Attention All Forum Users: Bringing Order to the PlanetSide 2 Forums

I'm sorry, but I don't think the "Smile, or else" attitude is gonna be good to the forums.
That may be pleasing to some people, since it will reduce dramatically the "uninspiring" content, to not say the least, on the forums. But for those who are frustated with the current state of the game...it will not.

Simply put: Frustated player goes to the forums, vent his anger, mod goes "Zero tolerance" on him, player goes banned in forums and ingame, player goes even more frustated, player uninstalls the game, SOE loses one more customer.

That may even lead to much more unpleasing situations, like banning someone who has "power" (read; outfit leaders) which may bring even more players down w/ him.
I'd say you guys throw a /riot card on this community, let it "burn" and put a some sort of "warning" everytime someone enters the forum, like SOE is not responsible for what is being said in such, etc.
Or simply shut this thing down and call it a day.

I'll go ahead and tackle the multiple thread issue. If someone makes a thread about a subject, say ZOE that's fine. If 10 people make 10 threads about ZOE that's not fine. The same debates are being had in each thread. It disorganizes the discussion, it misrepresents the issue (in terms of artificially inflating the number of overall posts in each thread), it causes people to repost the same things over and over in each thread, and it makes finding coherent feedback nearly impossible.

Now ideally we'd redirect to a single thread, and nominate a thread as the unofficial official ZOE discussion thread. That's the ideal, and sometimes we don't have the time or resources to do the research to find the appropriate thread. We can however know that when their is 15 threads on the same issue that at least 10 of them are redundant. Sometimes we have to go with what is expedient. This is especially true when RadarX or I (the forum admins) are assisting on these forums (since neither he nor I are directly responsible for PS2).

As to the status of the ZOE max, I'll go poke the team with Luperza and find out if there is any update. In the meantime I'll just be happy those things (expletives removed) don't fly.

It takes multiple offenses in almost all situations for someone to get suspended, and multiple suspensions for someone to get permanently suspended.

It shouldn't be smile or else, and that's not what we're trying to say. It's not productive or helpful for people to troll or insult others however, and that's the biggest area where we need to change patterns of behavior. Letting the forums burn is the surest way we could go to get customer feedback ignored and that's bad for us and bad for you folks.

Can you merge threads as in other forums ? Because it is an issue I have found myself .. Asking for confirmation and not recieving any as to where to reply so you don't post in a thread that is then deemed redundant , and in doing so bumping the redundant thread with my post.

Call me crazy but how about introducing a FAQ/Information sticky thread in the general forum with small updates on development and answers to repeating questions. That AMA thread on Reddit has potentially cleared up about 80% of the "daily" rage threads alone (ZOE balance, NC performance etc). At the moment when a good piece of knowledge is shared by the development team it rarely makes it to the official forums and is instead lost on Reddit, FNO, Command Center etc.

If something is consistently coming up as an issue or question that hasn't been answered then maybe the developers can use this as a point of contact with the community over it. The best example this week would be the issue of SC sales... one official statement on the issue would probably have cut the rage threads down a great deal rather than creating a circle of negativity.

Most of the vitriol stems from frustration caused by glaring balance issues that have gone unaddressed for several months. How about fixing the root of the problem instead of just telling people to be nice.

And lock it .. So it's only bumped by a Dev / Mod / CM and not player posts.

^^^^this
theres more information given on other sites than the official planetside 2 forums - how about we actually get told what is happening here instead of some silly social networking sites that most of us dont visit (twitter/facebook/reddit/youtube)

i love this game but the lack of developer interaction on the forums does make everyone go nuts

Devs posting useful information on the official forum? Letting players know what's going on? Preposterous!

well, i think that its great that the devs are putting more effort into the forums, but posting this while simultaniously posting the AMA question thing on reddit just defeats the purpose of posting this in the first place, the forums have been slow for a while because everyone is agreeing that ccertain things need work, so there are less new threads and more responses on each thread, yes you dont have the time, but when one of your main selling points is that the devs were going to listen to the players and actively make changes, you sorta need to step it up, otherwise, the enforcer modified would have been fixed months ago, and ZOE would have been balanced months ago as well, simply reading a post doesnt help because we dont know if you actually read it, when you say you read the forums but you dont post it doenst make a difference, if you want more constructive feedback then ask specific questions, like what you did with the road map


and for the love of god



STOP USING REDDIT YOU HAVE THESE FORUMS

USE THEM

Maybe there's a reason for all this negativity. Not saying you (SOE) shouldn't implement restrictions, by all means do so. But remember, there's a reason people are bitter and angry, and it's not just because it's the internet.

