Forum Negativity, Representative of the whole player base?

This is a great thread @Dannyoh31. I have questioned this for over a year but you wrote it much better than I could have.

Forums are filled with passionate people, many play mobile games but a small percentage study and research on forums like us. I think the majority of people get annoyed with a lot of SGG’s practices, but some scan posts all day to blast their “money grabbing ways”.

Problem is, negativity is contagious. Honestly, if a game I play made me that irrationally angry that I have to go on 15 different posts to say the same thing, I’d flat out quit the game. Maybe it’s because I’m old, perhaps I’ve become more evolved…but that much frustration isn’t worth my time. ESPECIALLY if it something that should be bringing me happiness, and is completely optional in life.

Our alliance has 2 members that are on this forum all the time, myself and @Kilted. We choose not to bring back all this forum ranting, because it isn’t good for the fun of the game.

By all means do what you want on the forum, and yes you are allowed to be heard. But sometimes a little perspective and asking yourself “what do I bring to the forum”, could make this a more enjoyable place.

Be kind fellow forum dwellers.

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It takes two hands to clap, whether the resultant sound is a sharp slap or a continuous applause.

Players can request but many important requests (to them) have been ignored or responded to only much later.

A good example is the recent QnA. SGG’s official answer did settle some long sought answers: players now know not to expect a solution for some topics like dupes. If this was made known much much earlier, players could have decided to feed away enough dupes such that they don’t need to expand their roster to accommodate their dupes. Please go read that thread if you haven’t. Scroll down to the part where the SGG rep expressed surprise about that; it didn’t even occur to them that this was a serious issue for enough players. You can picture player discontent just on that topic alone => negativity.

Add on to that HamGate: the official reply could have been more engaging given that there was a “hungry mob” for that ham crate offer. I do agree with them that they had to retract the offer the minute the error was detected; the official explanation was dry. This probably inflamed the “hungry mob” further.

On to ToM. SGG didn’t see fit to include important info in event info : only 50 free energy will be given. Players need to buy tower flasks to complete the event. If they had done so, then they have done their bare minimum to communicate properly and completely.

Players, who didn’t know but wanted to try to complete, would then know and decide, and not find out only on day 4 or 5.This would have negated much negativity about this topic. The only negativity would probably be contained to : why wasn’t advance notice given? (Seeing this from a f2p perspective)

Now on to the latest “negative” thread: the buffs. SGG can add on their explanation for each buff, if they want to, but they choose not to. The buzz wouldn’t be as strong if all 4 are older heroes but they are not.

And this is just in 2021 alone.

Communication is key. Tone is important. I do note an improvement in their recent announcements responding to bugs etc etc : they try to engage a tad more. They respond more promptly too.

Players’ response does depend on SGG communication. When SGG communicates promptly and properly, Forum regulars will chip in to allay frustration, anger, exasperation expressed by other players. The converse only generates negativity.

Perhaps Forum will be a warmer friendlier place to hang out in, soon enough.

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The anger is because a lot of people really love this game and have invested a lot of time and more importantly Money to get good rosters and try to stay competitive. Also they do t want to get left behind and want all the shiny new toys. Problem is there are way to many shiny new toys and if you want the best you need to keep paying and all these moves show that Zynga knows this and is taking advantage of it. If you’ve guiltily invested $1000 in this game tough to walk away without feeling like an idiot.

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I believe that if SG was better at communicating their vision, they wouldn’t have folks constantly assuming every action is based on profits.

@Dante2377 asked for this in beta years ago so that we could give better feedback. I don’t think this ever came to fruition. Simple questions like these:

What niche do you want this new hero to fill?
How do you want players to interact with this new feature?
What is the primary purpose of this new feature?

In a void, people will fill in their own answers. And with a game that takes years to progress or bundles of cash on low probability drops, it’s not surprising that the void is predominantly filled with negative responses. This is especially true when the implementations run counter to the common knowledge/expectation of the player base.

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The more you know, the more negative you get, it is better to remain silent and not to let my alliance to know too much.

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In a low percentage odds game, there are far more “losers” than there are “winners”.

I don’t speak for everyone, I limit my posting. The “winners” take too much enjoyment in rubbing it in and providing ample derisive comments. Unfortunately, the “winners” seem to post on a lot…and I mean A LOT of the threads.

Remember it’s a match-3, mobile phone game.

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In the last weeks I posted similiar topics, dont be always negativ, dont rant before you have all the informations etc. But we now have three issues and no real communication from SG:

  1. The omega quest was postponed.
  2. MT was partly pay to play.
  3. Ballancing = strengthening of new already strong or playable heroes.

If we had proper communication some negativety could have been avoided.

I think here in the forum are some of the most passionate and engaged players, and the border between hate and love is a narrow one.

Happy gaming

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I’m only negative about things SG hav done. I think what started my negative comments about SG is when telluria and Vale got nerfed and went down hill for me because of SG.

I put so much time and effort in to levelling them heros because they was a force along side grave. And I was very lucky to hav all 3. So I was like hell yeah I’m on top baby.
Then the announcement to nerf them both was a hard hit. And was like OK I can see why they are a crazy team tbh.
Then the second nerf just put me on a crazy path so started digging in to why they got nerfed then see its because of players crying about it or the other theory was SG made them crazy to grab money off the players pulls.

No matter how many kicked off about it SG gave no cares and no real answer to why .

Then everything they did from then was just bad after bad after bad.

Nerfed heros, Hamgate, changing rules for merc, limit brake, power creeps, the intense push of new hero events and seasons, ninja tower, magic tower, bad customer service, SG constantly ignoring players, no QOLs, now the induction of pay wall on completing events I can go on and on. And to hear its only to squeeze money out players for a payment to zynga.

