I’ve repeated various times on this site that Caydiem is doing her work as a community manager in a wonderful way. I really believe that nothing more could be done. Not only she deals with problems, rants, attacks and legitimate issues way better than the rest of the community guys working at Blizzard, but what she’s doing is head and shoulders above everything on the market. She is able to understand directly why the players are ranting about something, she demonstrated to know and understand this genre, she gave proof of being intelligent and, in particular, she doesn’t offend the players.

Too often the community managers love to lead the situation, answering what they want to answer, making fun of legitimate complaints, avoiding to tackle directly the most “inconvenient” issues that are brought up. It’s a cynic and sly way to use the communication for your own purposes. Because too often the “communication” is just seen as a method and theory to master so you can control and convince. Dismissing and suffocating the problems. Forgetting completely that what you have to FEAR isn’t the community, but just your own ignorance and proud ego. The ivory tower. “Hey, do you really believe I’m here to listen you?”

Again I also repeated various times my point of view on all this and I want to link again a comment of Jessica Mulligan to demonstrate that I’m not just a fool with no contact with the reality.

Now I quote here a recent message of Caydiem. What is important isn’t the informations that you may deduce, what is important is the tone she uses. A type of respect that isn’t about “being polite” or “professional”. It’s instead sincere and direct. Understanding and admitting the faults and underlining the intention to address them. She doesn’t throw or dodge the critics, she doesn’t glide or hide. Instead she is interested into understanding the issues because it’s valuable. She doesn’t spit on the community as everyone else working on this genre. Noone excluded.

Well, the core problem is that we have not significantly patched in over two months. This would not be nearly as large a concern as it is now if patches were coming out in a regular and efficient manner.

Hotfixes take time to compile, test, and deploy, just as patches do. In addition, not everything can be fixed with a hotfix. If it requires any change to the client whatsoever, a change cannot be properly fixed with a hotfix and must instead be patched.

Instead of slapping a band-aid on the problem, hotfixing the biggest bugs that can be hotfixed at all, and hoping the clamor will cease, we are working on fixing the root problem. The fact of the matter is we need to bring game changes to you more quickly so you do not languish with these challenging problems. These issues are such a concern not only because they make the game more difficult and frustrating to play but because you’ve had to deal with them for a long period of time without seeing any considerable chunk of fixes brought in at all.

We realize that what has been happening with this lack of updates is unacceptable for our customers. The infamous content patch is on its way, and once it comes we are committed to patching more frequently. We will update the game regularly with fixes, balance changes, and new content. We will deliver more comprehensive patch notes than have been given in the past.

I know that these are just empty words to you right now and the proof is in the pudding. If I could hand you a patch today, I would. Sadly, I cannot do that. But we have been working on certain aspects of this process that should reveal themselves to you soon and affirm that we are indeed committed to delivering the service for which you pay.

Communication-wise we are going to respond to these issues as they come up, as we’ll have more information with this process. You should be better informed as far as what’s coming.

There have been a variety of issues holding back this patch that I cannot go into, but this is not the trend we want to set in updating the game. Our new process should bring you patches more quickly.

Just to explain better. These “praises” I’m writing don’t come from one message. It’s something I’m observing from when she started her work and I wanted to use this as an occasion to underline what I believe it’s good, in the same way I underline what is awful.

The problems at Blizzard are somewhere else. I believe they are doing a wonderful work with the communication. What doesn’t work is about something that Caydiem cannot solve. I’d like to see more direct involvement of the developers with the community. To start and participate in the discussions in a way that cannot be substitute with a community manager. So the problem goes deeper. It isn’t the communication alone. It’s instead the communication and its concrete consequences. Too often these “community managers” are supposed to fill roles that aren’t their responsibilities.

Again Caydiem does her best as you can see in every single answer she wrotes. I have a very good memory and a good spirit of observation. If I’m writing all this it’s because I’m sure of it. I’m sure that I won’t need to contradict myself.

I’m sure that I’ll never regret what I’m stating here.

EDIT: There’s a voice about Caydiem real name: Kristen De Meza. She was working for Horizon (ouch…).