28 replies to this topic

[Felio]

So we are fortunate enough to have a president and lead designer who is active daily with players on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/russ_bullock

I can't speak for him, but I'll try anyway. There are a few things to keep in mind when making use of this privilege. He's answered me a handful of times and I think of myself as a decent person, so I hope I know what I'm talking about.

• He reads all his tweets. There are a lot. Most are a part of a conversation with him. Sometimes he even tweets asking for our thoughts on something. He'll probably let you have the last word, or he may not answer you in the first place. But try not to dwell on it.

• He won't block you unless you are exceptionally rude or disrespectful. But if you pester him, he might ask you to let it go so he can get back to work. Just be considerate.

• Game suggestions are -- well, they are OK. But understand if he wants those, he doesn't need to go far to find an overabundance, and it is unlikely you have an opinion he has not yet heard. He will seldom respond to these, even if they are disguised as questions. He still may welcome suggestions; I do not know. Again, I can't speak for him.

• If you are hitting a brick wall with an issue with support@mwomers.com, he can look into it for you. Support for this game is actually pretty good, though, I so personally I would try to send one more follow-up email and wait at least a few days. Issues regarding paid transactions will always be highest priority.

• If he doesn't answer your question, whatever it is, it may be because he knows you can find the answer elsewhere. If it's about future plans, it's probably because you asked about something not ready to be announced. Try your luck the next time there is a Town Hall thread in the Announcements forum.

• He really doesn't like it when people threaten to quit the game. You don't have to say that to give feedback, and it really can't factor into his decisions.

• He sometimes retweets positive feedback. He also thanks people for their support when they mention buying something.

• He's more likely to answer a question about something in the near term: some detail about something in an upcoming patch, something about a weekend event, etc. Again, not a suggestion disguised as a question. Something relevant. But he may also answer something fun, something about why some system works the way it does, something behind the scenes or a bit off the beaten path, even if it doesn't have to do with current events.

[Sir Wulfrick]

While I think it's good that Russ is a frequenter of Twitter and that he does answer people, it's disappointing that the primary means of communications between PGI and the community is not this forum.

[Tahribator]

I've found that the success to be retweeted is;

• Good and unique content, purely about MWO/gameplay. No guarantee about retweet here, he probably doesn't bother checking out some stuff.
  
• NGNG retweets you to him. He probably sees these as "safe" retweets.
  
• Make a generic statement about how good a recent content is. Pretty much guaranteed retweet. In fact, some of the folks perfected this down to an art. Examples are;

Quote

"I have been having a blast with the latest X event!"


"Can't get enough of my latest X 'Mech. Such an awesome job PGI!"

• A question without any rage and an answer that won't make them look bad.

Edited by Tahribator, 15 April 2015 - 01:24 PM.

[Paigan]

I'm sure the man appreciates someone advertising to tenfold the messages sent to him.
Beg he doesn't retreat from twitter just like he retreated from the forums as a consequence ^^.
I certainly would.

Edited by Paigan, 15 April 2015 - 01:44 PM.

[Cion]

I've been following his Twitter daily, several times a day.

Notes: although he's very polite, he's a normal person and no one likes excessive negativity, even if it's disguised.

He's a busy person. Keep it short. Keep it CLEAR.

Be polite.

I see some guys that tweet him on EVERYTHING and it gets old soon, for Russ and for us.

He's not support. He's not a soapbox. There are channels for that.

My 2 cbills

[Ratpoison]

Sir Wulfrick, on 15 April 2015 - 01:14 PM, said:

While I think it's good that Russ is a frequenter of Twitter and that he does answer people, it's disappointing that the primary means of communications between PGI and the community is not this forum.

The percentage of players who use twitter is simply much higher than the percentage that use the forums. It also takes a lot more time out of his day to construct a full forum post than it does to release bits of info on twitter. It's not practical to use the forums in this way at all.

[bad arcade kitty]

it's a dedicated official forum of the game, if somebody is interested in the game they would go there instead of looking for the developers on twitter or reddit or facebook or another of a thousand similar popular social network/'microblog' etc crap, so it's using twitter to communicate with your playerbase, especially twitter where it's almost impossible to actually have a conversation, is not less practical

Edited by bad arcade kitty, 15 April 2015 - 02:08 PM.

[sycocys]

It's absolutely more practical when you are trying to discuss things like game balance and mechanics to use the forums which don't have 140 character limits with the people that actively still after 2+ years want to test and chase bugs and balance in this game.

[Hotthedd]

To use the forums, I need to have an MW:O account. But if I tweet, I can just pretend to have an account and tell him how much 3PV will make the game better.

[Mystere]

I don't do tweets.

[Mirkk Defwode]

tortuousGoddess, on 15 April 2015 - 01:58 PM, said:

The percentage of players who use twitter is simply much higher than the percentage that use the forums. It also takes a lot more time out of his day to construct a full forum post than it does to release bits of info on twitter. It's not practical to use the forums in this way at all.

That's what a community manager is for, and to have some degree of official feedback being given in suggestion threads that have traction or a good debate even if that response is simply "Thanks for the discussion and suggestions, I'll pass this information a long and respond to this in the near future"

[Ratpoison]

bad arcade kitty, on 15 April 2015 - 02:06 PM, said:

it's a dedicated official forum of the game, if somebody is interested in the game they would go there instead of looking for the developers on twitter or reddit or facebook or another of a thousand similar popular social network/'microblog' etc crap, so it's using twitter to communicate with your playerbase, especially twitter where it's almost impossible to actually have a conversation, is not less practical

Well you'd be incorrect, since like I said, a much higher percentage of players read twitter than those who use the forums. It's simply a much more effective way to present brief communications to this community and to avoid being bogged down by noise(especially with how toxic and inconsolable this community loves to be).

