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unpopularly-opinionated · 3 years

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I don’t play WoW but I used to play Overwatch and Diablo and this touches on just the general issues that are inside of Activision Blizzard right now regarding the major decline of World of Warcraft and how they’re losing to Final Fantasy XIV, how if the latest WoW expansion or Overwatch 2 flop as they’re projected to do then Blizzard’s most definitely going to pivot almost entirely to mobile games, and how the differences in age demographics are actually dividing the company into multiple camps.

It’s important to note two things: 1) this could be fake but also 2) the link came from Grummz, a former team lead on WoW and producer on Diablo II and Starcraft. It still could be fake despite this, but if he’s sharing it then I feel like there’s at least some measure of truth in this.

Transcription below in case this gets deleted and/or you don’t wanna click the link. Warning, it’s fairly long.

“I’m dropping this here after getting chewed out for three hours over shit the chewee did at work so fuck it. Assume larp and let me vent.”

>Shadowlands is a shitshow. Critical response, Player drop off and just about every engagement metric outside of cash shop have been catastrophic. No higher up expected this because of their “we are too big to fail, if we built it they will come” mentality. They refuse to accept their focus on the world being a begrudged mechanic to funnel players to raiding is not appealing to the player base at large because it appeals to them. They have spent the last 4 months trying to course correct but there is no solid direction and the response to 9.1 has only made things worse.

>Sylvanas is planned to replace the Arbiter despite so many people in the company and god knows how many online saying this would be a total replication of Kerrigans storyline in Starcraft 2 that killed none competitive interest in the brand entirely and you can only go “no, no they WILL like it eventually” for so many real world years before its time to change course. Thus far that has not happened.

>The elephant in the room is FFXIV. To the people in charge they are acting like this came out of nowhere and don’t even seem to understand why its drawing players away in their tens of thousands. We have all tried to highlight things it is doing that are clearly appealing to an mmo audience and not, in my opinion, focussing more on mobile game style retention traps to keep MAU users and habit forming personalities logging in. Its not that they don’t care. They just seem so pig headed and digging their heels in with their fingers in their ears thinking all the problems will go away because WoW is “too big to fail”, there will never be real competition and “they will keep coming back”. But they aren’t coming back anymore. Not in the numbers they used to.

>The people making the spending choices know this. The new model for WoW is market the hell out of a expansion pack for a huge quarter then use 6 month lock ins to pad numbers for the quarters after that. Even if corona had not happened 9.1 still would have been dropping after the initial 6 month subs expired to “keep the chain holding”.

>The mood in the company is tense but also very much “its just a rough transition period”. Activision has been pushing hard for Blizzard to release more regular product and to generate more income per user. As far as i know this is going to be a transition over the next 5 years to a much larger mobile/tablet gaming focus. By all accounts not just WoW but Overwatch was intended to be the moneymaker in the interim but once again someone had the bright idea to kill a game casual players loved on the alter of e-sports hoping for another Brood War. From what i hear the “told you so’s” were loud and a lot of people walked beyond Kaplan.

>The sentiment that was shared quietly in private but being spoken more often is simply that the leadership at Blizzard are not bad people, nor incompetent people but people who had to fill seats left when the old guard jumped ship wether they were suited for it or not. Brack is a genuinely good man out of his depth, Ion is a fantastic raid designer put in charge of designing a virtual world he has no interest or real ideas for and so on. They have been taking form the roles they excel at to be put in positions where they get to do far less of that purely because there is nobody left with the experience to do so and the trickle down is a lack of concrete direction, ambition and focus.

>2021 has seen the playerbase, media and gaming at large “turn” on WoW to a degree i don’t think the leads in their “positivity dojo” bubble considered possible. Its gone from people going “This is how Blizz needs to fix WoW!” to “WoW is no longer salvageable, time for greener pastures” and i think on some level this was never considered as a possibility so there have never been any major plans beyond the usual “try and minimise player drop off by arranging releases around competitors launching updates/products”. The official forums being filled with talk of FFXIV and worse “why do we actually pay a sub?” hasn’t helped.

>There have been some testing the waters lately from certain higher ups if we can remove the line “No King Rules Forever”. Read into that what you will.

>There are still arguments going on about the Kael’thas Voice actor shitshow. I don’t know much about it but i know its heated, wouldn’t be the first time a knee jerk reaction only seemed to generate bad press. We lost a noticeable amount of pvp engagement after the Swifty thing.

>The Preach interview was treated as a disaster and there was talk of more strongly vetting interviewers for “bad actors” and only engaging with a list of questions Blizzard provides. Some pointed out that could just be used to create some form of Fireside Chat akin to the FFXIV “Live letters” but that fell on deaf ears.

>The two sentiments right now among the team are either “we really need a win” or “theres a dedicated cabal of internet trolls out to kill WoW”. Right now we are crunching hard to get 9.2 ready to wrap up the jailors storyline so we can get an expansion out early 2022. If that doesn’t happen there are talks of major shakeups coming down from Activision that have been threatened for a few years now. Its an all hands on deck feeling thats been around to some degree since the “Is this an out of season April Fools Joke” Blizzcon. A make or break deadline is coming closer and things like Diablo 4 were not planned before then. Blizzard needs a significant win not just in initial profit but consumer goodwill. Nobody likes working at what the public now seems to see as “the bad guy” of the mmo industry.

>This has also made new hires decline. Not significantly but the “you WANT Blizzard on your resume” line doesn’t seem to have the appeal it used to. This has lead to more hiring via friend of a friend, to some rumblings about nepotism, and people severely lacking in experience “because they get great twitter optics”.

>On the topic of Twitter we are not being told to “disengage” from it. Multiple employees like Nervig and Holisky publicly attacking paying customers because they got too heated and couldn’t keep quiet is bad press that could have been avoided. A email reminder has gone around more than once lately stating “if you are not customer relations you should not be representing the company to customers, especially if you cannot remain professional”.

>Lastly the biggest elephant in the room is “yo’ boy” Asmongold. The newer hires cannot stand him. They have used terms like “toxic masculinity” and “dogwhistles to dangerous males” while some of the oldest crowd still remaining have called him “based” or “telling it like it is” which has lead to friction to put it mildly. People are told not to talk about him and the recent FFXIV stuff only made it all worse. The idea that an outside element can have such an effect on the product genuinely upsets people. Like Zach is engaging in some malicious act of cyberwarfare. Many of us have point out the now famous quotes by Naoki Yoshida about understanding that players will drift and we need to make something worth coming back to because they want to but some people for lack of a better word see out customers -or “consumers” as they refer to them nowadays- as some kind of antagonistic relationship where the goal is not being an entertainer putting on a show for a crowd but some kind of game hunter trying to trap a large, profitable kill. I wish i could blame Activision but this is a sentiment from more of the younger crowd than the “tech boomers”. Which personal opinion is probably why so many folks like Metzen and Morheim left.

>Before you ask, yes the topic of “wokeness” has shown up in group talks. Its not all some grand sjw conspiracy, people really do want to feel welcome and represented. However the “we need everything veto’ed by people not working on it to see if its inoffensive and bland enough” rubs some of us the wrong way. Like anything in life you can take something too far and lose sight of the core ideals and with everything gone on since Blitzchung it feels like people are forming little factions to pull people in different directions to decide “What Blizzards identity is now” and how to appeal to new players. There has been some drop offs with “go woke go broke” as the only answer in the survey when unsubbing but honestly we are losing subs in unforseen numbers anyway and still making more money than ever through cash shop “heavy users” so it honestly doesn’t make an impact.

>All in all things are rough right now. Blizzard doesn’t have the love of the customers anymore, is no longer treated as an industry giant and while D4,D2R and Immortal aren’t going to kill Diablo even if they fail the sentiment for World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 are a lot more tense and stressful. The phrase “it might be good to brush up on your mobile development portfolio if we get another underperformer” has been doing the rounds a lot. If Shadowlands continues its stark decline and Overwatch 2 is looking to underperform like its current projections suggest i think the Blizzard of a few years from now will be imitating King a lot more than trying to learn any lessons from Square Enix’s mmo division.

#random #video games #Blizzard #Activision #WoW #World of Warcraft #Diablo #Overwatch #Starcraft #Activision Blizzard

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myhockeyworld87 · 4 years

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Nervous Regrets - Tyler Seguin - Part 26

Word Count: 4,300

POV: Reader

Warnings: NSFW, Smut, Language

Notes: Here’s the next installment of NR. Hope you guys enjoy! Happy Reading!

Nervous Regrets Masterlist

The days following Christmas were like a complete blur. Tyler’s family only stayed for a couple extra days, as he was off on another road trip. Thankfully, it was just overnight. It wasn’t until he got home the next day that he decided to spring his New Year’s Eve plans on you.

