“You’re opposed?” asked the artist incredulously.
Henry knew being opposed would irk his new colleagues, but he had done what was in his best interest. In Heaven’s Gate might was right and the strongest ruled. This was his opportunity to improve his settlement and he had done everything possible to ensure Woodhaerst’s survival.
“You’re a settlement lord, you should know best that these funds can be used to increase gameplay?” chastised the software architect.
“Still, we need to consider the ethical ramifications?” Henry said bidding his time to strike.
“Besides ethics, do you have any other concerns?” Candice asked.
This was his moment, the moment he would lay his ethics aside to and great a hold of strength. This was his moment, to protect his settlement.
“I think we need to consider more than just those four corporations. If we only allow them access, they might monopolize agriculture. We also must remember this will have a global effect, we should give more domestic and international corporations a chance to join,” Henry advised
“I agree,” the Lead Artist said immediately.
At once, the rest began agreeing with Henry.
“So do I,”
“Me too,”
“Same here,”
“Fine, it seems like everyone agrees. I’ll contact the board this afternoon to let them know about this committee’s decision. While I disagree with this decision, I will stifle this team’s decisions.
I look forward to reading your reports,” Dr. McElvaney said leaving the meeting.
“Okay let’s not lose focus with the boss gone. Okay, let’s start working on a tourism patch that Henry mentioned. Dr. McElvaney seemed to like that idea. Let’s take a week to map out tourism. We’ll meet weekly for updates. While we work on this, Henry, poll the settlement lords and see what changes they like to be made. Make sure to track everything in Agile. I’ll also schedule our first social and I expect everyone to attend,” explained.
After the meeting, Henry returned to his workspace and opened the Jira Agile app on his computer. Using the software, he listed several to-do items, starting with where to find the player database and how to make a survey. At the same time, he appreciated the ability to track the progress of each task and the entire project and communicate effectively with his team about the status of each task. He also liked that Jira could prioritize tasks and identify potential roadblocks before they become problems.
For his first task, Henry was eager to gather insights and feedback from the players themselves, and he was willing to get started. However, he was unsure of how to access the names and contact information of the settlement lords, who were the players responsible for managing their settlements within the game.
So, he emailed the Senior Business Analyst in his group, seeking guidance on how to proceed. The Senior Business Analyst was an experienced and knowledgeable professional who had been with the company for many years and had a deep understanding of the game and its players.
When Henry explained his situation to the Senior Business Analyst, he was happy to help. He understood how difficult it was for a new employee to locate various databases and he eagerly supported Henry in his efforts.
He showed Henry how to access the company's database, which stored the names and contact information of the settlement lords. He demonstrated how to search for the information Henry needed and provided him with tips on how to effectively reach out to the settlement lords and gather their thoughts and opinions on the game.
The Senior Business Analyst also shared his own experiences with gathering player feedback and insights, and he provided Henry with some best practices for analyzing surveys and interviews. He also informed Henry, the Research Department was solely in charge of building and conducting surveys and interviews. He emphasized the importance of being respectful and professional when reaching out to the Research Department and reminded Henry to always keep the privacy of the players in mind.
Henry was grateful for the guidance and support he received from the Senior Business Analyst. With the method to poll settlement lords explained, he left his desk to find the Research Department. He found the Research Department on the lower floor next to customer service and marketing.
Walking up to another partition of cubicles. Henry introduced himself, “Hi, I’m the new Business Analyst on the settlement building development team. I'm here to gather player feedback and insights to inform the team,”
“Hello Henry, it's nice to meet you. I'm the Principal Investigator. How can we help you today?” she asked.
“I was told that your department is responsible for building and conducting surveys and interviews. I need to gather current and past settlement player feedback, and I was hoping you could help me with that,” Henry explained.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Of course, we'd be happy to help. But can you tell me a bit more about the specific information you're looking to gather?” she inquired grabbing a notepad and pen next to her.
“I need to investigate settlement players' experiences and what changes they would like to see. I also want to gather information about the strengths and weaknesses of building a settlement in-game from the player’s perspective,” Henry elaborated.
“We can help you with that. We have a lot of experience conducting surveys and interviews and we can ensure that the information you gather is accurate and relevant. Since you’re new, let me talk about compliance before we move forward. This company prioritizes the privacy of the players, and we have strict protocols in place to ensure their information is protected. Failure to safeguard confidential data is a serious breach of company policy,” she reminded him.
“Orientation was only a week ago, the 10-hour compliance modules are still fresh in my mind,” Henry joked.
“Okay then, let’s get started. Cynthia, there will be your contact from now on. Feel free to email her anytime,” said returning to her cubicle.
Henry walked over to Cynthia’s cubicle and waited for her to finish. Seconds later, she stopped typing and looked up at him.
