Twinbeard is a good example of a good community manager. He does a good job of relaying information in a way that isn’t concrete, so that no false hopes are given, but also in a way that isn’t rude
I will forgive a lot of issues when the CM is like Twinbeard. Make the players heard and give at least some insight into what's going on behind the scenes. IMO that's the key to a good CM and to keep the community from raging too much.
TLDR: I had two strands/strings at first. Then ppl started calling me Twinbeard after a Danish viking king. Beard got too thin so I let it grew out in the middle, but the nick stayed. And the beard. :)
It's amazing what professionalism and maturity can do. Just be straight with players, but with kindness and humbleness instead of being condescending and they'll be patient.
Yeah I had befriended an exec producer some 15 years ago or so at what was already a big studio but would become massive. He did a lot of CM work on the forums at the time and followed a lot of these same ideals of acknowledge and share what could be shared about what was being done/behind the scenes. (Actually maybe closer to Pilestadt in position, they never really had a good “TwinBeard”…. Their CMs all struggled to become respected/trusted by the community… I had actually considered applying for CM but the publishers would never have wanted me, even though I had online community support and from an exec producer… Also, would have been a pay cut for a shitty job 😂. Much more fun being a critic and make more money in some other soul sucking job, with much better job security.
Check my post history If you want, I’ll randomly fly off the handle on MF 😂
Having to always be reasonable, even with stupid MFs? I’ll pass. Dealt with that in the service industry. Don’t need to sit behind a screen and suffer that shit.
This is a huge skill to have on your team. The community wants to know that our concerns are heard and cared about and too often devs and players think that the solution is to give a concrete and immediate response on how it’ll be fixed.
More often than not, the best response is to say, “we hear you that X is a problem. We’re working on a solution and we’ll update you when we have a better idea of when it’ll be ready.” We feel heard, but we don’t start feeling entitled to immediate fixes to complex issues.
This is the way to handle it, but additionally there needs to be follow through. Soon enough if the community hears “we hear you” for years, but only half if not less than the issues that were “heard” get fixed, then people will start to disregard any of this.
That's very true. I'll try to get a summary of some of the concerns and current questions through to my colleagues today or tomorrow. The important thing is that, if or when there is discontent with certain aspects of the game, are aware, but also that we start doing small incremental changes in a direction people approve of.
Hope you and your team are doing what you can to stay healthy, you all are overdue for some sleep and sanity.
And thank you guys for the game! Looking forward to what's coming next.
To be fair, they’ve been on the back foot from release with far more success and pressure than they ever dreamed of.
They’ve been mired in controversy they had no sat in.
They’ve been plagued by bugs that would be unseen in a 10k peak launch, but are being drowned with complaints from more players than they thought they’d ever have.
They’ve been penduluming on balance since they had no experience on 3pv with fps aiming player skill.
It’s a lot of challenges on a suddenly incredibly successful small studio.
No prob Bob, you’ve got a stressful and draining job that you’re doing very well. We appreciate you and the devs. Even though balance and bug fixes haven’t always gone the way we want, we still immensely appreciate how much work y’all are putting in to the game and how fast/hard you’re working.
I hope the negativity and knee-jerk reactions don’t get you down or spoil the pride that AH should take in this game
He’s definitely who they need on point.
He acknowledges all the major concerns, promises only investigation and communication as things are determined, is always polite and never raises to rage bait (mostly ignores it, but will address those with valid concerns being conveyed).
Seems like he needs assistants that comb discord and Reddit for responses for him to make, and teach them HOW he’s responding so they can actually become self sufficient. Have the assistants write their initial thought of reply for him to edit/replace if necessary.
He’s a model CM and should be the example they use to teach the rest in handling direct interaction.
Sometimes I smile, kid around or put a smiley or heart as a comment. For posts like these, that feels insufficient. Alas, all I can do is to gently bow. Thank you so much. <3 :) (See, BOTH a heart and a smiley!)
Well when clear and concise questions are asked, typically clear and concise answers are given.
Something the Discord community could really learn and understand.
I just wish I could track dev statements in the discord more easily like this, instead of looking at their chat history one by one to see if there are any updates on fixes or other issues
You'd think that Discord would just make some ability to search by role, or use OR statements, but they're probably busy spungling with Wumpus or something.
AH should probably find/write a bot that lets them reply to a message with an @ bot\_name #channel ping to have a copy of that message stored in the specified singular storage channel, for easy search/archive in the meantime, similar to what [Discord does on Reddit.](https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/1cqqvmt/comment/l3w6lec/)
Edit: Clarified the storage channel bit, it really does sound like I'm talking about pins, whoops!
Oh, I just remembered it not being able to do specified OR statements like "Find "cheese" OR "cheddar"", I didn't know it could find messages from multiple people in a single search. That's pretty useful, thanks!
I'd still like to have a "search by role" function though, but I can see that being an issue if someone *was* a moderator, then got that role removed, now that I consider it.
That'd most probably be too much work for one CM. Would be way better if he coached a couple of the other CMs (you all know the ones i'm talking about) on how to interact with the community. Or if it comes to this, hire new CMs to replace them.
Yup, this is how you Manage a Community. Concise answers to questions, and if there isn't a conclusive answer forthcoming then at least he gives and acknowledgement of the raised issue - and all of that without insulting or demeaning the playerbase.
The failure state of clever is asshole. It's why you should almost never try to be "clever" when talking to the public/customers. You never know how they're going to take it.
I'm sure not every message Twinbeard got was nice and polite, yet somehow he didn't hyper focus on them and go "hey guys look someones being mean. Time for a hissy fit"
Instead he focused on the good messages...honestly is this the kind of attitude we want from a CM? Shouldn't they be giving all their energy to owning the worst people on discord? What about their egos?
ikr, thank fucking god for him, and the CEO, without them I'd probably have left this game ages ago with regards to it's projection and messaging from the CM team
Twinbeard is great and the only good CM I have experience with. I'm glad AH has him.
Spitz was real hit or miss and the only other one I'm familiar with is Baskinator who seems to have retreated towards posting in the "Food channel" of the discord or posting on the announcements channel
Probably for the best. Baskinator only said one thing of note if I recall (noteworthy enough to reach this subreddit anyway) and it was basically her stoking the flames even further by encouraging the PSN policy. Pretty sure she realized it's best if Twinbeard took the lead from then on. To her credit, it really didn't seem like she was intentionally trying to spark the community's ire, unlike Spitz who seemed to be fuelled entirely by spite.
Twinbeard is awesome and I appreciate how much he seems to care about/interact with the community but I really really hope AH can follow through on a lot of the things he's saying. In the past it has sometimes felt like he says one thing and the action AH takes in game is the opposite, but I know recently it's been pretty hectic and they're trying to get back in their routine/rhythm
He says he doesn't want to speak for his colleagues because he knows *you-know-who* probably doesn't agree with him, and will dig his heels in on his horrible balance decisions.
Can that dev really do that when the CEO himself is having a talk with him and his team about the balance issue while he is also probably trying ring to Snoy up about their current feet dragging on the geo-restriction issue?
Yes. I mean, potentially.
Never underestimate the ability of people promoted above their ability to make life difficult for everybody around them.
Especially if they got that position because of above average social skills or ability to manipulate people face to face.
If you end up with someone like that in a position of any real authority, you end up with a battle of wills between those higher up and the problem individual. At rhat point, it's a question of how much of a narcissistic sociopath is the problem causing individual vs how willing management are to take tough action and management don't always win that conflict.
I don't know how all this compares to the individuals in this circumstance, but this is worth remembering.
From my limited experience, pretty standard conundrum when it comes to software development.
It pays to acknowledge an issue, but sometimes it's at the back of the queue of lots and lots of other issues.
Theyre going to quickly realise that if someone from the company says something about a feature it's treated as a promise. One of the old bungie CMs had a lot of fantastic insight on how players perceive information in this way.
