Interview with PPS_Jackson on Current Events

Plenty of the negativity WAS Privateer Press' fault. They told the community that there would be 2 yearly erratas that would buff weak models and nerf overly powerful models. That was a great idea. The problem, and this is the big one, is that they didn't say how these models would be selected. The player base whinged about Sloan. Sloan got fixed. Then they whinged about Karchev and mad dogs. They got nerfed. Then there was much whinging about High Reclaimer and 2Una. They got nerfed. The whinging about Skorne's weakness was answered with buffs eventually. Now, most people at their heart know that it wasn't really the whinging that got this work done. But it is the common factor community involvement with the erratas. So, of course, if they whinge hard enough, then the Lances would be nerfed. So, yeah, there was whining and negativity. Because PP indirectly encouraged it. They could have tried to direct the discussion in a more positive way, but they just let the forums whine and make suggestions that were not heard.

Now, even after that, I can understand PP closing down the sections of their forum. Its their forum, they can do what they like with it. Personally, I think it was a major mistake. But that's me.

What does irk me is that that wasn't the negativity that they talked about on the livestream. They claimed that new players were turned off from the game because when they presented lists to the forums, they got bullied over it. I never saw anything like that in the list section of any faction. The people who took the time to respond to new players in those threads were always kind and eager to help a new fledgling player learn the ropes. I do not like that new player's experiences with the forums was used as an excuse to kill the faction forums on short notice. Because, here's the thing, those same new players will eventually stumble onto a WMH reddit or facebook or Lormachine or whatever. And when they do, they will get the full oppinions of players without the watchful gaze of PP. PP has relinquished the control they had over what new players could see and hear. So, it really doesn't fix that problem, but makes it worse.

I do have hope for these independent forums, though. Since PP staff aren't here (as far as I know), there's a limit to how heated a player might get in their complaints. If you're yelling at a wall, you'll eventually calm down. Especially if you're in a public place. Unless, of course, everyone is yelling at the wall together.

As a side note: telling a new player what choices are optimal, and which are not is not negative. It is done out of a desire to help that player not make purchasing mistakes, and thus become upset with the game because of that.

I apologize if it sounded like I was in favor of the high levels of complaining in the old forums. I'm not. I only meant to say that the reactions of the forum group think were largely predictable, and that PP should have known better. I don't like the who's next nerf game. I wish Karchev and Una hadn't been hit like they were. But by the general attitude going around, it was treated like business as usual. The next model at the top gets axed hard, then move on.

PP could have handled this better by using light touches (hit Karchev or the Mad Dog. See what happens. Then consider further action) and adding some sugar to the medicine: "Hey, Khador, we nerfed Mad Dogs a bit cuz they were dumb. But we also buffed the Kossites a bit. Have fun with that." Proceeding the way they have leads to hysterical brawls for "no nerf his thing, leave my thing alone". So many of the nerfs they've done feel so tacked on. Haley1? Drop her speed debuff to command. Mad Dog Spam? Nerf Karchev's feat AND increase cost. Its like they just wanted to get them over with, and never touch the models again.

Yes, they said they would do twice per year along with occasional dynamic updates for emergencies. That plan seems to have gone out the window already, in favor of CID. Which is fine, but it shows that the plans of now might be gone in a couple of months.

It is a major problem that they didn't lay out how models would be picked. Of course, it would be with data. But, does the data include forum suggestions? By the look of the forums, plenty of people thought so to the very end.

Didn't say Sloan got nerfed. I said she got fixed, and she did. It doesn't matter that most of the models complained about are untouched. Some of them did get changed, and since no one knew how models would be selected (as in, what data is being considered), it was assumed that whining on the forums COULD get results IF there was enough of it. There was blood in the water, and the players frenzied (myself included. I really hoped that they might reconsider the Haley1 nerf if the Cygnar board made a decent argument for it).

I know that the models changed were probably going to be changed. I do not know (and neither do you) that they would have been hit as hard if the players hadn't complained so much. That can't be known. It IS pretty safe to say that if no one complained at all and just bought models regardless of rules, then PP would never errata anything. So there's plenty of ground in between where the general feelings of the playerbase CAN affect the process of errata.

Yes, the CID is a better place to do that. Y'know what they could have done: Banned all discussion of model buffs/nerfs outside of CID. Allow discussion on how to beat powerful models and how to make weak models work. Use an iron fist and make it clear that that is the new way of things, and we'd be good. You want to contribute to changing model rules? Join the CID. Playtest. Report. You wanna talk about how to beat Lances (without calling for buffs here or nerfs there) then go to General discussion. You want to organize a secret santa, talk about lore, or decode the mad ramblings of Grymkin, go to general discussion.

I think that PP did have a large group of well meaning volunteers (and still does) who would love to help moderating a new forum.

The reason that people might be a little insistent about model selection is because WMH already has a massive learning curve where it can take a long time to win a first game. Generally, if a player tries out some oddball lists at the beginning, they'll lose just as much or even harder. While being told that your list idea is sub-optimal can hurt, its also hurtful to play with your custom list for months while getting stomped only to find that the money and time you spent is largely not worthwhile. It happened to me. I adamantly played Sloan in MKII with a mishmash of models I though worked together, but didn't. Once I started to play a decent caster with a solid list, I started to improve. Not because the caster or list was a crutch. But because I knew that the list wasn't the problem. I could safely assume that all mistakes were my own, and learn from them.