Overly Positive

Over at MMORPG.com, Sanya Weathers of Eating Bees has a great article based upon something one of her friends found that was relevant to community management. In it, she specifically talks about feedback, how community teams get it, what kinds of metrics are taken, and what she feels are the steps developers can take to provide better recognition of that feedback.

This was an informational read and I definitely recommend you check it out, if nothing else, to gain insight into the three areas of feedback that developers and community teams take into account. It definitely piqued my interest on a variety of levels, but one in particular where she touched upon how the community typically feels about their own feedback:

“The MMORPG.com forums are filled with people who are convinced to their marrow that feedback is not heard, not taken into account, and not wanted. No amount of personal testimony, no proof in the form of patch notes, will ever be enough, because the feedback sent by the person posting did not get a personal reply – and worse, the next set of patch notes included something 180 degrees away from that feedback.”

As someone who works on the other side of the fence in fansite community management, this paragraph in particular hit home with me. How many times have we seen threads on MMO forums where players feel like they were “ignored”, “slapped in the face”, or “not listened to”? These frustrations step from personal experience players have had with the title in question that has not been ideal or perfect. The fact that they are paying for what seems to be a level of service they aren’t satisfied with magnifies the problem when feedback they give doesn’t reflect itself in something specific in patch notes or in developer responses. I’d even go so far to say that some players are so angry they will resort to all kinds of textual rage in order to get their point across – mostly to feel better about feeling so awful.

I’ve never really felt that upset or that enraged over posts I make on random internet forums. Not surprisingly, my style of posting about MMOs and MMO feedback has by some respects sounded upbeat and optimistic. I think, however, that some people mistake the “c’est la vie” nature with which I post for unrealistic positive attitude, when in reality, I’m setting my own expectations. For example:

The MMO customer is (not) always right – I’ve seen so many people who post MMO feedback use quotes about how “the customer is always right”. Honestly, having been successful in an industry where customer service is essential, I can tell you that interpreting that literally is the biggest mistake lots of people make. The quote basically says that customers are infallible, which is totally and utterly false. Customers are people too, which means they bring with them their own biases, faults, and notions – and at times, they may be as wrong as a youtube video of a cat hanging halfway out of a car window on a highway.

The real, true meaning of the quote as it relates to customer service is “treat the customer as if they were always right“, which means it is pretty poor form to slap someone in the face with their own mistaken impression and you should be contrite no matter how ridiculous the feedback is. You should always post with the possibility of being proven wrong or mistaken, and having to admit it. More than hearing “no”, MMO players secretly dread being shown irrefutably that their wall of text is wrong and they need to fess up to it. It’s never been a big deal for me to be “right” on the Internet, mostly because no one’s perfect and everyone makes mistakes.

Your feedback may never be used – I’ve seen people type detailed breakdowns and missives about  how things can be fixed in games, but the inevitable rage and anger that results when said walls of text are not used or reflected in the next patch is immense. The impression players get when their efforts aren’t recognized directly is that the developers don’t listen – a myth Sanya dispells in her article – but I also think that players themselves need to not worry so much about having what they type be taken seriously.

I’ve made many posts that have been detailed, respectful, and logical, but before I sit down to type I have to come to terms with the fact that whatever I write may never actually be something that will be used. It sure seems like in that respect that typing feedback at all is a waste of time, but if developers have to check their egos at the door when taking in feedback that may be sometimes critical of a product they’ve put hours into, then players need to do the same with the value of their feedback.

IANAD (I am Not a Developer) – There’s a certain line to be drawn as an outside observer or player of a particular game. That line is the line between you being genuinely concerned about a product and you thinking you know better about the product than those who created it. While developers can and should be transparent about their processes, there is a certain element to the MMO development process that most posters have zero experience dealing with. When an MMO is down, or sometimes when it’s completely out, as a couple titles have suffered, it doesn’t always boil down to not listening to those few posters who think they know what is best for the game – it comes down to the developers themselves not executing the treatment of that feedback properly.

One piece of a puzzle - Players who get extremely frustrated and ranty about bad experiences with MMO feedback need to understand that player feedback is only one part of the overall feedback equation. While I do not have direct experience with what MMO community reps do, I have seen and heard enough anecdotal evidence to the effect that what players say is not the end-all be-all of making an MMO better. It is in fact one small bit in a multitude of factors, and the only analogy I can think of to depict what I think being a community rep for an MMO is like is that it’s like panning for gold in a river. You’re going to have to work hard, sift through a lot of rock, water, and silt, and eventually, you find something valuable to take back. I think if more people understood that their words weren’t supposed to be considered the center of the universe, but rather one speck inside of it, that there would be people less upset that they weren’t listened to by developers.

In the end, my attitude about MMO feedback is based not necessarily in being perpetually happy, but rather from practicality and a   sense of realism about what I’m doing. Games, and especially MMOs, are fun. Giving feedback about the things you try to have fun with is valuable. But being angry or upset that your efforts don’t get a personal note or a reflection in patch notes runs counter to that. If someone is so angry or so bitter that they are hurt by their feedback not being recognized, then they need to check up on why they ultimately play, which is to bring personal entertainment to themselves in one form or another. Believe it or not, any developer worth their salt is thinking the exact same thing.