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Author Topic: Q & A with Ted Griggs (CEO) and John Smith (VP of Product) LIVE (until 4pm PT)  (Read 19925 times)

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trisha_brooke

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Goko Corpororate/Business and Other Products
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?
Ted: Once Alchemy is launched and the rest of the expansion set of adventures are in, we will look to removing the “beta” tag.

What are your long-terms plans for Goko?
Ted: We’re currently focused on delivering Dominion and Settlers of Catan, which should be in closed beta in 45-60 days.  We have a few other games that are almost in a beta state, including Race for the Galaxy and Empire Builders.

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?
Ted: I don’t think it will ever be finished.  For instance, we looking at how to enhance adventures both with new modes of play and how to allow players to create and add their own to the game.

*How much money has this project cost? 
Ted: We have been building 3 things, a platform, a few games, and developer API’s. For our initial launch the cost of these three efforts are intertwined so we can’t give a specific figure for just one game... and specifics of our overall finances are, obviously, private.

*What is your attitude towards Dominion players/community helping you to develop the site?
Ted: This was the original desire.  We’ve spent a lot of time learning and cleaning things up in the last few months.  With regards to Dominion, we’ve been putting in the most requested features when possible, and obviously fixing bugs.

In the future, we’d like to publish things like how to create your own AI. Help with ideas to draw new players in. We love that the community is creating adventures and that kind of input is exactly what we’re looking for.

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?
Ted:
1. iOS/Android version
2. Revamped adventures
3. Internationalization

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)
Ted: All I can say is we loved board and card games, and we thought that bringing a game that already has well liked game play was going to be a better experience than games that just consist of a series of “compulsion loops”.  I think you can see by Zynga’s recent closing of a number of games which were all essentially clones of themselves, that people are starting to look for a good game experience.

Whatever happened to RTFG and treasure & traps?
Ted: We’re working to bring these to beta!

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?
Ted: The original vision was to provide a game platform that supports the same game on multiple device platforms (iOS, facebook, Android, web, TV’s, etc.). We want people to be able to stop thinking about what device they can play certain games on and know that whatever they’re using they can play the game. We felt this slogan best represented that. We’ve been delayed in launching on platforms other than web but we’re almost there.

Are you able to tell us how long you have the rights to Dominion for? Or is sort of information confidential?
Sorry, we can’t discuss this without the permission of the licensor.

Can you give us a status update on non-Dominion games such as Settlers of Catan?
Ted: We’re close to getting Settlers of Catan, Race for the Galaxy, and other games into Beta. Right now, we’re still focusing on Dominion, but will let you know when we have more games open for Beta.

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?
Ted: Yes, we’ve stepped back and focused on the games rather than the platform and developers.  We had hoped that we could get the quality and experiences we wanted from outside devs, and this has been a mixed experience.

This said, HTML5 was also a new technology.  I can say though that after 18 months of growth and learning here, that we believe we can now truly get the multi-platform support we were hoping for.

JQS: For launch, we had to focus on parallel efforts to get everything ready at the same time. This really stretched our development resources. After launch we were able to focus more on silos (i.e., getting the platform stabilized immediately after launch, then bringing more focus on the games themselves as soon as the platform was stable).

Will Dominion/Goko support pure webkit based browsers like that on the Wii U?
Ted: HTML5 has come a long way.  The issue isn’t compatibility of the browser but things like hardware acceleration and other things that modern games need. The game is playable on Wii U, but sluggish.

Will there be an actual public launch (or re-launch, rather)?
Ted: Probably not.  We are going to focus getting the games into places where people are.

So, we won’t have an official public launch again, but will have launches for individual games.

Has testing of Guilds begun at Goko?
Ted: We do have the cards, but cannot release the set until the physical set is out.

Goko Dominion: Connectivity, Security, and Platforms
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?
JQS: We believe we’re up to speed and respond to anything that looks like a security issue quickly. So far we’re doing well. As mentioned in the thread, we don’t touch anything to do with credit cards or payment systems (most web sites don’t). We will have periodic reviews but that doesn’t really mean nothing will happen in the future... even large entities like Yahoo/Google/Microsoft despite their large dedicated security teams still have to address problems when they arise.

