A response on communications

Destai

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey all, thanks so much for taking the time to write up so much great feedback here, and apologies it took a while to reply (something something about Global Reveal prep...). This whole thing started on my personal Twitter account as it was originally intended to be a broad discussion about communication in general within the games industry, but eventually morphed into a conversation about ESO specifically. Which is fine. But just wanted to clear up why this started on Twitter.

We've had some initial conversations amongst our team to discuss ways to improve communication across the board and some different things we could try. While it's still a bit too early to get into details here, we are doing our best to figure out how to get more information on both the forums and website rather than limiting much of it to social media and/or livestreams. While these avenues are great for some things, we recognize it's not always ideal. Information should be readily available without having to search for its source or needing to dig around for an answer. As was mentioned above, it can be pretty difficult to keep track of multiple platforms and while it's a blessing we live in a time when there are so many ways to consume information, it can also be pretty overwhelming.

As a first step, you may have noticed we posted the Q1 in-game event graphic here on the forums in addition to our social channels. Moving forward, we're going to try to err on the side of redundancy. This is going to be a process and while it's safe to assume there will still be times when some information will be posted just on social (for example, a bunch of live tweets going out in tandem with our event this Thursday) rest assured we are actively looking at ways to improve.

Thanks, as always, for the ongoing support!

Thanks for clearing things up, it's appreciated.

I don't think anyone faults you for having "industry discussion" on your personal Twitter. It certainly wasn't my intent to call that out as a negative. People were asking you to post that discussion here because we can really get into details here provided our posts aren't edited. That and it's a discussion many of us have wanted for a long time.

From an optics perspective, I think it helps to address the game community you represent first - especially when communication is a historical pain point for many of the community. Of course it's going to morph into something about ESO. Everyone knows it's a problem.

Honestly, it's just vexing that you guys are still figuring out how to communicate with us this far into the game's life. It makes supporting the game hard. It really does. Of course we welcome any improvement, but it feels like this discussion has been started and stopped so many times. I get that it's an ongoing process, but it doesn't feel like anything major has improved in years (in terms of ZOS communication).

That being said I think there's a few things you can do to clear things up and improve the relationship between ZOS and the community.
1. Tell us who does what. We all know you're the CM Gina, but it honestly feels like most of your focus is on sales comms. For many of us with jobs in IT, consulting, marketing, etc., we see more of the business drivers than "deliverables" us players can consume. It's frustrating because players want you or even folks above you to see certain feedback. So we tag you and 8/10 times it's not replied to. We all get you have job constraints, but I think those constraints need to be communicated. We need to know who to go to exchange feedback. In my experience, Kevin's a champ who does most of that communication. I don't think it's fair to put that on one person.
2. Address the hesitance. It's common knowledge how Rich feels about these forums. On one of his streams, he admitted as such and how he "doesn't blame" his employees if they don't come here. That has to change. Kevin can't handle technical communication the way a developer can. We're not going to get anywhere if someone who knows the system can't - or won't - speak to the problem. If you or Kevin have competing priorities on top of it, how can we expect developers to get feedback? I get it's challenging to deal with toxic players and conflicting requests, but it's felt like ZOS has thrown the baby out with the bath water on communications.
3. Stop avoiding the hard questions and feedback. I've seen this on your Twitter, on Rich's streams, and in historical interviews - it all too often feels like you guys want your vision confirmed and nothing else. It's just not realistic, and ultimately good for the game. Developers need to be challenged. PTS feedback needs to be engaged. People need to voice their opinions. We all want what's good for the game, we all want this to be the top dog MMO. It won't improve if you don't let us tell you how.
4. Stop making decisions in a vacuum. Just by your post above, you guys are exploring ways forward internally. I get that some things need to be internal decisions, but how to talk with your players honestly shouldn't be one of them. That's why myself and others wanted to pull this here - because we want our thoughts and needs to be considered when you talk to us. If it's not, it's just a one-sided exchange at that point. There needs to be exploratory discussions started and maintained by ZOS employees here and on Reddit to figure this out. Your tweet was a good bulkhead, and I think it shows some thought processes. But if you take a step back, you'll see how different is from the community. That's a gap you have to bridge.
5. Here first. Players are obviously thirsty for insight into what's going on - just look at how many people started flocking to Rich's streams. Twitter's great for hyping up events and releases (excited for tomorrow by the way) but announcements and explanations need to be here first. It's been said here before, but this is official forum, please treat it as such.

