Tl;DR SUMMARY:
1. MALACO + BLACKROCK = SINKING SHIP
2. put some1 in lead of blackrock that is motivated and cares.
3. acknowledge emotions/opinions of people to take action rather than counter their arguments.
4. put effort in making not viable ideas from people into viable ideas.
5. hire some1 for blackrock. Now even ****** seems interesting. like WTF???
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LONGER (BORING) VERSION:
I have played AT for 5 years give or take. I have seen it rise to incredible hights and down to new lows. A few months ago AT merged with Molten and created Warmane. Mixed reviews were given. Despite this, according to the numbers the blackrock realm, had a spike upwards in population. A positive image in the shadow of many negative reviews. So why all the bad news?
When I log online (and I do this frequently), I play, I talk, I observe. So do others. What most of us blackrock- ers seem to agree upon, is that the arena activity in the brackets that have driven the server for years (2v2) is declining. People also have clear feeling that the staff activity is low and that people get more and more room to freely cheat around. A less ambigious message was sent by AT by not streaming/giving a welcome ceremony to end season victories. A tradition that has been on AT for as long as I can remember.
Now many people have different ideas about the decline of the server. And I see many posts written about this. Some people think it has to do with the fact that the staff have abandoned us, other people think it's because wotlk arena is simply dead, some people think its SOLOQ dispersing people over different brackets, other people have different opinions, and some people even say its all a lie and the server is thriving. Mixed observations and mixed results, based on different people being active in different areas of the game (2v2/3v3/soloq/isle of quel danas/ BG's). Every person has an idea. Perhaps my bias is that I usually talk with the 2v2 players. So why is my argument more legitimate than say a Quel Danas player who has seen an uprise in activity?
Well it isn't. Legitimisation is based on the focus of the server, what the aims are. What do you want to achieve? For 5 years 2v2 has been the lifeblood of the server, while the staff advocated for 3v3. 3v3 was thus the clear aim of the staff, while the aim of the population was clearly 2v2. A nice balance. Recently however, staff has put less effort in blackrock. You can argue about it, but taking the observations of countless loyal players who play so frequently with a big salt spoon is just against better judgement. So obviouslyl for weeks I have seen people (the 'old' majority -> 2v2'ers) desperately writing topics (like myself) in an attempt to somehow persuade staff to do something in favor of OUR goals. People do so wholeheartedly by giving their opinions and underlaying arguments. Unfortunately and much to my annoyance I have seen staff do little more than respond with counterarguments: this is not the reason why stuff happens, that is not the reason why stuff happens, this is not a true observation. A staff that CLEARLY misses the entire point. Why?
Well besides the fact that, like I said these players are frequent players who actually experience the division of players over the various brackets rather than to base opinions on statistics or arguments made by (i imagine wildly) people 'high in the staff foodchain', it is also a clear and iambigious message that stuff has to be done about the stuff people complain about. DESPITE the arguments they give for it, despite the fact if what they say is statistically 100% accurate or not. Any selfrespecting entertainer should know how important opinions and experiences are. Hell, the entire world is currently so up and all in the 'experience economy' and all that entails is.
So what I recommend is to stop let debates bleed out by giving counterarguments to the opinions of players, and start moving from simply 'taking them serious' to 'acting on them'.
So what to do? I have a few observations and conclusions I can base upon the previous and what I've read in various other topics that I would like to share. These observations could be used to take action:
Observations/conclusions:
1. Despite real facts, most blackrock arena players 'feel' that the server is dying. It is an undeniable opinion if you read chat/talk to people/play arena for more than a random moment in a random day.
2. Despite real facts, most blackrock arena players 'feel' that staff members are most times absent and that cheaters are being unpunished.
3. Despite real facts, most blackrock arena players 'feel' that they have suddenly moved to the bottom of the food chain, a feeling constantly fed by server news that most of the time never mentions blackrock.
4. Despite real facts, most blackrock players 'feel' that despite the ones in the staff to blame, the people ACTUALLY responsible (who knows who anymore? transparancy???) are just not that much into blackrock anymore and its wellbeing.
5. The staff feels that the players strong opinions need to be dampened by 'real facts'. Players on their turn feel that staff hardly has a say in these 'real facts' since they are hardly ever online, and the players are the ones actually experiencing stuff.
6. The staff feels that much can be done by being more integrated in community. Less of a AT versus Molten, but more of a Warmane vibe.
7. Staff doesn't seem to fully comprehend that AT players feel like they have made many sacrifices/favors for staff by moving to 'molten' against their will. Any way to move towards more integration must therefore begin with a clear, serious and lasting countergesture from staff.
8. Players have tons of good ideas, but some more realisable than others. Despite of this, all of the ideas given come from a fierce motivation and loyalty to the server. Something that should be clearly reflected by staff review.
9. Rather than simply judging ideas on its viability, look for dialog wherein there is a direct line with you and blackrock people. Look for ways to improve those ideas by taking their ideas and in dialog find a way to make a not-viable idea viable. Not simply trough a once in a week twitch chat where most blackrock questions are overshadowed. People need to feel like they get attention, they get their share of the cake.
10. Make a list of all the possible explanations made for the current negative reviews. Despite your personal opinion about the arguments given, go over them one by one and see how you can improve those opinions ANYWAY. Perhaps one or two of those ideas are actually a golden shot.
11. Be more competitive in blackrock compared to OTHER similar realms out there, and offer equal (or like in the past BETTER) alternatives.
12. Do more with out-of-the-box thinking to get people to play your server. Not just server features, but also marketing. Here are two VERY valuable videos to start with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFdCzN7RYbw (marketing, influence) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc (marketing, motivation)
I would like to get feedback, not as a way to end the debate, but rather as a way to engage in it. Preferably outside of the constraints of this simple topic I wrote. What do you people think?