Announcement Ask the CMs in English

Haruki

When I read the text Ammon's shop it makes me antisapate and hope to the highest degree that it will become like Gnob. Where you get coins or another currency from doing mobs in PW and the harder they are the higher return you get. If you can not comment on this I understand. Stuff changes so fast...

 

I think you're giving her too much credit. Of the 6 language forums, she manages the English and Spanish. You're welcome to look through the dialogues to confirm. CM_Greg manages the rest.

https://board-en.drakensang.com/forums/staff-dialogue.890/

I know she also manages some of the Facebook conversations, but that workload is shared with other members of their team.

As customers, we can only see the results; as such, I will refrain from posting speculations about how she uses her time communicating with other teams (she is welcome to explain to us); and so far, the results are not good because her answers lack specific details (details that demonstrate the "hidden portions" of her daily work that we can not see). Other factors such as Gamescom, are once a year type of thing and is not a valid excuse for her performance. If she is taking too long to read through posts and taking too long to write up a reply, then perhaps she is not suitable for the job because the lack of English reading and writing comprehension.

Perhaps it is a cultural thing, in North America, most shop assistant will treat you better than how she treated us. Most people working in service industries are trained in handling angry/upset customers. Since I've never been to Germany, maybe such behavior/treatment is uniquely acceptable there.

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I have nothing against you; You see the best in the worst situation. I used to, but not anymore with DSO after numerous disappointments. I feel the need to point out how much you over-estimated her responsibilities and gave her too much credit.

 

There is no need to guess, here is her job description, assuming she is Senior CM. 'Junior' CM shouldn't be a lot different.

http://bigpoint.net/career/senior-community-manager-mf-berlin-3657/

IMO, she is doing okay/good. Could be better of course - she have skipped many of my and others questions. Plus she is not 'engaging', conversational, etc. She is rather acting like an order taker than a salesman. Probably, that's the difference. In NA, (I live in Florida), every single individual is trying to engage you besides taking an order.

Edit. Its funny how much info is on the web. For example, they do have an agile coach. CSP, not CSC or CST, but still. I thought they don't as no good coach would suggest increasing the iteration cycle. Haruki, tell that guy to coach the team to decrease/pay off the technical debt please, he should know what that term means, but look for Ward Cunningham's writings just in case.

 

Based on that job description from your link Seb, I don't feel like she is doing her job that well or fulfilling her responsibilities/job requirements. Certainly not the key part of "You engage players and build a great relationship with and among them, so they’ll enjoy playing the game even more. " and "and keep your calm even when the sea gets a little rougher." If players are actively voicing their concerns and leaving (or wanting to) the game and then this CM replies back with insults, how does that indicate her performance?

Most companies have their own internal process to deal with incompetent employees. It is not my job to access (on that employer-employee level). As a player, I only point out her poor treatment of player-base. Players should speak up instead of taking the poor treatment in silence. Some agree with my end-user assessments, some don't (like Armando) and that is fine.

 

1) Mortis is endgame for level 45,and should of been kept that way without scaling to lvl 50.keeping that map/world at lvl 45.
no need to play with stats again for them maps/world.
maybe the pw rework will give us a new endgame boss for level 50,making mortis just an end boss for that map/world.
i wouldn't want Mortis again for lvl 50.

2) we should be thankful we have CM's at all that talk with us and try to answer questions in the forum,most games do not interact with the players.and who knows when this will end anyway,they really don't have to be doing this,so lets not scare them away.

 

All this nonsense has to stop. We are not the employer of the CM's and this is not the proper way in which to release discontentment on anyones part. Critical thinking can find flaws in everyone and if you have a complaint make a support ticket don't bash other people in open forums.

