PLEASE Learn from your mistakes......

[Sonic_the_Hedgehog]

-SE needs to learn to communicate
-SE needs to stop rushing things out.

WTF? SE has been communicating with us, hell they actually started to release patch notes before that actually patch and they took in our concerns after 1.18 and made some quick changes in 1.18a. Also they haven't been rushing things, 1.18 took like 3 or 4 months to come out and 1.19 is taking about two months, and 1.20 may take two months as well.

IMO they're doing just fine. If SE wasn't doing these "drastic" things, then people would be complaining that SE wasn't doing enough. Also people are gonna get mad at whatever they do in this game, because they're letting people play this game while they're fixing it. Just be glad they're letting you keep your sh** instead of deleting your character when they finally charge. Let the Devs do their job, they already know that if we don't like something we'll let them know.

[darkstarpoet1]

WTF? SE has been communicating with us, hell they actually started to release patch notes before that actually patch and they took in our concerns after 1.18 and made some quick changes in 1.18a. Also they haven't been rushing things, 1.18 took like 3 or 4 months to come out and 1.19 is taking about two months, and 1.20 may take two months as well.

IMO they're doing just fine. If SE wasn't doing these "drastic" things, then people would be complaining that SE wasn't doing enough. Also people are gonna get mad at whatever they do in this game, because they're letting people play this game while they're fixing it. Just be glad they're letting you keep your sh** instead of deleting your character when they finally charge. Let the Devs do their job, they already know that if we don't like something we'll let them know.

too bad the same wasn't done for the original staff.

[Sonic_the_Hedgehog]

too bad the same wasn't done for the original staff.

Well what can you say, the business world is cutthroat. Tanaka is a seasoned producer/developer, the company expects him to push out a good game, he didn't, so they brought in someone new and took on a different route. In Japan when you f**k up, you step down.

[Azurymber]

WTF? SE has been communicating with us, hell they actually started to release patch notes before that actually patch and they took in our concerns after 1.18 and made some quick changes in 1.18a. Also they haven't been rushing things, 1.18 took like 3 or 4 months to come out and 1.19 is taking about two months, and 1.20 may take two months as well.

IMO they're doing just fine. If SE wasn't doing these "drastic" things, then people would be complaining that SE wasn't doing enough. Also people are gonna get mad at whatever they do in this game, because they're letting people play this game while they're fixing it. Just be glad they're letting you keep your sh** instead of deleting your character when they finally charge. Let the Devs do their job, they already know that if we don't like something we'll let them know.

SE communicates like this:
"We decided to implement this in 1.19.. here are some vague details."
and 10min later on the forums
SPECULATE SPECULATE RAGE RAGE RAGE SPECULATE RAGE END OF THE WORLD

whereas SE should be communicating like this:
"We have decided to implement x. Here are some key details. We know you may have concerns about x, y, z. This is how we will address them. We apologize to anyone who is being negatively effected by this.. Heres a list of reasons why we have decided to go this route. We have a team focusing on this aspect. Please post any concerns you have in this thread and like any concerns you agree with and we will take them into consideration, thank you"
edit: this would create one topic that focuses on the debate, remove speculation, and take a lot of the negativity and drama off the general board making the game look less like a failure.

or put another way. the difference is between having game devs just post updates, and having professional public relations managers, marketers, and social anthropologists post updates that suit the culture they are being communicated too and promote a positive community as opposed to the heavily negative community we currently have.

or put another way, its the difference between companies that succeed and companies that fail. There is a reason that companies spend millions on marketing and public relations. And I'm not sure if part of the problem is japanese culture because I know a number of other Japanese companies have had public relations disaster (ex. toyota) and the japanese government has had massive public relations problems over the quake and nuclear crisis.

[Sonic_the_Hedgehog]

SE communicates like this:
"We decided to implement this in 1.19.. here are some vague details."
and 10min later on the forums
SPECULATE SPECULATE RAGE RAGE RAGE SPECULATE RAGE END OF THE WORLD

It doesn't matter if SE releases very specific details, people are going to rage anyway. Instead of raging and speculating, they'll raging about how much they hate changes and so forth. So there's no way around it, also as much as I hate people complaining about stuff before the full picture comes into view, the speculation keeps these boards alive.

