I do not care what moderated or gonna be moderated.
EU players basically CANNOT playing the game and US players has big advantage. We get zero compensation for losing Event, VIP, dailies, campaigns, daily RAD and AD gain, daily random dungeons and so on...
And you doing this in the LAST days of the goddamn event... why hating EU? I know servers are moving but why now while event is going on? Why EU players always never cared by Cryptic? Why everytime we bring this topic is just never answered?
Why?
You want balance? Then make your maintenance times one time against US and one time against EU. We stay down more than we playing. As per day is goddamn maintenance.
@rodosto You do realize the developers and other people doing most/all of the work are in California, right? California is GMT-7 during Daylight Saving Time. They're going to do their work during their work hours. If it were me, I wouldn't be very happy about having to do this work during third shift hours. Besides, it's not only Europeans who are having to put up with this. There are plenty of people in America who either are not at work today or who, like me, can do some things while they are at work. (I manage my professions twice daily during work hours.)
@nunya You are in the minority that plays the game in night times then. All EU players basically needs to wait till midnight to play the game. Basically a passed day like the one we had yesterday.
All im saying is just make maintenance times to hurt one side at a time.
Sometimes if you do not want to work or stay on the third shift, then you are jobless. One or two at a month. 2 hours maintenance is nothing and noone complaints about them. But recently we had basically more downtine than playing time. That hurts the Event progression.
1 month of event just shorted by nearly a week due to all those maintenances and they arent extending the Event. The gap between old players and the new is TOO HUGE. Everyday counts and those new players needs to play to get on to the end game. There are players who cant do Barovia and Mod 15 is coming soon. Everyday counts for them.
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frozenfirevrMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,475Community Moderator
@nunya You are in the minority that plays the game in night times then. All EU players basically needs to wait till midnight to play the game. Basically a passed day like the one we had yesterday.
All im saying is just make maintenance times to hurt one side at a time.
Sometimes if you do not want to work or stay on the third shift, then you are jobless. One or two at a month. 2 hours maintenance is nothing and noone complaints about them. But recently we had basically more downtine than playing time. That hurts the Event progression.
1 month of event just shorted by nearly a week due to all those maintenances and they arent extending the Event. The gap between old players and the new is TOO HUGE. Everyday counts and those new players needs to play to get on to the end game. There are players who cant do Barovia and Mod 15 is coming soon. Everyday counts for them.
First, this is not the thread for that discussion and second, it's just probably 3 days of not being able to play.
And, the game came on for me at about 12:15 AM today, so EU must have gotten it at around 08:45 PM yesterday (so not midnight)...
And also, Day of the Dungeon Master is one of the few events that doesn't need you to play everyday. Why procrastinate so much when the maintenance timings have been announced in advance?
@nunya You are in the minority that plays the game in night times then. All EU players basically needs to wait till midnight to play the game. Basically a passed day like the one we had yesterday.
All im saying is just make maintenance times to hurt one side at a time.
Sometimes if you do not want to work or stay on the third shift, then you are jobless. One or two at a month. 2 hours maintenance is nothing and noone complaints about them. But recently we had basically more downtine than playing time. That hurts the Event progression.
1 month of event just shorted by nearly a week due to all those maintenances and they arent extending the Event. The gap between old players and the new is TOO HUGE. Everyday counts and those new players needs to play to get on to the end game. There are players who cant do Barovia and Mod 15 is coming soon. Everyday counts for them.
First, this is not the thread for that discussion and second, it's just probably 3 days of not being able to play.
And, the game came on for me at about 12:15 AM today, so EU must have gotten it at around 08:45 PM yesterday (so not midnight)...
And also, Day of the Dungeon Master is one of the few events that doesn't need you to play everyday. Why procrastinate so much when the maintenance timings have been announced in advance?
This thread has become a fun micro-chasm of what I had replied to before. Let me show you what I mean.
Let's take this interaction above. Here, the studio has to plan maintenance time and communicate it to the players.
However, the timing of the maintenance is tricky, since the player base is world-wide. In addition, the maintenance probably has to be timed to coincide with some kind of working hours at the studio or the data centers they are using. There are other considerations too, that I'm not aware of.
