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disastrous twitter communication

torrenz1torrenz1 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
edited May 2013 in General Discussion (PC)
I'm sure the community appreciates the extra hours the person over at @NeverwinterGame has clocked today to try and keep us informed, so this is no accusation to him or her personally. I don't want to complain about the downtime itself either, because I am glad the devs are taking as much time with this issue as they need. What bothers me is that I have been baited with false communications to stay awake all night only to see ETA after ETA discarded and buried under apologetic PR talk and amiable smiley faces.

I'm only speaking for myself here, but perhaps others have experienced this in the same way. Surely the initial 1h downtime sounded too good to be true for anyone, but I was hoping to see something within, say, the first five hours. As it stands we're past the nine hour mark and at this point I've so little faith in @NeverwinterGame that I am perfectly comfortable typing this overly long complaint without so much as glancing at the (5) new tweets that I am convinced contain only vain chitchat to placate and stall the community.

I get that you want to communicate, and real-time social media can be a good medium for that, and I'm sure nobody in the PR business would advocate a communication along the lines of "this is a gigantic mess, you can go to bed/work while we figure this **** out and we'll let you know what's going on tomorrow", but perhaps more players would appreciate that kind of honesty? I for one did not appreciate being fed bluffed promises every hour, no matter how friendly the messenger.


I could've gotten a good night's rest from the first ETA to the most recent. I will likely miss the actual news because I'm about to drop dead of sleep deprivation. Any excessive grumpiness in my post I attribute to this condition and apologize only half-heartedly.




EDIT: Again, I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in particular. This is not intended to be unconstructive.
I agree, the CM/PR guy is likely doing his best with what he's allowed to do and he shouldn't be the scapegoat. I can understand the unexpected finalization hiccups, but I would love less placebo ETAs and overall a shift in the quality-quantity balance of communications in the future, from whoever is ultimately in charge of that.
Post edited by torrenz1 on
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Comments

  • warfluxwarflux Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I actually do blame the person tweeting. He is the community manager he should know better. Don't overpromise and underdeliver, that's like one of the 10 commandments of being a PR person. Doing that is worse than giving politician answers. Even if he is just repeating what he's told he should have the sense to push back on that.

    It's unbelievable incompetent to post every 5 minutes that you'll have an ETA soon or an announcement for 9 hours straight.
  • l1d3nl1d3n Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 385 Bounty Hunter
    edited May 2013
    Amateurs \10char
  • entalyanentalyan Member Posts: 89
    edited May 2013
    torrenz1 wrote: »
    I'm sure the community appreciates the extra hours the person over at @NeverwinterGame has clocked today to try and keep us informed, so this is no accusation to him or her personally. I don't want to complain about the downtime itself either, because I am glad the devs are taking as much time with this issue as they need. What bothers me is that I have been baited with false communications to stay awake all night only to see ETA after ETA discarded and buried under apologetic PR talk and amiable smiley faces.

    I'm only speaking for myself here, but perhaps others have experienced this in the same way. Surely the initial 1h downtime sounded too good to be true for anyone, but I was hoping to see something within, say, the first five hours. As it stands we're past the nine hour mark and at this point I've so little faith in @NeverwinterGame that I am perfectly comfortable typing this overly long complaint without so much as glancing at the (5) new tweets that I am convinced contain only vain chitchat to placate and stall the community.

    I get that you want to communicate, and real-time social media can be a good medium for that, and I'm sure nobody in the PR business would advocate a communication along the lines of "this is a gigantic mess, you can go to bed/work while we figure this **** out and we'll let you know what's going on tomorrow", but perhaps more players would appreciate that kind of honesty? I for one did not appreciate being fed bluffed promises every hour, no matter how friendly the messenger.


    I could've gotten a good night's rest from the first ETA to the most recent. I will likely miss the actual news because I'm about to drop dead of sleep deprivation. Any excessive grumpiness in my post I attribute to this condition and apologize only half-heartedly.

    I completely agree with you. I've been here refreshing since the **** servers went down, and I keep trying because of Soon there will be news.
    But I can't really blame the CM for it, it's his job to inform the public in the friendliest way possible, but the only thing he is allowed to say comes from his superiors. He can't say 'screw it, the game's broken, we'll let you know if we ever get around to fixing it', even though that might be the case. He has to instill confidence in the playerbase that PWE is taking this seriously, and are working on a solution. Why do you think they pretty much had a plan 3 hours ago, but have been finalizing/confirming/adapting it ever since? The actual plan hasn't changed (much, probably), but PR had to weigh in, the developers had to weigh in, QA had to estimate how long they would need to test it etc... He's just being fed information to bleed through to us.
    Who can we blame then? I vote for ourselves. Staying up all night refreshing forum pages and twitter waiting for a statement is just dumb. Could have just as well gone to bed and found out what the statement was later.
  • kevinf08kevinf08 Member Posts: 432 Bounty Hunter
    edited May 2013
    Lying about ETA's is definitely not something I would do.
  • crenmac69crenmac69 Member Posts: 19 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I hate to say it, and it just may be how friggen tired I am, but you're right. This waving a carrot on a stick routine is just about got me angry at this point. Been hoping and waiting for some kind of resolution for all of my gaming time (as I'm pretty much limited to weekends) and I have to work @ 4 AM pst tomorrow, so I'm starting to get a bit pissed.

