General / Off-Topic One CMDR's perspective on the current state of the ED forums

[Cmdr. Numa]

They probably won’t say a lot they know that this new content was not well recieved.

They kinda have. Remember when the initial bug was present that the obelisks were giving out guardian blueprints ? The official statement explicitly stated two things: It would get fixed. It would be ok for us to use until fixed. If that isn't admittance that the puzzle was thought out poorly, then I don't know what is.

The impression I sometimes get is that there's also a lot of fighting within FD about how things in ED should be done.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

"One to one interaction"? I'm sorry, but your idea of how a company communicates with their customer base is seriously misguided.

The only "one to one" they are obligated to do is the customer service and help line and Elite customer service is one of the best in gaming industry.

AHEM, you just directed me to do exactly that, TODAY, CMDR.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I feel like that is a very large part of the problem though:

People don’t feel like their words have any impact with Frontier.

People have been wanting better gameplay since 1.0 and yet features are still being developed as grind fests. People post thousands of suggestions for improvements and new features yet they largely go unnoticed and unimplemented, even the very popular ones like colored bookmarks and surface waypoints. People post tons of bug reports during betas yet the bugs go live anyway, and Frontier acts surprised when they get reported again afterwards. People post feedback in the specialized forums just for feedback but very little of it gets addressed or even responded too.

Talking to Frontier often feels like talking to a brick wall, no matter how hard you try it’s just never going to be a conversation. And when they do respond it’s often vague and uninformative.

If the players words had a bit more impact then they might not feel so frustrated or pessimistic? That’s my opinion at least, because dev studios with great player communication practically never ever experience the toxicity which is present today on these forums. People get involved in the games they love, they become invested, but it’s hard to keep doing that when you aren’t acknowledged or even included in the loop in any way whatsoever.

My dad had a saying: Yelling at brick walls can make you go deaf.

If the OP want's a happier forum, with less conflict and animosity, and that vision was enforced by Frontier, this forum would be a ghost town.

People would move to social media. TJ is on Twitter. Imagine the volume of tweets...

 

[playfuldreamer]

Can we keep things on-topic please? This thread could actually be useful, y'know.

 

[verminstar]

Saw this earlier but wanted to get me friday night lethal weapon fix outta the way first. Im trying to stay off the forums...that might please those who think I make it worse as one or two have quite kindly pointed out, though thats not why Im taking not so much a break, as a time out.

I dont just love this game, Im passionate about it...Ive never said otherwise...and herein lies the rub. Being on this forum is quite frankly beginning to get a bit depressing...possibly I do make it worse as I do have issues with the game just like everyone else and I can be right snarky when Im properly motivated.

Passion is a double edged sword after all.

Anyway...forgot what me original point was now so Ill just ramble on and leave ye to it. Best fer everyone cos last time I got this depressed over the game, I picked a fight with the mods and got suspended fer 3 months. Im me own worst enemy cos I got issues being told what to do...as in I dont like it. My cross to bear in life...

This forum just aint worth the effort anymore...cant even have a laugh and a giggle here anymore lord alone knows how new players must feel. So in that respect at least, I do agree op ^

 

[Ralph Vargr]

You can even see it on Ed's face during streams sometimes. The attacks have an impact in not a good way and it shouldn't need to be that way.

He chose to be in public relations. It's part of the job to deal with angry customers, or inconvenient questions.

 

[INaeem]

Thankfully we have a truly amazing Community Management Team and thankfully we have a truly amazing Forum Moderation Team. Live long and Frontier!

 

[Chris Simon]

AHEM, you just directed me to do exactly that, TODAY, CMDR.

Not really. Your problem is with forums and for that, a direct contact with an admin is a solution.

My point was that Fdev aren't obligated to discuss game development with us.

 

[SpaceScania]

He chose to be in public relations. It's part of the job to deal with angry customers, or inconvenient questions.

That doesn’t make it right to show them a lack of empathy. Yeah it happens, but it is not a desired outcome and it does literally nothing constructive to move the game forward.

Holding Frontier to account when they make a poor decision is one thing, but endless pointless bitter attacks are purely destructive and accomplish nothing other than to cause needless ill will.

 

[El_Hefe]

I find scrolling past stuff I find negative works wonders for me. Dont like a thread dont read it, this forum also has an ignore thread function. No need to move them anywhere just let them die by not replying.

Have to agree tho VJ's take on the whole guardian thing was very well done.

^^This

Maybe,just maybe,people as adults could exercise a bit common sense and just ignore the threads that would annoy them or they dont want to participate in?

I mean the ones that would happy for this are pretty fond of calling people imfantile complainers/moaners but cant be mature enough to just ignore threads they dont like?

Echo chambers are bad,even ignore lists are bad imo so lets get the big boy/girls pants on and just dont participate in those types of threads if they are a problem for you.

