Communication issues

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    • Communication issues

      This is not a thread about the server's offline status, or the luna nerf.

      For the past few weeks we have seen a lot of examples of how communication with players is being done by Gameforge. Or more likely how it has not been done. The goal of this thread is to point out how players feel about it. I have few questions for the player base.
      1. Are you happy with the statements Gameforge gives on current issues?
      2. Do you want more frequent and more meaningful communication with the publisher through the Community manager?
      3. How do you feel about the lack of any recognition of our protest couple of weeks ago by Gameforge? Do you think there should have been any statement by them regarding that form of protest, even if it was only to point out that they noticed it?
      4. How do you feel about the lack of any information concerning the recent servers' downtime? Do you think we should be informed about the cause of those "crashes", the measures the publisher is taking to stabilize their servers and eventually if more such moments are to be expected?
      And for our beloved Community Manager I also have some questions.
      1. Will you still ignore what's going on?
      2. How much time should pass before you and your colleagues decide that relationship between publisher and customers is a two-way thing? It's not "We say it's like this and you should simply accept it" thing. Well, at least not if you plan on publishing this game in future.
      3. Are you satisfied with the way you improve that broken communication you admitted we have? Do you think you have kept your promise you gave me to make the communication better so far?
      4. Do you think the level of your services (personally yours but also the services your employer provides) meets the standards of today's gaming industry?
      5. What would you do if you were in my shoes? Stay and play, endure nerfs and ddos attacks (supposedly)? Or leave for good and never look back?

      As a player I know my answers for those questions. And I'm also very sure about how majority of players would reply to those questions. I'm also sure that this type of communication will make many of us uneasy about whether we should continue to play this game. Players, even when we are easily bored and swiftly change minds about playing a certain game, we value certainty. Playing a game without the certainty of what the publisher is planning to change prior to said changes be implemented, playing without any certainty about will you be able to finish whatever you're doing in game right now - this discourages players. It drives players away. Lying to players about your reasons to customize features and settings also drives people away.

      People in general need information about everything in their life. Aion is the type of game where we invest a lot of our time. Even those like me that play for few hours per week have been investing years of our lives and efforts and money in this game. Aion is not something we do not care about so we would not want to be informed. On the contrary.

      We don't need another message that our feedbacks have been "seen", "forwarded" or being "worked with". We need actual information about what is going on, when it will be resolved, how it will be resolved.

      As we all see, issues do not disappear when the publisher ignores them despite of their firm belief they do.

      ---------------------------------------------------------------------
      P.S. Dear mods and Board admins, I do understand you're volunteers, you don't have much more information about any of us and there is nothing you could tell us. So nothing in this post is about you and your work here. Most of you I respect, some of you I even like. And some of you I'd skin alive occasionally, but in general this is not about you. I have two goals with this - to see Galeas' answers. And to make him see what people think about this.

      P.S.2 Dear players, please keep it focused and polite if you plan on replying. Server's downtime and Luna nerf have their discussion threads, so please post there if you want to add something on those subjects. Thank you.
      Living is easy.. with eyes closed.

    • 1. No

      2. Yes, but better with employees in forum discussion.

      3.A) Feel Bad, B) Of course... it´s disgusting how GF ignore it

      4. Normal, I think that is not necessary, that their statement´s is bad, .

      Btw, I want GF to tell the truth & not to lie
      It´s worst than politics.
      Look into shugo eyes and you will see your destiny.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Nagrio ().

    • Ask Aion Episode 5:

      4:00

      "its our utmost desire to intensify the communication towards you guys"

      11. December 2015


      Communication and information is still handled way beyond par, and frankly it's
      getting less and less motivating to even try and come up with suggestions on improvements
      the way the current information flow is (not) working, so I'll leave it at that.

      There needs to be a much closer, and more regular connection with the CM
      and the staff at GF who are making actual decisions, from how information and decisions
      are handled today and have been handled for a very long time now it only seems
      to be nothing more than a one-way mail forwarding solution.

    • Stallari wrote:

      Aren't the promises of better communication just smoke anyway to keep our mouths shut? Been like this every single time they say stuff like this.
      Yes, it has been like this since the dawn of time. But than again, with a new CM comes new hope. This thread is to point out if this hope is stillborn. And to help me personally to make my decisions.
      Living is easy.. with eyes closed.

    • "When people treat you like they don't care, believe them" :)

      P.s.

      Liked because of the time and effort you took for creating this post, well done.
      I understand and sympathize with feelings of hope, dreams and even denial, been there, done that(still doing it but more controlled).
      But I do not doubt the patterns I see @Gameforge.

      The post was edited 2 times, last by Shechinah: typo ().

    • randomforumuser wrote:

      They can communicate that players are at fault for disconnecting pretty fast. Everything else is a "highly complex matter" to quote one of our saviors from here.
      They would probably be right to blame players for ddos attacks. They can also be wrong about it - no way for me to know who does it or what the goal is. But if it is a player, i would argue Gf did quite well motivating such reckless behavior and I'm not justifying ddos attacks here. Anyway whatever they communicate at least would show they know and they do something. Which is a whole lot more than now.

      As I said in another thread - we're players, not fortunetellers, clairvoyants or something. We should be informed so we could plan our time in game, instead of attempting something that might not be finished because of yet another crash.

