Remove the suggestions area

[Promethos]

It's a fake area, a cover up to suggest BB listens to the players.

They know a lot of suggestions come in, so everything they do is probably sugegsted somewhere. Then they can say "see, we listened to that suggestion. Oh and a many people didn't agree with the suggestion to introduce aliens and tanks, so we're not going to do that!"

Well if they would say that it would be a big improvement. Because in fact they dont say anything at all. Nothing. What happened with:

* Can you change the colour of the chat/whisper? Some just dont like it, others really cant read it.
* Can you please let us build bigger batches in the baraacks/provisionhouse, the amount of clicking is getting out of hand.
* Could you maybe look into the troubles with the guild-quests?

Easy questions, easy suggestions. But BB is so rude to not even react to the serious suggestions the players make. If you dont do anything with the suggestion-area, then just skip it. Dont give players the hope the developers are listening.

[Hairy]

"rude" is the word.

It would take less than 5 mins to change the colour of whisper text, but BB think it's better PR to continue to let players struggle uneccessarily.

I also find the idea of getting players to vote for their favourite suggestions... insulting.
We don't need to vote in order for the best suggestions to be obvious, we just need the BB~player liasons to read the forum.
Getting us to vote for favoured suggestions sounds to me like getting players to do what BB pay staff to do anyway, and one small step away from voting for the top 5 bugs each week.

BB's customer relations department is shockingly bad.

I like the suggestions area as there are some excellent suggestions for game improvements. The trouble is BB never take any interest.

[lulu10093]

i do agree that people who maybe "color blind" do struggle to see chat sometimes so it does need to be taken into consideration to change it for them even if they can pick which they can read or a universal color that can be seen by everyone.
also all other bugs should be fixed it baffles me how its not beta no more with so many bugs still in the game as well as more getting added when they add new content to the game.

[FolquetTheGreat]

Today there was an interesting post here in the Game Suggestions area. It would be nice to have some debate about it, both because it could provide BB some ideas as to improve the situation, but also a forum for discussion of the role the MODs play, so that there is less confusion/resentment.

I think the suggestions are well thought out, and they deserve to be discussed.

Unfortunately, the thread has been closed. The makes me think that the Forum Moderators would rather not allow open discussion in the Forum. Thus, not only should Game Suggestions be closed (if they are never responded to), but why have a forum at all.

[Borotaur]

I have to agree. So far the suggestion forum has been completely ignored. It's only function seems to be to shut people up when they have an issue with the game. No game issues are allowed to be discussed in game chat, so all improvement ideas are sent here to die and be ignored. Unless it's got to do with improving moderating, which apparently is so sacred topic that you can't even discuss it. Would be easier to talk about democracy in North Korea.

[peck_ed]

There are plenty of suggestions that make it through, maybe we need some of the threads highlighted more often when it does happen.

I remember a time when a lot of people were asking for a trade tab in the game again after we had the new trade office features put in, that went live.

People suggested renaming Generals, that is now live (however different graphics for them is yet to have happened which is another similar suggestion).

Some of the more recent examples, not in suggestion threads, but certainly in the feedback threads are the ones relating the to changes made on the fairytale stuff. The adventures were turned into group adventures, now having 3 people allowed to play, the level requirements were lowered, the Gold Tower has changed its output and new Guild interfaces were added.

Sorry if it hasn't been made clear that suggestions have been listened to, I guess some of the most common asks like increase barrack production amounts and provision house changes haven't been put in, but that might be for other reasons not mentioned to us just yet.

[Iolanthe]

I think it's worth noting the recent improvements in the forum, the new format makes it (to my mind at least) a good deal more accessible, responses to the larger difficulties like the IE login crash have been quick and as thorough as they could be given what was available to players and non-Devs and even [BLUE] has been sighted more often.

