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And so did these responses stop things from spinning out of control and put it to rest or did people just leave and quit playing which puts it to rest etc. ?
Yes, it really stopped things from spinning out of control and put it to rest, and made the existing community (who is still around) much happier about the state of the game. It caused some people who really were angry at each other to work on healing their rifts, it greatly benefitted the community.
I understand the point you're trying to make. It just isn't very applicable to this situation. There's no version of this where I can say "Yeah, totally, I should have just said 'we'll look into it' and left it at that".
That would have been an objective mistake, and a bad one.
The best I can tell you is that you're trying to frame a complex community driven-game, which I've had to manage for the last 22 years, in the context of being an Amazon-style customer (large, non-interactive, corporate customer base with no meaningful community). That is not a meaningful comparison.
Running a combative MMORPG community isn't like running an online retailer, it is (sometimes) more like dealing with rival parent-fan-bases a little-league game, and sometimes more like getting rival political factions to work on public policy together. Or perhaps one of those "Jerry Springer" type shows. You get the idea; it can be quite chaotic and tumultuous, but it is the tradeoff of having this kind of game.
(This is why Destiny and other modern games try to de-prioritize chat so much, in favor of trivial "emotes"; it drastically reduces the load of these kinds of problems, but it also sacrifices the kind of game experience that is unique to a real MMORPG).
Why does it have to be specifically indicated that they are imagining things and you found nothing wrong ?
I mean it's a customer, and keeping the business income going seems logical IMO and to simply but lightly indicate that you will glance at the matter and look into it and report back if something is found.
The assumption is if nothing is found no responding back and life goes on without so much time wasted on it.
Because no one wants to participate in a community is that is so egregiously filled with rage and toxicity that a preponderance of chat is basically people screaming accusations at one another.
This leads to people "/leaving" 100 (degrading community participation), or newbies abandoning the game due to a terrible impression. "Community" is a big part of what an MMORPG is based around. The joke is that it's IRC with some game mechanics, and that's not wrong. So, if the Community itself has a health problem, that has to be addressed, or the product itself will be in danger.
That's what "this thread" is, me going to great effort to address concerns in the Community, because that is an important aspect of the game as a whole.
Amazon does not have to do that. AT&T does not have to do that. All those companies are happy to tell you "Oh, thanks for your report!".
To say all for nothing and that it's not real. I get that, but they obviously don't believe any of you saying that.
Public statements from me, that are clearly backed by a lot of effort, still appear to have some traction in the community. Some individuals may not believe me, but most of them still seem to. So, as long as I'm still regarded as trustworthy by the community, I'll still try to publicly address issues like this.
If I can make a statement like "No one is cheating" that goes a lot further than my saying "We'll look into it". I'm putting my reputation on the line when I'm saying "No one is cheating in fighter PvP, period, full-stop".
I go pretty far out of my way to make sure I have all the facts before I make statements like this, and I think people know that.
For instance, within a relatively short period of research we (the devs) suspected that this cheating stuff was all fictional, but I didn't make a post until I had unassailable empirical proof (which took much longer).
And I've since responded to several other private Support Tickets using the same data to tell them exactly what happened in situations where they claimed that "cheating" had occurred. So, on an individual basis I've gone to some lengths to explain what happened in their specific cases, and on a general public basis (without impinging on any player's personal privacy) I've done my best to articulate the reality of the situation.
It really is an amazing work and the best space game I've ever played.
I really appreciate that. We have a lot of cool improvements coming, and hopefully you enjoy those as well, when they finally emerge. All the best.
Yes, it really stopped things from spinning out of control and put it to rest, and made the existing community (who is still around) much happier about the state of the game. It caused some people who really were angry at each other to work on healing their rifts, it greatly benefitted the community.
I understand the point you're trying to make. It just isn't very applicable to this situation. There's no version of this where I can say "Yeah, totally, I should have just said 'we'll look into it' and left it at that".
That would have been an objective mistake, and a bad one.
The best I can tell you is that you're trying to frame a complex community driven-game, which I've had to manage for the last 22 years, in the context of being an Amazon-style customer (large, non-interactive, corporate customer base with no meaningful community). That is not a meaningful comparison.
Running a combative MMORPG community isn't like running an online retailer, it is (sometimes) more like dealing with rival parent-fan-bases a little-league game, and sometimes more like getting rival political factions to work on public policy together. Or perhaps one of those "Jerry Springer" type shows. You get the idea; it can be quite chaotic and tumultuous, but it is the tradeoff of having this kind of game.
(This is why Destiny and other modern games try to de-prioritize chat so much, in favor of trivial "emotes"; it drastically reduces the load of these kinds of problems, but it also sacrifices the kind of game experience that is unique to a real MMORPG).
Why does it have to be specifically indicated that they are imagining things and you found nothing wrong ?