People who complain about Russ using twitter instead of the forums just have no understanding of the logistics involved.

[Hydrocarbon]

Tahribator, on 15 April 2015 - 01:19 PM, said:

• Make a generic statement about how good a recent content is. Pretty much guaranteed retweet. In fact, some of the folks perfected this down to an art. Examples are;

So you're saying they'll re-twit all the positive twits and ignore the negatives? Sounds like an effective way to justify your actions.

Cion, on 15 April 2015 - 01:54 PM, said:

He's not support. He's not a soapbox. There are channels for that.

On the soapbox thing, if by proper channels you mean the black-hole-that-is-PGI's-own-MWO-forum, then it's a wonder they ever find problems & balance issues w/in the game.

[Ratpoison]

Hydrocarbon, on 15 April 2015 - 03:36 PM, said:

[/list]So you're saying they'll re-twit all the positive twits and ignore the negatives? Sounds like an effective way to justify your actions.

Dat laughable self importance. They don't have to justify themselves to all the packs of bitter scrubs crying that LRMs are OP. Russ is not your complaint box, or your therapist, so get over yourself.

[Sir Wulfrick]

tortuousGoddess, on 15 April 2015 - 03:35 PM, said:

Well you'd be incorrect, since like I said, a much higher percentage of players read twitter than those who use the forums. It's simply a much more effective way to present brief communications to this community and to avoid being bogged down by noise(especially with how toxic and inconsolable this community loves to be).

People who complain about Russ using twitter instead of the forums just have no understanding of the logistics involved.

I don't take issue with tweeting, it's a great way for the dev team to interact with the player base. The thing with which I take exception has been the number of major announcements, centrally important to the game, that have been made on a variety of media with the notable exception of this forum.

You say that a far larger number of players use twitter. From where do you get this statistic? Show me the numbers please or otherwise it's nothing but your subjective opinion. As for the logistics of the forum, it's taken me less than 2 minutes to type this message. Granted, I would imagine that the stuff Russ would be announcing might require him to get a consensus from the rest of the PGI team, but given that would be the same no matter what the means of broadcasting an announcement then taking 5 minutes to write a "command chair" post is hardly a vast use of resources. What "resources" are you talking about exactly that are consumed in such an unacceptable manner due to making a forum post? Enquiring minds would like to know...

Edited by Sir Wulfrick, 15 April 2015 - 04:02 PM.

[MoonUnitBeta]

Sir Wulfrick, on 15 April 2015 - 01:14 PM, said:

While I think it's good that Russ is a frequenter of Twitter and that he does answer people, it's disappointing that the primary means of communications between PGI and the community is not this forum.

It's just more convenient. The forums don't work so hot on a phone, even with the mobile theme. Twitter isn't necessarily a bad thing.
While Twitter limits his reponses to 140 characters, it also limits what we can say in 140 characters. I think that's good because it keeps things simple and quick.

Don't forget that he does overtime and talks directly to us with the Town Halls. He gives a lot of information, and after every town hall I feel refreshed. Russ isn't ignoring us, it's just twitter is the most effective way to communicate at the moment. I doubt he has time to even read 10% of what gets posted here daily... let alone produce responses.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 15 April 2015 - 03:56 PM.

[Sir Wulfrick]

MoonUnitBeta, on 15 April 2015 - 03:56 PM, said:

It's just more convenient. The forums don't work so hot on a phone, even with the mobile theme. Twitter isn't necessarily a bad thing.
While Twitter limits his reponses to 140 characters, it also limits what we can say in 140 characters. I think that's good because it keeps things simple and quick.

Don't forget that he does overtime and talks directly to us with the Town Halls. He gives a lot of information, and after every town hall I feel refreshed. Russ isn't ignoring us, it's just twitter is the most effective way to communicate at the moment. I doubt he has time to even read 10% of what gets posted here daily... let alone produce responses.

Yes, I agree with you. Again, the issue I have had in the past (hoping things will improve now that PGI has a new community manager) was the number of major announcements that were posted elsewhere and that were announced here on the forum last. I think the greater the number of communication channels the better, but I'm saying that for big important stuff ™ this forum should be first, not last.

[Soy]

This thread is so ******* depressing.

[MoonUnitBeta]

Sir Wulfrick, on 15 April 2015 - 04:01 PM, said:

Yes, I agree with you. Again, the issue I have had in the past (hoping things will improve now that PGI has a new community manager) was the number of major announcements that were posted elsewhere and that were announced here on the forum last. I think the greater the number of communication channels the better, but I'm saying that for big important stuff ™ this forum should be first, not last.

Ah yes, I agree with you too.

[Saint Scarlett Johan]

MoonUnitBeta, on 15 April 2015 - 03:56 PM, said:

It's just more convenient. The forums don't work so hot on a phone, even with the mobile theme. Twitter isn't necessarily a bad thing.
While Twitter limits his reponses to 140 characters, it also limits what we can say in 140 characters. I think that's good because it keeps things simple and quick.

Don't forget that he does overtime and talks directly to us with the Town Halls. He gives a lot of information, and after every town hall I feel refreshed. Russ isn't ignoring us, it's just twitter is the most effective way to communicate at the moment. I doubt he has time to even read 10% of what gets posted here daily... let alone produce responses.

We have a mobile theme?