Will the iOS/Android versions feature offline play?
Ted: This has been a very requested feature.

JQS: The original goal has been to build a multiplayer environment across many systems. We saw the overwhelming desire for offline play and so we are figuring out how to incorporate that alongside the multiplayer system. Not all features may be available in offline play as a result, and we’re figuring out how to best present that.

We know that iOS/Android versions are in the works, is there a time frame on them?
Ted: As I mentioned, we’ve learned a lot about HTML5 and now have a version we can compile into native code.  The issues are more around things like adventures, tutorials, deck builders (Kingdom editor), etc.  These need to be tested.

How do you intend to handle disconnects?
Ted: As of about 2 weeks ago, there is auto reconnect on the platform.  It gives you about 2 minutes to reconnect before terminating the session.
 
What's your timeline for full iOS support, and what do you need to add before you are ready to fully support iOS devices?
Ted: As I mentioned, we’ve learned a lot about HTML5 and now have a version we can compile into native code.  The issues are more around things like adventures, tutorials, deck builders (Kingdom editor), etc.  These need to be tested.

Goko Dominion: Gameplay and Interface
How is the progress coming on an auto-match feature?
Ted: We had to rewrite the meeting room to work under iOS.  This has an automatch feature in it.

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?
Ted: We’re not sure if this is going to matter once we have auto-match, as you can bypass going to lobbies via this feature.

JQS: This is a graph problem, and other sites handle it in different ways. For scale reasons we wanted to have a handle on it.

Are there any plans to implement some form of text log inside the game window?
Ted: We are looking at having the screen size auto-resize.  As a part of that, if there is room on the screen, we can put up the log.

Will you (please) institute an alternative way to obtain the Promo cards?
JQS: This is an interesting idea that we need to explore in conjunction with some new ideas that we are bringing to adventures.

Is there any chance of a "guide to the website" or FAQ for the Goko dominion website?
JQS: Yes, we have a few priorities ahead of this, but it’s an obvious thing to do.

Regarding promos/campaigns, will it be possible to get all the promos by completing all the campaigns?
Ted: Yes, with the remaining campaigns you will be able to get the rest of the cards.

The avatars are creepy. Any plans to change the way they look?
Ted: No, not for awhile.

Is the music ever going to be changed?  As is, it's a tad on the annoying side.
Ted: I’m glad you care!  Perhaps in the future.  You do know you can turn it off and leave sound effects on?

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?
Ted: We have the cards translated in German.  However, we need to translate the buttons and UI elements.  This will probably happen once we get all the cards released so we can do it in one effort.

When can we expect release of the adventures for Cornucopia, Hinterlands and Alchemy?
Ted: Cornucopia and Hinterlands are already released and in the store. Alchemy should be ready in about 2 weeks.

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?
Ted: In professional setting it uses the cards of the table owner, but doesn’t allow them to pick the cards they want to play.

Goko Dominion: Accounts, Ratings, and Competitive Play
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.
Ted: We use a Elo-type rating system.

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?
Ted: Yes, we will fix this.
JQS: We needed to wait for reconnect before we could do something about this. Once we’re confident that reconnect is working, a person will have a “loss” when they lose connection and don’t return.

A while back you mentioned tournaments. When can we expect this feature and can you give us any more details?
Ted: We’d still like to do manual tournaments, but we’ve been swamped with other stuff.  We’re open to suggestions on how to have community run events for now!

Is there any chance your system can store login information for longer than about 72 hours?
JQS: I believe it does already. The issue is that when we release new versions, which we do every few days, the sessions are invalidated by virtue of the servers restarting.
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trisha_brooke

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Hi Everyone!

I posted the answers. Ted and John are here to answer any followup questions you have. So feel free to ask away, just try to keep it on topic and as nice and kind as I know you all are. :-)

Thanks everyone!
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Insomniac

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When can we expect release of the adventures for Cornucopia, Hinterlands and Alchemy?
Ted: Cornucopia and Hinterlands are already released and in the store. Alchemy should be ready in about 2 weeks.

