Important message for the community

[Hyzedan]

Want to say it's a good start, but some of the most-concerned questions are still not addressed:

 

Timelines

I saw some timelines in your message, but "within year of 20xx" is not enough, and not to mention that some of them don't even have that. The dates should be more concrete to the extent of e.g. Second quarter or 2022 etc.

 

Players can't wait indefinitely, in particular WG hold the bad record of not fulfilling good promises (bring back Scenarios) but fulfilling bad ones ("We won't add submarines to the game").

 

Submarines

It's so ridiculous that BBs are one of the main submarine hunter, while most crusiers, aircraft carriers can't do anything sitting ducks there, which along with DDs are historically major contributors to SS hunt. Please add ASW to all crusiers and CV's planes.

 

Most if not all Co-op players should now see how diving submarine bots meaninglessly lengthen each round's time. Any attempt to fix it?

 

I don't play ranked battle but had heard that SS also ruined the experience there. Not going to try that myself unless hearing it's improving.

 

Match balancing

As a non-superb non-unicorn player, had to say that i didn't enjoy playing any of your PvP modes as I often faced players with much higher win rate, worsening by the fact that entering matches with two tiers lower. 

 

Believe

(1) Match by win rate

(2) Smaller tier gap

are two things repeatedly suggested by players.

sadly I didn't see you mentioning anything about these two. In that case, I don't see why I would want to return to random, ranked or any other PvP modes.

 

This game is not e-sports - Sad ya, knowing WG wants to make it but would never success because of many drawbacks. Players are not athletes, we may not need pay to win, but most of us would only have an hour or two everyday after work to chill out, not to play something that will make us even more stress and depressed.

 

Scenarios or any new PvE modes

You are working on bringing old scenarios back but not went well because of CV mechanism etc - which player had hear the same word for years.

 

We need to see concrete actions and timelines, or scenario lovers will just left for waiting too long for nothing.

 

By the way, I don't see why CV mechanism will be a problem for bringing some of the scenarios back. As an example, what's that to do with Operation Dynamo which historically CV didn't play a heavy role in Dunkirk??

 

Just for your information, if one is not interested in playing PvP modes, he or she would definitely much less interested to purchase premium ships* or any other in-game purchases.

*In particular tiers 8-10 which cannot be used in scenarios.

 

Same as someone said, Not saying you are not doing things but not "trusting" you will fulfill it (satisfactory-ly). Will wait and see - but not endlessly.

 

Silent players are not necessarily the ones that support your decisions, but voiced players are definitely ones that want the game to be better (so that they are more willing to spend money in it) - Ignoring them means ignoring their wallet as well. 

 

For the sake of player's enjoyment, game's continuity and most importantly (to WG) your financial balance sheet performance, hope WG would make wise decisions.

[Tall_Toot]

Thank you for formally recognising the disaster you have propagated.

 

However, this is years - not weeks or months - years late. 

 

Furthermore, it has only been finally addressed by senior levels because of the sound of the slamming shut of thousands of wallets.

 

Many of which I suspect will be closed permanently, like mine, as players move on.

 

 

[GraysonGreyDeathCarlyle]

5 minutes ago, Excavatus said:

you'll EARN my trust once again

Yeah..the again is the problem. When you have to "earn peoples trust again" multiple times per year, when do YOU think the people should accept that the trust is not worth it?

[GermanBoomercaustEnjoyer]

9 minutes ago, Andrewbassg said:

Not at all. The game is not the company. The company is not the community. Yet.

Learn and grow to differentiate A from B . Then it will come C. :)

Thats a very interesting opinion of yours but you seem pretty upsetti if you ask me that you think that this is the correct view on this topic - and try to even make it sound like its the only one *yikes* sorry sweety but this wont change the fact that CCs have no impact and should not have impact in game development - is every single CC representing you? Do you share with every single one their opinion? I dont think so )))

Let me know what changed after LWM or any other CC left the program (while still playing the game and making money of it) compared to when we had so many "great" CC´s that had a "huge" impact on the game. 

