Who gives a crap what or who this post is about. Truth is the truth. If you are an employee of SoE and you feel slighted by this then you are a target. As a company that is benefiting from money that is being spent on such things, I have little sympathy other than the fact that you get paid by us to do a job. I could care less that you get bombarded by the general populace for bone head moves by the powers that be. We didn't force you to take this job position but we did pay hard earned cash for somebody to take our praise and our criticism. Kitchen------>Heat. Can't take it , then get out!!!
How about you be honest and tell everyone you're behind all of the changes players do not want. You should stop working for a day or 2 and actually play the game and get in touch with what players want before you force feed changes we hate.
We've seen Absor's work for half a generation. We know he's not the bone-head. /em loots his bones in Tacvi.
Personally, I would much rather have dev comments that are snarky but honest (for example, Elidroth's comment about people burning through levels & content and then complaining they're bored) instead of PR fluff that is carefully worded to sound upbeat & positive but makes no sense (for example, telling us that the way we enjoy playing is not fun or that they want us to enjoy more of Norrath by nerfing a huge amount of content & cramming us into 2 small zones).
And most of us don't have little or no sympathy for your position so stop being a jerk. SOE devs deserve the same respect any courtesy that any other person does and the fact that you buy their product does not give you the right to treat them with any less respect. You can criticize and still remain polite.
I know a lot of folks who never got bored and had things to do right up till the new expansion. Vocal minority complains and then we get exp nerfs.
I don't mean that I agree with him, but that he was honest about the way he felt. If the devs are honest, we can hopefully have a productive discussion about real problems and how to fix them, instead of arguing about nonsense like what's fun or not, which is a red herring. In this case, they're upset about the people who race through levels & content, and with a small expansion, they feel they need to slow people down with nerfs. I can understand where they're coming from, but the nerfs are counter-productive in reality. As seen from posts on this forum, the powergamers already hit 105 on the first day, even with all the nerfs. You can't stop the powergamers without ruining the game for everyone else. Let them have their fun & then be bored; they're a small percentage of the general playerbase. The nerfs only hurt the average players, who weren't the problem in the first place. So now instead of a handful of bored powergamers, you have a bunch of people not buying the expansion. If we had this discussion before the changes went in, we probably could have worked out a reasonable compromise, instead of spawning a huge thread full of irate customers who were being fed a bunch of marketing BS. If the devs have to walk on eggshells because of people like the OP, everything gets filtered through PR & we make no progress.
I'm sorry if you felt that Absor was brusque (which is possible) or dishonest (which is not possible). Absor has been working on EverQuest for well over a decade. However you might feel about his demeanor, the game would not be what it is today if it were not for his contributions. He cares about the game in a way that is obvious after talking to him for a few minutes (You can probably pin him down at SOE Live and chat with him to test this out.) We do the best we can to communicate in the most civil tone possible, but we're human. We're not always at our most pleasant. In part due to various stressors, like the whirlwind of activity surrounding an expansion launch, real life issues, or the last time we had a cup of Joe, we may come across as cranky. I'll talk to the team and emphasize the importance of being empathetic and, perhaps more importantly, not posting while angry. Thanks, and have a good weekend.