“Come on let’s go somewhere quiet?” she said pointing to a small glass-walled conference room.
20 steps later, they were in a soundproof glass container. The only thing in the room was a small wooden table with four chairs.
“Hi, I’m Henry,” he started.
“I know, I got the email this morning. I’m Cynthia the investigator assigned to the settlement-building development team. I was expecting you. So, let's start by discussing the poll questions. Besides the usual questions: time spent in-game, time spent as settlement lord, time spent in the forum, strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations. What kind of information are you looking to gather from the players?
“Uh, well…the usual questions are fine,” Henry stumbled, it seemed they already had thought out.
“Did you think you were the first business analyst to ask for data?” she chuckled slightly at Henry’s naivete. “Okay, let's start by creating some questions that will gather unique information related to settlement-building. How about this: “Why did you choose to become a settlement lord?”, "What is your overall experience playing the city-building game?", and "What changes would you like to see in the city-building game?"
“Those are great questions. I'd also like to ask questions that will help us understand the strengths and weaknesses of the game from the players' perspective. For example, "What do you like most about the settlement-building game?" and "What do you think could be improved in the city-building game?"
“All the questions will be open-ended to gather more detailed and in-depth qualitative data from the players. Great, it looks like we have a solid set of questions. Let's move on to the next step and decide how we're going to conduct the surveys and interviews,” she said.
“Can we send it as a system message? That way, we can reach many players quickly and easily,” he suggested, thinking about all the system messages he received.
“That's a normal approach. But we also have a contract with a survey company to conduct phone interviews for players who are willing to provide more detailed and in-depth information,” Cynthia explained.
“How about we offer incentives to players who participate in the surveys and interviews? This will help encourage more players to participate and provide us with more valuable information,” he suggested.
“That's a good idea. We could offer in-game rewards, such as bonus resources or special items, to players who complete the surveys and interviews. But you need to speak with marketing. They have gift vouchers that we can send, but you need to get the codes from them. Let me warn you, they are almost as ruthless as monetization. Unless our development team has a source of external funds, I doubt they’ll give you voucher codes,” she advised.
“All right, since we’re done here, I’ll head over there,” Henry said walking to the other end of the floor.
When he approached marketing, everyone had their headphones on ignoring him. After waiting for what felt like an hour, he tapped someone on the shoulder. When he did that, everyone took off their headphones and laughed.
“Argh, you were so close to tying the record, 27 minutes,” complained one man.
“You’re the new B.A. right unless you’re paying for our services, scram,” said an annoyed woman.
“Yeah, we’re busy! We’re in the middle of a new design campaign,” said another.
“I can pay!” Henry said raising his voice.
“Oh? Hurry up and tell us, we’re all listening,” said the man who complained earlier.
“Dr. McElvaney agreed to let agricultural companies into the game if they paid a substantial entry fee. A third of that goes to our budget,” Henry explained.
“Companies? How many?” the annoyed woman asked.
“He’s yet to decide, but it should be somewhere between four and 12. The companies would be spread out based on regional servers,” Henry explained.
“Twelve?” a person said in shock.
“Henry, I apologize about earlier. We do that to every noob. No hard feelings, I hope. I’m Caleb, the Marketing Manager and I’m happy to help you. Just tell us what you need?” he said, wrapping his arms around Henry’s shoulders with a wide bright smile.
Seeing the sudden change in affection, soured Henry’s impression of marketing. But he needed the vouchers for the survey and interviews. Putting on a grin, he replied, “I need voucher codes to attach to surveys and interviews.”
“Is that all? Of course, we’d be happy to help. I just need to know your project coordinator and investigator,” Caleb said.
“Candice and Cynthia,” Henry said.
“Done. We’ll bill Candice and send the voucher codes to Cynthia. I promise you it will be done within the hour!” he said smiling like a used car salesman.
“Before I go, can you tell me more about vouchers?” Henry asked.
“There are four types of vouchers we can award players: bonus resources, exclusive items, early access to new features, or exclusive access to new events. For your survey, we’ll sell you vouchers for bonus resources such as silver, food, wood, or stone players can use to improve their settlements. Unless you want us to sell you exclusive building scrolls. It will cost more money, but I guarantee you a higher response rate,” he said with a big smile
Returning to Cynthia, he filled her in on what happened.
“Okay, it looks like we have a solid plan in place. Let's move forward with conducting the surveys and interviews. It should take a little over two weeks,” she explained.
“Great. Let's touch base in a few days to make sure everything is on track and see if there are any other areas we need to address,” he suggested.
“I agree, I’ll add it as another task in Agile. Thank you so much for your help and support. I appreciate it.
With the plans in place, Henry returned to his desk and answered emails.