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Are you a customer, or a player?
#11
I definitely value your friendship of longer than, what, almost ten years now?

Also, I definitely value my status as an Initial Imperator in Alamaze!  I am a satisfied customer.

I definitely am also a player.  I love both FoR and Alamaze (and would say I have a moderately, even modestly, competitive personality Smile).  My personality leads me to write things that I could sometimes write more diplomatically/tactfully/tastefully if I paused and gave it a little more time between the initial thought and the keyboard . . .

Alamaze Rocks Rick! Heart 
Lord Thanatos
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#12
(09-03-2015, 02:21 AM)Ry Vor Wrote: I don't really have a line between friends and customers, and I kind of expect players here to accept my personality, and to know as I have said, I am not here to say the customer is always right.

     The customer is not always right. However, the customer is always the customer. You still need them to be successful. You need a lot of them. That means that there is no 'one size fits all'. There has to be some kind of filter to ensure that you aren't chasing them away. Just be aware of your audience. 

     You can talk to me a lot more frankly than you can the guy who just found the game and is on the verge of falling in love with it. You don't want to chase him off when a few seconds of thoughfulness could win him forever. 
 Lord Diamond

Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.





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#13
LD has it exactly right.

Separately, your frank talk might be received a lot better if you tamped down on your own defensiveness when people, as a result of your own frank talk, give frank talk right back to you. And your correct belief that the customer is not always right might be received a lot better if you owned up to the times when you yourself are not right.

Everyone has the right to "be themselves" but sometimes that will carry consequences. And if you really, truly, earnestly don't care about whether people stay or go as a result of your own customer service quirks, then I hope you will understand when complaints about not being able to grow or maintain the customer base aren't very well received, either.
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#14
I don't think I'm complaining.  I'm just saying, having been an SVP for a Fortune 500 company, that this, Alamaze, is not that.  I feel more like a host of a gathering for a board game than some company exec that needs to be politically correct.  I think most players get that, and may actually admire it, instead of being a cheesy customer service monger.  In any case, that's what I'm doing, take it or leave it.  If that costs a sensitive customer or three along the way, good luck replacing what Alamaze provides.  Perge'.  (press on).
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#15
I am speaking of such complaints generally (such as when you go on one of your pricing rants, or make comparisons to other PBM games that less than 10% of your player base have any interest in), not that you are specifically complaining about that in this discussion thread.

And I think your estimation that most people "admire" your demeanor is about as accurate as your estimation that most of your player base prefers slower turnaround.

Regardless, dismissing as hypersensitivity a concern that has arisen repeatedly across a number of diverse players -- so much so, apparently, that you yourself created this thread to ask the question -- seems a bit short-sighted.

But hey, that is just my opinion, and you are of course welcome to take it or leave it as well, just as you say that others can take or leave you and the game. And as we've repeatedly said, Alamaze is a great game, and what people choose to tolerate in order to play it will vary from person to person, as they weigh their entertainment choices and dollars and time.
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#16
I'm a customer service manager, but I hope I'm not 'cheesy'. I genuinely care about my customers and that is what they generally see in me. I care about them because they pay for my house, my kid's college, and my Alamaze addiction. Every time I find myself getting annoyed with oneof them, I remind myself of that. I have a reminder on my laptop that reads 'Am I treating this customer like I would want my grandmother treated?' If I'm not, I adjust my attitude. For the record, my grandmother wasn't a saint, but I still wanted her treated well.
 Lord Diamond

Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.





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#17
I guess I'm saying I am not wanting to be rude in any sense, but I am not trying to be overtly PC.  And I kind of feel like people get that.  And I think I am in a better position to judge the pulse of the player base than anyone else, should not be a surprise.  We still have started on average more than one game a week since the Resurgence, meaning now 140 games, whereas I don't think the competition that many seem to think doesn't matter but does, have not started more than a dozen.  So we must be doing something right.  Yes, I have lost a couple people that thought they should be treated like princes because they pay a fee.  That's just not me, and that's what I'm saying.  I'm not at all interested in being corporate, otherwise, I would still be corporate instead of running Alamaze.  'Nuff said. 
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#18
Actually I prefer to be a customer. That way, I can yell at Ry Vor to get on the ball and finish 3rd Cycle and he has to be nice to me because I'm a customer Smile
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#19
I think we can all agree that Alamaze is the best game in its category and that it keeps getting better.

Every scrap of feedback from every person involved is intended to make it a better overall game. Rick ultimately decides which to keep, which to toss, and which to put aside for future consideration. That doesn't mean that we don't have teh right to keep sharing, and refining, our ideas.

Maybe it is because we all feel that we own a little bit of Alamaze in some way. We know who owns the company, but Alamaze belongs to us all. That vested intetest is a GOOD THING and should be nurtured wherever it can be found.
 Lord Diamond

Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.





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#20
Smile
(09-05-2015, 03:44 AM)unclemike Wrote: Actually I prefer to be a customer. That way, I can yell at Ry Vor to get on the ball and finish 3rd Cycle and he has to be nice to me because I'm a customer Smile

You do make me laugh.  And I know I am dragging some.  It's just this isn't processing invoices, I want to get it all right.  And not every day am I creative.  So, we will get there, but keep signing up for 2nd Cycle.
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