Poster: Asterius at 7/26/2005 2:58:39 PM PDT
Subject: BAD info is *worse* than NO info, Blizz. |
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Please stop compounding the problem.
You say "all other servers will be brought back at 11:00am". They weren't.
When they did come up, over an hour and a half late, they were only online 20 minutes before you sent a global announcement saying there would just be a quick restart, and that the realms would be "right back up."
That was over an hour and a half ago.
Let's face it, you are as bad at customer service, information and relations as you are good at creating this outstanding game. As amazingly talented as your developers are, your community relations-types are inept to an equal degree. With all due respect and appreciation for those filling those positions, I honestly don't know if that's because you handcuff them, or if it's because they're simply incompetent -- to me as a customer, it really doesn't matter as the end result is the same. Although I have to admit that I feel *horrible* for people like Cay if it's some malignant corporate policy that's keeping them from adequately informing the customers, because they are definitely the meatshields that take the brunt of it when things go wrong (as they SO often do around here.)
Try something next time...
Instead of "will be back online at 11am PST";
"Realm maintenance is a complicated process, and at times it can expose bigger problems that need to be addressed. We have every reason to believe that all non-flagged realms will be up on or before 11am PST, but this is subject to change if an unforeseeable issue arises. In that event, we will post an update to the forums within 30 minutes of the aforementioned up time, so that we can relay whatever update we have. We understand that many of you plan around this downtime, and we apologize for any inconvenience, know that these delays help ensure a better quality of play when the realms return."
Instead of "we're just restarting the realm, it will return right away";
"An unforeseen complication has made a realm restart necessary. We anticipate an uneventful reboot, which will have it back online in mere moments. However, if something arises during this process, we would rather stop and fix it before coming online, than having to endure another restart later. If this occurs, we will post an update to your realm forum within the next 15 minutes with some form of update. We apologize for any inconvenience, and want to remind you that these steps are necessary to ensure the highest quality of play when the realms are online."
Hey look, mine aren't perfect, any statement can be picked apart. But the difference is mine don't create the same type of restrictive expectations yours do. You, Blizzard, CONSTANTLY create expectations, and then let people down. I honestly don't know how that's acceptable to any of you, and I mean the individuals who are part of your organization -- each of you. I don't know how you can find *any* pride in this end of your business. As outstanding a product you've created, you can definitely get away with sub-par performance in other areas, customer relations included. But you're taking it a little too far, demonstrating a total lack of interest in keeping your customers informed. WORSE than that, is you demonstrate total apathy in regards to what you DO bother to tell us.
If you don't want to pay someone to properly disseminate information, I bet you could find reliable community volunteers.
Obviously you don't have to be as verbose as my examples are, the theme here is that you don't paint yourself into a corner, and at the same time you don't leave thousands of people swinging in the breeze who made decisions about their day relative to your poorly chosen words.
The most basic levels of tact and reason on your part will placate SO many of your customers. We KNOW things come up. We KNOW that with progress comes some growing pains. We WANT to be understanding about all of that. All you have to do is just be honest with us. And if you can't be honest and upfront, then just go back to saying nothing at all. Because, as the subject line says, BAD info is worse than NO info.
Get your act together, it's easier to do it right than it is to do it wrong.
I remain a huge fan of what you've created. One that, like everyone else, gets frustrated and disappointed when I can't play as expected. I'm trying to be constructive, rather than just vent that frustration. I'll now wrap up so the oh-so-witty responses, flames, and bickering can begin. Writing it out has already been my catharsis.[ post edited by Asterius ]
| | | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=4197760&p=#post4197760 | | | Poster: Caydiem at 7/26/2005 3:23:22 PM PDT
Subject: Re: BAD info is *worse* than NO info, Blizz. |
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Asterius, I do understand your frustration. I begin my shift at 11AM (others are here before me) and, as you can imagine, I came into quite a maelstrom today. What occurred was a conglomeration of login being down, the server alert message having issues updating, and as I'm sure you've noticed by now, unforeseen complications in the maintenance.
I am always striving to get more information for you on these things (at least insomuch as how it affects you as a player) but our team is somewhat limited with the type of information we can give. The Server Alert window has a very small character limit, so I cannot go into detail there, and I was stymied from doing so in these forums. (This is a situation I do not want to see repeated and I plan on pursuing solutions once all the immediate fires are put out.)
I do agree with some of the suggestions regarding the messaging for realm maintenance and will bring it up with the rest of the team. However, there are only so many ways to word the examples you gave -- how long do you think it would take for "a better quality of play", for example, to become verboten due to the amount of poor press surrounding it should something go wrong once? History bears us out on this -- ask someone about "awesome changes" sometime. ;) Such realm messages require rewording each time to prevent sounding like a robot, and after a time you do tend to run out of creative ways to word "the realm is being taken down for a half hour, our estimated time for its return is X, and we'll keep you updated should anything else arise".
Now, that said, I do agree with giving clearer caveats and ensuring updates. I know that many people don't check the client itself when waiting for realms to come up, thus making the Server Alert message useless to them; as I've said, I will be doing my utmost behind the scenes here to get a reliable alternative functioning so you are not left in the dark.
- Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager
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