Ever have one of those times where you’re just surfing the forum skimming topics at large, find something you want to respond to specifically but hesitate (and ultimately choose to not post) because you get an impression that it’s a waste of your time to attempt contributing to that?
It’s a safe bet the official CX team has those days too.
If this is how I discriminate which customer concerns to address and which ones to fully ignore, then maybe I shouldn’t be a mod/interacting with customers 
Either way, the selectiveness I’m referring to is their Radio Silence™ that has been part of their forum philosophy for years now, when they choose opacity over transparency.
@Bramble
Please see a fresh example of what I was alluding to
“We fixed it™, but rather short-change players on the one universally-liked event so we don’t worry about the ™ part”…
…surely now kingdom passes will be scheduled right after vault weekends to avoid the clashes? Or shortened/changed to be less than 35 days of universally-disliked grind?..
…right?
PS: Worthwhile to notice how now the 6 week gap is back to being ‘usual schedule’, whereas we were lectured about unconfirmed assumptions being the players’ fault when IP2 deliberately and documentedly took away the January vault event.
The once in a blue moon instance when a mod participates in a feedback thread, and it’s about some social issue unrelated to gameplay: meanwhile, the countless other feedback threads about how to improve customers’ experience go on ignored for years/eternity.
Nothing wrong with supporting social issues, but priorities as a videogame mod/communicator may need revisiting
Also meanwhile:
Verse 4 could use some better representation in daily offers seeing my current inventory, if only Devs could add that tiny line of code to check for which verse I actually need.
Just an FYI as you may have missed it - I had to moderate that thread as there was a sexist and inappropriate “adult” comment. I replied to nip it in the bud in case anyone thought of continuing down that path so I wouldn’t have to come in there like the police warning everyone later.
Sometimes re-steering the conversation is all it takes to stop a situation from escalating and I would much prefer to do that than to come down with a ban hammer later if the whole situation was so easily avoidable.
We shall see if it works.
Also worth noting is that we’ve already replied to this feedback but not for awhile - I have the confirmation that as a company we do care about this, so it’s a rare instance I can share a solid stance on feedback. We normally can’t promise things for game features until we get the go ahead to announce it, which takes a long time.
This was super easy to reply to.
Meanwhile, this is what energy/time is being spent on
#IP2priorities
(here’s to hoping the powers that be don’t use their even broader ability to now remove anything they subjectively dislike to further silence facts)
#PowerDynamics
Heyo!
Just a note to this, Community guidelines and practices are important, as mentioned repeatedly, making sure and maintaining these community spaces are safe and respectful for anyone within it is among the highest priority as Support and Community Managers.
This is also something I have personally been working on for an extensive period of time because any tasks that have come up that I or CX are responsible for, such as reporting issues and bugs, would have been addressed immediately before progressing with updating these guidelines.
Could understand some frustrations if members of Support/CX could personally fix bugs or make changes to the game itself, but that is not something we are responsible for.
Thanks for the clarification & just a note to your latest guidelines:
you have effectively created a system where users are 100% vulnerable to discrimination/targeting by mods (you may check the history of these forums and determine for yourself if this is something to be concerned about), since you basically say mods can delete whatever they want and claim it as ‘off-topic’ or ‘combative’ without the customers being able to defend themselves should it be a case of targeting, no explanation needs to be given, and the mod is right no matter what.
Ticket complaints about mods are received and reviewed by their colleagues, so not much hope there (yes, I have in the past done this, and even provided evidence and even a statement by the alleged ‘victim’ of my ‘provoking and upsetting’ saying that “on the contrary, you brought me answers that allowed me to make a more complete ticket and avoid an unnecessary discussion phase with the operators” [As Requested by a Dev: A Thread about Devs' Actions/Inactions - #91 by AMT]) of the false claims by the mod, just to be dismissed by the powers that be.
That is just a single instance of things that have been happening for years, because your guidelines give mods all the powers.
I get that this is your platform, and it is your prerogative to dictate at will.
Just hoping it is called what it is, since there is no change in the horizon (and actually the direction seems to be to further extend mod powers at the expense of potential misuse)
In that thread about the community, guidelines isn’t it supposed to be read as Being disrespectful instead of Being respectful? I mean it comes right after:
Certain conduct makes it extremely clear that someone does not belong in our community. Such conduct will result in a ban without warning.