I respect that you're willing to err on the side of redundancy. I think that's a step in the right direction. Hopefully another year doesn't pass and we're having this conversation again because that's the precedence that's been set. A lot of games enjoy warm relationships between the developers and the players, this game deserves no less and I hope we get there.

shadyjane62

I am 71 years old. It is a choice not to have a cell phone, ipad ot twitter account. I have been banned by Facebook, which is a badge of honor as far as I am concerned.

If you are communicating outside the game, I don't see it.

TaMmEh

Hurbster wrote: »

I don't do twitter. How much info have I been missing out on?

Same here.. And Im now wondering the same thing

Gelmir

shadyjane62 wrote: »

I am 71 years old. It is a choice not to have a cell phone, ipad ot twitter account. I have been banned by Facebook, which is a badge of honor as far as I am concerned.

If you are communicating outside the game, I don't see it.

Almost the same here (minus ban part on Facebook, I am banned on Twitter )

DuckFayth

I know this thread has come up with some great feedback about communication so I want to throw in something that came to my attention today with the players' ability to communicate on the forums themselves.

tldr; Getting an account on the forums to provide feedback is unintuitive and causes a barrier to including more voices.

For example: Today I had very productive discussion with many like minded individuals and we came up with what I believed was a great solution to the problem some people saw with Account Wide Achievements. I posted on the forums and encouraged others to do the same to bring attention to it. Most of them gave up just trying to sign up for an account.

I've been a member on the forums for a very long time so I had no memory or idea of just how to walk them through the process and as I got to watch the struggle, I suddenly understood why many people don't participate here. Most of us, myself included, had no idea you need to go hunt down an obscure location to request an invite. There is not a way to sign up easily visible on the home page of the forums, even when you click "Sign In".

Proposed Solution: When clicking "Sign In" on the home page and you're prompted with entering your credentials, add a "request an invite" link or "how to request an invite" FAQ link to the bottom of the window. This option could also be added directly next to the "Sign In" option on the home page. This does not exist in current state.

Onomog

DuckFayth wrote: »

*snip*

tldr; Getting an account on the forums to provide feedback is unintuitive and causes a barrier to including more voices.

*snip*

Proposed Solution: When clicking "Sign In" on the home page and you're prompted with entering your credentials, add a "request an invite" link or "how to request an invite" FAQ link to the bottom of the window. This option could also be added directly next to the "Sign In" option on the home page. This does not exist in current state.

Could not agree more with this. I've only recently figured out how to get an account on the forums and it was not obvious. At all.

FlopsyPrince

@ZOS_Gen

Onomog wrote: »

DuckFayth wrote: »

*snip*

tldr; Getting an account on the forums to provide feedback is unintuitive and causes a barrier to including more voices.

*snip*

Proposed Solution: When clicking "Sign In" on the home page and you're prompted with entering your credentials, add a "request an invite" link or "how to request an invite" FAQ link to the bottom of the window. This option could also be added directly next to the "Sign In" option on the home page. This does not exist in current state.

Could not agree more with this. I've only recently figured out how to get an account on the forums and it was not obvious. At all.

I got mine quite a while ago. I don't recall it being hard at all, but then I have been on other MMO forums before.

Onomog

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I got mine quite a while ago. I don't recall it being hard at all, but then I have been on other MMO forums before.

When I went to the sign in page for the forums, I assumed I would use my regular account credentials. When that didn't work, there was nothing on that page to point me in the right direction. I had to resort to Google to find out that you need an invitation to create an account, and the only way to get an invitation was to submit a ticket. It took a day for a response to the ticket.

If they want player engagement on the forums they need to do a better job than that for an account creation process.

(edit for spelling)

etchedpixels

Onomog wrote: »

If they want player engagement on the forums they need to do a better job than that for an account creation process.

(edit for spelling)

That's the small fix

The big fix is having a "forum" button in the game startup once you've logged in. Oddly very few games do a decent job of that.

MilitiaMasterV

Onomog wrote: »

Could not agree more with this. I've only recently figured out how to get an account on the forums and it was not obvious. At all.

