“I have been a PR specialist and a Community Manager for about 12 years out of which 3 and a half years have been in the gaming industry.”
Goes on rambling around…
You floor me with your expertise.
i agree on everything you said here. in short patience is required in your job. if you’re not ready for that kind of job then why take it in the first place? even if the customer is wrong you have to be polite no matter what. that’s like a test for you to see your limits and how you handle things. i personally worked at a few jobs where i had to deal with rude customers and complainers who just keep making excuses whatsoever. you have to keep your cool and not act like a jackass to who’s paying you money for the stuff they’re buying. if you act like a jackass not only do you lose a customer but you also risk losing your job due to making the customer feel unwelcomed and that their opinion doesn’t matter etc. even if the customer is wrong you must not argue with them. you have to explain it in a way where they don’t feel attacked by your words nor laughed at by you.
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Intense! You really got the point of it all :)). And it’s constructive that you have resorted to attacking a fact and claming to know what expertise sounds like, as if this is the point I was trying to prove. When I am basically on your side but players decide not to be on each other’s side when they all want the best for the game. What is it that you needed to prove with your unhelpful reply or you just love being mean, generally speaking!
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And you prove a very good point of why companies look at replies such as these as they say: oh, it seems this opinion doesn’t have any traction since some complain about the length of it and call it rambling.
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You are just some random that comes with big unproven claims and little capability to formulate your ideas in a concise manner.
So, big doubt there, bud.
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My main concern is why are you making it as an open letter on the forum for something that look like a private message? If your goal is to make them look more miserable than they already are, it is sure working. I guess you are not friendly between CM in the game industry.
As I said, I don’t have much experience providing customer service. On a human level, I do still think there’s merit in acknowledging that disrespect sometimes doesn’t come from malice but evidently, my perspective is just a drop in the ocean when it comes to the professional sphere.
It sounds like a really taxing line of work, so this is me excusing myself from the conversation.
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I would like to highlight that my post is mostly an open letter to the company not to Rox to which only the last parapgraph is dedicated. And that part is anything but mean. If you’ve read my post you would have noticed that most of my letter is geared towards business decisions that have to do with our soon to experience in-game content. I was fortunate to be involved in product decisions in my ex line of work but her case is likely not that. She can only create and maintain a proper flow of communication between the playerbase and the various teams. She might not even do CS but manage and or colaborate with a CS team on best practices. So I am not being mean Rox, but I am being apprehensive about ASG. Try to read not diagonally. 
When you say my post should have been private, by that logic this forum should not exist since basically our feedback can be directed privately. Thank you for your concern. 
You are too kind.
P.S.: My goal is to express myself and offer my flavour of feedback on this beautiful game that I can’t wait to play. Thank
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There was this article back in january on AGS past.
Long story short, AGS reportedly spends 500 millions a year for the past decade. The studio was founded in 2012 so it is “old”. They have tried their hands at more than two games, all failed before or shortly after release, New World is the first that wasn’t cancelled or removed from stores.
I would say that with New World, they have their first real experience of making an innovative game. I know they can learn from the past and deliver great games in the future. New World is already a step in the right direction when you look at their past.
Also they are publishing Lost Ark which they can’t fuck up too much even if they were to put black squares instead of original costumes and never address the community, the game is that good to begin with.
I find myself thinking that their communication - while very corporate and ambiguous sometimes - is much better than what I was expecting (but I have low standards having seen much, much worse).
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Hey burning one’s hands instead of the whole arms is progress in my book ^^
I understand a big company with money and employees to burn wanting to develop their own tools to make games. They’ll save a lot of money in the long run and their developers will acquire great expertise in the programming fields involved. They’ll also have more control over their engines and tools in the future. Assuming they don’t scrap it all at some point. But it’s like making games ; it isn’t perfect right from the start.
Smilegate had to redo entire parts of unreal engine to make lost ark. UE / unity aren’t really mmo worthy. “Recently” you have unity trying to bring data oriented programming to its engine - the way it should have always been imo - a decades old concept. It’s taking them years to bring it to their engine, and they have decades of experience.
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-01-29/amazon-game-studios-struggles-to-find-a-hit
So… you were saying? 
Ah, some people gets their rocks off belittling everything they disagree with or feel the need to validate their existence in taking such actions online. It’s nothing but moral masturbation if you ask me.
