community-managers
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The role of community managers
Despite the header image, Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym has been being a little less cuddly than he looks lately. Oh, wait... you're saying Zarhym's the one on the right? OK then. Zarhym has been weighing in on the role of Blizzard's Community Managers, following a couple of critical posts on the US forums. One post was elicited in direct response to Zarhym's own replies on a thread about dailies. Zarhym Quote: I think what should be taken out of the responses of those players frustrated at the CMs response is the standard of discourse that is being set, through said CM, in threads like this. A CM is blizzards representative on these forums and the closest we come to hearing/seeing information straight from "the horses mouth". Now the wow forums are at times very cynical and baiting/trolling can be rife, but for a CM to come into a thread (one that didn't dignify a response) and basically condone certain behaviours through both the language he used and the context he used it in is quite disgraceful and reflects pretty poorly on both blizzard and the CM team. It is up to the CM, not the players, to set the standard when it comes to meaningful debate and conversation. Showing otherwise further condones bad behaviour and meaningless posts in this thread and others all over general. That's a fair point and I'll honestly think about that more as I'm flipping through the front page of the forums. This is also a good time to remind people you can email WoWCMFeedback@Blizzard.com with your thoughts on our methods of community engagement. The posts in this thread commenting on my performance as a Community Manager, positive or negative, are better sent to my superiors so the topic of the thread stays on course. You can also personally give me feedback or chat with me on Twitter: @CM_Zarhym. I promise I at least read every tweet, and respond as often as I can. ;). source
The Daily Grind: Which community managers do you love?
Yesterday the world awoke to the grandest of holidays: Community Manager Appreciation Day. CMAD has a long and rich history dating all the way back to 2010, when the communities of games, websites, and forums decided they would stop bickering, trolling, flaming, squabbling, and misspelling long enough to mutter out a heartfelt "Thanks, I guess" to the community managers who swept their cages every morning. I knew that Monday was CMAD because our very own Community Manager Rubi kindly informed us of this fact. "Hey bozos!" she crowed to the Massively staff. "It's Community Manager Appreciation Day! APPRECIATE ME ALREADY!" Even though CMAD is over, today we'd like to give our MMO CMs a nod of gratitude and appreciation. Which community managers do you love the most and why? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Blizzard developers are out there
An interesting discussion went on in the Community Service forums yesterday concerning the role Blizzard developers play in those very forums. A poster was obviously attempting to troll and start some argument, asking if the Blizzard devs actually do read what people write or pay attention to the community at large. Kisirani, a Blizzard developer, responded that indeed they do.A few interesting things came from subsequent blue posts that help outline the roles of the developers and community managers. First, it is the job of the community managers (CMs as we call them) to do just what their title says: manage the community. This includes the forums and everything that goes on in there. Kisirani tells us that they regularly collect feedback and suggestions and pass them along to the developers. Kisirani makes it a point to say that they don't have enough time to read everything themselves, and if they were to read everything the game itself would not be developed – and again, this is where the community managers come into play.
Summary of druid questions to the devs
In this earlier post, I highlighted a frustrated druid player who wrote a very extensive list of issues with the druid class. It covered PvE & PvP problems for Balance, Feral and Restoration specs. Tharfor, a Blizzard Europe Community Manager, has created a summary of that very lengthy document. From that summary, here are the questions he is going to take to the devs:*Will druids ever be able to gain benefit from melee 'buffs' such as windfury or weapon procs? *Are there any plans to re-evaluate the scaling and itemisation so that druids (of all specs) have their own loot upgrades to chase rather than stealing other classes' loot? *Constantly shifting roles takes its toll on the druids mana pool, are there any plans to adjust the costs/penalties to make shapeshifting 'easier' and more viable in longer battles? *Can the restoration tree be looked at so that druids are able to be dedicated, and useful, healers whilst still having the ability to play the game alone outside of raid situations? *Can the balance tree have more burst DPS options to remove the tediousness of the current slow and steady output of damage? His full summary after the jump.
How to get the attention of a blue
A frustrated druid player on the European WoW Forums, Synneth, composed a lengthy, druid class complaint thread. She clearly stated the problems for druids in both PvE and PvP for all specs and backed up her assertions with examples. She did not flame, accuse or demand. She simply made a well-informed argument backed by facts.And she got a blue response. She got many blue responses. Admittedly, it's not devs who responded, it was Community Managers. But those blues are the ones who take player concerns to the devs. They couldn't guarantee a dev response, but they did promise to take her concerns to them.So take note, those of your who feel your class is broken and your complaints are falling on deaf ears: a calm, strong argument supported by facts may be the quickest route for change. Now would be a great time to get the attention of the devs as they plan new abilities and talents for the expansion as well as itemizing the new zones.Since Synneth did not provide a synopsis of her extensive post, I'll be summarizing it in Tuesday's druid class column, Shifting Perspectives, as well as analyzing her points about PvE play.
Are the official forums a good or bad thing?
Late Saturday night, Tseric, a community manager on the official WoW forums, got into an argument with a (literal) troll about freedom of speech on the WoW forums. Tseric then posted a pretty stunning denunciation of the whole forum concept: "When you can understand how a group of beligerent and angry posters can drive away people from this game with an uncrafted and improvisational campaign of misery and spin-doctoring, then perhaps, you can understand the decisions I make. Until you face mobs of psychology, you will not see my side. Until you see some bright-eyed player coming onto the forums wanting to know what they should spec as this class, and see them shat on and driven away by petty and selfish people who are simply leveraging for game buffs, you will not understand. You will not understand until you have to see it daily, for years..." Pretty tough words from someone who gets paid to manage the forums, but I have to admit that I kind of agree with them. The WoW forums can be a great resource -- specifically the UI, Customer Service, Guild Relations and Professions forums -- but most of the class forums, the raids and dungeons forum, and the general forum can quickly become a cesspool of complaining. Instead of helping people in the game and offering constructive criticism, the forums can serve to drive away new players, and make them see problems when there may not be any. For example, while I'm writing this post and skimming the forums, I've "discovered":
