CA Should improve its communication

Vanilla_Gorilla · June 30

G'day g'day ladies, gentlemen, boys, girls, and those of you recovering from the 30 June EoFY hullabaloo,

Communication is one of those skills that every organisation can always improve. The ideal communication is ever changing, ever adapting to changes in technology, and people. This is a good natured call for CA to improve its communication. Personally I think it can do this in two main ways; Giving us information sooner, and general communication. The latter being things like acknowledging well known major bugs, things like the Beta update, and general comments in threads. I'm not too fussed about general communication myself, I'm interested in information, but others are and this is reasonable.

Primarily I'd like to know sometime around release of the game what DLC is planned. So around the time of TWW2's release Ideally we'd have been told the TK, and VC2 are coming, and the HE vs DE and Skaven vs LM LP's are coming. Just to that level of detail, with changes to the plans or additional obviously being okay. In terms of the present I'd like to know who's facing who in the LP's. Don't need to know specific lords, themes, units, or anything of that nature. I just want to know who's facing who. Then when they announce the DLC I'm content with information being spaced out over 2-4 weeks (if it's an LP or a race pack), as long as all the information is available before release.

That being said everyone speaks their own version of whichever language they're using. Relevant to this messages are interpreted differently by everyone, so there's variation in the desired messages. Thus I open the floor to y'all, what kind of communication improvements in relation to TWW would you like to see?

Discussion of individual CA employees is strictly off topic. This thread is about discussion of issues (or lack of issues if someone has that opinion) with CA's communication, discussion of individuals only derails that.

Infinite_Maw · June 30

Regarding the next DLC, we don't even know when it is coming, or alternatively if CA had a change of plans meaning that we may only be getting one lord pack as a pre-order DLC. Wh3 has been in development since September-October 2018 and we still haven't heard any news from it.

You can see work is being done when you looking at the Steamdb builds, but they could be updates regarding the total war launcher. Seriously how many times does that thing have to be updated?

Also can someone give me a link regarding some update that CA were planning on doing for the assembly kit.

Vhaegrant · June 30

If only there was an event on the horizon that hyped all things Warhammer. The Dev teams could tease a few details.
FYI Warhammer Day was 29th June 😉

Ephraim_Dalton · June 30

The only thing I want is more frequent bugfixing and balancing and the devs actually communicating about it like they did for ToB and Rome2 in its last few patches. Haven't done so even once for Warhammer. Every patch is a blackbox until two days before it is released and that stinks.

For example, that they were going to implement Skaven undercities could have been announced much sooner instead of just a few days before the content dropped.

FrostPaw · June 30

Too much information is stifling for development, decisions can later be realised as not as good as originally conceived. Dates change as staff move, leave or need time to acclimate, mistakes cause bugs that slow progress and sometimes yes... things are just easier to delay or cancel if you don't have expectations from customers.

Vagueness isn't just for teasing sake, sometimes they just don't know yet. I like information, but not hopes and dreams for the future.

For every reasonable customer there are hundreds which are not, thousands that have no clue and millions that don't care until it's in their hands right then and there.

We know its a lord pack next, why do we need more information? we can't play it yet regardless of what we know and expectation, impatience and boredom are a terribly destructive combination.

Learn to do other things, I suspect there are other games you would enjoy, other activities to think on and time will go quicker if you stop counting the days and speculating endlessly. When CA have something to say, you aren't gonna miss it, think about it.... it's their job to make you not miss it, have you ever?

Timpeyo · June 30

Like you have said discussions about LPs and whats to come would be great, if new mechanics will be introduced for certain characters like ikits workshop or tehenhauins sotek ritual? will the rivalrys bring new battle maps and landmarks?

Give us something to get excited about that shows there still excited. Whats to come in game three and what creaters of the game are most looking forward too, how they might tackle certain problems, if story campaigns will be introduced between old and new races with cutscenes and individual goals. how the introduction off chaos on the map will effect older races.

