Community Management

Titansteele

Hi all,

Where I am not a new ESO player I am fairly new/inactive on these forums. I do read them on a semi-regular basis however and one thing I have noticed is that there does not seem to be enough engagement with the community on an "official" basis.

Frustration can build simply because it is allowed to do so. With a community this large it is not easy to do this and there is a cost to do that but the cost can be recouped with effective management as it is basically targeted market reseach with your core customer.

If I have just been unlucky and as a result have not stumbled across ZOS people taking part and helping set the mind of customers at ease over different scenarios then I apologise for this post.

This is not a flame, it is designed to be what I would consider constructive criticism. I am enjoying this game, the people I have met while playing it and I am happy to sub for the ongoing future as there is real effort being put into this product to make it worthwhile and I appreciate that. I just see an area for improvement and thought I might raise it to see if someone from ZOS may answer.

GL and HF

NorthernFury

I dunno; as a former Verant/SoE CSR (EQ GM, Tech support) I appreciate the concise, direct answers I have seen from ZoS community managers on the boards. There may not be that many official ZoS threads (which you're right; would solve some of the speculation), but the stuff that they DO address, they do well.

A little heavy handed on closing threads and enforcing 'profanity' edits, but it's pretty clear that ZoS monitors the forums pretty actively.

kassandratheclericb14_ESO

I am a moderator of a pretty large website. It is a thankless task and I don't even have to serve as a go-between from the community and the developers of a game.

There are THOUSANDS of posts a day on these forums and a mere handful of staff in comparison. I think that communication can improve and will improve but the answers they have are largely dependent on the developers. If the moderation staff aren't told anything they can't answer. This is what needs to improve.

I am sure they rely heavily on reports of posts to monitor the worst of the worst as far as posts. Perhaps some think they are heavy handed but I do not. The Code of Conduct of the forums is pretty clear and they are doing their jobs. They are human like us and make mistakes at times.

By in large I think they are doing a bang up job. *raises glass*

Tabbycat

The developers don't really actively get involved in the forums. But they do read what we have to say, as you could tell from the QuakeCom panel.

Titansteele

That is certainly good to hear and from what I have read/heard of Paul Sage he seems to have his finger on the pulse of the community and has demonstrated that a few times. There is plenty of evidence around the net to confirm that things are being listened too and considered.

I guess my point is some more activity here would make that more obvious to those who do not follow all of the PR around the net.

I have worked in the gaming industry myself, this is not a e-willy waving contest, I have worked on and with some of the biggest games and sites in the world. I know that is takes a special kind of person which a great deal of dedication, education and heart to do a really good community managers job. Ontop of that they have to have a very thick skin as lets face it, you cant please everyone all the time so you will be the target of angst at times.

Please do not mistake this as me interviewing for said role in anyway, I have more kids than a sane person would have and a very demanding job as well. I enjoy this game, my wife and I play it to wind down after a long day with kids and I am simply putting a suggestion out there in an area where I think ZOS could do a little better.
Think of it as Quakecon panels, 365 days a year.

Audigy

I think they do good, sure I don't agree with everything especially if you see threads not being closed and full of spam - but then again they cant hold our hands all the time.

If you have a question they usually respond, at least in my case I got most questions answered - guess its also about how friendly you are.

Also that they take our questions to the Devs is really appreciated, Blizzard did so in the past as well, I often had the chance to ask them directly - its good to see that ZO does the same and hopefully they keep that attitude in future.

NewBlacksmurf

You're right. I was just talking about this to RL friends who participate on other game forums. I don't think there are so many posts that those that ask questions to ZOS should all be answered.

I also feel the Ingame support is about 75% less interactive than the forums.
It's time for me to move on.