Grace interview, more community involvement

Pancakes · June 2019

https://www-mcvuk-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.mcvuk.com/creative-assemblys-grace-carroll-on-community-being-all-about-two-way-communication/amp/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#referrer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From %1$s&ampshare=https://www.mcvuk.com/creative-assemblys-grace-carroll-on-community-being-all-about-two-way-communication/

Grace made comments yesterday saying how CA is getting more involved with the community. How important it is to be transparent with the community.
....
Meanwhile the total war forums are filled with people asking about the silence from CA
Every week I see posts asking about the delays to the promised Beta updates

What's going on Grace? what's going on CA?
Where is the community involvement?
Where is the overdue update to beta content?
What is causing the delays to the total war team?
Why have the timelines been abandoned?
Can you please update the community!

all I've seen of community involvement over the last month has been volunteer moderators closing and deleting threads, because the community is in an uproar at the silence from CA.

We want Grace back, we want a commited community manager to manage the total war Warhammer forums.

Lord_Henkus · June 2019

Amen

Vanilla_Gorilla · June 2019

I'm relaxed on it all. I'm quite content to wait for news till there's news.

I don't think "the community" is in uproar either. If anything it's trending away from that. There's parts that are annoyed, but this is the internet so that's normal and okay.

FinishingLast · June 2019

While I agree with most of this, the repeated asking about the beta, specifically the DX12 beta (which is not what they were referring to when talking about the Steam betas anyway so you're still going to be disappointed) seems to have been from you @Pancakes Unless I'm mistaking you for someone else. It's a valid point as they said it would be coming in a couple of weeks more than a month ago, but I don't know if I've seen many other people asking about it. Much more so the lack of any other general updates.

Razmirth · June 2019

Tbh I haven’t played tww2 in a few months or so. Not cause I don’t like the game, it’s all good. And I liked the new DLC for the most part.

But this issue for me is what’s kept me away a bit. It’s always feast or famine with the forums. Either you’re getting the red carpet treatment when CA wants your money, but when they get paid it goes back to radio silence for literally months at a time.

And the issue is tww2 has been like this since launch. Ever since the norsca debacle, devs and CA have been a completely different company when it comes to communications and customer relations. I don’t know why it changed to be honest. Maybe they had so much negative backlash from community at that time, they have adopted a more hands off approach. Couldn’t say.

What I do know is I don’t like it at all. When companies stop communicating to their community (it honestly takes 20 minutes to write up an acceptable post or statement) I see them as being lazy or hiding something. And I don’t support laziness when it comes to communication between devs and community.

I’ve been part of too many gaming communities where this exact thing happens everytime. And it’s disappointing. All the community wants is some friendly banter from devs to us talking about some neat things on the horizon or some enthusiasm in balance/bugs etc. Not much to ask.

It wont keep me from playing the game after I take a break for a bit. But I’ve stayed away from forums and will probably do so for the most part for awhile. It’s just too disappointing to come on everyday or two and hope to see a new post from devs about, well, anything, and get left waiting for another Few months.

I’ve been away for 2-3 months and all the
Threads are the same; Araby, tww3 speculation and posts asking what’s coming next. As great as all of you folks are on here to talk with, eventually it gets repetitive.

Tennisgolfboll · June 2019

CA just released a patch last month.

Where all the ai factions were changed. And they now need public order. No autoresolve bonuses. Etc etc

And not long before that a dlc. Good dlc even if I like races better.

Having said that i wonder what the community managers do over at CA. The normal work week has 40 hrs. Feels like it takes them 80-160 hrs to write a post.

Arsenic · June 2019

CA isn't particularly transparent, and no, it doesn't do community engagement particularly well.

But, to be strictly fair, if there's nothing to say, there's no real point saying it. I doubt people would enjoy a series of fluffy CM posts just for the sake of saying something.

I'd prefer a simple "Hullo Warhammer types, we're focusing on 3K, so nothing for you guys for the next few months".

