Open Letter to the Devs

bk1234

I know you're out there and I know you're reading these forums -- probably over a nice lunch of poutine (I'm jealous, btw -- can't get that in Tampa) or maybe a salad since it's summer -- so sit up and take note. 

I've had it with your mistreatment of Brigby. 

As my background is in communications, I frequently get job postings for Community Managers -- in all of those descriptions, SCAPEGOAT is not included as an expected duty. 

You have made us a great game -- we like it -- we stay around -- many of us spend money. Deckbuilding and gem matching is fun. The social aspect of the game has exceeded anyone's expectations and we get to play every week with our friends. You've got a good thing going here -- despite the fact that you are utterly determined to burn it to the ground. 

BUT -- this community is **** -- and it's not Brigby's fault, IT'S YOURS. 

Let me tell you a bit about Brigby -- he answers almost every single post he's tagged in -- so many every day. He also answers all of his PMs -- EVERY DAY. He constantly tries to understand and gather positive feedback that will make the game better (See THIS thread). On more than one occasion he has contacted me and probably many others for clarification on a post -- or more information (most recently why I -- as an original player and champion of new players -- will NOT recommend this game). 

Long story short -- Briby is a solid dude -- and he has to come to work every day and deal with anger, resentment, sarcasm (Yes, I'm guilty  ) and tons of other **** -- that YOU should be answering for. 

Every time you have posted a dev thread, it is well received, decisions kindof make sense, etc -- but then you go away and this community becomes the land of Debbie-downers and angry-Andys again. 

Here's a piece of advice from a communications professional -- this forum may be one of the earliest impressions that new players get of this game. If I were coming in now, versus in December of 2015 when I did join, I would turn heel and haul it out of here -- UNINSTALL. This community screams of a game where the devs are out for themselves and don't respect or appreciate your customer base --ie YOUR PAYCHECK. 

You need new players for this game to grow -- if it doesn't grow, you don't have a job.

Please stop making Brigby the MTGPQ punching bag, and make some noise -- if these decisions have good reasoning -- tell us. Also tell us why our opinions don't matter (you can start with the linked thread above).

As one of the earliest members on this forum, I've seen what it can be; it was a good place in the early days of the game. Those positive, fun communities don't exist in your official channels anymore -- they take place in private chats in Discord, Slack and @shteev's big Facebook page. New players don't look there -- they don't know that these channels exist -- they look HERE. 

Engage with us, speak up, we want to know you, we want to share with you, we want this game to grow and be as awesome as it has been in the past and could be again. 

And for the love of all that is good -- stop making Brigby be your middle man. The guy is stand-up --we like him and we don't like the way you treat him. 

Cheers! (Have a lovely weekend)

Laeuftbeidir

Fully agree on that one. 
Nothing here has not been said before, but well..crickets.

I have to admit I always have a bad feeling when I feel like complaining about something and I absolutely know that Brigby probably would help, if he could. And you give us a lot to complain about, since you don't discuss or communicate things before they develop to be problems. I would not want to have his job as a punchingball.
This community in the forum is often salty, unfair from time to time, but there are ways to work with that. Ignoring is a wonderful strategy to do so; it makes people angry. Ignoring angry people is a wonderful way of getting rid of them.

TheDragonHermit

These reasons and more are why I feel bad for Brigby whenever I make a complaint, he has to deal with all the worst of our anger and then we have to ask for clarification on things he is just relaying from others. It feels a lot like he might be only a little more in the loop than we are sometimes.
These reasons and more are why I think we all need to give him as many digital hugs as we can.

shteev

Brigby does seem like a nice man, doesn't he.

It is, sadly, the lot of those who work in customer relations to have to form a barrier between us, the consumers, and the people who might actually be able to change something if they were to hear our feedback, largely because those people generally aren't interested in hearing our feedback.

Monkeynutts

What annoys me is a lot of the issues are fixable.

shteev

Monkeynutts said:

What annoys me is a lot of the issues are fixable.

What annoys ME is that they claim to not have the time to fix these things, and yet they clearly have the time to make changes that nobody asked for.

