53 replies to this topic

[Sidekick]

While MWO has some great conflicts and some bad points, the community management seems to be quite good.

this short Extra Credits clip seems to me like a tribute to those CMs.



How much of this is true in regard of MWO´s Community Managers?

[RG Notch]

Are you insane? One of the worst things PGI/IGP does is manage this community! Go look at how often and in regards to what the "community manager" posts here. Their utter flub of the 3PV implementation is what drove away a huge portion of the people who left. I guess it's good community managing to tell your founders that they aren't the demographic you're looking for, or to tell people complaining that things have never been better.....
Now if you mean they are good at hiding criticism and sweeping issues under the rug or pretending everything is fine I could agree.

[Peter2k]

Nice video
Having worked for support for a year I know it can be stressful :-)

I still have fun playing MWO, my clan mates as well, I still spent money on it and can't see me stop doing that.

That being said, I wish they would integrate the community a bit better, there have been great ideas thought up by some user, rationally discussed and fleshed out.
Would've been good to try out some of those feature, especially during Beta, u know because Beta is a Beta.

It's hard to do you're job making this game I'm sure, I guess that all fans who love mechwarior, those that co financed this game in the beginning, simply have set they're mind over the years and the other mechwarior games how this game should look like.

And I think not redoing the mistakes of the older titles is a good thing, hearing what people didn't like in those games as well.

Being told that you're not the kind of people this game is intended for does hurt a little, and could've probably handled a bit better, but that comes more from the higher up, not community managers.

BUT be mindful that that demographic that's not the intended audience is probably the one with the deepest pockets, and most expendable income.
PGI would do well not to underestimate the value of loyal die hard fans, even if it means it stays a niche game for the moment.
I, like many others, think that instead of 3pv for new players, not sticking them together with vets, no matter what, would've probably been better as a new player experience.

And development resource seem to be at a premium at PGI, so a better matchmaker expierience for new players might have been better.
Also my clan is trying to put together a Christmas tournament, but why do we still have to sync drop and not simply match up against one another, drop in maps in groups that we define, as a match/training session.
Premades have been asking for this like forever I think.

Those things could've easily put our vets at ease, at least a little. Appeasing them instead of driving them out.
U know, use a carrot on a stick, not a stick without the carrot.

[Nehkrosis]

I liked the video.

[Rhaythe]

PGI could do a helluvalot worse at managing this community. Yes, it's had its low points. But if you want to see truly a venomous community, go check out the COD community sometime. For a small company managing a VERY big IPO, PGI isn't doing an absolutely terrible job.

Yes, it could absolutely be better. But they are improving with time.

[Heffay]

Battletech community is worst community.

Old nerds are worst nerds.

[Sandpit]

Uhm ok...

Sorry, PGI's worst area is PR and community management. Like the video though! Made me chuckle.

Twice

[CeeKay Boques]

RG Notch, on 22 November 2013 - 06:12 AM, said:

Are you insane? One of the worst things PGI/IGP does is manage this community! Go look at how often and in regards to what the "community manager" posts here. Their utter flub of the 3PV implementation is what drove away a huge portion of the people who left. I guess it's good community managing to tell your founders that they aren't the demographic you're looking for, or to tell people complaining that things have never been better.....
Now if you mean they are good at hiding criticism and sweeping issues under the rug or pretending everything is fine I could agree.

I'm not white knighting but the reality is we got daily posts from Paul, Russ and Garth in a friendly, forthcoming way, until we grew to a point where "Anonasshole" ratio to "Fanboy forever" was 4 to 1 and they shut up due to loud mouthed idiocy. Its our fault, our dumb, snarky, sarcastic, nitpicking gamer group. As soon as forum bashing comes a sport, the devs leave, legal or compliance/PR tells them what to say, and we have a divorce. Thanks, snots!

[Sandpit]

Technoviking, on 22 November 2013 - 08:41 AM, said:

I'm not white knighting but the reality is we got daily posts from Paul, Russ and Garth in a friendly, forthcoming way, until we grew to a point where "Anonasshole" ratio to "Fanboy forever" was 4 to 1 and they shut up due to loud mouthed idiocy. Its our fault, our dumb, snarky, sarcastic, nitpicking gamer group. As soon as forum bashing comes a sport, the devs leave, legal or compliance/PR tells them what to say, and we have a divorce. Thanks, snots!

I blame MTV






and Heffay

[Alaskan Nobody]

Sandpit, on 22 November 2013 - 08:51 AM, said:

I blame MTV






and Heffay

I blame Fishpants.
Because they look and smell weird.



And the Huge Manatee.

[Heffay]

Niko Snow, on 22 November 2013 - 12:45 PM, said:

What sort of other community events would you like us to run?
How do you feel we can improve our front-line support?
How can we make the community feel more like a self and welcoming environment for you?

Forum Scavenger hunt?

[Victor Morson]

Sidekick, on 21 November 2013 - 10:43 AM, said:

While MWO has some great conflicts and some bad points, the community management seems to be quite good... at white washing the forums

Fixed that for you!