 

No, we are not. For sure they have to face their own performance appraisal, and this is not our business.
But, on the other side, on the first message of this thread it is written:

you can now use this thread to ask us questions or engage in conversations with us
We opened it up so we can have an extra channel of communication with you guys
Please note as well that this is not an area where to solve customer support tickets

No more, no less.
We can talk. We can discuss. We can agree or disagree on everything. CMs for sure know their work. They are called to improve interface between customers and prod staff? So they set up this thread, the twitch sessions and so on.
And we are free to discuss even on their methods, why not? It's a sort of satisfaction survey, and it could even be useful to Haruki or Greg to further improve their experience And for sure, this part of discussion will not last forever.
As you can see, all this thread is naturally sectioned in many different arguments or leitmotivs. Haruki already noticed that long time before , and the further she reads, the better she can handle this thread.
Oh, and i'm sure she's immune to all the most ferocious critics: it's part of his work to get proactively every kind of feedback without anger, you don't really need to defend Haruki or Greg

 

Hello there playful creatures,

please read below all the answers for the questions you may have thought, but never asked (or both).
Here we go!

Answer,
no plans for reworking this, as far as I know. I would say to keep it, because it's a rather interesting one and if it gets reworked in the future, could be rather useful. Depending on your inventory limits, I guess.

Hello there,
no, there is no bug regarding this. It's simply a very (annoying, some people would say) challenge.
Keep on exploring!

I have not forgotten about you, Sir. I simply did not receive an answer (game designers are rather busy these days...). Sorry about that; hopefully I can answer to that next time!

Hello there,
this point has been raised across other communities, if I am not mistaken. We are reviewing the feedback of you guys for this event and we will present it to the event design team in the next event review meeting. About PvP: yesterday we had a rather lengthy meeting about PvP and other balancing issues as well. So yes, we are looking into ways to enhance this as soon as possible, really.

Hey there,

I am sorry if my ironic comment sounded too harsh and that's probably something related to my own moderating nature - which is, somehow, rather playful. When I encounter comments that do not necessarily offer that much apart from a concise "this-is-rubbish" critic and I do not see that constructive skeleton sustaining the whole argument, I tend to simply my answers. Purposely or not, you avoided quoting me on my first lines of the answer, which were the following:

"[...] by entering in these boards and using them you are implicitly agreeing to our moderation rules. By principle, every comment that is kept constructive and it's not a blatant attack or a compilation of insults passes our moderation threshold and can be up here for everyone else to see and comment. But again, we are all humans, you and me, and the moderators, and we are constantly reviewing and adjusting these rules. You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but I find the forums quite interesting. I would like to see a Reddit active page though... and we will see when do we get there".

Ok, forget about the last lines... But the core of the message is acknowledging the fact that moderators follow the rules of these boards to ensure that they are kept constructive and tidy. Moderation is not a set-in-stone science, it's not something easy, actually. To categorize all mods into that category you are subscribing is somehow unfair. We are all humans, we are reviewing the rules, and we will keep on working together to offer the best experience to you, guys. But again, writing in these boards means implicitly that you have accepted the rules of the game.

Going back to the release cycle: you are right, we have increased the length of it and it's has it's perks and cons. If you examine Rel156 patchnotes, that was quite the package. And if you examine soon the Rel157, it's gonna be another big package. The same will happen with Rel158. The DK will be specifically addressed with Rel157, which will happen probably next week (wait for official confirmation).

No, we do not want DKs to go away. Why would we? A lot of guys here play DKs and are struggling the same way as you: we know the changes have taken time... We are aware of that. But those changes are coming with Rel157. As for the pity part: I already answered you before.

Not sure if ironic or not... My irony-detector is kind of running low on battery at this point of the day.
I also over-use Google translate with German; have not mastered the language properly yet... A pity.
Anyway, thanks for your words.

Is not yet finished, is it? Anyway, will forward it to the game designers.
They surely will like to have a look at that! Thanks for your effort there!

Hey there, good sir,
what do you mean in this case for motivation? You mean, like a clear line of action of future plans?
Not sure if I follow you there. We are aware of different features that are at the works, for instance, and it's up to Greg and me to communicate them via the Community Roadmap, special posts or social media as we see fit. We communicate those features that have a secure "seal of delivery approval" rather than a "this may make it in the next months... or maybe not... seal of uncertainty". This was a step taken to ensure transparency but please elaborate on your idea so I can comment more.

