Preacher
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Posted - 2003.11.04 16:39:00 -
[1]
There is a communication problem here. This is not the fault nor the responsibility of the developers of the game. This falls solely on the shoulders of the community manager. From a development perspective, even the best laid plans can be waylaid by unexpected complications. When you are dealing with a live environment, this can frequently derail schedules and often times a simple 'fix' for an existing bug can have cascading effects in other code that may already have been labelled as feature complete.
CCP hired a community manager. This position should be the mouthpiece for the developers. This person should have enough knowledge of the development process to effectively translate developer commitments into a set of expectations for the general public. It is ok to say things like 'No', 'Further Delays' and 'Unexpected Changes'. These are devices of communication that are used to express regret and to inform that things may not work out the way they had initially been stated. This is what is missing from this community and from this game.
We are paying for a service and from a game and development perspective, I fully believe that there is genuine commitment to making the product be the best that it can be. However, when it comes to community relations, I think we are all being ripped off. As a community, I think we have the right to demand from CCP quality and concern in the community relations field, something that the current Community Manager is not providing.
This is not a personal attack against Pann. I do not know her. However, I do know that as a customer, she has not fulfilled what I expect from a Community Manager. Like many others here, I have played many other MMOGs. I also happen to have professional experience in customer relations as that is the sole purpose for much of the application development I work with day to day. And I can say that as a customer and as member working in a related field, this position is nto being handled well.
So, in addition to me emails ... CCP if you read this, please provide your customers with some improvement in the Community Manager role.
Thanks.
"Salvation Awaits" - The Preacher |