Quote Originally Posted by Whacker
Of course not. There's something to be said for being able to offer criticism in a polite, professional manner without being a jerk, and people realizing that mobbing a CA person when posting with anything on their mind isn't going to help the situation. On the other hand, it needs to be noted that rampant buttkissing and that zomg-happy-like-that-ditzy-blonde-you-knew-in-high-school attitude that's enforced in official forums by deleting any post that doesn't fit that bill (in general) isn't conducive to discussion that may seem like complaining.

Someone else mentioned this earlier, I think one of the big reasons by far is that people would assume that a CA person posting "represents" their employer as a whole. Due to legal reasons and perceptions I doubt this will ever change. As such what we most often get are "community managers" who do nothing but interact with the public at large. I tend to dismiss these folks as without fail, they usually do not come across as down-to-earth humans, most often dismissing or downplaying big time complaints or issues that are legit, regardless of how they're stated, and generally portraying their employer as can-never-do-wrong. In other words, trying to "manage" the community, instead of interacting with it. Also, those types tend to not ever give any real or firm information on the game regarding things such as bugs, patches, etc. There's a quote that I'm reminded of but don't have it handy word for word, it goes something like "It's amazing how one can say so much, and really not say anything at all" I could give a few examples of these types through some other forums I know, both official and unofficial for other games, but it's pointless and not going to help this discussion at all.

Whatever the case, it'd still love to see some better interaction from CA, from the developers themselves. Yeah it's a given there are going to be the hordes of n00bs and types that do nothing but mob and complain, but there are enough of us out there who really do appreciate the games and the developers hard work, but do have some legitimate points of discussion that we'd love to engage them on, such as game mechanics, bug discussion, general shooting the crap, etc. Plus giving them some good natured and well intended hell builds character.

Cheers!
I agree Whacker.

It's great when they are here and you get a thread in which you can have a good discussion. It is possible on this board but unfortunately it is become less frequent. With so many people on these boards the level of discussion can nose dive dramatically.

Your description of "handling" the community is perfect. That is exactly what was done when the Load/Save Bug was being discussed (for want of a better word) sometime ago. All it did was drive the situation even further down the toilet.

Fishpants is the only CA guy I've seen around here regularly. Personally I'd like to think that the Moderators as a much smaller group and hopefully a sensible "peer group" have more contact with CA. At least I hope they do.