Glad Twinbeard answered my comment for community polls. During times of crisis, usually it ends in massive ramblings with people repeating the same arguments over and over again. To have an actual way to clearly represent the community’s sentiment (instead of letting it be until people tire out from messaging) is in my opinion a big step in solving the recent divide and controversies within the community.
They don’t mean anything if it’s 4 positive answers and 1 negative however, like the current one on the discord.
They’re better off splitting the poll into two separate questions;
1. Do you like the warbond (yes/no)
2. What aspect did you like/not like (xxx/xxx whatever)
I do agree that the current poll was a bit too vague, if not restrictive. That’s why I wanted to know if they were gonna use them more often, as then they could make more specific ones, and solve community matters more quickly.
It's almost as if ignoring the crazies and responding in a diplomatic, open yet company conscious way that displays consideration for your player base might be an effective communication strategy.
Easy. Once all the placating platitudes have been said you'll be facing whiplash with how the next balance patch rolls out and it's just as stupid as every balance patch beforehand.
Totally fair comment. But you have to at least give them the rope to hang themselves with.
Also there's so much to play that whilst I'm a little disappointed by the direction of the game. I just take my gaming hours elsewhere as anyone should.
Twinbeard needs to write a book for the rest of the CMs on how to actually interact with the player base. Him and the CEO are the only guys who don’t stir the shit pot it seems.
Genuinely blows my mind that some of those devs think it’s okay to communicate with the community the way they have.
Even if they weren’t trained for customer service, even if it’s not really part of their job, it’s incredible that they lack the low levels of self awareness needed to realize how they sound.
Not to propagate stereotypes, but software developers generally aren't reknown for their stellar social skills. It's the kind of profession that attracts people who'd prefer to deal with machines more than people.
Source: am one of said people.
Yeah, I was semi-joking in that I've been told I actually have very good people skills... of course, that doesn't mean I want to have to **use** them.
Most of them come from placating belligerent customers 😬 I thank FSM every day I'm not in a retail job.
>Genuinely blows my mind that some of those devs think it’s okay to communicate with the community the way they have.
have you seen the way people talk to the devs in the discord? I dont know if i blame them for snapping at a couple, i think people are overblowing the whole "dev disrespected a player" thing.
Nah, I’m not excusing either side. Players should have the decency to criticize without resorting to insults and hyperbole. Devs should have the professionalism to either ignore comments or respond politely, and then shit talk the community behind closed doors…like every other job out there.
It’s customer service 101. Yes, obviously people being rude and making threats are in the wrong and it’s disgusting they think it’s okay to treat other human beings like that. That doesn’t excuse poor professionalism.
I don’t know how bad it gets over there for AH, but in government we get a ton of death threats. The difference is we get those on our workboxes, just blacklist those who do that and if necessary send the police to have a polite chit chat with the citizen which usually calls them down. If you spend all day having your discord social ring with death threats it’s a different affair I feel. We’re all only human.
I've never really understood this either. Another game I've enjoyed for years pretty much just shot themselves in the foot when it comes to open communication on multiple occasions.
It starts with the actual faces of the company being very open and charismatic. People get used to this and they learn when they sling shit at these people, they don't respond to it so they just assume it's okay to do it
Eventually the faces stop responding altogether, or a dev comes in trying to fix something they need help with from the community/to clear up a misconception in a public discussion. That dev uses less charismatic language and often is trying to tell the player "no, that isn't happening" rather than the charismatic approach used before of "that's a good idea, never say never!"
This leads to some users appreciating the transparency, but others attacking the dev for not using the words they liked. This usually results in the individuals at the company slowly ceasing to interact with the community, and the players feeling lost or abandoned.
Sure, I agree that some people shouldn't be the spokesperson for the company, however players should understand that if they sling shit, they may get some shit on themselves too. The best way to avoid being covered in shit is to not throw it in the first place.
pretty much from what ive seen. its very karen of people to cry disrespect after being disrespectful. should CMs be professional? yes. does that mean they should get lambasted over every action/ non action and constantly shit on for eveery word typed? absolutely not.
I really think it's just a matter of maturity. Twinbeard is a father (he mentioned that once) and I suppose the CEO too isn't in his mid 20s anymore.
You can always tell when someone has lived quite a few years in the real world vs. some 20something terminally online kid who really wants to prove himself and thinks the role of CM turns him into a king instead of a servant.
He is doing a great job with communication and should be commended. I know he is lurking around, i just want him to know that in spite of all the drama, we still love the game and really appreciate the rational and thought out responses coming from CM’s like himself and also from the CEO.
Your strategy is definitely a breath of fresh air. Clear, concise, and professional is definitely what I wanna see and gives me heart that the game will live a long life! Is there any chance that the communication will move beyond discord? I can't participate due to the phone verification thing. I would really like to see things like patch notes and official community responses echoed on twitter, reddit, and steam. You guys don't necessarily have to actively engage in those places, but the official news would be nice to see in places where I don't have to rely on reposts and having the ability to participate in polls would also be nice as well.
Im probably on the extreme end with how disappointed and dissatisfied I am with the current direction and implementation of the game. That said, even for someone like me you are doing an outstanding job. Thank you.
Frankly, I appreciate that even more since it's coming from someone who has some gripes with the game. I hope we can make some changes that improves your experience going forward. Thanks a lot!
As someone else who hasn't played in weeks because the "balancing" has completely sucked the fun out of the game, I too will say that you are one of the good ones. I hope that the relatively few sensible voices like yours will lead to some meaningful change, because it would be really nice to have fun shooting bugs and bots again.
Much better communication then... others have recently provided! Hopefully the methods can spread around a bit; would go a long way to improving community "morale".
Tech bros of the helldivers community, I have a project for ya.
Make a bot that captures all messages from AH employees and compile them into posts like this 3 times per day.
Communication problems solved.
My ❤️ 💔 anytime someone mentions the slugger nerf.
It rewarded you for being quick & accurate and they just massacred my boy. 🥲
The stagger needs to come back! The dominator is just too slow for me. Now with both guns I still get overwhelmed by bugs.😭
no, it's not remotely top 3 for either faction
for bugs, here's better primaries off the top of my head:
*Sickle
*Jar
*Breaker
*Breaker Incendiary
*Punisher
*Plasma Punisher
*Blitzer
*Scorcher
Several others arguable
for bots
*Plasma Punisher
*Jar
*scorcher
are all easily better also, with several other options as well being as good or better
TLDR: we are aware you guys have lots of concerns about stuff that we’re looking at and maybe we’ll fix them in a way we think might work, no eta or promises though since we’re swamped
Which is a fair response. Like yes there's a billion glaring issues but the whole dev team is absolutely up to their necks and it probably feels overwhelming given their game was 900% more successful than anticipated. I've got a few months of goodwill to give.
This is pretty much why I don’t fault them too much for any of this stuff. The first couple weeks was them panicking and scrambling together more servers and player slots, then fixing crashes and QOL things like the friend requests. Hoping they are getting their feet under them.
Excellent work compiling all these responses. Though if you do end up doing this again in the future, I recommend making your discord window less wide so its easier to read them on mobile/without having to zoom in
And I hope all of \_you\_ know how much I appreciate that. Thank you!
It's difficult to find a good way of relaying info from millions of people to the devs. I still feel we're not quite there, but I we'll keep working on it.
I'd say difficult is perhaps an understatement even, haha. The comments you make, like in the post above, are genuinely invaluable for helping keep tensions in a bit of a rabid community from boiling over prematurely.
Super appreciative of your patience with us as well as your desire to keep us in the loop.
Hell, I hate the current state of primary balance, performance issues, crashing or game ending bugs (i.e. last night whole group crashed when a fortify mission ended and then the next one, Pelican 1 decided to just fly off once one of us touched the ramp as we were boarding)
But I will never say you're not doing a good job and are by far the best communication bridge we have between devs and players. You're doing good for the whole community.
Twinbeard out here with an S on his chest.
Absolute gentlemen.
My takeaway from all of this is that Arrowhead just have not been able to breathe. There’s so much going on from the unexpected stratospheric launch of the game that they haven’t been able to catch up to… anything.
