Public feedback

*Removes thread door from hinges so door can't be closed :D*

Simple question, and one which I think as paying customers we are entitled to an answer about. And not a private "please email us" answer, a public one. After all, we were given public forums for a reason.

Some people are disgruntled over aspects of what I'll call customer service. I'm sure FC have an entire department being paid to have job titles such as "Head of Customer Service", "Customer Service Advisor" etc. And I'm sure when one of those people paying for in game ad-space says they're not happy with something, they get a nice quick meeting round a nice shiny table, and get brought cups of coffee, and maybe even a plate of digestives. Well, we're investors too. Maybe not on the scale of ad corporations, but in our own little way, we buy into this game.

So why can't you give one of your customer services chaps/chapettes forum access and ask them to post diplomatic responses here. I know we have Sil, but he's more Ark public relations than FC customer service, and he does a damned fine job of speaking plainly and simply about things we ask. I'd like someone that can talk to us about FC policy openely when we want to ask about it.

It's a shame threads that show disgruntlement towards the way our money is spent just get closed and removed. You know we're all addicted, you know we all await patches with baited breath, and you know we have an active interest in improving this game.

Yes some suggestions are just flames cunningly disguised with a well positioned question mark, and some are ideas that could never realistically happen. But some are genuine concerns of your playerbase, and need to be discussed out in the open where we can see them.

I would very much like to hear your thoughts on this, and if it can't be done, fine, close the thread, but PLEASE explain why first.

Thank you for any light you can shed upon this matter.

[Edit] Darn you Regulas for stealth posting on the other thread at my time of writing :D I understand about the "actions taken against players" thats not the sort of stuff we want public. I'd rather we could discuss such things as "How was the decision to include x, y or z in a patch reached. Have you considered looking into your in game policy concerning scammers" that kind of thing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Drocyndane

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It's a shame threads that show disgruntlement towards the way our money is spent just get closed and removed. You know we're all addicted, you know we all await patches with baited breath, and you know we have an active interest in improving this game.

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I would very much like to hear your thoughts on this, and if it can't be done, fine, close the thread, but PLEASE explain why first.

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I'm sure FunCom appreciates your interest in improving the game. :)

I need to clear something up though.. threads are not closed simply because someone is upset. If you look around, you'll see many threads and posts that are criticisms, but they are constructive and they are within the forum rules, which specifically say that FunCom and their policies are not topics we can discuss on this bulletin board.


Also, FunCom's customer service doesn't post on the forums, so we're not going to get an answer here from them anyways. ;)

This isn't about censoring people or trying to "cover up" anything, it's simply the need for the forum rules to be respected. If you want to reach FunCom, the best avenues are:

feedback@anarchy-online.com

and

support@anarchy-online.com


edit: just saw this:

Quote:

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[Edit] Darn you Regulas for stealth posting on the other thread at my time of writing :D I understand about the "actions taken against players" thats not the sort of stuff we want public. I'd rather we could discuss such things as "How was the decision to include x, y or z in a patch reached. Have you considered looking into your in game policy concerning scammers" that kind of thing.

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You'd have to take that up with support. I doubt they'd give out much information though on how they track/catch/enforce this because it would only encourage people.

Regarding what goes into a patch, I think there have been some articles that talk about that posted somewhere. You could also ask feedback. ;)

Slightly cross posted from the other threads I answered this morning, but again, this is an issue I'd like to clarify clearly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Drocyndane

So why can't you give one of your customer services chaps/chapettes forum access and ask them to post diplomatic responses here. I know we have Sil, but he's more Ark public relations than FC customer service, and he does a damned fine job of speaking plainly and simply about things we ask. I'd like someone that can talk to us about FC policy openely when we want to ask about it.

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Its actually broken down slightly differently. Gameplay concerns and customer service concerns and treated differently for very specific reasons, and have to be considered and responded to very differently.

Gameplay and Game Mechanics issues

As community manager and part of the AO management team my job is to be the communication avenue between the developers and the players on game play issues. All feedback relating to the game itself, be it balance, items, quest, expansions, anything related to the mechanics of the game, all gets compiled by me, and is discussed daily with the Game Director, devs and design team. The forums are a great avenue for that, thats why we have them.

We work very hard to communicate with the playerbase when working on the game. The Community Updates , the new featured content section (which includes design considerations in the articles when appropriate), the patch forums , the professionals program, the feedback emails, the surveys we do, the great ARK team, and from spending time in game, we try to communicate as much as possible and a good chunk of the fixes and changes in each patch come directly from player feedback (if I had to estimate it I'd say at least 30-40% of all changes in any given patch come almost directly from player feedback) so overall we feel we put a lot of time and resource into ensuring that communication is there.

Unfortunately we simply dont have the resources to answer each and every query posted on the forums, or emailed to the feedback emails. It really is that straightforward. That is why the Game Suggestions forum isn't a two way feedback area, its not because we might not want to, many of the suggestion on this board are worthwhile and often lead to discussion and thoughts on design internally, but if a proper answer was to be given to every suggestion the devs wouldn't have time to actually create the game ;)

customer service issues

Actual Customer Service issues and customer support policies are not open to debate on the forums as quite simply people will never agree on what they should be. The GMs and CS manager do of course consider player opinion and impact of all their policies. Like myself with community the QA/CS manager sits on the morning management meetings and goes through such issues with the Game Director. Unfortunately though public forums are not the place to dicuss the ins and outs of what is and is not against the Games support policies.

You need only look at any thread that has ever mentioned things like 'griefing', 'ganking', 'ninja-looting', 'harrasment' or such like as players will never even agree amongst themselves how those things are to be defined, let alone how to enforce them and such threads just degenerate into flames and personal attacks when people disagree.

We know from experience there is absolutely no gain from allowing players to debate policy choices on open forum. It creates excessive work for the modersators as people do not always respect the forum rules on such threads, doesnt really give any additional feedback outside of the fact that some people disagree on 'subject X', which we would already know and generally only ends up creating bad feeling between the players themselves that disagree with each other. All pretty counter productive.

That is why the feedback email address is the best avenue for any suggestions on policy. It will reach me and the CS manager, and it will be read and at the very least taken under consideration :)

Likewise if people are suffering from some CS issue when they make the post they are often being emmotive rather then striclty rational and again public forums is not the place for that. It is perfectly understandable when someone is frustrated or upset about any given issue they might experience but that is why the correct avenue of respponse is a personal email reply.

We feel strongly that customer support on serious issues should be as personal as possible and that is why we operate full email support. Public forums just do not work as an avenue for that kind of response as they can be disrupted by other posters, be possibly missed if an operative overlooks a thread (as opposed to our email tracking which ensures they see every email), and generally isn't a really beneficial or efficient way to operate customer service.



Overall, the boards in conjunction with the web site and launcher are about community, and communicating about gameplay as best we can, not for doing front line customer support.

[EDIT]Thanks for raising the issue in general, and I've added a feedback FAQ to the top of this forum to clarify the points made in the threads this morning. It is important that players are re-assured their feedback is appreciated and taken under consideration :)