After chasing my mission yesterday, I agree with those who have complained about the distraction. I like the concept, but I would get rid of the progress bar, get rid of the pop-ups, and move the green (gold) flag over by the “Rotate Table” icon where the user can click on it if they want to see their progress. Then…the only “distraction” would be the fact that there is a new icon on the top row.
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Hi all,
I’m David and work at Replay as Head of Product 
. I appreciate that there is some frustration on the forum over the introduction of this feature and lingering frustration over the recent stability issues, so I thought it’d make sense for me to try to address some of the feedback directly. We are genuinely grateful for the feedback so far and any which comes in the future; although things may not go at the speed you’d like them to, we are going to be iterating on this feature as we work to improve the site in general, which I’ll address below. I would ask that you try to keep the feedback constructive - it will make it easier to action on our end.
1. General direction of the product
We’re definitely not aiming to move in the direction of Zynga and don’t want to add unnecessary bells and whistles to the product. With Missions specifically, we’re aiming to add an engagement feature which gives an extra incentive and rewards for players to visit us more often and spend more time at the tables. I hope that most will enjoy it but of course not everyone will find it useful or enjoyable and where we can we’d like to limit any annoyance or friction. I can assure you that there are no plans to add cakes or bombs to the table.
2. The progress bar at the tables
I really appreciate the feedback on the intrusion of the progress bar as it’s something we should be able to improve in the coming weeks. We are planning to add missions for gametypes outside of Hold’em ring games in future, so we aren’t planning to remove the progress bar from tournaments - you shouldn’t be receiving notifications on tournament tables as you won’t have active missions there, so the distraction for tournament players should be minimal. However, on reflection we do agree that the notifications can be distracting and that the general UX could be improved. We’re dedicating some design and development resource over the coming weeks to try to get a 2nd iteration out to improve the UX before the end of December.
I’d also like to add that we were testing Missions internally and with a group of active players over the past 3 weeks and although there are definitely some UX improvements to be made, we’re happy that this feature was released without any major bugs or issues - we certainly didn’t have a negligent approach to it. The timing of this release also gives us a window before the holidays to address any concerns the community may have.
3. Why are we building Missions when the site is having stability issues?
The site infrastructure and product features are two separate teams/work streams and we are trying to address both. There is downtime planned in the coming weeks which should resolve the stability issues, I know it is extremely frustrating for players and I hope you can appreciate that we’re also frustrated when we can’t provide the level of stability we’d like to.
4. How Missions work generally
There is a Missions FAQ and general info page, but just to give a high level summary here. Missions are personalised, so the criteria and rewards will be based on your recent play - if your playing habits change over time then your missions should reflect that. Missions are currently active for players at all Hold’em ring game stake levels and depending on the minimum stakes you are eligible for, you will be receiving between 30% and 80% of your rake back via Missions. Some of you may not need the extra chips but we think it’s quite generous as a reward for your play. We have a long list of potential additions and changes to future iterations of this feature, so if you are engaged with it I would encourage you to be vocal here about the additions you would like to see.
I hope I’ve addressed all of the feedback there but please nudge me in this thread if you’d like me to go further. I’ve been here for just over a year and this is my first post, but I will be engaging more frequently on the forum in future and hopefully can give some insight as to why we are doing certain things and what may be coming down the road. Hopefully I can also take some flak from the support staff who I think do an amazing job with the community in general.
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Just take missions off the tables where you are playing & leave it on the dashboard… then if you are interested in such things you can look & if not you dont have to have it flashing up all the time mid game…
2 Likes
Sue (Replay Gaming)
Dec 2, 2022, 15:51 UTC
Thanks for your feedback CraftyCarper. Please be sure to post your comment here: Official Missions Feedback Thread (+ CONTEST through Dec. 20!) for our Ops and Design teams to track. The more feedback received, the likelier they are to make the changes players are asking for.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Cheers,
Sue
CraftyCarper
Dec 2, 2022, 15:31 UTC
Passive is fine but I don’t want to see it expanding & contracting all the time while I’m trying to play! it’s really annoying… just take it off the tables & everyone will be happy. Even worse, it’s right by the pot chip count & covers it up every time it expands to tell you’ve won some ridiculous achievement that I’m not interested in…
–
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Removing it from the tables wouldn’t be an option just because by relegating it to the dashboard only, most players would be unaware of it. Something like achievements is very passive and mainly works in the background, while something like missions is meant to be more visible to act as an external motivator. The plan is to stop it flashing up so much mid-game, and that’s one of the things we’re aiming to address in the coming weeks.
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Well the more ‘in the back ground’ the better in my view… just keep the tables clutter free! do what you like elsewhere…
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As a lot of people are saying, it’s kind of annoying and distracting and it’s not really well designed, so it’s a bit of an eyesore. It’s not a good addition, I’m afraid. We should be able to hide it or turn it off. Or you should just remove it and chalk it up to something that just hasn’t really worked out.
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First thanks to a staff member for posting in a thread that we’re allowed to reply in.
don’t want to add unnecessary bells and whistles to the product
When I try think of the most significant changes I’ve seen on Replay in the past year, this is what comes to mind
- New achivements
- Endorsements
- Missions
These add no improvements to the quality of gameplay and are just shiny trinkets Replay believes will keep users engaged. All the recent changes I’ve seen are perfect examples of Bells and Whistles.