If you truly want to get rid of that bitterness and anger the only way to accomplish this with a degree of positivity will be to implement changes in-game. It's been close to three months since any new content has come out (not counting OMFG, which you did a fine job at). People want to see the game change, and the track record isn't looking too good for a steady stream of new content. Truthfully it looks more and more like PS2 is being ignored. Please realize this.

I love PS2, as do most people on Forumside. We love it so much we want to make it better and see changes made. SOE has talked a big talk about wanting changes from the Roadmap to the AMA Reddit, but we aren't interested in talk. We want to see them done.

So...DO it.

About your forum guidelines, specifically "trolling." As it stands it's easy for someone to claim that someone else is "trolling" because it's a made up internet term where people can report any post they simply don't like.

I think posting this issue on the game launcher is a great idea. I think more important information should be posted there.

If I'm not wrong, this actually leads to a far better solution. We have lots of threads on the same thing that aren't problematic. They're infrequent, but consistent, or talking about different aspects. It's very obvious though when it is about the same thing and clearly there's an amount of 'public outcry'; this is when a thread gets locked and people are told to find somewhere else to post their feedback.

What could be implemented at this point is a 'direct feedback' model, where moderators simply note down the issue that was being discussed, and feed this back to the devs/Luperza. At this point, say once a week, we could have a 'feedback roundup session', where as many of those issues are responded to as can be. So let's take on 3 things we've had consistent threads closed on: ZOE, NC UP, Striker. As soon as you start closing threads saying 'We've heard your feedback and we're going to get someone to respond this weekend as part of the 'feedback roundup'.' People will already feel listened to and probably stop reposting. Even if they don't, it means that if all 3 of those threads were coming up consistently in the space of a week, come that weekend, Luperza or a dev throws up a thread, saying:

"Okay guys, we've weighed in on as many threads this week as we've had time, but we know people have been consistently raising a few issues all week. So you know you've been heard, here's what we're clear on:

ZOE MAX - People are concerned this may be OP, with suggestions that it's the movement buff that makes it so. People are also expressing worry that this will be overnerfed.

Outcome: We're going to be addressing ZOE in the next couple of balance passes, to make sure it's not changed too much/too fast, but also such that real balance is restored.

NC UP - Lots of stats thrown up from everything around population, accuracy, WDS, KDR etc this week.

Outcome: We think there's less to this than meets the eye. The disparity seen appears to be more related to a few specific vehicle weapons than an 'overall NC are worse' trend. We'll be taking on these gaps in the NC arsenal in December's patch.

Striker - Whole lot of TR saying this is now unusable; whilst VS and TR seem to be a lot happier with it (surprise surprise )

Outcome: We're already set to be revamping lock ons in the next month or so; the Striker has already had most of its changes implemented because it was completely imbalancing the game before. Don't worry though; soon it'll get some strengths to make up for its weaknesses."

That took me all of 5 minutes (maybe plus 10-15 to actually get the feedback from a dev). It'd at least cut the lifespan of recurring/spammed issues down to a maximum of a week... Thoughts?

I'm not sure I've ever seen an example of what you're describing in what must literally be tens of thousands of posts I've read by now.

What I do see is a hell of a lot of vitriol of the fact that the information HAD to be sourced from Reddit/Twitter etc, when it should have at least been here as well, if not here first/exclusively.

This is the simple fact of the matter; there is almost never a time (aside from PERHAPS links to patch notes) when a post goes up on Reddit or is linked to on Twitter from the official forums. This fosters the forumsider's feeling of inequity, and thus increases the aforementioned vitriol the next time something has to be linked to from Reddit etc.

If you guys had fixed ZOE any time in the past 5 months we wouldn't have 10 threads about ZOE.

SOE is not asking people to not present their thoughts.
It is requesting that you do so in a positive and clear manner, citing possible alternatives etc.
The universe has all gifted us with its spark of sentience. You KNOW in your heart of hearts whether you have helped or hurt when you post or speak to someone. We all do. It's what makes us human and so capable of mercy or wrath, of nukes or cuddles. Let us help one another to something glorious....we will never actually get there, but let us go forward, together and leave no foe or friend behind. Our stubbornness for unity and a concern for each others well being will bind us into something new.

