A request to the community in light of our new community manager

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by RabidIBM, May 15, 2021.

  1. RabidIBM

    With the arrival of a new community manager comes the possibility that posts in this forum might actually get read by somebody with a line to the development team. With that in mind, I would like to remind everyone that how you present your statements is as important was what your statements are. If your post looks like a "**** post", it will be scrolled past, even if you had something intelligent to say. With that in mind, I present some examples of constructive criticism, and some examples of negative **** posting. This was going to be a reply to another thread, but I felt it deserved its own post.

    Examples of criticism:
    -Spending resources on intentionally disposable content in a game with limited resources is a bad idea, therefore the devs should stop wasting resources on the campaign.
    -When the player base gravitate to one base too much, and ignore the rest of the continent, efforts should made to improve the rest of the continent to draw interest, and the base which is a gravity well should be redesigned so it changes hands more easily. This is because every time it changes hands, the losing players look at the map, and consider changing locations. Simply deactivating a popular base comes off as lazy, and creates an eye-sore in the middle of the most popular continent.
    -The new blank bases which are clearly intended for construction players are awful to build on. This is because construction objects need large, flat areas with no doo-dads which "collides with existing object". These new bases are full of clutter, and lumpy terrain, making placing buildings a nightmare.
    -The NSO is still not finished despite have been released in...2019? 2018? Long enough ago that I don't even confidently remember what year. This creates a perception of ineptitude. If major new content is still more than a year away from being ready, don't release it.
    -A chronic problem with the culture of this game is the belief that there are "hackers" everywhere. While solving this problem will be complicated, certainly any content which feeds into this belief should be fixed or removed. The post death report on who killed the player often gives an out of date report of that player's hit points and shields. Because of this, players believe that the hits they scored did no damage, meaning their opponent was cheating. This needs to be rectified, and if it can't be rectified in a cost effective manner, than this needs to be removed so that new players will stop thinking it is proof of cheating.

    Examples of being a negative @$$hole:
    -You guys don't care about this game!
    -How stupid do you have to be to think *this* was a good idea
    -DO YOUR JOB WREL!
    -Nah man, I'm not being negative, I'm just giving them the criticism they need. I'm a bold truth teller! How dare you have such optimism?
    • Up x 2
  2. Demigan

    Actually, if a player is extremely negative about something you can tally that up to their preferences. For example if another player goes "OH MY GOD I HATE HARD FOUGHT BATTLES LET'S REMOVE THEM ALL TO FORCE PLAYERS TO CAPTURE EASY BASES TO GET THE CONTINENT" they can ignore their actual idea on how to achieve it but look into making capturing the continent a more engaging playstyle for others.
    Similarly if someone cries out about hard fought battles being altered or removed to force players into capturing the continent, they can tally that up to "maybe we should look into alternatives to making capturing the continent actually fun, rather than forcing players into it".
    • Up x 1
  3. JustGotSuspended

    Yeah people have different ways of saying an interpreting things. Be respectful ofc, but it's not our job to deny anyone or criticize what they say. Just speak truthfully if you care about the game, and let the cm do the rest.
  4. BlackFox

    Would be cool if he could tell Wrel what people complain about for YEARS.
    (But hell, why would he listen to a community manager?)
    • Up x 2
  5. karlooo

    Stop kissing @ss lol. What the forums needs is less @ss kissers imo.
    Basically, leave everyone be. The people that are apparently "negative Aholes", show the most passion for the game. I'm not talking about myself.
  6. karlooo

    I wrote a quick opinion I have on Planetside 2 in this thread: [Suggestion] Magnetizing the edges of walls during construction.

    Pls don't reply to me here to talk about nonsense.
  7. JustGotSuspended

    Yeah from what I heard Wrel's a micromanager. None of the devs are allowed to do anything without his approval. Guess it's his army background, but my understanding is he's got a grip of steel over the team.

    A dev that left actually explained how he had asked wrel if he could discuss and implement small changes with the community based on their feedback. Wrel approved. Well this poor dev goes to make the first change based on community feedback (keep in mind he was discussing stuff with really skilled and engaged vets of the community, not just taking random input from randoms).

    The change was a minor tweak to SMGs. Basically he understood that they were far too powerful in the right player's hands, so a tiny nerf just so you wouldn't get your face torn off instantly by a dude with a cyclone was seemingly obvious. Basically he just reduced the headshot multiplier from 2x to 1.85x for all SMGs. He readied this change for following update.

    Well wrel noticed before the update went out and lashed out, immediately demanding that this be removed. The poor dev had just been doing what he asked and thought he had been approved to do, which was listen to the community. Well after going berserk over that attempted tweak, it's needless to say it wasn't added, and I don't really think any of the valuable community feedback was ever acted upon.

    That said it's been a while since this incident, and a while since I actually saw any member of DBG comment in these forums. I'm really hoping this is an indication of change for the best. After all, they wouldn't have hired a CM if they didn't need one right? Plus so far I'm really happy with this new CM. He's seemingly genuinely reading posts, replying/liking them...it feels like we're being heard. Now whether he's able to understand the priority concerns shared by most of the playerbase and actually get the dev team to act on it is a different story. It's a tough job I definitely wouldn't want to have. But there's really no reason to shut the guy down so early, especially since he's off to a good start.

    It's in everyone's best interests to have meaningful discussions on how we can get the game to improve and grow. Let's do our part, he is new after all and there's a million threads of outdated, poorly explained, meaningless or just simple trolling in the backlog. We can do our best to welcome him, give him a chance to prove himself, sum up the pressing issues and hope he's able to get the dev team to act on some of them. No need to let out our frustration on him, so far he's perhaps the first step to turning the game around!
    • Up x 3
  8. RabidIBM

    And here we have a perfect example of exactly what will accomplish nothing. I included 5 fairly pointed, albeit professional phrased criticisms, and this guy accuses me kissing *** because I'm not hurling personal attacks at people. If you want to be heard, imagine how Karlooo might phrase it, then don't say that.
    • Up x 1