Poster: Agathangelos at 6/29/2006 4:11:19 PM PDT
Subject: Why is there a need for CMs? |
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I've been thinking about this lately .. why do we need CMs?
Why can we not just have the devs post themselves, rather than have CMs relay choppped up information to them that they see fit?
Is there a reason for this?
Seems to me like it is just another cost for blizzard.
(ps: this is not meant to be a troll post, and if possible i would really appreciate an answer.)
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=8886846&p=#post8886846 |
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Poster: Tseric at 6/29/2006 4:44:48 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Why is there a need for CMs? |
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Primary reason is simple. If the devs spend their time posting, they aren't spending it developing the game.
Another reason is that the information and opinions presented through this medium do need to be sorted and filtered. It is not enough to copy and paste a whole assortment of posts and then expect the devs to read it all. Summary and paraphrasing are necessary. It also must be considered that one person saying something is fun or dumb is different than many people saying it. To 'have your finger on the pulse' so to speak, requires a level of investment and attention that the devs can not provide to the public at large.
Another reason is that being a CM involves more than just being a liason to development. We work with many, if not most of the departments in the company on various issues, particularly when they impact the player base. Realm stability issues, press releases, working with QA on bug information, to name a few. We touch upon each department because, in some fashion, each department may need to be represented in some way through the forums or website. By being involved with many departments, we act as a conduit of information not just for the player base, but the company.
Plus, leaving you folks to roam unattended on the forums would...well...ummmm...not be the best idea.
http://weallneedtherapy.ytmnd.com/
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=8886846&p=#post8887231 |
Poster: Kisirani at 6/30/2006 11:31:37 AM PDT
Subject: Re: Why is there a need for CMs? |
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To support Tseric's answer from the developer end...
We're in constant communication with the Community Team. Whether it's through eMail, by phone, or talking face-to-face, the members of the team come to us all the time with questions and concerns from the playerbase. It's a simple matter for me to give a verbal answer or a five-word eMail response while I'm elbow-deep in implementing something for a future patch. The reason I can answer them quickly is that they've already compiled the feedback on the issue and gotten to the heart of the matter. When they ask me a question from the forums, it's been contextualized in a manner that's easy for me to answer. They, in turn, take my quick developer-speak and process it into something more closely resembling the English language. :P
Something like this, however, takes a bit more of my time. Reading the boards thoroughly and compiling the feedback is a large task, and if I did that myself, I wouldn't have any time left for design and implementation... two rather important facets of my job. ;)
The Community Team is a tremendous asset to us, and I'm very grateful for the work they do.
Your friendly neighborhood World Event Designer.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=8886846&p=#post8897799 |
Poster: Nethaera at 6/30/2006 1:02:13 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Why is there a need for CMs? |
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Who else will give you warm fuzzies, hug you and tell you it's going to all be ok? ;p
Others have already clarified some of the great reasons community managers exist. Some people recognize the hard work that goes in and some don't ever truly realize the work that goes in. We understand that and it's something that just comes with the job.
Developers don't have the extra time to spend in the community ferreting out ideas, many are even shy and prefer communing with their computers and number crunching and some just don't have the people skills (and don't want them) to deal with the public. ;) They just want to do their work and create. We help them by doing all those things on their behalf because they do in fact want to know how the community feels and reacts to those very same creations.
We do our best to be fair and impartial interpreters but you need to realize we are interpreting more than just one person's thoughts and feelings at a time. We are constantly reading and gathering multiple perspectives from everywhere we can so we can provide the best overall picture possible.
To light a candle is to cast a shadow.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=8886846&p=#post8899463 |
Poster: Nethaera at 6/30/2006 2:12:05 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Why is there a need for CMs? |
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Q u o t e:
The difficulty of your work does not justify its importance or its necessity. There is the speculation that the absence of CM's would mean nothing to the dev side of the game, and would only lead to spamming on the boards. That said, it has been proven that the community is willing to moderate itself through user-hosted server forums. The CM's have shown that they are not entirely adept at translating the needs of the playerbase to the devs. With those two job functions negated, the only thing left would be for them to post important game information (known issues, downtime ETA's, etc.) on the boards, but that seldom happens until after the fact. I never thought I would say this, but take a page out of Mythic's book. Go to camelotherald.com and take notes from Sanya's interaction with the community. Even though subscriptions are down, she does an AMAZING job of interacting with the community (including trolling dozens of user-operated forums) and could probably do the job of all the CM's here singlehandedly.
I know her well and I think she'd disagree with you. She doesn't do it all alone either. I can understand your feelings about things but we are discussing different companies with different methods and different amounts of subscribers. Every company has their own ideas of what works for them and adjusts things as they need to.
I am personally just finishing up my second week here and still have other responsibilities I'll be taking on as well as have things I am still learning. As other people have said though, there is a human quality to take into account and our message can only be as good as yours. Constructive feedback followed up with solid reasoning helps us far more than any rant based on anger.
Every CM has their own style of how they communicate with the fans and in that variety comes the strength of the team because the fan base is comprised of its own variety of people.
Very often, just because we can't tell you something doesn't mean we don't want to but we need to be very careful with what we do. There is always someone ready to analyze everything you say in case something changes between concept and implementation.
To light a candle is to cast a shadow.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=8886846&p=#post8900647 |
Poster: Nethaera at 6/30/2006 3:00:49 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Why is there a need for CMs? |
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I won't comment on that blog much other than to say that it's interesting that the post that is pointed out on the forums is mine. It was a response about the fact we'd be doing maintenance on the 4th as we always have. (Although always might be off by a small bit. My memory is a bit fuzzy on that. ;))
I don't know what part of my post was seen as dishonest or not meant when I said I was sorry to tell people about it. I realize many people were looking forward to getting up and playing the game that morning. I would have enjoyed it myself before doing whatever barbecuing etc was planned for the day. (Just one more level!) ;) But I also understand that maintenance is extremely important to making sure that the servers stay up and function as well as possible for the rest of time as well. I click the login as much as other people.
To light a candle is to cast a shadow.
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=8886846&p=#post8901432 |
