This is the first article I’ve written for the devblog, although some of you have come across me before  This time, I’m not here to wag my finger or ban you, but to nip certain rumours in the bud and to clear up some aspects of our job.

First of all, let me make it clear that the working hours of Support are from Monday to Friday, 9am to 12.30 pm and 2pm to 6pm. As of last week, we also have Support staff on call through the weekend.

It makes sense that you won’t receive any response from us outside of these hours. I can’t help thinking of the player who sent us a message saying “Answer me!” at three o’ clock in the morning in the middle of the week and who then proceeded to fire off a ticket every 5 minutes until it was finally time to go to sleep. So that’s cleared our working hours up.

As for different message categories, some are dealt with faster than others. Why? Well it’s quicker to send on a link for the password recovery form than to unravel the details surrounding the theft of an account after it’d been lent to a friend who’s not your friend anymore who sold it to someone…

And for the tricky ones among you, posting your problem under a section where you think it might get looked at faster won’t help you either. Any message that finds its way into the wrong section will be automatically rejected.

As for our policy on all tickets being replied to… If you don’t get a response, check your junk mail box. If you don’t find anything there, the address linked to your account must be invalid. In most cases, it’s nothing more than a typing mistake when players write the email. Go to the Support website, sign in and click on “See Tickets”.


Even when your message is refused, you will receive a reply, not necessarily what you want to hear, but a response nonetheless, such as in the following cases:

- Message is written in SMS speak or capitals
- Message is in the wrong section
- Message is incomprehensible and/or unreadable
- Message is written in insulting or disrespectful language
- Message is written from a third ¬party account
- Message is written for a friend, a guild member a parent etc.

In certain cases, Support will decline to respond altogether:

- Job applications for Ankama positions
- Requests for Hints and tips
- Suggestions for Game developments

How can you optimise response time?

Well it’s very simple… just fill in the form when you send a ticket. The details you are asked in this form are not there to look pretty, but serve to help us resolve your problem. If we do not have all the required information, we won’t be able to deal with your request. In this case we’ll ask you for the remaining information which will slow down the process.

One request = One ticket. More than one ticket per request slows down the process.

The key to success is a correctly filled out form and a message which gets right to the point of your problem, having been placed in the right section. It goes without saying that courtesy and politeness go a long way. “Go on modo, what are you doing, change my %^*(^& password”, usually this doesn’t cut it.

We make every effort to get back to players who follow the rules as quickly as possible. And if you have followed the rules and the reply is still taking too long? One word for you: “Patience!” Nothing stops you form having a look in the knowledge database (no, really, you’ll probably find the answer to your query there…)

[Article by Redfish!]

Ever since the release of the DOFUS devblog, and especially since the Presentation of the team was uncovered to you, the adored, adoring public, not a day goes by where I don’t feel the empty, tear-filled gazes scrutinizing me here in the shadow… you know what I mean, that look that carefully cuts your heart up slice by slice... puppy eyes!



It’s true my sidekicks in Support are little known, the poor things, and so you’re getting an exclusive opportunity to meet them, to keep their ego from sinking altogether and to keep my conscience from going down with it (damn it, I feel so sorry for those guys).

Right, here goes nothing:


Bii : Watch out, it’s Bii the boss! She’s our own little queen bee, honey included. I’m not saying she’s sticky, just that she’s incredibly sweet… a lot better in my opinion. She spends her day munching on little sugary bits, like myself, but unlike me, she manages to keep in shape...




Redfish : Our little Northern light, who has the special gift of always arriving with his head in the clouds. Being the boss' lieutenant, he lets out an incessant droning noise and tries for better or worse to hide his perverse spirit behind a mercenary front. Sometimes he's almost nice... but never to you.


Sato : He has a compulsive problem with bots - once he sees one, he is driven into some kind of frenzy and starts banning them over and over again. Besides that strange aspect of his personality, Sato is almost normal, leaving in the middle of his cactuses and worshipping strange Japanese teddy bears… Maybe being part of the Technical Support Team got his brain washed, he now believes that the Chosen One in the Prophecy is Luke Skywalker when everybody knows it has always been Anakin!


Necros : If you don't know him it's not too late, but if you do, guess you won’t be surprised if I tell you that he is very scary with his 'Toys' bought overseas for some unknown purpose, better not think too much about it… This is the guy who makes you wonder ‘What’s he building in there?’ Apart from the frightening nickname, he has a collection of dead carnivorous plants on his desk. This guy is clearly not right in the head. He spends his days fantasizing about naked Spawn and Saint-Seiya figurines…




El-Tux : Beyond the fact that he has spends a long time grooming himself and that he wears glasses that are out of this world, I really don’t have much to say about our new guinea-pig for the Spanish Support. He seems nice, let’s see how it goes.




