An article I think many of you should read

[Fuz]

The GW2 mods and devs seem to handle it just fine. They lock threads, have strict forum rules, and communicate very well with everybody. So it can be done with a little effort...

Not at all.
They lock EVERYTHING that goes against the game, every single critic is locked, often with a stupid excuse (sometimes they're right, tho).
Their forum is terribly handled.

Their communication is extremely poor.

Good read, a bit arrogant but its what we've come to expect from Games developers (well many i know have).

I just want to say this is also a double edged sword, what he says is true to a point, but its lack of communication that also kills the games over night. Honestly if they came down from their high horses occasionally and talked to the unwashed masses they might actually learn something..

I could tell he was from Arenanet immediately he had that arrogance about him.

Agree.

[Lasteran]

Good article.



Yesterday somebody in a private tell asked me to help them level, so i said can you read he said yes, my reply was see i just helped you level.

reading comprehension is key to this game shame so far 92% still don't bother to read.

Any of you who were here in beta remember all the threads about game being to easy yet all i see lately is how hard it is or i have no money in game.

Says the level 31 Lancer.... How about you wait until you have a max level character farming tomes and paying for repair costs while also trying to get a few crafts up. Then start a new class and come back here and tell us how much gil you're getting from quests.

TL;DR you don't know what you're talking about

[Savagelf]

ffxiv offical white knight here.

are you so mistrusted that you think yoshi P is mistrust he keep ever promise made to community and yet you claim he stuck up and he will to lie to you yet. His track history shown kept every promise he made to us.

http://zantetsuken.net/news/final-fa...2-2-and-beyond

[fixitman]

TenTonHammer is the LAST site I would visit for information of any value. I've dealt with their garbage in the past, and refuse to do it again. They are literally the Digital River of gaming sites....

[Shizue]

I agree that devs should not anticipate content/patches that aren't 100% sure to go live in not too long time.
But I don't agree on the starting point: Paying customers DO deserve an answer on critical stuff (ie. the lag bug that's ignored by devs right now. They haven't even said that they're looking into it), even if they're "terrible people". Learn to cope with it, community relationships are part of your job, on a MMO game.
This is another reason why WoW has so much success: The devs listen and answer on the forums and know how to deal with the fanbase.
That part of the article just looks like a whine.

In truth, it's NOT a developer's job to interact directly with their customers on a regular basis. That's what Support and Community Managers/Project Managers/Product Managers/etc. are for. I agree that more communication on critical issues would be great but it should not necessarily come from the development team directly. Support is the front line when it comes to product issues and a customer on an individual basis via an incident or "ticket". From what I've read the major issues here are poor individual customer interaction experiences with Support, lack of responsive Support and lack of communication from SE in general via the Community Managers. Another part of it is that a large number of folks posting on the forums want instant results/responses.

A lot of Developers are brilliant people when it comes to development but are socially inept and are often introverts. Directly interacting isn't necessarily taboo or a bad idea, it's just not something all developers are very good at. Especially given how many posts on forums come from complete animals hiding behind a digital persona knowing that they will never see any repercussions for their actions. Developers often look at the product they are developing as their "baby" and get attached to it. It's not easy to take non-constructive, harsh and downright insulting "feedback" when you're emotionally attached to the target of said "feedback" and don't have the emotional or social tools to cope. I'd wager most people in general would lose their sh#t if they were subjected to all of the negativity on a daily basis.

It's unfortunately a complex issue with no simple solution. Doesn't mean there is no solution, but it ain't easy finding the right balance. I can understand the perspective in the article posted in the OP.

[MochaLatte]

Without paying customers there will be problems. And yes people will vote with their dollar and leave if they don't feel things are being handled as properly or quickly as they could, bottom line.

The devs are doing their job to make money, and catering/serving/listening to paying customers goes hand in hand with that.

[Shizue]

Without paying customers there will be problems. And yes people will vote with their dollar and leave if they don't feel things are being handled as properly or quickly as they could, bottom line.

The devs are doing their job to make money, and catering/serving/listening to paying customers goes hand in hand with that.

Well, actually that's the Product/Project Manager's job. Developers will just end up implementing whatever direction they decide the product will go. Developers are basically grunts that implement the specifications and requirements for whatever they are working on. The management above them often lays the specs/reqs out.

And yes, I agree. Customers will vote with their money and it is important for any given company to hear what their customers want and what their grievances are to keep them coming back.

[Sapereaude]

http://www.tentonhammer.com/the-delu...ation-requests

I found it to be a good read and thought I'd share.

Enjoy

Awesome find. Being on both sides of this issue I can emphatically state that some developers simply refuse to communicate or shouldn't. Heh.

[JayCommon]

The GW2 mods and devs seem to handle it just fine. They lock threads, have strict forum rules, and communicate very well with everybody. So it can be done with a little effort...

I can't speak to whether or not it's a 'little effort', but seeing it done well for other games makes the masses as a whole believe that it should be that easy for every game.

The article is good, but I am disappointed in it as well. I played Defiance before this game for about 4 months and I really enjoyed it. But that game had some bad game-breaking bugs and problems with it that persisted for weeks on end before getting fixed. And the extreme lack of communication from any developers of the game literally cut the player base in half. You can use extreme examples all day about the hatred pointed towards 'them and their families', and I totally believe those things are said to them. But this doesn't explain why a simple statement isn't made saying, "We are looking into this and it is being addressed." Some companies are better than others, but the fact is whether or not it will be hours, days or weeks before a certain problem is fixed, we still as a customer deserve the right to know.

Basically what I'm getting at, is I won't ever be one of those people who spew malice and hatred towards a game developer. I know there will be people who say uncalled for things. But to use his statistic, just because 2,000 people are moronic D-bags, isn't a sufficient enough reason for some companies to alienate the other 198,000 people who genuinely just want an update on problems. Whether what they say is what we want to hear or not, we still want to hear it.

[Fuz]

In truth, it's NOT a developer's job to interact directly with their customers on a regular basis. That's what Support and Community Managers/Project Managers/Product Managers/etc. are for. I agree that more communication on critical issues would be great but it should not necessarily come from the development team directly. Support is the front line when it comes to product issues and a customer on an individual basis via an incident or "ticket". From what I've read the major issues here are poor individual customer interaction experiences with Support, lack of responsive Support and lack of communication from SE in general via the Community Managers. Another part of it is that a large number of folks posting on the forums want instant results/responses.

A lot of Developers are brilliant people when it comes to development but are socially inept and are often introverts. Directly interacting isn't necessarily taboo or a bad idea, it's just not something all developers are very good at. Especially given how many posts on forums come from complete animals hiding behind a digital persona knowing that they will never see any repercussions for their actions. Developers often look at the product they are developing as their "baby" and get attached to it. It's not easy to take non-constructive, harsh and downright insulting "feedback" when you're emotionally attached to the target of said "feedback" and don't have the emotional or social tools to cope. I'd wager most people in general would lose their sh#t if they were subjected to all of the negativity on a daily basis.
It's unfortunately a complex issue with no simple solution. Doesn't mean there is no solution, but it ain't easy finding the right balance. I can understand the perspective in the article posted in the OP.

I didn't mean that it should come from the dev team. Although it would be nice if they stopped by every now and then, it's not their job. But they HAVE TO have people tending and managing the community and giving answers to issues.