 

Lets see if WG can keep to some of the things they mentioned in the OG post over the next 1/2 years.

[Zigiran]

A good, well writen article!

 

Like many said here: this sounds all good, so I hope you keep this up and make this all come true.

But yeah, good start!

[ThePurpleSmurf]

2 minutes ago, Captain_Breeze said:

Come on @Excavatus , I believe in Free Speech........POWER TO THE PEOPLE. 

 

 

Not in this forum. A couple of weeks ago I got a forum warning because i used a harmless english word, even proved it by showing it to a CM in the official dictionary for the english language, but this didn't change anything. So basically i got a forum warning because a mod lacks knowledge of the english language and an appeal with the literal proof in the official english dictionary was declined by a CM (who is also not a native english speaker) because reasons.

But this is OT and reveals the lousy way things are handled here (nothing new really) and both is against the forum rules, so this post will most likely be deleted and i receive another warning because some mods can't understand english on a decent level but are supposed to be the "forum police".

 

On Topic

This PSA sounds like the usual hot air and empty words we heard so many times over the years. For many, the trust in this company is destroyed and can not be restored or repaired.

[Andrewbassg]

Just now, Sir_Lawrence42 said:

Thats a very interesting opinion of yours but you seem pretty upsetti if you ask me that you think that this is the correct view on this topic - and try to even make it sound like its the only one *yikes* sorry sweety but this wont change the fact that CCs have no impact and should not have impact in game development - is every single CC representing you? Do you share with every single one their opinion? I dont think so )))

Let me know what changed after LWM or any other CC left the program (while still playing the game and making money of it) compared when we had so many "great" CC´s that had a "huge" impact on the game. 

 

iF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE, I SUGGEST TO DO IT BY PM. UNLESS YOU WANT TO DERAIL THE THREAD. SO STOP.

[UnterSeeBot]

2 hours ago, Crysantos said:

Dear players,

 

Lately a lot of you have been upset with various incidents, our decisions, as well as a general state of things in the game and community. Before we continue, we want to apologize to all of you, players, content creators, moderators, testers, and other volunteers, to those who support us and those disappointed with us. Everything that happens within the game and the community is our responsibility, and we are sorry that we let the situation come to its current state. 

We want to take this opportunity to be more transparent about how we will take actions to improve our internal processes and our relationship with you. It will be a long read, you will see items of different scales and with different times required to see results. No doubt more news and announcements will follow, so please don't treat this as a final plan and the ultimate solution to everything. Instead, please treat it as a list of things we're currently working on and a way to show our intentions to make the game and community a better place. Also, please note that it is not comprehensive, as many other measures are revolving around internal processes.

...

 

