Show Posts
1
Complaint Department / Communication (or lack thereof)
« on: September 04, 2008, 10:08:08 pm »
I have, like many others, been feeding my PS addiction on the forums since the server went down. I have tried to post constructive criticism and refrain from doing nothing but B****ing and complaining. I have also tried to be patient. Please understand that this complaint is not about some downtime or even a criticism of the game itself. My problem is simply with the way people communicate in this community. Follow along with me if you will...
- Server goes down for any number of reasons.
- People start posting on the forums about the server being down.
- (only recently) someone associated with PS (usually Xordan) will post something vague about the server.
[EDIT: PLEASE note that vague only implies that not much is known, not that anyone is trying to hide details]
- Server continues to be down.
- People don't hear anything more about what is going on.
- People start posting hypothetical solutions to the unknown problem.
- Mods and the like start getting irritated that people won't stop posting or caring that the server is down.
- Community members start getting irritated that they haven't heard anything and that their advice is getting discarded out-of-hand.
- Mods start getting frustrated at getting bashed and start locking threads.
- Community members start rallying into two camps... One defending the game and telling people to piss off... and another telling everyone the game is crap and that they are leaving.
I personally am very appreciative of the efforts of the dev team (and all the other "teams" that make up PS)... but i gotta say... the communication with the Community sucks.
Do you "owe" us anything? no.
Do you "have" to tell us anything? no.
Do you ask something from us? yes. If we don't like it, help change it is a frequent retort on these forums. If you can't get involved, at least file meaningful bug reports.
I for one, file bug reports as often as I find new ones. I also have offered to help in the capacities I am allowed by my current employer (no coding... sorry). Only problem is, during this server outage, people were trying to help by posting possible resolutions. These remedies ranged from getting donations to changing servers/hosting companies. Without more details about the exact nature of the problem, people couldn't be more specific with their advice. Instead of being seen as trying to offer their expertise, they got told how ungrateful they were being.
Now... here is my whole point....
Do you, meaning PS officials, really care about the community? Not just in making the game, not just in mechanics and such... but really value the community? If you do, then you should show it by treating us like part of the community. Keep us in the loop when major things happen. Don't tell someone who is genuinely trying to offer constructive advice/$$/alternatives a reply that either implies or outright states that they are being ungrateful. If you don't want wild speculation going on about what the problem might be, tell us what you know. Why is it that nobody can take a few seconds to post something official? If you don't know anything, post as much on a daily basis. Laanx forbid, use the "news box".
All we want is for things to better and get back to playing. If you notice the thread Xordan started, everyone started out nice, civil, appreciative. Then everyone started asking for an update. Why is it that someone obviously not connected to PS was relaying info from someone officially connected to PS? Instead of simply saying, server still down, nothing we can do at the moment... we get mixed messages when someone does finally respond, and tempers start flaring on both sides because everyone is frustrated.
I will not claim that some of the community members didn't long-jump over the line of good taste in some of their responses. However, they were/are not the majority of people posting about the outage.
*** on a side note to the community (not going to name names) but GIVE IT A REST with berating people that get frustrated with the lack of communication. Just because someone would like to know what is going on doesn't mean they are just being an @$$, requiring you to come to the devs defense. ***
- Server goes down for any number of reasons.
- People start posting on the forums about the server being down.
- (only recently) someone associated with PS (usually Xordan) will post something vague about the server.
[EDIT: PLEASE note that vague only implies that not much is known, not that anyone is trying to hide details]
- Server continues to be down.
- People don't hear anything more about what is going on.
- People start posting hypothetical solutions to the unknown problem.
- Mods and the like start getting irritated that people won't stop posting or caring that the server is down.
- Community members start getting irritated that they haven't heard anything and that their advice is getting discarded out-of-hand.
- Mods start getting frustrated at getting bashed and start locking threads.
- Community members start rallying into two camps... One defending the game and telling people to piss off... and another telling everyone the game is crap and that they are leaving.
I personally am very appreciative of the efforts of the dev team (and all the other "teams" that make up PS)... but i gotta say... the communication with the Community sucks.
Do you "owe" us anything? no.
Do you "have" to tell us anything? no.
Do you ask something from us? yes. If we don't like it, help change it is a frequent retort on these forums. If you can't get involved, at least file meaningful bug reports.
I for one, file bug reports as often as I find new ones. I also have offered to help in the capacities I am allowed by my current employer (no coding... sorry). Only problem is, during this server outage, people were trying to help by posting possible resolutions. These remedies ranged from getting donations to changing servers/hosting companies. Without more details about the exact nature of the problem, people couldn't be more specific with their advice. Instead of being seen as trying to offer their expertise, they got told how ungrateful they were being.
Now... here is my whole point....
Do you, meaning PS officials, really care about the community? Not just in making the game, not just in mechanics and such... but really value the community? If you do, then you should show it by treating us like part of the community. Keep us in the loop when major things happen. Don't tell someone who is genuinely trying to offer constructive advice/$$/alternatives a reply that either implies or outright states that they are being ungrateful. If you don't want wild speculation going on about what the problem might be, tell us what you know. Why is it that nobody can take a few seconds to post something official? If you don't know anything, post as much on a daily basis. Laanx forbid, use the "news box".
All we want is for things to better and get back to playing. If you notice the thread Xordan started, everyone started out nice, civil, appreciative. Then everyone started asking for an update. Why is it that someone obviously not connected to PS was relaying info from someone officially connected to PS? Instead of simply saying, server still down, nothing we can do at the moment... we get mixed messages when someone does finally respond, and tempers start flaring on both sides because everyone is frustrated.
I will not claim that some of the community members didn't long-jump over the line of good taste in some of their responses. However, they were/are not the majority of people posting about the outage.
*** on a side note to the community (not going to name names) but GIVE IT A REST with berating people that get frustrated with the lack of communication. Just because someone would like to know what is going on doesn't mean they are just being an @$$, requiring you to come to the devs defense. ***