Hi all,
I know Salim has been doing his best to keep you all apprised as to what's going on, but I thought that I should chime in as well.
First, please understand that the majority of the team are working on the game itself, and it's paramount that they do so. Here is a list of what's being worked on. We will continue to post lists like this because you guys deserve to know what's going on. We aren't totally used to the degree of transparency you guys deserve to have, but we are adapting as quickly as possible:
Design
Art
Engineering
So that is what the developers are doing this month and it's coming along very nicely. I really like how it's all coming together.
That leaves me, Tom, and Ben.
We've been working with a business/finance/fund-raising expert named Chris on the Business Plan and Term Sheet. These documents are essential if we are to raise money from angel investors (and we have several who are very interested). We really need this additional funding to 1. bring on some more people and 2. open up an office so we can be working together and not over Skype, which will significantly up our productivity.
But here's where we've messed up, and I take full responsibility -- the buck stops here.
We allowed ourselves to become so focused on the Business Plan that we ended up neglecting the web site and all of you. And as important as the Business Plan is, we can still put some time into the site, and we will be going forward. We allowed ourselves to put blinders on, focusing on the Business Plan and un-focussing on everything else. I sincerely apologize for that. We are having a meeting tomorrow to go over in detail our PR plan for the next month. Once Ben was done with is part of the Business Plan, he put together the PR/Marketing plan for the next month. This was completed very recently and I think it's a great plan, but now we need to assign responsibility and priorities. Also, Tom took a much deserved mini-vacation with his familiy. He is now settled at their vacation spot and will be putting some time into the site and hopefully, with me, putting out some fires.
We really need a community manager and moderators for the site. We've tried a few people, but haven't found the right qualities in the right person yet. Moderation is a tough job -- one needs to be firm but at the same time very friendly and user-oriented. It's not an easy thing to do and it requires a lot of patience.
The reality is we are very short staffed right now in terms of supporting all of you. Ben is our Director of Communications -- he is not simply a community manager. He has a lot of responsibilites and there are only so many hours in a day. Tom is also stretched thin -- he's our COO and CIO and he's in charge of customer service and the site. So he's not just dealing with the community, but he's also doing all of the coding on the site itself, and continuing to build it up to be even more comprehensive than it already is. The good news is that I can help with a lot of that, especially since I'm pretty much finished with my part of the Business Plan. Again, though, I should have been spending some time here, in the Think Tank and elsewhere, but I allowed myself to get completely sucked into working on the Businesss Plan. I will endeavor to manage my time much better going forward.
Anyway, I needed to post this because of our commitment to you that we will be as transparent as possible and that you guys are an important part of the development process. We want you all to feel you are part of developing Pantheon -- it's not just us. So while I am giving you some excuses (short staffed, focused on the Business Plan, Tom on a mini-vacation, etc.) ultimately those excuses don't cut it. We need to do better with customer support and community relations.
Thank you for sticking by us during this time. We're learning as fast as we can and figuring out how better to divide our time up. Like I said, though, the good news is that the game is really coming along. The developers are focussed and Salim is doing a fantastic job project planning and managing the dev team. We just need to make sure we're handling communication and community building as well as we are handling game development.
Again, we appreciate your patience and understanding. I've also received some great emails with some great constructive criticism. We appreciate how up front and willing to help the community is. You guys are truly awesome and I am continually humbled by all of your efforts and how much you believe in Pantheon. It motivates us and validates that what we are working on is the game you all can't wait to play :)
-Brad "Aradune" McQuaid
