[2020] Things I think WG should do to encourage more people to stay.

So, the new player experience is COMPLETELY different then back in the day when I started....

Now if you create a new account, there are a bunch of tutorial videos and "how it works" videos in the game that you can click off to.

The problem you run into is people are only going to do research they want to do...

This is why it is important AS A COMMUNITY to discuss mechanics and how to counter them and be open to feedback. And I don't mean, "you're a horrible player go play something else" kind of feedback.

-Hapa

In my experience, this is not true. At all.

When I was just a player, I remember specifically PMing certain players I knew were good and asking them questions about how to play certain ships or strategies.

I also know that A LOT of the competitive players in clans like O7 will lend you advice or even in some cases division up with you to teach you new stuff.

The issue I have seen from those clans, there is this marked opinion that they all are snobby or "elitist" and if people would take a spoon full of humility and just TALK to them like human beings and honestly try to communicate (BTW, this doesn't mean with harsh language, inflammatory language or being smart with someone different) you'd be surprised how down to earth some of these players are.

I have recently reached out to A LOT of the higher performing clans to figure out or try to figure out, WHY the opinion of them might be the way it is. And honestly, from what I have seen, A LOT of that opinion comes from them having to be on the defensive all the time because people automatically assume they are all elitists and don't care to talk to us "regular folk"

This is NOT the case. Yes there are SOME that aren't the best personalities but you learn who you can talk to you and who you can't, you don't just generalize these things...

-Hapa

Except I was responding to your comment "this community has made it pretty clear of what they think... there are 2 camps... the leet and the baddies... and it sure isn't the baddies insulting anyone." you mad the statement of "this community" which is holistic not talking about the "vocal minority."

You'll ALWAYS have naysayers, that is human nature. My original statement, "This is why it is important AS A COMMUNITY to discuss mechanics and how to counter them and be open to feedback. And I don't mean, "you're a horrible player go play something else" kind of feedback" I am saying the community as a whole needs to try to do these things.

I understand that naysayers will be naysayers, however, if we as a community collective try to help each other, train each other and work together, the naysayers will start to become such a vocal minority and not taken seriously that their attitudes and poor personality traits will be ignored by most.

Hopefully all that makes sense, I haven't had enough caffeine quite yet....

-Hapa

Except we do listen. The issue is that we don't share a lot of what we see back with the community and changes take time. Case in point a change I am working on from a VERY vocal section of our community that plays other game modes than Random. This feedback has been coming in for some time and I am working on trying to get things changed and actually seeing movement on this.

However, changes in game development don't just "poof happen" and in this day and age people want that instant gratification. I have seen change directly from feedback taken anywhere from 6 mo to a year to be implemented.

Yes SOME in the community are toxic, but those are the people we typically pay less attention to because they give feedback that is not constructive, though they believe so. And typically these are the individuals that harp on the same things repeatedly with lack of constructive feedback. And as I am sure some see in game, that toxicity tends to just turn to white noise after some time.

Plus you add in, that as a business we may not want our content to go a specific direction and so we don't hurry to implement some changes that someone specifically wants, so instantly words like "everyone wants this" or "everyone believes this" start coming to the forefront, which isn't necessarily true.

I for one as a community manager compile reports every week on valid, constructive feedback and often see notes back from our devs about that feedback. But again, if we don't announce something publicly we don't talk about it publicly and this often is seen as "lack" of attention.

-Hapa