Pancakes · June 2019

Arsenic said:

I'd prefer a simple "Hullo Warhammer types, we're focusing on 3K, so nothing for you guys for the next few months".

The problem is when they do say things, like 6 weeks ago, they said "Over the next few weeks we’ll be including a breakdown of all the current betas available, listing what they include and roughly how long they will be open for. Stay tuned for more on this"
And that was the last word anyone heard from them.

uriak · June 2019

CCing my reaction on reddit :

I'll be honest, I'm mostly active on the official CA forum, and people there really feel left in the dark. As in communication happens around updates/releases and not much in between.

We can't tell how much all the CA staff is allowed to say, and maybe it seems cautious when you consider how tiny slips can resonate (like the waifu remark, or the no further race DLC for TWW2) But this culture of silence is itself a cause of this. Why do people endlessly speculate if we'll ever see cross game DLC for warhammer, which factions will make the cut ? Because CA doesn't communicate about their objectives or priorities. I dunno if it's because they want to market things at a due date, control hype, don't want to be blamed for changes during dev, or never want to aknowledge not doing something, but it does create tension.

Aside from that, there is little intervention on other affairs, like mod/fanwork promotion, or dev insight into game design issues that are very frequently debated. Even a "we know how X works and we feel it should change" or "this is because we prefer Y to be designed that way " from time to time would give a feeling of interaction.

Maybe it's too much work and not a priority. I would accept them saying so.

Would making communication more frequent makes for better games or better seller/client relationships ? We can't tell, but it feels it's not been really tried. I feel CA has not completely digested how since TW:WH release their games have slided into "game as service" territory. Their most involved players are actually hooked not only on the games but their future updates, and communication hasn't followed through. So it may seems like entitlement to ask for news, truth is many of us pour money not only for the product but what it can become later too.

WaaaghCheif · June 2019

No I'm sorry, as much as I love the games, this a standard of the block PR article. Nothing more, it main points talks about transparency and honesty.

I'd like to remind you all about:

Pontus free instead of Sparta DAY One Dlc (No buy within a week to get it free)

The silent disappearance of the FLC Chart.

What the teams are working on being "reworked" but still nothing to see or hear.

The Norsca failure, yes I know they said they **** up. But I'd still like to know how "**** up" a to almost a year delay, the thing that sadly springs to mind as prime suspect is that the Company was spread too thing between 3k and ToB.

Sieges in Warhammer being atrocious.

Yes, they said they didn't want to repeat the Warhammer 1 DLC cycle, I still don't see that as a justification that the Lizardmen and Skaven got their tools A YEAR LATER.

Whether or not the upcoming lord packs will be Crossing the Game 1.

The Recent Reddit Debacle.

To a counter point, she admitted, that Blood Packs cost money not because of "the rating" that has become the standard fans reasoning, the reasoning is "it costs money to make, so it cost money." Which rather undermines CA's FLCs if you ask me.

These truths and transparencies she is referring to is either;

3Ks several delays which only served 3k Good and so the Companies PR Good, and Norsca which was a hole they couldn't dig themselves out of, so they admitted it.

However I think this 3k release and Warhammer 2 being barely on life support, it's gonna improve from here on forward. Lord Packs and Warhammer 3 on the horizon and 3ks chapter packs.

Either that or they mess up on a Lord Pack/Chapter Pack, but that is pure speculation.

Grom_the_Paunch · June 2019

It seems to me that when CA are silent, a lot of people spend that time sharpening their choppas. Might be best to let the ladz and laddetz blow off some steam on an announcement a little more frequently. It stinks having a perfectly good choppa and nothing to chop wiv it.

dge1 · June 2019

Several inappropriate comments about individuals removed.

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Pancakes · June 2019

dge1 said:
Several inappropriate comments about individuals removed.

