Blues Biting Back

[Henkdejager]

Bout time, The Casuals thought they ran the show & the forums. Blizzard should of done this at the beginning of Cata instead of the beginning MoP.

sorry what ? casuals ? sorry i never QQed on the offical blizz forums , nor i never will. i am a casual and i like the way wow is going now. so how about u look at the forums , blue post respowns and go to the guy with 9 lvl 90s , is that "casual" ?

[Kangodo]

The sticking point isn't how the community acts towards Blizzard. The sticking point is the rampant unprofessionalism in the reactions of Blizzard CMs to the community. Honestly if they can't post anything but a smart-ass reply, they should stop posting. They've a job to do, and acting unprofessional diminishes their ability to perform that job.

And that's it. Ten times out of ten, no less.

Dear Mr. Internet-user-#31242453,

It's not up to you to decide what is professional and what isn't.
Blizzard decides what the job of a CM is and they are still paying that CM his paycheck, so he is doing his job.

[Griffter]

I like that the CMs are given the freedom to reply candidly and sometimes even bluntly. As long as it doesn't become too unprofessional, I don't see a problem with it.

[xanzul]

I would tend to agree. If they are acting as representatives of a company I would expect some level of professionalism. That doesn't mean they should take it dry but I think they're definitely too quick to lash out with sarcasm and belittlement.

Being blunt and direct to the point isn't belittlement.

---------- Post added 2012-11-15 at 01:10 PM ----------

they answer those because they're easy. they're meaningless. they know they have fanbois and they thrive on that. blizz is fucking smart. but they'll answer pointless shit, talk about how active they are and avoid the big stuff that matters.

think the RID capped 2x before we got a reply from them on that adn that's only after some of their employees personal info was pasted online for all to see and they started receiving death threats

all of a sudden they weren't so pro-rid

Of course they answer easy questions. You do realize they can only say what they are told to say right? Community managers are NOT developers. If developers haven't responded to player concerns there is NOTHING for community managers to say on those issues other than what has been said already and again it DOES NOT need to be repeated 500000 times in every thread. If you people can't work out how to use a blue tracker then I don't think Blizzard should be terribly concerned about that kind of customer.

[Saffa]

While it is new, refreshing and soap opera material when devs "biting back" at forum QQ, I still somehow have the feeling they are disrespecting the customer.

I wonder about something: why is it acceptable for us that a customer should complain about a defective car, bad hotel conditions, a rude waiter, lousy internet connections to the ISP, but when it comes to video games, the general reaction is to tell the complainer to STFU and to mock him?
Interesting.

Because they are not dealing on the whole with mature reasoning minds they are dealing with screaming kiddies who have never been told 'NO' by their parents and think the world revolves around them. And after explaining something politely 5 or 6 times and having the same kiddies taking 7 words out of context and quoting them back at the blues I am surprised they didn't simply arrange mass forum bans. And you will find IRL if someone's complaints are so heated and abusive you cannot talk to them because of their screaming at you, if it is over the phone they may be disconnected and if they are in front of you and screaming and spitting and threatening you, you call the police

[xanzul]

The problem is, a lot of the time the blues skip over very good posts in favour of addressing idiots. In my case I refuse to post there anymore because I'll spend a good 20 minutes or so putting together my thoughts and checking facts, only to have some retard typing in caps something like "REMOVE LFR" post after me and get quoted by a blue who hashes out a copy-pasted response.

That's why the forums are such a pit now; people like me are fucked off with the blues and BOTH sides of the flamers - the guys rimming Blizzard and trashing any criticism AND the idiots who post the same bullshit all day, every day.

So no, I don't care if they "bite back". Infact all they're doing is confirming to me that posting is a waste of time when the people I'm trying to get feedback to are more interested in arguing with bellends and giving their "opinions".

And again community managers exist to collect and direct topics in a way to get the feedback developers need. Just because they don't respond to a certain point doesn't mean it doesn't get noticed and most certainly doesn't mean the developers aren't told about it. When community managers address idiots they do so to debunk some misconceptions or try to find a way to get the topic back on track. As for the people "trashing criticism" I hope you are aware forums exist for discussion including dissenting opinion. If you want your hand held and be pandered to and treated like a paragon of society simply because you post something then get a personal blog. Otherwise suck it up.

---------- Post added 2012-11-15 at 01:17 PM ----------

We don't have to, our CS is trained extremely well and never let complaints escalate to the point we have to spend millions to fix said issues. Most of our CS staff can fix the problems on the spot and anything they can't gets sent to head office immediately and our team deal with it, if it's not repairable immediately the customer is alerted to this fact and communication is constantly updated.

It's all in how you value your customers, company I work for Customer is very valued and the pure profits each year shows it.

Not every complaint is valid and any company following the antiquated notion of the "customer is always right" is bound to be losing significant profits as a result.

[markdall]

Anybody else find it refreshing and humorous that the devs are biting back at the QQ? Especially as an EU player where we simply get robotic devs on our WoW forums.

No. Most of the blue responses I see just piss me off for one reason or another. I try not to read them anymore.

[xanzul]

The sticking point isn't how the community acts towards Blizzard. The sticking point is the rampant unprofessionalism in the reactions of Blizzard CMs to the community. Honestly if they can't post anything but a smart-ass reply, they should stop posting. They've a job to do, and acting unprofessional diminishes their ability to perform that job.

And that's it. Ten times out of ten, no less.

