Sifting through a monumental pile of sh*T isn’t fun. No one here is demanding anything really, unlike other places(STEAM and Reddit) although there were people foaming at the mouth about issues a while back… As someone who has run restaurants with large turnover (taking 32k a week net with over 1800 meals served a week) then customer interaction is absolutely the most important driving factor in your business plan. It was the most important thing we discussed at any meetings and the most important thing we impressed upon our waitresses/chefs. In fact something I personally made sure happened was that if we let our guests down, we admitted it and did something about it. It was more important than whether the steak was cooked properly, or whether the Prosecco was chilled properly - something my wife will kick off about for no reason apparently. Making sure a person left with a good impression was everything. Because they’d come back and spend a bit more money.
Now you might say that Game Development is nothing like running a restaurant and you’d be absolutely right. When you’re running a restaurant, and the offer isn’t what you said it was and someone has had several Karlssons vodka, they aren’t very forgiving to your face. You need to make immediate and important recompense to someone who is angry, and you also need to be ready to make fast and accurate reactions to any backlash on all social media platforms, as people will badmouth your place online if they can. In fact if we’d had a ropey night I’d get the assistant to do the end of night finance and I’d sit watching Trip Advisor/facebook to try and reduce the flames.
Of course I have no idea how game development works, but I have a very good idea about how customer service works. What FS are doing is not great customer service and they’ve got so tangled up in their problems no-one is making a simple statement of their intent…
They HAVE admitted to mistakes and dropping the ball, and they have said several things that make me feel forgiveness towards them. Also being on the receiving end of someone who has had several vodkas I feel for them in that there are often points where you simply can’t reason with someone who is too far gone.
A weekly statement, put out on their official forums, with copies made to reddit/steam/wherever would be just fine.
No one is going to like everything all the time. Just state your intentions and any regrets. FS are already suffering due to social media blackout - could it be any worse? And In social media posts you can plan it and vet it, rather than streams where stuff gets leaked and blown out of proportion.
Thank your for sharing your experience, I confirm this from my own experience 100%. “Live” customer relations are MUCH more tasking, demanding and unforgiving.
Yes, they have. But they have also gone out of their ways to declare even the SUGGESTION of any kind of “goodwill compensation” as a madman’s dream and that it’s “not the end of the world”. So far, it’s all just talk and this is precisely why people are giving them so much sh*t. Again, people are completely willing to accept longer waits if you are just open about it beforehand and show some sign of goodwill. Their inability to just follow these two basic rules that are not even BA but common decency just DOES make me question their character. It may sound dramatic, but people judge you by your actions first and your intentions second - and they cannot judge your intentions if you don’t let them in on them.
The other being that it is almost precisely as it was with the first VT, they are repeating the same mistakes they made before. At least that’s the picture they are painting, nobody knows for a certain.
I, personally, am just completely flabbergasted at how a company could refuse such simple ideas in treating customers. That’s why I was offering advice in the first place, simply because at this point, I can’t help but assume that they simply don’t know any better, as astonishing as it would be.
I think social media should be monitored and responded to on one format all the time. For my job it was trip advisor. Surely for FS it should be here. A Monday announcement of intention, with an apology for stuff that went wrong last week. Be humans a bit. People here are a bit more forgiving anyhow and FS could grow into the announcements a little.
I know someone is going to come along and say “You’re comparing Apples and Oranges” but I think I’m in a small group… ergo;
I am really sympathetic and empathetic towards FatShark, in that I think there are people on the other end of things working like stupid idiots to try and fix things. I loved VT1, I love VT2, BUT…
Please for the love of Sigmar, Shallaya, Taal, Ulric, Mannan, Morr and Valaya just make some kind of social media announcement once a week.
During the summer, don’t remember exactly the topic where, Hedge said that something like this is coming. Not necessarily every week, as a week doesn’t always (usually?) accumulate enough newsworthy stuff, but regularly anyway. In my opinion every other week would be quite enough, as long as the news do come at an expected time, even if it’s occasionally just “nothing new”. The exact format wasn’t certain yet either. That said, I’d like to hear if this has come any closer to getting started.
Honestly, although I know exact timescales are fluid I’d be happy with something like
“It’s Sonnestill and we’re all out on the absolute p*ss this week.”
It’s just better than nothing.
Also you’re right in that a post that says “same as last week” is just fine. I think people who are going to get in a rage would get in a rage even if FS said “Free hats In Real Life™ delivered to anyone in the world! Order yours now!!!1” Don’t worry about those people in a big rage.
Just tell us what the people who are struggling at FS to deliver us the goods are struggling with.