Wrong wind directions

[grzechol]

Hi,

according to Wikipedia:

Wind direction is reported by the direction from which it originates. For example, a northerly wind blows from the north to the south.

However in AoP the wind direction is always named as opposite to the actual direction: wind blowing from the south to the north is called "N". It's a bit confusing for true Pirate

There's N wind at the Deep Sea [1,3] (blows from the north to the south):

But it's called 'Wind S':


There's SE wind at Sea of Acada [1,2] (blows from SE to NW):

But it's called 'Wind NW':


Regards,
grzechol

[grzechol]

Come on, guys! It's a pirate game, you can't use wrong names of winds!

[Cory Trese]

Oct 5, 2014 14:20:51 GMT -5 grzechol said:

Come on, guys! It's a pirate game, you can't use wrong names of winds!

We did a survey and talked to many players, looked at other games in the market and wind tracking application usability and made a call we felt satisfied the largest majority of our market demographic.

[grzechol]

Wow, now I'm surprised... I spent some time on sailing yachts and wind blowing from the north to the south was always called a north wind. Is it different in the US?

[Jacob]

My mother used to sail, I asked her about the error in the game when I first booted it up on the Moto... grzechol is right.

Sent from my rooted Falcon

[Cory Trese]

I'm not arguing the point he's trying to make. If the game was intended as a sailing simulator or tool designed for people familiar with the operational realities of ships then the nomenclature used for wind direction is incorrect.

I'm just pointing out that it is a game designed for a demographic of people who play pirate RPG games on Android.

[Jacob]

That I know, but it also fortifies his point. So... You see?

Sent from my rooted Falcon

[Cory Trese]

Oct 5, 2014 14:59:21 GMT -5 Jacob said:

That I know, but it also fortifies his point. So... You see?

Sent from my rooted Falcon

Nope, I don't see at all what that means. Sorry. I'll try to do better in the future.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Jacob]

Hm, alright...
Don't make the same mistake in AoP 2 (If there'll ever be one), as it is confusing as hell for new players that actually know something about sailing.

Sent from my rooted Falcon

[Cory Trese]

It wasn't a mistake at all, it was very intentional -- we considered and tested both approaches.

If/when AoP 2 is created, we will probably go with a "best for majority of players" approach.

We will definitely revisit the demographics and see if their is anything new to be seen in that dimension.

Thanks for the feedback. We will work to improve.

[Jacob]

Ah, good then. Glad to have you two, really.

Thanks

Sent from my rooted Falcon

[grzechol]

So you're using wrong names of wind directions intentionally, just because most of the people are wrong and expect the wrong names instead of the correct ones? And you don't think there's something wrong with this approach?

No offence, but now I understand why do they teach creationism in US schools. It's obviously wrong, but school programs are designed for a demographic of people who think Earth is 6,000 years old. You know, a "best for majority of parents" approach. The truth doesn't matter, does it?

[Cory Trese]

Interesting straw man, but I think you're misrepresenting what I was trying to say.

It is a game designed to be fun to play and easily understood by new players.

I'm sorry that you find this approach so offensive and I will take it into advisement for future efforts.

Thank you for your feedback and I will try to do better next time.

[grävling]

I really think that you need to rethink how you prioritise living up to people's expectations.

The people who don't know a thing about sailing don't know if a N wind is a wind from the north or a wind from the S. I don't know if roughly 50%
of them expect one way and 50% expect the other, or if something else in this world causes them to have a stronger bias for the wind from the S,
but in any case, a good number of them are about to get the behaviour they do not expect.

And if, what happens next, is they discover that in this world, a North wind comes from the North. Exactly as Weather Vanes work. Cool, they
might say. I learned something today. And once they fix their inappropriate expectation -- which could not be all that strong in any case,
they will be completely satisfied with 'North winds come from the North'. And, in the future, should they ever want to learn how to sail,
or indeed discuss winds with anybody, or read weather maps -- they won't find that this game has given them a terrible burden to overcome, because in the real world they will absolutely have to change their thinking. And, selfishly, I don't want to be their boating instructor
(something I do quite a bit) entrusted with the task of correcting their erroneous thinking.

But for people who already correctly know that X winds come from the X, especially for people like me, who knew this before I knew how to read, and possibly before I knew how to walk, the experience is different. We don't have a tiny, not particularly strong preference for 'the
X wind comes from X', based on ignorance and unfamiliarity with the subject. It isn't that we have never thought about it before, but rather we know this stuff deep inside, where there is no thinking done any more.

This hurts sales. I don't show AoP to my boating friends any more. They are unwilling to play a game that gets the fundamentals
so upside-down. Indeed, were this the only game you had on the market, I'd have deleted it as well. There are only so many times that I am
willing to scream with frustration as I plotted a course directly into the wind, instead of running in front of it, as I expected. And this is going to skew your demographics something awful. If all the people who strongly expect an X wind to come from the X delete the game, they
won't be there to be polled, while the people who like the incorrect usage, will of course be still around.

Please reconsider.

[fallen]

Thanks for the feedback! We have to listen to the feedback on all channels and keep doing our best to make an app that has wide appeal.