105341-on-carbines-communication

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I've seen a lot of responses to criticism levied at Carbine dismissed by folks like Olivar saying "Well Carbine actually is an industry leader in transparency and talking to fans." So let's take some time to examine that.
 
1. Dev Tracker - Last post made on August 1 (2 days)
 
Now some of you may be saying, "Oh, its all on social media!" Seen that one quite a bit.
 
2. Twitter - Silent since August 1 (2 days). An average of around 5 posts a day, many of them retweets or responses to direct questions (often technical, rather than content oriented).No pertinent topics from the outcry on the forums/pressing game issues addressed.
 
3. Facebook - Even less activity. No pertinent topics from the outcry on the forums/pressing game issues addressed. 
 
4. Reddit - Hardly any interaction as of late. Again, pressing topics are essentially ignored in favor of praise/technical queries. 
 
Now even if we take into account that this is the weekend (which I understand), an average of 5-6 posts on social media per day (with Facebook/Twitter posts often being copy-pasted) is hardly impressive. Consider also that many of these are retweets or don't constitute direct engagement with fans, I'm failing to see how Carbine is magically the greatest company ever at talking to customers, addressing concerns, being transparent.
 
There are some pressing issues in the game, and regardless of where you stand on them-its time to stop making the argument that Carbine is addressing them (in any way) with paying customers. Hardly.	
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I've seen a lot of responses to criticism levied at Carbine dismissed by folks like Olivar saying "Well Carbine actually is an industry leader in transparency and talking to fans." So let's take some time to examine that.
 
1. Dev Tracker - Last post made on August 1 (2 days)
 
Now some of you may be saying, "Oh, its all on social media!" Seen that one quite a bit.
 
2. Twitter - Silent since August 1 (2 days). An average of around 5 posts a day, many of them retweets or responses to direct questions (often technical, rather than content oriented).No pertinent topics from the outcry on the forums/pressing game issues addressed.
 
3. Facebook - Even less activity. No pertinent topics from the outcry on the forums/pressing game issues addressed. 
 
4. Reddit - Hardly any interaction as of late. Again, pressing topics are essentially ignored in favor of praise/technical queries. 
 
Now even if we take into account that this is the weekend (which I understand), an average of 5-6 posts on social media per day (with Facebook/Twitter posts often being copy-pasted) is hardly impressive. Consider also that many of these are retweets or don't constitute direct engagement with fans, I'm failing to see how Carbine is magically the greatest company ever at talking to customers, addressing concerns, being transparent.
 
There are some pressing issues in the game, and regardless of where you stand on them-its time to stop making the argument that Carbine is addressing them (in any way) with paying customers. Hardly.
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1. Dev Tracker - Last post made on August 1 (2 days)
 
Now some of you may be saying, "Oh, its all on social media!" Seen that one quite a bit.
 
2. Twitter - Silent since August 1 (2 days). An average of around 5 posts a day, many of them retweets or responses to direct questions (often technical, rather than content oriented).No pertinent topics from the outcry on the forums/pressing game issues addressed.
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			.. most deves work 6 days a week, now i wouldn't expect much while offical on the weekends though, pr guys have standard work weeks.	
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I've seen a lot of responses to criticism levied at Carbine dismissed by folks like Olivar saying "Well Carbine actually is an industry leader in transparency and talking to fans." So let's take some time to examine that.
 
1. Dev Tracker - Last post made on August 1 (2 days)
 
Now some of you may be saying, "Oh, its all on social media!" Seen that one quite a bit.
 
2. Twitter - Silent since August 1 (2 days). An average of around 5 posts a day, many of them retweets or responses to direct questions (often technical, rather than content oriented).No pertinent topics from the outcry on the forums/pressing game issues addressed.
 
3. Facebook - Even less activity. No pertinent topics from the outcry on the forums/pressing game issues addressed. 
 
4. Reddit - Hardly any interaction as of late. Again, pressing topics are essentially ignored in favor of praise/technical queries. 
 
Now even if we take into account that this is the weekend (which I understand), an average of 5-6 posts on social media per day (with Facebook/Twitter posts often being copy-pasted) is hardly impressive. Consider also that many of these are retweets or don't constitute direct engagement with fans, I'm failing to see how Carbine is magically the greatest company ever at talking to customers, addressing concerns, being transparent.
 