So yeah I’m going to be negative who wouldn’t apart from SG die hard fans.

Iv put alot in to the game and they just seem to take and take and take the good parts away with players leaving here and there .

Believe me when I say I really don’t want to be a negative person as do love the game and friends I made otherwise I would just leave. Do I think there could still be hope maybe Hence why I’m sticking around lol.

But also do understand why players will get annoyed and upset from the negative comments so for them I’ll try to keep it cool and stop.

From now lol.

Happy gaming all

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I mute people that annoy me. I mute entire threads that annoy me. I figure if the negativity is bothering me than it is my problem to protect myself from it :woman_shrugging:

This forum is like a simmering pot. You don’t have to turn up the heat much to kick it into a rolling boil.

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[quote=“gregschen, post:13, topic:248959”]

  • “Pushing events down own throats” is a ridiculous complaint. If you don’t like them, don’t play them! You don’t have to pull in every event, you don’t have to even attempt to play through them
    if it doesn’t feel worth it to you.[/quote]

Your confusing things… all I said is there were a lot of events - including many overlapping. Never said a thing about playing (or not playing) them - so thanks for responding to something that wasn’t mentioned.

This conversation has been had so many times on multiple posts… (and really isn’t the main topic of the OP, so it was being cited as an example, not a full discussion.) If you can’t see it, that is on you. Feel free to search for them. I know I won’t change your mind… yet I’m willing to bet you have no proof that they aren’t skewed… so perhaps you should take your own advice?

Peace out

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IMHO, its all a question of perspective. :thinking:

We are all different and unique human beings. The one thing all forum users have in common is E&P, so it stands to reason some have had more positive vs negative experiences and still others just log in, do their bit, log out and that’s the extent of their E&P priority. It is what it is.

All users of the forum (including lurkers who read everything, but don’t post) care about the game. Some use it to voice their frustration, elation and encouragement. Thank goodness moderators are on hand to keep the peace. Otherwise, why would they bother?

Um… Off the top of my head.

Telly gate which led to Vela nerfing :sweat:,
beta glitch - which gave players identical boards in the live game :sweat:,
event gate - the glitch that allowed players to replay the final legendary stage and stockpile 4* AMs - :sweat:,
ham gate - :sweat:

All these issues were addressed… Although we’re still divided about the course of action that was taken. :woozy_face: And since then, a number of veteran players have left :sob:.

Now buffing newer heros, whilst requests for older heros to be revised, like Inari are not commented on, so we assume are ignored :sweat:. Yeah, I can’t imagine why players might feel a little disappointed about the direction of the game :dizzy_face::exploding_head:.

Hmmmmm…

Taking the time to just listen - would be a great start and acknowledgement that you’ve been heard.

:popcorn:

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If SG actually took time to listen to beta testers and actually listened to what. A majority of people on the forums are saying, I don’t think there would be much negativity. Sure, there always going to be someone moaning, but SG doesn’t care what it’s BASE thinks. Whoever at SG suggested using gems for MT needs to be fired asap. That dude will bleed users from this game faster then you can say empires and puzzles.

I spend money on this game. Not much, but imo, anyone that spends even a dollar on something is invested in the game. Why ■■■■ off anyone that’s willing to even give you a dollar? You bring beta testers on for a reason. LISTEN to what they are saying. They are you first line of defense from a pissed off forum.

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If only only pixels could talk,
Maybe then we wouldn’t have to:

Otherwise we should all relentlessly defend the devs,
And praise SG’s every move…?!

:face_vomiting:

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Complaining is not always ranting. This forum is official forum managed by SG. Complaining in unofficial forum is indeed like complaining to your in-laws about your spouse in their living room, but this official forum is SG’s own room.

You won’t expect positive reaction for bad update, do you?

If we want to know whether forum negativity represent whole player base, just look at the :arrow_down: tournament participants trend.

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Keep in mind that when you say “the whole player base”, most of the player base is probably ppl that play this game very casually (i.e. not every day or at least not multiple hours per day). The casual players probably mostly don’t keep up and have no positivity/negativity. In fact they probably don’t even know there was a buff. If you want to get a sense of how the player base feels, go in global chat and see how they think of the recent buffs. I think the negativity is representative of active players other than whales who have all the top heroes.

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Why would they talk about it via global chat? SG doesn’t even talk/announce it via global chat. Wait, is there even an in-game message for announcing the buff?

None of my alliance teammate realize that we are missing LB quest.

I mean I mentioned it in global chat and the overall response was “wtf”. lol

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Concerning the relationship between forum users and SG, my impression is that they are ok with the ranting and negativity, as it serves as a way for players to vent their frustrations. And then get back to the game and do some more pulls (as it happens to many of us).

If they wanted the forum to be more than this, their communication strategy would be quite different. Even in the Q&A they stated repeatedly that they base foremost their decisions on the metrics they have on the game.

Moreover, since few players follow the forum discussions and even fewer read stuff that is not something they are looking specifically at that point to advance one way or another in the game, the negativity on the forum should not affect directly most players. Especially since if someone dislikes the negativity on the forum but still enjoys the game could just go back at enjoying the game without following the forum.

Overall, I don’t think someone knows how negative or positive is the majority of the whole player base about the game decisions or directions, though SG has metrics on their engagement and can extrapolate somehow based on it. But I do think that the negativity on the forum cannot affect how people play the game unless these people have already had issues with the game already.

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I think I got that notification? :laughing:

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I’ve found the people that say this are more concerned with not having to “keep up with the joneses” they don’t want anyone else to have better heros so what they have already retains value. That’s the unspoken meaning of that complaint.

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