Idiots with keyboards, aka. "How to screw up a client relationship"

[Arafails]

Okay, first up, I'm not a representative of NGD, I'm sure you all know that, but I better start with that disclaimer. Last time I did anything official on behalf of an online game service entity was in 1997, when I did a (very) brief stint as a moderator for a Subspace server.

However, I've been around the Web for a while, and I've worked on a help desk (for a company that really didn't care about its customers, even).

Some observations.

Yelling at the service provider does not work unless you, individually, control their main source of income. In fact, what this is most likely to do is alienate you from them. They'll feel less inclined to help you if you don't treat them with respect. This is, naturally, a two way path, but in an n:1 relationship like this the :1 has the initiative to hold onto a successful relationship.

Saying how you'll bypass the system when they eventually use their moderation controls will not win you any points. Regardless of whether you change IPs, create new accounts, move to Iceland, or whatever, people can still tell you're you, and will treat you with disdain anyway. Especially as your accusative and disrespectful language tends to carry across.

The people on the other end are people, not faceless machines. In all honesty, they care. Really they do. If the developers of Regnum Online wanted to make a scheme to fleece you of all your money they'dve started a casino. Instead they made a fantasy game. As such, their vision is more about people having fun.
There's a lot of people involved now. Clients, sponsors, random people who see an email address on the internet and feel the need to tell it about their cat. Spammers. More spammers. A few more spammers. A lot more spammers. You would not believe how many man·hours it takes just to triage a couple of public inboxes to find out what needs to be responded to. Then you have to verify, investigate, see your psychiatrist, investigate something else, work out if a couple of dozen emails are related, fix a server crash, try and determine where you left off before, see your psychiatrist again, go to the emergency room because while you were carrying your coffee back across to road you were thinking about the customer's problems too hard and got hit by a busload of tourists.... It takes time. Someone saying publically on the internet that you're doing it wrong doesn't help, especially when they don't even know the first part of how complex what you're doing is.

So, lay off, please. Give them a chance to work their magic. If you complain once, they'll see it. If you complain twice, they'll sigh. If you complain a dozen times, they'll be receiving medication for having a predisposition to wrapping telephone cords around the neck of anyone who asks them a question.

[Arafails]

I should add on to the end of this, because it was supposed to be part of the original post, that ultimately you should be aiming for a mutually beneficial relationship with the service provider. Every time you make disparaging comments because something doesn't go exactly how you wanted it, you're adding to a needless "Us vs Them" chasm.

[surak]

:ohill:

It's nice to see somebody actually stopping to think how are things in the other side. A bunch of users just would say 'I don't f*cking care, fix my problem before everything else!!', I hope reading this help to open their minds :D

[niclam]

Thank you for this, we couldn´t have said it better ourselves.

I want to highlight the part where this is a mutually beneficial relationship and that respect should be the norm, not the exception. And yes, it works both ways. On our side, there is no way but up in terms of giving better and better customer service (for those currently paying as well as anyone who is not but its a potential one), honestly we are not happy with our current response times but we are silently doing something about it, it will take time and possibly new people and tools, but it will get better.

Regards,

[Arafails]

So, about that Xim reward? xD Of course I'm joking.

Although it doesn't help your image any to respond to posts such as these with what could be misconstrued as eagerness :tsk_tsk:

[niclam]

After 12+ hours of work, in the midst of a major release in Regnum Online, I think we are entitled to respond (or not) any post, sitting on our couches while we watch the Big Bang Theory :).

You said it yourself, we are humans, not faceless machines...

(I think?)

Regards,

[VandaMan]

Too many words, not reading.

[Heru]

i respect a lot NGD's works as a 3D animation student maybe its a kind of model for me :P

[Drokuz]

I agree, posting respectfully and politely is necessary to get an answer. If I read in the real chat "Can anyone tell me where is Samos?" I try to help him, but if I read instead "WHRE IS SAMOSSS????", I usually ignore it. It's more enjoyable to help a player that appreciates what is done for him. The same goes for conjurers, aren't you more inclined to heal those who thanked you at least once?. Or at least those who don't tend to yell "LIFFEEEEEEE", knowing that conjurers are working hard to heal everybody.

It must be a hard work to read all the threads, certainly. Because one is made every minute, and some even have more than a thousand replies (I don't know how they manage to read so many pages :huh:)

[SlackerLinux2]

what ara said is true but....

4 months to get a reply to fix a database error with a character is way too long
more then 2 weeks till silent thoughts got a reply in the thread/ingame
etc...etc....

2 weeks imho should be the maximum time anything takes and you should prob aim to get most issues sorted(or atleast responded to) within 2-3 days of the user emailing

the user should be patient but you cant expect them to wait months and still not get any reply you guys do have to improve customer service heaps

[JzJ75]

Great Post... and being in the I.T. industry this is completely true.