There are some pressing issues in the game, and regardless of where you stand on them-its time to stop making the argument that Carbine is addressing them (in any way) with paying customers. Hardly.
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I've seen a lot of responses to criticism levied at Carbine dismissed by folks like Olivar saying "Well Carbine actually is an industry leader in transparency and talking to fans." So let's take some time to examine that.
 
1. Dev Tracker - Last post made on August 1 (2 days)
 
Now some of you may be saying, "Oh, its all on social media!" Seen that one quite a bit.
 
2. Twitter - Silent since August 1 (2 days). An average of around 5 posts a day, many of them retweets or responses to direct questions (often technical, rather than content oriented).No pertinent topics from the outcry on the forums/pressing game issues addressed.
 
3. Facebook - Even less activity. No pertinent topics from the outcry on the forums/pressing game issues addressed. 
 
4. Reddit - Hardly any interaction as of late. Again, pressing topics are essentially ignored in favor of praise/technical queries. 
 
Now even if we take into account that this is the weekend (which I understand), an average of 5-6 posts on social media per day (with Facebook/Twitter posts often being copy-pasted) is hardly impressive. Consider also that many of these are retweets or don't constitute direct engagement with fans, I'm failing to see how Carbine is magically the greatest company ever at talking to customers, addressing concerns, being transparent.
 
There are some pressing issues in the game, and regardless of where you stand on them-its time to stop making the argument that Carbine is addressing them (in any way) with paying customers. Hardly.
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			What communication? Gaffney should be in these forums apologizing and begging. Even Jay Wilson had the guts to be seen in D3 Forums.	
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What communication? Gaffney should be in these forums apologizing and begging. Even Jay Wilson had the guts to be seen in D3 Forums.
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More or less. While I don't think there should be any groveling going on, I would be extremely concerned by the forum outcry/extreme repetition of common complaints/mass exodus of players/guilds and would certainly have a Community Manager adjusting their shifts (so maybe less time during the week) to come and communicate with us on the forums. A personal touch, even if its just a statement of understanding, a "we're working on it", possibly some teasers for upcoming plans to fix issues, etc. would really go a long way. 
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			Wow, 2 entire days of no communication? They're so awful at their jobs. Get some perspective before making a thread. 	
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			If you look at the Dev tracker with just a little depth, you'll find that while the Community Managers are easily 75% of the posts, other Developers that aren't regular forum posters chime in on feedback both positive and negative, and answer questions about design or policy. That's alot compared to some studios.	
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			Weekends.	
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Wow, 2 entire days of no communication? They're so awful at their jobs. Get some perspective before making a thread. 
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I mean I've seen plenty of Community Managers in the MMO space handle issues with playerbases, and have been active participants in forum communities/spoken with devs of other games on numerous occasions. It comes across very much as radio silence for the explicit purpose of ignoring or refusing to interface with common complaints here. Sorry. If your game is getting the kind of negative player response that Wildstar is getting at the moment (and denying this, while amusing, can be disproven by casually comparing this forum to other AAA MMO forums), you need to make adjustments to schedules, community manager responses, engagement, etc. to keep your game viable.
 
Two days, even on the weekends, is a significant amount of time in the social media/forum/reddit-verse and a lack of even cursory diligence will continue to result in people feeling dissatisfied with a product and its direction.
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Weekends.
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I mean I've seen plenty of Community Managers in the MMO space handle issues with playerbases, and have been active participants in forum communities/spoken with devs of other games on numerous occasions. It comes across very much as radio silence for the explicit purpose of ignoring or refusing to interface with common complaints here. Sorry. If your game is getting the kind of negative player response that Wildstar is getting at the moment (and denying this, while amusing, can be disproven by casually comparing this forum to other AAA MMO forums), you need to make adjustments to schedules, community manager responses, engagement, etc. to keep your game viable.
 