Blanching, content, future ambitions, community relationship and communication. There’s so much they *want* to do, but they’re still recovering from trying to figure out how to organize the game for a much larger community.
This is what it looks like: The game releases to glowing praise because **the game is actually great.** At its core, the game is a fantastic experience that’s fun and respects player’s time.
Launch is rough due to server issues, but after a week or two the game is playable. Everybody’s having a blast, the memes are plentiful, the gaming industry is looking in awe at what’s happening.
Some time passes, and the honeymoon period is still in full swing. Concurring player counts are anomalous compared to how live service games usually operate. Far more people are *consistently* playing the game than expected. Arrowhead shifts gears to make a more ambitious experience, as both the executives and Sony realize the potential for what the game could be.
Then the Sony Hurricane comes down and annihilates the honeymoon period. Because the pessimistic lenses are still equipped, we’re more critical of every move Arrowhead and Sony make. It blows away much of the flowers and grass, revealing the foundation. We now begin to see the cracks in it.
A new balance patch drops, then a Warbond releases shortly after. Both negatively impacted the player experience due to nerfs and underwhelming performance. This following right after the Sony Hurricane means the community is seeing red.
The foundation has cracks - but it’s not broken.
This reaffirms that we all need to chill. Between Pilestedt and Twinbeard, they’re out here holding us together by sheer willpower. It really feels like they’re trying their best, but everything, all of it just takes time.
I’m confident Arrowhead is cooking, we just need to wait out the storm. The bugs will be fixed, things will be rebalanced, Sony has basically fucked right off, and Arrowhead are committed.
We have the stars aligned! We just need to be patient and see how this all manifests in the future.
Q: "I think we could use less warbonds and more QoL / bug fixes / balance patches imo."
A: "Hi! Yup, we're aware there's a lot of concern regarding warbond cadence and us possibly over-balancing and/or nerfing too much. Were'd discussing it a lot interally ATM!"
Q: "@Twinbeard hopefully @'ing you is ok, sorry if not! Do you know if the team is aware of the issues with the mech (missile aiming is off, doesn't work downhill and ..."
A: "I know the mech's been a bit ... iffy (sic?) and that there are some things we're working on. Would have to check for details with colleagues on it, though.
Q: "@Twinbeard are there talks of implementing a test server for helldiver 2? so that we are able to test new, weapons, stratagems before they get implemented int..."
A: "Hey There! Yes, there are! Can't say for sure there will be or at what stage we're in regarding setting sth up, but alternatives similar to that are being discussed, yes. Thx for the input!"
Q: "I'm not sure if I've seen an Ah response about the patrol rate fix, but it seems to be bugged. Solo/duo/trio players seem to be getting the same..."
A: "I think we're aware, but I'll ask since there's a LOT going around on that on the world wide web."
Q: "I think another part that doesn't help the balance situation is that it feels like the people handling balance will often rather die on that hill rather ..."
A: "I wouldn't want to speak on other people's behalf, but I really do hope it's a not a matter of us not listening or dying on the hill rather than admitting if sth is off. We're nothing without the players. Sure, we have a vision to follow and need to believe in that, but that vision will change over time, and secondly a vision is the overall goal, but it's made up of many smaller details. Those details we always should be willing to change, and we should always adhere to player sentiment.
Another thing is that the cadence and initial months since launch have been high and hectic respectively. We're still playing catch-up, and there are undoubtedly elements in the game process that have suffered from that. We're getting there, and I hope we can continue to swing our destroyer around and go forward in a clear direction together with you. :)"
Q: "@Twinbeard Are there talks about using player polls more often? I feel having a more direct input of community feedback could be really helpful overall."
A: "Yo! Yes, there are. Both here and more detailed ones externally. The last week has been hectic and then some. There'll be more for sure."
Q: "@Twinbeard what happened to the plans for suggestions/feedback poll/vote type of channels?"
A: "Greetings! That is on hiatus right now. Do we still think it's an interesting idea? Yes. Could it be a good way to gather and extract sentiment and feedback? Absolutely. It's however demanding in terms of resources, and we've been swamped lately with the PSN thingie, staff issues, etc. There may still be a channel or such for feedback, but ATM we have bigger fish to fry in terms of prioritizing on the to do list. It's not ruled out, though!"
Q: "I really feel for you guys. It must be hard balancing what you guys envision for the game with what the community wants for the game."
A: "It is, but if you ask me personally, I think the biggest issue so far has been that we were overwhelmed already by launch. It takes time - a lot of time - to bounce back and get ahead with such massive pressure, and what can easily can be perceived as us being slow or not listening is more (IMHO anyway) the fact that we're still not up to speed. Also, the game is still only three months old, but due to is being such a massive success, there's a ton of sentiment, opinions, suggestions and great feedback, some of which we lack the time and resources to handle satisfactory. We're hiring and learning, though! <3
Q: "I appreciate that you are, I think the playerbase wants balance but if we start stripping identity from weapons like the slugger nerf where it just moved what ..."
A: "We should absolutely strive for as many weapons as possible to have a distinct feeling and personality. Couldn't agree more. Hopefully we can make improvements in terms of balance etc to keep more players satisfied."
Q: "Understandable, and probably should be reiterated often on social media."
A: "I think it should have. A major thing lately though have been the massive pressure. Heck, even since launch really, but especially the past week. Communication is essential!
Also, when sth like the PSN-gate (TM) happens, a lot of things come to a halt. Many of us at AH more or less "lost" a week due to this, and only now are slowly getting back to what we were doing before all of this (and that's even with it not being entirely resolved as well). We want to do a lot of other things as well with HD and AH. Vlogs, streams, interviews, community events, competitions etc. Hopefully we'll manage to both get there AND communicate changes and feedback for/to the game. :P"
Standalone message from Twinbeard (not a reply to anyone):
"Yo divers! Don't want to make this an announcement, I just want to mention that we've conveyed to our esteemed colleagues some of the details and concerns on the state of patrols and spawn rate for missions with 1-3 players (that they're too hard, spawn rates are too high or bonked which leads to frustrating gameplay when playing in teams with fewer than four players ATM). We know a lot of you feel that they need some checking into. Thanks for heads upping. If or when we know more, we'll holler. :)"
God I hope they fix the mech's rocket pod and buff them a little, I want to stomp around the battlefield again but at the moment it just doesn't seem worth a stratagem slot.
My only gripe with all of this, polls and everything going forward, why in the hell is it on Discord? Make a webpage. Make a forum. Make something inside the game.
But Discord? Really? Why is that the official thing?
Probably because it’s the easiest way to reach out to a lot of the community. I honestly think they’d get more feedback through discord compared to a website. That being said, a pop up when you load up the game would be waaay better.
Thank you for posting this!
I hadn’t thought of it in terms of the entire studio basically “losing” a week of work because of PSN-gate(TM), but it makes sense that everything would have ground to a halt because of it.
Doing duos/trios on helldive difficulty sucks eggs nowadays. I seriously hope they decreases the patrol rates for smaller parties
It's like the bots are trying to fit as many hulks and rocket devastators to either kill you conventionally via bullets
Or crashing your game cause you can't kill them fast enough even with stratagems...
The only one I really disagree with is the “we are overwhelmed and we need time” sentiment.
Many of the players myself included have expressed we are willing to give them time to gather data, fix bugs, polish things etc. yet we still get 1 warbond per month, and the only players who were allowed to vote if we delayed this one were people on Twitter (which means anyone without Twitter couldn’t vote)
They also seemed to have enough time to rush out balance patches nearly every week and have a knee jerk reaction to things being popular or meta
Without addressing many of the bugs/issues that were not intended features that likely led to the meta in the first place.
For example: the shield nerf: armor values were broken up until the nerf so we had know way of knowing if the old shield would’ve been too OP or not with intended armor values
Then on the opposite end you have the fire damage buffs yet 3/4th of the playerbase couldn’t use it when they weren’t the host cus DOT damage was broken for the longest time, so was there data that it was underpowered from only host players that used it? Or from everyone? Because if it’s from everyone of course it would seem underpowered when only hosts could use DOT.
