MVP program

Essentially you get to become a MVP on the board if you sheepidly follow blizzs word as if mana from heaven and dont ask questions about the all powerful Blizzard of Oz.

The suck up gets the rewards while those who actually suggest ways to improve a game instead of saying its all great(albeit not in the best possibly way)

What gives you this impression? I'd honestly like to know if there's a way we can better combat this, because everything we've ever said since the program was founded is to the contrary.

And, while I'm sure you don't follow everything everyone with green or blue text says or does, I've had plenty of situations in the last four years I've been a community manager where MVPs have questioned, if not openly disagreed with, my statements. Several of these players are still MVPs and we share a great deal of mutual respect for each other.

They might even come in here to tell you that (once I crack the whip and call the dogs).

I like how this thread got derailed from being negative to becoming a lovely biography about each of our greenys.

Nice unintentional derail Zarhym!

Who said it was unintentional? I do this for a living, dwarf dude. :D

One piece of evidence towards the OP's argument is that I've never seen a green start a thread that is critical of the game or its developers. Having greens occasionally disagree with a blue in a thread is somewhat nice, but it hardly matters.

It would be be great to see MVPs that care to lay out ways in which the game has failed and could be improved instead of simply staying quiet until a blue happens to post in a thread.

You sadden me, Elidra.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3657280029
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3967947868 (this one even made it's own article in WoWInsider!)
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3278809976 (I made this one before I got MVP.)

If that's not enough, Eldacar is a PVP god with a guide, and Lissanna has been talking about druids for FOREVER.
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Healing Forum MVP

Practical beat me to finding the evidence. ;)

02/09/2012 05:30 PMPosted by Thunderwulf

What gives you this impression? I'd honestly like to know if there's a way we can better combat this, because everything we've ever said since the program was founded is to the contrary.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/4416712/The_Most_Valued_Forum_Posters-2_9_2012#blog

They also aren’t expected to give up their posting personas in order to join.

Really?

Ask me one time to tell you why I gave mine up.

The MVP program has grown and changed a lot since you were a part of it. Sure, there are times where I'll reach out to an MVP privately if they seem to be overly bitter or angry about something. But I don't like the concept of employees trying to micromanage the tone and language of MVPs on a regular basis. The way you naturally post on the forums over a period of time either makes you a good fit for MVP, or it doesn't.

02/09/2012 05:31 PMPosted by Fic

How many MVPs are there? Like 300 of them in this thread.

There are about 30 North American MVPs total. I WANT MORE.

But doesn't the fact that every conversation that starts about the MVPs or even involves the MVPs, turns into a discussion about the merits of the MVP program suggest that MAYBE it's counterproductive?

It gives some posters (with or without green text) the idea that they are special.

It makes some previously prolific posters post less, making their MVP status ironic.

I would prefer to see the MVP program completely done away with. I see no reason why the people who were helpful can't continue to be helpful without green text and a shiny title under their name.

I wouldn't dare suggest most threads that receive MVP responses devolve into discussions about the merits of the program, much less every thread.

What I do see quite often, however, are players who won't believe anything until they hear it "from Blizzard's mouth." The MVP program addresses this in a way. It gives us a means of officially recognizing helpful posters, which in turn tend to get more recognition from skeptical players.

It's almost as though we've given a stamp of approval on a player's posts for all to see. Based on my history with the program and as a community manager, I'm confident in stating it's been very successful. This is why we want it to grow as our websites and game platforms become increasingly social and community-driven.

02/09/2012 06:55 PMPosted by Hecatomb

Those ties have proven to be especially beneficial to MVPs. The personalized feedback and discussion is a great way for MVPs to try to best represent the community. MVPs on class- and role-specific forums are more likely to try to pull some strings than, say, support forum MVPs are, although everyone is welcome to speak their mind.

So an MVP with 2k Achievement points is listened to more about classes and roles than someone who's been playing since Vanilla/BC but doesn't have green text?

That doesn't seem right.

No. I don't care how many achievement points an MVP has. I don't care if they just started playing WoW during Cataclysm. I care about getting reasonable, well-written feedback that I can turn into a question for an upcoming developer meeting. I care about MVPs pointing out topics I may not be aware of when I first get here in the morning that might garner a lot of attention.

In all the time I've overseen the MVP program, I can't think of a single email I've received that was specifically about the performance of a single class -- a call for buffs or nerfs. The reason is because MVPs know those types of issues should be discussed on the forums.

Their direct line of contact with us is primarily for emergency issues, points of clarification, etc. They're not given greater power to shape gameplay than the average player, though they have the potential to have a bigger influence on the community. That's the point.

What does that have to do with you being able to help people with or without green text.
Explain to me what would happen to the level of advice/posting you do if your green text went away.

the green just makes them easier to notice. i might just start scrolling through threads instead of reading every single post. most of it is useless information anyhow. with the green text there comes a feeling of this person "should" have some knowledge. like i know if i see zeherah or bullet posting that is an indication of good info for hunters.

in other words. the green text isn't IMPORTANT, but it does help people find what should be the useful info.

I like this. On a basic but fundamental level, this is why MVPs exist.

What about if there is a legitimate complaint in that regard that an MVP feels should be brought to the devs' attention? Obviously making a thread about it (if there isn't already a good one) is mandatory, but would it be out of line to then bring that thread to your attention to ensure that the discussion that occurs therein is noticed by the proper people?

No, it's not out of line, but then there's no guarantee we'd react to their thread any differently than we would any other thread on the forums.

As was mentioned in this thread, there are no official roles for each MVP. So while Lissanna was chosen for being awesome and helpful within the druid community, she's not the druid representative, nor is she expected to report to us the climate within that community. She was chosen to keep doing what she's been doing and contact us if she has any questions/concerns about the community and/or her role in it. She was chosen to show other players Blizzard believes what she has to say on the forums is, more often than not, worth their while to read.

02/09/2012 07:20 PMPosted by Hecatomb

But the reality is that it's not always the case. And more than not, it's Anonymous Poster #52 that's giving the helpful advice while the MVP is simply copypastaing about how it's in the wrong forum.

Well, we need to sign Anonymous Post #52 up then! We don't have a hard limit on how many MVPs we want. We want to recognize as many people as possible who are helpful, 'cause there are a lot of you out there. It's just a matter of the logistics of pulling more people into the program. That takes a fair amount of time and research on our end.

02/09/2012 07:20 PMPosted by Hecatomb

As for you last response, I also understand that it makes your job easier...but wouldn't be even easier to simply hire a nighttime mod to alert you to emergencies that arise on the forums and to compile issues instead of farming it to players?

I didn't really mean it like that. We have all kinds of internal alert structures. I was referring to more community-oriented, subjective issues where discussion between the community team and MVPs can be very useful. They might bring to our attention an article making its rounds on the Internet that has a lot of misinformation in it. Via email we can be a little more candid with them so they know how to approach discussions of the subject on the forums, if at all.

There are times where the forums are dominated by a single topic and we really need to step back, speak with other teams at Blizzard, and decide how to approach the topic. It's during times like that where having all CMs looped into a distribution list which includes all MVPs can be extremely helpful.

This stuff is all very nitty gritty and difficult to explain, so I'd prefer to leave it at that. I back what the other MVPs in this thread have said though about the benefits of this program existing. They get to see first-hand why it's useful to have a collection of friendly, constructive forum regulars in contact with the community team and be given additional recognition on the forums.