Okajin : A funny young man who talks about himself a lot and who listens to loud music, turning the support desk into a mini club. This explains why I feel so close to him. Ah, he’s good at heart and full of energy, a little too much, maybe, but he’s a gamer… a hardcore gamer with the finger muscles to prove it… Now that means a lot.




Sept : I’ve already been honored with a description, so I won’t add to that… it’s just not cool. I just want to say that I am not obsessed with pink. So you know.




Méluze : A pure Iopette like none I’ve ever seen before. There’s no one like her to kick at the stable door. She’s also the last to close it! Since she came along, the support desk has come to resemble an armory, which keeps Bill happy… he’s finally found someone to shoot the breeze with. As for me, I always keep her sword nearby… you never know what’ll happen with the team that surrounds me…

The Beta of the hardcore, sorry, heroic, version of DOFUS has come to an end and the release of Oto Mustam, the server which will cradle this new game mode, was imminent. No definitive release date has been announced for the server, however. So… what’s going on? Well, we delayed it.


Why we did that, you ask. For one, we have to wait for the migration to our new hoster before we do anything. Since the migration planned for the end of this year has been pushed back to the beginning of the next, the heroic server will have to wait patiently in the wings. But that’s not all. In actual fact, a deeper and more obstructive obstacle lies in our path (well, above all in the path of the the valiant developers, after all, I only stand back and watch… )


This strange problem quickly became evident to the beta-testers, and many reported its occurrence: Frequent disconnections. The very principle of the heroic server mode is that all death is permanent outside challenges. Well, that’s okay so far, for those of you who agree to take the risk… Unfortunately, unlike in an ordinary video game, where you can play away in peace on your own, with an MMORPG, the wellbeing of your modem comes into play… mini-interruptions in signal, server lags, mood swings on the part of your ISP… The terrain is much more complex. As irritating as it is in DOFUS (it’s a problem we’ve been working hard to solve), it’s simply critical in the heroic mode. The smallest reboot from your modem can fry your hero instantly and for good. Frustrating to say the least


We are in the process of examining any and all possible solutions to improving the stability of your DOFUS connection. The migration to our new server is an integral part of this, but we are also concentrating on getting to the root of the lags, as well as a re-evaluation of one of our oldest projects… the d/c system (to reconnect after being disconnected.)The principle is simple: keep a player from being excluded from combat (and declared the loser) if his modem has a hiccup.

So if your modem loses the connection for one hour it won’t change a thing, but in case of a smaller interruptions, or a nasty lag, you’ll be able to continue where you left off. In practice, it’s more complicated since DOFUS is not really a game that lends itself to all this, but we still hope one day to resolve the interaction between turn-based play and frequent disconnections.

Unfortunately all this takes time, and we have many projects, but we’re hoping to get as much of this new approach as possible into development before the release of the new Oto Mustam server… to serve you, O players, and to save your nerves.

We’ll be keeping you posted during the beginning of 2008! Well, happy playing to everyone, and keep training, one day you might become the strongest… You have the potential, I can tell! So don’t give up hope.

I wanted to quickly return to a news article which was published a while ago. We see an increasing number of people offering downloadable bots or other miracle remedies for winning a maximum of Kamas in-game. What’s more surprising is the number of players who get taken in by these scams.

Recently, Friday to be exact, we forced the closure of a website/blog offering a downloadable bot which promised instant riches. We investigated the bot and discovered it was a trap which sent the account details of players to the creator of the pseudo-bot by email.

In 3 days, it collected the account information of 1200 people.
The same bot was reopened on a new website on Saturday, resulting in more than 200 new victims in one weekend.

All I am trying to do here is alert the playing community, in particular the younger players who are less aware of the dangers, to this sort of activity. First of all, we cannot return anything to players. Even ‘honest’ victims of scams don’t receive any compensation, but players who attempt to use these types of programs have the clear intention of cheating and this doesn’t exactly encourage us to help you out. Second of all, your account will be totally emptied by the author of the scam.

So just take care when people offer you things. Try to imagine these real-life situations:
• You’re riding you bike/scooter/motorbike. Someone comes up to you and says “Lend me your keys, I’ll tune this thing for you. New tires, new chain, I’ll even wash it. I’ll give it back to you straight after.” Would you hand over your keys?
• Someone comes up to you in the street and says “Lend me your credit card and your pin code, I know a way to get 100 bucks in 1 minute and it won’t cost you a penny.” Would you believe it?