 

[Patrick_68000]

No problem on the forums

Since years, we are used, as the believers on the Wailing Wall

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Not really. Your problem is with forums and for that, a direct contact with an admin is a solution.

My point was that Fdev aren't obligated to discuss game development with us.

This thread is about the forums, btw.
It's in the thread title in fact.

You replied to this:

to any query or concern

My inquiry had nothing to do with:

The only "one to one" they are obligated to do is the customer service and help line

 

[GroundxZERO]

^^This

Maybe,just maybe,people as adults could exercise a bit common sense and just ignore the threads that would annoy them or they dont want to participate in?

I mean the ones that would happy for this are pretty fond of calling people imfantile complainers/moaners but cant be mature enough to just ignore threads they dont like?

Echo chambers are bad,even ignore lists are bad imo so lets get the big boy/girls pants on and just dont participate in those types of threads if they are a problem for you.

^^^^^^Extra this

 

[Ralph Vargr]

That doesn’t make it right to show them a lack of empathy. Yeah it happens, but it is not a desired outcome and it does literally nothing constructive to move the game forward.

Holding Frontier to account when they make a poor decision is one thing, but endless pointless bitter attacks are purely destructive and accomplish nothing other than to cause needless ill will.

You have not had six decades of dealing with humans, have you?

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Not really. Your problem is with forums and for that, a direct contact with an admin is a solution.

My point was that Fdev aren't obligated to discuss game development with us.

Not obligated at all. But not very smart, to disengage with their customers.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

The forum moderators are not Frontier employees, just dedicated volunteers doing a thankless job. As I posted previously...community managers are paid to interact with the community...except in the case of Frontier Developments, they don't.

Indeed. Our problem is not that the moderation team is failing to do it's job, it is that the volume of customer complaints far exceeds their ability to track all topics, and they have to make difficult calls on what to do about negative commentary.

The community managers *are* Frontier employees, and are obligated to speak for the company.

And, the company seemingly does not want to speak.

 

[Mole HD]

You have not had six decades of dealing with humans, have you?

Not obligated at all. But not very smart, to disengage with their customers.

That's 2 I can't rep you for...virtual touch of the forelock will have to do

Indeed. Our problem is not that the moderation team is failing to do it's job, it is that the volume of customer complaints far exceeds their ability to track all topics, and they have to make difficult calls on what to do about negative commentary.

The community managers *are* Frontier employees, and are obligated to speak for the company.

And, the company seemingly does not want to speak.

3 now...a raising of a virtual mug of redeye coffee as well then...

 

[Stigbob]

^^This

Maybe,just maybe,people as adults could exercise a bit common sense and just ignore the threads that would annoy them or they dont want to participate in?

I mean the ones that would happy for this are pretty fond of calling people imfantile complainers/moaners but cant be mature enough to just ignore threads they dont like?

Echo chambers are bad,even ignore lists are bad imo so lets get the big boy/girls pants on and just dont participate in those types of threads if they are a problem for you.

That's a great idea in theory, but currently the ratio of whinge threads to worthwhile threads is about 5 to 1. The whinging also tends to leak into positive threads, to the point where people not considered critical enough are actually being told to leave the forum. Some nutter actually accused me of deliberately sabotaging the game by disagreeing with him.

There was a massive upswing in this when 3.0 came out, there's always whining and always extra whining around patches but it seems even worse than usual this time.

The free QOL improvements and content seem to have enraged people intent on staring into the gift horses mouth.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

That doesn’t make it right to show them a lack of empathy. Yeah it happens, but it is not a desired outcome and it does literally nothing constructive to move the game forward.

Holding Frontier to account when they make a poor decision is one thing, but endless pointless bitter attacks are purely destructive and accomplish nothing other than to cause needless ill will.

If I get food poisoning from a restaurant, the county health department and my attorney are not going to be empathetic. They will at least want my emergency room visit paid for. Plus legal costs and consequences.

They are not going to get a very nice Google review, either.

Games are not on that level, but the principle is the same.

 

[Mengy]

There was a massive upswing in this when 3.0 came out, there's always whining and always extra whining around patches but it seems even worse than usual this time.

The free QOL improvements and content seem to have enraged people intent on staring into the gift horses mouth.

Hint: it's not the free updates that have people upset. Nor is it the awesome trade tools, nor the Chieftain, nor does it have anything to do with anything art and sound related.

It's the reliance on grind fests as gameplay which Frontier continues to implement. It's the bugs which continue to come back and be introduced then left live for a long time. It's adding a great feature like Mat Traders but then making them so difficult and cumbersome to even find. It's adding a long requested feature like wing missions but doing it in such a way that next to no one wants to bother with them.

Let's not blame the wrong things for the negativity please, especially when free QoL improvements are such a good thing.