I'm wondering how many players take this game too seriously.

I read this blog constantly. I read and post on the official forums a lot. I refer to tankspot and Elitist Jerks quite often. I plan out my gear and rep grinds.

But if I don't like an aspect of the game or a change to my class, I accept that that's the way. I'm not going to holler that "OMG YOU RUINED MY CLASS".

Reply

This is yet another symptom of the same problem - the glacial pace (pun intended) of Blizzard's content development. The CM's can't post because there's nothing finished to post about, and posting about unfinished material causes more problems than it solves.

In the year since the expansion launched, we've had three content patches, one of which consisted of material that was promised but not completed in time for the expansion launch (BT, Netherdrakes) and one of which didn't actually contain almost any game content, in favor of a voice chat feature very few people asked for that broke the game's sound engine, languished on the PTR's for months, and required multiple bugfix patches. Now sure, the mammoth, once every 4-6 months content drop decreases the charges of favoritism (i.e. you're including a new raid AND new small group content AND new daily quests in the same patch, whereas back in the old days Blizzard might have rolled out the Sunwell area in one patch and then the raid zone in a second, getting blasted by raiders for the first patch and blasted by everyone else for the second). But it also means a lot of dead time in which there's simply nothing to talk about.

All of which will be forgiven if 2.4 goes live, and the next day the Wrath beta goes up with a mid-summer release date. But the last time we held a poll here, most people didn't think that was all that likely. In which case the natives may get restless.

Reply

All I wanna know is...are moonkins ever going to be OP? Our time is now.

Reply

I think it's important to realize that a CM is nothing more than a glorified press release junker. The same person who spams tons of journalists/customers for regular companies about how great their company is doing, what their new initiatives are and all the other circlejerking dishonesty that goes on with every single company on the planet. Of course they all assume we don't see through the BS (or care, perhaps) and that everything really IS great with every company ever, but every company hires plenty of these people.

The difference, is that unlike a passive email sent to people... these guys have to interface with the customers directly on a personal level and ultimately it proves John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

rather than a civil discussion, the average forum poster would much rather degenerate into a name-calling whiner, rather than someone who can rationally discuss changes, potential changes or any other information. Yes, we're dealing with plenty of high school (or worse) kids, college kids who think they know everything and people with real jobs who definitely know everything simultaneously so you get a lot of levels of rage and jerkwads. It's fairly embarrassing for humanity.

If your class gets a huge nerf, is it going to be a more productive thing to say "SCREW YOU BLIZZ I HATE YOU" or create a rational perspective that explains why you think the upcoming or implemented changes are really, really bad for your class? If there's a change you'd like to see happen in the game that you think can benefit everyone, is the best approach to scream out as often as you can OMG BLIZZ FIX AV FIX ARENAS NO PVP GEAR IN PVE NO PVE GEAR IN PVP etc, or provide a real conversational argument for/against things?

Unfortunately, most people just like to yell that they're paying their FIFTEEN DOLLARS A MONTH to a company with ELEVEN MILLION subscribers and that is supposed to make the unfortunate middle man give a crap right?

Honestly, I wouldn't post either. Most of the time you're not allowed to say what you want to say, and if you do it's just going to cause kids to go stupid. It's not like the CM's are making the decisions, but they get to eat all the flack. They're just the mouthpiece. They probably even have to forward particularly interesting threads to their supervisors before replying to most things in order to get the proper response. There are a few people who make the decisions AND post, but those are far and few between and they still make the same evasive and defensive comments that ignore and deny anything everyone has to say... so I'm still skeptical that people like Bornakk are actually part of a development team and aren't just another CM that only replies to certain things.

Reply

Well, the problem is that if CMs can't post in serious threads because their words carry too much weight... why have them? I mean, we don't really need Blizzard people to post in the silly threads. Sure it's fun, but ultimately who really cares?

The whole point of a community manager in any company is to have people who are close to the pulse of the users and who can bring that to the development process AND to communicate to the users about issues. Sure, they sometimes won't know the answers simply because the answers haven't been figured out yet. But if they can't do that or don't do that then they're only really doing half of what they should do.

As for taking things seriously... you always have some customers who are far more serious about your product. Sometimes they have different concerns than the broader user base, sometimes they are just vocal about issues that everyone would like fixed. Good companies don't tell those folks to get a life (as some posters above seem to think Blizzard should). They embrace them, learn what they can and use their enthusiasm to improve the product.

Reply

Shaman forums, woe for any soul who has nothing but good news to post there.

Reply

So... they get salaried jobs to post in threads they feel like? I thought CMs were there to... manage the community's concerns. Like their title describes. Posting witty 1-liners and fluff is okay, but if 10+ page topics go ignored someone isn't doing their job as well as they could.

Essentially paid forum trolls with better connections (and the occasional intelligent post)?

I need to re-evaluate my job options!

(Yeah, I'm being intentionally hard on them :P)

Reply

An error was encountered while processing your request

[The forum you're trying to access is not ready]

Pfft WoW Forums. They don't want us to see what the CMs have been up to.

Reply

"It could be argued that the CMs' words carry so much weight on serious issues because we almost never hear from them"

Okay, that could be argued, but it wouldn't be a very good argument. If CMs posted more in serious threads, we'd just get angry with them for posting and then having to post a different outcome later, when policy or game design changes. CMs aren't the last word on any issue, they merely report it, and there's no way for them or us to know if the last word really is the last word this time.

To further aggravate things, there's a great deal of accountability in the WoW forums. CMs are rightfully scared silly that they're going to say something, and have it brought back later with a direct link to their post when they have to modify or negate their original report.

Blizzard needs the freedom to change their mind on things, but the players (myself included) get rightfully annoyed when they were told one thing only to have it changed later.

CMs have a thankless, horrible job, and I don't see that there's really a way to fix that. There is, however, a way to make it go more smoothly. Spread the concept of patience and diplomacy to the masses. Stop all this nonsense about it being Blizzard's or the CM's fault.

Reply

I work in support actually - controlling the message is really important because people in general don't reward honesty. People say they do, but trust me - they don't - or at least they don't when that honesty rubs them the wrong way.

Lets face it too - the mechanics in this game have gotten so complicated that any changes made what-so-ever are bound to make one person or a group mad.

Reply

It's good to remember that CMs are usually a two-way conduit; they're a way for the gamers to communicate their ideas with the devs *and* a way for the devs and PR proper to get out their say to their audience. As such, CMs have to balance out the wants and feelings of the forum-goers with those of the people that sign their paychecks.

It may well be that Nethaera and Co. would *love* to have in-depth discussions about the pros and cons of WoW's game design, but they also have to deal with the fact that the people that created that same game design work right next door, don't agree with your opinions of their flaws, and know where you live. In-house game studios have just as much as office politics as any other spot and CMs have to be careful not to step on the toes of the people they have lunch with over a crowd of random strangers on the Interweb.

Compound this with the fact that most game companies exercise tight PR reins on their CMs concerning new info in lieu of giving the gaming media the scoop in return for good press, and you have a situation where the beleagured CM has their hands tied as far as talking about anything topical or of import and resort to replying to "Worst PUG evar??" threads just to keep in touch with their audience.

Reply