I tried reading it differently so many times but the tone still feels the same, if I’m wrong then OK but it still feels awkward.
Continuing the discussion from Community Guidelines:
Wasn’t that the case and practice already?
@Jeto:
Since your big project of “community guidelines” is now finished, you can now use
to get the daily deal offers finally past “haven’t passed testing” -status.
Please start working on actual stuff in the game, or appoint someone to do it. Or just say that it won’t be done. Also fine, then at least the players have that info. I mean, we already have it, because nothing gets done. 
But “official information” is always very naise. 
Understand the sentiment, but as Jeto mentioned, they don’t work on coding. Any time they spend not reviewing forum rules will not be used on coding or bug fixing. I guarantee they also don’t have the authority to hire developers or force the devs to smash the bug. Their responsibilities lie in back-end stuff as well as to be a liason between the community and devs, and this particular feedback has been passed along several times.
I totally get this bug is frustrating, especially since it’s been around so long falling on seemingly deaf ears. But it’s not fair to act as though Jeto reviewing forum rules takes time away from smashing this bug. The issue lies higher up in the chain of command, unfortunately, and the best the forum mods can do is pass along feedback that we’re upset, not guarantee changes.
Safe maybe, but i have an issue with the claim of respect. There have been recent cases of gaslighting with issues regarding the “extra” vault event and over past bug reports.
While it may not be the intention, making claims that can easily be disproven and told we are wrong is not respectful in my definition.
Just a note to this, Community guidelines and practices are important, as mentioned repeatedly, making sure and maintaining these community spaces are safe and respectful for anyone within it is among the highest priority as Support and Community Managers.
I don’t know what the previous community guidelines said. However, having read the revised guidelines, I’m pretty baffled by how vague they are and how overzealous they seem as a whole. There’s enough room for interpretation to justify just about any decision ever.
(…and if you don’t like it, just mail totally.not.run.by.CX at gemsofwar dot com!)
Who are these guidelines for if not for CX to cover all its bases and revel in power fantasies?
‘Your usage of ‘why’ was offensive in the context of the thread. I’m banning you for 2 weeks.’
‘Well, last time you banned me without giving any reason. So that’s an improvement.’
‘Yeah, that snark is gonna increase your ban by 2 weeks.’
‘What?’
‘+2 weeks for questioning my decision.’
‘DUDE’
‘Capslock/Spam. +2 weeks.’
‘8 weeks for this?!’
‘2+2+2+2 = 12. CX math is the only correct math. Do not question me again.’
‘I quit.’
‘Finally. I hate the community anyway.’
Please. Guidelines are cool, but these are way, way too vague. Put into words what’s okay and what is not (or just say ‘my forum, my rules’ and move on). Otherwise, you WILL end up banning people because somebody on CX had a bad day and the guidelines give them the blessing to act in whatever arbitrary way they see fit. MORE accountability, not less (something we’ve been asking for for YEARS).
You’ve already killed off your Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and you’re not even posting on the subreddit anymore IIRC. This forum is also much less frequented than in the past (and not for lack of enforcing guidelines, hint, hint).
Why not put more of the X in the C? You’re just taking out more of the X from the C, and the game as a whole, is suffering for it.
Then, to be such a good liason, you could poke the sleepy codeys again and again until you can give some answers to the players that are unhappy due to expectations and/or promises that have been made.
If you don’t have an answer you can even communicate that. But to just completely ignore the question for months after giving out the info of “lalala, hasn’t passed testing” and to duck and hide further questions about the situation seemingly became the “easy way”. It could’ve just been stated “this is low priority for us” which would’ve translated to “haha, we’re never fixing this”. Even that would be information - which is appreciated to either plan on or to finally move on from.
I even think this merchant system was designed and released around that matter in a way. In some aspect, slightly “better” deals can be luckyly found and made or exchanged and for now we don’t even have a restriction like f.e. 3 per day max - buy 10 more for just $19.99…
Another topic would be the question on why they put in that system that offers certain stuff cheaper compared to daily deals but when it comes to some ingame compensation due to a false ban wave there’s weeklong stuttering about then putting out 50 gems. It just seems like there’s chaos and nothing is planned out.