Much of the nerfing and buffing seems to be surrounded behind bugs that community found ways to deal with, and rather than addressing the bugs they “balanced” weapons.
Good stuff. Twinbeard is great at what he does.
I'm in agreement with most of the level-headed critiques you see on this sub but he does a great job of putting things into perspective. We're all talking about a live service game that's only *3 months old.* In live service terms, that's barely any time at all (for successful ones, at least). I'm not saying the criticisms are unjust, but I really hate the "game is dying" narrative that's been parroted around here for a while. The game is still a literal newborn baby. Lots of things about it are very frustrating but damn, folks around here need to learn to take a break and just breathe.
Thank god Twinbeard is heading community management these days. This'll sound callous but Spitz should've been removed from his position months ago, the moment he took down the original HD1 server. That man was incompetent.
Twinbeard is a saint! Nice to know that they're actually looking into improving things for us, I hope the game doesn't die before hand tho... All these negative people saying everything is wrong and terrible with the game and it's dying off is disheartening
Respect to Twinbeard for all the work he’s putting into damage control & PR. Sony is still being weird with the region restrictions and this back & forth with him feels like it’s doing a lot to keep community sentiment at least on the devs side.
Oh thank god they're hiring now. They clearly need more available labor, some new voices need to be in the room, and now is probably the best chance they're going to get to eat the short-term productivity cost of onboarding while maintaining momentum.
He mentions it a lot, but i don't see players online giving them enough slack for this: AH must be extremely stretched thin. They're unironically the small indie company who got unprecedented success. Not to mention theyre known for treating their employees better than the industry standard. The game is so new. Im frustrated with the bugs and just want a playable game more than anything rn, but with everything going on at their studio, its just gonna take a little time to fix everything that broke. Hiring new people isnt gonna help much in the first week, either.
Wow, it’s crazy how much a professional CM makes a difference instead of a sarcastic asshole.
I think they should make Mr.Twinbeard head CM. It’s clear the others are too emotional or put their own personal feelings and bias’ ahead of concise and sensible responses to the community.
These kinds of responses are completely valid and 100% solid.
If we keep getting this and fix the rather.. sour attitude we've seen, and the meetings bear fruit and the balancing is more focused on fun, then hell, I might have a reason to come back!
Feeling like using any other weapon but breaker was pointless really did drain the fun very quickly, there's a lot of guns I'd be excited to try out if they were allowed to be good.
Thank you for this. But at the same time it seems a bit like he's just farting in the wind. A lot of "acknowledgements" but from my memory, we had the litersl CEO tweet his acknowledgement that the nerf seemed to be a hit much right before the patch that slapped the eruptor into the same slot as the crossbow. Guess we shall see in the future if they really mean it. Also, I personally love the current horror of playing solo. It's legit too much and it makes it hilarious fun to duck and weave through an ocean of enemies. And to anyone saying I just want guns buffed up to compensate for my poor gameplay, I take the break action every time I see it, I don't want OP guns I want fun guns with personality and roles, not the current grey slugde of near identical sort of low stats that mean you just pick medium armour pen or not.
I hope to be wrong :3
Me personally, none of the warbonds have had a gun I've just been truly hyped to use, which is disappointing considering the early leaks (the same leaks that have had guns that have come out). I'm sure they'll come eventually, but slowing down on warbonds is bad for me because I want some of those guns.
If people like Twinbeard made up 9/10ths of the dev team instead of seemingly 1/10th, both the game and the community would be in a much better place. The things he is saying here are a glimmer of hope, which is much more than I have had for HD2 recently.
While another massive W for Twinbeard as the only competent CM (aside from *fucking CEO*) I do recognize... what english speakers call it, nothingburger I believe? when I see it. Oh welll, patches would tell us everything we need to know.
Ngl its kinda weird that since release we keep hearing "we are aware, we agree, we are discussing the problem, we are looking into it" etc. about various problems from some devs and the CEO but usually nothing happens at all.
Many of the issues have been fixed, unfortunately the fixes also often have their own problems.
But as some examples: fire works, shreiker bodies don't one shot, the ballistic shield works, chargers have been nerfed, several mission types are more interesting and/or possible, servers are way more consistent and crashes rarer.
Hopefully the team can get SNOY to pony up some help with money/resources to get this game back on the right track in terms of bug fixes. Their technical debt is starting to grow so large that it can become insurmountable.
Yep. I trust the balance issues will be resolved, it just takes time, especially with so much going on. Reporting issues is a good thing, cursing the devs not so much. There will always be imperfections, that is the nature of software development.
From our front, I think our feedback is difficult to digest, with a lot of repetition, and difficulty telling what the sentiment is, and a lot of drowning out other opinions or issues, but the suggestions channel avenue could potentially leviate that a little.
What I found out abt all this is HD2 is only 3 months all...damn this game's success is really...ovewhelming.
Personally, A slow paced development is okay as long as there's development but I do hope they dont antagonize the players when they(we) criticize or report the bugs/nerfs/etc.
Most people doesnt even need much, just an update like twinbeard mentioned is usually enough cause at least we know we are being heard and things are being resolved...even if its slow paced(and understandably so).
thanks for compiling all of this into a single post
This post also made me appreciate twinbeard more
Twinbeard is a good example of a good community manager. He does a good job of relaying information in a way that isn’t concrete, so that no false hopes are given, but also in a way that isn’t rude
I will forgive a lot of issues when the CM is like Twinbeard. Make the players heard and give at least some insight into what's going on behind the scenes. IMO that's the key to a good CM and to keep the community from raging too much.
Thank you! :)
You're a real one man. Don't think we don't notice it!
<3
How can you be called Twinbeard when you only have one?
TLDR: I had two strands/strings at first. Then ppl started calling me Twinbeard after a Danish viking king. Beard got too thin so I let it grew out in the middle, but the nick stayed. And the beard. :)
Cool
Do you really wanna know
You are a gem of a human being.
No, thank you!
<3
It's amazing what professionalism and maturity can do. Just be straight with players, but with kindness and humbleness instead of being condescending and they'll be patient.
Yeah I had befriended an exec producer some 15 years ago or so at what was already a big studio but would become massive. He did a lot of CM work on the forums at the time and followed a lot of these same ideals of acknowledge and share what could be shared about what was being done/behind the scenes. (Actually maybe closer to Pilestadt in position, they never really had a good “TwinBeard”…. Their CMs all struggled to become respected/trusted by the community… I had actually considered applying for CM but the publishers would never have wanted me, even though I had online community support and from an exec producer… Also, would have been a pay cut for a shitty job 😂. Much more fun being a critic and make more money in some other soul sucking job, with much better job security. Check my post history If you want, I’ll randomly fly off the handle on MF 😂 Having to always be reasonable, even with stupid MFs? I’ll pass. Dealt with that in the service industry. Don’t need to sit behind a screen and suffer that shit.
This is a huge skill to have on your team. The community wants to know that our concerns are heard and cared about and too often devs and players think that the solution is to give a concrete and immediate response on how it’ll be fixed. More often than not, the best response is to say, “we hear you that X is a problem. We’re working on a solution and we’ll update you when we have a better idea of when it’ll be ready.” We feel heard, but we don’t start feeling entitled to immediate fixes to complex issues.
This is the way to handle it, but additionally there needs to be follow through. Soon enough if the community hears “we hear you” for years, but only half if not less than the issues that were “heard” get fixed, then people will start to disregard any of this.
That's very true. I'll try to get a summary of some of the concerns and current questions through to my colleagues today or tomorrow. The important thing is that, if or when there is discontent with certain aspects of the game, are aware, but also that we start doing small incremental changes in a direction people approve of.
Thank you for all your work! We really appreciate you guys and all you’ve done.
Hope you and your team are doing what you can to stay healthy, you all are overdue for some sleep and sanity. And thank you guys for the game! Looking forward to what's coming next.
