Why there IS such a thing as class CMs...

#0 - June 1, 2007, 9:23 p.m.

"There are no such thing as class CMs"

We've all heard it. Blue has tried to feed us this garbage for a while and some warriors actually believe this nonsense. Well, take a look at the priest forums for a good example why that statement is a total farce:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=106616871&sid=1

Nethaera wrote:

Q u o t e:
As some of you know, I run a Discipline/Holy priest myself and this bug affects me the same as anyone else. I would love to have it fixed sooner as well, but realize that there are many other issues that are being worked on at the same time and being fixed concurrent to these bugs. In the meantime I'll make due.

This thread is good example of a CM who has her pulse on the issues that concern the class she plays. Sure she doesn't promise anything but the community is reassured that someone is listening. So what's special about this exchange?

Why does this matter? Because CMs who play the class know how to identify important issues in the community and insure that it gets the proper attention. This is something Tseric never understood and why we feel no sympathy when he finally flamed out , blaming the community for his own failure. Take a look at some of his older posts in the warrior forums. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING even resembles the kind of meaningful feedback that Nethaera gives to her fellow priests in terms of tone, empathy, and knowledge of underlying issues.

It's time for Blizz to suck it up and hire class CMs. Right now we have CMs who are too afraid of coming into class forums they can't handle or who are foolish enough to think they know everything about something they don't play. Is it any wonder why we've become so cynical or why CMs feel "degraded" until they finally quit? It's time to suck it up and give up this "no class CM" experiment.

Nethaera

#3 - June 1, 2007, 9:47 p.m.

It's easy to identify with the classes we play, that is true, but we also among us play more than at least one class at differing levels of experience. That doesn't negate our ability to understand the issues that affect other classes, however, and we do our best to keep as in touch as possible with the various concerns that the entirety of the community has. Some answers are just easier to come by than others. This doesn't mean we aren't actively looking at issues that affect all of the classes.

We don't have class specific CMs because it would actually hinder our ability to share information with a class we weren't seen as being "in touch" with should we have information to share. Our credibility as being capable messengers for that class is questioned when we are bringing valid and important information. If one of us isn't available to share the information, another can step in easily and relay the information. If we had a specific person dedicated only to that class and someone else stepped in, people would say they didn't believe it and wouldn't until "x" person said it. This is not how we want to relay information. We are all equally given the ability to relay information to anyone as it's made available to us and that's an important part of our jobs.

Many perceptions of us not understanding the "plight" of a class come from when we have to say "no" or have an answer for people that isn't particularly popular.

Yes, sometimes we share what we play on occassion when relaying information for the sake of letting people know we're right there with them playing and seeing the issues, but we don't want that to pigeon-hole us in the eyes of the community to only being able to communicate on those particular issues.

While we appreciate your feedback on this, the best possible venue to send it in is via the wowcmfeedback@blizzard.com email.

We all have various tasks in our day that we take care of and as many of you have heard us say before, the forums are just a part of that. We will continue to do as much as we can to keep the flow of information going to everyone when we have it to share. There are a lot of posts on a daily basis and as much as we'd like to get to them all, we can't. It doesn't stop us from trying though. :)

Hopefully this gives you some better insight into why we do what we do and say there are no class CMs.

Nethaera

#6 - June 1, 2007, 9:50 p.m.

Q u o t e:
*sends an email saying he is offended when the candle called him a stalker*

:( But I meant it in a good way!

Nethaera

#53 - June 1, 2007, 11:10 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Now, now Neth. Let's not delete my posts.

You know yours was filled with theorycrafting.

Actually, you used a word that was filtered by the forum that you shouldn't have been using. (You know the one.) So it was removed. You're a bit more eloquent in this post, but I still only give it about a 3. ;)