Yours sincerely,

Victor Bardovsky, Publishing Director

Andrey Lisak, Development Director

World of Warships Team

1. "No doubt more news and announcements will follow, so please don't treat this as a final plan and the ultimate solution to everything."
   • understood, so we can expect further announcements?
2. "Therefore, our position on containers and random bundles is always consistent with governments' decisions on this matter and will keep being so."
   • Bad, you will continue to use gambling as a way to monetize content
3. "Drop rates. We plan to publish all drop rates for all Containers and Random Bundles and are already working on it. It will take some time, but our hard commitment is that it will happen over the course of next year."
   • Good news, except you should publish drop rates, now, not next year. There is no obvious or good reason why it should be difficult to do. But there are plenty of bad reasons (e.g you are not in a state of compliance with all regional laws)
4. "Age ratings. We've already added disclaimers about in-game purchases with random items to our PEGI ratings. We're also in touch with other rating organizations to adjust our ratings everywhere in a consistent way."
   • Good, but insufficient. As long as WOWS includes simulated and/or real money gambling via lootboxes and access to premium content via games of chance (lootboxes and similar), in my opinion, then WOWS should be PEGI 18, in line with all existing games that have undergone significant revisions or the introduction of gambling in the period since they were launched. I'm sure your legal department will be trying for PEGI 12, which is why we all have good reason to distrust your statement. Stop marketing content that relies on the mechanics of gambling, to young people. You don't condone real world violence, real world discrimination, real world drug abuse, so stop enabling gambling abuse.
5. Feedback
   • Good you are looking at many issues surrounding communication that have been present since the day the game was launched, it just goes to show how bad your internal communications and how bad your handling of community feedback is, that so many years have gone by until today without the problem of poor communications management by WG, being taken seriously.
6. we want to share a general roadmap with you, of what you can expect to see in World of Warships in the far future.
   • Good, we have been asking for this since the day the game launched. See previous comment. 
7. General transparency.
   • Effectively, greater transparancy in all areas of WOWS operations, management, and decision making will reduce misunderstandings, and make misunderstandings easier and less painful to resolve. IF this transparancy = honesty, rather than misinformation and manipulation to win community arguments on the back of cheap comments, by WG representatives that toxify relationships! (EU staff are generally innocent in regards to this criticism)/
8. While we as a company certainly need to work on the way we communicate with you, we ask that you treat the people you interact with fairly and with respect.
   • Badly put in light of recent community interactions. I have often heard from WG that the majority of the playerbase are adults. Well treat your customers as adults in your interactions with them. Telling a customer to show some respect is the best possible way to LOSE respect. A fundamental problem with WG management culture is present in your statement. Your priority should be to express respect to your customers in all circumstances, to be professional. Doing so you will earn respect in return. If you will insist in treating your customers (supposedly average age of 40) as kids, you should expect your customers to treat you like a bunch of pouting adolescents in return. 

[Captain_Breeze]

4 minutes ago, ThePurpleSmurf said:

Not in this forum. A couple of weeks ago I got a forum warning because i used a harmless english word, even proved it by showing it to a CM in the official dictionary for the english language, but this didn't change anything. So basically i got a forum warning because a mod lacks knowledge of the english language and an appeal with the literal proof in the official english dictionary was declined by a CM (who is also not a native english speaker) because reasons.

But this is OT and reveals the lousy way things are handled here (nothing new really) and both is against the forum rules, so this post will most likely be deleted and i receive another warning because some mods can't understand english on a decent level but are supposed to be the "forum police".

 

On Topic

This PSA sounds like the usual hot air and empty words we heard so many times over the years. For many, the trust in this company is destroyed and can not be restored or repaired.

I've also been banned in the past, I just wanted to add a little fun to this post is all.

 

[GraveKommander]

2 hours ago, Crysantos said:

We want to show you our responsibility, care and desire for the game by the way we communicate and through our actions - to make the game better for everyone. 

The point is, you shouldn't have to say this as a service provider. F2P is nice, but in the end, a lot of us players are paying costumer. It is a normal process to care about your costumer and your product. But you are the only one offering this kind of product.

 

And there is the problem, if we want to play such a game, we have to come to you, there is no competition. To be fair, we get a lot of fun from the game, but the bar to leave is much higher because there is nothing we can go to instead. Play your game or don't. It's not like a battle royal game for exemple, there are a lot of them, you anger the players there and they leave to another game.

If there would be competition and the other devs would do better in my oppinion, i had left WoWs. And i'm not alone. Please keep in mind, while you have a higher limit for angering your costumers cause of lack of similar games, there is still a limit. And this time you got very close to it, in some cases you crossed it.

 

I really hope you keep your word and show actions to it.

[ImperialAdmiral]

We shall see...

[LinuxTrojan]

Give Missouri free for all 5+ years members as a gesture of good will, and maybe we will believe you...

[NewHorizons_1]

This is a welcome message from the top brass (apparently).

It acknowledges there have been problems and that is a welcome step.

Unlike the usual "Oops, my bad. We'll try to do better next time" PR placations we usually get.

Further, it also indicates that steps are being taken to address those problems.

I only hope, though, these changes are real and are going to show tangible benefits in the long run.

Please don't disappoint us WG.

So, provisionally, I'd say "it's a good start" for now - but let's just see what happens in the future.