Same. When I went to sign on here, and post about an issue, it took me 3 MONTHS to figure it out/and get a reply to my 'ticket sent for forum access' (Not sure if whoever is dealing with those is just dropping the ball or what, I believe I had to click to send it 3 times before anyone ever sent one.), and by that point, I'd long since forgotten the reason I originally came on here, so I never posted and that's why when I did finally have something to address on here I had a 'soul shriven' tag, and it looked like I was a noob even though I'd been playing for nearly 2 years (Almost 1k CP) and never had a reason to come on here and say anything else (Had read a thread about stamblades and almost commented, but they were addressing more of the PvP aspect and I don't PvP so I didn't end up posting in there). The assumption that because we're marked as 'new' means we're actually new is kinda funny to begin with.

Maybe we just had nothing to participate with? Or we didn't want to join 'the old boys club' of only people who are 'allowed' to have a say? It seems like they tend to disappear comments that don't just agree with their views.

[snip]

edited for Inappropriate Content and Language

furiouslog

[Snip] today it seems relevant, given:

1. The large number of unanswered complaints about event page drop rates, and
2. The massive PTS/PCNA clusterfork.

It might be a time to reflect on what you guys are doing well and what still needs to be improved, @ZOS_GinaBruno.

I mean, after the servers are fixed, of course. Please take your time. But after that, maybe please do something to make many of your players happier than they currently seem to be?

[Edited for thread bumping]

shadyjane62

furiouslog wrote: »

[Snip] today it seems relevant, given:

1. The large number of unanswered complaints about event page drop rates, and
2. The massive PTS/PCNA clusterfork.

It might be a time to reflect on what you guys are doing well and what still needs to be improved, @ZOS_GinaBruno.

I mean, after the servers are fixed, of course. Please take your time. But after that, maybe please do something to make many of your players happier than they currently seem to be?

Maybe less vacations to Amsterdam?

[Edited quote]

furiouslog

shadyjane62 wrote: »

Maybe less vacations to Amsterdam?

Having been part of multiple corporate cultures, I can assure you, occasional company trips to exotic locales are necessary for employee retention as well as putting on more weight than you were hoping to.

kyle.wilson

less outsourcing to fiverr.

hiyde

shadyjane62 wrote: »

Maybe less vacations to Amsterdam?

So many thoughts here. But I'll stick with this one:

I was lucky enough to have worked in a career where I traveled to work cool events and I'm here to tell ya, as sexy as that sounds, it is WORK. It wasn't a vacation to Amsterdam, it was working a LIVE EVENT.

But even if it was a "vacation", it is absolutely none of my business what a company does to reward their employees (and I'd argue it does wonders to build loyalty & productivity). What I care about is that the product I pay for is working acceptably and I'm getting what I paid for. For the vast vast VAST majority of the past 10 years, ESO/ZOS has done a bang-up job. Your mileage may vary, but we all have the power of the wallet to vote with.

furiouslog

So, to keep things on the communications track, what are the elements that are important to you all as consumers when something like this happens?

For me, immediacy and transparency are the two most important things, preferably with a mix of self deprecating humor and/or an earnest acknowledgement of the inconvenience caused (optional), as well as the provision of some sort of token gift that recognizes the extent of that inconvenience (also optional).

ragnarok6644b14_ESO

furiouslog wrote: »

So, to keep things on the communications track, what are the elements that are important to you all as consumers when something like this happens?

For me, immediacy and transparency are the two most important things, preferably with a mix of self deprecating humor and/or an earnest acknowledgement of the inconvenience caused (optional), as well as the provision of some sort of token gift that recognizes the extent of that inconvenience (also optional).

Frankly, for me, I'm so sick of corporate PR spin that I don't actually think there's much that communication ALONE can do to help me, lol. They do a great job here - it doesn't read like corporate PR spin and it does seem genuine and transparent.

But what makes communication the most effective in my mind, is action. It's the old "sorry doesn't cut it" line - don't just apologize, change your behavior.

And, as an ESO player for 10 years, I can say that while they have not been fast about changing their behavior, they have improved things that are problematic.

Some of the extremely bad issues I remember from ages past that have been fixed (mostly; obviously these bugs can crop up on a case by case basis still for all kinds of reasons, but they're not as widespread or 'mainstream' as they were):
1) Infinite Cyrodiil loadscreens
2) Exploitable multi-pet summons of combat pets (e.g. 2 Scamps as a sorc)
3) Break Free only half functioning at best
4) Proc sets being wonky (I remember the epic horror of seeing a single person with Valkyn Scoria drop about 12 meteors on someone over the course of a 45 second fight)
5) the combat changes to fit the whole stadia debacle, which I still think ESO is recovering from and I really think may have been ESO's worst decision

FlopsyPrince

Fixing bugs and making Quality of Life changes needs to be a higher priority in management's view. They are the ones who decide priorities.