Also the community manager doesn't even know why everyone hates Ghost Heat so much, because he doesn't even know the hard limits and thought they were much higher. Truly the voice of the people.

Niko Snow, on 22 November 2013 - 12:45 PM, said:

If we want this matter to stay constructive, lets focus on the ideas the video is trying to convey: How would you, as players, like to see our team add more value to your experience?

ID'ing the top units & players (Sword of Kentares is pretty much THE best unit in the game right now but I'd be happy if you just polled all of their Mercenary's Star alliance, there's not a dud in the group) and actually getting their balance input and forwarding it would be a good start.

Daily updates so we know we're not entering another 8 month black out period where the lead devs aren't actually doing any work would be another huge thing. Many of us are concerned after only the map, mech and networking teams seemed to actually do anything post-consumable and pre-launch announcement. [ED: In fact, maybe even a statement about why UI2.0 just got started a few months ago, and what was actually happening in this period, would be a great way to clear the air. ]

And finally, I'd say to keep Russ as far away from twitter as possible, all his replies pretty much became fuel on the fires of the forums. He does not know how to handle his PR.

Niko Snow, on 22 November 2013 - 12:45 PM, said:

Some may have seen our Forum Awards and Halloween contest: What sort of other community events would you like us to run?

How about getting actual balance changes on the private test server at least once a month?

Niko Snow, on 22 November 2013 - 12:45 PM, said:

How can we make the community feel more like a self and welcoming environment for you?

Re-merge all the sub-forums threads are sent to die in, back into one forum. Nobody is reading "Metagame" so it's really annoying when posts are swept in there, among countless others.

It's hard to feel like a welcoming environment when it's been fractured so heavily. The firestorms have passed, it's time to undo that silliness.

Edited by Victor Morson, 22 November 2013 - 02:14 PM.

[Sandpit]

Niko Snow, on 22 November 2013 - 12:45 PM, said:

Hey this looks thread looks interesti...oh...



We have several Community Managers and similar positions each covering different outlets for the Community, including our forums, in the game itself, through support tickets, on our Facebook fanpage, on Twitter, on third-party fan sites like NGNG and r/MWO, and so on.

Putting aside our individual talents and specialities, and without dwelling in the past by delving into myths and moments which have already passed and been addressed...
If we want this matter to stay constructive, lets focus on the ideas the video is trying to convey: How would you, as players, like to see our team add more value to your experience?
Some may have seen our Forum Awards and Halloween contest: What sort of other community events would you like us to run?
How do you feel we can improve our front-line support?
How can we make the community feel more like a self and welcoming environment for you?

Communication. Honestly. Even if it's just small tidbits. I'd be willing to bet my account against it, that if we had regular updates, no matter how small or short as long as they were pertinent and based somewhat on the biggest concerns (concerns =/= QQ btw) on the forums, you'd see a much happier community in general

Bounty events in game would be fun. It doesn't even have to be mods and devs. Heck put a 10% bonus on me and I'll play at set times to give players a chance to get their "payback" form the forums. I'm sure you'd find willing players to do this.

ANYthing at this point that just gives us a goal beyond stomp and shoot would be fun. It would help break up the monotony.

For community outside of game?
have some design contests (even if they're not used in the game)
Have a forum scavenger hunt (props to heffay on that one)
have a "free" day where we get to turn the tables on the mods in a free for all section of the forums that's only up temoprarily for 24 hours to just "vent" and then it gets pulled down.

[Roadbeer]

Victor Morson, on 22 November 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

ID'ing the top units & players (Sword of Kentares is pretty much THE best unit in the game right now but I'd be happy if you just polled all of their Mercenary's Star alliance, there's not a dud in the group) and actually getting their balance input and forwarding it would be a good start.

Yes, because ONLY the competitive scene is capable of spotting imbalance. Currently you have someone from SoK QQing in every relevant thread that arty/air is OP, so they should listen to HIS opinion? Get over thine self.

Victor Morson, on 22 November 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

Daily updates so we know we're not entering another 8 month black out period where the lead devs aren't actually doing any work would be another huge thing. Many of us are concerned after only the map, mech and networking teams seemed to actually do anything post-consumable and pre-launch announcement. [ED: In fact, maybe even a statement about why UI2.0 just got started a few months ago, and what was actually happening in this period, would be a great way to clear the air. ]

Impractical. Weekly updates would be fine.

[Heffay]

Sandpit, on 22 November 2013 - 02:15 PM, said:

have some design contests (even if they're not used in the game)

I like this. Like the Star Citizen contest, except one where I'll win instead of take 3rd place.

[Nathan Foxbane]

Next map to be put in development poll? The UI 2.0 livestream was great, but maybe a little more notice? Bi-weekly or monthly ATD with an audio response instead of text (transcript for deaf players?). The NGNG interviews seem to get good reception, but not the publicity they could generate if they were on these forums.

