If there is something all players of all types have been consistent in asking for, it is timely and improved communication. Sometimes they get it right and cover issues well with hourly updates, other times they just seem to say nothing.
Here is another fun one. They don’t let Devs just post publicly. Any public statements of any kind have to go through the Community and/or Publishing channels. Even updates to the Launcher warning about ongoing events.
They are actually better than they were a few years ago, but no where near what they should be. We seem to get back to a sort of decent pattern then someone decides layoffs or re-orgs are good and it all goes to heck again.
Respectfully, I know you’re an MVP, and you are trying to help. I agree for the most part with your explanations and I know that neither YOU, nor the CM’s or GM’s can really make any kind of decisions that have any changes into the complaints being mentioned here.
With that being said…
Some of these responses are EXACTLY the type of dismissive, switch-the-blame type of responses that people get when bad customer service happens. You are only proving the point of everyone here that the service that CM’s/GM’s are supposed to provide is absolutely hot garbage, and that the company is well aware of it.
Again, I know you are not technically defending Blizzard, and more trying to shine on the limited tools the people we interact with have to begin with.
But it is nothing short of appalling, the amount of contempt this companies’ upper management has, all of them, for their customers. And it only makes it more evident how unfortunate it is that most people can’t break away from a game addiction, to really demonstrate that this company doesn’t deserve our money.
I commend your commitment to try to bring the heat down on the whole situation. Truly. But sometimes these threads should blow up uncontrollably to get a point across. IMO.
I kind of figured this was the case, which is why I suggested it should have been leadership to put out the communication - someone like Ion Hazzikostas or Johanna Faries - someone who could authorize not only the communication itself, but the compensation I suggested would have helped the player base to gain a little trust and faith in Blizzard as a company that actually cares about its gamers.
Staff: These days staff at most corporations are treated as disposable cogs in a wheel. Misled, underpaid, under resourced, working crunch hours, with rugs pulled out from under them when they need to do something important.
I don’t know if it was ever better, but at least some time in the past staff had value beyond what they could do that day in a seat. They had knowledge, skill sets, and were assets a company kept for the entire career someone worked. Now they are nothing…
Loyalty to staff is gone, with it loyalty to companies went, and loyalty of the customers is going. When that is gone too they going to have to re-think the whole thing. Not just Blizzard. Corporations in general.
The CSTwitter feed is our CS Blues on the CS forum. They also control the Launcher I think? Or they are connected with the people who control the launcher updates. Those don’t get pushed as fast because they have a different posting process. Those things don’t get updated until the game team actually gives them info to post.
The main Blizzard and game Social Media accounts are handled by a dedicated Social Media team.
If the heads of a company want to release something, it goes through multiple drafts, PR, and Legal first. They don’t want someone important saying something that tanks the stocks.
Pretty sure it’s all AI now. One of the players in my Cata raid was bugged on the first part of the legendary staff quest, saying they completed the required quests, etc. and the GM literally sent him a link to the wowhead page for the quest he said he completed to get where he was. They’re either AI bots now, or working with their eyes closed.
Side note… wowhead isn’t even owned by Blizzard. Why are GMs so hellbent on sending people to a third-party website instead of offering help themselves? It’s wild.
Because Blizzard has never allowed GMs to give what they consider game hints and GMs don’t take bug reports. Those go to QA. So if they think the ticket is asking for one of those two things they send a template with guide resources or point folks to the bug report channels.
Not saying I agree with it, but that is how Blizzard’s GM team has always worked. If it is not a very specific bug the Devs have told them they are allowed to touch, they can’t.
They can’t just fix everything customers want fixed, as nice as that would be.
I understand that. I don’t mean hints. I mean the dude in my raid looted the purple version of the staff and it didn’t go into his bag, and he was unable to re-loot it. There’s no hint to be given there, that’s just a literal bug. GMs can see what you looted and when. The response he received in his ticket was to visit a wowhead page.
The response should have been “Let me look into that for you.” Followed shortly by “It looks like you did in fact loot the staff, but it’s not in your bags or bank. Let me handle that for you.” And then they put the staff in his bags. Blizzard has access to all of that information, loot, what’s in your bags and bank, etc. They’ve just gotten lazy and immediately respond with “Go to wowhead.”