Historically, the studio and community team have struggled to find a way to effectively communicate the timing and context in a way that gets through to the audience that needs to hear it. Maintenance posts are primarily available on the official forum, but sometimes through twitter (and I don't know about facebook or discord now). In the past, notifications posts have been unclear on timezone (recently the "when is this for me" has improved things, but that wasn't always consistently applied).
Old hat folks know to check the forums, or even to expect the maintenance. They know where to look to confirm if it's expected or unexpected, and have experienced this enough not to get too miffed by it.
New players, on the other hand, are often taken by surprise by the maintenance, and feel "robbed" of their gaming time because they had set their expectations incorrectly. The studio or community team could make an effort to address this (for on example, they could invest in software that automatically posts to every social media channel + forum. Or add prominent in-game notifications). But they don't.
Instead, their actions encourage some of their customers to be blindsided by the maintenance, causing them to come to the forum frustrated and vent. And coupled with the moderation practices, the result is the good-willed volunteer mod team has to mop up the mess. I would imagine that exhausts you. It exhausts me just imagining it.
This is a just a small (perhaps silly) example. The above pattern is repeated and amplified across the platform in the approach to customer service.
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frozenfirevrMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,475Community Moderator
@nunya You are in the minority that plays the game in night times then. All EU players basically needs to wait till midnight to play the game. Basically a passed day like the one we had yesterday.
All im saying is just make maintenance times to hurt one side at a time.
Sometimes if you do not want to work or stay on the third shift, then you are jobless. One or two at a month. 2 hours maintenance is nothing and noone complaints about them. But recently we had basically more downtine than playing time. That hurts the Event progression.
1 month of event just shorted by nearly a week due to all those maintenances and they arent extending the Event. The gap between old players and the new is TOO HUGE. Everyday counts and those new players needs to play to get on to the end game. There are players who cant do Barovia and Mod 15 is coming soon. Everyday counts for them.
First, this is not the thread for that discussion and second, it's just probably 3 days of not being able to play.
And, the game came on for me at about 12:15 AM today, so EU must have gotten it at around 08:45 PM yesterday (so not midnight)...
And also, Day of the Dungeon Master is one of the few events that doesn't need you to play everyday. Why procrastinate so much when the maintenance timings have been announced in advance?
New players, on the other hand, are often taken by surprise by the maintenance, and feel "robbed" of their gaming time because they had set their expectations incorrectly. The studio or community team could make an effort to address this (for on example, they could invest in software that automatically posts to every social media channel + forum. Or add prominent in-game notifications). But they don't.
Instead, their actions encourage some of their customers to be blindsided by the maintenance, causing them to come to the forum frustrated and vent. And coupled with the moderation practices, the result is the good-willed volunteer mod team has to mop up the mess. I would imagine that exhausts you. It exhausts me just imagining it.
This is a just a small (perhaps silly) example. The above pattern is repeated and amplified across the platform in the approach to customer service.
I must admit, I did not think of people who don't use the forums or social media. I do think the Twitter account has been reliable of late. I'm not sure when the announcement on the launcher pops up but that should help a bit (don't know about consoles). Other than that, the only option I could see is sending an in-game mail, but I am not sure if that'll be possible.
@nunya You are in the minority that plays the game in night times then. All EU players basically needs to wait till midnight to play the game. Basically a passed day like the one we had yesterday.
All im saying is just make maintenance times to hurt one side at a time.
Sometimes if you do not want to work or stay on the third shift, then you are jobless. One or two at a month. 2 hours maintenance is nothing and noone complaints about them. But recently we had basically more downtine than playing time. That hurts the Event progression.
1 month of event just shorted by nearly a week due to all those maintenances and they arent extending the Event. The gap between old players and the new is TOO HUGE. Everyday counts and those new players needs to play to get on to the end game. There are players who cant do Barovia and Mod 15 is coming soon. Everyday counts for them.
First, this is not the thread for that discussion and second, it's just probably 3 days of not being able to play.
And, the game came on for me at about 12:15 AM today, so EU must have gotten it at around 08:45 PM yesterday (so not midnight)...
And also, Day of the Dungeon Master is one of the few events that doesn't need you to play everyday. Why procrastinate so much when the maintenance timings have been announced in advance?
New players, on the other hand, are often taken by surprise by the maintenance, and feel "robbed" of their gaming time because they had set their expectations incorrectly. The studio or community team could make an effort to address this (for on example, they could invest in software that automatically posts to every social media channel + forum. Or add prominent in-game notifications). But they don't.
