EU forums and developer feedback

#0 - Feb. 6, 2009, 3:03 p.m.

A prior post had an un-necessarily confrontational tone that obscured the main puprose, which was to enquire about the feedback between the developers in the US and those made by EU players who use this forum.

Therefore i have re-written the post to ask our CMs to clarify as best as they can what, if any feedback is in place between what we write on these boards and the game developers in the US.

Off course the ill note of the previous topic is often repeated by a host of players who feel that their concerns are never really aired out where it counts. And anyone who monitors both forums, like avid EU members would will appreciate there are often some good insights on these boards that are not present at all on the US boards.

It will heal relationships and improve the lines of communication between player and company if we could get a low down on how the process of communication works.

Sample FAQ
1. Do the developers ever read these forums?
2. Do any of our comments and feedback on the many pages ever make it?
3. What role do the CMs play in this?
4. What is the difference between a CM and Dev?
5. Is there a process or feedback system that allows points made on these forums to reach the US?
6. Or is it pure random chance of a developer stumbling onto the EU boards instead?
7. Will we ever see a stronger or actual developer response come to these boards at all?
8. Or is this already the case though it seems what appears here is often a copy and paste?

Myself, and I think the rest of the playing community will be most appreciative if more light was shed on the lines of communication between developers, employees and customers of blizzard entertainments World of Warcraft franchise.

Wryxian

#1 - Feb. 6, 2009, 3:34 p.m.

Thanks for re-posting. Just to note though, because these kind of questions get asked multiple times per week, we try to keep existing threads going. Some of your questions are answered here:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=7701050350

But I'll post a few answers here too.

Q u o t e:
1. Do the developers ever read these forums?

I can't answer for each developer, but in terms of "developers" then yes. I guess that's one of the benefits of this being an English speaking forum.

Q u o t e:
2. Do any of our comments and feedback on the many pages ever make it?

Since we forward feedback, questions, concerns and suggestions, that's a most definite yes.

Q u o t e:
3. What role do the CMs play in this?

We interact with the community, bring information to and from the developers, moderate the forums and many other tasks. No I'm not going to list everything, partially because even this reply is more than we usually say, but also because I have so many of those tasks waiting for my attention. ;-)

Q u o t e:
4. What is the difference between a CM and Dev?

A Community Manager does not develop the game. A developer does not "manage" the community. Normally. Ghostcrawler is a bit of an anomoly in that regard. ;-) But then I'm an anomoly in that I used to design and develop myself, before joining Blizzard.

Q u o t e:
5. Is there a process or feedback system that allows points made on these forums to reach the US?

Again, yes. We have multiple ways of delivering feedback, questions, concerns and suggestions to our offices in the US.

Q u o t e:
6. Or is it pure random chance of a developer stumbling onto the EU boards instead?

No.

Q u o t e:
7. Will we ever see a stronger or actual developer response come to these boards at all?

Who can say what the future will bring... Though it needs to be said that many of our responses here are directly sourced from the developers.

Q u o t e:
8. Or is this already the case though it seems what appears here is often a copy and paste?

Responded to so many times I can't think of any new ways to re-word it. Check the thread I linked to above. The basic gist is our company makes global announcements in multiple languages. It just so happens that means those here in the EU English forum share the same language as those in the North American forums.

[Edit: Formatting.]

Wryxian

#21 - Feb. 6, 2009, 7:02 p.m.

Q u o t e:
I've got a question, why do the boards have to be seperated into EU and US why can't there be a global forum? It would be easier to communicate with developers then and also would create a larger community.

Check the thread I linked to. ;-) As someone said, we've already responded to loads of these points.