If bot/cheat programs were actually available, do you really think some stranger would let you use them for free, and risk getting caught? Free of charge? Just ask yourself what they have to gain from all this. If the answer is nothing or very little, it’s definitely a scam.

The person behind the latest occurrence has been identified and came from an island in French overseas territories. The police have been informed. He is a minor, but still risks serious consequences for his illegal activities.
Do not take these miracle-workers at face value. Ask yourself the simple question: why are they offering me this? Where is the catch? That will save you a lot of bother.

You risk losing everything with a simple error in judgment. What is more, you face a permanent ban for attempted cheating.

Finally, a message to the people who offer these types of programs: do not think that you cannot be found, and that you risk nothing. The police and the courts are putting more and more resources into these cases and you risk heavy fines, or worse. Being a minor does not mean you are untouchable.

A word to the wise…

Well, I suppose it’s about time we got this blog off to a good start and introduced you to the team here at DOFUS… Since Aduline (Wakfu) and chaipakoi (Dofus Arena) decided to hide behind classic computer-game characters, I suppose we’ll have to do the same. The whole team here are gamers at heart, so it was a nice little trip down memory lane... Soooo... LET’S ROCK.

Lichen

He’s what we commonly call a Geek. Great fan (or should I say obsessive/compulsive gamer) of Fallout, I would not recommend that you criticize this game within 100 miles of him, unless you wanna have your DOFUS account hackedz. Aside from that, he likes being in the spotlight… As you can see, he’s the only one who chose the picture of a lone hero walking towards the sunset. What a romantic adventurer! *cough cough* Anyway, Lichen is our lead game designer. He’s the one who decides to nerf classes, weapons, skills… All in all, a nice guy!

Mary

Larry… Mary… Same goal in life! Mary is a lady-killer. He loves to display his white teeth in a wide grin (as if he was selling us toothpaste), and never stops checking his hair! He sure loves his little old self, but so do we, so what are you gonna do!? Sometimes, he draws. Well, in fact, he never stops! By day, he creates the most stunning illustrations for the game, but by night, he takes his personal pen out of its purple velvet case, screws in a red lightbulb and delicately undresses ladies with his pen… The items and maps he makes for the game are nothing next to these nymphs, or so I was told.

Lorko

This guy's a real brute... he loves watching wrestling... mano a mano, sweaty beasts embroiled in bestial rage. It's one of his pet pleasures. He's also a graphic designer on DOFUS, like Mary. He's also one of the biggest hardcore gamers in the office... which makes some of his colleagues very jealous.

Poolay

Yet another stellar member of our graphics team, Poolay is responsible for drawing most of the backgrounds in the game. If you’re ashamed to set foot near your horrible-looking guild house until all your friends have gone away, well... it’s Poolay’s fault. This guy once ate so much Pandamani that ever since, he’s been hiding obscene inscriptions all over the game to vent his perverse frustrations... have you heard the expression ‘Misunderstood Artist’? Well let me tell you, you don’t even want to try and get a grip on this guy’s sick mind.

Fry

“Ooooo, just look at that little kitten. It’s so cute… almost human! Let’s take it home and fix up those poor little paws!” That’s Fry for you… weak for the cute and colorful things in life. It’s a good thing he’s an animator on the DOFUS team… When he’s not dancing and organizing tea parties, he brings the creatures and characters drawn by the team to life on your screen. A bit like Dr. Frankenstein, he creates living things from nothing, then irresponsibly sends them off to roam through the world… well, the world of DOFUS at least. How cool is that?

Bill

Captain Bill lacks the hilarious wit of Guybrush, but it’s not easy when you’re lashed to the wheel of the DOFUS ship... the servers, that is. And legend has it that this swarthy seaman can be seen rising in the depths of a Saturday morning to repair a glitch in the mainframe... That I can’t believe. All the same, I can tell you we wouldn’t go far without Bill. His avant-garde approach to game design (e.g. “Let’s reset the server when the 6 Dofus eggs are united”) is not always popular with the marketing department, however.

quelconque

Nyx moves freely between the matrix and the real world... like our own Merovingian, minus the insults. It’s Nyx you have to thank when the anti-flood mechanism prevents you from selling your Gobball Drool near a Zaap. We’re holding a running competition between him and Lichen for the ‘Last to leave the office in the evening’ award... Since he doesn’t have the keys to close up, I think the poor guy is destined to lose.