The “Suggestions and Feedback” section on the forum, which I believe is fully ignored by staff, contains many excellent examples of “low hanging fruit.” Things that should be simple to implement and meaningfully improve the quality of user experience.
Let’s review some examples I can come up with off hand. There are many, many more.
- Ability to switch between $/BB chip balances
- Hand Replay viewer that allows fastforwarding/skipping
- Downloadable hand history
- Ability to mute specific spectators
- Ability to view who is spectating
- Make higher limit ring games and SnGs
- Fix the bug where river card frequently doesn’t show in tournaments
- Fix the slow lobby load
- Stop bombarding us with the “Daily Bonus” pop up (it opens every time you visit the landing page)
Part of our (or at least my) frustration is that we’re asking for things and Replay is doing something completely different. I’ve yet to see a single person requesting more gimmicks or frills. We want simple, meaningful changes not more pop ups or animated progress bars placed center stage.
we’re definitely not aiming to move in the direction of Zynga
we’re aiming to add an engagement feature which gives an extra incentive and rewards
I’m sorry but this deserves a 
and a 
This is EXACTLY the secret to Zynga’s success and EXACTLY what Replay appears to be trying to emulate. Appeal to the lowest common denominator to gain the widest possible audience. Poker is a thoughtful game of strategy. This game is not for everyone. By going for mass appeal through Zynga’s secret sauce of carefully timed dopamine hits you risk annoying and alienating the core of your user base who are here for the game and not the frills.
9 Likes
I definitely can’t say it hasn’t really worked out - there’s some adjusting to be done for sure but # of hands played and the # of players playing Hold’em ring games is way up in the first 24 hours, so it’s definitely increasing engagement. With most changes the dissatisfied are going to be the most vocal and we are taking those dissatisfactions seriously, but for Replay to grow it’s important that we take every type of player into account.
If possible I only want to address Missions in this thread so that it doesn’t de-rail too much. Imo it won’t simply be a bells and whistles addition, it’s increasing engagement and play already and it actively gives rewards back to players.
When it comes to suggestions from players on the forum, there are some which we are actively working on, specifically the ability to mute/view spectators and fixing the slow lobby load. I’m hopeful those will come in the near future, the work on the former is half-complete. Some of the others are tricky to prioritise over other things right now. Historically, Replay has worked hard to provide a real-money feel on the site and we want to keep the functionality that we have (as well as hopefully improving things like the hand replayer in future) but there are some features like downloadable hand history and BB balances which will fly over the heads of casual and new players and might be a lot of effort and resource to satisfy a minority of players (although I’m happy to be proved wrong on that!).
Where Replay and Zynga are alike is that we’re play-money platforms and we remain viable by selling chips to players rather than directly from the rake in the game. All player types are important, and I’m not just saying that, but we need to make sure that we’re not just recreating a real-money poker site with an entirely different commercial model. Ideally we need to aim to create a site which balances between core poker players and more casual players who might gravitate towards “carefully timed dopamine hits”, without alienating either. It is important that we satisfy the core player base (much of which is present on the forum) with some of the improvements you’re suggesting, but we’ve also got to satisfy the other player types. The feedback on here is important to keeping us on that track, and outside of the forum we are conducting our own user research and relying on data to make sure that we’re satisfying other audiences. That should help you ultimately, as it provides liquidity in the games.
would be nice to be able to opt in or opt out…just sayi,keep everyone happy.
I find the blue box annoying and distracting to my game
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Yeah, some dude here, their product guy, basically told me that those of us who are complaining are just the squeaky wheels and this thing is, supposedly, a massive success. Doesn’t look like it. Doesn’t look like it at all. Ill-conceived, poorly designed, annoying and distracting.
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Just allow us to minimize it. Simple as that. Those who like it can sit and stare at it. The rest of us, in your words, “dissatisfieds” who think this is annoying and distracting can minimize it. Simple.
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They are gained automatically, and you will see them in your Transactions. At least I can.
Just wanting a simple interface like years ago and uninterrupted functionality in order to play poker. Not a lot to ask for.
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Let’s be honest here David. We both know that Ring game players buy the most chips on the site. Increased engagement is essential to the future of Replay Gaming.
Let’s keep it simple and stable should be the priority.
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Thanks
Is it asking too much to be able to turn this gimmick off?
I’m not interested in missions at all, and the more cluttered my UI, the less I want to play here. I doubt I am alone in this.
Why don’t you ask for feedback before you develop a new “feature” instead of after the fact?
Please include an on/off switch for those of us who just want to play poker.
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where is transactions? don’t see it
If you go to the blue rosette on your Dashboard page, next to your chip balance, click and you will see your account summary followed by your recent bank transactions.
Hope this helps.
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probabably increased enagement is due to your chip sale 9m chips for 100 dollars? somewhat devalues chips but hopefully these will be soaked away by people playing above thier bankroll… however nothing to stop people buying them & the site does need to make money obs, but the first time ive seen that many chips up for sale,
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