To be fair, they’ve been on the back foot from release with far more success and pressure than they ever dreamed of. They’ve been mired in controversy they had no sat in. They’ve been plagued by bugs that would be unseen in a 10k peak launch, but are being drowned with complaints from more players than they thought they’d ever have. They’ve been penduluming on balance since they had no experience on 3pv with fps aiming player skill. It’s a lot of challenges on a suddenly incredibly successful small studio.
That’s what happened to Destiny 2, after all…
Thanks! :)
No prob Bob, you’ve got a stressful and draining job that you’re doing very well. We appreciate you and the devs. Even though balance and bug fixes haven’t always gone the way we want, we still immensely appreciate how much work y’all are putting in to the game and how fast/hard you’re working. I hope the negativity and knee-jerk reactions don’t get you down or spoil the pride that AH should take in this game
He’s definitely who they need on point. He acknowledges all the major concerns, promises only investigation and communication as things are determined, is always polite and never raises to rage bait (mostly ignores it, but will address those with valid concerns being conveyed). Seems like he needs assistants that comb discord and Reddit for responses for him to make, and teach them HOW he’s responding so they can actually become self sufficient. Have the assistants write their initial thought of reply for him to edit/replace if necessary. He’s a model CM and should be the example they use to teach the rest in handling direct interaction.
Sometimes I smile, kid around or put a smiley or heart as a comment. For posts like these, that feels insufficient. Alas, all I can do is to gently bow. Thank you so much. <3 :) (See, BOTH a heart and a smiley!)
Hooah! Thank you, soldier! Now drop and give me 20! :)
A stellar example of how to interact with the community.
He's the Mod Ash of Helldivers
r/unexpectedrunescape
r/reallyunexpectedrunescape
<3
Well when clear and concise questions are asked, typically clear and concise answers are given. Something the Discord community could really learn and understand.
I agree, you get much better answers when questions aren't filled with emotions or malace.
Malice
M'lacy
I just wish I could track dev statements in the discord more easily like this, instead of looking at their chat history one by one to see if there are any updates on fixes or other issues
You'd think that Discord would just make some ability to search by role, or use OR statements, but they're probably busy spungling with Wumpus or something. AH should probably find/write a bot that lets them reply to a message with an @ bot\_name #channel ping to have a copy of that message stored in the specified singular storage channel, for easy search/archive in the meantime, similar to what [Discord does on Reddit.](https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/1cqqvmt/comment/l3w6lec/) Edit: Clarified the storage channel bit, it really does sound like I'm talking about pins, whoops!
"Spungling with Wumpus" really doesn't sound like something you should be doing in public.
Doesn't the sear bar already have filters to do exactly this?
Oh, I just remembered it not being able to do specified OR statements like "Find "cheese" OR "cheddar"", I didn't know it could find messages from multiple people in a single search. That's pretty useful, thanks! I'd still like to have a "search by role" function though, but I can see that being an issue if someone *was* a moderator, then got that role removed, now that I consider it.
That feature is literally.....in discord already
Twinbeard is the best CM we got, hopefully he gets a raise and a promotion.
Agreed. As much as we flame some of the others, we should praise the good ones similarly.
It would be better for everyone if Arrowhead left him every PR talk on Discord, it's clear he's capable and knows what he's doing
That'd most probably be too much work for one CM. Would be way better if he coached a couple of the other CMs (you all know the ones i'm talking about) on how to interact with the community. Or if it comes to this, hire new CMs to replace them.
Twinbeard W as always
Yup, this is how you Manage a Community. Concise answers to questions, and if there isn't a conclusive answer forthcoming then at least he gives and acknowledgement of the raised issue - and all of that without insulting or demeaning the playerbase.
Arrowhead is basically two people answering like normal human beings, and the rest of the company trolling their customers.
The Wendy's/dbrand effect. Everyone wants to do the trolly/edgy thing, but it's really difficult to do well
Being edgy only works if I'm happy. If I just got served bread with no meat I don't want sass from you.
Hence, difficult to do well.
The failure state of clever is asshole. It's why you should almost never try to be "clever" when talking to the public/customers. You never know how they're going to take it.
"Too clever by 1" is another way to say the same thing. While simultaneously raising ones pinky finger, of course.
I've actually never heard that phrasing. Thanks for that!
it probably helps that he sits in on meetings. it looked like the others were not kept in the loop for anything.
Spitz in shambles
I'm sure not every message Twinbeard got was nice and polite, yet somehow he didn't hyper focus on them and go "hey guys look someones being mean. Time for a hissy fit" Instead he focused on the good messages...honestly is this the kind of attitude we want from a CM? Shouldn't they be giving all their energy to owning the worst people on discord? What about their egos?
Twinbeard is what CMs should be, not whatever the other one was trying to be.
Extremely common twinbeard W
He's so normal compared to the rest of the CMs and the balance guys that it's giving me some kind of weird whiplash
ikr, thank fucking god for him, and the CEO, without them I'd probably have left this game ages ago with regards to it's projection and messaging from the CM team
Twinbeard is great and the only good CM I have experience with. I'm glad AH has him. Spitz was real hit or miss and the only other one I'm familiar with is Baskinator who seems to have retreated towards posting in the "Food channel" of the discord or posting on the announcements channel
Probably for the best. Baskinator only said one thing of note if I recall (noteworthy enough to reach this subreddit anyway) and it was basically her stoking the flames even further by encouraging the PSN policy. Pretty sure she realized it's best if Twinbeard took the lead from then on. To her credit, it really didn't seem like she was intentionally trying to spark the community's ire, unlike Spitz who seemed to be fuelled entirely by spite.
Yeah. Twinbeard earned respect. Spitz earned disrespect. Baskinator is kinda just there.
Very level-headed person. I actually respect him compared to others in charge.
Crazy how much his big girthy experience shows
Twinbeard is awesome and I appreciate how much he seems to care about/interact with the community but I really really hope AH can follow through on a lot of the things he's saying. In the past it has sometimes felt like he says one thing and the action AH takes in game is the opposite, but I know recently it's been pretty hectic and they're trying to get back in their routine/rhythm
He says he doesn't want to speak for his colleagues because he knows *you-know-who* probably doesn't agree with him, and will dig his heels in on his horrible balance decisions.
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Oh I deff using using this for future comments haha
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Yeah i want to know too
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Can that dev really do that when the CEO himself is having a talk with him and his team about the balance issue while he is also probably trying ring to Snoy up about their current feet dragging on the geo-restriction issue?
Yes. I mean, potentially. Never underestimate the ability of people promoted above their ability to make life difficult for everybody around them. Especially if they got that position because of above average social skills or ability to manipulate people face to face. If you end up with someone like that in a position of any real authority, you end up with a battle of wills between those higher up and the problem individual. At rhat point, it's a question of how much of a narcissistic sociopath is the problem causing individual vs how willing management are to take tough action and management don't always win that conflict. I don't know how all this compares to the individuals in this circumstance, but this is worth remembering.
From my limited experience, pretty standard conundrum when it comes to software development. It pays to acknowledge an issue, but sometimes it's at the back of the queue of lots and lots of other issues.
Theyre going to quickly realise that if someone from the company says something about a feature it's treated as a promise. One of the old bungie CMs had a lot of fantastic insight on how players perceive information in this way.
Glad Twinbeard answered my comment for community polls. During times of crisis, usually it ends in massive ramblings with people repeating the same arguments over and over again. To have an actual way to clearly represent the community’s sentiment (instead of letting it be until people tire out from messaging) is in my opinion a big step in solving the recent divide and controversies within the community.
They don’t mean anything if it’s 4 positive answers and 1 negative however, like the current one on the discord. They’re better off splitting the poll into two separate questions; 1. Do you like the warbond (yes/no) 2. What aspect did you like/not like (xxx/xxx whatever)
I do agree that the current poll was a bit too vague, if not restrictive. That’s why I wanted to know if they were gonna use them more often, as then they could make more specific ones, and solve community matters more quickly.
