Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
There's No Such Thing as Too Much Communication
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
There's No Such Thing as Too Much Communication
Communication is key when it comes to letting players know more about Elder Scrolls Online. There is no such thing as too much communication but there is such thing as not enough communication. Not enough communication is something that a lot of players are accusing Zenimax of. But is it true and if it’s not true, how much information as players do we deserve?
Comments
They don't have to "give away the farm" but they should always be in a dialogue with their customers.
Heck, once per week or so our General Manager of all North America stands up on front of our office and pretty much let's us know what he and the management team are doing, things discussed, how sales are, etc.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
In a world where some people seem to get off on watching others slip up it is probably best to not give those petty types any ammunition.
anyway, I agree with your observation. That said my example was to point out that:
communication != production
communication is WAY over rated. Dont tell me what your going to do, just do it.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
Its sort of like a lie and a truth. You could tell the truth with all the grandiose embellishments that actually happened. But why you KNEW they happened no one cares. But if youre lying or trying to hide something you embellish add on say what you think should have happened in that situation and expound on it even further.
When a teen is out drinking with is friends and his parent as "where you been' the answer is never a simple "at the movies' its always a production (more or less because theyre drunk or buzzed) but mostly because they dont know 'how' to lie.
Naturally I want frequent, detailed information. Whether I expect that depends on whether I am paying money on a regular basis. The more often I have to pay, the more often I expect good information.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Not as much as Yoshi P and the FF XIV ARR team. They never shut up(sarcasm).
Never would I want a growing mmo company NOT let me know whats going on in a game i'll spend 10+ years in.
I LOVE minute to minute updates about what their doing or planning.
It's a very GREAT way to get player feedback and allow the player, the ones playing and paying, to voice their concerns or anything in the game that they will spend 10+ years in, if it lasts that long.
Communication is the most important part.
FF gives us updates and live letters and all kinds of shit and yet, still get content every 3 months. Now, what would I do if they stopped COMMUNICATING with us and just did what they want? Player feedback AFTER said content/change is out/made? Well that's stupid. Because then they say, "We can't change it now, we already did it", "we could tweak it". Fuck that noise. I want to know exactly whats going on in my virtual world where my friends are. Imagine they put out pure shit content that nobody wanted WITHOUT telling us first? I don't want to speak with my wallet, I want to speak with my voice. See, successful games have tons of communication, i.e. Blizzard, SE, and Zenimax Online. These company's have the top 3 mmo's out right now. What do they all have in common? COMMUNICATION.
No shit, no lie, if any of these company's stopped talking, i'll quit their games. So would a lot of people.
And yes, I have, and others as well, have said shit in forums and have gotten shit changed before so, it is possiable with communication to help the developer and player form a world that they like to play in.
That's why forums exist.
saying your going to do something doesnt mean you are ever going to actually do it.
I dont play 'Forum Simulator'...oh wait actually I do. I mean to say I dont play 'what will the game be' I play 'what can I download right now and play and if I cant then I am off to look at something else thank you'
i
like
production.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
There's the testing issue. Nothing has really been said about it. Players mention that the updates tested often weren't the updates released, and that known problems encountered were not dealt with. Which could mean Zos want the actual updates kept secret until implemented.
Lack of communication may be perceived as hiding something or hiding behind something. Something past down from the administration. Not a good thing for a service industry. All I know is the best MMO's have at least the illusion of good communication, you see and hear the Devs and GM's in chat a lot and see them playing the game with their customers a lot.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
ARK has issues but not nearly the issues many games have that are trying to make a splash. ARK is pretty much an outline on how to do things the 'right' way. Some of their mechanics and systems are complete garbage but they new it and rectified (he said rectified) it by making unofficial servers where people could have their own rule sets and mod combinations and map set up. They did that on the fly and pretty much got all that right the first go around. That is pretty impressive, but because they did it so easily people took it for granted.
Yes they are missing a lot of deadlines lately, so what, theyre being hyper aggressive with those updates already. Its not like the game is unplayable but people want everything and they want it yesterday. I am sure if the release wasnt imminent they would simply be putting in smaller "for sure'' stuff on a regular basis but theyre trying to put in opposing items all at once, the fact the game hasnt melted down (other than that one time) due ot so many things being added and/or changed is a miracle as well.
Is it perfect,hell no but by comparison its about as good as it gets, especially from a tiny indie company with limited people and resources.
"You can't handle the truth."
Same with gamers, sometimes telling them too much is counter productive.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Fixed it for you!
I think the better approach is to basically say nothing and then all of the sudden and out of nowhere have the HTC Vive for retail (as an example)
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
This is exactly the problem. Even a game that has quite good balance, gets picked apart constantly about its 'unbalance'.
I have played a lot of SWTOR, and while there are Meta team comps in Arena, its a lot more balanced in WarZones, much more so than many other MMORPG's have done in the past. I don't get the gripe, but then again I don't take every loss personally, and I usually perform well with each class I play (cept Sniper, can't seem to get the hang of that class in PvP, though I have seen some amazing Sniper players)
Off of MMORPG's, I like to point at Heroes of the Storm, and how they approach content updates and hero balancing. If they have made significant, or even minor changes to an existing hero ability or talent there is usually a paragraph (or more) below the changes where the devs give a detailed summary of why they made the changes and what sort of impact they were intending. I think this goes a long way in removing speculation from the community, and give concrete ideals in which people can base their opinions. There are still people that freak out every time a change is made, but like the appliance industry, you can't take every complaint seriously, as it is usually because of ignorance and misuse that causes the most problems.
If more companies approached their updates like this, there would be less controversy, and a little more understanding. I hope to see more dev's take a note out of Blizzards book, especially since these guys have some of the most experience with MMO games of any company out there. I don't just mean WoW. WC2 & 3, D2 & 3, WoW, SC1 & 2, HotS, HS, and soon OW. That's one hell of a portfolio of successful massively multiplayer stretching back to the late 90's. And a great portion of these are PvP games, so that alone gives a reason on why they approach their development in this way now.
That's about it.