Maybe some competition, but generally just regular communication to keep the forums alive

alex33 · June 30

Agreed 100 % it's a real shame there is this utter lack of communication. The devs pretty much disapeared from the forum and even tho some people claim it they aren't all that active on reddit either besides announcements. I'd love to see whats in store for the future and what they are planning I also would like to know maybe some behind the scenes stuff, perhaps some cool blogposts, mod reviews, Lore exerpts, the teams TT models, maybe some screenshot contests, I want more engagement something that keeps the community interessted and involved. What I really dislike is their constant teasing and then not saying anything. like "Oh there will be a secret LM LL but we're not telling you who" and ofc in the months of waiting and complete silence from the devs people theorize and hype their expectations up to such high levels that its no wonder they will never be able to meet them with what they have planned. No wonder the WH community is constantly grumpy every relationship suffers from lack of communication

Maedrethnir · June 30

I demand detailed plan for DLC. Content and ETA. Nothing less.

ArneSo · June 30

Of course we can all play other games. I moved back to Rome 2 for example and got addicted of 3k since it is released. When I‘m not playing a game I enjoy the awesome summer we have in Germany right now. So I have a lot of things to do next to wh2...

BUT from a marketing perspective a company should always try to not loose their costumers and keep them active on the product.
So CA should try to stop us playing other games, especially if these games are not their games.

So people demanding for DLCs or at least news about anything. CA didn’t supply and lost a lot of it’s players because of that lack of communication. Some moved to 3k or TOB what is fine for CA bot others started to play other games like Rage 2, assassins Creed odyssey and so on. That should be the worst case scenario for CA. They could’ve avoid that easily with simply serving the demands of their customers. I mean WE want to pay for new stuff, take my money CA it’s getting cold.
They didn’t care and from my side Wh2 is dead. Will wait until game 3 is out but I‘m done with game 2 because I just lost my interest on it

Reeks · June 30

Just gonna copy paste what i wrote in another thread a few days back as it is still how i feel communication should be done:

I for one would love CA to completely drop the current way of interacting with their community witch is in these days mostly knee jerk reactions to community outrage and blatant marketing a short while before every new release.

I want them to interact with us on a whole new level, i want them to actually include us in the process of making the content we love and enjoy and that mean dropping the "secrecy for the sake of marketing" approach they use currently

i wish for them to release updates to their current project 2-4 times a month let me throw you some examples:

Week 1: Announcing a faction/race or LL from the upcoming release

Week 2: Do another disgusting cake stream

Week 3: Announce a unit/Hero from the upcoming release

Week 4:Do another disgusting cake stream

Week 5: Showcase artwork from Race/Faction/LL/Hero or a Unit

Week 6: Do another disgusting cake stream

Week 7: Throw a few lore tidbits from Race/Faction/LL/Hero or a Unit

Week 8: Do another disgusting cake stream

Week 9: Showcase animations from Race/Faction/LL/Hero or a Unit

Week 10: Do another disgusting cake stream

Week 11: Showcase a new mechanic

Week 12: Do another disgusting cake stream

Week 13: Explain the reasoning behind why the mechanic/Race/Faction/LL/Hero or a Unit were made the way it was

Week 14: Bring back @CA_Whelan in a Skaven suit......And force him to eat disgusting cake

And so on and so on.