I understand it takes time to "fix" issues.. there is just not enough time in the day to get it all done. And it's even worse if you have just a small work force managing a very large project. I know, I get over 50+ emails a day that I need to respond to.. on top of every thing else I have to do. It does not sound like much but, when you add in all the customer computers I have to fix, the graphic work I do for the company , and the coding I do also. the day just slips away. so I completely understand, long response times to issues.

I would like to thank NGD for such a great game. (love the new models)

[Mattdoesrock]

while we watch the Big Bang Theory :).

:tsk_tsk:







:sifflote:

[Angel_de_Combate]

what ara said is true but....

4 months to get a reply to fix a database error with a character is way too long
more then 2 weeks till silent thoughts got a reply in the thread/ingame
etc...etc....

2 weeks imho should be the maximum time anything takes and you should prob aim to get most issues sorted(or atleast responded to) within 2-3 days of the user emailing

the user should be patient but you cant expect them to wait months and still not get any reply you guys do have to improve customer service heaps


Sorry but i agree +1

[Linuxmage]

Very well written, and completely true.

To linuxslacker:

Ok, its clear you are used to large software development houses, but NGD is a very small team of people in comparison to others.

The reason that emails dont get read, and responded to often is that there is no dedicated customer service. At all.

I'm not sure of exact numbers working on this project, but I believe it to be less than 20 people in total. All of these people are developers, full time ones, and their days are taken up by, would you believe it, developing the software.

The customer service email box fills up, and, should one of the community managers find the time, then they will look through it, and respond to the most urgent of these.

However, this task is a last priority in their day, as most of it is taken up by just trying to get the current release working efficiently and working on the next item in the line, which is currently the new character models.

Have you any idea just how long it takes to do animation? One character model can take weeks of work, just to get the basics in. Then, you have to add in the armour, all combinations of it.

I know a lot of developers who have so much to do, that they take their work home with them, and, maybe, in the evenings, get around to some customer support work. They aren't paid for this.

Most other large software houses have dedicated customer support, and employ entire teams of people just to deal with players of their MMO games.

NGD does not do this at all. This is why the game is Free-to-play. They cannot afford to employ people just to answer customer queries and solve player problems.

[Mr_Egg]

The same goes for conjurers, aren't you more inclined to heal those who thanked you at least once?. Or at least those who don't tend to yell "LIFFEEEEEEE", knowing that conjurers are working hard to heal everybody.Ungrateful people like that are one of the main reasons I don't play my conjurer as much recently. Some people are nice, and when I res them it's "Thanks Egg! <3" (lol), and some people are more like "Why the $%@# didn't you res me earlier?"... and yes, I'm now much more inclined to res the people who are nice first, just because that's the way it is. I even removed all the points from synergy bond in my setup because the people that say "mana" 32 times filling up my chat tab never ever thank me for it, and because they disappear behind a door as soon as it's been given, I can't see it being any use anyway.

The same goes for any relationship where someone's providing some service, be it heals, or providing the game itself, which is (I think) the point of this thread. And yes, NGD workers are only human because they can only be human, so they need to be respected. And hey, treat someone with respect and they might just show you some respect in turn. Make demands of them, repeatedly, and they'll think you're an idiot and ignore you.

But yeah, feels like the right time to say thanks NGD for the fun game, I know there are issues, but I'm sure they'll be fixed as soon as you find a solution. :D

[NetBlaster]

1 word describes all of this: karma

give respect and you shall recieve :D

[mr_scsi]

Very well written, and completely true.

Most other large software houses have dedicated customer support, and employ entire teams of people just to deal with players of their MMO games.

NGD does not do this at all. This is why the game is Free-to-play. They cannot afford to employ people just to answer customer queries and solve player problems.

This kind of touches on an addition I was going to add to make to Ara's original monologue.

Most software projects, be they a large development house or a small mom&pop shop, are run on a strict shoestring budget with crazy justification requirements for any over runs or additions (read additional staff).

I can't imagine how NGD is handling this on a free to play basis. That has to make the budgeting process that much more difficult.

To put it in perspective, imagine being bummed because you don't have beer money for the rest of this month when..... bam!!! all of a sudden the car won't start..... and its laundry day but the washer is on the fritz......why'd I get outta bed this morning?

[UmarilsStillHere]

give respect and you shall recieve :D

Unless the forum system botches it ^^ My last 15+ 'Greens' were grey <:[

[Adrian]

Two words: Thank you!

[Leukothea]

I'm so agree. Even that i don't like to say this i will say it anyway: I've saw how this NGD team works, and they're under lots of pressure, and us as a costumers we're just complaint about every little detail and we should understand that this things takes time.

I fully support NGD and I really hope that they work would have lots of rewards (i will bring you pisco if you want guys xD)

[WhateverUSMC]

Well written.

