Runes of Magic US / AU

re: Patch Methodology

I believe it was Froggie & RW that originally changed the patch format a LONG time ago to the current Chapter Release system.

I think that people have to chill and go with the flow that GF has decided this Chapter Release system doesn't fit their style of management & they want to release more patches over time than to wait for 1 big patch. I was here when we had multiple smaller patches & they worked fine. Personally, I'm thankful that GF is going back to that way of thinking... having to wait for a new chapter to get bugs worked out sucks.

nm best sent in a tell

which apparently i'm unable to do. sorry Laghmara. I was gonna be eloquent. now i'm just annoyed that I am unable to message blues. seems like a logical thing to be able to do /sigh

Take it from our "pessimistic" viewpoint.

We have 2 lines of communication: Support and 1 CM (not all) via PM (if you are lucky, you'll get a response)
Any time we try to discuss/show dissatisfaction we get silenced.

And then you come along and tell us to trust you guys in that the third reorganization of RoM with gameforge will be better than the last two attempts at making it a smooth transition.

Do we want a better game and better support? Yes
Will the new patch methodology be better? One could hope so.
Given the track-record so far, we are bunkering down for the worst and will try to be happy if it actually goes smoothly

Quoted from "sertet;602527"

Given the track-record so far, we are bunkering down for the worst and will try to be happy if it actually goes smoothly

pretty much this...

every switch we've had has brought some unwelcome changes with it. at this point we are just hoping that the screw-up isn't too bad...

Quoted from "Laghmara;602525"

For the communication topic, please let me quote myself from earlier in this topic



I really don't like to see how you treat your mentors over here. Normally it is supposed to work (for the daily business stuff) CM talks to mentor --> mentor talks to community --> community talks to community --> community talks to mentors --> mentors talk to CM.
Of course we will be on the forums as well, but we're also at Twitter, Facebook, in our mailbox, working on news, events, contests, etc.
However we will see after you of course on a regular basis



For that part: not (your) today. I'm really really tired right now, it's midnight and my cats are meowing for attention as well as my partner does I'll try to see what I can get for you tomorrow (in about 10-12 hours that is, with approvals and all taking most likely until Thursday).

For my PMessages: I'll look into that tomorrow, most likely wrong settings from my side.

Good night,
your pony-addicted and very tired Laghmara


(source)

Perfect example of why we need our own CM's. Its not even 6 yet and our CM is already asleep. We need our own CM's who can actually be on and around during our time zone not Europes.

Quoted from "Laghmara;602525"

I really don't like to see how you treat your mentors over here.

OH LORD, WE'RE NOW A PONY THREAD. THIS WILL END WITH EXCELLENCE.







[IMG]http://forum.us.runesofmagic.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5676&stc=1[/IMG]

















We really DON'T like how we are treated either.

"Normally" how things go, you say?
Has it ever worked though? Do you see happy and good results based on what you are doing? Do you really think the "normal" routine is one that serves the best for all parties in involved?

I don't know how you guys do it. I often found myself saying, there is no way they can do a worse job than they curruently are, and then I would be amazed at how each and every month you guys found a way to top yourselves.

This community isn't here because of the good job you guys are doing. Any positive feedback is few and far between and outweighed by the displeasures of the many other people that are only silenced and deleted by you guys.

[video=youtube;gIiMt9GgyDY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIiMt9GgyDY[/video]




Related.

Quoted from "Laghmara;602525"

I really don't like to see how you treat your mentors over here. Normally it is supposed to work (for the daily business stuff) CM talks to mentor --> mentor talks to community --> community talks to community --> community talks to mentors --> mentors talk to CM.

