119 replies to this topic

[Thrillho]

Apnu, on 11 September 2014 - 12:34 PM, said:

</p>
Its not about 3PV, ECM, 10v12 or Ghost Heat

For many people this is literally all this is about. I don't know what happened with Niko. I don't much care. I avoided these forums like a plague when I was still playing this game. But these glaring missteps in game design were the original problems that led to these forums being over modded.

A very large section original player base hated those things (or at least the way they were implemented), and what they hated even more was that PGI basically told them to go **** themselves, and put their fingers in their ears whenever anyone criticized those things regardless of the tone of the criticism. That attitude from PGI led directly to the #saveMWO movement that they again ignored.

Yesterday the chickens came home to roost. And it should be obvious by the number of people who came back from a period of inactivity that would have separated them from Niko's shenanigans that the moderation issues were only the tip of a much larger iceberg of basic flaws in game design.

I hope that Russ and Paul will realize this, and right the ship.

But of course for that to happen, they will actually have to admit that they were wrong.

I'm not holding my breath.

[Wales Grey]

Dear PGI,

I don't know if you're going to read this, but I am very, very disappointed not only in the product you have failed to deliver for close to three years now, but also in the utter lack of professionalism that seinor staff members have shown in managing PR and also in the utter lack of meaningful response to community concerns in the past.

I really appreciate you laying out what you want to do for phase 2, but I am also very concerned about your "minimum viable product" approach to game development. I understand that from your work history, you are accustomed to low-visivility, low-customer engagement, and low-budget games. MWO is none of these things; and I can empathize with the difficulties of adapting to a new design paradigm. My sympathy is reatrained by the complete failure of your seinor staff to effectively communicate with customers.

The first part of effective communication is honesty and forthright speech. You need to actually talk with customers, and you need to be honest from the beginning. Many people, myself included, are extremely skeptical of your latest round of promises because you have repeatedly claimed a feature was close to completion, only to quietly forget it. This is not honest and forthright communication, and it eats away at trust.

That is what you need to focus on right now: repairing trust. This means going above and beyond what people expect, delivering more than a "minimally viable product", accepting reasoned criticism, and responding to community concerns in a reasonable timeframe. I would be happy as a clam if these changes were to happen overnight, but I'm a realist in these matters.

Best Wishes,

Not signing this post because you can honestly just look over to the left and see my handle, seriously, why do people do that? I mean, the signiture box is right below this, that's what it's for!

Edit: also why the heck did you hire Niko after he was pushed out of IGP for being bad at his job/poor people skills?

Edited by Wales Grey, 11 September 2014 - 02:52 PM.

[Bishop Steiner]

Jacon Ceronia, on 11 September 2014 - 02:44 PM, said:

Bishop-- the day you turn coat on MWO/PGI will be one of the bleakest days ever. White Knight on, brother!

-LKY13

lol. believe what you will man. I have writen party of scathing posts against MWO over the years. I'm just no a "black or white" sort of person who feels that you either have to be all against, or all for, all the time, like some of you think one must be. So yeah, despite being one of the foremost antagonists raging against 3pV, actually leading the charge against the Mods and IGP/PGI for removing the GenDis section to try to quiet the 3pV rage, and such, by all means, continue believing what you will.

[Davegt27]

I have an idea how about no more open letters

maybe call Apple on the phone and give them a good talking to or ATT

then report back hear as to how far you got

[Jacon Ceronia]

Bishop Steiner, on 11 September 2014 - 02:54 PM, said:

lol. believe what you will man.

But... I was not mocking you [at all]. I think you read my above with the wrong tone. I appreciate your attitude, actually...!)

[Lefty Lucy]

Jacon Ceronia, on 11 September 2014 - 02:44 PM, said:

Bishop-- the day you turn coat on MWO/PGI will be one of the bleakest days ever. White Knight on, brother!

-LKY13

That's unnecessary.

[TLBFestus]

Here is my take on this;


Yes, communication is a big issue. Right now, we talk and typically all that is heard is stone cold silence. What they need to do is ACKNOWLEDGE ideas/posts that gain traction with the community. They don't have to implement it, but they do need to acknowledge it, even if its with a "Thanks for the input and we will take a look at it, but there are other issues that will affect this" sorta thing.

Right now it's " ". Silence more times than not.

They also need to correct the, IMHO, poorly thought out and implemented censorship of these forums and their choice to ban based on posts or comments on other sites. That is a travesty.

They need to mend bridges, and that will not be an easy thing, with the disenfranchised because right now they are killing them all over the internets at any opportunity. Generally when I read something on the web I take it with a grain of salt, searching for the middle ground, but right now they are being swamped with negative comments and accusations every time I see anything about MWO or TRANSVERSE. It doesn't even have to be true to hurt them, that's just the way things go.

[Wales Grey]

Contrary to popular belief, there is such a thing as "bad publicity".

[Jacon Ceronia]

Lefty Lucy, on 11 September 2014 - 03:02 PM, said:

That's unnecessary.

How are so many reading what was intended to be positive as negative? Either I suck at comms, or this place has grown too hostile for even a good old fashioned 'tip of the hat' to be taken as a friendly gesture. Yikes!

[WM Jeri]

Dark Jackal, on 11 September 2014 - 01:01 PM, said:

Well said and that's the recognition that needs to happen and the language that has to change. The voice of the customer!