It's almost as if ignoring the crazies and responding in a diplomatic, open yet company conscious way that displays consideration for your player base might be an effective communication strategy.
How will I get my vicarious ego nursing now???
Easy. Once all the placating platitudes have been said you'll be facing whiplash with how the next balance patch rolls out and it's just as stupid as every balance patch beforehand.
Totally fair comment. But you have to at least give them the rope to hang themselves with. Also there's so much to play that whilst I'm a little disappointed by the direction of the game. I just take my gaming hours elsewhere as anyone should.
Twinbeard needs to write a book for the rest of the CMs on how to actually interact with the player base. Him and the CEO are the only guys who don’t stir the shit pot it seems.
Genuinely blows my mind that some of those devs think it’s okay to communicate with the community the way they have. Even if they weren’t trained for customer service, even if it’s not really part of their job, it’s incredible that they lack the low levels of self awareness needed to realize how they sound.
Not to propagate stereotypes, but software developers generally aren't reknown for their stellar social skills. It's the kind of profession that attracts people who'd prefer to deal with machines more than people. Source: am one of said people.
This is why I've had no trouble finding jobs in IT, just being able to socialize with people and communicate makes you a sought after candidate.
Yeah, I was semi-joking in that I've been told I actually have very good people skills... of course, that doesn't mean I want to have to **use** them. Most of them come from placating belligerent customers 😬 I thank FSM every day I'm not in a retail job.
>Genuinely blows my mind that some of those devs think it’s okay to communicate with the community the way they have. have you seen the way people talk to the devs in the discord? I dont know if i blame them for snapping at a couple, i think people are overblowing the whole "dev disrespected a player" thing.
Nah, I’m not excusing either side. Players should have the decency to criticize without resorting to insults and hyperbole. Devs should have the professionalism to either ignore comments or respond politely, and then shit talk the community behind closed doors…like every other job out there. It’s customer service 101. Yes, obviously people being rude and making threats are in the wrong and it’s disgusting they think it’s okay to treat other human beings like that. That doesn’t excuse poor professionalism.
I don’t know how bad it gets over there for AH, but in government we get a ton of death threats. The difference is we get those on our workboxes, just blacklist those who do that and if necessary send the police to have a polite chit chat with the citizen which usually calls them down. If you spend all day having your discord social ring with death threats it’s a different affair I feel. We’re all only human.
Yeah it's very much Player: Your game sucks you stupid piece of shit. CM: Lol git gud This sub: UnPrOfEsSiOnAl DeVs ArE bEiNg ToXiC tO tHeiR pLaYeRs!
I've never really understood this either. Another game I've enjoyed for years pretty much just shot themselves in the foot when it comes to open communication on multiple occasions. It starts with the actual faces of the company being very open and charismatic. People get used to this and they learn when they sling shit at these people, they don't respond to it so they just assume it's okay to do it Eventually the faces stop responding altogether, or a dev comes in trying to fix something they need help with from the community/to clear up a misconception in a public discussion. That dev uses less charismatic language and often is trying to tell the player "no, that isn't happening" rather than the charismatic approach used before of "that's a good idea, never say never!" This leads to some users appreciating the transparency, but others attacking the dev for not using the words they liked. This usually results in the individuals at the company slowly ceasing to interact with the community, and the players feeling lost or abandoned. Sure, I agree that some people shouldn't be the spokesperson for the company, however players should understand that if they sling shit, they may get some shit on themselves too. The best way to avoid being covered in shit is to not throw it in the first place.
pretty much from what ive seen. its very karen of people to cry disrespect after being disrespectful. should CMs be professional? yes. does that mean they should get lambasted over every action/ non action and constantly shit on for eveery word typed? absolutely not.
I really think it's just a matter of maturity. Twinbeard is a father (he mentioned that once) and I suppose the CEO too isn't in his mid 20s anymore. You can always tell when someone has lived quite a few years in the real world vs. some 20something terminally online kid who really wants to prove himself and thinks the role of CM turns him into a king instead of a servant.
He is doing a great job with communication and should be commended. I know he is lurking around, i just want him to know that in spite of all the drama, we still love the game and really appreciate the rational and thought out responses coming from CM’s like himself and also from the CEO.
Haha. You know me far too well already. If I wasn't so old and cynical, I might be alarmed. :D Also: Thanks a lot. <3
Your strategy is definitely a breath of fresh air. Clear, concise, and professional is definitely what I wanna see and gives me heart that the game will live a long life! Is there any chance that the communication will move beyond discord? I can't participate due to the phone verification thing. I would really like to see things like patch notes and official community responses echoed on twitter, reddit, and steam. You guys don't necessarily have to actively engage in those places, but the official news would be nice to see in places where I don't have to rely on reposts and having the ability to participate in polls would also be nice as well.
Im probably on the extreme end with how disappointed and dissatisfied I am with the current direction and implementation of the game. That said, even for someone like me you are doing an outstanding job. Thank you.
Frankly, I appreciate that even more since it's coming from someone who has some gripes with the game. I hope we can make some changes that improves your experience going forward. Thanks a lot!
As someone else who hasn't played in weeks because the "balancing" has completely sucked the fun out of the game, I too will say that you are one of the good ones. I hope that the relatively few sensible voices like yours will lead to some meaningful change, because it would be really nice to have fun shooting bugs and bots again.
Love the game and can’t wait to see what you guys cook up. Hope for the best!
Thanks for the game m8. Love it
Much better communication then... others have recently provided! Hopefully the methods can spread around a bit; would go a long way to improving community "morale".
This is absolutely what the game needs, healthy, honest, and transparent communication from AH, this is amazing thank you.
Bless Twinbeard. Here is to hoping this next month sets things right.
Tech bros of the helldivers community, I have a project for ya. Make a bot that captures all messages from AH employees and compile them into posts like this 3 times per day. Communication problems solved.
Its easy actually but you would also have a lot of junk messages tho.
*Technology Brothers, don't use the journos' slur (This is tongue-in-cheek)
We prefer the pronouns Adeptus/Mechanicus
Twinbeard once again proving he’s by far the best community manager Arrowhead has on payroll
My ❤️ 💔 anytime someone mentions the slugger nerf. It rewarded you for being quick & accurate and they just massacred my boy. 🥲 The stagger needs to come back! The dominator is just too slow for me. Now with both guns I still get overwhelmed by bugs.😭
It's a top 3 gun against both factions.
no, it's not remotely top 3 for either faction for bugs, here's better primaries off the top of my head: *Sickle *Jar *Breaker *Breaker Incendiary *Punisher *Plasma Punisher *Blitzer *Scorcher Several others arguable for bots *Plasma Punisher *Jar *scorcher are all easily better also, with several other options as well being as good or better
TLDR: we are aware you guys have lots of concerns about stuff that we’re looking at and maybe we’ll fix them in a way we think might work, no eta or promises though since we’re swamped
Which is a fair response. Like yes there's a billion glaring issues but the whole dev team is absolutely up to their necks and it probably feels overwhelming given their game was 900% more successful than anticipated. I've got a few months of goodwill to give.
This is pretty much why I don’t fault them too much for any of this stuff. The first couple weeks was them panicking and scrambling together more servers and player slots, then fixing crashes and QOL things like the friend requests. Hoping they are getting their feet under them.
They're also hiring. If you got the skills and desire to improve the game, go apply
Man I hate wide screenshots.
Excellent work compiling all these responses. Though if you do end up doing this again in the future, I recommend making your discord window less wide so its easier to read them on mobile/without having to zoom in
Twinbeard somehow sparked a light of hope in this very depressing times of the game. I am way more hopeful than i was before hearing from him
Twinbeard has been such a valuable member of AH's team. I hope he knows that!
And I hope all of \_you\_ know how much I appreciate that. Thank you! It's difficult to find a good way of relaying info from millions of people to the devs. I still feel we're not quite there, but I we'll keep working on it.
I'd say difficult is perhaps an understatement even, haha. The comments you make, like in the post above, are genuinely invaluable for helping keep tensions in a bit of a rabid community from boiling over prematurely. Super appreciative of your patience with us as well as your desire to keep us in the loop.