Thank you Dge1.
Glad to see you are still involved on these forums.
I hope you understand I mean no disrespect towards CA or any of their staff by the making of this post. I enjoy many CA games, and Grace has done some amazing work for the community.
I simply wish to see the updates we've been asked to wait on and more community involvement on these forums as opposed to Reddit.

3982173917524862 · June 2019

CA likes to focus on marketing and hyping up their latest full release and only talks about DLC when it's a month or less from release. I think 3K will most likely get the silent treatment as well when they announce the new TW release, be it the new unannounced saga title or WH3, but they aren't coming anytime soon. Keep in mind that employees will also take summer vacation so there's not much they will work on and will have little to announce, they did not go to E3 this year after all.
This silent treatment is as bad as the times they were not clear with what they were planning, like Old friend, Norsca delay, WH2 FLC chart and the Kharidbyss. They've probably taken up to keep silent about upcoming content unless it's already certain that's it's going to be finalized and on time. We know how bad it was when they gave very vague hints in the blog posts, which they've also ceased to post ever since they said they'd rework.
I'm not upset, I'm just disappointed that we hear next to nothing these days. I think it's also getting people that aren't as invested as the people that go to these forums to lose interest in the game and possibly not come back once the DLC is announced. This is just my personal thought, I am sure CA have data on this and shouldn't be taken as fact.

Kalliste · June 2019

We will see what will happen, see it is is all PR crap or they actually want to improve.

A good start for CA would be for them to be contribute to this thread or even start a thread of their own and ask us or even worse talk to us about the Warhammer game and where it should go. It may not go where we want it to go but at least we had some input.

or

Its all just hot air

PS no Surprise mechanics

Unknown6203 · June 2019

Pancakes said:
https://www-mcvuk-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.mcvuk.com/creative-assemblys-grace-carroll-on-community-being-all-about-two-way-communication/amp/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#referrer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From %1$s&ampshare=https://www.mcvuk.com/creative-assemblys-grace-carroll-on-community-being-all-about-two-way-communication/

Grace made comments yesterday saying how CA is getting more involved with the community. How important it is to be transparent with the community.
....
Meanwhile the total war forums are filled with people asking about the silence from CA
Every week I see posts asking about the delays to the promised Beta updates

What's going on Grace? what's going on CA?
Where is the community involvement?
Where is the overdue update to beta content?
What is causing the delays to the total war team?
Why have the timelines been abandoned?
Can you please update the community!

all I've seen of community involvement over the last month has been volunteer moderators closing and deleting threads, because the community is in an uproar at the silence from CA.

We want Grace back, we want a commited community manager to manage the total war Warhammer forums.

I would love Grace back i respect her a great deal. this silence reminds me of when they screwed the Norsca DLC on ME. i agree whit the moderators they are shutting up too much stuff up whit no apparent reason.

BillyRuffian · June 2019

Kalliste said:
We will see what will happen, see it is is all PR crap or they actually want to improve.

A good start for CA would be for them to be contribute to this thread or even start a thread of their own and ask us or even worse talk to us about the Warhammer game and where it should go. It may not go where we want it to go but at least we had some input.

or

Its all just hot air

PS no Surprise mechanics

They have already taken initiatives in this thread https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/comment/2354150/#Comment_2354150. Perhaps it's worth you reading all this CA chap's posts.

Schwarzhelm · June 2019

BillyRuffian said:

Kalliste said:
We will see what will happen, see it is is all PR crap or they actually want to improve.

A good start for CA would be for them to be contribute to this thread or even start a thread of their own and ask us or even worse talk to us about the Warhammer game and where it should go. It may not go where we want it to go but at least we had some input.

or

Its all just hot air

PS no Surprise mechanics
They have already taken initiatives in this thread https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/comment/2354150/#Comment_2354150. Perhaps it's worth you reading all this CA chap's posts.

This post is 3 months old and nothing happened afterwards, so just PR talk...

Maybe it is just nostalgia but I feel like in the prime of Warhammer 1 it was better. CA was engaged and the community for the most part happy.
Of course there were complaints but you could see in the discussions that most players were content and defended the game and CA.