Two things to say on this topic...
1.) When the community questions or distrusts the answers from Mentors (which prompted the "That does, however, not mean that their answers are less qualified or true than ours" statement) it's coming from a situation that occurred back when we had CM Dionaea. Honestly I forget what the exact post was that caused a problem*, but the summary is this: A Mentor made a small mistake in one of their forum statements and it caused a big fuss in the community. Dionaea and Roeksha made thorough, stern statements to say that Mentors do not officially represent Gameforge. Part of the statement said that posts by Mentors could be inaccurate or just not officially endorsed by Gameforge. This is part of why we all take green text with a grain of salt.

EDIT: Oop found the thread. Happy Early Throwback Thursday? xD Official/Unofficial Statements & Forum Moderation thread and QA Roeksha's reply and CM Dionaea's reply

2.) In my personal experience with Gameforge, the US and EU mentality regarding forums is completely different.
Gameforge's EU communities are usually easy-going and not very confrontational. They will complain if there is a big enough issue worth complaining about, but otherwise they just kind of go with the flow. In a nut shell: they're a pleasure to work with.
In contrast, US communities will talk and complain about anything and everything. Literally everything. Typos in your announcements? Yes, we saw them and we probably made a forum thread just to say that we did. In addition to that, we don't respond well to anything being censored, not even curse words in most cases. And you've all noticed that because you see how huffy we get about deleted or edited posts.
My only suggestion on this point would be giving a little wiggle room (within reason) and I say that only because I tested that method myself and communities seemed to respond well to it. You can definitely enforce forum rules without stepping on toes. And that's all I'm gonna say about that. X_X

Quoted from "CharlieBananas;602534"

[video=youtube;gIiMt9GgyDY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIiMt9GgyDY[/video]




Related.

Perfect.

Quoted from "EsxCape;602535"

Two things to say on this topic...
1.) When the community questions or distrusts the answers from Mentors (which prompted the "That does, however, not mean that their answers are less qualified or true than ours" statement) it's coming from a situation that occurred back when we had CM Dionaea. Honestly I forget what the exact post was that caused a problem (and I believe the thread it was in had to be removed by GF staff), but the summary is this: A Mentor made a small mistake in one of their forum statements and it caused a big fuss in the community. Dionaea and other GF staff made a thorough, stern statement to say that Mentors do not officially represent Gameforge. Part of the statement said that posts by Mentors could be inaccurate or just not officially endorsed by Gameforge. This is part of why we all take green text with a grain of salt.

2.) In my personal experience with Gameforge, the US and EU mentality regarding forums is completely different.
Gameforge's EU communities are usually easy-going and not very confrontational. They will complain if there is a big enough issue worth complaining about, but otherwise they just kind of go with the flow. In a nut shell: they're a pleasure to work with.
In contrast, US communities will talk and complain about anything and everything. Literally everything. Typos in your announcements? Yes, we saw them and we probably made a forum thread just to say that we did. In addition to that, we don't respond well to anything being censored, not even curse words in most cases. And you've all noticed that because you see how huffy we get about deleted or edited posts.
My only suggestion on this point would be giving a little wiggle room (within reason) and I say that only because I tested that method myself and communities seemed to respond well to it. You can definitely enforce forum rules without stepping on toes. And that's all I'm gonna say about that. X_X

The reason the US community is such a pain to work with is because we've been shown, time after time after time, that Gameforge doesn't give a [expletive deleted] about us. We are constantly left in the dark, told we overreact to everything, and told that we're spoiled, when the opposite is true.

If you want us to treat YOU, the staff, with respect, maybe you should try, just a little bit, to earn it. So far since the FEU/Gameforge merge not once have I been convinced that you deserve our respect. Not once have we been shown the same courtesy as our EU counterparts. Not once have you shown us that you people even deserve the right to be called Community Managers.

You want respect from the community? You want us to stop complaining? Whining? Being pessimistic?

Earn it. Show us you deserve that. So far, you haven't.