Two days, even on the weekends, is a significant amount of time in the social media/forum/reddit-verse and a lack of even cursory diligence will continue to result in people feeling dissatisfied with a product and its direction.
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Which, although its been ignored by basically every White Knight in the thread, I stated as being a factor in my OP. However, I believe (and its my personal belief, I understand if you disagree), that the state of the game is such that perhaps extreme measures like:
 
"Our community manager should make a post or three on his WEEKEND OFF" 
 
should be taken. 
 
Note: That's not an extreme measure, takes like 10 minutes.
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I was looking for a reason to post this thread today and talk to someone about it, because I'm in a perpetual state of Mad about anything SWTOR.
 
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=755534
 
They announced a dev stream for Thursday about Guild ships in a patch about 2 weeks away, haven't posted anything concrete before(community has gotten all its news about this feature thru datamined files on reddit) the stream magically didn't happen, no explanation, no community outreach, nothing. It's now 4 days later and biodrones be defending the radio silence and content not being on the PTR 2 weeks to launch.
 
Highlights include:
 
Today , 05:13 PM | #3
REPORT POST QUOTE
Because putting a big, complicated new system onto the last pre-production server always goes smoothly and without delay, right? 
 
 
Today , 05:47 PM | #13
REPORT POST QUOTE
Impatient people are impatient. 
No, you get no info before they're ready to release it because people freak the hell out at the drop of a hat, start screaming 'liars' and basically wet their pants when stuff is changed before it even hits the PTS, much less live.
 
So, relax. You'll get it when they're ready to give it.
 
 
Today , 06:00 PM | #19
REPORT POST QUOTE
Quote: Originally Posted by sepulhead 
that is fine when the release date is months away now it 2 weeks away and its still more info closer to release thay and you wonder why people are upset? 
One person on the internet does not equal 'people are upset.'
 
Our forums are NOT this bad. Our devs are NOT this bad.
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Don't be that guy who shows up to a restaurant on Christmas and complains that they are closed.
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Don't be that guy who shows up to a restaurant on Christmas and complains that they are closed.
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We do not negotiate with terrorists.
 
Obviously sensible things like not making people work weekends and have no life is way past your head. 
Each post addressing anything serious warrants a meeting or more. And drafts. Not off the cuff statements that took a community manager 10mins to type. 
 
But common sense and respect for people's jobs are not in the requirements before posting on forums.	
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If you look at the Dev tracker with just a little depth, you'll find that while the Community Managers are easily 75% of the posts, other Developers that aren't regular forum posters chime in on feedback both positive and negative, and answer questions about design or policy. That's alot compared to some studios.
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			I'm sorry, are you comparing views to a well established international IP?!?!?	
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We do not negotiate with terrorists.
 
Obviously sensible things like not making people work weekends and have no life is way past your head.
Each post addressing anything serious warrants a meeting or more. And drafts. Not off the cuff statements that took a community manager 10mins to type.
 
But common sense and respect for people's jobs are not in the requirements before posting on forums.
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I'm sorry, are you comparing views to a well established international IP?!?!?
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My bad for the triple post, failed to load more responses as they were coming in. I mean I would say that the overall volume is still what I struggle with. Many AAA MMO companies are very bad at responding to player concerns, absolutely - and often take long breaks from putting anything productive at the forums....but they don't appear to be suffering from some of the critical issues Wildstar is at the moment. I would just think that with the state of things/unrest as they are, Carbine would be more inclined to live up to that "Devs are Listening" rhetoric and really make a push for more open dialogue.
 
"So we heard you are a bit unhappy, let's see what we can do/talk about/make our philosophy more clear." 
 
I've watched the weekly stream, and the Youtube views/Twitch views are absolutely abysmal, and most of the time is spent thwaping the various individuals involved in the streams or making inside jokes. For example:
 
Youtube: 
 
The Nexus Report: Class Balance and PvP - July 29, 2014 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ziz4gCnIhksViews: 6,544
 
Twitch:
 
WildStar Weekly: Frost vs. The World - July 31, 2014
Views: 1,000
 
The number of folks tuning in for what is supposed to be the Devs primary means of communication with the playerbase is considered...successful? 
 