Rogan_Josh

bken1234 said:

I've had it with your mistreatment of Brigby. 

If Brigby is getting grief then it's not the Devs fault, it's the fault of the people giving him grief. He's doing his job an doing it pretty well. 

This board has always been pretty poisonous and negative (that IS the Dev's fault with their no comment policy) but the only one responsible for content posted is the posters themselves. 

I totally agree with you about how this board looks to new players and it's a concern i've said before. Problem is i'm not convinced that if the Devs did start being active on here it would make much of difference anymore. I don't know maybe i'm being too cynical and people will stop tantrum throwing if we get regular updates. (i've noticed the amount of essays written explaining why someone is dramatically quitting the game have dropped significantly).

Or i could be talking Tinykitty. I don't know anymore. One thing i'd put money on is that we will never hear from the Devs about this game. 

DaddyO

I can't help but smile with their response to the barrage of complaints regarding a basic booster as a progress reward for a platinum level event. That was some twisted funny stuff. Now a basic booster is worth opening. I rarely bother with the one card in the vault but a basic booster that is three times better now. That choice by the Devs so clearly illustrates the dichotomy of our wants as players and their needs as a business.

The new free card system increases engagement with new players when they are most likely to be spending big money and really doesn't harm the base as we didn't count on getting anything from the basic booster. I did join this forum specifically to complain several months ago but I continue to check in because I enjoy the game. They can do more right by reducing the crushing buyers remorse from duplicates but the game has been better lately. 

Abenjes

http://www.pocketgamer.biz/interview/64817/magic-the-gathering-puzzle-quest-one-year-on/

found this from January, I hadn't seen it before, apparently QA and customer support are in the same location

Corn_Noodles

Counterpoint: If Brigby really was being mistreated, why is he still working for D3?

Lagartha

@Corn Noodles I have to agree with that too. It's like when people were all over Wal-Mart for how they treat their employees. If they are really such an evil, terrible company that only pays minimum wage, why wouldn't the employees find a job literally ANYWHERE else? 

As a vendor that had to tend to products at Wal-Mart, I can say with full confidence that the managers weren't the terrible part of that job, the CUSTOMERS were. I feel it's the same issue here. We the players are the ones that probably make Brigbys job hard. 

D3 could probably change a lot to mine these forums for information and make the game a lot better, but the way the community presents their feedback is what would likely make Brigbys life easier. 

babar3355

@bken1234 Perhaps they don't read the forums?  Perhaps you should send Brain Ethridge or some other senior staff your gripes. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-etheridge-5a87791

 I feel like I am yelling down a well when I post on these forums any longer.

They don't want our opinions.  They are smarter than us and know how to make the game that will maximize profits.  We know nothing and our opinions are worth less than nothing. I honestly believe that's how they feel.

Brigby

Hi Everyone.

First off, I want to thank you all for the kind support, and @bken1234 for starting up this discussion topic. It really means a lot to me, and I will continue to do my best to be that bridge of communication between the community and the developers.

For the record, I want to say that I do not feel like I am being mistreated by neither D3 Go!/Hibernum nor the community. 

The forum and its community are home to some of the most passionate, and dedicated players. Due to this, it's no surprise that they can be very critical and vocal about the direction this games moves in; they want the game to succeed, so everyone can continue playing. Constructive criticism and feedback is always welcome, because it gives the developers an idea of what's working and what needs improvement.   

D3 Go! and Hibernum both consist of small teams of employees and developers, respectively. While both teams are very passionate about the game, an intricate project like this requires many of us to wear multiple hats, which unfortunately stretches us thin at times. The developers do review the forum for feedback, but as the Community Manager, I am the one acting as the primary communicator of information. This way the developers are able to focus on developing, and I can focus on relaying any updates to all of you.

Having said that though, both teams recognize the importance of a direct community and developer relationship, and how that ultimately benefits the game. This has been proven by the amazing amount of feedback from the Developer Threads, and with various other posts from the Hibernum team. As a result, I am working closely with them in order to find more opportunities where the developers can communicate with players, either personally or vicariously through me.

