On the subject of blues and their forum communication, with love from Zarhym
The lack of direct interaction from Blizzard with the WoW community has been talked about a bit in the forums, comments, and blog posts around the 'net lately, and we're now seeing that it's been a nagging issue for Blizzard as well.
Community Manager Zarhym posted last night, from home, a rather lengthy letter to the WoW world. It summed up nicely the different jobs of the community team at Blizzard and what their goals are. Zarhym also went a step further and said that they (the blues) haven't been posting on the forums as much as they would like to and that they're going to continue to improve their communication with the community.
It's an interesting read and should be taken as welcome insight from someone at Blizzard who honestly cares about the community he services.
The entire post, after the break.
Firstly, we as a community team haven't had quite the chance to post on the forums lately as we'd like. Prior to Cataclysm we were able to engage in discussions more frequently, and it's our goal to get back to that point. One thing you should know though, is we're working very hard to get you the information you want in a timely manner, presented in a fun, personalized, yet professional way. With the great new front page blog system our web team was able to put together, we've been able to relay information to you on upcoming features and content like never before; and we're able to better show you some amazing art and comics from your peers in the community, and high-quality Blizzard and Trading Card Game art.
We've also spent a lot of time improving the documentation of hotfixes, as well as improving the layout, readability, and documentation of patch notes. We're working closer with our developers than ever to make sure you hear from them too. Just the same, our team is reaching out more via different social media outlets to make sure the community gets the information you need through whatever type of social platform you prefer. This goal even extends to our Explorers' League Journals we do as community recaps, where we often feature cool World of Warcraft stuff we find out on the web posted by you and yours.
The goal of the community team is mostly two-fold: 1) to make sure the feedback, concerns, and popular topics shared within this community are made known to the developers, all the way up to Mike Morhaime. We do this through multiple avenues of communication with our support, development, QA, PR, legal, marketing, and executive teams every single week; and 2) to ensure the doors of Blizzard Entertainment feel open to you, the players -- to show you this company hears you and wants to prove we're here to provide you with outstanding entertainment via as many venues as possible.
We'll be here. We'll be reading. Most importantly, we'll be listening. And we're going to continue improving our methods of communication with you, so you know this is a company dedicated to providing you with the entertainment you want for your money.
P.S. I know it's late, but chalk up the fact that I wrote this in my free time from home, to it coming from the heart and not some company-driven directive. It's great going to work when I know, when all is said and done, I work for a company -- and community -- I believe in and am honored to help support. :)
With Love,
Zarhym
