Over the weekend and late last week I spent dozens of hours writing about Vantage and responding to questions about the game. This sort of two-way communication between Stonemaier Games and people who play our games is built into the DNA of who we are: We’re here to serve you, not to sell to you or push information at you.
Recently someone in the gaming community reached out to me with a compliment and a concern. They spoke appreciatively of Stonemaier Games’ “tools and channels to facilitate communication between the company and the customer,” but they’ve struggled to have their voice heard by some other publishers. Here’s how they expressed their frustration:
Recently, I have had difficulty getting in contact with no less than a half-dozen game companies. They have email addresses and online communications forms that when you write elicit no response. They have web pages that obfuscate or completely omit anything that might allow for communication to take place. They have pages or a presence on social media that does not engage with (and sometimes does not allow) two-way communication. These companies do not talk *to* their customers, they talk *at* them. Can you write a blog post about your methods in case it might boost other publishers?
Before hearing this, I wasn’t aware that reaching some other publishers was so difficult. I was pretty sure these issues aren’t unique to this specific person, as I’ve seen occasional comments from them on the blog and on our Facebook page. I also understand that this was a very small sample size among the vast number of publishers, and each publisher has a different capacity for handling questions and customer service.
But this topic is important to me and it seems important to this person (and others), so I’m happy to share some of our methods at Stonemaier Games for enabling two-way communication.
Vantage provides an example of how people to reach us and vice versa, starting last Wednesday:
- Newsletter: We sent a monthly enewsletter to all subscribers, including an announcement about Vantage. It included links to Vantage’s newly posted page on our website, as well as general links to our Facebook page, Instagram, Discord, and YouTube channel (all places where people can publicly talk to us). I also added a link to the newsletter archive so anyone who subscribes in the future can look back at old newsletters. Also, at the end of the newsletter is an invitation to join the conversation and a specific place to do so: “If you’d like to discuss the contents of this e-newsletter, please comment on this page on our website. I read every comment.” This has the twofold effect of making the newsletter the start of a conversation instead of the end and to encourage people to reply publicly instead of privately (unless it’s a private matter that would not benefit others to discuss publicly).
- Social Media: I opened the Vantage Facebook group where anyone can join the conversation (I also post there and reply to questions), along with a Vantage listing on BoardGameGeek, which I subscribe to so I can see when new forums are created. We also opened a Vantage channel on the Stonemaier Discord server. I have many notifications on disabled on Discord (otherwise it would be a near-constant series of alerts), but I keep them enabled for a while whenever we announce a new game, and people can always tag me or my coworkers there to loop us into conversations.
- Facebook and YouTube Live: I use StreamYard to host our weekly livecast, an hour of me sharing Stonemaier Games news and answering dozens of questions from viewers in real time. The livecast remains on our Facebook page and YouTube forever for those who can’t watch live. I refresh the YouTube comments feed throughout the day to reply to comments and questions.
- Instagram: We had other announcements on Wednesday (Libertalia promo tiles and new packs for Rolling Realms), so I waited until Thursday to post about Vantage on Instagram. I keep an eye on comments there via the Instagram app on my phone and on the web, typically liking comments after I read them and answering questions.
- Website/Blog: I wrote a Vantage-related blog post on our website and reposted it to our Facebook page, answering questions on both (most comments were on Facebook). I receive email notifications whenever someone posts a comment on the Stonemaier Games website, and I read every comment. If the comment includes a question, I reply on our website. Also, importantly, if you search for Stonemaier Games to seek out an answer or ask a question, you’ll most likely end up here.
- Vantage newsletter and design diary: I wrote and sent the first monthly Vantage newsletter; similar to our general newsletter, I included links for people to discuss the game publicly. As I do for any new game, I duplicated the design diary on our website, the Facebook group, and BoardGameGeek, as I’ve found that people have different preferences for where they want to read and respond to these types of posts.
- “Tell us anything” and contact email: For those who have a private message to share with us, my coworkers monitor the results of a Google Form and contact email, both mentioned on the contact page of our website. We also receive messages on our Facebook page, but that’s really the worst way for us to serve customers (for various reasons, among them the lack of push notifications to our email inboxes and because without your email address, it’s tough for us to look up information about your order. Also, 95% of messages we receive on Facebook don’t need to private, as the question or note could have been posted in a game-specific Facebook group to the benefit of others too).
- Replacement parts form: If your Stonemaier game has missing/broken components, you can fill out a form and we’ll take care of what you need. We use Jira for this purpose, as it lets both us and the requesting customer monitor the status of the request.
- Ambassadors and annual survey: I send a monthly newsletter to Stonemaier Ambassadors, almost always including a survey so I can learn something about them. I do the same in our annual demographic survey.
- Webstore: When you place an order on our webstore, you receive a message with some instructions about how to get in touch with us if you have any questions about the order or want to participate in the Stonemaier community.
- Comment moderation: We have rules about commenting (“Antagonistic, rude, or degrading comments will be removed.”) This isn’t to protect Stonemaier Games from criticism; rather, this is to ensure that people feel safe and welcome when they’re thinking about joining the conversation. If a publisher enables a toxic community, it will only grow more toxic as everyone else leaves. If you discover that you’ve been moderated here or elsewhere, consider this open letter to the internet I wrote recently and how it may apply to your approach to online discussions. At least with us, you will never be excluded for who you are, but you may be moderated for how you behave.
I’m 100% sure that Stonemaier Games isn’t the only publisher that seeks ongoing, easy, and inclusive two-way communication between us and you. What’s an example of another company with whom you’ve communicated (publicly or privately) and felt like you were heard?
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Also read:
- Backer Engagement
- Proactive vs Reactive Social Media Presence
- How I Run Our Facebook Groups
- How the Best Discords Are Run
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6 Comments on “Communication Is a Two-Way Street: How We Build This Road”
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You have always been someone who is very reachable from my experience, and I’ve been highly impressed with this. Stonemaier Games sets a precedent for so many to learn from.
As someone diagnosed with a social developmental disorder at an early age, I may feel this to a greater degree than most but human interaction is fraught with peril. So it doesn’t surprise me that communication can be difficult to achieve with publishers, although perhaps I’d have imagined the tabletop industry to be less extreme in this regard than other industries. Sometimes professionalism means that communication with consumers needs to be very strictly controlled and while it can feel a little dehumanizing and impersonal, I’d still rather have silence than scandal, as can happen when people are careless. It can be either something socially unacceptable or it could just be a business decision that is communicated clumsily and taken the wrong way. And even if it feels overprotective, I do think creators and producers have a right to protect their brand’s reputation.
I think the compliment to Stonemaier Games extends beyond the fact that communication feels open, there is also a trust there that this openness won’t lead to scandal. Certainly the candidness has led to some messiness when people jump to conclusions and misconstrue what is said, but at the end of the day I think the genuineness has resulted in widespread respect in the community. It is well earned but it is something that some companies may never be able to achieve to the same degree. I think each one needs to weigh the risks of interaction and find out how much communication they can safely manage.
Thank you for sharing this, Jev. You bring up some great points about how quickly casual conversation can become more complicated and that respect is continually earned, especially in spaces that we claim are safe.
Haha I wish people emailed me, I’d respond so quickly
I don’t think it’s uncommon for communication to be slow or even nill, when reaching out to publishers. Although it’s not the norm, it happens about 15% of the time I reach out through any form of public “contact” us page, social media, etc.
That’s too bad! What type of requests or questions are you contacting them about?