EA community managers problem?
Recently this was tweeted by community manager: If they don't consider 400k member strong r/battlefield community as part of their feedback loop and they delete/ban all constructive criticism th...
Forum Discussion
Straatford87
DICE Team
DICE Team
@yodddd wrote:
If they don't consider 400k member strong r/battlefield community as part of their feedback loop and they delete/ban all constructive criticism threads in this forums... what the are they doing? Is their job to help those few achievement hunters left playing the game? Do we need a new community managers/admins?
We read your comments and feedback across various channels. Reddit included. But we might not (always) interact on a specific channel where we read feedback. That doesn't mean those voices aren't heard. I can confirm Reddit definitely takes part in our feedback loop.
@dfk_7677 wrote:
It would be nice if we were informed about the role of the CMs. Is it only to post the announcements? Have they stopped answering to community members altogether? Is it useless to mention them so they answer questions?
For clarity: @Straatford87 @PartWelsh
A lot of what a Community Manager does is internal where we champion your cause and act as your voice. That means you don't get to see it, but we're doing that every day. Yes, we also push out announcements like Updates Notes, blogs and keep you updated on game status via @BFComms on Twitter.
The other part is speaking with the community to answer outstanding questions, or to collect feedback or report issues. We've mostly done so via Twitter, but also sometimes on Reddit or these forums.
What we cannot do is speak openly for the company without approval. Especially related to topics such as future content. We also aren't the group that makes design decisions, though we can help recommend direction based on player feedback. In short, even if there's a lot of things we want to talk to you about, sometimes we can't. With that said, I definitely wish to talk to you more and I'm sorry if you feel we haven't talked enough. We do care.
@Straatford87 wrote:We read your comments and feedback across various channels. Reddit included. But we might not (always) interact on a specific channel where we read feedback. That doesn't mean those voices aren't heard. I can confirm Reddit definitely takes part in our feedback loop....
What we cannot do is speak openly for the company without approval. Especially related to topics such as future content. We also aren't the group that makes design decisions, though we can help recommend direction based on player feedback. In short, even if there's a lot of things we want to talk to you about, sometimes we can't. With that said, I definitely wish to talk to you more and I'm sorry if you feel we haven't talked enough. We do care.
Good to hear that you seem to be listening. But TBH I don't think you understand what we expect of the LOOP part of the 'feedback loop' that was promised. Silently reading what we wrote without communicating back is definitely NO loop!
I also appreciate your words: "With that said, I definitely wish to talk to you more and I'm sorry if you feel we haven't talked enough. We do care." if they were true. Maybe they are -- but as things stand, all communication so far has been a one-way-street.
I fully appreciate and partly understand that you are not allowed to talk about certain aspects, especially regarding content to expect in the next update(s). But there are certain ways of listening. You do the silent version that leaves the other side (the community) in the dark on what you have gathered and what has been passed on.
In my personal opinion (and maybe someone will openly agree that this is the case) it is NOT the right approach. What you definitely CAN DO, no MUST DO -- if you take the community part of your job seriously -- is to practice ACTIVE LISTENING. If you are not aware what this entails, then you may google it, but as a short summary:
- Paying attention
- Withholding judgment
- Reflecting
- Clarifying
- Summarizing
- Sharing
You MIGHT be doing 1) as you said and with your silence also 2). About 3) we cannot say much other than we hope for the best.
But where you definitely fall short is the important part -- as far as the community is concerned -- when you stop at 3) and omit all of the important last 3 parts of active listening.
We understand/accept that you cannot tell us what the next update(s) will bring, but were you really listening, then you could at least provide the summary of what you have gathered and what you are passing on to EA/Dice.Summarize what the most important issues are as far as the community is concerned, summarize what you report back to the team.
That -- together with the 'We are sorry part' that we need to hear from EA/Dice and not from a CM -- would go a long way.
But as long as there is not even the communicating back part of the things you learnt from the forums/reddit/twitter and tell us what you communicate back (which is no secret, given that ALL of this should come from certain parts of the community), then you fail at least half of what your job is about.