Instead, their actions encourage some of their customers to be blindsided by the maintenance, causing them to come to the forum frustrated and vent. And coupled with the moderation practices, the result is the good-willed volunteer mod team has to mop up the mess. I would imagine that exhausts you. It exhausts me just imagining it.
This is a just a small (perhaps silly) example. The above pattern is repeated and amplified across the platform in the approach to customer service.
I must admit, I did not think of people who don't use the forums or social media. I do think the Twitter account has been reliable of late. I'm not sure when the announcement on the launcher pops up but that should help a bit (don't know about consoles). Other than that, the only option I could see is sending an in-game mail, but I am not sure if that'll be possible.
Could it be put on the in-game calendar? I don't know how hard that might be or really how much it might help. Newer players probably don't know about the calendar (took me a while to discover it), but experienced players probably rely on it quite a bit. Just a thought.
@nunya You are in the minority that plays the game in night times then. All EU players basically needs to wait till midnight to play the game. Basically a passed day like the one we had yesterday.
All im saying is just make maintenance times to hurt one side at a time.
Sometimes if you do not want to work or stay on the third shift, then you are jobless. One or two at a month. 2 hours maintenance is nothing and noone complaints about them. But recently we had basically more downtine than playing time. That hurts the Event progression.
1 month of event just shorted by nearly a week due to all those maintenances and they arent extending the Event. The gap between old players and the new is TOO HUGE. Everyday counts and those new players needs to play to get on to the end game. There are players who cant do Barovia and Mod 15 is coming soon. Everyday counts for them.
First, this is not the thread for that discussion and second, it's just probably 3 days of not being able to play.
And, the game came on for me at about 12:15 AM today, so EU must have gotten it at around 08:45 PM yesterday (so not midnight)...
And also, Day of the Dungeon Master is one of the few events that doesn't need you to play everyday. Why procrastinate so much when the maintenance timings have been announced in advance?
Players are "humans" so 3 days gone is too long to someone. Why you talking about that is like normal?
I dont need to ask or get a permission from you to whenever i play or not. The event is there and if you rob the time with excessive maintenance DURING the even causes some people get angry because many of us had to WORK. And can play the game in a limited time between the work, life and other stuff. Some people had their prime time taken away by the maintenance times during the EVENT may cause this kind of frustration.
Your answer is not helping. You just defending. Not making a solution.
If you made this thread and there is Dev's and CM's lurking, it will take attention because self made threads and other threads aint getting any attention. You know exactly why people asking these kind of questions in the active topics.
You do not know the game at all. You need to login and do some stuff for 20 days to advance in event. And you say you dont need to be active... just WOW! Please play the game actually before saying these kind of stuff is heavily recommended to exactly understand what players are trying to imply.
All i was trying to say, if Cryptic gonna do some maintenance, do it in the NON EVENT times or just use the time that is in between US and EU. Current times is just robbing away the prime playing and active time of the EU players.
Also doing this maintenance in the LAST DAY of the event is just a joke. A big useless joke. A huge trolling that probably people in the office laugh so hard to players that cannot play in the last day of the event...
Instead defending, just improve. I'm just a mere player, nothing more. I cannot change anything but if nobody talks about obvious faults, then the faults became reality.
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,092Arc User
Ever stop and think that maybe Cryptic doesn't have a lot of say over the workers in the data center about when they will do their jobs?
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
@rodosto You're really not helping yourself here. The moderators have been pretty nice in this thread, in spite of some posts that normally would have received moderation (like one of mine from yesterday...). There's no point raging at them over this. The fact is that this work takes place during the employees' typical working hours. This is how it is with every MMO I have ever played. With DDO, there was a running joke on the forums that whenever the servers were down for maintenance or an update, then it must be a British bank holiday because the two so often aligned. Your raging about this and ignoring reality is not going to result in reality changing to align with your expectations. The only thing you're going to get yourself is a "moderation headache" and, possibly, a longer vacation from the game than you're currently suffering.
I must admit, I did not think of people who don't use the forums or social media. I do think the Twitter account has been reliable of late. I'm not sure when the announcement on the launcher pops up but that should help a bit (don't know about consoles). Other than that, the only option I could see is sending an in-game mail, but I am not sure if that'll be possible.
