Thinking about this today for reasons that might become apparent, might not.
A community manager once told me this theory he had about MMO communities, which I often quote when we’re left scratching our heads at the fact that despite our best efforts, a game’s community (or some part of it) is still screaming for our blood – even though we’re firmly of the opinion that surely, this time, we’ve given them all they want.
The theory goes as follows. (This works best when you think of a US context, by the way – where a mailbox can often be a short walk from someone’s house.)
If you mailed a solid gold bar to every player of your MMO game… they would complain that it was too heavy to carry back to their house from the mailbox.
In other words, you can please some of the people some of the time; but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
Or if you’re being more blunt… people will always find a reason to bitch about something, no matter what you do.
#1 by Crimson_Archer at March 30th, 2008
Amen to that…
I actually find it quite sad the amount of bitching that does go on. I don’t understand why these individuals think that just because they pay a pittance of a subscription that they some how have the experience or the knowledge to dictate what is best for the game we play.
I trust the Developers to give me the best game they can, basically because they have more time to think and plan out these things than I ever could!
#2 by Rockjaw at March 30th, 2008
People have every right to question, argue and even complain; we’re a service company, that goes with the territory. Don’t get me wrong; we want it. That’s part of the reason this blog is here.
(Also – and I have to say this partially because of what I’m saying (oh the irony) but the post above isn’t a moan about community. It’s a truism.)
Sometimes though, the incredible ability of a community to see the downside to everything does baffle me. That’s partially just a side effect of having a large community focused on one thing, and partially just human nature, I think.
#3 by Crimson_Archer at March 30th, 2008
I agree that people have the right, but there are certain responsibilities which come with exercising any right. I just feel that there are times when if you have nothing productive to say then it’s better to say nothing. Sadly (looking at the many forums I frequent) I appear to be in a minority…
#4 by Ammon Johns at March 31st, 2008
It’s a good illustration, Stephen. Because it does illustrate both sides fairly well.
Let’s face it, if you wanted to give every member the value of that gold bar, then actually mailing out thousands of gold bars would be about the worst possible way of doing it. Tell you what, next time you go shopping, leave your cash and cards at home and lug a gold bar there and see how much it will buy you. Wouldn’t you prefer cash? A cheque? Bank transfer?
Oh just an example? Well, if it was good enough to post it is good enough to run with. Bear with me, there’s something interesting coming.
What went wrong with mailing out the bars of gold was managing expectations. You let me and others assume it was the monetary value of the gold you were trying to give, in which case, you performed poorly and their complaints are valid. Tell them you are sending a collectors edition bar of gold and you get a few less complaints (though naturally some would still prefer the cash value instead, thanks).
The big secret to any community, and social group, virtual or real world, is that motivations are individual. That’s why you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Anything that matches perfectly with one individuals motivations is almost bound to clash terribly with another’s.
What can help is better understanding of the diverse motives. I highly recommend creating User Personas for this.
Let’s get more specific with an example.
You run a great MMO with hundreds of thousands of users. You’ve just come up with a huge new issue, with lots of great new features. And you release this patch to all the players.
Now lets say that one of our User Personas is that of Tony. Tony has been a loyal customer for a year. He is married wth 2 small children and doesn’t get much game time. In fact he has just a few hours each week, on a single evening, that he can set aside for playing his favourite game.
Of course, you’re ahead of me. Tony ends up spending his entire evening downloading the new patch and gets no gameplay at all and feels massively disappointed and even infuriated. From his POV he’s right too. This is precisely why City of Heroes started its system for pre-downloads of patches before they go live.
We can’t put Tony’s needs and situation ahead of the far greater majority of customers and players who want and appreciate the new content. But we don’t have to. What we can do, at no cost at all but a little thought is understand Tony. We can ensure that Tony is expecting that download for a couple of weeks and can plan around it. We can make him feel understood and considered, which really is all most of us want.
You can’t please all of the people all of the time. But you can make those you displease less displeased, and aware that their concerns were taken seriously and considered.
#5 by Rockjaw at March 31st, 2008
Great comment Ammon, as I would expect from you.
I certainly hope that we do exactly what you say as often as possible – “make those you displease less displeased, and aware that their concerns were taken seriously and considered”. We certainly try to.
The gold bar theory is of course, basically an inside joke for community people… and yeah, I think we’d talk about all the pros and cons of sending a heavy object through the post before we did it, regardless of monetary value!!
#6 by Gangrel at March 31st, 2008
i am still waiting my gold bar though… need something to throw at housemates occasionally