How to slow down the complaints -- in two easy steps

[freshjuice]

This post got buried in a thread, and it's my fault becasue it belongs as a seprate subject anyway. For your thoughtful consideration:

The solution to quell the tide of complaints:

* Detailed Updates on the Patches, including updated ETA's
(in other words, honest assesments on a daily basis -- "today we did this -- right now, we still don't have a date, best guess is two weeks, etc." This would take all of 5 minutes for one Person)
* An opt-in email list to receive notification when patch is released
(simple, easy, drop your email, or add your board profile to the list...no mess, no fuss, no repeated visits to the board)

People keep coming back to see if the patch is done (that's why I just came here) ... then they see there's no update. They get upset. They post.

So, whether you agree or disagree with the complaining (or the complaining about the complainers), there's one thing that is true:
What's happening is a natural consequence of the lack of the above two items. Add those two and, yes, there would still be some complaining, but it would drop by more than 50%.

[klopas]

The easiest thing in my opinion would be for bgaum (or whoever else has some clue as to what's going on at DC) post at least once a day, saying that they're still working on the patch. That would quell some of the complaints for sure, and it's not difficult at all. Make it happen.

[freshjuice]

Exactly --In fact I thought of how to make the second step even easier:

All they need is add a line this at the end of the patch update post:

"To receive daily patch updates, please subscribe to this topic."

Then, using the existing BB system, we'll automatically get emails sent to us ever time they add to the closed topic at the top of the board.

easy-peasy

[NFLed]

I agree that more communication on a patch is better than less communication. This is a common issue I have seen for almost all computer games. Most people who complain about a game just want attention as often as possible in understanding that their complaints are being addressed.

[Cleric]

It would be nice to have at least a weekly update. Just a list of things recently fixed/added, a list of things still being worked on and an updated estimated release date.

Just adding it to the patch update thread would work fine.

[freshjuice]

Why they won't spend the simple 5 minutes is beyond me.

They stand to benefit greatly through this simple communication.

[Deme]

Yeah, it would be nice to see a post saying, " Today we fixed the emmindor bug, tomorrow we'll be working on the junk inventory." Something along those lines would be great.

[ashley_green]

After nearly 15 years experience in IT customer support I can tell you that the one thing customer want is to be kept imformed as to what is happening.

Nothing upset people more than not being told how thing were going.

So to the people at DC please give us regular feedback on the status of the patches and remeber a happy customer tells 5 people about your business an unhappy customer tells everyone.