I feel I should point out that a lot of these repeated complaints are coming from players who really want RO to succeed. It may seem like mindless yammering, but a great deal of it is coming from people who truly want the best for this game, and are getting frustrated by the lack of direction and/or communication.

(Side note; The only time we really hear from anyone about anything is either a hand job post like this, or when someone goes high and to the right on the forums, and a close is required. I think we'd just like some middle ground.)

At times, it kind of feels like the veteran players are the only ones who see what a great thing has been started here, and how awesome it could be with a little bit of a push; not a lot, just a little.

I'm not posting this to be difficult, and I'm not writing this to be a nay-sayer; there is a very small staff involved, and there has to be a certain amount of First Things First about it. I get that.

However, there are 40-50 players I play alongside in this game, and not just in my own realm; and I don't know a single one of us that wouldn't jump at the chance to volunteer our time to help in any way needed. And those are just the ones I know about.

In short; who is failing who? It's a little of both, I think.

[Hamster_of_sorrow]

i am guilty of being a little moody when it comes to something i think NGD needs to fix. but i try to be reasonable (i guess im not to great at that). i know NGD has a small dev team and not a huge amount of cash. i DO, however, think that NGD could have taken a different path on things that need to be changed/implemented, but the path they HAVE taken could been FAR worse.

i have to complement on how understanding and professional NGD has been about people that constantly bitch about things they want fixed. i tend to have a "short fuse" and i would've taken something too far by now. I would've swung the banhammer around like..... something you swing around alot.

on a final note, NGD has done an amazing job for the small development team that they have. there might be a few things they have done that i dont agree with, but i know they try their best and mean well. I have tried to find another game that is similar to regnum, and i cant, free-to-play or not, linux native or not, regnum is a one-of-a-kind game and, as i previously stated, could be FAR worse than it is now.

[Vythica]

How come Van gets all the negative karma? Not fair. :D

To be on topic, the relationship is improving between the customers and the providers. Finally. Even if it didn't, we'd keep plugging away, we always have.

In the end, Regnum is all of us, not just NGD, not just the players. We're one community in a huge sea of gaming communities, and I'd like to think we're special. We're a huge dysfunctional family.

Also I demand my 28 negative karmas. :D

[Altara]

In the end, Regnum is all of us, not just NGD, not just the players. We're one community in a huge sea of gaming communities, and I'd like to think we're special. We're a huge dysfunctional family.



Rofl +1
Ive always stayed with Regnum, or came back too, because of the great community. To me it's almost as if we live in the same place.
But I have noticed most are hard on NDG, people make mistakes but at leaset NDG tries for us, it could be a game like Allods where they don't listen to the players at all.
Even with this new update, there has been complaint after complaint. Even though they look beautiful.
Though I think in all people should lighten up

[VandaMan]

This thread is stupid.

[w_larsen]

well, i wanted to write many, many bad words, but i will skip that. tho i can't help to remind that relationship is two sided, and kicking potential customer in face, just because it hasn't payed yet, then declining to reconsider after paying customers has implored to reconsider choice that is going to hurt sales, seems awkward for me. my boss once noted: "it takes months to get new customer and just five minutes to lose it."

then again i see one person, who totally and wholly deserves my respect. dky, you are the man. and i know everyone understands why.

[backe]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to WhateverUSMC again.

I agree wholeheartedly, 1000%.

IIRC, my first post in the forum was the idea of creating a "Help" character that was community operated to assist new (English-speaking) players with finding quests and NPCS, as well as info general game function. For the most part, the "community driven" aspect of Regnum was what initially drew me to the game.

The problem I have is the "community driven" ideology of Regnum served NGD up to a point in which REAL fiscal issues began to arise. But again, I have no real problems with this. A company produces a product and if there is a market for it, sell it!

The real problem with the current situation is that we are supposedly dealing with the developers of the game (which would go hand in hand with the "community-driven" ideal which NGD initially purposed), when in reality, we are dealing with a company. This is where the real dichotomy begins. Players complain to NGD , and the developers shout back "we don't have the manpower".

While I agree that NGD may be understaffed, who is really to blame? The company that produces to product, or the consumer? Would you go back to a restaurant when the the owner himself claims "I can't hire more staff, so deal with it"?

[Ertial]

what ara said is true but....

4 months to get a reply to fix a database error with a character is way too long
more then 2 weeks till silent thoughts got a reply in the thread/ingame
etc...etc....

2 weeks imho should be the maximum time anything takes and you should prob aim to get most issues sorted(or atleast responded to) within 2-3 days of the user emailing

the user should be patient but you cant expect them to wait months and still not get any reply you guys do have to improve customer service heaps
This reminds me of a wonderful quote: "Punctuation is a way of being polite to your readers."