Let’s be real here… CEO, Head of Design, and EP are the real villains here. They are responsible for the poor past and present design decisions, continued information blackout, and declining state of the game. Abysmal leadership is why the game continues to be in the state it is in, not vacations or Xbox ports.
Let’s make sure our ire as a community is directed squarely at the real problem and not the human meat shield (Catfish) they throw out in front of the community to deflect from their shortcomings.
Maybe it’s time they actually do their job so the CMs can do theirs, or maybe it’s time they descend from their golden thrones to actually have a real discussion with the community they’ve been working so hard to alienate in the name of profits.
Unless they abducted Catfish for forced labor I kinda don’t care who’s fault it is. As of now her job consists of logging on once a week and typing out (or copy pasting at this point)
“We’re discussing it internally but can’t say anything at this point”
While I agree that the lack of openness and honesty is a huge problem, even if Catfish posts ‘No updates this week, still discussing internally’ every week, that doesn’t solve anything but make the community more agitated?
I suspect those who have stuck it out this long and expend the effort to rage on the forums are those who actually care enough about the game and wish for it to succeed. Clearly we need to take a different approach, because the current one isn’t working. All I’m saying is maybe leadership would be more inclined to actually listen if they had to actually swim among the sharks rather than hiding out on the boat throwing others overboard.
I agree. What I hope doesn’t happen tho is that Catfish bears the brunt.
There is a general case to be made that the real job of a CM is simply to protect the bosses, very much like how the job of an HR person is really just to protect the bosses. Clearly, Catfish is unable to shield senior leadership from criticism.
My fervent hope is that the leads at Fatshark recognize it’s not her fault. By their own actions, they have put her in an untenable position. I hope Fatshark has the self-reflection to recognize that Catfish has been, generally speaking, a pretty great CM based on what the job description says, aforementioned realities of the role aside.
Yes, I too hope that the immeasurably incompetent Fatshark management people at least recognize they are the ones that screwed up and don’t blame it on her instead
Blizzard Entertainment
Creative Assembly
Paradox games
Firaxis Games
All have recent dev diaries/videos. Devs show their names, their faces and go through updates/new features and genuinely excited in their videos of content plans. Proud enough to show their work off.
Obviously, not every dev/programmer/artist is comfortable putting themselves out there (especially to a community that is already…upset), but it is very odd how strictly FS walls off everyone but one CM from the community interaction. Certainly not typical, especially not from ‘smaller’ studios.
Not particularly groundbreaking to go, ‘hey so & so from our art team wants to showcase a little bit of what they’re working on’. Unless of course, nobody is working on anything and there’s nothing to showcase…
I could actually sympathize with Catfish if she did a good job, but nah. She is simply a bad community manager that appears to not even put in the bare minimum effort I expect from her position, she should be held just as accountable as those above her.
No idea why anyone would give her a pass or any sort of sympathy, she is absolutely terrible at her job and I’m tired of pretending other wise.
There is a very vocal, very toxic part of this community that harasses FS employees whenever they come around. There’s little productive conversation happening here in the forums, it’s drowned out by stupid poop and insults.
Please don’t pretend to be shocked that they don’t want to participate here any more than absolutely necessary.
Yep, ur absolutely right… I’m totally with u here… The problem is, the very vocal toxic part of the community don’t get it (or just won’t), that it doesn’t matter how bad the current state of the game is, u don’t have the right to harass/insult FS employees or ppl at all … No u don’t, end of story!!! … U don’t like the game??? That’s absolutely fine, then give the game a bad rating, write an bad review where u point out what’s wrong with this game, come here and talk reasonably what you think needs improvement or what’s totally wrong, that is ur god damn right and no one denies this… But no, even when FS don’t response or have zero communication about their plans to improve the game, u don’t have the right to insult/harass ppl… Don’t be a arse… Because that’s what u are if u start threads named like “Shut up Fatshark”… Even if u bring 100% accurate points about what’s wrong with this game, starting the conversation with an insult kicks you straight offside… No one can take such people seriously, so yeah like u said, FS don’t want to participate here any more than absolutely necessary… No one wants to talk with toxic people… And don’t start with “yeah I need to be toxic because FS is such a incompetent dev, that I have to say it so harshly so that they understand my point”… And again No!!! U are just pathetic… That’s all…
Good to see that at least some users still have common sense
These “toxic” individuals are imaginary and living in your heads, tell me of these incidence’s you speak of because I have never seen or heard of them. Fatshark sure as hell does not seem to think this is the case either as they have made no post or complaints about anything related to these issues.
Anything considered toxic or logical points put across. …in the end serves no purpose as the devs don’t read the forum anyway
The true reality is that the forum serves as a giant warning sign to potential new players. Those that will research on forum, Steam reviews, Steam discussions etc to make informed decisions. Well this applies to those without gamepass and thinking of outright purchase.
That feels like the true purpose of forum at the moment. Not a means of feedback to Devs , but a warning sign who are thinking about buying the game.
Most people who intend to buy a game, do a certain amount of research first.
They absolutely do read this forum, why lie and spread misinformation like that? You would have new users be suckered in to a half assed built game? They should be warned and weary of buying this game, any new user should know of the many many issues that this product has.
The devs themselves do not read the forum. The CM reads the forum. But the devs do not read it nor they do respond themselves.
It’s a mobile game at best. So yea I truly believe it’s no longer about feedback but contributing to a warning sign and I agree to ward off new players.
from all the interactions, the only cases when someone was “attacked” was hedge when he came across as condescending, wich wasn’t met with all out aggression but with irony and condescension in turn.
apart from that
CM’s get a sassy comment here and there due to exposure.
but the others? nothing, if Lev or julia answer on a technical problem noone comes around to insult them.