I agree there are ways to learn the right information (although important context is not always available), but the problem is this is not accessible to the people who need it most. Some effort to communicate is made, but it's just not effective at reaching many customers that matter.
Think about the number of sources of information available (launcher, in-game splash screen, in-game calendar, forum, reddit, twitter(s), discord). It's overwhelming. (Bonus: coupled with the inability for new players to chat or post new forum threads, it's hard to even ask for help on how to digest it all)
You can see this remains the case, the evidence is so many frustrated posts and comments virtually every maintenance (especially off-cycle). I would imagine the negativity and frustration of the current situation may also be causing potential paying customers to fall out of the funnel.
This is a hard problem to solve, but customer-centricity has dramatic benefits. The alternative is continuing to support a frustrating ecosystem, leading to many legitimate complaints manifesting as hateful comments destined for the lower depths via hardworking volunteer moderation.
@nunya im not raging, pointing out the fact dude. Since when talking about the facts are considered raging? You know im right but you just escaping to agree.
People are working and getting paid for that. If you have a job that requires to constantly working with clients like all of the jobs, then you NEED to do what you're told. Doing this in your own way will get you fired. Thats how it works in the real world. You just cant ignore a client that has some complaints and you need to work on it for the solution instead of bashing or repelling.
All i was trying to say is just do the maintenance on the free days that is non-event or something big happens. If its called bad stuff, then im sorry really...
I didnt even insulted or used bad language. Why im getting moderated? Just saying the stuff that is a fact?
We players need an answer, nothing said to the players and we kept in the dark all the time. It isnt too much to ask from a game that we love?
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,092Arc User
Then why is it some of us know the answer and others seem oblivious when all the players have the same access to that information?
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
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tripsofthrymrMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,624Community Moderator
edited September 2018
We're looking the other way on some of the comments in this thread since the topic is moderation and it would suck to moderate moderation feedback, but let's please stay on topic and avoid personal attacks/flaming/bickering. Say what you have to say and allow others the same courtesy.
Then why is it some of us know the answer and others seem oblivious when all the players have the same access to that information?
Before start, i am really sorry if i get this all wrong. Maybe you aint talking or quoting with me but i get it like that. Sorry again if i got this wrong.
I know why servers are down. I'm talking about generally. Not just for myself. The lack of communication is the problem of this game far too long.
How hard to add these infos on the launcher? Like that one:
This is what it says:
"We will be performing shard maintenance on September 26 from 5 AM-2 PM Pacific (12:00-21:00 UTC). Please check the forums."
Instead you can say like this:
"We will be performing shard maintenance on September 26 from 5 AM-2 PM Pacific (12:00-21:00 UTC). Due to server change. Please check the forums."
*add forums link to thread*
See? It's not that hard to add the link for the people. And add the reason in 3-5 words. Is it too hard?
Lol i dont know why im getting bashed here because all i said is to give a SMALL information to players or just put them where we can see it clearly like on the launcher....
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,092Arc User
I'm not a fan of "check facebook", "check twitter", etc to find information. Honestly, since the launcher does point to the forums, the forums should be the main source of information on anything since they are official.
Wasn't my intention to bash you. You're asking questions. I'm providing answers to those that I know. There are a lot of people seeming to pop in the forums to post "OMFG the game is down again!", but they apparently don't take time to look for the answer prior to their posting.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
I'm not a fan of "check facebook", "check twitter", etc to find information. Honestly, since the launcher does point to the forums, the forums should be the main source of information on anything since they are official.
Wasn't my intention to bash you. You're asking questions. I'm providing answers to those that I know. There are a lot of people seeming to pop in the forums to post "OMFG the game is down again!", but they apparently don't take time to look for the answer prior to their posting.
You're right, but the results speak for themselves. Somehow, the right information is not getting through.
When your customers are having a bad time because their expectations are set incorrectly, a customer-centric mindset places the onus on the company to examine the communications platform and find a solution that delivers the right outcomes. A customer-focused solution is not "look here, we told you about it beforehand in a way that was ineffective at reaching you... so all good!"
When addressing an audience, it's more relevant whether the message is heard (or not heard) and understood than whether the content of the message is available to be found.
I wanted to emphasize that communication of maintenance times is one example that I believe is representative of a larger problem with how this game is managed. It is not the only example, but provides a tangible case study.