[Andrewbassg]

22 minutes ago, Excavatus said:

Mate, 

When someone says they will do "something" 

There are  things you can do... you either say "ok, lets see you are doing that" which is giving the benefit of the doubt, 

or, you can say "I don't believe you'll follow your word!" then you take off.. I can't see for myself anything in between.. 

 

I don't say "I trust WG to follow up their plan" I say, you'll EARN my trust once again If you follow your plan, and for that I'll give you the time and the opportunity to execute your plan and wait for the results. Thats my definion of "the benefit of the doubt"

 

That's fair. However reaching out to LWM and take immediate steps to remediate and if possible to repair the relation, would go a long way to prove the seriousness of the intentions and also will prove that we could give some trust in the..... beautiful words

 

Bandi73 from NA

[BranHarlendy]

I sincerely  hope that from now on we allways get such comprehensive answers. It may not have answered all doubts and so on, but atleast it adressed them in a good way, not just brushing it off like was done in the past. 

Well done.

Keep up this communication and maybe there will be no more issues in the communication department. 

Lets hope.

Anyway good first step.

[mihaitha]

2 hours ago, Crysantos said:

players did not understand why the latest torpedo bug took 2 updates to fix, while a CV bug (plane losses in 0.9.9) was fixed almost instantly. They are in fact very different: the CV bug was fixed by quickly adjusting some parameters, while the torpedo bug involved game logic, and even though it was technically fixed within a week, it had to go through all regular quality assurance processes.

Right, because 2 full patch cycles aren't enough to move a bug through QA.

 

As a software developer, all I can say is:

(X) Doubt.

[Mullac087]

Well I'll give it to them. This has got to be one of the best if not the best communications we have had yet.  It might not cover all ground, but it does bring some hope that they are going to work towards improving not only the game but how they do things going forward. I say give them a chance to see what happens. I hope that they go some level to truly make mends with the CCs and Littlewhitemouse and fix the major, and in some cases longer lasting, issues with game. If real progress is made then I think the community may start to come back on board. Let's hope so, fingers crossed. 

[SgtKokken]

Again???.....

 

Dear WG, its WAY past the time we, or at the least, I stopped believing in you. Again and again you have shown similar "regret" and then stepped over us. I'm done believing in you. In fact I wont even recommend anyone to play any of your games anymore...

 

Only action that proves that you will keep your word will change my mind... maybe, because I have no faith in you.

[Bracciano_gatto]

WG recognizing there were issues is a good thing to start with.

 

Let's see what the future brings on.

[Asatori]

Someone pinch me, I'm dreaming. 

 

An actually well written statement adressing a lot of the issues of the community. A hint of self reflection. A look into the way forward. 

 

No matter how much I'd love to be the pessimist, I can't fault any of the things written in this statement.

It really seems that this time they skipped the legal department when they wrote this.. 

 

So well done, but now we need to see this converted into actual deeds. 

 

Not a word on submarines though... 

 

[SmokinSerj]

27 minutes ago, LinuxTrojan said:

Give Missouri free for all 5+ years members as a gesture of good will, and maybe we will believe you...

 

Aaaaa... make that "months". And starting next Tuesday. :))))

[lovelacebeer]

I hope this is genuine, but I seriously doubt it. Actions speak louder than words in the end so time will tell. 

[quickr]

2 hours ago, Crysantos said:

Dear players,

If this came from any other company, literally any other, I would be (cautiously) optimistic. But it's WG and you guys are known for empty words and promises. And it's not just last couple of months but years of empty words, looking down on your community and showing no respect.

 

How about we come back to this post a year later and see what you actually did, what you actually changed. How you moved forward as a company. How you developed this game we all love and care about except you, the very people that created it.

 

 

[Kevbar]

6 minutes ago, Asatori said:

Not a word on submarines though...  

 

We're not known as 'The Silent Service' for nothing you know!!

[DreadArchangel]

I really think one of the subjects they'll have to change is lootbox's, they generate a lot of grief for them.