I want to make this post to ask Zenimax to make your actions towards the community more visible, and to ask that you put some resources into building the community.

This means enabling channels for real dialogue.

At the moment you're doing damage control and we see that - Obviously that stuff happens behind closed doors - but you need to be in constant dialogue with us, rather than stay quiet and wait for the worst to pass. You've got some mad noise level simply for staying quiet about all the stuff you're doing, which is a shame. A decent community dialogue could help with that.

Here are some ideas:

1. Empower your community manager that can pull all the available information players need from your support teams, and keep them posted in real time.

Zenimax doesn't seem to have that process ironed out. Or that role or their presence isn't being felt. Part of the community manager dialog must also be to ACKNOWLEDGE publicly what your community is trying to tell you, so that it sees it is being heard. We need more reciprocative dialogue on the big issues. It doesn't matter how diligently you work behind the scenes if that dialogue doesn't happen. Right now most of the dialogue will be about stuff NOT working - that's a shame but really its more important than ever that you step up with authoritative and trustworthy figureheads we can build a rapport with. Please don't be a faceless entity.

2. Related to number 1. Having hourly informative answers for why things aren't working when they are not working. A message about "maintenance time tomorrow" or "we are now patching" isn't really enough. Of course we understand that this game is new and needs patching but... you're upsetting your community by springing these things on them. Get ETA's from the technical guys - even if they are only tentative. Go into a wee bit of detail when things are complicated. Right now that isn't there, and compounding that issue is that you're not getting community feedback about such things as maintenance over holiday periods (Easter and now 1. May - there should be red flags in your calendar for "Don't patch on holidays").

3. Forming the Forums to reflect what the community needs, rather than what the web designer wants. Most of your community think these forums are a mess (sorry!) - extremely limited in function and lacking basic features: We need a general discussion, an off-topic section. A role-play hangout (Role-players are probably the hardcore PvE element that want to exist in your universe, but at the moment theres very little here for them) . We need language-specific filters and sectioning. Better Social options (Dedicated Guild pages? Group pages?). A character showoff page (whats the point of me wearing yellows if no-one can see them - and wheres the web page that shows me customization options for my characters?

4. Related to 3, but at a general level: Some of us are here for the long haul. A year or 2 or 3 of game time. We need socialization options, and a web portal that reflects our commitment and intent. IF you want us to live in your world then you need to give us a home: And that means that this web site is pretty much going to be the first stop "outside of the game" for us. Build a community feedback page. Build community programs. Build a community: It's not about asking for art or short stories - it's about asking for trust and commitment, but that needs to be reciprocated by YOU - HERE. You need to trust that we as a community will stick around and build on what you've given us.


Summary: Start asking your community for input, and of course be prepared for trolls (Really you have them already), but you will get usable stuff from experienced players who REALLY REALLY want you to succeed, but right now don't bother because they don't feel they are not being heard. Please go the extra mile for your community.