Garbage in garbage out. If players want Blizzard to respond to constructive feedback it might help if it actually existed. A majority of the crap on the forums is nothing remotely constructive. Also again community managers don't do customer service so they are not acting unprofessional. If anything part of their job is responding to players in kind because clearly that is the only way to get through their thick skulls.

---------- Post added 2012-11-15 at 01:26 PM ----------

Honestly, as much shit as they probably have to read on a daily basis, and disregarding whether I agree with different QQ rants or not... I am disappointed when the "blues" get disrespectful and bring themselves down to that level.

I manage a company's CS department, and I've seen the public say some of the worst things imaginable to very young employees, and even make threats. The QQ is laughable compared to some of the things I've had to intervene in irl.
And, at the threat of being instantly fired from my job, I have to treat EVERYONE respectfully, and make them feel like I agree with their concerns, and just take all the shit that's thrown at me.
And I've had to fire kids from their first job, single moms, veterans, and everyone else trying to make a living for even the slightest disrespectful remarks - even to hostile drunks who cuss out and insult people way past acceptable levels.

I think the least Blizz's employees could do would be to just give the facts, and ignore the QQ.

The problem is the QQ gets in the way of the facts. It needs to be addressed in order to get things back on track. A good example is the constant parotting of the "cross realm zones don't fix low pop realms" nonsense. Yes cross realm zones have significant issues and people have every right to complain but those with valid complaints are being drowned out by idiots who refuse to accept the intent of the feature and harp on endlessly about things having nothing to do with it.

[Ausr]

I enjoy it when they treat whining children like actual whining children, who pick and choose which part of a blue response they want to respond to or take it entirely out of context.

[LuminousAether]

It rarely goes both ways. If you are one of the people to witness the rare occasion of a customer being told to STFU from a company CSR, then you also witnessed the more common occasion of someone about to be fired.

Not true. The customer is always right has been rejected quite soundly from most reasonable businesses. If a customer is a nuisance, they will be ejected from the premises, sometimes forcefully. It is not uncommon at all to see someone get sarcastically mocked and then removed from a business, without any of that business's employees getting fired.

[Destil]

I'm happy they are.

The funny thing is when they do because the community are being whiny and not giving any actual constructive criticism, they whine more because they were yelled at.

It's like a kid misbehaving, their parents yell at them, and they do it mroe.

[Savanni]

Since I hate the QQers, I love the fact that Blizzard is biting them back, let them QQ more and cut themselves.

The player base fucking deserved that.

This x1000. Just because people are customers doesn't make them right 100% of the time. Nor does it give people the right to QQ and bitch to the point where it flat out turns extremely disrespectful. Sure, Blizz has customer service to carry out, but not when people go over the line in being total dickheads.

[Gandrake]

Not really.

They look like regular agitated people who are paying too much attention to window lickers.

[LuminousAether]

Not really.

They look like regular agitated people who are paying too much attention to window lickers.

You ever been to reddit.com? The windowlickers are the general population now. The internet has continually made people more and more stupid.

[MoanaLisa]

I'd rather the CM's be interesting rather than boring. So personally, I think it's all good.

It's fairly laughable when someone with a post history of being rough on other people becomes all-of-a-sudden thin-skinned when confronted with something. Frankly, they need to do a lot more of it.

[xanzul]

No. Most of the blue responses I see just piss me off for one reason or another. I try not to read them anymore.

Which makes me think you are part of the screaming masses destroying their forums.

---------- Post added 2012-11-15 at 02:59 PM ----------

Not true. The customer is always right has been rejected quite soundly from most reasonable businesses. If a customer is a nuisance, they will be ejected from the premises, sometimes forcefully. It is not uncommon at all to see someone get sarcastically mocked and then removed from a business, without any of that business's employees getting fired.

Exactly this. I have worked in retail for the past decade and it is very common to see customers kicked out of the store for treating employees and other customers like crap. If they come back and do it again they are banned from the premises and told if they come back they WILL be charged with trespassing. Those kinds of people are what cost companies money and do nothing of value for them.

[notdryad]

Blues "biting back" would be better if Tseric were around.

[Osmeric]

And I honestly believe that a large portion of the playerbase is just burnt out. And when you're burnt out you complain...ALOT!

The thing is... Blizzard sure chose a weird way to design an expansion if so many of its customers were burned out.

[OJntoast]

People need to realize that Blues are Community Managers, they are not customer service representatives. Their conduct as of late if they were Customer Service would call for immediate removal. But they are not. They are community managers, they need to be down to earth, they need to operate in a way that puts them on our level, not above.

If blues were Customer service and were treated the way they are by some of the posters on the official forums, where they blatantly are being attacked sometimes. Any sort of upper management would have that 'customer' removed because it is now an unsafe environment for their employees. However they are not customer service, their job is to be a part of the community and being attacked is part of that, they accept that, and respond in kind.

GO BIG BLUE!

[adorich]

If you complain with the same attitude and language as blizzard customers do, don't be surprised that in RL you get told to STFU as well. It goes both ways.

When seeing a person complain about a defective car, bad hotel conditions, a rude waiter or lousy internet connections to the ISP, other customers would never tell this person to STFU or mock them. It's 'anonymity of the internet' at it's finest. At best, you might see someone stick up for the employee getting yelled at, but that's really rare. It certainly doesn't go both ways...

I've seen waiters get fired for being rude to customers. There also was a Blizzard CM fired for going on a rant and bashing players on the official forums. Google: Tseric.