I'm not a fan of "check facebook", "check twitter", etc to find information. Honestly, since the launcher does point to the forums, the forums should be the main source of information on anything since they are official.
Wasn't my intention to bash you. You're asking questions. I'm providing answers to those that I know. There are a lot of people seeming to pop in the forums to post "OMFG the game is down again!", but they apparently don't take time to look for the answer prior to their posting.
When I am seeking answers, I look on here on the forums, the wiki, reddit, and a lot of places. However server outages is not one of them. When it happens (other than Thursday) I just assume they are fixing 1 or more games. This maintenance had nothing to do with game fixes but server side software or hardware. I would also think the red text I saw all day yesterday on my launcher spoke volumes. However not all people are online everyday... but they should be.
I purpose, Cryptic should take out a full page ad in the New York Times and a 30 minute spot on CNN. That won't work, no one watches CNN. Just kidding.
Someone has to keep the hamsters inline, thank for moderating, the rules are the rules, there are plenty of other places for unmoderated chats to post the rants. I love a good rant but when I post here I try to keep it positive, constructive if possible and maybe even humorous once in a while
TR - Sun: 16000 IL OP - Sunshine: 16000 IL
Casual Dailies
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dread4moorMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,154Arc User
... , there are plenty of other places for unmoderated chats to post the rants...
Agree with everything else you said but this. "plenty" ? Okay . Plenty means more then 2, right?
So, @sundance777 , name 3 Neverwinter-focused social media sites or forums where dev, moderator and game criticism is allowed...
You can't. In fact, you can't name the only one that does exist. Because why? Because it has been censored by forum and the subreddit. That is the problem.
I am Took.
"Full plate and packing steel" in NW since 2013.
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frozenfirevrMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,475Community Moderator
... , there are plenty of other places for unmoderated chats to post the rants...
Agree with everything else you said but this. "plenty" ? Okay . Plenty means more then 2, right?
So, @sundance777 , name 3 Neverwinter-focused social media sites or forums where dev, moderator and game criticism is allowed...
You can't. In fact, you can't name the only one that does exist. Because why? Because it has been censored by forum and the subreddit. That is the problem.
I said this previously. What the point of moderation, forum guidelines, etc... if we're going to allow something that doesn't have regard for any of that and moreover breaks ToS? I have alternate cases in mind to explain this, but really shouldn't. So please stop that with this (and sundance was referring to chats, not forums (even these you have guild, alliance, and channel forums), and they're in plenty).
I'm not a fan of "check facebook", "check twitter", etc to find information. Honestly, since the launcher does point to the forums, the forums should be the main source of information on anything since they are official.
Wasn't my intention to bash you. You're asking questions. I'm providing answers to those that I know. There are a lot of people seeming to pop in the forums to post "OMFG the game is down again!", but they apparently don't take time to look for the answer prior to their posting.
You're right, but the results speak for themselves. Somehow, the right information is not getting through.
When your customers are having a bad time because their expectations are set incorrectly, a customer-centric mindset places the onus on the company to examine the communications platform and find a solution that delivers the right outcomes. A customer-focused solution is not "look here, we told you about it beforehand in a way that was ineffective at reaching you... so all good!"
When addressing an audience, it's more relevant whether the message is heard (or not heard) and understood than whether the content of the message is available to be found.
I wanted to emphasize that communication of maintenance times is one example that I believe is representative of a larger problem with how this game is managed. It is not the only example, but provides a tangible case study.
These are very good points. What's really amazing about all this is that in the 20 or so years since EverQuest came out, literally every company has handled their communications with their players in this way. Seriously. What amazes me even more about this is that all these companies seem utterly incapable of learning from the mistakes of their predecessors. It staggers the imagination.
Interesting thread let me just say Moderation on here has come a long way from the "bad old days" and I have been subjected to an unwarranted shadow ban before so I know of what I speak
I even have a Mod on my friends list not something I would ever consider before and although we have differences she has come across to me as being a lot fairer than what I have seen previously on here. Let me just add in closing some of us appreciate what you do and understand the fact you wont always get it right. Keep it going in the direction it is, as its one of the most positive changes I have seen in years.
I guess I am more chilled than some other players and don't gripe as much anymore. Heck I am playing a free game which has kept me mostly amused for over two years.