This does not answer the question, the question stated adventures.
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"It is one of [Insomniacs] badges of pride that he will bus anyone, at any time, and he has done it over and over on day 1. I am completely serious, it is like the biggest part of his meta." - Dsell

Insomniac

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For the native apps (iOS/Android) are you going to be looking for beta testers from this site again?
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"It is one of [Insomniacs] badges of pride that he will bus anyone, at any time, and he has done it over and over on day 1. I am completely serious, it is like the biggest part of his meta." - Dsell

Ted Griggs

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When can we expect release of the adventures for Cornucopia, Hinterlands and Alchemy?
Ted: Cornucopia and Hinterlands are already released and in the store. Alchemy should be ready in about 2 weeks.

This does not answer the question, the question stated adventures.

Sorry, I misunderstood.  We are working on those right now.  Trisha is almost done with the stories!
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Insomniac

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Also thanks for taking the time to answer our questions!
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"It is one of [Insomniacs] badges of pride that he will bus anyone, at any time, and he has done it over and over on day 1. I am completely serious, it is like the biggest part of his meta." - Dsell

jqs

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[Mobile beta testers] Yes, definitely. The way that would work is that you'd have to install a developer version of the game so those that are familiar with this process would be the ones we'd pick. :)
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Taco Lobster

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What's the status of card filters (e.g., create a game using Hinterlands cards and non-VP cards costing $4 or more) and vetoes (e.g., here are 12 cards, each player vetoes 1, then the game starts)?
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Watno

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How do you plan to display the game on smaller phone screens?
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Tables

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Quote
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.
Ted: We use a Elo-type rating system."

Judging by the number of people who liked this question, and myself personally, I think we were really looking for a little more detail. If you're unwilling/unable to say then okay, let us know, but I think we were looking for more details. Such as:
Will disconnections be penalised?
Is the only thing recorded your score, or is there an uncertainty variable? Any plans to make that visible if there is?
Will inactivity for days/weeks affect your score (Isotropic handles this by having your uncertainty increase by small amounts each day for example)?
If there's uncertainty, what is your score? An average, or a lower estimate?
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
But not strictly better, because the spinoff can have a different cost than the expansion.

theory

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Or even better, the formula itself?
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Insomniac

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With regards to community run tournaments. A few things I can think of...

1) Ability to give rewards to the tourney winner
2) Ability to have a tourney room
3) Ability to have a bracket on Goko, that when playing with your opponent a "tourney" option becomes available that allows it to be for the tourney and automatically handle bracketing, this would need to handle multiple game series' possibly played broken up IE 2 games one day 5 the next

I don't know if any of that is feasable, but as is I don't think there is anything stopping the community from holding tourneys on goko aside from bug fixes.
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Just came to my mind regarding tournaments:
I don't know if this was answered somewhere, but how is the first player determined? The person that lost more recently goes first? The person who lost the last game goes first? Random?

jqs

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Quote
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.
Ted: We use a Elo-type rating system."

Quote
Will disconnections be penalised?

Yes. We needed to wait to release "reconnect" and have that feature settle in before we start doing this. We have a few other priorities first (FB release, iOS/Android versions) but as soon as we can we'll make it so that if you don't reconnect it will count as a loss. In addition, we track "quits" and we'll start displaying that as well (again, we needed to wait till we had a reliable reconnect so we didn't penalize people who legitimately got disconnected).

More on how ratings are calc'd coming from Trisha who is posting a previous reply about our ratings with more detail.



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trisha_brooke

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Or even better, the formula itself?

Here's a very basic formula I asked the engineer who programed the stats:

rating = μ - (2 * σ)
Where μ is the mean of your estimated skill level and σ is one standard deviation from that mean.

Dominion's initial values for μ and σ are:
μ = 5500
σ = 2250

I had a few other questions asked in private so updating my post:

Is the score affected by time?
Not, yet, but something that we're looking into in the future.