I’m not trying to hi-jack the thread, I’m just in agreement with OP that GMs definitely feel like AI bots now. It’s never been this bad. Even with the copy/pasta stuff they send, they would include a fun little pun or joke at the end of the ticket, but it’s just “go to wowhead” any time anyone has a problem now.
To fix the issue, he had to cancel the quest and reacquire it. Since there’s a lockout on killing the mini-boss required for the quest, he lost a week’s worth of progress. What hint could he have been given to prevent that? That’s just bad customer service.
I do think during high queue time they DO have keyword based automation set up. Like if something has certain keywords it get X template. If it has Y keywords it gets B template. Just super simple stuff, not AI. AI would actually be way more wordy and specific than basic templates.
Re-opening the ticket is what someone should do if they do get a template, and if it is not right.
If this is an option they usually prefer players use it. They consider it a player solvable issue, despite the lost time. Esp for older content which is what is often bugged after so many years of game changes.
BUT what would have been better is just outright telling your friend that instead of a plain template that did not address the issue. “Hey, what you are asking for seems to be a game hint or a game bug. Those are not services GMs offer. Please see XYZ instead”. Knowing what GMs can and can’t do helps prevent frustration, even if it is not the answer someone wants.
Having to dig through the quest comments on wowhead to find that it is a common bug and they have to drop and re-acquire the quest is not good for players. It certainly feels really bad.
I realize Cata was released 14 years ago, but Cata Classic is current content on Cata Classic realms. If it’s still bugged after so many years, Blizzard should take a look at it and fix it before re-releasing it as current content. Or at the very least, help the people who are still having issues with it, as it is current content on classic realms.
Having so many versions of the WoW games and chars makes support really tricky. What is bugged in one version may not be bugged in another. They are not the same code base as far as I know. They are not handled by the same Dev teams.
A bug in retail is unlikely to be replicated in Classic, esp when it pertains to high level chars speed killing content solo, or in small groups. That short circuits boss mechanics that can cause glitches. Sometimes “Slow down” is the advice given. They do fix those as time allows, but current content has priority over old content.
Can you chill with the automated responses? I don’t think you know what you’re saying honestly. I never said the bugs transfer from retail to classic. I was correcting your assumption that the bug took place on retail. No one is speed killing Cata Classic bosses because it’s literally current content.
I’m not asking you for assistance or to help make me feel better. I’m literally voicing an opinion, and you keep replying with generic Blizz-like statements. It’s all good. The dude in my raid got screwed over by Blizzard. You don’t need to reply with an explanation on why he got screwed over by Blizzard.
I understand that CS Staff aren’t devs and if something is actually bugged they don’t have the ability to magically fix it. That’s why they so often ask you to submit a bug report.
But they definitely used to have more power to manually fix things in game, especially about your character or quests.
They pretty blatantly don’t do that kind of thing anymore.
CS is just for Account and Billing issues now. There is no in-game support.
Which is probably why Account and Billing is the only way to get Web Chat / Callback support and why every single one of the in-game ticket options sends you to support articles with no option to even submit a ticket.
That no longer exists. Has not for about 4 years now. They closed the last of it during the pandemic and have not revived it. They had Live Chat for a bit afterwards, but they have not in a long time.
If you want to know the path to get help, the CS forum serves as an Information Desk to help folks navigate the support system, explain policies, explain account services, etc. It can save a lot of time and frustration by knowing up front if they can help, and if they can help, what path to take.
I will say that this particular Time issue is more problematic than others… I have a few alts that are unable to trigger the alt time, and have done the BFA and lordaeron achievement.
I can usually get there by flying to the bulwark area at the Plaguelands border and flying into under city.
If you’re old, you should probably slow down while reading, that way you don’t miss things. Also, you just said you missed something I said in the first sentence of the post to which you replied. That means you skipped the first sentence when reading it. You didn’t miss it; you skipped it or ignored it.
I don’t know what your second statement means. What jump to AI? Like using AI is strange to you, or the idea of AI is strange to you? It’s strange to everyone because it’s something that none of us have experienced before the technological age.
I don’t know if calling people AI is “a thing” now but you’re responding like an automated messaging system… if the shoe fits.