    Oh well, I guess I can read about it tomorrow.
  • h13h2i2h2ih13h2i2h2i Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Honestly anyone who remembers what the Blizzard PR department was like at times of critical failures remembers how frustrating it was to hear from a PR rep every 8 hours...
  • smrtstnsmrtstn Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 16 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    torrenz1 wrote: »
    I'm sure the community appreciates the extra hours the person over at @NeverwinterGame has clocked today to try and keep us informed, so this is no accusation to him or her personally. I don't want to complain about the downtime itself either, because I am glad the devs are taking as much time with this issue as they need. What bothers me is that I have been baited with false communications to stay awake all night only to see ETA after ETA discarded and buried under apologetic PR talk and amiable smiley faces.

    I'm only speaking for myself here, but perhaps others have experienced this in the same way. Surely the initial 1h downtime sounded too good to be true for anyone, but I was hoping to see something within, say, the first five hours. As it stands we're past the nine hour mark and at this point I've so little faith in @NeverwinterGame that I am perfectly comfortable typing this overly long complaint without so much as glancing at the (5) new tweets that I am convinced contain only vain chitchat to placate and stall the community.

    I get that you want to communicate, and real-time social media can be a good medium for that, and I'm sure nobody in the PR business would advocate a communication along the lines of "this is a gigantic mess, you can go to bed/work while we figure this **** out and we'll let you know what's going on tomorrow", but perhaps more players would appreciate that kind of honesty? I for one did not appreciate being fed bluffed promises every hour, no matter how friendly the messenger.


    I could've gotten a good night's rest from the first ETA to the most recent. I will likely miss the actual news because I'm about to drop dead of sleep deprivation. Any excessive grumpiness in my post I attribute to this condition and apologize only half-heartedly.


    They've said countless times they're not sure on even an ETA. Just go to bed and hopefully things will be back to normal in the morning.
  • kblazekblaze Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    h13h2i2h2i wrote: »
    Honestly anyone who remembers what the Blizzard PR department was like at times of critical failures remembers how frustrating it was to hear from a PR rep every 8 hours...
    Oh lord... I remember those....no info for 6 hours only to have a CM pop in with a line...

    "We are working on the issue"

    then again 6-8 hours later the same line repeats till mystically and magically the servers were back up.
  • cipher9nemocipher9nemo Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Agreed. The Twitter communication has been frequent but absolutely worthless.

    If I had to guess I don't think it's that community manager's fault (they work for Perfect World, not Cryptic). They're probably told what they can and can't say.

    But what I find absolutely asinine is how hours ago today they said the development team is waiting on an "action plan". Just now this same rhetoric was repeated... waiting on an "action plan". Translation: nothing is being done. In other word, I wouldn't be surprised if this situation isn't resolved until Monday.
    cipher_jitn_sig.png
    Hammerfist Clan. Jump into the Night: NW-DMXWRYTAD
  • warfluxwarflux Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    entalyan wrote: »
    . He can't say 'screw it, the game's broken, we'll let you know if we ever get around to fixing it', even though that might be the case.
    You have no idea how to handle an outage correctly when dealing with the public. Of course you don't say that! That doesn't mean you keep telling people you'll have an eta in 30 minutes and you never do. Tell them there is no ETA, it's a complicated issue and is going to take time. Of course people aren't going to be happy no matter what you tell them but just flat out bsing them only makes it worse.

    I don't buy that their just forced to say whatever they're told. They can still use their judgment I'm sure and they have shown theirs is very poor.
  • sockmunkeysockmunkey Member Posts: 4,622 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    It seems to be TrailTurtle manning both Twitter and Facebook. He has a pretty good rep for being fair and reasonable. All things considered, I think he is doing the best he can with what he has been given. Id imagine its a pretty thankless job to have to deal with this late on a Sunday.
  • crenmac69crenmac69 Member Posts: 19 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    h13h2i2h2i wrote: »
    Honestly anyone who remembers what the Blizzard PR department was like at times of critical failures remembers how frustrating it was to hear from a PR rep every 8 hours...


    I am not sure what's worse though... Nothing at all for 8 hours, or Saying "Just another hour and we'll have something" then an hour later, "another hour".

    If they told us "8 hours or more" up front, then they can tap dance and do magic tricks all they want while the time goes by. At least the entire community isn't riveted to every morsel of 'hat-eating' and quick quips until the cows come home.
  • khandar21khandar21 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 24 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Issues like these take time to fix, I worked in community management in the past and all he can do is relay the info he is being given, if you have grievances, they should not be directed at him.
  • protocol87protocol87 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 85
    edited May 2013
    wtb server up
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Loki < The Illuminati > 60 - Control Wizard
    Protocol 60 - Great Weapon Fighter
  • warfluxwarflux Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    sockmunkey wrote: »
    It seems to be TrailTurtle manning both Twitter and Facebook. He has a pretty good rep for being fair and reasonable. All things considered, I think he is doing the best he can with what he has been given. Id imagine its a pretty thankless job to have to deal with this late on a Sunday.