Yoh surviving DK,

the TGC is something that surfs all over Bigpoint games and I personally do not have anything new to say in this respect, sorry about that. But I feel your opinion and I understand it. I cannot go into our internal procedures or systems right now but I know that they also wanted to improve in those special fields you are commenting. As for the Christmas thing, can I say this already, Greg?, *glares to an empty chair*, ok, we are preparing something very nice on our side for Christmas.

Hey there,

no, I do not take your words an attack but as legitimate concern. We created this space because we felt that it was needed and we are committed to keep it, really, but we already established the condition that it is another channel of communication from our list. I am trying to come here to create a "dialogue" as much as possible although this is more of an epistolary genre. Or that's how I feel. Anyway.

We know about the issue of Tegan and PvP, Tegan being a lower populated server when compared to the big ones like Heredur or Grimmag. And this is to say, we are considering how to mitigate that in the best way possible. Only, that it will not happen any time soon with releases 157 or 158 but rest assured that we are looking into it.

Glad to know about your support experiences. I personally like our team a lot.

Off you go, then!! #MyCMlipsaresealed

Hello there to you,

thanks for those suggestions! I can tell you that the Essence toggle is a reality happening really soon, which is very cool... and I personally would say that it will not be the last one we do, of course, if the team sees reasons to keep on modifying it. Of course not everything that I read here makes it automatically to the box with the "Suggestions for Game Design" label. It is most likely taht a suggestion explained here has already made its way to our horizon of potential ideas thanks to the scanning that the moderation team makes weekly to see recurrent wishes and suggestions across all languages.

The last logged column has already been communicated to them, for instance.

I can certainly ask this in particular but as you may know, the reworked PW will bring a very interesting rework and the game designers are working on the items stats for these particular dungeons.

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Oki doki, guys, time for me to stop writing now. I will come back tomorrow and keep on answering to the other posts in this thread so please bear with me. Enjoy your evening (depending on where you are, this could be the beginning of a new day).

See you,
Haruki

 

Also, it's kind of weird to read about myself in the "she" format while you discuss about us. Got me thinking...

I will gladly comment on CM duties in my next post, if you so wish - I get that all the time when people asks us "so what's your job?". Although I appreciate the criticism and of course this is a very valuable source of information for me, sure it is (you may believe it or not but I actually care about being good at what I do, which is not only about me, it's also about you), I think it is in the best interest of everyone to try and focus on the game and game discussions.

Anyway, I also embrace organic spontaneous sub-branches inside discussions. Part of the Mediterranean tares.
See you tomorrow!

 

You are good- keep 'er lit!

 

And yet, thanks for your answer. Criticism is needed but people underestimate certain jobs and the amount of work coming with it You're doing your job as you should, doing good.

The only raptor I've seen was connected to a quest that I have already finished, hope it wasn't that one, can say byebye then to the achievement Anyway thanks, will keep looking... Hope to find it soon enough.

Once again kind regards^^

 

1. Your comment was not appropriate and was interpreted as an insult based on the context to average readers. Your message began with your distaste of that player's expression of his thoughts and ended with telling him not to hit his head too hard on the door when he takes his leave. Average readers will take that as an intentional insult to the player. After it was pointed out to the community, instead of apologizing and regain our respect for you, you attempt to call it an irony (which it clearly was not). Another poorly handled situation to mend your relations with (members of) the community.

2. I did not quote your earlier paragraphs because it basically summarizes to: players' posts are subjected to your rules which (the rules) you can change at any time of your choosing. I've seen your moderator team delete players' posts with constructive feedbacks just because they don't like the person posting (ie. Fab and his constructive feedback on rangers, and also some of my earlier posts and so on). Your message on constructive feedback requirements is nothing more than a shield to hide behind to delete/ edit any posts you see fit. Again, this is going offtopic, your board, your rules, your property and no complaints from me on that matter. On topic, I am not defending that player's (Gab) emotional feedback, my statement was about your reply and the insult to all the players who are upset with current changes. Essentially, your message can be interpreted as: don't like the changes and attempt to post on forums? too bad, we'll deleted them and hope you trip and break your neck on the door when you finally decide to leave us.