To give the benefit ob a doubt, maybe those questions and the poking happens, how come we don’t get any progress or any updates for such topics/bugs? Is it fair to assume that there is no progress made (due to whatever reasons)?
A part of the 6.8 newspost read like a slap in the face to me:
“We have fixed an assortment of smaller issues.”
Sure… But again, benefit ob a doubt, ugh. Then can we maybe move on to bigger “issues” that also need fixing, that probably involve a higher number of players, especially those loyal to the game since years?! Please?
And I fully agree with both postings above (KYLENATOR001 & sls)
Absolutely agree here. Communication can absolutely be improved by forum mods. I feel Salty did a decent job in this regard (maybe my memory is tainted). I do want more updates on what’s going on behind the scenes rather than forum mods almost solely just handling thread moderation.
Same. Makes me not want to participate as I know I can be wordy and sometimes talk about things that don’t have any direct correlation with the topic. And I do not feel like getting banned.
The other game um always hinting at had that kind of forum moderation, too, BTW. Before it all got better.
Who knows, maybe they’re going to go further down that route and will at one point end up working with the communit. Can’t ever give up hope.
FWIW, the @GemsOfWar Twitter account is still alive, although mostly posting scheduled posts these days I think. It does occasionally reply to tweets so there is a human behind it.
I miss the Twitch streams too; they were fun, Salty often shared useful information – and when she couldn’t, was at least up-front about not being able to, and I feel like they fostered a closer relationship between CX and community in a “yeah, there’s a real person behind that CX handle” way. They never did have much viewership though.
My favorite were the dev streams, where we got real insight into the game and could communicate directly with them.
I realised I wasn’t going into much detail yesterday. I’ll elaborate further in the hope that CX has a genuine interest in addressing some of the issues mentioned.
will result in a ban without warning […] this includes: […] controversial discussions.
Please humour me, I mean no snark. Come up with ten random issues that you consider controversial. In your head, ask your ten closest friends and count how many of those ten issues they agree on are controversial.
What’s the number for your closest friends? 77/100?
Ten members of your family? 56/100?
Ten random Australians? 32/100?
Ten Koreans? 19/100?
Ten Kenyans? 7/100?
‘Controversial discussion’ is a blanket definition that could be applied to just about any exchange humanity has ever had that’s had even the slightest hint of disagreement or just being different in it.
This makes me extremely unsure of what’s acceptable and what’s not.
Even more so, because you are following this up with several statements planting self-doubts in prospective posters, like:
Including but definitely not limited to [list of things]
If you aren’t sure, then do not post it.
Instigating arguments or antagonizing one another.
Am I trying to goad someone into an argument? If so, maybe not.
Am I posting this for shock value? If so, probably best not to post it.
To paraphrase these: ‘Unless you’re 100% sure absolutely no one’s about to get offended in some way by your post, just don’t post. At. All… Or else…’
How am I going to navigate around absolutely everyone’s feelings and cultural contexts at all times? That’s unrealistic. I know it, you know it, I know you know it, yet you demand it anyway.
Can we call the war what it is, or is it too controversial for us to call it that? Yes, serious question.
The PG-13 Line
As someone who didn’t grow up in the US, I have no concept of PG-13 beyond ‘some kind of rating system for media’. I do not know any of the PG-13 rules - not one. I assume 95% of humanity doesn’t either because PG-13 seems to be a thing only in the US, Thailand, Singapore, and Jamaica.
Come to think of it, I doubt even most US parents know more than one PG-13 rule.
‘All the stuff that’s good for kids! Use common sense, ya dingus!’
What about countries with stricter or less strict rating systems? Like Germany.
Which/whose PG-13 applies on the forum? US PG-13? IP2’s own flavour of PG-13? Where can I find an exhaustive list of rules for that one (you did list some to be fair)?
Is saying ‘dookie’ still acceptable? Yes, serious question.
If you aren’t sure, then do not post it.
Right, I forgot. Not supposed to ask questions or doubt myself.
It’s a good thing you’re insulting everyone outside the US PG-13 monoculture equally, I guess. 
/s
Impersonating a member of the development team.
Sharing out-of-context or edited quotes.
How does that leave room for playfulness? Blanket rule preempting humour.
Are you deleting the meme thread then? Yes, serious question.
Hopefully, you’ll understand how arbitrary some of the rules in the guidelines are.