Well, they did get rid of the US offices and I don't know how many of their other games actually have a US counter-part like RoM does. I got the impression that Dionaea was telecommute (although there was a rumor she was from Germany when she first started lol). But otherwise, seems most of their staff are European...so even when we have interaction from people like Laghmara that actually talk to us, they still live in Europe. What would be nice is to have another US CM instead of an EU CM. That doesn't resolve the issue, but it would be a good start, especially since they'd already be familiar with the culture and mindset.

Dio lived in USA but was from Germany.


Mika lives in Croatia. Not even Germany.
There official language is Croatian.
That means for a memo to be sent from our community manager to both his bosses and the community it serves, it'd have to be translated to 4 different languages (Croatian, German, English, Spanish (Palenque)).

That is if Mika decides to talk to us, ever.

Further more, when this CM decides to quit, we might get someone from a different country who speaks a fifth language.

Quoted from "CharlieBananas;602540"

Further more, when this CM decides to quit, we might get someone from a different country who speaks a fifth language.

I wouldn't mind if we had like... a British CM. o_o As long as they were telecommute so that they could live on a US time schedule. Whenever someone works from an office, they're stuck to the time zone that the office is located in. Telecommute would be so much better. I guess I would be happy with 3 things:
1.) CM that speaks English fluently or natively.
2.) CM that is on a US time schedule.
3.) CM that is active on the US forums, US social sites, and US website (for posting announcements).
I could add a lot more to that list, but those 3 would be my top qualities for sure.

Quoted from "EsxCape;602535"

Two things to say on this topic...
1.) When the community questions or distrusts the answers from Mentors (which prompted the "That does, however, not mean that their answers are less qualified or true than ours" statement) it's coming from a situation that occurred back when we had CM Dionaea. Honestly I forget what the exact post was that caused a problem*, but the summary is this: A Mentor made a small mistake in one of their forum statements and it caused a big fuss in the community. Dionaea and Roeksha made thorough, stern statements to say that Mentors do not officially represent Gameforge. Part of the statement said that posts by Mentors could be inaccurate or just not officially endorsed by Gameforge. This is part of why we all take green text with a grain of salt.

EDIT: Oop found the thread. Happy Early Throwback Thursday? xD Official/Unofficial Statements & Forum Moderation thread and QA Roeksha's reply and CM Dionaea's reply

2.) In my personal experience with Gameforge, the US and EU mentality regarding forums is completely different.
Gameforge's EU communities are usually easy-going and not very confrontational. They will complain if there is a big enough issue worth complaining about, but otherwise they just kind of go with the flow. In a nut shell: they're a pleasure to work with.
In contrast, US communities will talk and complain about anything and everything. Literally everything. Typos in your announcements? Yes, we saw them and we probably made a forum thread just to say that we did. In addition to that, we don't respond well to anything being censored, not even curse words in most cases. And you've all noticed that because you see how huffy we get about deleted or edited posts.
My only suggestion on this point would be giving a little wiggle room (within reason) and I say that only because I tested that method myself and communities seemed to respond well to it. You can definitely enforce forum rules without stepping on toes. And that's all I'm gonna say about that. X_X

If I could say one thing to an overseas mentor/moderator/manager, I'd tell them to Google "america" or just "'merica" and poke around at what comes up...we are, as fan so nicely puts it: "special snowflakes"...so just get used to it...

of course we wouldn't even have that issue if we had anybody from the US to begin with...

edit: excuse the formatting issues, the mobile forums are a pita to deal with...

Quoted from "EsxCape;602541"

I wouldn't mind if we had like... a British CM. o_o As long as they were telecommute so that they could live on a US time schedule. Whenever someone works from an office, they're stuck to the time zone that the office is located in. Telecommute would be so much better. I guess I would be happy with 3 things:
1.) CM that speaks English fluently or natively.
2.) CM that is on a US time schedule.
3.) CM that is active on the US forums, US social sites, and US website (for posting announcements).
I could add a lot more to that list, but those 3 would be my top qualities for sure.

4) a CM that understands and tolerates the american culture...

Hire me Gameforge.