When Does "Player Appreciation Month" Begin?
I apologize, I swear I am not trying to sound deliberately snarky, but is "Player Appreciation Month" still happening? Thus far, we have one single post, made on September 19th (three weeks ago), encouraging us to "check back often for the most recent news and updates on what's coming up!". The thread was then immediately closed, and not a word has been posted about it since.
Here is what that post announced:
A "fan art contest". There has been one single entry for every single game Gree has to offer.
Two different "design-your-own" contests. Three entries exist in the "Create-A-Boss" category.
Those two contests listed above and lack of response should be an indicator of how interested your customer base is in that particular idea. It's definitely a fun idea, don't get me wrong, but it's kind of a niche interest and doesn't fit in with "Player Appreciation".
A "player-moderator" program. While I agree these forums DESPERATELY need moderation, it needs to be done by GREE EMPLOYEES...not spokespeople, and definitely not by players. The single most common reason someone comes to these forums is to have a question answered. The second most often is to make a suggestion. You are making it even MORE impossible for either of these things to be done, by putting players in charge who have access to even less information than moderators. You're putting them in an awful position. Please, let's be honest for a moment. On the very, very rare occasion that we receive an answer to a question we ask here, the answer is ALWAYS, without fail, "Let me get in touch with <fill in the blank> and get back to you." There is absolutely never any line of communication between the people who have questions and the people who have answers. This is just putting ANOTHER layer of obstruction between these groups, and letting the "player-moderators" take the brunt of the anger. That's wrong. Can anyone explain why the game developers don't post in the forums, like in every other gaming company, ever? No matter how big or small the company, you see real people with real answers responding to their players. Except, for some reason, for here.
That leads to the next item on the list, the Q&A with the devs. Great idea! Honestly! I'm really looking forward to it! This is something that absolutely needs to happen, and often. A place just to clarify things, make announcements, gather data...awesome. But, um, is this not what was already announced months ago? That the devs would do a Q&A each month, alternating between games? I saw that happen one time, in Modern Warfare. It was posted on Gree's blog, and it was interesting to read. I don't remember seeing it posted in the forums. Then never, ever again. I hope this time this actually happens, but I have reason to doubt: you promised the same Ask The Devs event for EVERY GREE GAME this month! We can't get one answer in one game from the developers without going through layers of tickets and community management, but the devs are going to be able to do a Q&A with every single game this month? I genuinely hope so, that would be great. But it kind of begs the question of why they will never talk to us at any other time.
Finally, we are told of "Free Goodies" and "New Game Content". We're a week into October, and there hasn't been any. The quests for this cycle appear the same as always...a GLTQ, lockbox, epic boss, raid boss, and the trials goal from last month.
Where are the fun new things? The goodies? The fun atmosphere? It doesn't feel like anything at all is being done, and that's sad. I genuinely thought you'd do something fun each week like putting out a long-desired building type, or new troops, or weapons and armor quests that don't cost a thousand dollars, new methods of doing things, or new types of activities or quests, or...ANYthing, really.
Instead, we've gotten the usual. Ignored, told that someone needs to talk to someone else, etc. It would be a huge morale booster for us to be actually appreciated. It feels like no one put any thought into this at all, and it shows. Please, do SOMETHING. October only has so many days.
Originally Posted by Mattman@WLD
