Open letter to PS2 producer, Sites

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by FBVanu, Feb 17, 2015.

  1. FBVanu

    Sitel, thank you for your response.
    The goal to cast as wide a net as possible, is, in and by itself, the holy grail and a noble thought. We do the same in our company. However, true and loyal customers are those that are signed up with YOUR site, Planetside2.com. Everybody else, who only reads Reddit or Twitter, is not really a loyal fan, yet. And they never will be, as long as you allow them to stay away from your own official website.
    The larger number of potential customers is on other sites, and thus, they can be drawn to your site, this forum, easily, by using those other sites to bring them here. That will then bring your user base number up, which will then increase your 'range of opinions', as desired.
    If some employees are more comfortable on other sites, they will need to learn to become comfortable with the company line and directive... or, in our case, we let them go. A potential creative freedom only goes as far as our company policy, beyond that, it becomes enemy fire and disrupts a cohesive presence. Maybe we are much stricter than SOE/DayBreak.
    Why don't you test it? Put out a Twitter, Facebook and Reddit post: "new discussion on Tank updates out now!! CLICK HERE" -- (link to Forum where discussion is posted) Anybody who truly wants to find out about that discussion, will have to come to the forum.
    You might just find that many players never did come to the forum, because SOE just simply never gave them a reason to become a fan and participate in the Official Website Forum. If you give them a reason, they will come to you.
    This would then allow you to fulfill your statement: we do need to improve our official forum presence.
    Again, thank you for your response. I know many players, that, just like me, are looking forward to continue playing this great game. And, maybe, maybe we can even see more of the developer's thoughts on this forum.
    I wish you a great day.
    • Up x 7
  2. Kentucky Windage

    Thanks again for writing this. Quality work and professional all the way.
  3. AlterEgo

    I agree. In my opinion, Reddit actually seems far more complex than these forums.
    • Up x 1
  4. JudgeNu

    Official Forums have always been the place to be I thought.
    I don't Tweet, Reddit etc.
    I am open to change though, it keeps me young.

    Personally as long as I get the info in a timely fashion I am ok with it.
    But I have always known the Official Forums to be the Hearbeat of any Game Courtyard.
  5. ScrapyardBob

    It doesn't matter if "some team members are more comfortable" - that's a cop-out answer. That's a "I don't feel like singing from the official songbook because I'm a special snowflake" answer.

    Social media should be used to drive traffic to the official website/forums. All game-related information should be posted on the forums/website first, with a re-tweet / link on the social media sites. If a scrap of information is being posted on third-party sites without it being mirrored on the official forums, then you have failed at communicating.

    Doing it the other way around just demonstrates that your people care more about the opinions of a random person on the street and stroking their own ego, then getting feedback from the players who were motivated enough to come to the official website. I don't think your developers / people grasp how much of a turn-off it is to play the "where did it get posted today" game because information is not presented on the official forums/website. Pandering to some third-party website community, where a large majority of the people participating in the conversation have never given you money, is just a poor business strategy.

    Well, maybe you're starting to grasp the concept now that the company has been sold off and a lot of people got laid off.
    • Up x 3
  6. OldGuyAndy

    ["AlterEgo, post: 3108009, member: 191484"]Honesty is the best policy.....


    Unrelated to topic: Hi AlterEgo! Quick note; I love your signature GIF. I laughed... a lot.
  7. Takara

    Which is exactly why they implemented things that failed. No one likes to hear bad feedback....but you actually learn quite a bit from the negative feedback. One of the most dangerous things in the gaming community is over hype. Well getting people hyped up for something can be positive....when people only hear about how awesome something is...then log in and spawn underground and fall to their death 3 times in ten minutes they tend to just put the game away and play something else. However if they knew such a thing might happen, they will usually give it another chance.

    Blind siding people with lots of silly little bugs in a F2P model is always a nail in the coffin.
  8. MasterMagnus


    Your analogy uses 'A Net'. The net is designed to gather things (fish) from a wide range and bring them to one single place (the boat). Your analogy is correct, you do want to cast as wide a net as possible, but the methodology fails because you don't gather them after you've netted them.