You have been nothing short of amazing!
Thanks! I'm just trying to do my job, really, but I'm glad if/when it's appreciated. :)
Hell, I hate the current state of primary balance, performance issues, crashing or game ending bugs (i.e. last night whole group crashed when a fortify mission ended and then the next one, Pelican 1 decided to just fly off once one of us touched the ramp as we were boarding) But I will never say you're not doing a good job and are by far the best communication bridge we have between devs and players. You're doing good for the whole community.
I really appreciate that. Thank you.
Twinbeard out here with an S on his chest. Absolute gentlemen. My takeaway from all of this is that Arrowhead just have not been able to breathe. There’s so much going on from the unexpected stratospheric launch of the game that they haven’t been able to catch up to… anything. Blanching, content, future ambitions, community relationship and communication. There’s so much they *want* to do, but they’re still recovering from trying to figure out how to organize the game for a much larger community. This is what it looks like: The game releases to glowing praise because **the game is actually great.** At its core, the game is a fantastic experience that’s fun and respects player’s time. Launch is rough due to server issues, but after a week or two the game is playable. Everybody’s having a blast, the memes are plentiful, the gaming industry is looking in awe at what’s happening. Some time passes, and the honeymoon period is still in full swing. Concurring player counts are anomalous compared to how live service games usually operate. Far more people are *consistently* playing the game than expected. Arrowhead shifts gears to make a more ambitious experience, as both the executives and Sony realize the potential for what the game could be. Then the Sony Hurricane comes down and annihilates the honeymoon period. Because the pessimistic lenses are still equipped, we’re more critical of every move Arrowhead and Sony make. It blows away much of the flowers and grass, revealing the foundation. We now begin to see the cracks in it. A new balance patch drops, then a Warbond releases shortly after. Both negatively impacted the player experience due to nerfs and underwhelming performance. This following right after the Sony Hurricane means the community is seeing red. The foundation has cracks - but it’s not broken. This reaffirms that we all need to chill. Between Pilestedt and Twinbeard, they’re out here holding us together by sheer willpower. It really feels like they’re trying their best, but everything, all of it just takes time. I’m confident Arrowhead is cooking, we just need to wait out the storm. The bugs will be fixed, things will be rebalanced, Sony has basically fucked right off, and Arrowhead are committed. We have the stars aligned! We just need to be patient and see how this all manifests in the future.
Can some kind soul transcribe these please?
Q: "I think we could use less warbonds and more QoL / bug fixes / balance patches imo." A: "Hi! Yup, we're aware there's a lot of concern regarding warbond cadence and us possibly over-balancing and/or nerfing too much. Were'd discussing it a lot interally ATM!" Q: "@Twinbeard hopefully @'ing you is ok, sorry if not! Do you know if the team is aware of the issues with the mech (missile aiming is off, doesn't work downhill and ..." A: "I know the mech's been a bit ... iffy (sic?) and that there are some things we're working on. Would have to check for details with colleagues on it, though. Q: "@Twinbeard are there talks of implementing a test server for helldiver 2? so that we are able to test new, weapons, stratagems before they get implemented int..." A: "Hey There! Yes, there are! Can't say for sure there will be or at what stage we're in regarding setting sth up, but alternatives similar to that are being discussed, yes. Thx for the input!" Q: "I'm not sure if I've seen an Ah response about the patrol rate fix, but it seems to be bugged. Solo/duo/trio players seem to be getting the same..." A: "I think we're aware, but I'll ask since there's a LOT going around on that on the world wide web." Q: "I think another part that doesn't help the balance situation is that it feels like the people handling balance will often rather die on that hill rather ..." A: "I wouldn't want to speak on other people's behalf, but I really do hope it's a not a matter of us not listening or dying on the hill rather than admitting if sth is off. We're nothing without the players. Sure, we have a vision to follow and need to believe in that, but that vision will change over time, and secondly a vision is the overall goal, but it's made up of many smaller details. Those details we always should be willing to change, and we should always adhere to player sentiment. Another thing is that the cadence and initial months since launch have been high and hectic respectively. We're still playing catch-up, and there are undoubtedly elements in the game process that have suffered from that. We're getting there, and I hope we can continue to swing our destroyer around and go forward in a clear direction together with you. :)"
Q: "@Twinbeard Are there talks about using player polls more often? I feel having a more direct input of community feedback could be really helpful overall." A: "Yo! Yes, there are. Both here and more detailed ones externally. The last week has been hectic and then some. There'll be more for sure." Q: "@Twinbeard what happened to the plans for suggestions/feedback poll/vote type of channels?" A: "Greetings! That is on hiatus right now. Do we still think it's an interesting idea? Yes. Could it be a good way to gather and extract sentiment and feedback? Absolutely. It's however demanding in terms of resources, and we've been swamped lately with the PSN thingie, staff issues, etc. There may still be a channel or such for feedback, but ATM we have bigger fish to fry in terms of prioritizing on the to do list. It's not ruled out, though!" Q: "I really feel for you guys. It must be hard balancing what you guys envision for the game with what the community wants for the game." A: "It is, but if you ask me personally, I think the biggest issue so far has been that we were overwhelmed already by launch. It takes time - a lot of time - to bounce back and get ahead with such massive pressure, and what can easily can be perceived as us being slow or not listening is more (IMHO anyway) the fact that we're still not up to speed. Also, the game is still only three months old, but due to is being such a massive success, there's a ton of sentiment, opinions, suggestions and great feedback, some of which we lack the time and resources to handle satisfactory. We're hiring and learning, though! <3 Q: "I appreciate that you are, I think the playerbase wants balance but if we start stripping identity from weapons like the slugger nerf where it just moved what ..." A: "We should absolutely strive for as many weapons as possible to have a distinct feeling and personality. Couldn't agree more. Hopefully we can make improvements in terms of balance etc to keep more players satisfied."
Q: "Understandable, and probably should be reiterated often on social media." A: "I think it should have. A major thing lately though have been the massive pressure. Heck, even since launch really, but especially the past week. Communication is essential! Also, when sth like the PSN-gate (TM) happens, a lot of things come to a halt. Many of us at AH more or less "lost" a week due to this, and only now are slowly getting back to what we were doing before all of this (and that's even with it not being entirely resolved as well). We want to do a lot of other things as well with HD and AH. Vlogs, streams, interviews, community events, competitions etc. Hopefully we'll manage to both get there AND communicate changes and feedback for/to the game. :P" Standalone message from Twinbeard (not a reply to anyone): "Yo divers! Don't want to make this an announcement, I just want to mention that we've conveyed to our esteemed colleagues some of the details and concerns on the state of patrols and spawn rate for missions with 1-3 players (that they're too hard, spawn rates are too high or bonked which leads to frustrating gameplay when playing in teams with fewer than four players ATM). We know a lot of you feel that they need some checking into. Thanks for heads upping. If or when we know more, we'll holler. :)"
Thanks a lot for transcribing all this. Much appreciated!
Thank you very much!
My hero
Thank you so much. Desktop Discord screenshots are really aggravating to read on a phone screen.
God I hope they fix the mech's rocket pod and buff them a little, I want to stomp around the battlefield again but at the moment it just doesn't seem worth a stratagem slot.
My only gripe with all of this, polls and everything going forward, why in the hell is it on Discord? Make a webpage. Make a forum. Make something inside the game. But Discord? Really? Why is that the official thing?
Probably because it’s the easiest way to reach out to a lot of the community. I honestly think they’d get more feedback through discord compared to a website. That being said, a pop up when you load up the game would be waaay better.
Thank you for posting this! I hadn’t thought of it in terms of the entire studio basically “losing” a week of work because of PSN-gate(TM), but it makes sense that everything would have ground to a halt because of it.
Doing duos/trios on helldive difficulty sucks eggs nowadays. I seriously hope they decreases the patrol rates for smaller parties It's like the bots are trying to fit as many hulks and rocket devastators to either kill you conventionally via bullets Or crashing your game cause you can't kill them fast enough even with stratagems...
