Regaining customer confidence
Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2004 2:03 am
Obviously for any game there are some people who will be there till the servers close no matter what. This thread isn't for you.
For most I've seen this week's patch shatter confidence in Nevrax, and people are leaving the game at a rapid rate. MMO players aren't the forgiving sort that they were just 3 years ago either. Even if Ryzom is made into a perfect game, odds are most of those people who leave will be soured on their game experience and never give it a second try. Word of mouth will suffer. The game will suffer for those of us who are left (except for those who like empty servers).
From a customer service point of view this week's patch has been a disaster. I'm sure Nevrax need only ask any one of the companies providing customer service for them to have it verified.
The longer the game is in a state where people can't play the game and have fun, the more people who'll give up on the game entirely and not look back. For a really bad patch it is imperative to get it off of live servers, or at least the bad elements. A partial rollback if possible, a full rollback if necessary. Sure people might rant over a few hours lost gameplay, but more people will quietly leave if they find the game unplayable. People on test servers like to test, people on live server unrealistically expect everything to be perfect or else think it is.
People will have hard feelings, but those can be softened at least the first few times something like this happens with an apology. It costs the company nothing but its pride, and wins over the hearts of many, many customers. Pride is a very difficult thing. Its often though the stopping point between games that have gone completely under lately and bad games that have struggled and kept a float. Neocron with one bad patch they refused to apologize for lost 3/4 of their customers in one patch. They said the players deserved having levels erased and later corrected the mistake of "LOM pills". Still the players never came back, and I expect never will not even for Neocron 2. People feel obliged to forgive those who give a sincere (but you'll lose them again if it isn't sincere) apology.
Many have probably already left disappointed with this game. They'll remain disappointed until the game can deliver to their expectations. It isn't over yet if you stay afloat. AO came back from the grave by giving former players free play time after major fixes. i.e reactivating old accounts after a major pet pathing fix got me to come back for a while and resubscribe a bit.
Normally I wouldn't bother with a post like this. But I like Ryzom a lot and think it could revolutionize the industry, but only if it pulls through this. With more and more MMOs it becomes harder and harder to surive, especially with a bad reputation. Lets not just fix the code, lets fix the reputation again as well.
Thanks.
For most I've seen this week's patch shatter confidence in Nevrax, and people are leaving the game at a rapid rate. MMO players aren't the forgiving sort that they were just 3 years ago either. Even if Ryzom is made into a perfect game, odds are most of those people who leave will be soured on their game experience and never give it a second try. Word of mouth will suffer. The game will suffer for those of us who are left (except for those who like empty servers).
From a customer service point of view this week's patch has been a disaster. I'm sure Nevrax need only ask any one of the companies providing customer service for them to have it verified.
The longer the game is in a state where people can't play the game and have fun, the more people who'll give up on the game entirely and not look back. For a really bad patch it is imperative to get it off of live servers, or at least the bad elements. A partial rollback if possible, a full rollback if necessary. Sure people might rant over a few hours lost gameplay, but more people will quietly leave if they find the game unplayable. People on test servers like to test, people on live server unrealistically expect everything to be perfect or else think it is.
People will have hard feelings, but those can be softened at least the first few times something like this happens with an apology. It costs the company nothing but its pride, and wins over the hearts of many, many customers. Pride is a very difficult thing. Its often though the stopping point between games that have gone completely under lately and bad games that have struggled and kept a float. Neocron with one bad patch they refused to apologize for lost 3/4 of their customers in one patch. They said the players deserved having levels erased and later corrected the mistake of "LOM pills". Still the players never came back, and I expect never will not even for Neocron 2. People feel obliged to forgive those who give a sincere (but you'll lose them again if it isn't sincere) apology.
Many have probably already left disappointed with this game. They'll remain disappointed until the game can deliver to their expectations. It isn't over yet if you stay afloat. AO came back from the grave by giving former players free play time after major fixes. i.e reactivating old accounts after a major pet pathing fix got me to come back for a while and resubscribe a bit.
Normally I wouldn't bother with a post like this. But I like Ryzom a lot and think it could revolutionize the industry, but only if it pulls through this. With more and more MMOs it becomes harder and harder to surive, especially with a bad reputation. Lets not just fix the code, lets fix the reputation again as well.
Thanks.