Use the Silius posts from the VG forums (archives) as examples of what not to do. Great guy, Talented, Brutally honest, And hated by the majority of the player base. Players clamor for dev interaction... but dev's aren't "trained" in the whole CS/PR realm. They're developers, programmers, artists, etc... I find it a bit ironic/hypocritical that a call is made from them to be more empathetic while the players do not reflect the same courtesy much of the time. In my profession, there is a term becoming more "main stream" over the last decade or so. That is "full disclosure." Things aren't as they were in the 80's and 90's (and earlier). Good or bad, people are increasingly concerned with having everything put in front of them. that is to say, the social atmosphere has shifted... fed by the acceptance/influence of the internet and spurred by those who seek to deceive. When I do my job right, not everyone is happy. It normally means bad PR. It normally means a lot of $$ is soon to be shelled out. It also means, that a problem is fixed and the populous, as a whole, is better off for it. The alternative... it is far worse. Problems linger. People, companies, and governments get exploited. While it doesn't "feel good" to go through the process (at least for me), the end result for the people, companies, or governments involved is generally positive. Hiding, or the perception of hiding such things.. never. EVER. Turns out good. That's really what people want here. They want full disclosure. Not just "We did X." but, "We did X because of Y." If something is pushed live, make it known. No one cares that you changed Sir Dumbledor's name to Sir Fred... until they find that you did it and didn't say anything about it. Some things can be simple: Sir Dumbledor's name was changed to Sir Fred. (no game impact) Some things may need more: Sir Dumbledor's name was changed to Sir Fred, due to trademark/IP/copyright issues. If something is forgotten, no big deal, address it when it is brought up (by adding to the patch notes, acknowledging it in the thread identifying it, and not engaging the heated discussion). That's just a silly example.. but really, that's the thick and thin of it. The EQ forums are much more forgiving than the VG forums were (they did a lot of "ninja" changes over there and received a lot of "deal with it" replies from devs). SOE has lied in the past and that is a difficult thing to overcome. (SOE Live 2013, for example... there are panel vids on YouTube where employees promised things which never came to fruition). If they KNEW that they were getting laid off two weeks later or that their project was to be cancelled in Q3/Q4, they wouldn't have made such claims. That reflects on SOE. It hurts the reputations of the developers (even though those calls are high management calls and they earnestly were not informed). The best thing, is as noted above + some tidbits: Fully disclose changes to the game. Acknowledge when an item is overlooked. Update information to include any overlooked items. Do not engage volatile threads. Keep an open, running dialog. Use PR/CS agents.. that is their main job purpose. for the players.. remember that yes, this is "your game." The passion you feel about a change (positive or negative) is the same emotion you will produce in the responsible dev. If you "hate" a change and lash out about it, the associated dev(s) will be instilled with a simillarly "aggressive" emotion. They worked hard on it. It is their baby. The CHOICE may not have been theirs to make. *shrug* Not that things will really change much, but eventually... one could hope.
Quite frankly I wouldn't talk to them at all about being empathetic. The level of abuse you guys take it is obscenely stupid. If I have a real problem with a product I am buying and talking reasonably with the staff doesn't get me the results I want I take my money elsewhere. I don't verbally abuse them on the way out the door. Money talks louder than words in business.
Children telling adults how the world works. *le sigh* Oh god I feel old now Next thing you know, I'll be on the street picking up a newspaper and shaking my fist in the air at "those damn kids!" That's right! I said NEWSPAPER! My cell phone is rotary. My cell phone is ROTARY!!!!! Noo!!!!
I have know Absor through the game of Everquest and playing on Test Server for most of my 17+ years playing Everquest now. And he is one of the most dedicated and consistent developers in the game. I have seen him go out of his way to make things happen, fix things and just simply help a player out countless number of times. His work has been excellent, his ideas and innovation has shaped EQ for more then a decade now. He is a "tell it like it is" kinda guy, and in this PC, "namby pamby" kinda world now, were the norm is to coddle and soothe, a person like Absor is a refreshing and much needed voice of the past to bring things back into perspective. Frankly Everquest would not be such a successful game that it is today it it were not for Absor and the old guard still putting in thousands of hours a year at SOE. Thank you Absor for being who you are and what you are, I myself /salute you for all the fun and entertainment you have provided me over the past years.
Thank you for the information. It is good to know who is responsible for the current state of the game.
The developers, artists and CS folks are not the core root of the issue. They are as competent, dedicated and loyal to the company, game and player base as we could ever hope for. It is the lack of financial resources, constant layoffs and issues with decisions made over their heads which are the cause. Ripping them to shreds over the state of the game is not going to change anything but make them demotivated, and not wanting to read the board or answer our questions. If you are pissed, send your complaints to Smed.