I thought it was a gem of a read. Sure, bits and parts felt bit unorganized and to be honest, it did not necessarily feel like PR advice, but you were spot on when it comes to pointing out what playerbase really wants from game studios and their PR reps, which generally deviates from what corporate PR professionals are taught, which, in my opinion, continues to fail to capture niche culture of gaming and unique animals called gamers.
Something that could help avoid misunderstanding is clarifying that you’re mentioning your experience only to state that you have firsthand experience and can closely relate to what the PR staff must be going through and see the situation from their perspective, and your intention is not to claim subject matter expertise.
We just want transparency and honesty. This means instead of saying a lot without saying anything, just give it to us straight. When you need to announce a controversial decision, at least have the decency to explain why the decision was necessary and help us understand. This industry is unique in a sense that there is extremely high product loyalty compared to other businesses, and gamers have great emotional attachment to their games. Just because we’re loyal doesn’t mean you can walk all over us and treat us as just dollar signs.
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it reminds me another unreleased project…
I ain’t reading all that
I’m happy for u tho
Or sorry that happened
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that’s a lot of words that not different from other topics of complains with fewer words. I don’t believe OP were CM at all.
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It matters not what you believe :))). We’re not at church. It’s inconsequential to the matter at hand. It’s my feedback and that’s that. Better be grateful that more people of this player base are banging on the same door. Who knows, maybe it cracks if enough players say the same thing. But people like you make sure people like me never go into forums again. I should thank you. So, thank you.
I think the community would recover from such a loss.
After all, we have no shortage of CMs, PR specialists, lawyers and developers here.
You didn’t make public forum post to give adice to Roxx, you did it to publicly baby cry, like hundreds others do every day. If you’d REALLY wanted to give her advice, you’d do that privatelly in dialogue, it’s not hard to find her. So yea, better luck next time with your lies.
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I think it good she shares her views publicly, because it allows us to comment on it, agree or disagree, and maybe add some things that would have been missed. The likes on OP shows it and give some weight to the argument.
Good feedback is shared by the community and it is when people back it that it is really taken into account.
I think that’s the first step to be a bad video game company. Just look at FFXIV and the way they handle the community. It’s a “people are gamers, not consumers” mentality. That’s respect. Treating people as a walking wallet is not respectful. Making video games is more a work of art and expression than selling houses or cookies. The good thing is that, by thinking of gamers as gamers, they become consumers. So it’s win-win. The reverse isn’t true.
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unfortunately many companies think that way nowadays. money comes first! while they should think of making a good game that way they win both gamers + $ but yeah… when a company thinks of money rather than the quality of the game that’s how you fail. you need to deliver a decent product to make money out of it rather than think of the money instead of the product you’re delivering. it’s indeed a win/win if you make a good game i totally agree.
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Don’t twist my words or take them out of the original context. I meant that sentence in the sense of respect and what all it entails, from customer support to us.
I don’t expect a Community Manager to come and say to me: “Yo! You’re banned smh. Now baiiiiiii lmao”, like how gamers treat each other.
I was always talking only about customer support and how they should address us for these important matters like announcements, closing topics or dealing with our questions. They don’t need to shove their personal view while they are handling us when we have a problem and seek help.
I don’t mind if they voice out their opinion about what they personally like or dislike and loudly affirm their stances in a random forum topic about “this character is the best” or “I think that the company is doing this nicely because you know, I’m a girl!”, but if I have a genuine question that needs to be dealt with regarding issues with the game, don’t answer it based on what you like or not. Be objective.
You are mixing things and adding how the company as a whole should treat us and how they should make us happy while using their product. Pay-to-win and other things that you have added are uncalled for and not even the focal point of my highlighted comment. Customer support, the Community Managers and whatnot aren’t the ones deciding if you are going to bleed your coins with each step. And to be honest, between you and me, we both know that if you treat your players like walking wallets, you’ll have a barren game very soon, so there’s no point in even discussing that.
Anyone in the area of customer support shouldn’t forget that before gamers, we are consumers and, they should give us the same treatment that they should give anyone if they were in a store dealing with a client. The level of formality might be toned down a little because we are gamers and this is a more relaxed environment in comparison, but never to the point as if we were in-game and we were going to have a casual chat.
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