“Hey babe, the boys were all wondering if we were still going to have the New Year’s Eve party this year. I told them I didn’t see why not. We can throw something together by then, don’t you think?”

“And by ‘we’, I’m sure you meant that I’m going to be able to pull this off.” Back when you first met Tyler, his parties were pretty legendary, but they mostly consisted of booze, booze, and more booze. Well, to be fair there may have been a frozen pizza or two thrown in. Being with you changed all that. The parties were less frequent, and when they did happen you always made sure there was something more than alcohol available.

“Awe come on, I wouldn’t let you do this all yourself.” He drew your body close to his and started to rain little kisses on your face and neck. “I’ll call the maid and have her come over and clean everything. Oh and I’ll also pick up all the beverages. All you’d have to do is order some food and we’d be good.”

“And get party hats, and noisemakers, and champagne.” He nibbled on the sweet spot on your neck and your knees went weak, along with your resolve. “But…I suppose that’s not too much to do.”

He full-on kissed your lips then, lingering there for a moment. “Baby, have I told you you’re the best and that I love you.”

“Mmmm…not in the last few hours.”

“Then maybe I should make up for that.” He started to kiss you again but pulled back quickly. “Oh! Did you call the doctor and ask about Cabo?” Tyler always booked a vacation once the schedule was released and he knew when his bye week was. Unfortunately, he’d booked the vacation when you were apart and before he knew you were pregnant. The vacation had got pushed on the back burner, with the new house, then it was Christmas and here you were approaching the new year, and you two still hadn’t made a decision about whether or not you were going. “It’s not a big deal if you can’t fly. We can just stay here and relax, maybe actually book a room at the Omni and have our babymoon there.”

You loved when he called his bye week a babymoon for the two of you. From day one, Tyler had taken to reading all the information for new dads that he could get his hands on, that he paid extra attention to these parts warmed your heart. “I spoke to the doctor yesterday about it, and while they don’t recommend flying after thirty-four weeks, he said since I would only be at thirty-three weeks then, and that we were only going to be on the flight for about two and half hours, he saw no problem. As long as I walk around during the flight to prevent swelling, and see him as soon as I get home. So we’re cleared for take-off.”

“Are you sure it’s ok? I mean I don’t want anything to happen to you or the baby over some vacation.”

“The doctor said everything about my pregnancy has been normal, so there’s no need to worry. Let’s just go and have fun. Though I’m not putting a bathing suit on.” Once the doctor cleared you, it was the only thing that you could think of. Everyone else that would be there, would be in skimpy bathing suits splashing around in the pool, while you sat there looking like a beached whale.

“Oh stop it! It’s our friends for godsakes; you know they don’t care. Besides, I think you’d be totally sexy in a bikini with this little one showing.” He touched your baby bump, while you rolled your eyes at him. Tyler continued to say that you were the sexiest thing alive to him, even though you didn’t feel remotely close to that.

“I know no one would really care, but I don’t even have a suit.”

“What do you mean? Can’t you just wear one of your old ones?” Your eyebrows furrowed together, to give him a look that said are you serious.

“Ty, have you not noticed that I don’t fit in most of my old clothes at the moment?”

“Fine, then order some. We’re not going on our babymoon for you to sit inside all day.” When you didn’t answer, he headed down the hall saying, “If you’re not ordering them, then I will.” Of course, you followed him into the office, where he sat down at the desk and googled ‘swimsuits for pregnant women.’ He clicked on the first site that popped up. There wasn’t a huge variety on the site, but there was one that you thought would be doable, but before you could say anything he clicked the back button. “Nope, those all suck.”

“That black one was cute.”

He scrunched up his face before answering you. “What that one piece?” When you nodded agreement, he added. “Hell no, that one covered up way too much. I want to see both my babies laying by the beach when we go.”

He went through two more sites before he finally found one to his liking. It was a two-piece suit of course, with low cut bikini bottoms so that it wouldn’t restrict your belly and a low cut top that would be somewhat scandalous with the size of your breasts at the moment. “I don’t know about that one Ty. It’s showing a lot.”

“Nonsense, it’s perfect.” He clicked on your size and placed it in the basket, then went back to look at some others. Before you could protest, he said, “We’re going to be there for almost a week, you need more than one suit.”

“Fine, but can one somewhat cover me up?”

“Only if you promise not to wear it the whole time.” Sometimes he knew you better than you knew yourself, with another roll of your eyes you agreed. Spending the next hour, the two of you playfully argued over suitable swimwear for your upcoming vacation.

Over the next few days, you planned out the New Year’s Eve party. It was too late to get the party catered, which was fine as you weren’t planning on serving a meal or anything; you really just needed finger foods that people could pick up. After a few trips, you had everything you needed to make the party a success. The tricky part of this whole plan was the fact that the Stars played on New Year’s Eve. You debated about not going to the game, to make sure everything was ready for the party, but Tyler had practically begged you to go; so there you were watching the Stars game go into overtime and wondering how you were going to get all the hors d’oeuvres ready before people started coming. Tyler, of course, insisted that you go down and meet him after the game, so you could ride home together.

Jenna noticed you checking your watch for the third time before overtime even started. “Stop worrying. I’ll help you get everything ready once we get there. Besides most people will be coming after the game anyhow.”

“I know you’re right. I guess I just want everything perfect.” She gave you a look, the one that said your best friend knows you way too well. “I know, me and my anal retentiveness.”

“Exactly.” Unfortunately, the Stars lost shortly into the three-on-three period. But as luck would have it everyone cut their interviews short, so that in no time you and Tyler were back at the house, right as Jamie and Jenna followed behind you.

True to her word, your best friend pitched in, helping you get all the food out. Players, significant others and friends started arriving right away. Tyler and Jamie handled getting everyone drinks. You’d convinced Tyler that he should give up his no drinking rule while you were pregnant for one night. Part of you thought you may regret this, but about an hour into the party; he was still nursing the same beer. “Babe, it’s almost midnight. Will you get out of this kitchen and come ring in the New Year with me.”

“Really, is it that soon already?” You looked at the clock and noticed it was eleven-thirty. “I’m sorry Ty. I guess the time just got away from me.” Going up on your toes, you kissed him giving him a quick apology.

“It’s no problem babe. Let’s just grab some champagne and join in the fun.” He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle from way in the back.

“Ty, I know I told you to drink tonight, but I’m still pregnant, and still not drinking.” A small chuckle escaped your lips.

“Don’t worry, I got us covered. This is non-alcoholic.” He grabbed two champagne glasses from the cupboard instead of the stack you had over on the island, probably out of habit more than anything else. Placing your New Year’s tiara on your head, he took your hand and led you into the throng of people milling about your house. Most of your friends were there, so you stopped, hugging each of them and promising to catch up after the ball dropped. Tyler found a relatively quiet spot, over by the sliding glass doors in the living room with ten minutes left. It was an excellent spot, as you could see Jamie and Jenna huddled together in the archway leading to the entrance, seemingly oblivious to everyone else around them. Most of the couples were in the living room as it seemed the game room had been taken over by beer pong and other drinking games.

Tyler popped open the bottle of champagne, while you held the glasses for him to pour. You handed him his glass and he raised it for a private toast. “Here’s to all the ups and downs from this past year, and to making twenty-nineteen our year. A year of love, laughter and new beginnings.” Clinking your glasses together, you took a sip of the bubbly concoction before Tyler’s lips touched yours in a passionate kiss. Noisemakers had the two of you breaking apart, as people started to anticipate the countdown. Tyler twisted you so that you were locked within his embrace; your back firmly pressed against his chest. Ryan Seacrest appeared on screen, surrounded by a bunch of celebrities who obviously performed earlier, though you saw none of them. Tyler’s head bent low to your ear. “I love you (Y/N).” The countdown started, everyone in the house joining in. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one; Happy New Year!!!” His lips found yours instantly, turning you back around to face him. The room faded away, as your tongues entwined, each of you simply pouring love into the other.

When you broke apart, you were both breathless. “I love you, Tyler Seguin.”

“I love you more.” You just shook your head lightly at him, for it couldn’t be possible for him to feel more for you than you did him. He was your heart, your life, and your world; and you were so excited for this new year to start by his side.

“Happy New Year, brother!” Jamie said clapping Tyler on the back. The two of you breaking apart so you could hug your best friends respectively.

You clinked your glass with Jenna’s after the hug, whispering, “Here’s to this year being the best one for both of us.” The next thing you knew, you were being pulled away from Tyler by other friends. His teammates took him in the opposite direction, convincing him to play a game of beer pong. For the next hour, you mingled with everyone, chatting about everything and anything. You had just finished up, showing some of your friends the progress of the nursey, when you felt Cash rub up against your leg. You bent down to pet the pup, and that’s when you noticed how bad your back was killing you.

