Dec 19 2008
Nerfs… How to do them right (Part 2)
Soften the Blow
It surprises me how few MMO developers make any effort to soften the blow of a nerf. Didn’t any of these people watch Mary Poppins? “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine, go down.” No matter how reasonable or needed a nerf is, the players negative affected by it are going to be unhappy. Even if they agree with the developers about the nerf, there is simply no way to be pleased when your character, realm, race, or class is weaker one day than it was the day before.
How NOT to Soften the Blow
Fixing a couple negative bugs for someone is not a way to soften the blow. Sure, it is nice, but players EXPECT developers to fix bugs. You are rarely going to get much gratitude from players as a result of bug fixing, and it certainly won’t make up for nerfs.
Give Them Something Useful
The most direct way to soften the blow is to give them something else that is useful. Perhaps this is an ability or feature you had been planning to give this group of people for a while, and now is a great time to release it. This gets back to my previous point about not rushing nerfs - if you hold off the nerf until you have some new content to give at the same time, you might be able to completely eliminate unhappy feelings from the nerf portion.
Give Them Something Fun
Game balance or your development cycle might make it impossible to give them something useful. In that case, figure out a way to give them something fun. Either come up with your own ideas, or comb your player feedback systems (forums, email, whatever) for some fun or pure fluff suggestions. Sometimes purely fun things mean more to players than actually “useful” things.
No Matter What You Decide, at Least Try Something
Whatever you decide to go with, make sure you at least do something. Show some effort. Show the players you TRIED to soften the blow. Show them you care about their feelings and reactions to a nerf. Do not make them believe you could care less what they think, and that you heartlessly nerfed them out of some kind of sick joy. When players believe the developers are actually looking out for their interests, and trying to maintain a fun environment, they will forgive a lot of necessary nerfs or balance tweaks.
Nerfs… How to do them right (Part 1)
Nerfs… How to do them right (Part 3)
