World of Warcraft US Community Manager Bret "Ornyx" Forbus is at the center of a hotly debated topic on the official forums. The controversy started after he responded to a player's concerns about the artifact power grind in Legion by what some perceive as "Armory shaming".
The player in question wondered "What else is there to do" than grind out artifact power. Many pages and responses later, Forbus weighed in with this statement:
I assume you're trying to make a joke about content, because, looking at your Armory, it appears you've only engaged with about 25% of Legion.
Many writers after this are in support of Forbus's response to shut down the player.
That is nothing. Tigole (Jeff Kaplan), the lead designer in Vanilla and Burning Crusade would have told them to get geared and learn to play. In the context, he was right. Ornyx is likely saying you can't complain about nothing to do when you haven't done anything. Is Blizzard not allowed to be honest?
Others are concerned with the tone and seeming lack of professionalism that his words display.
Got to admit - that comment definitely made me feel that my posts aren't valued - no matter how cogent, reasonable and applicable they might be - unless I have the "right" amount of achieves, raid bosses, etc. I'm not unsubbing over it - but I agree it was unprofessional.
After nearly fifty pages of posts, Forbus came back with a lengthy post:
Our team is not part of Customer Service, and we don't necessarily adhere to the same levels of 'professionalism' that they may in their day-to-day, and, even when we do, it's very much relaxed as it is in most of the industry. Not trying to put down our Customer Service compatriots in any way, they do a stellar job, I just think its important to note that our teams goals are different. My goal here is first and foremost engagement and community-building, and I'm given free rein to do that as I see fit (albeit to my own pleasure and detriment). I appreciate everyone here who talks about their time in CS roles, I've had some experience in them myself, and I understand the difference of the role vs the audience in both capacities. An interesting note, but I don't see our team as 'professional', in the sense that we uphold ourselves to some golden, glorious, corporate standard. I consider us 'experts' in our crafts, but nothing more than players who sit at the developer's table who have been given blue text and sometime receive emails with information that you may not see.
Where do you stand on what you've seen so far? What would have been a better response to the player's issue...or is there a better response to a paying customer?
Leave us your thoughts in the comments.
