#186 - April 27, 2007, 7:05 a.m.
Q u o t e:
predictable and pathetic, continue accepting mediocre customer service. Sorry for trying to make the game we all pay for more enjoyable.
I hate to jump in when you guys are so close to locking lips, and I don't intend to blindly defend myself, but you are making an assumption that what we post is directly indicative of what we do. We could post all day and make you feel really good about your concerns, and even repeat your concerns back to you to make sure you know we've seen them, but does that actually have anything to do with the game or the changes being made? In that same vein our interaction can make you feel as though the concerns are valid, being taken into consideration, and will lead to changes. When they don't actually lead to any changes, which is going to be the majority of the time, where does that leave the interaction?
Building false expectation based on coddling instead of taking in information and replying when that information results in something substantial isn't a direction we believe, in general, is positive.
Instead we attempt to take concerns and relate back when we have reasoning why an idea won't be implemented, why we don't feel a concern is valid, when we have information that could lead to a rebuttal or conversation, or when we have solid information that a change is being made or being considered.
It's a management of expectation, and I believe it's somewhat unique to this specific community as many feel they have a direct conduit to the developers and thus a direct line in which to make demands or voice concerns. Which in many cases is correct, the devs read the forums quite a bit, but our position is to summarize and then relate back the information that is pertinent.
Also, to some degree, there's a level of us refreshing long standing information. There's only so many times I could personally stand to tell someone "no", "that's not a direction we want to go because..." or "we would like to", yet it's necessary to a degree. In some ways we do rely on community interaction to flesh out information that's been repeated quite a bit. Unfortunately in some cases those that are simply regurgitating information long-gone are either giving false information, twisting it, or labeled as fan-boys if it doesn't suit the person asking the question.
I wish it was as cut and dry as selling a product in a retail store, there's only a few variables there. Move into an anonymous forum system for an MMO with a wide range of appeal, and you're dealing with quite a bit more.
With that said, there's always room for improvement and I for one don't at all mind constructive feedback on what you feel we could do. When that feedback however moves to baseless assumptions, broad generalizations, name calling, etc. I'm just going to sit back and laugh.