Walking out of the nursery, you headed down the hall to one of the spare bedrooms; Cash following close behind. Luckily, it was empty. It couldn’t hurt to just lay down and prop your feet up for a few minutes, could it? Sitting down on the bed, you slid your heels off and noticed how swollen your feet and ankles actually were. You’d never get the shoes back on, but then it didn’t really matter as you were in your own home. As you lay back against the pillows you could feel the pain in your back start to melt away. Cash jumped up beside you before you could grab the throw blanket at the foot of the bed. He laid his head between your breast and your belly with a low satisfied growl. “I know bud, it’s been a long day.” You told him stroking his fur. His eyes slowly closed, as did yours.

“(Y/N), babe…babe…” Tyler was gently shaking you. You blinked your eyes trying to get your brain to work. “Babe are you ok?”

“Hmm…” Why wouldn’t you be ok? “Yeah, I’m fine.” You finally were able to mumble out. Taking in your surrounding you noticed you were in the guest room, though in your sleep haze you couldn’t remember why. Then it hit you. You’d stopped for just a minute to rest during the party. You sat straight up, almost knocking Tyler in the head if his reaction skills hadn’t been on point. “Oh my god, I must have fallen asleep.”

“I’ve been looking for you, for the last half hour. Why are you up here?”

“I was showing a couple people the nursery and just needed to sit for like five minutes, that’s it. My back and feet were killing me. The last thing I remember I was petting Cash, I just thought if I’d close my eyes for a few minutes.” How the hell, had you fallen asleep in the middle of the party. “Oh no the party…” You moved to get up, but Tyler stopped you.

“Is fine. A lot of people left, that’s when I noticed you were missing, but it took me a while to find you up here.”

“Well, we should go back down.” There were things that needed to be done, and the cleanup…ugh. Tyler stopped you short yet again, as you swung your legs to the side of the bed. At least now maybe you could get your shoes back on.

“The only way we’re going downstairs is so that you can go to bed. I’m sorry. I should’ve thought more about you and the baby when I decided to have this thing.”

His hands were rubbing your arms up and down, the motion so soothing and relaxing. “Ty, you didn’t decide to have the party; ‘we’ did.” You put emphasis on the word ‘we.’ “And as for the baby and I, we’re doing fine. I was just a bit tired, now that I’m rested; I’m ready to go again.”

You were feeling a bit more yourself after your nap, but it wouldn’t take much too just head to bed either. “Sorry babe, the party is over for you. The only place you’re going is to bed.” He went and scooped you up in his arms then, and started making his way to the door.

“Ty, stop! I can walk downstairs.”

“I know, but I also know you, and you’ll start cleaning up the minute your feet hit the floor.” It was true, there were still people in your house and probably drinks all over the place; it was a mess you didn’t want to wake up to in the morning. He must have noticed your hesitation to argue his point, for he continued. “See even you know I’m right.”

Sighing heavily, you leaned your head back against his shoulder, as your arms looped around him. “Well…maybe you’re partially right.”

His deep chuckle vibrated through your body as he held you. “It kills you to admit I’m right; doesn’t it?”

“Maybe.”

He kissed your forehead, as he walked the two of you out the guest bedroom door. “God woman you’re so stubborn. It’s a good thing I love you.” A yawn escaped your mouth before you could answer him. “See you are tired, babe. We’re taking you to bed, and I’ll get the rest of these drunks to head home.”

“But what about the mess?”

“It’s not that bad, Jamie and Jenna cleaned up most of it before leaving. The rest we’ll get in the morning.” As he carefully took the stairs with you in his arms, it was definitely much quieter than when you had laid down originally. His final foot hit the landing and he headed straight for your bedroom. He moved quickly but it did give you a chance to see that your house wasn’t as messy as you’d first thought. You made a mental note to call Jenna and thank her and Jamie for cleaning up. Gently laying you down on the mattress, he said, “I think some of the guys were gonna crash here if that’s ok?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I don’t think anyone should be drinking and driving.”

“Ok, let me go take care of a few things and then I’ll be back to cuddle with you.” You smiled up at him, for having his arms wrapped around you, was one of the best feelings in the world. As soon as the door closed, you moved into the bathroom to get ready for bed, wiping away all the makeup you had on and brushing your teeth. Baby Seguin decided to give you a particularly hard kick at the moment, letting you know they were awake; while at the same time waking you up from the sleep fog, you’d been in. Shifting your hips from side to side, you shimmied out or your leggings then removed the rest of your clothing. Now that you were fully awake, you thought that you and Tyler could really ring in the New Year, and so you decided to leave the lace bra and panties on as you headed back to bed.

Taking the throw pillows off the bed, you turned down the comforter; which is when Tyler came into the room. He took in the black lace on your body and his jaw went slack. He knew that if you were truly that sleepy, you’d already be in an oversized nightshirt. “I thought you were tired?”

“Mmmm…I was.” With a shrug of your shoulders, you added, “but not so much anymore.” You crawled up on the bed, trying to be seductive, but not sure if it was working at all. When he whipped his shirt off, you knew you had him.

“Get over here.” He practically growled as his hands went to undo the buttons on his jeans. As soon as you got close enough, he grabbed your waist and pulled you to him, molding his lips to yours. There wasn’t even a question, as you opened your mouth for him. He moaned into you, making you weak; his strong arms pressing you close to his body, as they roamed up your back. He tasted faintly of alcohol, as you drank him in. You felt the clasp of your bra pop, and Tyler slid the straps down your shoulders. He released you then if only to rid you of the garment; his mouth worrying its way down from your neck to your breast. He sucked a taut nipple into this mouth, swirling his tongue around it and pleasure coursed through your body. You couldn’t help the moan that came out of your mouth when he repeated the gesture. Your hands threaded through his hair urging him on. “You like that baby?” He whispered before tormenting your other breast.

“Mmmm…yes.” It was all you could muster out.

“You’re tits are so fucking sensitive. I love it.” He sucked hard, then gently bit down. “I feel like I could make you cum just by sucking on them.” Heat pulled in your core at his words, and you felt your legs start to tremble. “You’d like that wouldn’t you babe. Lay back.” You did as he requested, his body following yours down. He immediately latched back on, and your pussy grew wet from the contact; while his thumb and index finger tweaked your other nipple. You were panting with need, as you realized he was right; you may, in fact, cum without him even touching your cunt.

Though that’s not what you wanted right now. You craved his cock inside you. “Ty…” you said breathlessly. “I need you…”

“Tell me what you want baby girl.”

“I want you…” His tongue flicked over your nipple and you felt yourself growing closer to climax. “Your cock.”

“You sure baby?”

“Fuck…Ty…stop teasing me.” You were begging him at this point but it didn’t matter.

He kissed you hard on the mouth. “Shhh…I’ll give you want you need babe.” He stripped off his boxer briefs, then quickly discard you of your panties. Cock in hand, he stroked it once before positioning it at your entrance. He leaned down capturing your lips as in one thrust he bottomed out in you. Your back arched up instinctively taking him deeper inside, and he groaned into your mouth, before breaking apart to hiss out, “Fuck babe…you feel so good.”

Wrapping your legs around him, you urged him to move inside you. Tyler, of course, obliged you, pumping in and out of you as he built up a steady rhythm. Your orgasm was skating on the edge from his foreplay and you knew it wouldn’t be long before you were falling off the edge. Legs trembling, Tyler picked up the pace; his balls hitting you with each thrust. Moans and sounds of sex filled the air. “I love you.” You moaned out as you felt your pussy walls start to contract.

“I love you too.” You kissed him passionately as waves of pleasure took over your body. Tyler’s climax followed yours, as you felt him pump one last time into you, spilling his seed. When you both finally came back to earth, Tyler collapsed beside you, drawing you close. “That was one hell of a Happy New Year.”

“Absolutely,” you giggled back at him. “I have a feeling it’s going to be a very good year if that was any indication.

He twisted your body so that you could look him in the eyes; his expression serious, which caused you to run your thumb over his frown lines as you cupped his cheek. “I have an idea that will make it even better.” You looked at him curiously. “Let’s get married.”

“Ty, I think I already told you I’d marry you.” You chuckled in return.

“I know that. I mean like now…well not now, but like this week.”

“What?” You weren’t quite sure you understood what he was saying. Well, you understood it; you just couldn’t believe he was saying it.

