In the business world the most valuable feedback you can get, because it is so hard to obtain, is detailed customer feedback. The effort (i.e. money) required for canvassing or focus groups or other surveying forms is incredible–enough so it sustains an entire marketing sub-industry.
For D3 GO! and Demiurge they have these forums. It’s a quick and easy way to post communication, but like most companies it is not used to full potential. Here you have a community of individuals who engross themselves as players into the product more than the developers do, form astute observations regarding how the systems of the game work to create its play experience, and in many cases lie awake at night pondering how to make it better–generally, not just for themselves. As compensation, the community can be paid in “attaboys”, which any manager knows are very inexpensive, plus some genuine attention to massaging issues raised and the back-and-forth with the devs.
That’s a resource, but one it’s not hard to squander.
Ignore issues, plow ahead with your plan in the face of challenges, and produce New and Better like rabbits from a hat and pretty soon your community seethes with distrust and disappointment. Sure, your purchase metrics may be ok, but long-term health is signaled by your community in any MMO–or game that demands a similar time investment. As MPQ does.
On the contrary: A) identify the key issues in the game, B ) communicate that list to the community (and why), C) elaborate the path to resolving them, D) thank the community for its contributions and E) flag how the community has made the game better in Dev work–well do these things on a continuous revolving basis and you have both supercharged your community and added its value to your own product. You may give up a tad of revenue here or there in order to reap long-term benefits… and if you license and IP supports a strategy of that sort, as MPQ’s does, that is a wise business choice.
@Brigby, who deserves a hug daily, has a specific job to do–primarily B and D; he also posts news and rarely, item C. That’s what’s within D3’s power to provide. Demiurge has to pick up the slack, as they’re doing the actual code and art work. That means someone in Demiurge has to own their list of issues, relate it to what the community has said are their priorities (and why), they have to make those issues part of the development process and be able to say where they are on that process. They have to be able to hack a crisis when things don’t work out, and elaborate how the crisis is going to be resolved, when. They have to own this kind of thing because Brigby can’t. It’s not his job.
They have to be able, after the fact, to point to change X or Y and say “yeah this came from the community, because you’re awesome and we made it our own! Together!” It’s even better if they can honestly say “you know we could have charged for this kind of thing, but we made Bob from Marketing cry a bit and did it for free/cheap because you’re awesome and it’ll make this game hum better in a year. Buy more HP for that other thing that’s cool, tho. Peace out.”
The business metric runs that a dissatisfied customer tells at least 18 people how crappy your product and/or service is. A happy one tells 11 others. This axiom is probably out of date in the internet age, where reviews are both sought after and impactful. Community members left in the oubliette of the forums by themselves gnaw on the bones of whatever scraps are thrown in, to try and understand if the game is still fun. Still worth the hour or two a day it demands. To understand if their hundreds or thousands of dollars of investment have made them such fools as they fear.
It’s really not hard to shine a light, toss red meat, and keep them happy. Because otherwise when next the lid opens and Brigby is lowered down everyone is sorely tempted to jump for 'im. Teeth out.
–Khanwulf
PS. I’ve seen the same dynamics at work for more than 17 years of MMOs. Nothing is new under the sun, but keeping the communication going, well, pays huge dividends even if what the community is being told isn’t their first choice. It take work on the part of the Devs, however, and work that they don’t think is their first priority. But it’s critical.