Thanks for your input.
Since you mentioned me directly, I will gladly respond to the criticisms you have here.
Starting off, let's be fair and have the proper time frame: 6 months. I started in June, so that's half the year gone by. With that timeframe in mind, I will gladly look at this:
- Epic Tales- Yep. It's late. I was planning on doing this when we all came back from holiday, but did not tell anyone that and I take full responsibility for that. We had a skeleton crew during Christmas, and I chose not to continue the story. Again, full responsibility- my fault. I have crafted 16 stories that allow the community to choose their own path, complete with research and different pathways. Even though it is late, I still think it went quite well, and that people have enjoyed it thus far. (That last death WAS pretty epic.)
- Streaming- I admitted several times that I am not very good at this game. I don't have to be in order to have fun. Actually, that's one of the appeals of this game is that you can sit down and just... play.. We never made any allusions to developers answering questions, nor did we ever say that this was to be used for marketing. We wanted to come and hang out. Kind of like a giant mixer party with people you don't know. We wanted to get to know you. Apparently, the people watching like killing me..... a lot.... AoC went from having 0 streams (from Funcom, ever) to having 4 streams in 6 months. I'll stand by that. If you don't like what we are doing in the streams, that is perfectly your right. Keep in mind though that there are other people who are watching who DO want to see what we're doing.
- Player Spotlight/Posting fan made things- We started to do this, but we had a bit of a problem with our selections. We were aiming for one time every 2 months. I openly asked for suggestions, and got nothing new or anything we could re-post. Such is the way of things.
- Forum Redesign- What we want we don't always get, and that goes for us in CM as well. We didn't want the new stuff, but we understood why it was being done (security), and have tried to make it as bearable as we can. I am not going to rehash this again, other than to say we know how you feel about the forums as they stand.
- Snarky Comments- So, here's something for you: I am not in PR, Marketing, Social Media, or Customer Service. Yes, my job has every one of those components, but does not serve one as its master. I chose to reflect the tone given to me by posters. Usually, that is with a wink and a grin. Many people take it as being a player (which I am) and a human (guilty!), and some people get ... well... butthurt. If any of you are butthurt, I apologize. Sezmra and I talked about this and we decided early on that in this community, I could either JUST post patch notes, or I could be more interactive and try to relay the needs of the community to the developers. I chose the latter.
Speaking of-
You missed the new suggestions thread which has cataloged every suggestion in it and sent it to the devs. Not an easy task, as we literally copy and paste each into an excel doc.
You missed the NUMEROUS times that we in CM had the game devs come in and answer questions. Mostly, because you don't know we're doing it- which is as it should be.
You missed the failed attempt at answering the top 5 questions the community had early on in my tenure here.
Honestly, that's the point here. You choose to see what you want to see. I know I am doing my job well, and that I am doing the work of many people in any given day. What you perceive as patch notes is actually a multi faceted process that takes hours to complete. What you perceive as my not doing anything is my working behind the scenes to get answers to questions- sometimes to the detriment of my co-workers. (Marketing got a message from me daily for about a month.)
I may never make you happy, but that's not my job here. My job is to convey the wants of the players to the devs in a way that both can understand. I am the middleman.
What would you like for us to do in the new year? Ask- and I'll tell you whether or not it is doable.