“I want to marry you now (Y/N).” When you didn’t say anything he kept going. “Hear me out, cause I know what you’re going to say. We’ll still have the big wedding this summer with our families, but I just want to like head to the courthouse and make it official, now. I want you to be my wife before the baby comes.” You blinked back your surprise. “I love you. I love you more than anything, but I want our child’s birth certificate to read Tyler and (Y/N) Seguin; not Tyler Seguin and (Y/F/L/N).” His eyes searched yours. You could see the gravity of the situation weighing in his mind.

He went to say more, but you pressed a finger to his lips; a smile touching yours as you said, “Yes Tyler; yes I will marry you now.” A grin broke out on his face and you could tell he wanted to say more, so you continued. “Though you promise that we’ll still have the wedding? My parents would kill me, and you for that matter.”

“Trust me so would my family. We can’t do it tomorrow, the courthouse is closed. How about the third? I have a game on the second. We could get Jamie and Jenna to stand for us.”

“Wow, you’ve really thought this all out.”

“Yeah, maybe a little,” and you could see the blush on his cheeks even in the dim moonlight. “(Y/N), I know I’ve told you this before, but I’ve wanted to marry you almost since we met. I just don’t see a reason to wait, now that you’ve said yes.”

Reaching over, you kissed his lips. “I feel the same way, Ty. I just have one question.” He raised his eyebrows in question. “Do you think we should tell anyone? I mean besides Jamie and Jenna.”

“Babe I want to tell the world that I’m married to you, but I have a feeling it won’t go over well with our families. So for now, how about it will be just our little secret?”

“Agreed,” For some reason, there were butterflies of excitement in your belly and they weren’t from the baby. You were officially going to be Mrs. Tyler Seguin in just three short days. It had been a hard road to get here, but all your dreams were finally coming true. “I guess Cabo is going to be a babymoon and a honeymoon.”

#Nervous Regrets Series #tyler seguin #tyler seguin imagine #tyler seguin imagines #tyler seguin smut #nhl imagine #nhl imagines #nhl fanfic #nhl smut #hockey imagines #hockey imagine #hockey fanfiction #dallas stars imagine #dallas stars imagines #hockey smut

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cathygeha · 3 years

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REVIEW

Time Warriors by Amy Jarecki

Time Warriors #1

Great introduction to new characters and wonderful new YA genre time travel series! It has a little bit of everything and a whole lot of potential!

What I liked: * Genesis Mans: 16-year-old martial arts champion, good friend, responsible, caring, devoted daughter, focused, protective, bright, receptive, strong, and resilient – an excellent strong female heroine.

* Noah Jones: 18-year-old romantic interest for Genesis, cocky, protective, strong, lethal, bright, leader, brother, military brat, good friend, team player – an excellent male lead.

* Amir: a bit older, brilliant, strategist, capable, good friend, excels in information retention, history buff, third of the three time travelers.

* Ziana: martial arts champion, curious, confident, cocky, giving, good roommate, competitive, interested to find out more about her

* Elias/brother to Noah & Piper: white belt classmates of Genesis and Ziana – hope to see more of them in the future.

* Rex: Genesis’s best friend, style-conscious, trendy, sweet, defended by Genesis, am thinking there is more to him than we might first think

* The writing, plot development, and introduction to the series

* The epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter

* The concept of the school, the enemy, the mythology/facts the series is centered around

* The belt color levels indicating level in the school

* The idea of the Master (liked him) and the Sensei teachers

* That most students at the academy have relatives who attended before them

* The factual historical information s hared with the reader that will help them learn and grow

* That there is a touch of romance with potential for more

* All of it really except…

What I didn’t like:

* The bullies and evil doers – no matter what time period they appeared in.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more in this series? Yes

Thank you to the author for the ARC – This is my honest review

5 Stars

BLURB

What if it were up to three teen ninjas to save the world? Recruited into the exclusive and highly secretive Military Academy of Martial Arts, sixteen-year-old Genesis Mans relishes the challenge, even after upperclassman and super jock, Noah Jones, tries to convince her to quit. Yeah, he may be the best fighter in school, but he's totally wrong about her. His warning makes the girl fight harder to succeed, to uncover secrets first years aren't allowed to know. She's curious, she's smart, and her developing second sight leads to peril beyond her imagination-straight through an off-limits time warp-with Noah and mastermind, Amir, in her wake. Genesis soon learns she's not on a joyride. Only a chosen few can travel through time and they have no idea where in history they're headed. All they have to rely on is their God-given talent, elite training, knowledge of the past and, most of all, their will to win. The Qiang are meddling with the past and if they're not stopped, tomorrow may never come. Landing in 1215 London, these highly trained ninjas must cast their differences aside and work together to find the enemy and prevent them from altering time. And there's nothing like fighting for their lives to transform a heated rivalry into an indestructible bond. But this mission is no date-night sparring match. It's as real as it is deadly.

Genres: Young Adult Academy Romance, Young Adult Portal Fantasy, Young Adult Time Travel Tags: Amy Jarecki, good books for young adults, karate, magna carta, martial arts, portal fantasy, Time travel, young adult, young adult academy romance, young adult action adventure, young adult clean romance ASIN: B08R11867F ISBN: 9781087938158

AUTHOR BIO

Award winning and bestselling author, Amy Jarecki likes to grab life, latch on, and reach for the stars. She’s married to a mountain-biking pharmacist and has put four kids through college. She studies karate, ballet, yoga, and often you’ll find her hiking Utah’s Santa Clara Hills. Reinventing herself a number of times, Amy sang and danced with the Follies, was a ballet dancer, a plant manager, and an accountant for Arnott’s Biscuits in Australia. After earning her MBA from Heroit-Watt University in Scotland, she dove into the world of Scottish historical romance and hasn’t returned. Become a part of her world and learn more about Amy’s books on her website: https://twitter.com/amyjarecki e

https://www.facebook.com/amyjarecki/

https://twitter.com/amyjarecki or @amyjarecki

https://www.instagram.com/jareckiamy/

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/amy-jarecki

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5306959.Amy_Jarecki

https://www.amazon.com/Amy-Jarecki/e/B0061VIGDK

https://amyjarecki.com/newsletter/

#Amy Jarecki #karate #magna carta #martial arts #time portal #YA Fiction #Time Travel #action #adventure #clean romance #YA Academy Fiction #Fiction

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karostartupfan · 3 years

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Why the old Marketing Funnel is Sabotaging Your Conversion Rate

The sales funnel. Everything appears to be so smooth and straightforward isn’t that right? Bunches of possibilities come in through the top just to move in different unsurprising stages like “Mindfulness” and “Disclosure” before winding up at the base as faithful, submitted clients.

Aside from the truth of the present deals and client experience process is in any way similar to that.

Things like brand backing, online networking, and even our own encounters have changed the manner in which we market to other people. Why at that point would it be a good idea for us to remain stuck in this inflexible, old channel structure?

We shouldn’t – and the present article will give you why.

As per the Harvard Business Review, there is a horde of ways that individuals learn and cooperate with an item. There are even occasions when clients don’t get through the head of the funnel, yet rather someplace in the center.

A run of the mill promoting funnel begins with more clients in the “Awareness” stage and finishes with less in the “Retention” stage.

Suppose you were in the market for another pair of running shoes. A companion prescribes a particular brand and connections to them on Facebook.

On their page, you can see client remarks and tributes just as dynamic conversations. You’ve recently totally passed the Awareness and Discovery parts of the channel and proceeded onward to Engagement and likely even Purchase – all in light of a proposal from somebody you confide in is that important to you.

On your approach to buy these shoes, the organization prescribes some particular insoles to help pad your feet.

Extraordinary thought. Presently you’ve in a split second moved from thought to buy. It’s likewise conceivable that you could go to and fro between funnel stages while you assess various items or brands.

What’s more, with systems like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram consistently accessible at the tap of a catch, the customary deals funnel we as a whole know and allude to winds up looking progressively like a pretzel, with turns, turns, and covers at each corner.

Clients will regularly backtrack on their choices or switch between two focuses in a split second.

MOVING THE FOCUS FROM TRANSACTION TO RELATIONSHIP

As indicated by Antonio Lucio, previous Chief Brand Officer at Visa and current Head of Marketing at Facebook, the ultimate objective is to move need from the exchange to the client relationship.

When Lucio was still with Visa, they made the “Client Experience Journey”, which takes a gander at the procedure from exchanges being a piece of the client relationship as opposed to the client relationship being seen absolutely regarding exchanges.

He gives the case of a family arranging an excursion from the U.S. to Mexico. Visa has delineated the entire experience:

The family gets thoughts on where to go from TripAdvisor

The family accumulates proposals from companions on Facebook

The family chooses to get money from an ATM to pay for their taxi

Family pays for their lodging by means of their Visa charge card

Family shares photographs of the outing with companions back home by means of Instagram

You may see this rundown and think “Well, Visa is a piece of just one of these choices” – which is genuine when you’re taking a gander at everyone as an exchange.

