The War Z Executive Producer Apologizes
By Kevin Mitchell
Posted on December 27, 2012
Instead of listening to the madness that was unfolding right in front of him, Sergey Titov – Executive Producer on The War Z – took to anger, blaming the people that purchased the game on Steam for “misreading” the information that was presented to them on the game’s Steam page. This angered the users even more and when they took to the forums to voice their displeasure, they were subsequently banned for any negative comments made about the game. While only slightly over a week since the release and swift removal of The War Z from Steam, Sergey Titov sent out an open letter to the community apologizing and promising to make things right in 2013.
First and formost he promised that he wouldn’t let, what he called the “vocal minority” be ignored any longer, calling for a complete revamp in the way OP Productions, the publisher for the game, and Hammerpoint handles the community as a whole. Instead of focusing on only punishing members that break forum policies, they will focus on engaging the community into conversations and productive discussions.
“We chose to rely too much on numbers – percentage of refund requests, number and dynamic of our daily and monthly active users, etc. Well, in hindsight – those things probably work well for more casual games, but the hardcore PC gaming community is much different and can be very vocal about what they feel. Even when the percentage of players with negative comments is small, as the community grows, even a small percentage can add up to be a very significant absolute number. And it’s not just a number – those are real people with real issues they are having with the game. OP Productions (publisher for War Z) and me personally have failed to address those issues effectively.”Sergey Titov - Executive Producer
For the full apology letter, head over to The War Z forums. Is this enough for you to give The War Z another chance? Let us know in the comments below and if you missed our live stream of the game last week, feel free to check out those videos here.
