Exactly!
I haven't played Wow, but this is one of the things that are missing in this game's CS. I am surprised at how many here think that Trion's bug fixes, patches and one line responses are a proper communication.
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That's weird, considering I easily grabbed two random examples from Blizzard's dev tracker and posted them one page back..
http://forums.defiance.com/showthrea...l=1#post420040
It's almost like you're not even trying to look. I call that the "head in the sand" approach.
Just give us more updates, let us know whats going on with the game.
It would be nice if we knew if all the bugs were complaining about are even in the process of being fixed.
You and I must have played a different game. Rift up to Storm Legions release had some of the best communication Ive seen in a MMO. The community managers and developers were excited to talk to you about the game and the future of the game. Their excitement made me want to play the game more. Then they laid off a big chunk of the Rift team after Storm Legion and its been like a cemetery ever since. Sledgeammer does respond here on the Defiance forums quite a bit, but that's one person in a sea of endless posts. Trions current business model seems to be do more with less staff.
Oooooh, a whole thread dedicated to my biggest and most often repeated complain, how lovely. Yesh, it's really sad how little communication Staff x Players there is, especially on the forum. Just check the Dev Tracker section, barely couple posts a day. To those who compare Trion's activity to other MMO games - if someone does a bad job at communicating, does it mean other companies have to take example from them? No? Good answer. Gaming companies should "engage players" like someone mentioned before, it always makes them feel respected, special, having attention, etc. Those = better rep for the game and the company. Frankly, I was surprised some gaming companies still don't hire dedicated PR or whatever people to dedicate their time to communicate with the playerbase on forums, tweeters and whatsnot. Or at least staff spending a reasonable amount of time on the forum with the members. Just that would reduce the amount of whining, including from me, by at least three fourths.
And if you need examples, take the PS3 patch for example. We didn't know when the PS3 EU patch will hit, just wild guesses from members when it will be after 15th. The only thread where a member leaked the supposed date of the next attempt to patch PS3 was 29th, but Trion came in, said it were false information, closed the thread without giving us any info about the patch. After a bit new leaks came out saying the patch will be long AFTER 29th. Only response from the staff: soon. Riiiight. Sledge's thread in the PS3 section about future patches: "Patch 1.010 is required to get Patch 1.011 and 1.012." You don't say. ETA 2014? I have all right to complain about treating us like stupid sheep. START COMMUNICATING FINALLY!!
I can ignore all the bugs, inadequacies, playing the game as if it were a beta, but treating people with ignorance is a big no no in my vocabulary.
My opinion is thus, if the common understanding is that information via 3rd party sources (ie. twitter, facebook, blogs, and streams) are supposed to satisfy the developer's obligation to inform players of occurring issues and updates, they need to start start including and linking those in the Dev tracker subsection, or some sort of real time news ticker embedded on the official site.
Players should not be required to scour all the various venues of social media for tidbits of information that relate to the operational status of the game. Such information should be first and foremost available through the official forums of the game's website.
Your doctor does not ask you to "follow" him to get your test results. Your car mechanic does not expect you to "retweet" him to find out what's wrong with your car. Players should not have to even know of the existence of a Developer's blog for an update on why their server is down.
Good luck with that bud. Trion has been silent on the rift boards - hardly a peep to their player base. I guess they're too busy working on:
http://trionworlds.com/en/news/2013/...heage-to-west/