    The best he can is telling people over and over again he will post an ETA soon and never does? I work on multiple outages daily at my work. If someone handled it that way they would not be faring well with management.
  • aeolis1aeolis1 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 7 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Agreed. The Twitter communication has been frequent but absolutely worthless.

    If I had to guess I don't think it's that community manager's fault (they work for Perfect World, not Cryptic). They're probably told what they can and can't say.

    But what I find absolutely asinine is how hours ago today they said the development team is waiting on an "action plan". Just now this same rhetoric was repeated... waiting on an "action plan". Translation: nothing is being done. In other word, I wouldn't be surprised if this situation isn't resolved until Monday.

    I work in IT consulting. For us, whenever our PMs stall the clients with: "We're waiting on an action plan" it is code for: "The only guy who knows whats going on on this project is MIA and we cannot reach him on the phone. Hang tight till we can find someone who has a clue".
  • warfluxwarflux Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    khandar21 wrote: »
    Issues like these take time to fix, I worked in community management in the past and all he can do is relay the info he is being given, if you have grievances, they should not be directed at him.

    Wow, all he can do. Again, blindly defending incompetence with flat out ignorance.
  • maximiliousmaximilious Member Posts: 54 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    for his defense, he did say 1 hour plus 2, then extend 2 more hours... lol
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • chronomancerchronomancer Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 1,223
    edited May 2013
    There's literally nothing he can do but relay messages. His boss tells him what he can tell the public.
  • maximiliousmaximilious Member Posts: 54 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    aeolis1 wrote: »
    I work in IT consulting. For us, whenever our PMs stall the clients with: "We're waiting on an action plan" it is code for: "The only guy who knows whats going on on this project is MIA and we cannot reach him on the phone. Hang tight till we can find someone who has a clue".

    this guy is probably right xD
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • quitegonejinquitegonejin Member Posts: 3
    edited May 2013
    PW/Cryptic is trollin us hard. Twitter has been saying "we're almost ready hang on guys" for 7+ hours.
  • unimatrixalpha1unimatrixalpha1 Member Posts: 173 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    None of you would be handling it any better. The guy is doing the best he can w/ the very little information he gets. Give him a break. People can blame Cryptic all they want but at the end of this the blame is on the exploiters.
  • daschladaschla Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 240 Bounty Hunter
    edited May 2013
    I think what has me upset the most is that it's like, "We have a plan, going to announce.." then just.. hours go by. I appreciate that is job is not easy because people get the mob mentality and storm the gates, with this one lone P.R rep left to stand watch over it..but still, like another poster diagrammed in another thread..Full disclosure will slow and thin the angry masses, considerably.
    Sister Vanity knows if you've been naughty or nice...and heals accordingly.
  • gundzorgundzor Member Posts: 15 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Yeah, the twitter is full of Soon (TM).

    The guy ran out of things to say like 9 hours ago.
  • kblazekblaze Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    aeolis1 wrote: »
    I work in IT consulting. For us, whenever our PMs stall the clients with: "We're waiting on an action plan" it is code for: "The only guy who knows whats going on on this project is MIA and we cannot reach him on the phone. Hang tight till we can find someone who has a clue".

    I really have to laugh at this, because it's sooooo true. Every single word of it. Someone who works in the IT field myself I find it hilarious that the "updates" are the exact same phrases my guys use instead of saying I don't have a clue.
  • krumple01krumple01 Member Posts: 755 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    It's funny when someone makes a joke about the constant ETA adds. But this joke was 8 hours ago and it turns out to not only be true but it's exactly as the joke implies that it would happen.
  • ahsmagnetahsmagnet Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    soon, more to come, soon
  • warfluxwarflux Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    None of you would be handling it any better.

    Pretty sure anyone with experience in handling outages could have handled that a lot better. I know I could have. Making promises you can't keep is pretty much customer service 101.

    Not sure if you have even been reading the tweets this guy has been sending but he's resulted to telling everyone he will eat his hat if an eta/plan is not posted by midnight. You honestly believe he is just doing the best he can and no one could do better?
  • daschladaschla Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 240 Bounty Hunter
    edited May 2013
    krumple01 wrote: »
    It's funny when someone makes a joke about the constant ETA adds. But this joke was 8 hours ago and it turns out to not only be true but it's exactly as the joke implies that it would happen.

    It's because we know from experience.
    Sister Vanity knows if you've been naughty or nice...and heals accordingly.
  • chronomancerchronomancer Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 1,223
    edited May 2013
    If you're running a complex operation it requires coordinating with dozens of people. It does take a while to get everyone on the same page.
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