I made a thread noting that even adding 1 or 2 quality of life changes (not combat-related, but crafting, dailies, alts, etc.) would give them a lot of value over time. Not a quick fix, but do that for a few years and the progress and caring would be much more obvious.

This does assume they want to keep going for the long run of course.

FlopsyPrince

furiouslog wrote: »

So, to keep things on the communications track, what are the elements that are important to you all as consumers when something like this happens?

For me, immediacy and transparency are the two most important things, preferably with a mix of self deprecating humor and/or an earnest acknowledgement of the inconvenience caused (optional), as well as the provision of some sort of token gift that recognizes the extent of that inconvenience (also optional).

They need to leave most players with the feeling that they care about their players and their experience. Not just one group, but all of them. Yes, this probably includes casuals, likely even more than others.

It is hard to gain/regain that feeling if it is lost, as it has been in many ways.

Figure out how people play, including those who run many alts for example, and make that easier.

Destai

furiouslog wrote: »

So, to keep things on the communications track, what are the elements that are important to you all as consumers when something like this happens?

For me, immediacy and transparency are the two most important things, preferably with a mix of self deprecating humor and/or an earnest acknowledgement of the inconvenience caused (optional), as well as the provision of some sort of token gift that recognizes the extent of that inconvenience (also optional).

I think genuine empathy and ownership are important. I get so tired of seeing phrases like "we'll do better next time" and "thanks for your patience/understanding". I find no value in those statements. Given how often they're needed, it honestly just makes me more mad. Getting specifics on preventing further situations is more appropriate, even if they're still ironing out those details.

Earnest acknowledgement is not optional at this point. There's simply been too many problems over the years. It all too often feels like we're hopping from one issue to another. ZOS recognizing and addressing that will be far more restorative than the neutral-toned posts we tend to get. When these things happen, candid communication is the best communication. That should include some recognition of the snowballing reasons why these fiascos rile people up.

That being said, I think they did a really good job of handling this fiasco, all things considered. Huge shoutout to all the people working crazy hours to get this fixed. Hopefully we can have smoother sailing going forward.

furiouslog

I think they knocked it out of the park on this one. If anything, parts of our community need to have more empathy for the ZOS community team. These guys had to do the following this week:

1. Work insane hours monitoring and understanding the situation (possibly while still hung over from Amsterdam, hehe).
2. Deliver news to a large and angry number of players, news that will be over-scrutinized by hundreds of people.
3. Determine a way to meet internal policies and objectives while still satisfying an important player cohort's requirements for fair compensation.

That's pretty stressful, and some of the community hand-wringing going on now is not cool. I totally get that some players don't feel like they got what they really wanted, but they got a lot more than what anyone probably expected, and that's about as good as it can get when you are trying to determine a "one size fits all" solution to a problem involving an extremely diverse population.

Varana

shadyjane62 wrote: »

Maybe less vacations to Amsterdam?

That should never be an option. Visiting Amsterdam is always a good plan.

FlopsyPrince

furiouslog wrote: »

I think they knocked it out of the park on this one. If anything, parts of our community need to have more empathy for the ZOS community team. These guys had to do the following this week:

1. Work insane hours monitoring and understanding the situation (possibly while still hung over from Amsterdam, hehe).
2. Deliver news to a large and angry number of players, news that will be over-scrutinized by hundreds of people.
3. Determine a way to meet internal policies and objectives while still satisfying an important player cohort's requirements for fair compensation.

That's pretty stressful, and some of the community hand-wringing going on now is not cool. I totally get that some players don't feel like they got what they really wanted, but they got a lot more than what anyone probably expected, and that's about as good as it can get when you are trying to determine a "one size fits all" solution to a problem involving an extremely diverse population.

Sorry, but that is not how things work when you are selling to the public.

Perception of your users and potential users is the most important. Finding ways to increase that is the most important task. Ironically the level of effort or true caring is not relevant (sadly in some cases) it is how things are perceived.

This is true on any job as well. Few companies care how much you are working (ultimately), they care how much impact and effectiveness you seem to have. That should be based on true things underneath, but it may not always have a direct connection.

I teach classes online and some students complain that they got a low score on something they spent hours on. The time spent on something is not relevant in that case either. How close what was submitted meets the assignment request is what matters.