Thank you all for your support of Magic the Gathering: Puzzle Quest

Outersider

I'd like to make a suggestion in regards to the dev's. How about we the players submit to you Brixby a question that we'd like answered. You can choose 1 that the dev's would answer on a weekly basis. This would at least be a way that we can get some questions answered, and the dev's can share their reasoning. 

shteev

Lagartha said:

@Corn Noodles I have to agree with that too. It's like when people were all over Wal-Mart for how they treat their employees. If they are really such an evil, terrible company that only pays minimum wage, why wouldn't the employees find a job literally ANYWHERE else?

That's an EASY one. It's because all the OTHER unskilled minimum wage jobs are in evil terrible companies as well.

bk1234

shteev said:

Lagartha said:

@Corn Noodles I have to agree with that too. It's like when people were all over Wal-Mart for how they treat their employees. If they are really such an evil, terrible company that only pays minimum wage, why wouldn't the employees find a job literally ANYWHERE else?

That's an EASY one. It's because all the OTHER unskilled minimum wage jobs are in evil terrible companies as well.

This is actually true. 

speakupaskanswer

shteev said:

Lagartha said:

@Corn Noodles I have to agree with that too. It's like when people were all over Wal-Mart for how they treat their employees. If they are really such an evil, terrible company that only pays minimum wage, why wouldn't the employees find a job literally ANYWHERE else?

That's an EASY one. It's because all the OTHER unskilled minimum wage jobs are in evil terrible companies as well.

Yes, the assumption of "If you don't like your job, find a better one!" makes things much simpler than they are. Especially using it as an argument that it can't be THAT bad, if people are still willing to work for those companies. Reminds of the grown up child who complains to his parents that they rarely listened to his needs and they say "Well, you should have said something!"

speakupaskanswer

Brigby said:

Hi Everyone.

First off, I want to thank you all for the kind support, and @bken1234 for starting up this discussion topic. It really means a lot to me, and I will continue to do my best to be that bridge of communication between the community and the developers.

For the record, I want to say that I do not feel like I am being mistreated by neither D3 Go!/Hibernum nor the community. 

The forum and its community are home to some of the most passionate, and dedicated players. Due to this, it's no surprise that they can be very critical and vocal about the direction this games moves in; they want the game to succeed, so everyone can continue playing. Constructive criticism and feedback is always welcome, because it gives the developers an idea of what's working and what needs improvement.   

D3 Go! and Hibernum both consist of small teams of employees and developers, respectively. While both teams are very passionate about the game, an intricate project like this requires many of us to wear multiple hats, which unfortunately stretches us thin at times. The developers do review the forum for feedback, but as the Community Manager, I am the one acting as the primary communicator of information. This way the developers are able to focus on developing, and I can focus on relaying any updates to all of you.

Having said that though, both teams recognize the importance of a direct community and developer relationship, and how that ultimately benefits the game. This has been proven by the amazing amount of feedback from the Developer Threads, and with various other posts from the Hibernum team. As a result, I am working closely with them in order to find more opportunities where the developers can communicate with players, either personally or vicariously through me.

Thank you all for your support of Magic the Gathering: Puzzle Quest

Thanks for your kind response! 

One of the main problems is that it seems the devs NEVER check the forums because there is not really another explanation for many of their decisions (except that they just don't care but then they wouldn't have to check the forums). Another is the many promises of improving communication that never come to fruition. Which becomes clear once you mention the Developer Threads which almost everyone here craves for and which simply have become an absolute rarity (but were promised to be regular).

Our only speck of hope is that you seem to hear our complaints and somehow bring them to the developers but what that looks like and if they actually deal with that is still a complete mystery. The latest update shows that so well, not because it's especially bad but because it gave us so many things we didn't ask for (and didn't need) while we ask for so many other things and seem to be unheard. This increases the feeling that your job must be tough because if you really bring forward all our questions, ideas and criticisms and this is the result, it must be very frustrating. But I appreciate your effort.

losdamianos

Why are we tolerating

losdamianos

replying to your own posts ?? can we either block it or change this horrible forum to use something which will merge them ?

losdamianos

PS. Brigby is actually getting paid for solving forum drama it his job!