First off, I think the spvp devs are some of the most passionate and communicative devs at anet. However, I am worried that with anet’s uncertainty with how much to communicate, you will take this negative reaction to the patch as a sign that you said too much and raised expectations, and that you will try to avoid this by not saying anything at all in the future. That is the exact opposite of what you should do.
The reason there is such a strong response is because we are told nothing. All we hear is “when it’s ready.” And then we finally, after so long, get a solid date, a date when it IS ready, and everyone thinks finally, this will be the patch filled with all the stuff they haven’t told us. Expectations become astronomical because it’s finally a break in the silence.
If there was more communication about the process, if we had some idea what you were working on and how the development process was going, people’s expectations would be more reasonable with the patches. We would know what your major goals were, and we would know there were some unexpected delays (or whatever) and that this patch would be more modest. The expectations would be more in lne.
This isn’t some feel good idealistic strategy; this is what other companies do, and do well. There’s always going to be discontent on patches no matter what, that’s just the nature of trying to appeal to a community of millions of people. But it doesn’t have to be this bad.
Look at your fellow game studios, look at how they manage expectations and keep their players informed without creating too many problems. I know you guys are trying and that this negativity must be very frustrating, but the best thing you can do isn’t turtle up, but rather to realize that the only way to really manage expectations is transparency.