Be that as it may, step back a second and take a gander at the master plan.

All of these focuses are helpful for building and sustaining the relationship with your clients.

The exchange itself is only a little bit of the riddle and not the ultimate objective. As per Lucio, “when you change from choice to commitment, you change the whole model.”

SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH CONVERSION RATE?

Here once more, in case you’re taking a gander at the channel absolutely from an income perspective, or investing an excessive amount of energy concentrating on exchanges, the client experience loses all sense of direction in the mix.

It turns out to be an over the top concentration to think just about the numbers and not of the individuals driving them.

On the off chance that you focus in on numbers alone, you pass up quite a lot more. Simply see brands like Ferrari on Facebook. Do you think there are 16+ million Ferrari proprietors? Obviously, not!

Not yet – however these individuals respect what the organization has had the option to fabricate and the qualities they represent.

Those things criticism into the brand itself and make the client experience. Indeed, even computerized items and administrations like SaaS and portable applications can profit by this balanced channel.

As the Harvard article clarifies, with conventional channels, advertising is a different substance. With SaaS and different stages, the showcasing and the administration go inseparably.

ADVERTISING WITH SAAS

The Salesforce App Exchange, for example, doesn’t simply take a gander at the procedure as “how would we showcase this?” but instead, “how would we increase the value of this with the goal that the things we suggest advertise for us?”

A significant number of the applications profiled here weren’t made by Salesforce, yet Salesforce and the applications it works with structure a sort of cooperative relationship where the two players win.

Not all applications included on the AppExchange were worked by Salesforce, yet every one of them utilizes it to empower their own client experience venture.

ANOTHER MODEL IS GOOGLE.

What began as exclusively a web crawler has spread out to turn into an internet searcher, email administration, word processor, stockpiling administration, and endless different administrations all weaved under a solitary brand umbrella.

Each help plays well with different administrations – making it quicker and simpler for us to make, impart, and share. What’s more, our cerebrums flourish with quicker and simpler.

Of course, there are other web search tools out there, many different organizations that have a great deal of impact as Google.

In any case, they don’t incorporate such that makes our experience quicker, simpler, or better. When was the last time you found precisely what you required in practically no time, utilizing Bing or Yahoo?

THE BOTTOM LINE ON FUNNELS AND CONVERSION RATES

As the Harvard article says, the customary channel isn’t disappearing at any point in the near future.

There are still items and administrations out there that increase new clients thusly. In any case, to overlay and apply that to our progressively open, two-way correspondence world is simply attempting to fit a round peg in a square gap. It’s not adaptable, not versatile, and simply doesn’t work – prompting helpless encounters for everybody.

At the point when you take a gander at advertising as the multi-faceted monster, it may be, you’ll have the option to make your own channel “guide” that fuses all the means you have to connect with and engage your clients in a manner where everybody wins.

What are your views?

Have you tossed out the customary funnel for another business model? Which one did you pick and how could it work for you? Disclose to us your musings in the remarks underneath.

Source: Why the old Marketing Funnel is Sabotaging Your Conversion Rate

#conversion rate #old marketing funnel

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writingonjorvik · 5 years

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Can We Discuss Quest Frequency?

Ok, before we start, did y’all not want 5000 SC? Because I’ve had a giveaway running since Monday and only one person has entered?! Seriously? Y’all get on it.

But on a serious note, we’re going to be talking about the results from this poll, and like always the poll will continue to run after this analysis is out. But I wanted to do this today because of the changes that came out to the Horse Market.

So to start, I can get why SSO would want to stop having the Horse Market. By being stationary, it makes these horses accessible and it gives SSO somewhere where they can always fit more horses instead of terraforming more of the environment and I can appreciate that. It also means there’s not this continuing source of EXP that will continue to push veteran players to levels unavailable to everyone else, but that’s also got its own problems and we’re going to break into that.

So to start, now that the horse market is done, that’s a lot of exp that’s now unavailable to new players, meaning access to players for those higher levels is going to be harder, if possible (there was a lot of horse market exp over the years). But this also highlights the problems in SSO’s leveling system. With a lowered pool of exp, there’s a wider gap in player level and with things like championships were a level 22 player can race a level 5 (I did), that’s not a fair matching system, and there’s less to do to close it. I mean, there’s a whole other topic here about championships being seriously improved by making more groups and only putting in same level players to make the races fair. But exp access and SSO’s apparent fear of giving it out/increasing level caps isn’t really the point of this.

No, I think the bigger issue with removing the horse market is it means less people are going to get on, which is bad for an MMO. MMOs are, despite the about a quarter of y’all according to my other poll running right now, advertised on having a lot of players. And SSO already has a low player retention compared to other MMOs (400,000 of 12,000,000 before accounting for multiple accounts). But to remove a bi-weekly event removes another reason for players to get on.

Start with the basics of this survey.

Two thirds of y’all said you got on daily when you had quests.

But that drops down to only 6.4% when there aren’t quests. That’s an insane drop! Nearly half of y’all said if you don’t have quests you only get on when you have something to do. That’s not a frequency, that’s a guess and it could be anywhere in a wide spectrum of times. But it does mean that the more often SSO puts out quests, the more often that is.

I’m gonna go through these next three quick.

To be fair, I think the original wording of the last one might have skewed my data. I didn’t mean how often should SSO make new events or how often should they repeat (duh, holiday events should happen once a year), I meant how often should one be happening. Regardless, I’m going to use the data as it was collected.

A massive amount of y’all think story quests need to be happening more often, and considering that SSO is a story driven game, I don’t disagree. I think the majority “Quarterly” release here is fair, and it is something SSO seems to be working towards. But that shouldn’t be the only quests! Over 70% of y’all think smaller side quests need to me added at least monthly, if not more often. And y’all think events should be running quarterly to monthly in a pretty big majority.

But it’s not just about quests being more often, it’s about continuing to have something to do.

Nearly 90% of entrants said quests need to be longer than a day. It’s not just about things coming out more often, it’s about continuing to have something to do. And whether you think events, general, or story quests need to be longer respectively, length is the fourth biggest priority for all interests in new quests, bigger than new areas to explore.

Y’all didn’t really see to care about seeing new things outside of areas to explore, and since SSO’s also pretty big on exploration, kinda makes since. But based on y’all’s results, you care more about worldbuilding in story and generally having fun for a longer period of time than needing new assets, which for a game, is great! If you’re fine with reusing assets, that should mean less development time for the devs. They largely need to write story, not create new set pieces.

But it can also be repetitive and y’all agreed resoundingly on that.

You guys want dailies back, though with some updates. Dailies having a story purpose was behind dailies being fair and having a balanced progression and then having a reward for finishing them. Dailies like your popular favorites, any of the druid quests, the Rescue Ranch, or the Kalters, where they take a fair amount of time and immediately reward you with something for doing the daily, like a quest, a horse, or a new area.

What I think is frustrating is that nearly all of you either said fishing or the Sunfield Hens as your least favorite dailies, but SSO makes jokes about it. Sure, having a reward like an achievement makes these dailies more bearable, but there’s still a stupid amount of slog and y’all still said you hated these dailies even after those achievements were out. For SSO to hold these two (a super minority of all of their dailies) as the standard that dailies are and the reason they don’t add more is, frankly, just nonsense. Further, the fact that they have done nothing to make these more enjoyable is beyond me. Just rebalance them. Make the hens stay still longer. Take away the “Good try” in fishing. Besides the point.

The overwhelming evidence from y’all’s feedback is that while quality matters, having something, even minute, is better than nothing. And for a game that runs itself on the idea of having people online, it is in their best interest to have something to do for their players, a reason to get online, even for a fractional amount of time.

Look, quests obviously take time to make and I never think quests should be put out at a rate that makes them poor or puts crunch on the devs, but if the majority of your game is focused around story, then more story should be added. If that’s padded for a month by a fun, unique daily (like the Sun Circle was), most of y’all are fine with that. It’s a reason to get on and be playing this game we all love, even if it’s not for hours on end. And until SSO gives us easier access to making secondary characters (which they really should will all these branching stories), then they need to encourage more people to be getting on their accounts more often.

And that’s all the time I have to break this down. The data is all available, so y’all extrapolate what you can and I’m going to think about how cool a daily where a randomly generated horse appears at the rescue ranch every week and you have to take care of them, or rival group dailies where to max you have to make peace with both (like between the Bobcats and Bulldogz) but until then helping one looses favor in the other, or organizing the library to find books on Jorvik’s magic and past with Linda. There’s so much there and it doesn’t have to be big or complicated and still be able to add on the game.

