The CMs ain't so bad after all
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 27th 2007 at 2:30PM
Eona from Durotan saw a picture of Drysc (perhaps via that very helpful faces of BlizzCon guide yesterday), and determined something that might surprise you: the CMs are people after all. Who knew?But seriously, I've always kind of felt for the CMs-- they're given the responsibility of transmitting messages to the community without actually being given all the information. There might be all kinds of good reasons that your class buff didn't show up in the patch, and yet while they may even know some of them, the CMs can't just say it was because the devs wanted to wait until the Northrend expansion, or because they clashed with something you'll find when the actual patch is released in a few days, or because this really amazing item that hasn't dropped yet makes it irrelevant anyway. At times, Drysc, Neth, Eyonix, and all the rest can seem like the Iraqi Information Minister, but more often than not, I'd guess they're just not allowed to tell us the whole story.
So if you do see the CMs at Blizzcon, suppress that urge to run up and ask them why Shaman clearcasting got nerfed. Instead,
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard, Humor, BlizzCon
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tekoa Jul 27th 2007 2:46PM
GJ MIKE!! =D
(^_^)/
dreadlorde Jul 27th 2007 3:02PM
coreiel is hawt
Tekkub Jul 27th 2007 5:09PM
Hrm, he's kinda cute. Blizzy does seem to have a number of bearish guys.
I still want to play with slouken's beard.
And Samwise Didier still hits the top of the list for me. With his panda obsession... I swear he must be a furry.
Coherent Jul 27th 2007 8:09PM
The problem is, I don't particularly like the CM's. Some of them are very snarky, and all too often conceal the fact that they're powerless to affect the game by making up convoluted reasons for Blizzard's logic.
I want to know, what influence DOES a CM have? I don't think I've ever seen a CM say "I agree with your class issue and I'll push for it to be changed, but I don't have the influence to really help you." Instead they're far more likely to say "It doesn't work that way because of XXXX" where XXXX is not a convincing argument.
So anyway, CM's are basically in the business of NOT addressing player concerns and issues. Basically their job is to delete topics that are inconvenient to Blizzard and reply in an amusing fashion to topics that have no relevance.
Not all Blizzard CM's are like this, but enough so that I have no particular love of the CM archetype that Blizzard employs.
Lets put it this way: For impartial information and relevant comments and insight about in-game issues, I come to Wowinsider. The official CM's would never allow such bluntly unfettered (and useful) commenter insight and info to be posted or discussed. You will NEVER get the best info from Blizzard's own board.
I hardly visit it any more.
Jeff Jul 27th 2007 8:24PM
Generally I like and appreciate the CMs. Mostly they do what they can to improve communication between players and devs. There's just been too many times that I've heard a CM say something clearly wrong like "It's always been like that" about a bug that showed up a month ago.
tripdream Jul 27th 2007 8:33PM
Welcome to the management side of being a Community Manager. They are nothing more than a customer service rep all dressed up with a fancy title. The job is the same: Manage the customer. Anyone want to guess who the customer is? Bingo. Their job is to give you information without giving you information, and having done so myself many times for many companies I can tell you it's probably one of the worst jobs you can have, aside from telemarketing or collections. You sympathize with the customer, you want to spend as much time as you can trying to help them and make them understand whats really going on. Here's the catch: You've been given a time limit and a set of instructions or "best policies" and you need to pretty much go along with it.
I agree that honesty - especially in marketing - is a good thing, but too much honesty can actually do more harm to a company than good. A good part of the time running a company is spent on managing your relationship with your current and future customers. If you're a public corporation it's pretty much a necessity due to the more open nature of the business.
My point is that it's simply not wise to divulge all the information when you have it and as soon as you have it. The CM's are doing a great job and I think that one needs to take a look at what they have to deal with day in and day out: US. Gamers. Picky. Icky. Want everything now or else. Yeah us. It would truly suck to be the person that had to deal with me when there's a problem.
schroey Jul 27th 2007 11:00PM
I think Drysc is a cutie :D
Anorax Jul 28th 2007 8:31PM
Most of the people who have better things to do - like actually play the game - avoid the forums. There's nothing worse than reading thousands of pointless comments from the unwashed masses.
The CM's deserve real credit for putting up with the idiot's daily crap.