It´s beyond me that people are actually fine with how CA communicates currently.......Don´t you people ever get tired of blatant marketing up to a new release and then months of radio silence after?....I for one are sick and tired of it

ArneSo · June 30

Totally agree ☝️

3982173917524862 · June 30

I'm not going to blindly buy WH3 like I did WH2 for sure. I was pretty hyped for Lizardmen, but aside from their visuals, their mechanics and campaign have been an utter let down, along with the huge space between release and getting their first piece of content. We also didn't know their DLC was going to be so late, only found out thanks to leaks. No communication on CA's part to indicate any of that happening and left people upset.
They need to speak up and at least detail some information about planned content or upcoming changes and improvements that WH3 will have over the previous titles. The FLC chart is completely dead since the Queen and Crone, they didn't even update it when they released Lokhir in an attempt to make people forget it exists.
Plenty of other devs have monthly dev updates that talk about what they're working on, CA have stopped doing even that, even though their WTTAWO format was very vague and more often than not contained compiled information that was taken from previous statements on Reddit or forums.
What I also dislike is that CA have promised improvements in communication pretty much every time this situation arises, yet they don't put their money where their mouth is. Only time you'll see interaction with their community is during marketing periods of 1 month before a release, then a sudden stop after it releases.

PaulH · June 30

I agree with this thread. It's a good idea for us to let CA know, without pointing fingers, rude words and anger, that their communication is lacking and needs to improve, for our sake and theirs. These suggestions I posted in the thread that was recently moved to the Rants forum, but I think the ideas apply and would help.

I do not think it is difficult to engage with a community. CA were able to in the past and managed to build a great rapport with the community, something that collapsed in the time leading up to the Old Friend. They started falling quieter, then the "outcry" happened over the FLC, then the Norsca debacle and ever since they've been quiet and defensive. In turn, this has led to their silence leaving space for the critics to complain more and more, without the counter to drown those angry voices out.

Overall, we're in a more negative state than ever, but it's not exactly difficult to turn it around. Here is my suggestion for improving communication:

1) Spend time responding to threads; even if it's just an hour a day and if you only focus on the positive, fun, interesting threads (and bug reports), then that is still engagement with the community. Once CA's engagement is not purely reactionary, you will find that the fans start behaving 'better' in the hope of receiving attention from the devs to their posts and threads.

2) Promote the Wednesday streams; during Total War: Warhammer 1 we would get an announcement post on the forums before every stream to let people know it was on, what the content was, and so forth. It was rare for people to respond to those threads, but they kept the community informed.

3) Fortnightly interviews with the developers; there are a lot of talented individuals working on the games. Everyone from the campaign map-makers to those writing the music have helped make these games into something we cherish. Getting interviews with the developers would be very interesting to read. These would get posted to the forums and other relevant places.

4) Competitions and other community-driven content; introduce some competitions now and again to get engagement with the community, such as "Create a Skirmish Map", or something else that is creative. Give the community something fun to get involved with, to discuss and to respond to. It could be especially fun if it led to new content added through the competition, such as the aforementioned skirmish map idea.

5) Hold monthly Q&A sessions; this might seem like a strange one, but this would allow everyone to post up questions about a certain topic and receive answers to their questions. For example, one month this could focus on Warhammer Lore with Games Workshop writers, the next might be focused devs involved with battle balance. As it is a monthly event, it gives fans something to look forward to taking part in and keeps them invested in the forums and community.

6) Update the FLC chart after every DLC release; I understand that the FLC content shifts from time to time, and that influences how often the FLC chart can update, but it would be better to provide an update as soon as possible after every DLC release. People always clamour for it as they love looking forward to fresh content, and it used to be a great point of discussion and debate among the fans. My only recommendation is to not make them too cryptic to avoid the Old Friend issue.

7) Fortnightly Mod Showcase; there are many fantastic mods out there worthy of recognition. It would be nice to get a showcase every two weeks about some of the interesting mods that exist in the community.

8) Fun events; there were some fun events previously (such as the vampire bread, and some other attempts), but these had the misfortune of getting uploaded during a period of fan outrage, and so became a target for ire instead of something enjoyed by the fans. I think that these should be continued by the devs, as they were fun, they were just mistimed. If these were started up some more once the other 7 points had been started, they would be better received.