#woj analysis #sso #star stable #starstable #star stable online #starstableonline

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thecartoonuniverse · 5 years

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Carmen Sandiego Spoiler-Free Review!

My video review of the first five episodes of the Carmen Sandiego Netflix series is up! Check it out here, or read the script to it by clicking the read more

The Carmen Sandiego franchise debuted in 1985 with the educational video game, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and now has a total of 22 video games as well as three tv shows!

All of these entries had the goal of teaching children about geography and history. I watched a few episodes of the old cartoon and definitely think it pulled it off well.

Now Carmen is back with a new show, and like most reboots of older franchises, quite a bit has changed. Here’s a quick summary of the plot:

Starting off as a student at VILE academy, an organization that teaches people how to steal treasures from around the world, Carmen later turns her back on the place she grew up and does her best to return any goods they steal. Along with her friends Zack and Ivy, as well as her online friend Player, she becomes a thief who only steals from other thieves. But to law enforcement agencies like ACME, she is perceived as a criminal, and they try in vain to capture her. Carmen travels to many different countries during her adventures to stop VILE, and along the way ends up learning about who she truly is.

So, if you know anything about the older incarnations of Carmen Sandiego, it is easy to see that there are some pretty big differences. In the original, she was an agent of ACME who left when she sought out a greater challenge and became a thief. She would steal literally anything, which included things like the Statue of Liberty, and would even go back in time to steal languages!

But she left clues about the things she took, so any smart ACME agent could try and get back what she stole.

In the old television show, she was pretty clearly a villain. This version paints her as a person that is trying to do good things, just in an unusual way, and could easily be called an anti-hero. And even more explicit is the marketing for this show, which makes sure we all know that she is indeed a heroine. She is also younger than before, but she has been training her whole life so she’s not totally inexperienced.

I have already heard a lot of contention regarding her new status as an anti-hero. While I would have loved her being a villain since that is a very rare thing in modern shows for the main character, I do not expect a show for children in 2019 to showcase a character like that, with the exception of Villainous.

Her being younger is also no surprise to me, as most reboots do that as well.

But if you ignore what Carmen’s character used to be, then it is easy to see that this is a very well-made show.

The art style is one of my favorites for any modern cartoon. It reminds me a lot of the Tangled series because both use the lineless style, and both of these shows execute it very well. But the lighting in this one brings it to a whole other level, and the little details like dust particles make the visuals just overall amazing.

Every character in the show is unique and their designs do a good job at conveying their character. I really love the leaders of VILE and the way they are designed. And since this is a show about geography and exploring the world, the diverse cast is appreciated.

Carmen Sandiego is very much a modern cartoon, and since it is on Netflix they have the opportunity to start the series off with her origin story. And while the show does seem a bit more episodic after the two-parter introduction, there is always something in each episode that alludes to a bigger story that will eventually come into play. So, not only do we get the where, but we also get the who is Carmen Sandiego?

I really enjoy Carmen as a character as she is very clever and determined to make things right.

Along with Carmen are a few notable characters I mentioned before.

I’m not sure how I feel about Zack and Ivy just yet. Like in the original, they are siblings, but this time they are on the same side as Carmen. They also made them the same age as Carmen, and Zack is no longer a blonde... guess they wanted to make them look more like siblings. They are often comedic relief, but they still do a great job with helping Carmen out.

Carmen’s other source of help is from the character Player, who is never actually there with her but helps by looking up information online. I’ve always enjoyed characters that help remotely like Player, and if you know the old series, you’ll appreciate the callback. In the past, he was a live-action unseen character that communicated with Carmen via a computer, since the show implied that the whole series was just a video game. But since the new show decided not to go that route, I still think it’s very cool they did something similar by giving Carmen and online friend.

Much like all Carmen Sandiego shows and games before it, this version has a focus on education. Honestly, it’s been a while since I watched a show with any educational value besides ones that teach moral lessons so I think I can safely say that it did take me a bit to adjust to the moments when characters did just start uttering a bunch of facts about geography and culture. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t learn a thing or two from these segments.

However, I enjoyed the educational aspects of the older show more since they had a bit more humor to them. But this series in general is a bit more serious so I don’t really have a problem with this, and overall the educational aspect isn’t too in-your-face.

While there were a bunch of things I enjoyed about this series thus far, I do think there is room for improvement.

A lot of the side characters, especially those that were Carmen’s classmates from VILE academy, are pretty bland personality-wise. Hopefully each of them gets some more spotlight in the future.

And while I enjoyed seeing Carmen travel and interact with people from different countries, so far I haven’t seen anyone speak any languages other than English, which is a bummer since I think it would be cool to learn some phrases from other languages through this show. When they’re at a Spanish speaking country, I do expect to hear some Spanish!

Personally, I am a bit conflicted on the direction the show took as a whole. I feel like it would have been amazing to see the show mimic the original one and have the whole thing be a video game where the player is representative of the person watching.

And with that, they could’ve added some more interactive features, because the lack of them with this show is a bit of a missed opportunity. There could be trivia that players can answer throughout each episode, which could definitely help in the retention of all the facts they learned. Or maybe even different scenes could play depending on the answer the player chose.

But who knows, maybe they can add some interactive features later down the line.

Finally, I think keeping Carmen a villain would have been neat, or maybe at least have her do bad things at first, and then slowly realize it’s the wrong thing to do. I suppose there is some of this in the backstory, but a slower redemption for Carmen would have been a nice alternative.

But that is more about what this show COULD have been, not what it currently is. The show that I have seen so far is pretty great.

I’m looking forward to see how the show explores Carmen’s origins, as that is a big theme in the series so far. Like I said, there is clearly a bigger story at play and I am curious to see just how dark the show will go. It probably won’t ever get too dark since it’s a show for all ages, but here’s to hoping the plot gets really good.

If you are adamant that Carmen must be a villain, then this show may not be for you. But for everyone else, I would say give it a watch!

Netflix has been releasing so many good cartoons lately, and this is another one to add to the list.

Also, there is going to be a live action movie in 2020, so hopefully that is good as well!

Carmen Sandiego will be on Netflix on January 18th!

#carmen sandiego #carmen sandiego netflix #carmen sandiego reboot #player #gina rodriguez

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robzambito · 5 years

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The Art of Deescalation

“I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER!”

“CANCEL MY CONTRACT!”

“I WANT MY MONEY BACK!”

We’ve heard it before. It’s uncomfortable. It’s challenging. And it’s the antithesis of customer success. In this post, we’ll explore tried and true methods to calm your angriest customers down and win critical customer success conversations.

Introduction

By its nature, the goal of customer success is create win-win situations between your company and your customer. It’s through these win-win situations that we as customer success professionals guarantee retention and the opportunity for additional revenue streams from our existing customer base. Almost inevitably for any product at scale, some customers will feel your product did not meet their needs. When this occurs, it’s only natural for the customer to get angry... and, in the case of the most valuable products, very angry. That said, navigating and winning deescalation scenarios with customers is a vital skill of any customer success professional.

Deescalation can be thought of as the process of bringing a customer down from an elevated negative emotional state to a calm, confident state where they continue to use your product into the future with comfort and confidence. Deescalation is not just tricky and taxing, but vitally important. A customer escalation is often the most telltale warning sign of customer churn, and preventing churn is the most central goal of most CS teams. After all, in study after study and industry after industry, it’s proven to be more efficient to retain customers than to acquire new customers. Deescalation is our core method of retention with upset customers.

Deescalation requires careful planning, precision, and practice. While deescalation might seem to be common sense to the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed CSM, it’s easy to forget common sense or miss vital deescalation steps when push comes to shove. As Mike Tyson put it, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Deescalation is no different. With this guide, my hope is that you will have a go-to plan to deescalate your most ornery customers, regardless of how hard they punch you in the mouth. Specifically, my ultimate goal is to provide a checklist you can print and keep at your desk for difficult situations moving forward. If checklists are good enough to take off and land an airplane, they’ll be more than enough for our purposes in deescalation.

The canonical three-step method for deescalation for most customer success professionals is known as “feel, felt, found.” This method suggests we explain to customers we understand how they feel, that we have met folks who have felt this way before, and we have found that our solution is the best for their needs. In my experience, this method is useful. However, it needs a lot more detail to cover the full gamut of customer escalations. In this three-part blog, we expand upon this method in detail, adapting it for more nuanced customer scenarios. The purpose of this post is to focus on Part I: Feel.

Observation: Think of Deescalation as a Game

Deescalations used to drag me down and exhaust me. At one point, they made me reconsider whether I wanted to work in CS at all. Later on, I came to a realization that changed it all for me.