I have seen far worse moderators - seems to me the mods here are pretty good/well above average - and I am no fanboi or Cryptic employee masquerading as a player.
agreement IS simple. you agree what more is to be said. if you disagree there is a lot to be said. are you disagreeing just because you are mad at the other person and this is a good way to vent. Are you disagreeing because you actually disagree.. but do you disagree with point a, point b, point c. point d? and why do you disagree. is there something that could be improved on? there is a lot to talk about with disagree. nothing to talk about with agree.
There are some communities where up- and downvoting works quite well, such as the StackExchange family of websites. There, it serves more as an agreement/disagreement as to the factual correctness of statements and to their usefulness/completeness in answering the original question.
In our forums, we far more often discuss matters of opinion rather than matters of fact. In our context, I'm with you that clicking disagree doesn't provide much useful, actionable information.
The problem is all of the other options also do not provide any useful, actionable information other than spreading an imbalanced sense of positivism. Sometimes people do disagree with the general sentiment of a response, its just a number why is it ok to provide a sense of agreement in a multiple point post and not a general sense of disagreement? Would a block quote ending with a I disagree be better for the forum? I see this alot on the net it just seems so hollow and manipulative to have a give us a thumbs up option and not a thumbs down especially if there is no real penalty for a large negative number (like post position or such).
I wanted to share my views on the Neverwinter community and moderation. I often times used to hear about how negative feedback or messages are not allowed on the forum. Having experienced it for over a month, that is absolutely not the case. There are some issues causing this perception though.
People notice only when things are moderated, and those quite likely end up being negative. All unmoderated negative feedback is never paid attention to when arriving at such a point of view.
The feedback, often times, is mixed with other emotions and this is where most issues arise. Instead of saying "This is very irritating and should be changed." people go "Which HAMSTER came up with this idea? This HAMSTER absolutely HAAAAAAAMSTER! H-A-M-S-T-E-R!!!" which obviously isn't very nice.
Having seen things, there are three common causes for posts being moderated:-
Flaming/Trolling/Bashing. All this does is aggravate others and is absolutely pointless. If you disagree with something, try to put forth a polite argument that cannot be disagreed with. If somebody is not being reasonable, just leave them be. They and the others know the facts.
Discussing Moderation. This, again is not helpful. The post has been removed for a reason (likely one of these). If you disagree with the reason, talk to the community team. Other players cannot help with that. All you could possibly seek to achieve by doing this is the previous point.
Discussing Exploits and Repercussions. This also isn't of any use. The dev/community teams have no influence on Customer Support (they don't even work for the same company). All this could do is pool together anger (ofcourse you won't be happy with what had happened). So, take up these issues with the Customer Support.
It might be just a single post for you but having to try and go through hundreds of them is tiring to say the least. If you could be calm and keep the above mentioned things (along with the other rules, but those are less likely to be an issue) in mind while clicking that post button, we'll be happy to keep it as is. And finally, show some basic courtesy and don't make people regret expressing their opinions (I'd appreciate it if you don't make me regret this post either ).
This will probably change nothing, but thanks for reading.
Mod edit: While your general comments on this are welcome (until the 28th), please keep in mind, all the rules still apply.
I agree with everything said except your third bullet point. • The dev and community teams should want to know that game bugs exist and are being used. To clamp down all discussion of such things you're accomplishing nothing more than moving the discussion to other channels where you no longer have control or part in the discussion.
As far as banned people venting, it's hardly surprising considering support is a completely closed environment dictated by a separate company. If there's a disagreement, you really have no other avenue other than complaining loudly or calling a lawyer.
Cryptic and the community team might not be directly at fault, but one company can't avoid liability by brushing of responsibility onto another. In the minds of 'your community' you are one and the same.
Well, sometimes the moderation is spot on and clear, and then there're moments were i can't really follow the decisions being made, i wouldn't mind getting at least some feedback in those cases - something along the lines of "hey, we had to this because of that." message/note would be helpfull.
And another thing i don't understand, while the forums are well moderated, there's pretty much no moderation of the public chats in game. I think at least some moderation every now and then from real GMs might help "detox" the chat over time...
Anyway, take care and have a great weekend.
I do believe in killing the messenger...
Want to know why?
Because it sends a message!
1
frozenfirevrMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,475Community Moderator
Thank you for the views and opinions. They will be taken into consideration. This thread is now being closed.
