Do you feel that CA are adequately communicative about Rome 2?

[GoTW Kubee]

Fairly self-explanatory question. Do you think that CA communicate enough with their fanbase, or would you rather they made greater efforts to answer questions and engage in constructive discussion?

Personally, I would prefer them to engage more actively in discussion with the community rather than just showing up when they have new DLC to sell. This would enable us to understand CA's thinking behind the design of the game and some of the new features, give them suggestions for the next TW, them to tell us why they can/can't implement that idea, etc. I remember Mike Simpson saying in a statement shortly after Rome 2's release that CA were very keen on having an active dialogue with the community about their games; however, unfortunately, I don't feel that this has ever really happened.

[GoTW Kubee]

Sorry, option 2 should say 'communicative', not 'communicate'.

[Causeless]

CA CAN'T communicate too much. If CA announced that map modding tools were being worked on and they never appeared for any reason, the outrage would be far greater than if they were never announced at all. If CA announce a patch release date and can't hit it, there is outrage (happenening with patch 14 right now...). If CA are transparent and honest but say just one thing that the community doesn't want to hear, there is outrage.

[Vardeus]

They don't get involved enough with the community (it's not their job afterall, if it was to be enforced as policy by the CA bosses things would change).

The lack of information is terrible to keep people interested. I don't care if it ends up being false for rational reasons, i want transparency not perfect truth. I'd like to think most people in the community are mature enough to understand that sometimes there is delays and whatnot.

I guess that's their way to react to some people demanding beheadings for how relevant information was handed to the community. Not only that but people at CA love to keep things secret until the right time comes, something i'm not particularly fond of.

[Radzeer]

Sorry, option 2 should say 'communicative', not 'communicate'.

Fixed it for you.

A friendly note for everybody in advance: please keep the discussion strictly on topic (i.e. communication). Let's not turn this into another business discussion thread.

[Lord Dakier]

We've been asking for a better political system and family tree since day one of Rome 2 and still we haven't had it nor to my knowledge have they mentioned anything in regards to it. I've been stating for awhile now that CA need more clarity in their workshop.

The one thing I will say about everyone here is that we always mention how well they've done with Rome TW and M2TW, but you guys have to understand that it was almost a decade ago we had Rome: Total War and the team at CA hsa more than quadrupled with many of that staff probably not even at the company any more. We're now supporting a company that values audience and it's wealth over quality and a loyal, active fanbase. The last 2 games to me look as though they've been designed to try and get a slice of the Starcraft and other mainstream RTS'. This isn't the path the current fans here want CA to take, but we're only 10% of their audience so what's it matter as we'll eventually all buy their game.

@Radzeer that's not exactly easy given that the thread is partially linked to CA's business practices itself.

[Radzeer]

@Radzeer that's not exactly easy given that the thread is partially linked to CA's business practices itself.

I know, but you guys have to try. Communication strategy is part of business as you said, and we have discussed communication a lot in the business thread. This thread has a poll, which creates the focus for discussion. You can speak about communication in the context of business in general, but try to avoid steering off to other parts of business practice.

Let's see how it goes.

[FieryMastermind]

We've been asking for a better political system and family tree since day one of Rome 2 and still we haven't had it nor to my knowledge have they mentioned anything in regards to it. I've been stating for awhile now that CA need more clarity in their workshop.

This! CA knows that we want these things so bad yet they do nothing to actually fulfill it.

And to those saying "Oh family tree, it is not needed" I say this: Additions are always welcome as they add to the game!

[Tenerife_Boy]

I go with "No, I would prefer CA to be more communicative."

[Skurvy5]

I feel most fans here would appreciate it if CA just took the time to discuss the game with the community. Most of us aren't demanding hard, exact time-of-day patch release news or information about EVERY SINGLE BUG that is going to be in the patch. Rational people realize that patches can be fluid and change up until the last minute. But what we would appreciate is a discussion about certain aspects of the game that need improvement or at least some communication regarding what the team is currently working on. Paradox devs seem to have a devblog for just about every game, patch, DLC, or what have you that they work on and it's nice to see what the team is working on and what we can expect to change. I think CA could learn a lot from Paradox when it comes to community relations.

Personally, I tend to build up hope with every new patch praying that this will be the one to finally fix the game, only to have my hopes crushed when they fix a lot of random bugs and add a new siege map or something. CA's lack of communication plays right into this - the community takes their silence and speculates and speculates until each new patch becomes this beacon of awesomeness that will fix the game, solve world hunger, and eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels. A little TINY bit of communication can go a long way.

[kronpas]

They are as communicative as an U-boat, really. But given how terrible the game was when released and how raged their customers were, keeping silent while trying to pump out as much content as possible was the best course of action. Anything they said would be turned against them later, heh.

[iWarsaw]

There really isn't anything for them to say.

Their communication process should of been different all the way. Did they ever really ask us what we wanted in the game so much as they just tried to fit what they could with their 2013 release? And I don't mean that they wouldn't take suggestions for their game but I don't look at Rome 2 and think oh hey they added in something we wanted, not at all. They read, and listen to us but as a business they have no business to discuss so why make posts only to have people reply, "Your game sucks." And is there really anything more to discuss then that?

[Pheidippides]

I'm not sure what people expect them to do. It's not like they can just come on the forum and start engaging in a back and forth with individual members. Anything they say publicly is going to be picked apart by professional game reviewers and the press. They probably have to clear any statements about the game with Sega first. And they can't go into detail with the community since that would be giving away information about their internal development process or their IP. And then when you start responding to some people, you have to respond to everyone (especially the people with ten paragraph posts about changing every single aspect of the game) or else you are back to square one with those people complaining that there's not enough interaction because you won't entertain their pet idea for the TW series that they've been on since M2.