Example 2: (Promotional Content) - 
 
1. Sabatoge DevSpeak - Youtube - 58,000 views
 
2. Final Fantasy 14 - Patch 2.3 Trailer (1 month oldish) - 260,000 views just from the NA region alone.
 
So if you're being reasonably unsuccessful in generating excitement, hype, communication, player attentiveness, having lots of game problems, seeing some significant drops in subs/activity, I'd get on it. All I'm saying.
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I can't speak for those other games but here's my thought on your post.  In my opinion we hear from the devs a lot.  And because we hear from them a lot in various channels people may be less apt to tune in.  In other games, like SWTOR you wouldn't hear from the devs for a month or more so you'd have the entire community tune in because that is all the info you were going to get.  
 
TL:DR  In my opinion the community team and devs communicate a LOT.  It just so happens their current communication isn't addressing the issue you want addressed.
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So what issues are being addressed? If I'm missing stuff, let me know by all means. I'm just not seeing any sort of comment on what most of us (I know it's subjective) would agree are pretty serious issues. Even if we don't think the issues are critical or meaningful, once the "servers are dead" stuff starts filling up the front page of General Discussion - you need to find out some way to respond. Doesn't have to be super informative, can be cagey, etc. - but absolute radio silence is hardly helpful.
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My bad for the triple post, failed to load more responses as they were coming in. I mean I would say that the overall volume is still what I struggle with. Many AAA MMO companies are very bad at responding to player concerns, absolutely - and often take long breaks from putting anything productive at the forums....but they don't appear to be suffering from some of the critical issues Wildstar is at the moment. I would just think that with the state of things/unrest as they are, Carbine would be more inclined to live up to that "Devs are Listening" rhetoric and really make a push for more open dialogue.
 
"So we heard you are a bit unhappy, let's see what we can do/talk about/make our philosophy more clear." 
 
I've watched the weekly stream, and the Youtube views/Twitch views are absolutely abysmal, and most of the time is spent thwaping the various individuals involved in the streams or making inside jokes. For example:
 
Youtube: 
 
The Nexus Report: Class Balance and PvP - July 29, 2014 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ziz4gCnIhksViews: 6,544
 
Twitch:
 
WildStar Weekly: Frost vs. The World - July 31, 2014
Views: 1,000
 
The number of folks tuning in for what is supposed to be the Devs primary means of communication with the playerbase is considered...successful? 
 
Example 2: (Promotional Content) - 
 
1. Sabatoge DevSpeak - Youtube - 58,000 views
 
2. Final Fantasy 14 - Patch 2.3 Trailer (1 month oldish) - 260,000 views just from the NA region alone.
 
So if you're being reasonably unsuccessful in generating excitement, hype, communication, player attentiveness, having lots of game problems, seeing some significant drops in subs/activity, I'd get on it. All I'm saying.
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So what issues are being addressed? If I'm missing stuff, let me know by all means. I'm just not seeing any sort of comment on what most of us (I know it's subjective) would agree are pretty serious issues. Even if we don't think the issues are critical or meaningful, once the "servers are dead" stuff starts filling up the front page of General Discussion - you need to find out some way to respond. Doesn't have to be super informative, can be cagey, etc. - but absolute radio silence is hardly helpful.
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So what issues are being addressed? If I'm missing stuff, let me know by all means. I'm just not seeing any sort of comment on what most of us (I know it's subjective) would agree are pretty serious issues. Even if we don't think the issues are critical or meaningful, once the "servers are dead" stuff starts filling up the front page of General Discussion - you need to find out some way to respond. Doesn't have to be super informative, can be cagey, etc. - but absolute radio silence is hardly helpful.
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Given the crazy budget and development time of this game, yes I will gladly compare this game to what was the worst-released AAA MMO product in history that has now experienced a tremendous turnaround due to diligence. Especially since half the folks in this thread have compared Wildstar's launch to FF14. 
 
So yes. 
 
Oh, the answer is yes.
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***Sarcasm mode on***
 
Because with casual content and 2.5 second global cooldowns, there's no difference between playing Final Failure 14 or watching someone else play it. Twitch is cutting in on Squeenix sub revenue because half the players cant tell if they're logged into the game client or a stream at any given time, it's that fast paced & immersive!
 
***Sarcasm mode off***
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Uhh... everything in the dev tracker as far as I'm aware.  Those all look to be player raised concerns and they got a dev/community manager response...
 
https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/devtracker/
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