My outlook on CS changed when I realized: Deescalation is a game. It’s a very important and difficult game, but a game nonetheless. In this game, winning is successfully deescalating the customer and retaining revenue. Losing is the customer walking away feeling dissatisfied and potentially cancelling your product. Our goal is to win the game.

Thinking of a deescalation as a game objectifies the conversation. It puts you in a position where you won’t take even the meanest comments personally. This attitude helps you realize: you’ve been here before and you’ve survived. And while you will win some and lose some, your goal is to maintain a winning record in the long term.

In this game, you can think of calmness as the boundary lines. Losing your cool means you’ve stepped out of bounds, failed on the play, and need to reset for the next play. Going into calls with stressed or angry customers, I often repeat three times the motto: If I lose my cool, I lose.

It’s tempting to let anger and vitriol get under our skin. However, it’s the ability to withstand complaints that separates the strongest CS players from those who don’t generally make it in the service profession. It is imperative in the deescalation game to remain calm, cool, and collected. As an old African proverb states, “If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm.” These words should ring true to you long before you enter a CS deescalation conversation.

As soon as I came to the realization that deescalation is a game, I went into my next call with an angry customer with a renewed sense of calmness and composure. I recommend meditating on the same notion long prior to your deescalation conversations.

Part I: Feel

You have two ears and one mouth. Use them in that proportion

-Anonymous

In order for a customer to be willing to calm down, it’s essential for them to know that you understand them and are on their side. The primary mistake that leads to failed deescalations is a tendency for CS reps to either zone out and stonewall the customer or prematurely jump into solutions. Both options are a mis-step. The fundamental problem with these methods is that they do not prove your understanding.

A better method is to spend as much time as needed elaborating on how well you understand the customer’s need. While it may feel redundant, meaningless, or even counterproductive to spend substantial time elaborating on and validating the problem your customer is experiencing, demonstrating understanding of your customer is often a prerequisite to them opening up to your eventual suggestions.

In the “feel” stage of deescalation, our goal is to prove to the customer that we’re on their side and understand their needs. It’s not enough to understand where the customer is coming from, nor just to say you understand where they’re coming from. Rather, the customer has to believe you understand where they’re coming from. After all, from their perspective, if you don’t understand their problem, how good will you be at providing a solution? When the customer does not feel understood, they often feel the need to reiterate their need (often to the point of your annoyance) and escalate past you to your manager. In other words, a lack of understanding is a surefire way to end up 0 for 1 in the deescalation game.

The “feel” stage is made up of several steps, each with corresponding benefits and tips along the way.

Step 1: Before going in, remind yourself — you’re the customer’s best defense. Contextually-speaking, as CS professionals, we have to remind ourselves that we are the primary (indeed, sometimes the only) people in the company who will advocate for the customers. Although many companies differ in structure, in general, no one else in the company has strong incentives to fight on the customers’ behalf. Marketing, sales, product, or other departments have much different incentives than sticking up for the customers’ business needs. They also usually have fewer customer touchpoints, so the scope of their understanding is inherently more limited. When going into deescalation conversations, remind yourself that you’re the customer’s lifeline. In doing so, you’ll naturally gravitate toward a tone of forgiveness, partnership, and mutual benefit.

Tip: By priming yourself with these notions of advocacy and calmness, I recommend going into the conversation with surprising—even alarming—excitement. Bringing positivity to the table will often immediately disarm the customer. Try beginning a call by saying, “I’m so happy we’re getting the chance to chat!” within the first 30 seconds of conversation. Later, once they have stated their case, I also recommend stating, “I’m so happy you brought this up.” This positivity immediately catches the customer off guard and encourages them to reset expectations of the engagement. It sets the tone that prevents negativity from the get-go.

Step 2: Take charge without belittling the customer’s needs: In one minute, explain the parameters of the conversation.

My first failed deescalation calls often started off on entirely the wrong foot. I used to say hello, ask how it’s going, and immediately the customer would begin complaining. Caught on my heels, I would either scramble to take notes or try to lead calls with solutions that naturally did not align precisely with customer needs. After several calls like this in a row, I felt exhausted, useless, and disappointed. I began to zone out and stonewall the customer.

The lesson I learned is: In the first minute of conversation, clearly lay out the expectations for the call. Four components are key, which collectively allow you to take charge without belittling the customer’s needs:

Let them know who you are, what you can do for them, and more importantly, what you cannot do for them. Start by letting the customer know you’re on their side. Let them know the entire reason you were hired is to make sure their needs are met. This reassures the customer that you’re a tool for their defense, not their adversary.

It’s equally important for the customer to know what you cannot do for them. This is key in scenarios where customers ask for promises you truly can’t provide. Leading them on with false pretenses of your capabilities within your organization will often result in disaster. In my line of work, I tell people outright, “I’m your advocate here. While I’m not on the engineering team and can’t build any code, it’s my responsibility to see to it that your needs are met with the product as it stands now.” I also tell people, “I’m not in the refunds department. I’m in the customer success department. I have a lot of tools at my disposal, and though refunds aren’t one of them, I think we can come up with a plan that benefits both our companies.” Here, using the terms “partnership” and “success” let the customer know you’re a tool for their use, and as such, it only hurts their cause to verbally attack you.

Let them know this is important to you. I recommend stating outright, “This is important to me, both professionally and personally.” This signals to the customer that you’re here only to help. Signaling a tone of helpfulness is equally important regardless of whether you’re planning to help them or needing to lay down the law. Once the customer realizes you’re here to help, they are less likely to engage in a verbal altercation. As we will see later on in this post, doing so would only hurt their cause.

Point out to the customer the middle of the Venn diagram between your needs and theirs. Highlight that you have the same goal as they do. Let them know that their success with your product is both your end games. In my conversations, I usually tell customers, “I know how competitive this market can be. I want you to succeed, and I want our product to be the tool that helped you get there. That’s when both of our businesses succeed.”

Let them know how long you have for the call. For your own mental health’s sake, let the customer know how much time you have. Set a hard stopping point from the get-go. The customer needs to know that time is of the essence. This helps you manage your time well and results in greater satisfaction overall. Lengthy calls often result in both you and the customer feeling exhausted and frustrated that their day got away from them. The customer may blame you as a result. I recommend stating from the beginning, “I have 30 minutes for our call today, so I’d like to hear out your needs for 20 minutes and spend 10 recapping action items. Does that sound good?” Sometimes, my best calls are escalations that arise right before a meeting because I can tell customers, “I have 10 minutes here before my next meeting, but this is important to me, so I wanted to chat beforehand.”

As we will see later on, if a customer is going on and on and cannot be stopped, it’s okay to carefully interrupt them. I often butt in to say, “If I may, I’d like to recap my action items here so you can confirm I’m on the right track.” Recapping action items will be our best friend in getting off of calls.

Specifically, let the customer know you’re giving them the floor. When you engage the customer, let them know outright that you’re giving them the floor. Note, there is a fine distinction here: Do not just give the customer the floor. After your introduction, do not just let them start talking. I recommend you explicitly tell them you’re giving them the floor. This affirms that you’re in the driver’s seat. If you just let the customer speak and wait to respond, they’re in the driver’s seat, and they will often steer the conversation in a direction that is not optimally productive to your time and energy. I recommend thinking of yourself as the Speaker of the House managing Robert’s Rules of Order. Everyone will get their chance to speak, but the rules must be enforced.

Once the customer begins explaining their case, we move on to Step #3.

Step 3: Be curious. Listening to complaints is hard. It’s really hard. It’s especially hard in high-volume, high-intensity scenarios. When CS reps handle critical calls, mistakes often range between taking customer criticism personally, responding cynically, or stonewalling the customer. While it’s natural and tempting to have these reactions when a customer attacks you or your product, it’s better to respond with active interest in the customer’s comments and where they’re coming from. Here, I found the following technique to be helpful: imagine yourself as a therapist, closely listening to the customer needs but removed from the situation. Use terms, like “Ah, I see,” “Mhm,” and “Right, I understand,” to the point where the customer knows without a doubt that you’re on the same page. The effect of this will be that the customer will remain calm. They’ll subconsciously mirror your calmness and trust in your sense of control. Occasionally, my best deescalation calls have spent 2/3 of the call just showing understanding and curiosity before providing anything actionable.

It can often be very difficult to be curious when you’re getting chewed out. When this is happening, I find it’s often useful to try a few tips:

A Few More Tips:

Tip #1: Your customer is a drunk, angry kid. This may sound paternalistic, but when I was in the hospitality industry, I taught myself a useful tip: think of your angry customer as a kid throwing a tantrum in a store. You’re like the parent. Even though they’re kicking and screaming, at the end of the day, you (1) love them and forgive them, and (2) have the authority in the conversation. You may even think of your customer as your drunk best friend acting a fool in public. The same principles of love and authority apply. While this attitude may sound belittling, it helps keep yourself in check without reacting viscerally yourself. Again: if you lose your cool, you lose.