[Azurymber]

It doesn't matter if SE releases very specific details, people are going to rage anyway. Instead of raging and speculating, they'll raging about how much they hate changes and so forth. So there's no way around it, also as much as I hate people complaining about stuff before the full picture comes into view, the speculation keeps these boards alive.

as much as you might believe that you're wrong. Again, there is a good reason why successful corporations (ex. apple) spend millions on public relations and marketing. There is a proper way to present information to consumers in order to minimize rage, and there is a proper way to manage media relations. And there is a good reason why some companies have departments -devoted- to it. I'm pretty sure SE does too, but they seem to only work on publicizing the game when they want to sell it (you can't deny the game -looked- epic). And then letting developers, who are unskilled in the field of public relations for the most part, take care of things. This results in massive disasters like the surplus-fiasco which can seriously damage the games reputation (as it did). Its been proven consumers are easily effected by "crises." Or in other words, many people who experienced the surplus problem at launch and read about will view the game in a negative light for years and spread their viewpoint to others.

[Starlord]

It doesn't matter if SE releases very specific details, people are going to rage anyway. Instead of raging and speculating, they'll raging about how much they hate changes and so forth. So there's no way around it, also as much as I hate people complaining about stuff before the full picture comes into view, the speculation keeps these boards alive.

Just like this:

- Raging about Claiming system
- Raging about Parts being removed
- Raging about How the Materia system is toooooo hard.... Because it have 5 tiers and and can equipt 5 of them but each time it gets worse till your fully complete with 5 Materia..

They gave plenty of details about every one of them and look.. people still complain and that's most likely to continue to happen,even one year from now still complaining, 5 years from now still complaining, put it this way.. if you still don't think this game is good by next Anniversary in 2012, at that point I feel as if you don't have a life but to whine for no reason on the boards..

My 2 cents...

[Kailea_Nagisa]

SE communicates like this:
"We decided to implement this in 1.19.. here are some vague details."
and 10min later on the forums
SPECULATE SPECULATE RAGE RAGE RAGE SPECULATE RAGE END OF THE WORLD

whereas SE should be communicating like this:
"We have decided to implement x. Here are some key details. We know you may have concerns about x, y, z. This is how we will address them. We apologize to anyone who is being negatively effected by this.. Heres a list of reasons why we have decided to go this route. We have a team focusing on this aspect. Please post any concerns you have in this thread and like any concerns you agree with and we will take them into consideration, thank you"
edit: this would create one topic that focuses on the debate, remove speculation, and take a lot of the negativity and drama off the general board making the game look less like a failure.

or put another way. the difference is between having game devs just post updates, and having professional public relations managers, marketers, and social anthropologists post updates that suit the culture they are being communicated too and promote a positive community as opposed to the heavily negative community we currently have.

or put another way, its the difference between companies that succeed and companies that fail. There is a reason that companies spend millions on marketing and public relations. And I'm not sure if part of the problem is japanese culture because I know a number of other Japanese companies have had public relations disaster (ex. toyota) and the japanese government has had massive public relations problems over the quake and nuclear crisis.

people are going to rage and complain no matter what, and how can they give specific details on things, that they honestly don't even have finished when they announces them ahead of time.

I would rather be giving a vague description or even none at all, then a fully detailed explanation, then have it change at last min before release.

[AmyRae]

whereas SE should be communicating like this:
"We have decided to implement x. Here are some key details. We know you may have concerns about x, y, z. This is how we will address them. We apologize to anyone who is being negatively effected by this.. Heres a list of reasons why we have decided to go this route. We have a team focusing on this aspect. Please post any concerns you have in this thread and like any concerns you agree with and we will take them into consideration, thank you"
edit: this would create one topic that focuses on the debate, remove speculation, and take a lot of the negativity and drama off the general board making the game look less like a failure.

This doesn't work for a number of reasons.

First, if they gave you full details of their plans, they may need to recant due to adjustments based on the results of play-testing their creation. Exploits may be discovered, or there may be a more balanced approach discovered later on. If they keep changing their tune about what you can expect, it will just upset the playerbase even more than if they'd held back the specifics to begin with.

Second, even if when they provide all the details (in the days leading up to the patch), it still doesn't prevent some players from complaining that it wasn't what they expected. You can't please everyone. Not everyone has the same ideas about what would be enjoyable in the diverse activities an MMO offers.

Third, you can't make a good game by committee. Player feedback is valuable, but you can't design your whole game based on polling. It would end up being an incoherent mess. A good game designer has to have the courage to lead and give players an experience they didn't know they wanted.

Finally, you won't ever stop discussions about how things could have been done differently as long as there's any interest in the game. You see it as a bad thing, but really, it's a sign that people care about playing.