      Information is everything.
      Living is easy.. with eyes closed.

    • 1. Of course not. Not only because they are like "template" statements, but because they are lying us about the real reasons. The way of how they manage the game is absolutely idiotic.

      2. Yes and I am repeating that since Black Velvet was a CM, but ...It doesnt look like they are taking their job seriously or Gameforge are allowing them to be more involved and active in discussions. Could be various reasons, but I have the feeling that German CMs are more responsive to their communities and somehow I was happy about having Andarys as a CM, hoping that English community will be threated the same way, but well ...

      3. They prefer to ignore the problems, as we can see from the little information they are providing. So pretending that there were no protest is not surprising me. I wonder if the mods were on that protest ? :)

      4. Same as the above. They think about the players only in the way of how to milk more money from us. They dont care about the quality of service they are providing or how to make the game more enjoyable. The only thoughts in their heads is how to make the game less rewarding and the events more shop related.

      The only thing that keeps this game alive are the dedicated players. But Gameforge has to realize one thing - this is not a solo game and a lot of people are still playing, ignoring the nerfs and stupid events, because of their friends. And when the legions become deserted, even the ones who still want to play the game and dont care about the Gameforge idiotic changes, will quit as well.

      One of the main things that still keeps other mmorpgs alive is the communication between the developers/publishers and the players.

      Discussing the changes, listening to our feedback is the way of keeping Aion alive. Sadly, Gameforge dont care about this and I really doubt this would change. Prove me wrong @Galeas

    • Ashandarey wrote:

      2. Yes and I am repeating that since Black Velvet was a CM, but ...It doesnt look like they are taking their job seriously or Gameforge are allowing them to be more involved and active in discussions. Could be various reasons, but I have the feeling that German CMs are more responsive to their communities and somehow I was happy about having Andarys as a CM, hoping that English community will be threated the same way, but well ...
      CMs are probably the lowest ranking staff member in the whole company, even a janitor can pick on them without consequences. Thats why they cant do anything.
      Achievement: Get renamed on forums ✔

    • Communication is a huge problem with Gameforge ever since they took over publishing rights for Aion.
      Similar threads pop up every year, I clearly remember back then when Blackvelvet was CM and the communication was close to 0.
      Promises were given that they are woking on improving it, up until now.
      Just forget about it.

    • Click wrote:

      Communication is a huge problem with Gameforge ever since they took over publishing rights for Aion.
      Similar threads pop up every year, I clearly remember back then when Blackvelvet was CM and the communication was close to 0.
      Promises were given that they are woking on improving it, up until now.
      Just forget about it.
      I remember that time too. I also remember defending them because of the presumption they will learn from their mistakes. However, i honestly believe that those threads that pop every once in a while should have been taken more seriously, both by players and publisher, and should have been more frequent and largely supported. One of the reasons for things remaining bad, is because we never actually made it obvious beyond their ability to ignore how bad things actually are. That is the reason I was so excited about that protest for example, because it was the first actual display of community's will for change. Before that we were mere subjects under publisher's undisputed will. Now we are an actual community. In general good things happen too, despite Gf's efforts to undermine them.
      Living is easy.. with eyes closed.

    • Fade wrote:



      And for our beloved Community Manager I also have some questions.
      1. Will you still ignore what's going on?
      2. How much time should pass before you and your colleagues decide that relationship between publisher and customers is a two-way thing? It's not "We say it's like this and you should simply accept it" thing. Well, at least not if you plan on publishing this game in future.
      3. Are you satisfied with the way you improve that broken communication you admitted we have? Do you think you have kept your promise you gave me to make the communication better so far?
      4. Do you think the level of your services (personally yours but also the services your employer provides) meets the standards of today's gaming industry?
      5. What would you do if you were in my shoes? Stay and play, endure nerfs and ddos attacks (supposedly)? Or leave for good and never look back?


      1- Personally, I'm very far from ignoring it and I spend most of my time on this topic on a daily basis. But I do assume you are referring to the Team in general and people in charge of such changes. They are not ignoring it. They know what the reaction of the players are (I and the other CM's made sure of that). Still, as I mentioned a few days ago, they do believe the luna changes were necessary and are aiming towards an alternative as they strongly believe it is the best compromise.

      2-It is a two way thing and this forum is the proof of that. I totally get that you would like to have way more information about details, plans and reasons and I would like to be able to provide it. Nothing would please me more. On my side, I'm trying to provide you as much as I can regarding this topic. Of, course it does not mean that that every feedback will be agreed upon and applied in the game. But the feedback is listened to and considered all of it. But because of many other factors the decision will not always go in the same direction.

      3-Obviously, regarding the current situation a lot of people are dissatisfied with the communication, but also even with the decisions themselves. I never said the communication was broken, I said that in a specific situation it was not good and that we acknowledged that.

      4-Well, I can't really answer that. I can't be objective on this topic and in the end the only judges are you, the players. Communication can always be improved for any company and we, for sure need, to keep on working towards that.


      And yes I am fully aware that this topic will not vanish until we provide a solution for this situation and I do hope, as much as you do, that you will like it.

    • Because there is no answer to that. My personal opinion is not relevant here as I am not only an Aion Player but also CM for the game. So I am not in someone else' shoes, even if I do consider things from a normal player perspective as much as I can in this kind of situation. But I am a special player.