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A question:. How to engage with the silent majority.
tawess
Member EpicPosts: 4,227
For a deeper insight in to my opinions check my blog.
How to engage with the silent majority. The group of a user base that at best comes to a community site when something is wrong but beyond that stay silent and unmoving. This is a question that have been nagging my mind for some time. Not only because it is a interesting mental exercise but also vital in order to get a proper product development. The latest thing to spark this train of thought is from MechWarrior online. A new matchmaking system was introduced. The preview of the system was met with a positive response and the general attitude was good. Then comes the patch with the new system and people flipped their collective tables.
So how do you engage those that prefer to remain silent until the bio-waste hit the air circulation system? Because i am seriously stumped. Also if you are part of the silent majority usually, would you care to shed some light on why? this would be helpful to understand the issue.
Best regards
T
Comments
You don't, that is why it is called silent.
This have been a good conversation
I think at least part of the reality of this situation is something that may leave a bad taste in your mouth. If you think about it really, I think almost everyone is part of a silent majority in one segment of society or another. Are you active in regards to every game you play? The answer is most likely that you are not and I think the reason why is that a lot of people are apathetic towards something until it manages to offend them in some way and even when offended that doesn't mean the offended party will bother to attempt to communicate on the issue.
This is part of the reason why I do not agree that design need consider the majority as the most important group. The majority are often fickle and apathetic and are moved by emotional triggers in many cases to unwarranted anger. Take a look at achievement/trophy data for things in games (this can be done on steam or ps4, i dont know if xbox displays community data on its achievements) and for just about any game, not matter how easy the achievement is theres usually a large portion of people who haven't done it.
While I understand the desire to move the majority to be more active in decisions in game design for the sake of a more broad effect, the very nature of the beast is that the majority isn't interested enough in it to do so.
They don't really care enough to have an opinion outside of what is fed to them.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
...yes, I can't imagine what could possibly keep them from actively participating, given the high amount of respect for differing viewpoints by those who consider themselves more...'caring'.
Total mystery, I swear.
I roam and not really put any input most of the times, I don't think it's worth it. To further explain, the devs will always be driven by what they themselves want, therefor, even though the do listen to suggestions. No one is able to suit the needs of everyone and such they just go with what they feel is best. Some of the times some agree and some don't.
Also, explaining your own (mine) point of view is really exhausting, as you need to put into words feelings, and that's quite a challenging task at times. The reward of doing it isn't great when there's already MANY people doing it, devs and whatever can only go through so many suggestions.
This isn't much but it's just some of what I can come up with off the top of my head.
I wanted to reply and elaborate further but after reading first few lines of your blog:
"But then I once again got proof that your average gamer has the attention span of a goldfish"
I realized that with your perception of "it is customers to be blamed", any discussion would be pointless because essential of consumer-supplier relationship is completely slipping your mind.
The problem with your silent majority is that they don't frequent forums, or look on facebook or twitter, or even the front page of your website. They just log into the game and play it. They probably don't even read news bulletins on the launcher if you have one.
They just click that big red PLAY button and ignore everything else.
You can post as much information about upcoming changes wherever you want and they simply won't see it. The only way I can see to make it so obvious that they do see it is to have it flash on screen while they'e playing the game itself. Other than that you're screwed.
Some games have short polls about upcoming or existing features, that take less than a minute fill. I think it's a good system, it also filters out haters who dont even play the game so you get feedback from people that matters, and you as a dev can focus on things that are prioritized.
One good thing also is that with a personal poll others cant sway your decision. So often people try to convince others that their opinion is the correct one to get support for whatever they want. Ofcourse there's the chance that a player misunderstands the issue and makes the wrong choise because of that, but to be honest, just make a clear and simple poll.
Pretty much the only way to get any response/attention from them is to have a very very short pop up in-game.
1-2 short questions maybe once a week and you might get some response.
Timing would be important. IE:not in the middle of play, and not having an extra load screen or 2. It would have to be short fast and easy to get rid of, click past.
These folks are silent for a reason:) they do not want to be bothered and doing so can backfire very easily. They are also very conservative, as in they like things that do not change. A lot of games do not seem to realize that. Even small changes can turn a paying customer into a former paying customer very easily.
The dichotomy really exists along a different line entirely: those who believe their actions/opinions have an impact on a game's future development and those who don't. In this regard, it is very much like politics where you find fervent participants and disillusioned grumblers alike.