Clearly there is still a good deal of work to be done and it's a shame more has not been heard on the plan discussed here which may go a ways toward opening communication some and perhaps letting players not only "feel" like they have a shot at making a difference from the forums of the live game as well as the Test server (which is doing better but could still stand to improve) but actually show that our feedback does matter. It can be hard to know if requests and suggestions have truly been heard or if BB just carry on regardless and do what they were going to do anyway.

Unfortunately something like the closing of a thread that is trying, calmly and constructively, in Game Suggestions not only to improve part of the game and the interactions between players and Mods but to actually make Moderating easier... seems just seems wildly counterproductive and has the potential, quite reasonably I think, to undermine players faith in the people tasked with conveying information from point A to B. This does no-one any favours, rather it seems likely to make life more difficult for everyone. Again. This is not the first time this issue has been raised, here's hoping this time it can be sorted with less upheaval and in a way that improves things for everyone. This seems especially appropriate as it was the whole point of the post mentioned above.

[Energyman]

No, no, no, no people... Point of suggestion area is not to read it all the time. Point is we making huge IDEA database, so BB can easily do improvements when right time comes. And I can confirm BB read forum and make a notice, but there are priorities and personnel is always limited.

[Sto_Helit]

Unfortunately something like the closing of a thread that is trying, calmly and constructively, in Game Suggestions not only to improve part of the game and the interactions between players and Mods but to actually make Moderating easier... seems just seems wildly counterproductive and has the potential, quite reasonably I think, to undermine players faith in the people tasked with conveying information from point A to B. This does no-one any favours, rather it seems likely to make life more difficult for everyone. Again. This is not the first time this issue has been raised, here's hoping this time it can be sorted with less upheaval and in a way that improves things for everyone. This seems especially appropriate as it was the whole point of the post mentioned above.

I would have liked to have had the opportunity to discuss the issues raised in that thread, since I do find the current situation a bit difficult to fathom. I had made a small attempt to suggest a solution back in this thread, and more recently I tried to come up with a draft message and potted set of rules that could be translated into the relevant languages to provide a welcome for some of our players. I have also tried most of the ideas that I could think of to provide help and get the message across, but am currently unsure whether there is anything that could help much with the current set up; sometimes the message gets through, other times it doesn't and there aren't many workarounds that actually work. I feel the situation could be improved, and potentially the players on the three servers could help a lot to improve it, but in order to do that we need to be able to discuss it.

[Promethos]

I dont believe the developers read the suggestions. There are so many ideas, it's hard not to do something suggested somewhere, so that the renaming of generals was suggested or so.... proves nothing.

But more inportant. What if they do read? Lets assume they do. They see people ask an easy to answer question, some have been on the forums almost from the start. Asked several times, but... they dont answer.
Some problems have been bugging many people for months and months. THe infamous 'death to the leader quest", trouble with the guild-quests. "can you change the at tekst for the at least 0-quests"... Asked many many times, and yet they dont even bother to tell us if they are working on it.

If they do read, then they have seen the players become aggitated, annoyed and losing hope. ANd yet, while the developers could easily answer a few questions, they decide to remain silent and not say a word. That makes them just sad, sad people. Even worse then if they wouldn't read the forum.

And dont say "Ah but you cant expect them to answer every question on every forum right?" No, I dont expect that. I've given suggestions before, both on forum and in mails to the community manager & support how you could hugely improve communication in a way it doesn't cost a lot of time. In fact would save time because support wont be flooded by the same questions all the time.
But BB fails to act while the sarcasm and cynism keeps increasing and the hope is long gone. They see their refusal to just answer to their players is damaging the game. And yet they sit their and go on with the much hated "you'll be the first to hear when it's ready"-policy. With the snail-speed some developements go, that's unacceptable. And you can see the results of that failed policy on the forums every day.


On de dev's topics. Yup I think a discussion about the way moderation is done should be possible. I see far too many people become a mod, and after a really short period quit being mod or quit the game entirely. There is something wrong. From mod- as well as player point of view, it would be good to have a normal polite discussion, to find out what could be changed to make it more fun for everyone.