There should not be this focus on troll-polemics all day that toss euphemisms for different segments of customers. We're all one way or the other customers whether you spend one dollar or a thousand dollars or have a fancy forum badge or not. We expect a certain amount of things to get done by PGI and there should be no problem expressing that as valued customers especially since PGI wants to branch out and become a free-to-play platform company like SOE Online.

Agreed and what I always tell my staff is, Customers have choices. Think about this... Customer Congruency: When what we promise and what the customer receives are thought to be the same. Thats another thing I impart to them. Food for thought. I will give them this, the development pace in 2014 has been better, but on the flipside some of the balancing stuff leaves me less than excited.

Edited by WM Jeri, 11 September 2014 - 03:28 PM.

[Artgathan]

Jacon Ceronia, on 11 September 2014 - 03:18 PM, said:

How are so many reading what was intended to be positive as negative? Either I suck at comms, or this place has grown too hostile for even a good old fashioned 'tip of the hat' to be taken as a friendly gesture. Yikes!

I think the problem is that "white knight" is often used as a derogatory term, while you meant it as a sort of compliment.

[Yiphyin]

I'm in full agreement with the OP here. We have more founders and inactives signing in than ever (incl myself) and if there was ever a time for PGI to shine and prove "We're better without IGP" then it's pretty much now.

[jaxjace]

Jacon Ceronia, on 11 September 2014 - 03:18 PM, said:

How are so many reading what was intended to be positive as negative? Either I suck at comms, or this place has grown too hostile for even a good old fashioned 'tip of the hat' to be taken as a friendly gesture. Yikes!

this is a serious time in the kingdom.

[Kill Dozer]

Apnu, on 11 September 2014 - 12:34 PM, said:

This is an open letter to Russ Bullock and PGI.

snip

There's a community of paying players waiting to return to this game.

snip

QFT.

This man makes a good post

Edited by Kill Dozer, 11 September 2014 - 04:05 PM.

[StillRadioactive]

jaxjace, on 11 September 2014 - 03:38 PM, said:

this is a serious time in the kingdom.

Did you just quote Flo from the Progressive Insurance commercials?

[Jacon Ceronia]

Artgathan, on 11 September 2014 - 03:36 PM, said:

I think the problem is that "white knight" is often used as a derogatory term, while you meant it as a sort of compliment.

Ah, I can see this. But... yeah... I intended it in the Dark Knight kind of crusade-on way.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Bishop Steiner, on 11 September 2014 - 01:56 PM, said:

And yet the worst most toxic era of the forums was under his stewardship. In part because Garth cared too much about being liked to jettison certain individuals out the frikking airlock years ago.

It's a shame. I like Garth too. But that doesn't mean he was a good ComMan.

Correlation does not equal causation.
During that era of toxicity, it was one misstep after another by those who weren't Garth (Paul, Russ, and Bryan) who would start a shitstorm and leave Garth to cleanup. Garth had it muuuuuuch harder than Niko did. Now missteps have become part of the norm. While obviously the island is still vigilant, a lot of the people I have played with have simply given up in that realm and simply expect them to disappoint and screw up and don't bother making as much noise as would have in the past.

As for the new CoC, all I will say is it isn't a step in the right direction imo so I dont consider that a bonus point for Niko.....

[Tezcatli]

But they have already started to do what you asked. They're asking for feedback. They're responding to it. Now that IGP is out of the way they can do so.

This probably won't change anything. People don't want this really. They want the devs to grovel at their elite internet opinion. To somehow bend to the opinion of a few dozen people and deliver the super nostalgia filled dream game. That not even SOE or Activision-Blizzard could deliver. Nor would they want to.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Tezcatli, on 11 September 2014 - 05:02 PM, said:

But they have already started to do what you asked. They're asking for feedback. They're responding to it. Now that IGP is out of the way they can do so.

I wouldn't say that.
We have been down this road before, pretty much every time there has been a massive controversy, communication is massively improved for a short time. The problem is that it never lasted and the status quo never changed. Regardless of whether IGP was the problem before (because PGI hasnt used a scapegoat before ) they have to prove it with their actions, and they simply haven't had time for anyone to say one way or the other.

They have talked the talk, now many of us are just waiting for them to walk.

[lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol]

Bishop Steiner, on 11 September 2014 - 02:54 PM, said:

lol. believe what you will man. I have writen party of scathing posts against MWO over the years. I'm just no a "black or white" sort of person who feels that you either have to be all against, or all for, all the time, like some of you think one must be. So yeah, despite being one of the foremost antagonists raging against 3pV, actually leading the charge against the Mods and IGP/PGI for removing the GenDis section to try to quiet the 3pV rage, and such, by all means, continue believing what you will.

I believe in statistics. I've seen many of your posts in many of the threads I read. So out of curiosity I decided to look at the active posts per day on average you do. It said "17,203 (21.37 per day)". Then I decided to compare that with our community manager "5,165 (6.62 per day)" I mean this with all due respect, but I believe that if the community manager and others posted as much as you have the free time to do, perhaps there would be less negativity on the forums? Maybe it's just me. but I feel as a person who's job is to communicate to a community especially lately, shouldn't it be as high as yours?

Again, not being negative, but moreso pointing out the elephant in the room. It would be nicer to have more communication that resembled people who have a similar passion in posting the way you do and in the same frequency regarding their product that they are selling to the customers.

Edited by 00ohDstruct, 11 September 2014 - 05:29 PM.