3. How can we ignore the last line? It was an insult to all the players unhappy with recent changes; hence is what brought up this poor customer treatment discussion.

4. I am reading R156 patchnotes (https://board-en.drakensang.com/threads/release-156-patchnotes.68539/#post-632876), no mentions of DK improvements or class balance as promised in from July and August roadmaps of September/October and your July/August twitch streams. Based on history, you lost your credibility and players must decide for themselves when R157-8 arrives; At the best, one can only hope the delays won't be too long and changes are somewhat acceptable without too many game-breaking bugs. At the worst, it'll be the final nail on the coffin for a segment of your playerbase.

 

No one ever accused the CM's, the Forum, or Support of being perfect, but they are the best dialog available to DSO and BigPoint.
At least they make an effort.
Otherwise, many of us would have moved on, long ago.

Thank you.

 

@CM Haruki

Yes I could not complete the data with accuracy but was told by a number of people they just keep doubling cost from 44 to 50. So I have the suggestion as the first 1/2 and under was the data I collected.

 

We have one primary method of communicating with BP. You're looking at it. DO you really think trying to blast the primary person responsible for it is helpful?

Of course she has to say "we are working on it." and end every sentence with "right now." She has input to the decisions but does not make them and unfortunatley most of the readers here think her word is gospel when the knucklehead that types in the meeting notes could miss something and blow everything. or the decision could change because someone had an epiphany on the toilet. I enjoy her style and her sense of humor, which even involves a bit of a backhandded comment as needed. Don't try to turn her into one of those people that answer the phones at a help desk, "we're sorry sir, yes we are aware of the problem sir, what else can i do to help sir." People are people and id rather interact with a person than the automaton you desire, that kowtows to everyone moan on the forum.

Stop grandstanding. You are obviously an intelligent guy/gal and from your own self-stated management experience know that publicly chastising people does nothing productive, or at least should know. Trying to make people feel bad for the job they are trying to do is counter productive. Haruki is busting her butt to keep us informed and thinking you know what all her job entails or how she spends her day is ignorant. We all know what "and other duties as assigned" means. Therefor, you are either feeling you speak for the rest of us or that we want to see what you have to say as you try to berate someone for what, in your opinion, was an error. I can say from my part, neither is the case. As a manager yourself you are probably familiar with the Pareto principal pr 20/80 rule. The hard part for some is not knowing they are in the 20%. I personnally think the little twerp that decided screaming like an infant and making threats got less than he deserved by a simple smart azz comment from the CM. Funny thing was my exact thoughts as i read his rant was exactly what she meant to say, she just said in nicer. The customer is not always right and that thought is what gives many of these done nothing seen nothing children the thought that they can speak how they want to people that bust their tales to try and help them. If you feel you need to berate more people because you know more than they do about "Public Relations" take it from a guy that worked in the field, sometimes kids need a spanking.

 

Haruki, you are doing a good job. keep it up. Player frustration arises from many things, and I can feel you putting in effort to resolve them or atleast making sure the devs know about them. My only complaint here is I feel there are low number of resources available right now to take faster decisions, and do faster action, do correct action. I dont see Bigpoint believing in this game's potential as much as the players believe in this game's potential. I truly believe Bigpoint's actions from here on will determine this game's future. For you, all I can say is, instead of reassuring, give us a sneakpeak of what the Devs are thinking maybe via twitch interviews or "ask the devs" thread. You dont have to put any seal on it of any kind. Happiness on arrival or disappointment from the fading of ideas and pipelines is part of life. It will as other players demand, engage the players more.

