Quote Originally Posted by Kosmos992k View Post
But I also want people to realize that the task force that deals with this stuff has a high workload, and deserves more respect than they get for their efforts.
True, but I think it's SE's management who needs to realize that. This task force has a huge task to deal with and haven't been given the personnel or the software tools they'd need to accomplish it.

SE is really good at developing great games. They're nowhere near as good at actually running one as an online service. Maybe it's because their background is mostly in single-player games where development is the whole focus, with the nearest thing to support being a bit of marketing. But when they move into an MMO environment, they need to recognize that it's the other way around. Support is a bigger task here than development is, but SE has been scrimping on it every step of the way. We see this in everything from a botched housing system (because making one accessible to more than 1% of their players would require servers —a basic staple of running online games), to rampant RMT (because SE refuses to add either the personnel or software tools needed to let this task force be effective), to widespread harassment in dungeon runs (because SE's GMs have been told not to interfere with them or to enforce their rules —one of the prime reasons GMs exist in a game in the first place), and so on.

Yes, fixing all these problems would involve considerable investment; it takes tools, infrastructure, and personnel, all of which cost money. But that's why we're paying them every month for access rather than just the one time purchase charge like they'd get for a single-player game. It seems that support is getting whatever leftover crumbs the development staff doesn't need rather than being the company's main focus for this project.