It's not even so much about believing you can steer the course of the game, but about caring enough to do so. With so many titles to choose from, most consumers are probably of the opinion that the best thing to do is vote with your wallet. If a game is doing something that you find unappealing, you go play something else. The ones who stay and complain are likely convinced they can't get their fix elsewhere. The ones who do it regularly, the "vocal minority", are simply more proactive about it.
You're never going to be able to reach the group that has no problem walking away from your game because they're never going to get deeply enough invested to care in the first place. However, you could probably take a shot at opening a discourse with those people who only seem to rear their heads when something is implemented that they don't like if you can just convince them that their opinions truly matter. And your best bet is to foster that kind of attitude through creative, in-game means, because these people aren't reading internet forums on a daily basis.
If you're a developer you pull metrics from the game they are playing. Where do they go? What do they do? What do they avoid? What do they buy? What do they sell in the auction house? How many quests do they complete? And so on.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Well what got me going this time was the fact with all this done a lot of time was potentially wasted on a new matchmaking system that had a fairly solid thumbs up, only to be implemented and then be yanked out again due to a different subset who did not bother to get involved the first time stirring up a storm over the change. Now i know this happens but it made me curious if there was a better way.
I guess bribes could be one way.. =P Reply to this poll and get a lollipop.
Any way lot of interesting answers. I am going to mull it over a bit and see if anything pops up. Also i am sorry for making the goldfish remark in the blog, i was.. emotional... at that time.
This have been a good conversation
But they ARE active participants... hence why they make up the majority. They actively PLAY the game. They don't waste time debating it.
The people who frequent forums, OF ANY KIND, make up the minority. They will ALWAYS make up the minority. Hell, just look at guild websites... only a tenth, if that much, even bother to frequent them... the rest all just play the game.
They speak with their wallets. They leave games they dislike. They don't post farewell speeches regarding their departure. They don't rant on forums about some injustice (real or unreal). They just play games. If they like the game, they play it. If they don't, they don't. They don't waste time trying to offer solutions to fix things. They don't bother to subscribe to games that don't offer any substance. They never participate in early access, I slept with the developer so I get to play the game before alpha access, or anything of the sort. They drive the design of games because they keep their mouths shut and just plain stop playing when things aren't to their liking. It's why they are the majority. It's why they will stay the majority. Learn from them. Your blood pressure will thank you.
If your goal is to gather information from people who really have no interest in giving you that information, then bribes are one way to do it. Google has a survey system where you answer surveys, and when you do, you get a small amount of Google Play money to spend on apps, movies, whatever. I have little or no interest in providing this information, but I will do so to get 10 cents in the Google Play store. I don't know if that is a good idea, but it is effective. People would answer surveys and questions to get a little cash shop money, especially if the surveys are going to be regular and they will get regular income from it. Wrap the surveys into the medium that the users are immersed in (into the game, on the phone, etc.) and you'll get a much higher response rate.
This idea is kind of catching hold in my head.
The player walks, rides or flies into the local faction city and sees an exclamation point over top of a sign board. They click on it and it tells the player that if they answer this survey they get XP, gold, whatever. What are the odds that they won't do it, especially if it only take thirty seconds or so. Have weekly surveys and get people coming back.
Or when users do something else in the interface (so you know they are not in combat) there is a flashing exclamation point that if they hover over it tells them about the survey and the treats they can get.
**
Quest log. The exclamation point shows up in their quest log.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Aion had a good idea. A survey icon would pop up in the corner of your screen while you were playing. If you took the survey you got rewards in the form of boosts. So every active player could contribute.
For inactive players you could provide email surveys that gave in-game rewards when completed.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Another vote for "you don't".
Not because they are any lesser. They are silent because they don't care. Not in a "negative way" which some might infer but the issues are simply not "issues".
Some people just want to play games to have fun and they don't have to be any more than that.
These gaming sites seem to have a lot of "Sturm und Drang" when it comes to "game issues".
Many people don't have these issues on any serious level. They buy a game, they play it, they like it or not and they move on.
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Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Honestly, the OP said "the preview was good...".
People don't know they are terrible unless they tried it themself.
Simple .. you look at sales, and other customers engagement measures (like whether they play).
The only way to get information about them is to observe their decisions. So if you want to have early information, run tests. There is no way to get them to tell you from other means. Otherwise, they would not be the "silent" ones.
I think the biggest hurdle is that the Silent Majority, are just not listening, they don't visit blogs, forums or internet chat rooms, those are places to find the 'vocal minority'.
To talk to the 'Silent Majority' you have to do it in game, and chances are, when you try, you'll undoubtedly end up on multiple ignore lists, and probably reported as some kind of spammer.