ZOS also has a reputation in the eyes of even many of its players (and former players) for not really caring. This may or may not be really true, but it impacts the perception as well. It is the general principle of trust: Very hard to build up but easy to lose quite quickly.

It is also a management issue, as in management at ZOS (all the way to the top) needs to make good decisions to properly prioritize things. The devs and others who build and support the game must meet their expectations. Thus they are the ones who really should be held accountable for things, though "management" in general often doesn't carry the brunt of their own decisions throughout society today. (Thus this is an issue beyond just ZOS but ZOS needs to deal with it properly and is responsible for how it is received.)

Chastising the players for being angry is not helpful nor will it solve anything. I would agree it will not help to attack the devs and even mods here, but they are the only "public face" most see.

Get the game to a state where more feel really positive about the game and it can weather the inevitable loud voices that do not like something. But that is a difficult task.

CGPsaint

All great points from the OP. In regards to communication, it would be nice to receive a response or any sort of feedback when posting about bugs or broken content. I was one of several players to post about broken achievements for over a year, and beyond the initial acknowledgement, there was never any followup and certainly no fix for the issue. Those achievements are still broken. The vast majority of the interaction that I see on these forums is mods moving conversation to where they feel it is more appropriate even if it means that nobody will see that thread going forward, and/or when mods step in to suspend/ban accounts for bashing/flaming. Just my two cents. Back to my hole now.

FlopsyPrince

CGPsaint wrote: »

All great points from the OP. In regards to communication, it would be nice to receive a response or any sort of feedback when posting about bugs or broken content. I was one of several players to post about broken achievements for over a year, and beyond the initial acknowledgement, there was never any followup and certainly no fix for the issue. Those achievements are still broken. The vast majority of the interaction that I see on these forums is mods moving conversation to where they feel it is more appropriate even if it means that nobody will see that thread going forward, and/or when mods step in to suspend/ban accounts for bashing/flaming. Just my two cents. Back to my hole now.

You need to start using "Recent" to find threads, but most people likely do not.

At least I got a response when I noted that the PS5 app ignores the setting to turn off music, unless you go back in and turn it on and then off again. Not sure if that will ever change since it has been that way for years, but at least it got a response.

alexj4596b14_ESO

Honestly, the forums themselves could you a massive update. I feel like if they split the forum into a 'twitter like' and a 'reddit' like' The combination with an app, or even good mobile web capability would be far more useful.

alexj4596b14_ESO

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey all, thanks so much for taking the time to write up so much great feedback here, and apologies it took a while to reply (something something about Global Reveal prep...). This whole thing started on my personal Twitter account as it was originally intended to be a broad discussion about communication in general within the games industry, but eventually morphed into a conversation about ESO specifically. Which is fine. But just wanted to clear up why this started on Twitter.

We've had some initial conversations amongst our team to discuss ways to improve communication across the board and some different things we could try. While it's still a bit too early to get into details here, we are doing our best to figure out how to get more information on both the forums and website rather than limiting much of it to social media and/or livestreams. While these avenues are great for some things, we recognize it's not always ideal. Information should be readily available without having to search for its source or needing to dig around for an answer. As was mentioned above, it can be pretty difficult to keep track of multiple platforms and while it's a blessing we live in a time when there are so many ways to consume information, it can also be pretty overwhelming.

As a first step, you may have noticed we posted the Q1 in-game event graphic here on the forums in addition to our social channels. Moving forward, we're going to try to err on the side of redundancy. This is going to be a process and while it's safe to assume there will still be times when some information will be posted just on social (for example, a bunch of live tweets going out in tandem with our event this Thursday) rest assured we are actively looking at ways to improve.

Thanks, as always, for the ongoing support!

Can I be honest here? I don't think unless I am wrong, y'all are really using the tools and tech available too you. I have no idea if you will see this. But, we have new tools that can crawl across these forms and amass data pretty easily, it won't be 100% accurate but for the larger picture its is great, its called Ai. Or a bot the is focused on login specific well thought out posts, and flagged so that someone can read them. If done right you could simply ask the Ai what the players think about X. If you ask it a few different ways you'll get an over all picture of the situation.

Also the forum design sucks, the forum itself could be a data collection tool, if designed and implemented correctly. Honestly, you should really take a page out of twitter and reddit when it comes to forum management and data collection. If those tools were used to monitor common topics and issues via key word referencing I think the players and teams would have a much easier process in both communication and feeling heard. There are plenty of company's out there you could contract with to help you achieve something like this if you can't do it internally.

blktauna

ragnarok6644b14_ESO wrote: »

And, as an ESO player for 10 years, I can say that while they have not been fast about changing their behavior, they have improved things that are problematic.