Comments
EU players basically CANNOT playing the game and US players has big advantage. We get zero compensation for losing Event, VIP, dailies, campaigns, daily RAD and AD gain, daily random dungeons and so on...
And you doing this in the LAST days of the goddamn event... why hating EU? I know servers are moving but why now while event is going on? Why EU players always never cared by Cryptic? Why everytime we bring this topic is just never answered?
Why?
You want balance? Then make your maintenance times one time against US and one time against EU. We stay down more than we playing. As per day is goddamn maintenance.
All im saying is just make maintenance times to hurt one side at a time.
Sometimes if you do not want to work or stay on the third shift, then you are jobless. One or two at a month. 2 hours maintenance is nothing and noone complaints about them. But recently we had basically more downtine than playing time. That hurts the Event progression.
1 month of event just shorted by nearly a week due to all those maintenances and they arent extending the Event. The gap between old players and the new is TOO HUGE. Everyday counts and those new players needs to play to get on to the end game. There are players who cant do Barovia and Mod 15 is coming soon. Everyday counts for them.
And, the game came on for me at about 12:15 AM today, so EU must have gotten it at around 08:45 PM yesterday (so not midnight)...
And also, Day of the Dungeon Master is one of the few events that doesn't need you to play everyday. Why procrastinate so much when the maintenance timings have been announced in advance?
Let's take this interaction above. Here, the studio has to plan maintenance time and communicate it to the players.
However, the timing of the maintenance is tricky, since the player base is world-wide. In addition, the maintenance probably has to be timed to coincide with some kind of working hours at the studio or the data centers they are using. There are other considerations too, that I'm not aware of.
Historically, the studio and community team have struggled to find a way to effectively communicate the timing and context in a way that gets through to the audience that needs to hear it. Maintenance posts are primarily available on the official forum, but sometimes through twitter (and I don't know about facebook or discord now). In the past, notifications posts have been unclear on timezone (recently the "when is this for me" has improved things, but that wasn't always consistently applied).
Old hat folks know to check the forums, or even to expect the maintenance. They know where to look to confirm if it's expected or unexpected, and have experienced this enough not to get too miffed by it.
New players, on the other hand, are often taken by surprise by the maintenance, and feel "robbed" of their gaming time because they had set their expectations incorrectly. The studio or community team could make an effort to address this (for on example, they could invest in software that automatically posts to every social media channel + forum. Or add prominent in-game notifications). But they don't.
Instead, their actions encourage some of their customers to be blindsided by the maintenance, causing them to come to the forum frustrated and vent. And coupled with the moderation practices, the result is the good-willed volunteer mod team has to mop up the mess. I would imagine that exhausts you. It exhausts me just imagining it.
This is a just a small (perhaps silly) example. The above pattern is repeated and amplified across the platform in the approach to customer service.
I dont need to ask or get a permission from you to whenever i play or not. The event is there and if you rob the time with excessive maintenance DURING the even causes some people get angry because many of us had to WORK. And can play the game in a limited time between the work, life and other stuff. Some people had their prime time taken away by the maintenance times during the EVENT may cause this kind of frustration.
Your answer is not helping. You just defending. Not making a solution.
If you made this thread and there is Dev's and CM's lurking, it will take attention because self made threads and other threads aint getting any attention. You know exactly why people asking these kind of questions in the active topics.
You do not know the game at all. You need to login and do some stuff for 20 days to advance in event. And you say you dont need to be active... just WOW! Please play the game actually before saying these kind of stuff is heavily recommended to exactly understand what players are trying to imply.
All i was trying to say, if Cryptic gonna do some maintenance, do it in the NON EVENT times or just use the time that is in between US and EU. Current times is just robbing away the prime playing and active time of the EU players.
Also doing this maintenance in the LAST DAY of the event is just a joke. A big useless joke. A huge trolling that probably people in the office laugh so hard to players that cannot play in the last day of the event...
Instead defending, just improve. I'm just a mere player, nothing more. I cannot change anything but if nobody talks about obvious faults, then the faults became reality.
Think about the number of sources of information available (launcher, in-game splash screen, in-game calendar, forum, reddit, twitter(s), discord). It's overwhelming. (Bonus: coupled with the inability for new players to chat or post new forum threads, it's hard to even ask for help on how to digest it all)
You can see this remains the case, the evidence is so many frustrated posts and comments virtually every maintenance (especially off-cycle). I would imagine the negativity and frustration of the current situation may also be causing potential paying customers to fall out of the funnel.