The alternative is simply reductionist, meek, feeble, individual, meandering steps into disintegration and nothingness whilst we all howl our own wants. A great human puts others first because they can afford it emotionally and socially. They have extra to spend on others. I am as guilty of all these faults as any....

Bit of fun:
"Citizens of Auraxia, in case you have forgotten these communication modules operate under the same law as the rest of the Terran Republic. Those who abuse them for their own ends are common criminals. Guilty of the manufacturing and distribution of anger, pettiness, intolerance and negativity. Those who support them will be considered accomplices to their crimes. The social xerg is not the law..... SOE is the law. You have been warned. As for you trollers...... JUDGEMENT TIME".

(parody... Dredd2013)

Can we also get an extension to the edit post timer?

Also as it stands, it's relatively easy to get banned when you have "no trolling" as a forum rule, it's an okay rule but it can easily be exploited to get rid of posts that people don't like; especially when "offences" are accumulative towards suspension (and/or permanent ban), when someone has a controversial point of view (you don't want to control people's opinions do you?), or when someone is trying to defend the devs from scrutiny.

I understand the reason why you do what you do...it's just not satisfactory. And I don't mean that in a "YOU MUST DO AS I SAY" way. What I mean is, if you don't have the time, inclination or manpower to answer peoples questions properly I'm not sure you can really justify expecting them to not get frustrated with your lack of communication. You can't have it both ways.

If you can't direct the person to where they should be posting their concerns, why close the thread in the first place...you aren't consolidating feedback, you're just annoying that person. They've obviously started a new thread because they feel that they aren't being heard and when you just close the thread with no explanation you might as well be saying "You're right...we aren't"

You need to either accept the fact that not responding to concerns about the game annoys people or you need to start responding to concerns. Not responding and then telling us we shouldn't get annoyed about it is just adding insult to injury.

I'm really trying (and failing) to not sound accusatory. I'm not criticising you because you aren't doing what I want you to do, I'm just trying to explain how it feels to be your customer in the hope that it might help you see things from our point of view and maybe change the way you handle these things. I mean really it's not that big a deal, but watching you constantly alienate your player base like this is disheartening. I really enjoyed Planetside, and I really hope that it'll change in the future in a way that I can find it fun again but it's hard to stay interested when there seems to be such a lack of concern regarding issues which such a large portion of the player base have.

I used to play with a regular platoon who would play with air vehicles all day. It was a fun way to spend time in Planetside, but the recent changes with resources as well as the addition of the Striker simply made it no longer fun. Those changes drove dozens of people I knew personally closer to quitting, it's not just me. And I'm not saying "OMG THE STRIKER IS SO OP" it's not about the power of the weapon, it's that it's a terrible game mechanic. It's not a fun weapon to play with and it's a chore to play against, it just sucks fun out of the game. I've read loads of threads constructively criticising the Striker and it's negative impact on the dynamic of the air vehicles but I've never seen a single post by anyone at SOE acknowledging that there even might be an issue and it's that "We don't think it's a priority so we aren't going to say anything at all" attitude that can be hard to take.

I just want one of the devs to tell me why Canadians cannot get those Exclusive offers (NS-11P and NS-44P Comissioner). All I want is a single gun.. ;(

My hope is this isn't just another spark that goes dead in a weeks time. At least it seems from the SOE responses in this thread, there's a bit of responsibility that SOE is taking for the forums turning into what it is.

#1 takeaway for SOE should be that your forums don't exist on Reddit/Facebook. We're all here wanting answers.

It'd be great to see some regular updates (weekly at least) by SOE on these forums as many have already said. Dev answers/response to hard questions (4th faction issues, balance, etc) would be a great start to pull back the continuous theorycrafting we're forced to do here when SOE doesn't just stomp out simple conspiracies and misunderstandings.

The Roadmap forum first and foremost needs some love as 99% of those items still read unscheduled which just builds more anger in players when they see Higby doing a 6 Dev AMA on Reddit but not taking the time to give us an update on your own forums.

Again, my hope is to see more activity from SOE here at these forums but keep in mind for most of us it'll take some action on SOEs part before we start cheering on this initiative. Best of luck.