Some of the extremely bad issues I remember from ages past that have been fixed (mostly; obviously these bugs can crop up on a case by case basis still for all kinds of reasons, but they're not as widespread or 'mainstream' as they were):
1) Infinite Cyrodiil loadscreens
2) Exploitable multi-pet summons of combat pets (e.g. 2 Scamps as a sorc)
3) Break Free only half functioning at best
4) Proc sets being wonky (I remember the epic horror of seeing a single person with Valkyn Scoria drop about 12 meteors on someone over the course of a 45 second fight)
5) the combat changes to fit the whole stadia debacle, which I still think ESO is recovering from and I really think may have been ESO's worst decision

1. these are back and getting worse
2. yes and it took long enough
3. still a huge problem and now we have block screwed again
4. that must have looked cool but now we have people being pulled through walls again and things just not rendering, so folks can walk into places they dont belong. And now the sets are broken on purpose despite massive pts feedback pointing out the issues.
5. agreed.

Honestly This forum is where there should be at minimum a link page of all interviews, outside areas where infor has been dropped etc. That doesn't help those who don't have accounts to see them but its a start.

To me it just looks like ZOS doesn't have any interest in addressing anything players bring up despite thei constant insistence otherwise.

Destai

furiouslog wrote: »

I think they knocked it out of the park on this one. If anything, parts of our community need to have more empathy for the ZOS community team. These guys had to do the following this week:

1. Work insane hours monitoring and understanding the situation (possibly while still hung over from Amsterdam, hehe).
2. Deliver news to a large and angry number of players, news that will be over-scrutinized by hundreds of people.
3. Determine a way to meet internal policies and objectives while still satisfying an important player cohort's requirements for fair compensation.

That's pretty stressful, and some of the community hand-wringing going on now is not cool. I totally get that some players don't feel like they got what they really wanted, but they got a lot more than what anyone probably expected, and that's about as good as it can get when you are trying to determine a "one size fits all" solution to a problem involving an extremely diverse population.

With repeated issues, sympathy becomes a bit more challenging. You can only say "thanks for your patience/understanding" so many times before it's devalued. Ultimately, they're selling a product and people expect it to work. No amount of verbiage in the TOS is going to change that expectation. No amount of "we'll do better" or "we dropped the ball, sorry" will make up for better delivery and detailed communication.

A lot of this feels like process problems and management decisions; it feels like they're rushing. Leadership needs to see that, and see how it not only impacts us, but their staff as well. They need to see how these situations keep happening and address those issues (which are quite frequent) and sympathy will be an easier lift for many fans. Otherwise, I think the hand-wringing is quite fair.

furiouslog

Destai wrote: »

furiouslog wrote: »

I think they knocked it out of the park on this one. If anything, parts of our community need to have more empathy for the ZOS community team. These guys had to do the following this week:

1. Work insane hours monitoring and understanding the situation (possibly while still hung over from Amsterdam, hehe).
2. Deliver news to a large and angry number of players, news that will be over-scrutinized by hundreds of people.
3. Determine a way to meet internal policies and objectives while still satisfying an important player cohort's requirements for fair compensation.

That's pretty stressful, and some of the community hand-wringing going on now is not cool. I totally get that some players don't feel like they got what they really wanted, but they got a lot more than what anyone probably expected, and that's about as good as it can get when you are trying to determine a "one size fits all" solution to a problem involving an extremely diverse population.

I have deep empathy for the support staff and CMs addressing the situation here. But, sympathy is a bit more challenging. I'll always be respectful, but I'll always advocate for holding them accountable. Ultimately, they're selling a product and people expect it to work. No amount of verbiage in the TOS is going to change that expectation. No amount of "we'll do better" or "we dropped the ball, sorry" will make up for better delivery and leadership communication.

A lot of this feels like process problems and management decisions; it feels like they're rushing. Leadership needs to see that, and see how it not only impacts us, but their staff as well. They need to see how these situations keep happening and address those issues (which are quite frequent) and sympathy will be an easier lift for many fans. Otherwise, I think the hand-wringing is quite fair.

For clarity, the hand-wringing I'm referring to involved the compensation packages and the relentless and emotional complaining on all sides of the issue, not addressable problems in general.