Good surprises and bad surprises
In the last few days we have seen this word "surprise" pop up a lot. But here's the thing about surprise teasers: there are good and bad ways of using them.
The weekly update that Jesse puts out is a good place for surprise teasers. They are about future content. Nobody knows really anything about this, and in general we aren't supposed to know. Any teasing that happens here is bonus information and so not likely to make people unhappy.
Then there's what is going on with the Yoda event -- where we were set up to believe it would have a 1 week on / 3 week off cycle, but now it just says "RETURNING SOON" and @CG_AaronNemoyten answered repeated questions about what this means with "sorry, no spoiling surprises!". This is NOT a good place for a surprise teaser. Why? Because you are changing something that is already established, without telling them what the change is or when it will happen. It doesn't lead to anticipation, it leads to irritation.
Furthermore, getting "it's a surprise" as an answer to a direct question makes people feel like they are being treated like children. We have been playing a half-completed, expensive, low-content game patiently, some of us now for 4 or even 6 months. We have earned the right to respectful answers to respectful questions. Not patronizing and evasion.
Then there's the surprise mentioned in the patch notes. This one is sort of in the middle, I guess. It could be something entirely new and could build a bit of excitement. But with no information at all provided, it won't build much. This is a lost opportunity because it came in a set of patch notes with what people feel is bad news: increased gear requirements. It would have been nice if this teaser had been specific enough to actually help balance the perception of the patch.
TL;DR: Surprises and teasers are great for new additions to the game. They are very much not great when applied to things that already exist. And they don't do much of use when they come with zero information attached.
The weekly update that Jesse puts out is a good place for surprise teasers. They are about future content. Nobody knows really anything about this, and in general we aren't supposed to know. Any teasing that happens here is bonus information and so not likely to make people unhappy.
Then there's what is going on with the Yoda event -- where we were set up to believe it would have a 1 week on / 3 week off cycle, but now it just says "RETURNING SOON" and @CG_AaronNemoyten answered repeated questions about what this means with "sorry, no spoiling surprises!". This is NOT a good place for a surprise teaser. Why? Because you are changing something that is already established, without telling them what the change is or when it will happen. It doesn't lead to anticipation, it leads to irritation.
Furthermore, getting "it's a surprise" as an answer to a direct question makes people feel like they are being treated like children. We have been playing a half-completed, expensive, low-content game patiently, some of us now for 4 or even 6 months. We have earned the right to respectful answers to respectful questions. Not patronizing and evasion.
Then there's the surprise mentioned in the patch notes. This one is sort of in the middle, I guess. It could be something entirely new and could build a bit of excitement. But with no information at all provided, it won't build much. This is a lost opportunity because it came in a set of patch notes with what people feel is bad news: increased gear requirements. It would have been nice if this teaser had been specific enough to actually help balance the perception of the patch.
TL;DR: Surprises and teasers are great for new additions to the game. They are very much not great when applied to things that already exist. And they don't do much of use when they come with zero information attached.
