"Q:So Turbine knew about the lag all the time and yet CS always blamed players computers or ISP for it on the official forums. Were they ordered to cover up or did they do it on their own initiative?
We absolutely knew about the lag and server performance issues. This is a case in point that underscores my above observations about honest and clear communication. What kind of message are you sending your customers when at one moment you tell players that Mylotro is being discontinued to improve overall game performance and then the next that their rigs and providers are to blame for lag?
It's worth taking a moment to reiterate that Customer Service and OCR, the Community Relations team, while sharing overlapping spheres as front facing departments, are distinct entities.
Neither were directly tied into the development process and both could at times be left out of the loop, with awkward consequences. CS in particular was often forgotten in the decision-making process and left to hold the bag.
The call to hold off on fixing Hechgam, as I mentioned earlier, condemned our CS guys to deal with the player fallout. And when they were forced to discontinue manually advancing the instance for players (they just didn't have the staff to spend all night addressing every plea for aid) they caught hell for that too.
Another great example is multi boxing in the Moors. The policy was basically, they pay for all those accounts, let them play.
But for the sake of a tiny minority of boxers and their subs, CS had to deal with literally thousands of irate complaints, each one a ticket that took up their time and slowed down their ability to respond to other tickets just that much.
Moreover neither the devs or the producers ever thought to give CS a head's up on upcoming instances and potential problems. So a CS guy might find themselves having to respond to issues they knew nothing about, unsure on what was by design, what was a bug, and if there was a work around.
Now our CS team was a good outfit, with some excellent people, but often through no fault of their own was the focus of player dissatisfaction. But the point is, more often then should have been the case, CS was forced to translate at times hazy or even contradictory policies and issues as best it could.
OCR, under Meg 'Patience' Rodberg, who was a warm and justly popular person with our fans, acted as the human face of the company. Her role, and she was great for it, was to make the players feel like they were extended members of the Turbine family.
But she too wasn't always kept in the loop and also had to interpret policies that may have been cloudy or (again) contradictory.
Sapience...wasn't as well suited to that role. No sense in trying to deny that. I give him a lot of respect for his charitable endeavors (I myself ponied up 400 bucks for his first children's hospital drive, best money I've spent in ages) and in person he was a likeable guy. But during his tenure the whole tone of OCR's posture changed.
No description is required here, the Sapience era is painfully well documented. OCR seemed to be the Spin Machine, enforced with the liberal application of the ban hammer. Not exactly guaranteed to improve 'community relations'. "
|