[Sandpit]

It would be nice if they would actually use more "official" polls from the devs, lock comments and just allow a poll answer to be given on some of the bigger issues and balancing issues

[Sandpit]

It might also be nice to have special maps for holidays. Like Snow maps could have lights and ornaments put up on the trees for the week leading up to christmas, or (don't know how feasible this one would be) have a flyby of santa and the player who manages to shoot down santa gets a "present" of a 10% bonus to cbills and exp for that match.

Things like that would be cool if possible

[Troutmonkey]

Sidekick, on 21 November 2013 - 10:43 AM, said:

While MWO has some great conflicts and some bad points, the community management seems to be quite good.

this short Extra Credits clip seems to me like a tribute to those CMs.

Damn, I was just about to post this!

Kudos to the community managers, they have to put up with a lot of {Scrap}.
MWO see-saws on it's community updates, and I feel right now they're passable, but still lacking. We knew that UI 2.0 was recently on the test servers, but when are we expecting it game?

Sandpit, on 22 November 2013 - 05:33 PM, said:

It would be nice if they would actually use more "official" polls from the devs, lock comments and just allow a poll answer to be given on some of the bigger issues and balancing issues

That would be great. A question about each problem weapon system / feature that's currently being looked at would be great, especially from an official source. You could do one each patch with asking whether the changes were good, and what should be looked at next.

Too many duplicate polls asking the same things and we can't even be sure if you're seeing them. The community does come up with a lot of rubbish ideas, but there's some really good fixing that have been suggested that I would love to see the devs impliment.

[Deathlike]

Let's try this again.

Niko Snow, on 22 November 2013 - 12:45 PM, said:

If we want this matter to stay constructive, lets focus on the ideas the video is trying to convey: How would you, as players, like to see our team add more value to your experience?

How about giving tips? Instead of Garth knowing everything to know about Cicadas, how about him demonstrating knowledge about this game outside of Cicadas, so he doesn't sound like a one-trick mech pilot.

Quote

Some may have seen our Forum Awards and Halloween contest: What sort of other community events would you like us to run?

Outside of stuff that can be enforced website (tournies, and the like), there's the mech building challenge that was run only once and never again spoken of. There's also the "how about everyone use X cheezy weapon" and get a prize for getting a kill in it (like, Flamers for example), so you can gather "more useful telemetry" on how/why a particular weapon completely stinks out loud.

Quote

How do you feel we can improve our front-line support?

What you guys need is an "online buglist" (better than what we have now, which is woefully insufficient). I don't like communicating with support (for various reasons), so a list of other commonly reported issues and workarounds would be appreciated. Whatever we have now is limited and not appreciably updated enough with anything worth gaining new info to help others with.

Quote

How can we make the community feel more like a self and welcoming environment for you?

3 Rules

1) Don't be smug and don't troll. You know exactly what I mean, and deletions/hiding this stuff does not help your cause. Public apologies at properly cover the scope and intent is better for your reputation than just outright hiding valid criticisms of development and foruming in general.

2) Take feedback seriously. This means that when people complain about valid stuff (Kintaro hitboxes, Founder Atlas head hitboxes, "temporary" removal of Fire Selected Weapon group) is not done because people like complaining. A more proactive response is better than "ignoring" the problem ever existed. People like proactive responses, not reactive solutions figured out weeks/months later.

3) Make actual suggestions on how to get better, and that I don't mean making the first suggestion must be premium time (it has to be the last suggestion). Part of the new player experience is actually UNDERSTANDING what the new player is suffering from... like the cadet bonus (the game poorly hints at how long at lasts). This also means giving him ideas what mechs that best describe them (brawler, snipers, support, whatever). Of course, that's another gameplay/UI 2.0 issue, but you have to do a better job at figuring out what mechs fit such a criteria (meaning, you need to know your own game a bit to make that assessment). Also, there should be a nice mockup of how rewards works (outside of the player posted stuff). Anything to give them how to be successful financially (through figuring out how to get rewarded better) AND how to progress (since there isn't much of a progression system) will be most helpful. This also includes creating AND generating new videos that the Training Grounds are wicked behind in (which is an outdated and poor substitute for in-game tutorials).

It's not that complicated, but a lot of these answers should be self-evident.

One other thing. There was a post about how the "Merc/Guild system" would work. However, it was very overrated/mediocre IMO. It felt like a Bryan (or whoever was responsible for that post) to be like "I'm there just deciding to answer a few questions for a brief hour and that's it". As a community manager, you need to have collected some of the questions/answers that hadn't gotten answered (or properly answered) and use that as a nicer form of Q&A/AtD that would have gotten a better response. Having a dev spend a little time doing this is nice, but it doesn't have a good long term impact if more questions related to the topic could be addressed. It would be nice if other devs did the same (on their spare time, although maybe not so much Paul) so people can address specific parts of what they are responsible for accordingly. It makes for better interaction than... what we have now.

Edited by Deathlike, 22 November 2013 - 10:09 PM.