2. How To Communicate With Your Fanbase
Parallel with the continued abuse of DLC is the consistent mismanagement of communication publishers and develops have with their consumers. You see it all the time. Publishers will make claims about an upcoming game in order to generate hype, only for it to come crumbling down when the final release fails to live up to the promises. Publishers will then state their intent to fix the issues, which always ends up being too little too late. This wouldnt be so bad if it only happened every so often, but it literally happens multiple times every year, and gamers are starting to become weary. As a result, the relationship between gamers and publishers is hardly positive. In contrast, communication between CD Projekt RED and its fanbase is stellar. CDPR always makes an effort to keep their consumers informed, even during troublesome situations. The Witcher 3 had its fair share of issues upon its release, and the team went out of their way to fix them as quickly as possible, keeping us all informed while doing so. This openness makes gamers feel like they are being listened to, instead of being talked down to, and has generated a level of trustworthiness gamers dont feel with other big publishers/developers. There is an intimacy gamers feel with CD Projekt RED; every hard copy of The Witcher 3 came with a note thanking you for supporting them. Its a little thing, but sometimes that's what makes all the difference. So instead of focusing so much on marketing to gamers, more publishers should take a note from CD Projekt RED and just be honest. Its hard to be angry at a business when they are keeping you well informed of the thick and thin. Sure, there will always be those who hate you no matter what you do, but the majority will be more than happy to support something, if it's clear those behind it see the value of a satisfied consumer.