Would you consider having someone from PD communicate regularly with fans?Addressed 

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Yui-san

Yui-san

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EYuiSan
As I see it, many GT fans are often frustrated by the lack of communication between Polyphony Digital and the fans, especially over the last few months. I understand that this could be due to the language barrier in between, so I was wondering if you could perhaps hire someone (who speaks English...or perhaps Translator-san could do it as well?) onto the PD team to report on the progress of PD to the fans through the internet (kinda like a spokesperson), perhaps on GTPlanet or even PlaystationBlog.

I've seen this been done by Eden Games with Test Drive and Turn10 with Forza... so I don't see why PD couldn't do the same to be a more receptive about fan feedbacks, as well as to better inform fans about game updates and so on.
 
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ukfan758
An customer service email address would be nice.
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I think it would be more direct and effective if they simply had someone posting on forums such as GTPlanet... from my personal experience, you rarely get much out of customer service emails other than some generic sentences.
 
Yui-san
I think it would be more direct and effective if they simply had someone posting on forums such as GTPlanet... from my personal experience, you rarely get much out of customer service emails other than some generic sentences.
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My experience with other companies and their customer service emails have been quite nice. For one game company, I asked for the release date of a game and they actually gave it to me even before they officially announced it. I have also had problems solved through customer service emails too.
 
ukfan758
My experience with other companies and their customer service emails have been quite nice. For one game company, I asked for the release date of a game and they actually gave it to me even before they officially announced it. I have also had problems solved through customer service emails too.
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Hmmm...that's nice. I wish I could've been so lucky :lol: Still, I think it would be inefficient if we had to write emails to PD to get information about updates... if they would simply post their progress every now and then on GTPlanet, I'm sure there would be a lot less complaints and hatred going around here. Plus, if they were to browse GTPlanet and communicate with fans more often, they'd see what kinds of features the fans eagerly want (no need for market research!), or what needs to be fixed (eg. bugs or glitches).

Still, a customer service email to PD might be useful if we need help in solving a certain issue regarding the game.
 
How about we ask Kaz's personal translator-san for the answers?

E3Translator.jpg
 
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That person must be someone who handles stress with no problem, as i'll bet money on the fact that he/she will get 20,000 questions a week, 30,000 complaints a week, and 100,000 angry players ranting on at him/her about the game each DAY.

Exaggerated obviously, but you can kinda see why perhaps they haven't gone down this path - since so many GT players are a bit irate already...
 
I told Jordan at the Jalopnik Gran Turismo Film Festival, if he ever looks to other pastures he has to give PD a call. I also talked to Taku Imasaki (GT6 producer) at the same event and he indicated they want to open more lines of communication, but what to do so efficiently and effectively.

Effectively leveraging collective opinion is not an easy thing to do. Especially with the fanbase the size of GT.
 
SkylineObsession
That person must be someone who handles stress with no problem, as i'll bet money on the fact that he/she will get 20,000 questions a week, 30,000 complaints a week, and 100,000 angry players ranting on at him/her about the game each DAY.

Exaggerated obviously, but you can kinda see why perhaps they haven't gone down this path - since so many GT players are a bit irate already...
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Well the point is not for that person to answer every question or deal with every complaint, but rather for that person to simply communicate with fans every now and then. For example, he could tease us about some future updates, explain to us why a certain aspect of the game (VGT for example) has been delayed, or even tell us about new features being implemented or tested. He could even stop by the photomode forums or online racing forums to see how they are being used in the game, and perhaps let Pd get better idea on how to improve those features in the future (Bring back old photo travel locations for example).

I'm sure this would keep fans interested about the game and reduce the amount of ranting on the forums.
 
Couldn't agree more. I hope that the interviewer will start the question with a "fact" before asking the question. Otherwise you'll get vague answers and he'll probably not remember much after the interview.
"GT fans have been hoping for a long time for more regular updates from PD on GT development progress. Would you …" :P
 
SkylineObsession
That person must be someone who handles stress with no problem, as i'll bet money on the fact that he/she will get 20,000 questions a week, 30,000 complaints a week, and 100,000 angry players ranting on at him/her about the game each DAY.

Exaggerated obviously, but you can kinda see why perhaps they haven't gone down this path - since so many GT players are a bit irate already...
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Actually, considering the number of posts on GT Planet every day, I don't think that this is far off.... (for good, bad or indiferent ;) )

Hmm... Jordan for this role? Not to be mean, but, no. He has THIS place to run. He doesn't need any more on his plate! ;)
 
This would be sooooo good for PD and stop all the wondering about what was actually changed on updates. Really not that difficult if you release a list of EVERYTHING done on an update and what problems, features and fixes are next so we know you (pd) are aware of the problem . I know there are people here that would love to communicate with someone from PD. One person and a couple emails is all it would take.
 
I think someone from SONY would be good enough. And someone who has the freedom to walk away from this madhouse and NeoGAF, among other places, for a day or more when the crap just gets to be too much to handle. And this place can get seriously full of crap. :P
 
I do think if PD hires someone, they need to be more than just a "member of the GT community". They should probably have a some experience with data analytics, social media, community management, digital marketing, psychology and project management as well as experience with video games and obviously in particular GT.
 
Frankly, I see the Senna thread is a classic example of why no one in their right mind besides a patron saint of GT Planet like Famine could handle it. It became quite the appalling poo fest. And even then, I have to wonder how long he could handle such a wrestling match attitude from so many here day in and day out.
 
Tenacious D
Frankly, I see the Senna thread is a classic example of why no one in their right mind besides a patron saint of GT Planet like Famine could handle it. It became quite the appalling poo fest. And even then, I have to wonder how long he could handle such a wrestling match attitude from so many here day in and day out.
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I don't have any problem keeping any threads I start under control, you just have to manage it regularly, keep people on topic and be tenacious(:sly:) If you leave people unsupervised for too long things get unruly, it's the nature of the beast. Making a topic and then not managing it will always devolve quickly.
 
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