With the Warhammer 2 release debacle CA radically changed their policy.
They are silent in the forum and the only news are advertisements, sometimes (if we are lucky) we get promises of improvement but nothing happens.

The problem with that is that at least the most active forum member gets annoyed after such a long time.
This of course leads to a bad mood here and I din't see CA willing to change anything.

Well, it doesn't seem to hurt their success...

Vanilla_Gorilla · June 2019

I think mods here do quite an excellent job. Looking at the thread closings they were all entirely valid. While I think there's a bit of tension in the community there always is from one thing or another. I don't think closings are a measure of that.

In reference to the link @BillyRuffian posted it's great they acknowledge flaws, realistic self assessment is a great skill. That said I'm a show me person. If they're going to improve communication I'll assess that when they do. I understand 3K is the most important thing, and Reddit trumps the forum, but better communication is much desired.

Maedrethnir · June 2019

CA quality communication. Fairy tales are more believable. Their PR need their own PR. That's how bad it is.

Also I don't really want this particular CM back.

I have tried to rephrase my deleted comment in a more appropriate manner.

BetoBot · June 2019

Razmirth said:
Tbh I haven’t played tww2 in a few months or so. Not cause I don’t like the game, it’s all good. And I liked the new DLC for the most part.

But this issue for me is what’s kept me away a bit. It’s always feast or famine with the forums. Either you’re getting the red carpet treatment when CA wants your money, but when they get paid it goes back to radio silence for literally months at a time.

And the issue is tww2 has been like this since launch. Ever since the norsca debacle, devs and CA have been a completely different company when it comes to communications and customer relations. I don’t know why it changed to be honest. Maybe they had so much negative backlash from community at that time, they have adopted a more hands off approach. Couldn’t say.

What I do know is I don’t like it at all. When companies stop communicating to their community (it honestly takes 20 minutes to write up an acceptable post or statement) I see them as being lazy or hiding something. And I don’t support laziness when it comes to communication between devs and community.

I’ve been part of too many gaming communities where this exact thing happens everytime. And it’s disappointing. All the community wants is some friendly banter from devs to us talking about some neat things on the horizon or some enthusiasm in balance/bugs etc. Not much to ask.

It wont keep me from playing the game after I take a break for a bit. But I’ve stayed away from forums and will probably do so for the most part for awhile. It’s just too disappointing to come on everyday or two and hope to see a new post from devs about, well, anything, and get left waiting for another Few months.

I’ve been away for 2-3 months and all the
Threads are the same; Araby, tww3 speculation and posts asking what’s coming next. As great as all of you folks are on here to talk with, eventually it gets repetitive.

Exactly my feelings... Getting really tired of connecting to the forum to see something new in the horizon.. Good post.

Timpeyo · June 2019

I'd just like it if they had the same sort of friendly involvement and interest in the game as they did for game one with the community.

I loved how excited they were each month for game one and how much they enjoyed hearing fans positive feedback and responding too interesting ideas or just having some fun with the community.

Now with answers being given in one huge bulk post off questions on Reddit once every few months. it feels like talking to the the community is seen as more off a nuisance and somthing to get out off the way so they can get back to other things.

I love the game and I just hope things get more lively now 3k has been out for a while, communication between CA and the tww community has been pretty poor in game two and I just hope they find a system that works to keep regular communication going and keep fans interested

Arsenic · June 2019

HoneyBun said:
It is not at all clear to me, after 4 years on this forum, why CA employ a CM.

The volunteer mods are excellent at moderating. The CM, who has changed over the years, is consistent only in being absent.

I think we see more of @CA_Duck than we do any CM ...

I'm assuming the CM does the Reddit stuff too, where CA is a good deal more active.

But then maybe that's changed, haven't looked at that for a long time. Alright, maybe this place is too negative, but that place goes too far in the other direction.

