It’s Blizzard’s responsibility to pay people to moderate the forums.
This. If the forums are “toxic” then it’s entirely Blizzard’s own fault because …
They don’t bother coming here and establishing a proper communication environment…
They don’t bother taking the time to interact in a way that engenders good dialog…
They don’t bother maintaining the forum and enforcing rules that create the ‘non-toxic’ environment they claim they want…
In the end, the company is responsible for setting the tone in a forum and taking the time and effort to make it the kind of environment they want. If all the company is willing to do is create a room and then ignore it then it shouldn’t be a surprise when that ‘effort’ results in a chaotic, unregulated flame fest.
But we all know what’s going on here. It would take time, effort, care, attention, and resources to actually establish this forum as a good, solid environment. And we know 100% that the developers are lazy, shiftless, uncaring, inattentive, greedy attention hounds. Why would they take the time and spend the resources doing WORK on the forums when they can just go to 3rd party sites who will do all the work for them?
That’s what’s going on here. It would take effort, time, and money to make the forums a good environment … and Team5 doesn’t want do do any of that.
ppl don’t accept friends on hs so they come to forums to bm. players like fighting on here and everyone is right and other person isn’t and no one likes the other ones opinion
I wish somehow this could be stickied. In my mind everyone’s opinion here is valid on so many points. It’s tough you know, on the one hand, I have to say that I agree with the fact that the toxicity on the forums is Blizzard’s fault… The lack of interaction with its player base on its own forums is a disheartening fact. On the other hand, I also believe that as a forum community we can change the tone of the forum environment by acting together against toxic post, and posters.
It is a sad thing we are at the point of having to “police” ourselves, but it is what it is… Complaining about the fact that we do serves no one’s best interest, and just adds to the toxicity. What if we did begin to “police” ourselves, Lord forbid if it would work… Wouldn’t that be something. You know it probably takes about as much or even less energy and time to do such a thing as it would to carry on and continue to add to or allow the toxicity.
There is no need to police those that are well behave and/or willing to conduct themselves
Those that required to be police, will not be willing to behave or change.
It ends up penalizing the “innocent” and giving “guilty” a free pass.
Sorry BLIZZARD… Last I checked this was YOUR game and YOUR company and ALL the revenue goes in YOUR bank accounts.
WE have ZERO responsibility as the consumer to help you navigate, propagate, celebrate, designate or orchestrate your forums.
These forums are a marginal marketing tool for you to keep us interested and discussing YOUR PRODUCT, along the same lines as a consumer may discuss an Ad placed on the side of a bus or a billboard.
You could shut these forums down and I would give 2 craps.
You want better feedback from YOUR CUSTOMERS, then…
It’s YOUR responsibility to build a place where WE feel welcome, and where we can disagree in a productive and professional manner.
Exactly… Which in turn gives others the incentive to change their tune otherwise their voices would fall onto deaf ears.
I used the term police-ing since it was used on so may other posts. My meaning in fact is quite different… To a degree…
I’ve noticed often that the topics posted by toxic players are given weight by the attention that they receive.
This CAN be altered.
Most often than not even the hateful players want their voice to be heard. If one validates their negative opinion than it fuels that negative aspect. Otherwise they just run out of gas, or burn up in smoke.
Sometimes… They come back again wanting to be heard… But their tune has changed and they are more palatable.
See my meaning?
ITS GARBAGE LIKE THIS IN FACT…
This is to negative… @Paf
This fuels the haters that come to the forums…
I know you liked one of my posts but I’m sorry I had to point that out.
Stating your opinion is of high regard in my eyes…
For its your opinion and that is truly important…
As is mine…
The garbage I was referring to was the tonality of your post… Not your opinion.
Something something…
Blah blah blah…
Imagine trying to talk with someone and they put their hands over their ears and went la-la-llaa…
That was your tonality my friend…
As to your opinion…
I do respect and ask for forgiveness to that fact…
But as to your tonality…
My tone was deliberate. I’m glad I have the ability to convey tone through the written word. Sometimes these nuances can go unnoticed.
My tone reflects the arrogance that Blizzard has trying to pass on responisibilies that are theirs, not our, to us, the consumer.
Imagine going into a grocery store and the shelves are all mismanaged and missing stock and items are crooked and in the wrong place and you ask the manager what is going on and they say…
Well, if the customers would stay a while and re-stock the shelves and rotate the inventory the shelves wouldn’t be so bare.
And if the customers are responsible for the “mess” and misplaced items and the like, and the store doesn’t feel the need to clean it up, then, your business is just going to go down the toilet and you should just close.
You don’t stand out front, with your arms folded and say, like a child, well, we aren’t going to re-stock the shelves because we have some messy messy customers!
You are not misreading anything, but Reaver isn’t a Blizzard employee (as far as I know), and there’s nothing in this thread that suggests that’s Blizzard’s position. The original article is about Paradox Interactive (the Hearts of Iron/Europa Universalis folks), not Blizzard.
The title is with a “?” at the end.
Thus, it is a question implied toward the HS forum.
The link is about Paradox, but it add abit of context from the perspective of the dev (since HS dev has not commented)
The incentive is to be heard and listened to.
Things can be discussed even when ideologies and opinions aren’t quite equal. Such as what we’re doing now.
Exactly… And the ones that wont change will either discuss with respect, like we’re doing now, or they will find somewhere were others will listen to their incessant negative rantings that serve nothing not even themselves except to fuel the .
I’m actually guilty for some negative posts myself… I regret… But I’m trying to change my tune… Plus before I was trying to be a persona…
Now I’m just trying to be myself.
“To be heard and listen to” applies to 2 parties. There must be a willing “Speaker” and a willing “Listener”.
I do not see any examples of any incentive…
Maybe a typo error? Those that does not want to change will not change. There is a difference where poster does an occasional rant, from a poster that consistently project a negative.
True on both counts.
If someone wants their opinion validated in any way then they may be willing to be listened to by others… So I suppose I’m referring to the posters who may be more open-minded… as to the ones not willing than I suppose the incentive would be not to be ignored. Maybe then they may become willing to change and interact with other forum users in a more positive way.
That’s one of the reasons why I agree with some posters about the lack of interaction on Blizzard’s part.
I know that some maybe incapable of change…
In that case I suppose I’m still undecided as to how they maybe dealt with…
I’m just trying to promote more positive posts.
But in hindsight I see that if I’m not more careful with how I approach it that I could end up being the one promoting negativity instead. It’s the posts that seem to have no rhyme or reason in the negative way one might construct said post.
I agree that quite a bit of threads on this forum make valid points. I’m just trying to promote positive posts that are inline to those valid points.
It’s the nonsensical hate posts that I don’t agree with that can lead to becoming toxic.
Imagine being a developer and not feeling welcome on your own forum. I would pull the plug out of my forum the day I feel unwelcome there. What is this, upside down world? Stand your ground and get rid of the toxicity instead of silencing yourself.
.