How does it change?
I don't have perfect details, but here are some generalities:
  • Ratings are adjusted based on what place you came in.  It's about whether you came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. in the game, not on how many victory points you won by. 
  • Ratings are also adjusted based on the ratings of your opponents.  For example, beating a higher-rated opponent will help your rating much more than beating a lower-rated opponent.
[/li]
[/list]
« Last Edit: January 29, 2013, 06:39:48 pm by trisha_brooke »
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Ted Griggs

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Just came to my mind regarding tournaments:
I don't know if this was answered somewhere, but how is the first player determined? The person that lost more recently goes first? The person who lost the last game goes first? Random?

Right now it's random.  We can add an option to the game setup screen so this can be set.
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Qvist

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2) Ability to have a tourney room
3) Ability to have a bracket on Goko

Yeah, that's a great idea. Goko could define brackets and then for a limited period of time, players who play against each other in this tourney could join the tourney room and there they could play with every set even if they don't own it. That would give an incentive to play more to get better and of course to buy them afterwards.

Qvist

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Just came to my mind regarding tournaments:
I don't know if this was answered somewhere, but how is the first player determined? The person that lost more recently goes first? The person who lost the last game goes first? Random?

Right now it's random.  We can add an option to the game setup screen so this can be set.

It's absolutely necessary to let the losing player going first for tournaments. And I think most agree here that this should be the default behaviour in pro mode. Setting the first player shouldn't be possible in pro mode, only in casual mode.

Ted Griggs

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Just came to my mind regarding tournaments:
I don't know if this was answered somewhere, but how is the first player determined? The person that lost more recently goes first? The person who lost the last game goes first? Random?

Right now it's random.  We can add an option to the game setup screen so this can be set.





It's absolutely necessary to let the losing player going first for tournaments. And I think most agree here that this should be the default behaviour in pro mode. Setting the first player shouldn't be possible in pro mode, only in casual mode.

Just let us know how you'd like tournaments run.  I can see a number of ways, but if there is a best/favorite way, then we should go with that first.
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Watno

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I think just being able to select first player is best for tournaments, so the tournament organizers can decide.

I disagree that losing players should go first in pro games.
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Insomniac

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With regards to community run tournaments. A few things I can think of...

1) Ability to give rewards to the tourney winner
2) Ability to have a tourney room
3) Ability to have a bracket on Goko, that when playing with your opponent a "tourney" option becomes available that allows it to be for the tourney and automatically handle bracketing, this would need to handle multiple game series' possibly played broken up IE 2 games one day 5 the next

I don't know if any of that is feasable, but as is I don't think there is anything stopping the community from holding tourneys on goko aside from bug fixes.

Are any of those possible, most importantlly 2/3
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Tables

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Take a look at the Dominion Strategy tournaments for ideas - we've successfully run two of them!

I think the key things are, you want games to be fully random (perhaps within certain sets, and you can only join if you have specific sets?), random start player, then loser goes first in subsequent games (assuming you play multiple games, which will usually be desirable, but sometimes you might want blitz tournaments?).
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
But not strictly better, because the spinoff can have a different cost than the expansion.

Qvist

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Or even better, the formula itself?

Here's a very basic formula I asked the engineer who programed the stats:

rating = μ - (2 * σ)
Where μ is the mean of your estimated skill level and σ is one standard deviation from that mean.

Dominion's initial values for μ and σ are:
μ = 5500
σ = 2250

Great, TrueSkill.

Qvist

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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?
Ted: We have the cards translated in German.  However, we need to translate the buttons and UI elements.  This will probably happen once we get all the cards released so we can do it in one effort.

If you need help for that, just let me know.  ::)

Ted Griggs

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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?
Ted: We have the cards translated in German.  However, we need to translate the buttons and UI elements.  This will probably happen once we get all the cards released so we can do it in one effort.

If you need help for that, just let me know.  ::)

If you're offering, I can send you the button and status line text that I need translated!
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