One more thing that I noticed and would like if you do it Haruki. I know that you got a busy week and on weekends you are tired or lead your regular life. But if possible, if you are trying to be the best at what you do, please create a normal character( preferably one of each class) on any live server and try to play Drakensang the normal way, buy as much gems/ essences as you would buy if you were spending your own hard earned money and no more, it doesnt have to be that u spend 8 hours playing dso on weekends but only if you can manage 2-3 hours a day on weekends and 1 hour a day on weekdays, more if time perrmits. That will help you sort out most of the problems of DSO without even having to glance at forums.

Papa you know maths, you know management, make me your disciple O Heavenly Learned Person.

 

Two points:

1) Haruki is clearly younger than some of us and her style of communication may be part of her generation's. I'm older and we recently hired someone around Haruki's age. Her style of communication was much like Haruki's in that it was more off-the-cuff with a strong essence of irony, occasionally acerbic to my upbringing. Personally I think there is something about that age bracket that doesn't go well with some of us older folk. It takes some getting used to. I had to grow some thicker skin and realize that how the words came out weren't necessarily the same as the meaning that I heard.

2) For the CMs, did the drops for cubes diminish significantly in r155 or r156? In the last week? I've received 2 cubes yet have been killing monsters well above my level for all of my toons. Week before I think I only got one, maybe two. I feel that since paying for Premium has been severely diminished for so many as they can't play their DK's as they used to, it is just one more negative if the cubes don't drop.

 

1. Yes, it is more helpful than you think based on the assumption she learns from her mistakes. You may view her with rosy glasses, but I do not, I see her replies objectively. An insult is an insult.


2. I do not completely comprehend the argument you're trying to communicate with your second paragraph (ie. gospels to knuckleheads to toilets to help desk). From customer's perspective, if you cannot meet the deadlines you previously announced, then there is a problem. If your job is to facilitate communications between developers and player-base, and the players are not getting concrete information, then there again is a problem. A smart elementary school student with good English proficiency can do the same job with rehashing posted monthly roadmaps and announcements. Is it too much to ask for more substance to her answers? I think not.


3. I, as a consumer, was stating my complaints about her service (using the medium available to me to do so). She should feel bad for publicly insulting a segment(s) of the player-base because it's unacceptable. Unless you work for BP, you are just speculating on her efforts of "busting her butt". I do not pretend to know how she spends her time (as I said in my earlier post) but we can see the results (or at least a good portion of it) as end users and they are disappointing. Someone earlier posted her job description and responsibilities; and I commented on that already. I speak for those who she previously insulted (and left) and those who feel insulted by her replies. These "don't let the door hit you" comments occurred more than once. You may not be part of it, but make no mistake; there is a portion of the player base who feels this way. Lastly, for someone who works in public relations, I find it difficult to believe you would find such behavior acceptable; to publicly write an insult as a representative on behalf of a company aimed at a segment or segments of your consumer. I must remind you that younger children are also a segment and while they do not or cannot always express their thoughts properly, they do not deserve to be treated in such way. Neither are some more mature consumers. Surely as loyal customers, you would feel betrayed and insulted when told to either accept it or go slam your head on the door? None of this has anything to do with my knowledge of management or public relations; I am voicing my concerns as a consumer of their product.


I am not sure why you try to defend her. She can do so herself. She made a mistake and should issue an apology.

 

Dear Haruki,
Once in your commentary in twitch was a line about such items:

You said we should keep them in the inventory till next hotfix. 2 hotfixes are done till then + 1 patch (156). This item is a product of 4x2H swords lvl 45 (right after p155) and it's in my DK's inventory. Will we be compensated for that bug or the gold and the items are gone?

And one second question. The raptor achievement is a very good idea, I hope you will introduce more such secret mysterious quest-achievements, but also with some nice thought hints (may be connected to the story). My question is - could you please give one more hint - is it a beast like the Dragan Junior or more like a fluffy piggy like the hidden piggies in events?

Thank you for your time.

 

I believe publicly acting like a lunatic in front of a store in USA pretending to be a offended consumer representing a segment of the customers when there is no majority segment of any sort of customer behind you, supporting you for what you are asking an apology for, can get you either to a jail or a mental asylum. Just saying...GK info for Haruki.