    It's far less work, and fosters consistency when you have one post in one place where people can respond, and then all other sources link to that source. It's how you take control and use social media to your advantage as FBvanu quite rightly points out.
  9. 0ccultist

    I prefer official forums, because I see them as a more reliable source of info. But looking at those banners after each post (most of them like 3x post size) is quite tiring. Thats why I don't even log in most of time. And it is actually a reason for me why people prefer other social media platforms.
  10. Archiadus


    If you're referring to the signatures on this forum, you can turn them in your settings under 'preferences'. :)
    [IMG]
    • Up x 1
  11. 0ccultist

    The more u know. Appreciated
  12. CapEnTrade

    It's so freaking ridiculous how they continually ignore the use of their own website.
    USE THE OFFICIAL FORUMS, DEVS!
    • Up x 1
  13. AlterEgo

    :D Glad you did, man. If that is the case, then I'm winning a certain war...
  14. FBVanu

    it might just all take a bit longer than most players have the patience for... but, by now.. well.. I was hoping that some more official posts would have appeared in this forum.
    "We are working on the Road Map, click here to take a look"..
    "bug fixes coming next week, see this list..."

    Anything like that would have probably got forumside into a frenzy of happiness... How easy that could have been.

    Or create a post here where you introduce some new developers?

    Maybe SOE/DB is just not ready for it yet?
  15. Jalek

    I sort of assumed most "official" communications would be on sites without NSFW sections on them just out of basic professionalism.
    Yes, I've seen the subreddits that people "at work" frequent.
    • Up x 1
  16. Ronin Oni

    Uhm, not if your revenue isn't based on web traffic it isn't.....

    If people go to reddit.com/planetside, and they get interested in the game to get it, then that potential revenue is just as well as secured as if they came here....

    ACTUALLY more so, since reddit is much less doom and gloom than this place, it's less liekly to DRIVE OFF visitors.


    They don't make profit from web traffic here. They don't have ad slots they need views and clicks on.

    It does make sense for them to post "letters to the community" like the opening one you referenced, as well as patch notes and the soon again revamped road map....


    But other than that?

    HELL TO THE NO.

    I'd avoid this place to for regular communication as a dev too to be quite bloody honest.
  17. Ronin Oni

    You don't buy it why? How?

    It's the simple truth.

    They even prefer the other locations BECAUSE they're less censored. Company image is less of an issue. If a community member flies off the handle and cusses up a storm they don't NEED to censor it (which they do here)
  18. Ronin Oni

    That is VERY MUCH a huge part of it.

    They can just chit-chat on reddit and twitter.

    Anything any dev ever says on the "OFFICIAL FORUMS!" is "word of god" and "Confirmed!!!" when it's really just being brain stormed.

    That's why ONLY THE MOST OFFICIAL communications are ever done through here.
  19. RadarX


    The most disappointing thing I see regularly is "Forumside vs Redditside." I spend a considerable part of my day reading both and seeing all of you take shots at each other. I see so many of you guys who honestly believe they are really different but everyone is part of the same community and have the same passions, concerns, and ideas. It truly saddens me to see it.

    I've been doing this a long time and I started in the world of "the forums are the hub of the community." I 100% understand where some of you are coming from but this is no longer the reality of the industry (we aren't an insurance company or furniture maker). The expectation that a significantly higher level of engagement from the team is going to take place mostly here is unfortunately not going to materialize.

    If you want that higher level you are going to have to step outside of your comfort zone into Reddit, Twitter, etc... I'll be completely honest right now, I hated Reddit a few years ago and Twitter I only used when I absolutely had to. The more I used it, the easier it became and it's pretty easy to interact with both now.

    If you don't have a Twitter account, just make one. It's free and you don't have to follow anyone you don't want to. Granted you may have to see a picture of a growler I bought or hear about what Muldoon is playing but that is the higher level of engagement. We are no longer a faceless mass who work on a videogame. We are people who have passions and engage our users outside of the 9 - 5 Monday - Friday.

    We're going to continue to post our official announcements here in the forums for maximum effect and this is absolutely where the Roadmap will live so the forums aren't going anywhere. Your feedback is just as important as any other we read and believe it or not I really do honestly appreciate the fact you guys took the time to raise these concerns. I just want to see you all on the next level.
    • Up x 1
  20. Strikejk

    A helpful website to keep in touch with dev posts:

    www.ps2tracker.net
    • Up x 2