At least there's always the chance of seeing what interest there is in a request for him to return.
Just wondering what people think of the idea, and the feasibility of getting GC to start posting again. I do admit that posting seemed taxing with the trolling that occurred, however with at least one thread where he, "tanked the trolls" to prove that posting at least garnered information that proved useful was nice.
The only downside I can see thus far is that the experience listed above, "tanking the trolls" may have been too taxing to have him return at this time, if at all. Doing nothing but replying to trolls would seem like such a waste, given the post limits on the new site for max thread size. I personally simply don't know how he took that, and without knowing, all I can do is guess.
GC was humorous in a good way, although I must admit a measure of bias as I tend to have the, "rose colored glasses" problem at times. However, as a counter-point, GC seemed to engage the forums in a beneficial way that seems somehow absent these days, in a way. The difference between now and then, is I suppose simply a personal touch, to what and how GC posted; at least that's what I felt back then.
Thoughts, opinions, interest levels, etc.?
1 - Not interested in GC returning
2 - Wouldn't mind
3 - Indifferent
4 - Would like
5 - Very much looking forward to GC returning, if he is willing
Please provide thoughts, to better convey your points.
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No, it didn't really have anything to do with that. We (community managers) had several discussions with Ghostcrawler and the other lead developers about how we'd be approaching communication on the new community site when it launched. Ultimately, we all agreed it'd be better for the company and the community to have the community managers be the primary source of forum communication. He still reads the forums every day for feedback. Likewise, we stay in touch with him every day, often relaying information he provides us to you all. So his thoughts on any given subject are still very often shared on the forums. The only difference is we, as community managers, take the time to relay his thoughts to you so he can focus more on considering the feedback we collect and provide from the forums, affording him more time to focus on development. That said, he's always looking for new subjects to tackle for our blogs, so you still get a direct link to his (and the rest of the development team's) thought process. As we've stated before, we also plan on completely revamping the concept of Ask the Devs. The goal is to make sure the new Ask the Devs format allows for more interaction between devs and players, and has a quicker turnaround time on answers provided. He may not be in the trenches interacting with players on the forums daily anymore, but he's still watching. Reading. Contemplating. Waiting to strike. And when he does, we'll be there to share his words of wisdom. ;) |
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Heh, yeah the name of our company is Blizzard Entertainment. Activision|Blizzard is the name of our parent company. Same as was Vinvendi Games before that, or Davidson & Associates before that. |
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Methinks you're over-analyzing it a bit. We're community managers for a video game company, not politicians trying to get your vote. I'm not a big fan of spinning information, particularly when I could have just chosen not to respond at all. :) |
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I totally understand where you're coming from, Jibberjabber. I think you said it quite well, so I don't feel insulted at all. ;) In many respects I agree with you. Just know that we're very close to Ghostcrawler (and the rest of the dev leads), so we can have very frank discussions about game design. Sometimes we'll sit in GC's office and argue points we've seen on the forums, either because we personally agree with those points, or we're playing devil's advocate. He sits with the rest of the class design team too, so it's really awesome to get a philosophic design discussion going with the lot of them. They're very receptive to unfiltered feedback. I guess my point is, the perception that something is missing in terms of player feedback from the forums reaching people like GC, is stronger than the reality. But I do agree that the communication about that feedback isn't as strong as it used to be. Our department is relatively new to the structure we have now -- it began shortly before the launch of StarCraft II when the new community site format was introduced about a year ago. We're still learning how to optimize our team and figure out the tools/staffing we need to better support our forum goers. To be honest, the roles and responsibilities of Blizzard community managers have greatly increased over the years, but we know that employee interaction on the forums is still as important as ever. For now you'll still probably see developers on the PTR forums from time to time when they need direct testing feedback, or need to inquire further about any issues/concerns. Having said that, it is the role of the community team to get information from the company to the players, and vice versa. When we're doing our job right the developers can focus more of their time on developing the game, while still feeling like they're attuned to what players are saying. |
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I've been talking to him throughout the day. He's... fine. I promise. 0:) |