I mean it's a customer, and keeping the business income going seems logical IMO and to simply but lightly indicate that you will glance at the matter and look into it and report back if something is found.
The assumption is if nothing is found no responding back and life goes on without so much time wasted on it.
Because no one wants to participate in a community is that is so egregiously filled with rage and toxicity that a preponderance of chat is basically people screaming accusations at one another.
This leads to people "/leaving" 100 (degrading community participation), or newbies abandoning the game due to a terrible impression. "Community" is a big part of what an MMORPG is based around. The joke is that it's IRC with some game mechanics, and that's not wrong. So, if the Community itself has a health problem, that has to be addressed, or the product itself will be in danger.
That's what "this thread" is, me going to great effort to address concerns in the Community, because that is an important aspect of the game as a whole.
Amazon does not have to do that. AT&T does not have to do that. All those companies are happy to tell you "Oh, thanks for your report!".
To say all for nothing and that it's not real. I get that, but they obviously don't believe any of you saying that.
Public statements from me, that are clearly backed by a lot of effort, still appear to have some traction in the community. Some individuals may not believe me, but most of them still seem to. So, as long as I'm still regarded as trustworthy by the community, I'll still try to publicly address issues like this.
If I can make a statement like "No one is cheating" that goes a lot further than my saying "We'll look into it". I'm putting my reputation on the line when I'm saying "No one is cheating in fighter PvP, period, full-stop".
I go pretty far out of my way to make sure I have all the facts before I make statements like this, and I think people know that.
For instance, within a relatively short period of research we (the devs) suspected that this cheating stuff was all fictional, but I didn't make a post until I had unassailable empirical proof (which took much longer).
And I've since responded to several other private Support Tickets using the same data to tell them exactly what happened in situations where they claimed that "cheating" had occurred. So, on an individual basis I've gone to some lengths to explain what happened in their specific cases, and on a general public basis (without impinging on any player's personal privacy) I've done my best to articulate the reality of the situation.
It really is an amazing work and the best space game I've ever played.
I really appreciate that. We have a lot of cool improvements coming, and hopefully you enjoy those as well, when they finally emerge. All the best.
Perhaps your right, but I guess I'm looking at it from the stand point of hoping to see more participation someday that I may play again etc.
I mean target market and existing customers becomes linked at some point so it's a tricky balance, but seems counter productive IMO to cater to the smaller base rather then to go after a larger market.
The catch 22 of small business I guess.
I mean target market and existing customers becomes linked at some point so it's a tricky balance, but seems counter productive IMO to cater to the smaller base rather then to go after a larger market.
The catch 22 of small business I guess.
I mean target market and existing customers becomes linked at some point so it's a tricky balance, but seems counter productive IMO to cater to the smaller base rather then to go after a larger market.
Well, looking at it another way, if your existing community is super grumpy and conspiracy-prone, it makes the retention of new players more difficult. So, target market size is less relevant if your existing userbase drives away new players, which was part of the issue with "perceived cheating angst".
Existing players tend to "train" new players, as well. So, it's relatively common for new users to pick up whatever suspicions and conspiracies are handed down to them.
Beyond this, there is also a history of games being negatively impacted, or even destroyed by the perception of problems, rather than the reality. Not that the devs actually did something bad or wrong, but that the player-perception was (incorrectly) that X was done for Y controversial reason, and that became a volatile and viral talking-point.
Thus, it would very undesirable for "Vendetta Online is full of cheating" to go viral and organically outrun any kind of marketing I could do suggesting "You should try playing Vendetta Online."
Reputation is difficult to earn, and easy to lose (even without cause, as this thread's origins demonstrate), and the gaming market of the internet tends to be a an explosively-viral place these days.
Hence, burning down dev-time to mitigate issues like this one has meaningful long-term value.
Well, looking at it another way, if your existing community is super grumpy and conspiracy-prone, it makes the retention of new players more difficult. So, target market size is less relevant if your existing userbase drives away new players, which was part of the issue with "perceived cheating angst".
Existing players tend to "train" new players, as well. So, it's relatively common for new users to pick up whatever suspicions and conspiracies are handed down to them.
Beyond this, there is also a history of games being negatively impacted, or even destroyed by the perception of problems, rather than the reality. Not that the devs actually did something bad or wrong, but that the player-perception was (incorrectly) that X was done for Y controversial reason, and that became a volatile and viral talking-point.
Thus, it would very undesirable for "Vendetta Online is full of cheating" to go viral and organically outrun any kind of marketing I could do suggesting "You should try playing Vendetta Online."
Reputation is difficult to earn, and easy to lose (even without cause, as this thread's origins demonstrate), and the gaming market of the internet tends to be a an explosively-viral place these days.
Hence, burning down dev-time to mitigate issues like this one has meaningful long-term value.