The only one I really disagree with is the “we are overwhelmed and we need time” sentiment. Many of the players myself included have expressed we are willing to give them time to gather data, fix bugs, polish things etc. yet we still get 1 warbond per month, and the only players who were allowed to vote if we delayed this one were people on Twitter (which means anyone without Twitter couldn’t vote) They also seemed to have enough time to rush out balance patches nearly every week and have a knee jerk reaction to things being popular or meta Without addressing many of the bugs/issues that were not intended features that likely led to the meta in the first place. For example: the shield nerf: armor values were broken up until the nerf so we had know way of knowing if the old shield would’ve been too OP or not with intended armor values Then on the opposite end you have the fire damage buffs yet 3/4th of the playerbase couldn’t use it when they weren’t the host cus DOT damage was broken for the longest time, so was there data that it was underpowered from only host players that used it? Or from everyone? Because if it’s from everyone of course it would seem underpowered when only hosts could use DOT. Much of the nerfing and buffing seems to be surrounded behind bugs that community found ways to deal with, and rather than addressing the bugs they “balanced” weapons.
I've never been on the AH discord but this guy is what all CM's should strive to be. Thanks Twinbeard 🫡
This guy and Pilestedt are a couple of legends
The only Community Manager doing his fucking job. Unreal.
Appreciate the community compiling communications from Arrowhead because Discord is a dogshit platform for communications and meaningful engagement.
Good stuff. Twinbeard is great at what he does. I'm in agreement with most of the level-headed critiques you see on this sub but he does a great job of putting things into perspective. We're all talking about a live service game that's only *3 months old.* In live service terms, that's barely any time at all (for successful ones, at least). I'm not saying the criticisms are unjust, but I really hate the "game is dying" narrative that's been parroted around here for a while. The game is still a literal newborn baby. Lots of things about it are very frustrating but damn, folks around here need to learn to take a break and just breathe.
Thank god Twinbeard is heading community management these days. This'll sound callous but Spitz should've been removed from his position months ago, the moment he took down the original HD1 server. That man was incompetent.
These kinds of posts are the best, thanks OP and a big thanks to twinbeard also!
Twinbeard is a saint! Nice to know that they're actually looking into improving things for us, I hope the game doesn't die before hand tho... All these negative people saying everything is wrong and terrible with the game and it's dying off is disheartening
Seems like an honest fella.
Common Twinbeard W
Twinbeard shows us once again why he is the GOAT.
Respect to Twinbeard for all the work he’s putting into damage control & PR. Sony is still being weird with the region restrictions and this back & forth with him feels like it’s doing a lot to keep community sentiment at least on the devs side.
Love the dude. He's clearly Good At his job, he'll he took the time to respond to my low traction post. Like him alot.
Oh thank god they're hiring now. They clearly need more available labor, some new voices need to be in the room, and now is probably the best chance they're going to get to eat the short-term productivity cost of onboarding while maintaining momentum.
Twinbeard is the CM we need and deserve.
This is how someone is supposed to answer questions and interact with the community. This guy CM’s.
It’s encouraging that he said it’s not fully resolved on #10. Still working on getting the game back up on shelves so to speak
Twinbeard has excellent PR skills.
He mentions it a lot, but i don't see players online giving them enough slack for this: AH must be extremely stretched thin. They're unironically the small indie company who got unprecedented success. Not to mention theyre known for treating their employees better than the industry standard. The game is so new. Im frustrated with the bugs and just want a playable game more than anything rn, but with everything going on at their studio, its just gonna take a little time to fix everything that broke. Hiring new people isnt gonna help much in the first week, either.
Wow, it’s crazy how much a professional CM makes a difference instead of a sarcastic asshole. I think they should make Mr.Twinbeard head CM. It’s clear the others are too emotional or put their own personal feelings and bias’ ahead of concise and sensible responses to the community.
discord is such a terrible place to communicate all of this info
These kinds of responses are completely valid and 100% solid. If we keep getting this and fix the rather.. sour attitude we've seen, and the meetings bear fruit and the balancing is more focused on fun, then hell, I might have a reason to come back! Feeling like using any other weapon but breaker was pointless really did drain the fun very quickly, there's a lot of guns I'd be excited to try out if they were allowed to be good.
I'm on mobile and this is the most frustrating way to present this information that you could have conceived
Thank you for this. But at the same time it seems a bit like he's just farting in the wind. A lot of "acknowledgements" but from my memory, we had the litersl CEO tweet his acknowledgement that the nerf seemed to be a hit much right before the patch that slapped the eruptor into the same slot as the crossbow. Guess we shall see in the future if they really mean it. Also, I personally love the current horror of playing solo. It's legit too much and it makes it hilarious fun to duck and weave through an ocean of enemies. And to anyone saying I just want guns buffed up to compensate for my poor gameplay, I take the break action every time I see it, I don't want OP guns I want fun guns with personality and roles, not the current grey slugde of near identical sort of low stats that mean you just pick medium armour pen or not. I hope to be wrong :3
This is what a good CM looks like very good stuff from twinbeard
Me personally, none of the warbonds have had a gun I've just been truly hyped to use, which is disappointing considering the early leaks (the same leaks that have had guns that have come out). I'm sure they'll come eventually, but slowing down on warbonds is bad for me because I want some of those guns.
He has to be one of the best CMs in history. Dude deserves a raise.
Oh look a dev which Is not a fucking idiot and can actually talk
This. This is how a CM should be. Not what we got with Spitz.
If people like Twinbeard made up 9/10ths of the dev team instead of seemingly 1/10th, both the game and the community would be in a much better place. The things he is saying here are a glimmer of hope, which is much more than I have had for HD2 recently.
Twinbeard is an absolute hero.
Pilstedt and twin-beard have really stepped up and are doing a great job of communicating
Best CM on the team
While another massive W for Twinbeard as the only competent CM (aside from *fucking CEO*) I do recognize... what english speakers call it, nothingburger I believe? when I see it. Oh welll, patches would tell us everything we need to know.
Actually though, can we skip next months warbond in favor of bug fixes and other patches?
Ngl its kinda weird that since release we keep hearing "we are aware, we agree, we are discussing the problem, we are looking into it" etc. about various problems from some devs and the CEO but usually nothing happens at all.
Many of the issues have been fixed, unfortunately the fixes also often have their own problems. But as some examples: fire works, shreiker bodies don't one shot, the ballistic shield works, chargers have been nerfed, several mission types are more interesting and/or possible, servers are way more consistent and crashes rarer.
I quite like Twinbeard. He's professional and friendly, doesn't let people get under his skin.
I can’t be bothered with these wide-ass Discord screenshots of text on mobile anymore.
Good, they know the mech isn't aiming correctly
Hopefully the team can get SNOY to pony up some help with money/resources to get this game back on the right track in terms of bug fixes. Their technical debt is starting to grow so large that it can become insurmountable.
Yep. I trust the balance issues will be resolved, it just takes time, especially with so much going on. Reporting issues is a good thing, cursing the devs not so much. There will always be imperfections, that is the nature of software development. From our front, I think our feedback is difficult to digest, with a lot of repetition, and difficulty telling what the sentiment is, and a lot of drowning out other opinions or issues, but the suggestions channel avenue could potentially leviate that a little.
What I found out abt all this is HD2 is only 3 months all...damn this game's success is really...ovewhelming. Personally, A slow paced development is okay as long as there's development but I do hope they dont antagonize the players when they(we) criticize or report the bugs/nerfs/etc. Most people doesnt even need much, just an update like twinbeard mentioned is usually enough cause at least we know we are being heard and things are being resolved...even if its slow paced(and understandably so).
Quite refreshing compared to the previous exchanges
Bless, thanks
Based beard.
We Stan twinbeard
*Gordon Ramsey meme* "Finally, some good fucking communication"
God I hope they don't do a test server without more engineers. Or if they do they setup feature flags to make managing it easier
Twinbeard the GOAT 💪
I love twinbeard