Comments on: Taming the Forum Tiger

By: Elder Game: MMO game development » Two Kinds of Developer Relations

Elder Game: MMO game development » Two Kinds of Developer Relations — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:09:45 +0000

[...] Taming the Forum Tiger [...]

By: Cialis

Cialis — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:07:11 +0000

Erectile dysfunction, cialis, 795616, [URL=http://kinstry.co.uk/index.php?showuser=68]cialis[/URL], ;), http://kinstry.co.uk/index.php?showuser=68 Cialis, oahngs.

By: AnthonyF

AnthonyF — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:55:31 +0000

Citan I was one of those people complaining. I was one of those very few you said quit and quit for good. Its pleasant to see all these years later that you still don’t get it. You say its a small percentage, where is your proof? How did you identify this? The fact of the matter about AC2 was that the forum posters told you there was a problem, your changes while it may have balanced a game mechanic made the game unfun, people complained by the boatload, people quit by the boatload, and by the time I had left the server population of Morningthaw had totally deflated. Many that I know of moved on to other games. They moved on because your changes made the game a chore to play instead of fun. Had you listened to the voices who were telling you your game changes made the game suck, I truely believe AC2 would be here today instead of one of those noteable dinosaurs of MMO history. You, Jeassa, and the liars Ken just didn’t get it and I doubt you ever will.

By: Regret

Regret — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:32:25 +0000

I wish this article existed some three-and-a-half years ago. Back then as a wide-eyed, recently grad, eager worker, atop my job as a jr. software engineer, I was _told_ to help moderate the company’s forum. Of course, being my first real job and all I jumped on that like it was no one’s business. Fast forward 4 months or so, I was living a freaking nightmare. They found out my real name, my addy and phone number. I would get calls late at night from people telling me to get on the forums because such and such did this or that. Everything … and I mean EVERYTHING I said was ALWAYS, without fail, not only taken out of context, but completely bent the meaning and semantics. It was hell, no exaggeration. Even though I had the full support of my boss, the whole thing snow balled to the point where I could no longer do my _actual_ job as a developer effectively. It’s not a good place to be at all: pressure from your boss (to do the actual job you’re being paid for), pressure from your family (to quit that job), pressure from the forumites (to fix whatever they think it’s broken). Eventually I requested to be moved departments and _not_ deal with the forums at all. But, of course, my then-boss didn’t want to do that job either so he tried to coerce me into keeping that responsibility. A few weeks later I could not stand it anymore and I quit that job. Fortunately I was able to find another job within weeks of quitting and all has been well ever since.

Cannot emphasize this enough: if you are a moderator or even if you are going to be interacting on the forums on your company’s behalf, READ this article through a few times before you even post one word.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:30:15 +0000

Heh. We went through several sets of official forums (including ones run by Microsoft); the ones you see were the last, sad days of AC2. The fan site forums from that time were even tinier. Now, AC1 definitely used its fansites very dramatically. AC2? Not so much.

By: Alesa

Alesa — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:25:56 +0000

Oh please try again: Threads: 13,544, Posts: 159,810, Members: 5,153 – forums.ac2.turbinegames.com

5,000 members? The majority of your users were on your fan sites. Not your official forums.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:09:04 +0000

We not only had official forums for AC2, we had a full time forum moderator. Thanks for playing though.

By: Alesa

Alesa — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:05:41 +0000

What the hell are you talking about: “It’s a frustrating problem for developers because so few of your users are actually using your forums. On Asheron’s Call 2, we determined that about 10% of the playing audience read our website or forums (it spiked on patch days, to a whopping 15%).”

TURBINE DIDN’T HAVE OFFICIAL FORUMS FOR AC OR AC2. You relied on fan forums and you certainly weren’t in communication with them on their numbers. You are guessing… at best.

By: The Cave » Blog Archive » Electronic communication (Taming the Forum Tiger)

Mon, 25 May 2009 20:26:02 +0000

[...] This post has a gem in the middle, sage advice for any who use electronic communication (myself included) I don’t recommend banning all devs from posting, because the community interaction has many benefits. It can help keep the community happy, it has obvious PR benefits if done well, and it can make your developers feel like celebrities, which is an important perk of the job. But developers need training before they can be expected to post well. Have your community moderator run a course for all employees, veteran and newbie alike. Teach them the basics, and lay out ground rules. Among other things, it should include all of these rules of thumb: [...]

By: niclam

niclam — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:26:06 +0000

I work for a free to play MMORPG and I must say this article is so accurate that it actually creeps me out. I already forwarded it to our community manager as a must read.

Thank you for a well written post!