It always is. MVP/Council always end up getting things directed at them that they have no control or input on. I can offer someone advice on how to run a WinMTR, and get insulted for being green. You kind of get used to it.
That is not the purpose of the Council though. It is to express game ideas to the Developers and CMs. It has nothing to do with the website, moderation, etc. I have tried. It is no secret moderation is in a poor place, or that posting by char vs Bnet account allows rampant sock puppeting and abuse.
I have no idea yet if I will re-apply or just go back to being green TS/CS/ WoW Community MVP.
It just seems incredibly anti-community when a member of the Community Council can’t bring these topics up. Perhaps they should broaden the council and bring the Community Managers in. I don’t understand why all these groups of people can’t be in a conversation in some capacity. Talk about non-transparency.
Forum moderation is not part of Community Management, no. I mean, they CAN edit posts and do things, but it is not their job.
Most of their job is interacting with the streamers, influencers, media, promotions, engagement campaigns, setting up the dev interviews with people, writing the blogs and such.
I have a whole Council post where I addressed the community toxicity and the roles of various people within Blizzard related to that. Here is the Community Manager job description.
Blizzard Organization and Job Roles:
Community Managers (CMs) don’t take tickets. They have a very different role at Blizzard. Their job is to take feedback across forums, reddit, streams, third party websites, etc. To write and publish patch notes, news posts, forum notices, game changes. They also do engagement campaigns, promotions, and outreach. They engage and work with the media, streamer community, focus groups for raid testing and all the coordination that goes with that.
While CMs have the ability to moderate forums, that is not something they usually do. That is handled by the Forum Moderators who review forum reports that we flag. Those same Forum Mods are like the GMs who handle reports from the game.
Here is a recent Associate Community Manager role job posting.
Blizzard Entertainment games don’t just begin with game ideas or end once those games are released. A lot more goes into the creation of a Blizzard product than the work of developers—and we support our games for years after they’re in the hands of gamers worldwide. Operations teams support, evangelize, and improve our games. The Global World of Warcraft Publishing team is seeking a community professional who is passionate about player communities, brand communications, marketing, and customer support. They would join our community development team, who is dedicated to creating and maintaining relationships with our community of players.
The ideal candidate is driven, creative, and is a self-starter who possesses strong task management skills with a proven track record of successful community management and development experience in the entertainment industry. They are a tireless advocate for the voice of the player, constantly seeking to build bridges, trust, and foster constructive dialogue.
Responsibilities:
Act as public-facing representative of Blizzard and communicate on behalf of the brand across multiple channels and at events
Contribute to the design and execution of community development programs for World of Warcraft
Support communication plans and channel management
Create and maintain relationships with community partners including fansites, content creators, and volunteers
Engage with players at in-person and online events Work closely with the various teams developing and supporting World of Warcraft
Compile and relay meaningful feedback on the sentiment, suggestions, and concerns of the community
Support the live operations of World of Warcraft with public-facing messaging tailored to our audience Develop official communications for upcoming game changes and content
Requirements
Bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing, or related field or equivalent work experience
Minimum four years’ experience with brand communications, forums, and social media
Experience with channel management, publishing calendars, reporting & analytics
Familiarity with project management and process improvement
Ability to meet deliverables amid a fast-paced, high volume environment
Able to travel, including international travel, and work long hours including weekends as needed
Pluses
Advanced degrees in communication, marketing, or related field
Third party relationship management experience
Project management training and experience
A passionate gamer possessing ample experience with World of Warcraft and/or World of Warcraft Classic
Experience with content management systems, html, or other publishing platforms
Existing strong personal network within Blizzard’s communities Fansite, creator, and/or streaming experience within the WoW community
Now the Devs can blame unpopular changes on : “we received input directly from our player base through this fancy council!” and Players who are upset can direct their ire at the Council.
They’ve never once “blamed” a change on the CC. I never once got the idea the CC was them directly taking suggestions. Rather, give them ideas of things players might like and let them reach the conclusion themselves if it aligns with their design philosophy.
At least 4 things I suggested in the CC forums ended up happening - I don’t know if they were because of my posts. but I like to think I at least helped fuel the thought process that players might be interested in it.
Just because they aren’t posting in the threads doesn’t mean they aren’t using that feedback.
Now, if only they’d listen to the @target conditional we desperately need for accessibility reasons. Especially since they are adding more and more targeting circle abilities. >_< They have multiple CC members telling them point blank that it IS an accessibility issue and they ignore it, even with an entire accessibility team. X_X
If they’re that concerned about PvP, disable it in PvP until their team can figure out which abilities specifically to exclude from it.
If they’re worried about exploits - they shouldn’t - wowhead will post about any gamebreaking ones and they can hotfix those specific encounters.
All that stuff you listed kinda reinforces the “it didn’t really do anything” notion in this thread though
If you notice, that’s all minor “fluff” from the things you listed, or not really the major changes people/GD’ers were hoping to come out of the CC. Rez sickness? Quest log limit? While those are nice (minor) buffs, they’re not really the “big” changes that would make the difference between a fence-sitter unsubbing or deciding to re-up to the game for another 6 months
Perhaps it was simply a case of “too much expected” out of the CC forum, since it seems GD’ers were expecting the moon versus what was actually delivered. So there’s definitely a bit of a “gap” between people’s expectations versus how it went down - maybe that’s the source of a lot of the criticism about the program (expectations of the general public vs reality)
True, but the point I was trying to make is something like quest log limit is a very minor “fluff” change compared to other more recent player complaints/requests
Seems to be a common theme with this latest batch of devs; they’ll do a small/minor quality of life change (such as quest log limit)… while totally ignoring the “big” ticket-item requests from the playerbase (like account-wide rep, allowing Drackthyr to play other classes, fixing OP classes, etc)
I applied only for transmog /character customization feedback . Those things are important for me and clearly they are slowly headed in the right direction BUT they still need to add way more things and have feedback on the design of said items .
…did you even read my post? Cause I specifically say I don’t think my post had anything to do with it, just helped bring the idea back up. And that is reinforced by the fact the change happened 9 days after my post. Or do you genuinely think that it was a massive coincidence? >_>
And thank you for proving my point about being subjected to harassment for simply having an opinion.