Look, CA is a corporation. It may be one people feel more comfortable with because they've been using its products for years, but it's still a corporation and a rather large one in the game industry. Individual employees can't just start chatting with individual customers about the game without a ton of vetting by marketing/PR.

Paradox is a different beast- they are much more niche and are not a subsidiary of a large distributor. Any comparison is silly.

[Skurvy5]

I'm not sure what people expect them to do. It's not like they can just come on the forum and start engaging in a back and forth with individual members. Anything they say publicly is going to be picked apart by professional game reviewers and the press. They probably have to clear any statements about the game with Sega first. And they can't go into detail with the community since that would be giving away information about their internal development process or their IP. And then when you start responding to some people, you have to respond to everyone (especially the people with ten paragraph posts about changing every single aspect of the game) or else you are back to square one with those people complaining that there's not enough interaction because you won't entertain their pet idea for the TW series that they've been on since M2.

Look, CA is a corporation. It may be one people feel more comfortable with because they've been using its products for years, but it's still a corporation and a rather large one in the game industry. Individual employees can't just start chatting with individual customers about the game without a ton of vetting by marketing/PR.

Paradox is a different beast- they are much more niche and are not a subsidiary of a large distributor. Any comparison is silly.

Paradox is both a publisher and a developer, yet they manage to communicate directly with fans. Some forum posts they acknowledge and others they ignore. It's not that hard to do. As I mentioned earlier they also do the devblogs which talk about the things they are working on a weekly basis. I certainly think that CA could be capable of at least doing something like that.

[m_1512]

Not only that but people at CA love to keep things secret until the right time comes, something i'm not particularly fond of.

In which case, I think you don't understand how a formal organization structure works. Communication is a key part of any business as Radzeer said. But it has a very delicate line linked to it.

More importantly, business communication is supposed to be non-speculative. This means that once you announce something, you have to do it. As for complete transparency, this idea is completely ridiculous as no company puts it daily happenings and internal workings on public display.

[baptistus]

I think CA communicate enough, before the release and since the release.
But they don't comunicate very well. For example the rally point are silly, not very informative, not enough "professional" and "serious". They waste a lot of time to do it, instead of to make some newsletter with good informations, news, screenshots of what they are working on, preview ect....
As for the politic, now people want more transparancy than before.

More importantly, business communication is supposed to be non-speculative. This means that once you announce something, you have to do it. As for complete transparency, this idea is completely ridiculous as no company puts it daily happenings and internal workings on public display.

a LOT of mmo do it, every month they make a newsletter about what they are working on, some screens/artworks/interviews from devs/informations ect....
It is a lot more interesting than the 'rally point' and keep the players aware of what will happen. And because it is only text and screens, it can be made by one guy every month.

[Kinjo]

I feel CA has done more then most companies out there when it comes to the games I follow. Only if Taleworld (Mount& Blade series) could update their blog more often.

[Hetairos]

CA has done something very unfortunate

Pre-Release: Super nice communication, awesome rallypoints, sneak peaks, super happy / smiling staff and so on.

Post-Release: Little to no communication at all since release (well said before, U-Boat communication xD) leads to rumors, mistrusts, misunderstandings and distance between a company and its fan base / users. The U-boat only communicates when a DLC comes out, shots it out like a torpedo and dives back into the ocean of disappearance. Even the rally points that come with the DLC's have some kind of insecure atmosphere. The super happy / smiling / excitement did disappear in my eyes. The blocking of comments on youtube wasn't that fortunate as well, just like the rants and raves rave on the official forums.

The switching from super open to super closed says it all.

So: Maybe next time try dev blogs + involvement of modding teams right from the beginning of the development of a game. I can't understand how nowadays a company in the gaming industry is not working closely together with its customers anyways. Yet, we do not know anything about Arena or future plans of Rome II, possible expansions or successors. Thats also why the very hostile reaction of many fans: everyone got hyped, the release was disastrous, the handling afterwards was ridiculous and NOW if one feels like not being involved in the dev process and they shot at you with DLC's like BoW you are left to simply rebel and complain about everything. It could be much easier to drag the fan base into discussions rather than let it sit alone outside and come out on strike against CA (and whatever they might do in the barricaded and mysterious castle CA where you never know with what they will come up again).

Nothing against CA. Just imagining an alternative.

[Pheidippides]

Paradox is both a publisher and a developer, yet they manage to communicate directly with fans. Some forum posts they acknowledge and others they ignore. It's not that hard to do. As I mentioned earlier they also do the devblogs which talk about the things they are working on a weekly basis. I certainly think that CA could be capable of at least doing something like that.

You missed the point. Paradox has control over itself. It can choose, as company policy, to communicate more directly with its (extremely niche) fanbase. CA, as a Sega subsidiary, cannot make that unilateral choice even if they wanted to. Sega does not really care whether some posters on the TWCenter or the official forums aren't getting enough information, because to do the kind of outreach efforts that people seem to expect would be a logistical nightmare and perhaps even open them up to a lawsuit.

In any business, the larger and less specialized the organization, the more conservative they are going to be. An analogy: it would be like me demanding President Obama communicate more directly with his voters because my local Mayor does that all the time. Two totally different worlds.

[Hetairos]

PS: I think when people speak about communication, we speak about statements and such. I just wanted to say that clear statements like we get now (one guy standing in front and telling us some information) are problematic, but there are other ways of communication, just like I said before. Best communication is involvement (of TW players) instead of somebody standing in front and saying something. So dev blog and taking advice from its fan base by including modding teams and TW players themselves in a process of discussion and involvement can do wonders.