1 month since a Community Manager has posted anything

[Shougun]

Title feels like a song... lol:
It's been one month since you talked to me
Checked in on me and said. "I'm listening"

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I can see a lot of negatives to talking to people too much, and that might be why, but yet still it would be nice to feel a bit more interactions somehow.

By negatives I mean the sort of lose lose, hostage situations.

• They say they got the feedback, now everyone is wondering why they haven't done what the thread said (to which they never agreed).
  
• They give a nice detailed response to why they disagree or think for the greater whole it's not a good move, to which everyone roasts them for.
  
• They give a not well detailed response, roast.
  
• They respond to most threads but not yours, roast.
  
• They said they'll do something but for some reason they haven't been able to yet, jail.
  
• They give a reason why there is a delay, more jail.
  
• They actually agree and will try to implement a feature, idea, request, etc- and it isn't done exactly like the person wanted. The biggest gaol.

A lot of roasting and jail lol, and probably all of it feels a bit stressful (classic customer service vibes).

___



Alternatively instead they just work on compiling feedback, making community events, etc. Probably for a lot of employees this situation is nicer. Still would be nice to have more interactions. But I'm not sure how you could ensure it was going to be a net positive for everyone.


Perhaps if we all wear subligars we can coax the old forum user out. Line the path with posts that need urgently translated for us. lol.
Reinheart do you need to see me in my underwear, is this how this works?

[Larirawiel]

https://www.twitch.tv/finalfantasyxiv

They play the game at the moment. So they are active.


Cheers

[StriderShinryu]

Alternatively instead they just work on compiling feedback, making community events, etc. Probably for a lot of employees this situation is nicer. Still would be nice to have more interactions. But I'm not sure how you could ensure it was going to be a net positive for everyone.

While I don't think you're wrong about how players will likely take any kind of response at all (heck, look at the forum regulars who still routinely dig up things YoshiP said 7 years ago as "proof" of how he's just a blatant, intentional liar) I do think there's a middle ground that can and should be achieved.

I don't really expect the community team to actually, directly speak as if they are the developers. I do, however, expect them to actually engage with the player base in a meaningful way more than once every 6+ months. They should, for instance, be able to clearly state exactly what information is being put forward to the developers, as well as in what format it's being put to them. They should be seeking clarification if any of the information they've gathered is either incorrect or lacking in detail/context. They should be able to gather any feedback or pushback on decisions the developers make and be sure to take that to the developers to get some sort of response. They should also be much, much more proactive in actually making sure messages from the developers get to the players in a timely (and official) manner so that non-Japanese players aren't left trying to piece together information that was released only in Japanese and then subsequently translated by fans because no one official is bothering to do it. As much as I respect and appreciate the fans who do fan translations, there is no excuse for them having to do it when it should really fall into the job description of those literally employed to engage with the non-Japanese audience.

So, yeah, the community engagement team are not developers and they shouldn't be speaking as if they were, but there's plenty they can do as community-developer liaisons and middle men that they clearly aren't doing.