Erminaz · June 2019

Truthfully, with the little amount of time CA staff seems to spend on the official forums I have to wonder why they spend the money to keep this place going. I don't use reddit or twitter (and that will not change) so this is pretty much my source of information but it just seems to be a waste of money for CA to maintain a platform they pretty much ignore the vast majority of the time.

Vanilla_Gorilla · June 2019

Arsenic said:

HoneyBun said:
It is not at all clear to me, after 4 years on this forum, why CA employ a CM.

The volunteer mods are excellent at moderating. The CM, who has changed over the years, is consistent only in being absent.

I think we see more of @CA_Duck than we do any CM ...
I'm assuming the CM does the Reddit stuff too, where CA is a good deal more active.

But then maybe that's changed, haven't looked at that for a long time. Alright, maybe this place is too negative, but that place goes too far in the other direction.

They definitely do a lot more Reddit stuff. More people there. Also pretty much only 3K stuff as well.

Can't stand Reddit's format myself.

ArecBalrin · June 2019

Reading that interview makes my stomach turn given some of my experiences with unnamed CA staff.

Pressing hard on 'X to doubt', I'll believe these empty words when there's substance.

Draculasaurus · June 2019

Vanilla_Gorilla said:
I'm relaxed on it all. I'm quite content to wait for news till there's news.

I don't think "the community" is in uproar either. If anything it's trending away from that. There's parts that are annoyed, but this is the internet so that's normal and okay.

Agreed, CA has not done a thing that's worth getting worked up over. Lack of news about a product is not a fault, I'm exposed to enough marketing in my day-to-day life that I'm not craving more, and that's all this stuff is. Community engagement, hints, timelines, trailers, it's all just marketing to get you interested in a product. Me, I'm already interested in the product and do not need to have my interest continuously re-stoked.

The whole thing just seems bizarre to me. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming film The Lighthouse by Robert Eggers but I'm not demanding A24 release a timeline on when it's coming out or when we'll get our first look at it. It'll get here when it gets here. Why should I approach a video game any differently? My relationship with CA is the same: they produce a product, I look it over and decide if it's worth my time and money or if it isn't. End of relationship.

wunderb0r · June 2019

Timpeyo said:
I'd just like it if they had the same sort of friendly involvement and interest in the game as they did for game one with the community.

I loved how excited they were each month for game one and how much they enjoyed hearing fans positive feedback and responding too interesting ideas or just having some fun with the community.

Now with answers being given in one huge bulk post off questions on Reddit once every few months. it feels like talking to the the community is seen as more off a nuisance and somthing to get out off the way so they can get back to other things.

I love the game and I just hope things get more lively now 3k has been out for a while, communication between CA and the tww community has been pretty poor in game two and I just hope they find a system that works to keep regular communication going and keep fans interested

I think we can thank some of the "reasonable critics" here...

Commissar_G · June 2019

wunderb0r said:

Timpeyo said:
I'd just like it if they had the same sort of friendly involvement and interest in the game as they did for game one with the community.

I loved how excited they were each month for game one and how much they enjoyed hearing fans positive feedback and responding too interesting ideas or just having some fun with the community.

Now with answers being given in one huge bulk post off questions on Reddit once every few months. it feels like talking to the the community is seen as more off a nuisance and somthing to get out off the way so they can get back to other things.

I love the game and I just hope things get more lively now 3k has been out for a while, communication between CA and the tww community has been pretty poor in game two and I just hope they find a system that works to keep regular communication going and keep fans interested

I think we can thank some of the "reasonable critics" here...

They are literally paid to read feedback from us "reasonable critics". If they're not adult enough to handle that then they have far bigger issues both personally, and as a company.

Vanilla_Gorilla · June 2019

Targeting individual CA staff is not only nasty it's self defeating. Instead of the narrative being "Some community members don't like CA's communication" it's "Some community members dislike x CA staff member". It turns the argument from a valid one to an invalid one. If the point is valid then the way to get it across is to keep it valid, to keep the narrative a reasonable one.

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