid of this limit at some point, or at least divide players between lobbies in some way that I'm likely to end in the same as other players I'm interested to play against (ones with similar skill level)? Lack of good matchmaking is I think the last thing that keeps me playing multiplayer mostly at Isotropic, Goko is better at all other aspects.

[kn1tt3r]

How do you intend to handle disconnects?

Currently there seems to be some reconnect feature, which, however, doesn't work for me, and there is still the issue of people deliberately closing their browser window to abandon games they would lose otherwise.

[pinkymadigan]

The avatars are creepy. I'm pretty sure one is trying to steal my soul through the monitor. Any plans to change the way they look?