Nimaoh

Long before he joined us on this earth, Nim really wanted to conquer the world. Unfortunately for him, he was born in Switzerland. Finding himself surrounded with little penknives and chocolate rabbits, he gave up all hope of realizing his dream... and started secretly studying computer programming. This once child prodigy wound up client developer for DOFUS. Before that his past is a bit fuzzy... someone told me something about the Chinese FBI or... forcing a pure and innocent young lady to cross the Atlantic ocean trice just to be with him... *cough*

Simsoft

After completing his mercenary training with Ankama Animations, Simsoft was quickly deployed to the client development team. He’s now sitting right in-between Bill and Nim, lucky guy... He’s a big DOFUS player, and even met his lovely girlfriend ingame! He also has strange robot figures on his desk and monkeys climbing the empire state building... Ahh yes, he did have all sorts of guerrilla tricks up his sleeve when he came... now he just fixes bugs. Well, that’s life!

Fullcanelli

Fullca is an explorer: an adventurer in a dream world of his own creation. He always wanted to travel the real world with a Fedora hat and a whip, but a certain Indiano Jones, or something, stole his great plan. Devastated, the poor soul immersed himself in an Arts degree and ended up here in Ankama, working as a storyboard writer. He says it’s an adventure too, says that you can take many roads to get somewhere. Who’s he trying to convince... anyone can see he’s lost the will to live! These days, he prefers to spend time with the Wakfu animation team than hang out with us... we don’t mind, but he’s still a traitor.

Daryl

No, you are not dreaming… yes, it is a boy standing next to a giant eye in the middle of the desert. Each to his own, hm! That’s the picture... but as for Daryl, I can’t say much. I know he writes, I see him there in the corner, sweating furiously... but what? A mystery. I can confirm that various rumors pin him as crazy/almost crazy/past crazy and many other variations on that theme. One important detail cannot go unsaid: he has worked as Jeff Goldblum’s French voice-over actor on several movies, notably The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

Sept

Like Mary, Sept likes nothing better than to gaze at himself in the toilet mirror. He brings his Megaman costume with him and all... a beautiful sight to behold. For days on end, he believes he’s in a 2-D universe, battling monsters and colleagues. He used not get out of bed in the morning before killing a boss or two in his favorite video game... you guessed it, Dr Wily’s Revenge. This Super-Hero vocation lead him eventually to join the heroic support team here at DOFUS... That’s why he was chosen to represent their team. What else...? He loves dark teal, Nabaztags and Jelly. In short, he’s completely out of touch with reality.

SmilyCelly

She’s all about smiles and bubbles, text bubbles that is. SmilyCelly is the lead English translator. She arrived with Pandala, and has been here ever since. For almost two years now, she’s worked on translating DOFUS, but not only: this queen of puns also works on the art books, comic books and mangas; Dofus-Arena and Wakfu! She’s also an expert photographer... You should see her holiday pictures!

Kelogs

He kinda smells like oatmeal, and has a head like a Gobball… What could you expect from someone that gives himself a cereal brand name, hey? He’s the new guy in town, so he seems a bit shy, but don’t be fooled, he’s a real Irishman through and through: nothing but beer flows through those veins! This ‘Irish tiger’ is Celly’s new helper, and our talented new English translator. Cheers mate!

Fosko

Fosko was our Spanish Community Manager who left just recently. He’s also the one who single-handedly translated the game into Spanish and took great care of Alma. He followed his dream and is now somewhere in Spain with the charming senorita that stole his heart. We wish them all the happiness in the world and hope to cross his path, sometime in the future.

T-Ego

T-Ego is the German Community Manager. He’s Nehra’s mother and father all at once, and like Fosko, he translated the whole game on his own. You might have guessed it already, but he’s German! Straight from West Germany! He’s also an expert ballroom dancer, a hopeless romantic (sorry ladies he’s taken!) and an old-school AD&D Game-Master!

Kaoly

That’s me! I’m your English/International Community Manager. I’m the one in charge of the Community Websites, Forums and now the devblog. I read the forums everyday and forward all the pertinent information to the support, devs and Game designers. Part of my job is also to supervise and recruit the GM/Mods (applications are open btw!) and to spend time translating or writing most of the news you see on the community website. There’s a lot more to it, but I think that’s a good start!

When we asked the DOFUS community what they thought about Ankama’s communication skills, you said that you would all like to hear more about the way updates were dealt with, about the ‘how and why’ behind every addition and modification... Many players want to know more about the game, especially how it was conceived.

We have heard your demands! That’s what the devblog’s here for!

Just like the Wakfu devblog, the DOFUS equivalent will let the development team present their ideas and share their inspiration, game-design techniques and artistic creations with the DOFUS community.

If the devblog is a porthole into the daily lives of the DOFUS team that works on day in, day out, think of those kind souls who write regularly as your faithful window cleaners.