This is a hard problem to solve, but customer-centricity has dramatic benefits. The alternative is continuing to support a frustrating ecosystem, leading to many legitimate complaints manifesting as hateful comments destined for the lower depths via hardworking volunteer moderation.
People are working and getting paid for that. If you have a job that requires to constantly working with clients like all of the jobs, then you NEED to do what you're told. Doing this in your own way will get you fired. Thats how it works in the real world. You just cant ignore a client that has some complaints and you need to work on it for the solution instead of bashing or repelling.
All i was trying to say is just do the maintenance on the free days that is non-event or something big happens. If its called bad stuff, then im sorry really...
I didnt even insulted or used bad language. Why im getting moderated? Just saying the stuff that is a fact?
We players need an answer, nothing said to the players and we kept in the dark all the time. It isnt too much to ask from a game that we love?
Sci-fi author: The Gods We Make, The Gods We Seek, and Ji-min
I know why servers are down. I'm talking about generally. Not just for myself. The lack of communication is the problem of this game far too long.
How hard to add these infos on the launcher? Like that one:
This is what it says:
"We will be performing shard maintenance on September 26 from 5 AM-2 PM Pacific (12:00-21:00 UTC). Please check the forums."
Instead you can say like this:
"We will be performing shard maintenance on September 26 from 5 AM-2 PM Pacific (12:00-21:00 UTC). Due to server change. Please check the forums."
*add forums link to thread*
See? It's not that hard to add the link for the people. And add the reason in 3-5 words. Is it too hard?
Lol i dont know why im getting bashed here because all i said is to give a SMALL information to players or just put them where we can see it clearly like on the launcher....
Wasn't my intention to bash you. You're asking questions. I'm providing answers to those that I know. There are a lot of people seeming to pop in the forums to post "OMFG the game is down again!", but they apparently don't take time to look for the answer prior to their posting.
When your customers are having a bad time because their expectations are set incorrectly, a customer-centric mindset places the onus on the company to examine the communications platform and find a solution that delivers the right outcomes. A customer-focused solution is not "look here, we told you about it beforehand in a way that was ineffective at reaching you... so all good!"
When addressing an audience, it's more relevant whether the message is heard (or not heard) and understood than whether the content of the message is available to be found.
I wanted to emphasize that communication of maintenance times is one example that I believe is representative of a larger problem with how this game is managed. It is not the only example, but provides a tangible case study.
I purpose, Cryptic should take out a full page ad in the New York Times and a 30 minute spot on CNN. That won't work, no one watches CNN. Just kidding.
OP - Sunshine: 16000 IL
Casual Dailies
"plenty" ?
Okay . Plenty means more then 2, right?
So, @sundance777 , name 3 Neverwinter-focused social media sites or forums where dev, moderator and game criticism is allowed...
You can't.
In fact, you can't name the only one that does exist.
Because why?
Because it has been censored by forum and the subreddit.
That is the problem.
I am Took.
"Full plate and packing steel" in NW since 2013.
I even have a Mod on my friends list not something I would ever consider before and although we have differences she has come across to me as being a lot fairer than what I have seen previously on here.
Let me just add in closing some of us appreciate what you do and understand the fact you wont always get it right.
Keep it going in the direction it is, as its one of the most positive changes I have seen in years.
I guess I am more chilled than some other players and don't gripe as much anymore. Heck I am playing a free game which has kept me mostly amused for over two years.
I have seen far worse moderators - seems to me the mods here are pretty good/well above average - and I am no fanboi or Cryptic employee masquerading as a player.
• The dev and community teams should want to know that game bugs exist and are being used. To clamp down all discussion of such things you're accomplishing nothing more than moving the discussion to other channels where you no longer have control or part in the discussion.
As far as banned people venting, it's hardly surprising considering support is a completely closed environment dictated by a separate company. If there's a disagreement, you really have no other avenue other than complaining loudly or calling a lawyer.
Cryptic and the community team might not be directly at fault, but one company can't avoid liability by brushing of responsibility onto another. In the minds of 'your community' you are one and the same.
And another thing i don't understand, while the forums are well moderated, there's pretty much no moderation of the public chats in game. I think at least some moderation every now and then from real GMs might help "detox" the chat over time...
Anyway, take care and have a great weekend.