9) More short stories; because I'm greedy and love the setting, I'd love to see more story content written by the GW writers for the Total War community to read. The game has introduced factions such as the Spine of Sotek Dwarfs in Lustria, Orion's forest in the Southlands and other unusual factions and oddities that won't ever get fleshed out by Games Workshop on the tabletop, but receiving a lore dump (for lack of a better term) would be fascinating. Will this fix the community? No, but I want it anyway. :P

These won't fix all the negativity in the forums/reddit, but would go a long way to restoring community confidence in the staff and would lead to a more positive atmosphere with the community.

Tayvar · June 30

CA like to hide their plans, and it certainly can annoy some people, but I don't think that CA has much to tell us right now, because CA is working mostly on Total War: Three Kingdoms right now.

neodeinos · June 30

If they don't want to tell us about their plan concerning the DLCs I'd like to have the FLC chart updated at least. And maybe something less vague in it.

Pancakes · June 30

Still waiting for the beta updates.
We were told "a few weeks"
And it's been almost 7 weeks now

Grace had an interview last week, where she said CA is improving communication and community involvement.

I'm starting to think they were just outright lies

ArneSo · June 30

Hiding plans and no communication with your die hard core fans is the absolute worst way to do marketing as a video game company.

HoneyBun · June 30

I've never quite understood why their communication is so bad. Sure, there have been controversies, but we're PC strategy gamers. I honestly can't think of a less rabid bunch of people than PC strategy gamers.

ArneSo · June 30

Adding the Family tree in Rome 2 was actually a pretty good decision in my opinion... only thing missing was the trade region option 😂

Tennisgolfboll · June 30

The content is superb. It is what matters in the end.

Amazing game really.

The communication, is like many have mentioned in this thread, garbage.

Tayvar · June 30

ArneSo said:
Of course we can all play other games. I moved back to Rome 2 for example and got addicted of 3k since it is released. When I‘m not playing a game I enjoy the awesome summer we have in Germany right now. So I have a lot of things to do next to wh2...

BUT from a marketing perspective a company should always try to not loose their costumers and keep them active on the product.
So CA should try to stop us playing other games, especially if these games are not their games.

So people demanding for DLCs or at least news about anything. CA didn’t supply and lost a lot of it’s players because of that lack of communication. Some moved to 3k or TOB what is fine for CA bot others started to play other games like Rage 2, assassins Creed odyssey and so on. That should be the worst case scenario for CA. They could’ve avoid that easily with simply serving the demands of their customers. I mean WE want to pay for new stuff, take my money CA it’s getting cold.
They didn’t care and from my side Wh2 is dead. Will wait until game 3 is out but I‘m done with game 2 because I just lost my interest on it

Well CA is actually on good terms with many developers, and it has many positive aspects, also CA should not rush part 3, if CA would make more DLCs for part 2 first, it's an good thing content-wise.

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-ii-and-vermintide-ii-cross-promotion/

_Mad_D0c_ · June 30

If we doesnt get any information in the next week it would be ridiculous.

Not releasing DLC in a minimum 4-5 month rhythm till game 3 release would be a major fault and lost opportunity / money for CA. Dont think the dlc profit of 3K will nearly arrive the TWW 2 dlc counterpart.

Crossil · June 30

How about they don't do it and instead release DLC for Atilla?

I would be displeased with them but the salt man, the salt.

Grom_the_Paunch · June 30

Crossil said:
How about they don't do it and instead release DLC for Atilla?

I would be displeased with them but the salt man, the salt.

FungusHound · June 30

Not knowing DLC plans or Game 3 info is one thing.

A year without a single acknowledgement of the FLC Array or any mentioned of the promised Beta is ridiculous

Aram_thehead · June 30

They are not communicating at all, there's nothing to improve lol.

WaaaghCheif · June 30

I find that Tabletop Tuesdays are more salt to the wound than actual community interaction.

dge1 · July 1

Moved to Chat.

alex33 · July 1

Lol and thats how a discussion with merrit dies getting shoved into a forum were nobody important is ever going to read this (if any official person would even show up for once lol)

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