Why is the communication so bad?

[Dayv]

@SnowcaTT

Once again, >Someone Is Projecting - Penny Arcade< to the rescue on the complaints of “community managers”. (language, or I’d post image here)

I’m not sure if that comic strip was intended to be used as an excuse for people to abuse customer-facing workers, but it’s sure ended up that way.

[TxMoose]

@Raffoon

This fostered a sense of community WITH the devs.

we still have a strong sense of community, unfortunately for some it’s turned into a players vs. devs struggle. we really miss ice.

[carrion_pigeons]

@Raffoon

The problem is that it’s a vicious cycle.

When the mods and devs interacted regularly, people knew that their concerns were being heard, and got insight into why their requested changes would or wouldn’t work within the framework of the game. This fostered a sense of community WITH the devs. People offered constructive suggestions and were willing to cut the devs some slack because they knew the intentions were good. No, it wasn’t all flowers and unicorns, but people felt better knowing the direction that the game was headed.

Now, with little to no communication, frustration builds. The overall tone of the forum is less inviting. This has led the forums into the downward spiral that they’re currently in. Problems go unacknowledged for months, so when they finally do get acknowledged or solved the response is “why did it take you so long” rather than “glad to see that thing you’ve been working on and telling us about has finally come about”.

I don’t know about the other “complainers”, but personally, I’m willing to say kudos to the devs when they do something good. The problem is that those good things are so few and far between, and usually come with some corrupt-a-wish style downside that goes unacknowledged for months.

In short, if the developers communicated more, I suspect that they’d see their feedback become a lot more constructive and a lot less accusatory. Not from everyone, but from a substantial proportion of the population.

I remember what this forum was like a couple years ago. It wasn’t any more welcoming or happy-go-lucky or polite than it is now. In fact, probably the opposite. You have to remember that the game right now is actually less aggressively monetized than it was in its first year. Not by much, but some. Every change was hailed as evidence that the devs thought of the players as faucets that spewed money because, well, they did think that. There used to be a blog posted by one of the devs or owners or something called “the road to $1 average revenue per daily average user” or something like that, wherein he talked about how every change made to the game was made with the goal of increasing that statistic in mind. You can probably still find it online somewhere. It was the most cynical thing I’ve ever read.

People talk about quitting the game now because they actually do quit the game occasionally. Back then, people talked about the game like it was some kind of mental gulag that was turning the entire gaming industry into their own personal hell. It’s better now, it really is.

[TLCstormz]

@BlackSheep101

it doesn’t surprise me a bit that we don’t hear from them every day.

Who mentioned anything REMOTELY like “we demand to hear from them everyday.”

@ __________ @

[TLCstormz]

@MrCroaker64

But in my mind the loudest, and constant, complainers are as much at fault as the Mods and Devs.

I’m not gonna bring up the Dendritic Abuse framework that this falls into, so I’ll simply say this :

One party GETS PAID to make a good game and listen to and interact with said game’s players.

The second party PAYS MONEY ( or time ) to play said game and voices their opinion that said game needs many improvements.

You ( and whoever else agrees with your quote ) truly truly TRULY BELIEVE that the second party is to blame for the first party NOT “doing their jobs” that they were actually hired and paid to do? Really? lol

Baffling.

[BlackSheep101]

@TLCstormz

Who mentioned anything REMOTELY like “we demand to hear from them everyday.”

Where in my post do I say that anyone demands it? However, if you read the original post…

@Raffoon

The developers AND the community managers used to both interact on the forums on a daily basis.

I wrote in response to Raffoon. Do people not read the first post in a thread anymore?

[Cousin_Simpson]

Where do you people find so much time to complain? Shouldn’t you be grinding some ISO instead?