Tip #2: Don’t take it personally. If you begin to feel like it’s getting personal, repeat to yourself the famous line from Good Will Hunting: “It’s not your fault” over and over again. You and your job are a net positive for the customer, even if you can’t get them exactly what they need. The world in which you are not there to help the customers’ needs is almost inherently worse than the world in which you are. Keeping this in mind will keep your head on straight.

Tip #3: At this point in the conversation, try a tip: Lower your voice. Speak quietly and calmly in a soothing tone. This may be counterintuitive. We often think we’ll get what we want by being louder and more authoritative. However, customers often mirror our tone. If we speak quietly, therefore, they will reciprocate and speak in a quiet tone as well.

Step 4: Reflect the customer’s needs back to them in their own words

It’s often not enough to merely say “I understand.” Rather, we must actively prove understanding. A technique many therapists use with this goal in mind is to reflect back a client’s issue or sentiment using their exact same words. Let them know their need makes sense; even let them know you’d feel the same in their shoes. Better yet, expound upon their need to evidence how well you understand. For instance, in my line of work, I say, “I know how much it stinks to have clients chomping at the bit and your software is running into a bug. That’s money on the line.” I often reflect on my background in hospitality and say, “Right, I know how important it is to you to provide top notch service for your clients — my background is in the restaurant business, where bad service means you’re out of business.” I often try to get the customer to realize that I may even understand their needs even better than they do.

In one example of when reflection would have come in handy, I had a customer screaming, “I’M PISSED OFF!” When I replied, “I’m sorry you’re frustrated,” she replied, “I’m not frustrated, I’m PISSED OFF.” It would have been better for me to go against my intuition of propriety and say, “I’m sorry you’re pissed off.” Instead, I created another layer of friction in our conversation that could have been avoided if I used her words back with her.

Reflection may feel very counterintuitive and risky. Indeed, as we will see later on, there’s a fine line between showing understanding and admitting the customer is totally correct. However, this strategy has two main benefits that outweigh corresponding risks:

First, it is very disarming to the customer. Validating the customer in this way puts them in their comfort zone and makes them more amenable to listen. People naturally trust those who share their perspective, so showing understanding opens the gates for the customer to understand your point of view as well.

Second, mirroring the customer’s needs legitimizes you as a customer success professional. We’ll explore this more in Part II: Felt.

Third, reflecting back the customer’s needs also mitigates liability. I’ve had many experiences in the past where I thought I had a correct understanding of the customer’s needs, only to find out after spending hours on a solution that I was wrong all along. By confirming you’re on the same page, you avert the chance of acting on incorrect assumptions.

Step 5: Surprise them with gratitude. After the customer is done with their (often long) complaint, we’ve found one technique to be most helpful: Thank them. Surprise them with pure, unadulterated gratitude. One fact I share with my customers is, “It’s feedback like this that’s helped us to become the best product on the market, and it’s so important to our partnership.” Another time, after a customer’s long harangue, she apologized. I joked, “Don’t apologize… this is what I call job security!”

An attitude of lightheartedness and gratitude often catches the customer off guard. Most customers find this reaction surprising and rare. Thanking them reaffirms you’re calm, confident, and capable.

At this point in the conversation, a smart tip is to spin the customer’s complaints into a positive narrative of your company’s success. Once, after I opened a new restaurant location, critics came barging through the door. When one customer posted a scathing review on a local Facebook page with thousands of members, I replied:

“Hi Bob, and all amazing Main Line people! I am so honored and humbled to receive this feedback and any kind of feedback. It is exactly how we have built such precious relationships with our community and it is essential to our growth as a business and as individuals. We've had countless amazing experiences at our new location and I'm sorry to hear this one left more to be desired. Emiliano, I will PM you and we will pinpoint your experience and how to make it perfect for next time. Thank you all again -- keep it coming!!”

The post was then revised. Others commented, “Best owner response ever!!”

Couching the customer’s feedback in a story of success and partnership that you’re both proud to be part of contextualizes the conversation and gives confidence to all parties involved.

Step 6: Be willing to admit fault and apologize (without throwing yourself under the bus). There is a long-standing debate as to whether we should apologize on CS. Although I initially thought it to be a bad idea, my opinion has changed. We should apologize to our customers. While this often takes more responsibility than you may think you deserve, apologizing shows you’re a professional of integrity willing to chalk up to your team’s shortcomings.

We should do this even when we think the customer is wrong. There’s always something to apologize for, even if it’s just saying “I’m sorry you’ve had a bad experience.” We should do this even when we’re not the ones at fault. Often, saying “I want to take personal responsibility for this” when the problem was clearly not your fault to begin with shows how much integrity and humility you have.

For example, when I went into a call recently where a customer complained of long hold times on the support line, I responded, “Look, I’ll be the first to tell you we’ve fallen short on our support standards lately. Honestly, I want to apologize. We hold ourselves to a sub-60-second pickup time on the phones, and that’s a standard we met for all of 2018. But we’ve fallen short in 2019. The problem was that 2% of the US real estate market decided to onboard with our product on January 1. This was a blessing, but a little bit of a curse. We honestly couldn’t staff up fast enough, and you know how hard it is to find and train good people in this industry. The good news is I do have a solution. I’ve spent the last two months hiring and training some brilliant people. In the next two weeks, we’re doubling the size of our support team. I’ll bet that in a month’s time you’ll have a vastly different experience. Put me to the test and let me prove it!”

There is a fine line to walk here. If you feel your apology can be used against you (specifically, that the reputational risks outweigh the reputational benefits), it may be best from a personal and legal perspective to bite your tongue. Assume everything you say can and will be used against you, then find the extent to which you can take blame, and apologize.

Shouldering blame is a sign of someone who is comfortable and self-confident in their profession and experience. As an unexpected effect, I often found that customers would then also admit their shortcomings as well. This is strategically advantageous in concluding the call later on.

Step 7: Express your values. To finalize the “Feel” portion of the conversation, express the values of you and your team. Combined with Step #5 above, it’s best to convey how genuinely you care. I often say, “We really pride ourselves on top notch service here, and if I’ve fell short of that, I want to personally apologize.” An even better approach is to say, “Service is one of our four cornerstones here at our company. We have signs all around the office stating it. If we haven’t met your needs, I apologize.”

Conclusion

Feeling is key to deescalation. Mastering the steps above will put your customer in a calm, amenable state which is required to proceed in the rest of the deescalation and your business engagement in general. Only once you feel the customer knows you understand their needs can you proceed to the following steps: “felt,” “found,” and outlining action items to conclude.

#customer service #customer support #customer satisfaction #deescalation #saas

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un-enfant-immature · 3 years

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From passion to hobby to startup

Welcome back to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by what the weekday Exchange column digs into, but free, and made for your weekend reading. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.

Hey team! Alex here. I am off next week. Anna, my regular co-pilot on the weekday column, will be handling next week’s newsletter. It will be beyond good. Enjoy!

A few weeks back we took a look at some startup results, with a focus on growth. Today we’re narrowing our focus to a single company from the collection of startups that wrote in: Water Cooler Trivia.

Many startups begin life as a solution to a problem. A developer finds a flaw in their workflow, codes up a solution for it and later builds that hack into a product that scales. That sort of thing.

Collin Waldoch did something different, turning a hobby of his into a business.

Coming from a family of six kids in what he called a competitive family, Waldoch hosted bar trivia during college, and later sent around weekly trivia questions at his workplace after he completed his schooling. He kept the habit up during his early career, which included a stint at Lyft.

It was during his corporate life that Waldoch realized that companies were willing to spend heavily on team activities. Like a soccer team that he joined during one job that his employer spent a few grand on, but which struggled to find enough regular players. If companies would drop that much money on a group sport that few of its denizens wanted, he thought, perhaps there was some budget he could attack with a trivia product.

So Waldoch started Water Cooler Trivia, building it as a corporate product that he and some friends scaled to around $20,000 in ARR as a side project. The founder described its level of success at the time as pretty good beer money. Helping the project bring in revenue was a super-low churn rate, something that helped Waldoch decide to quit his day job at Lyft and take his side project full time.

Today Water Cooler Trivia has reached $300,000 worth of ARR and sports a collection of workers around the globe that help it run. Companies can select difficulty levels for their weekly trivia questions and track employee scores with longitudinal leaderboards.

Part of the idea’s success in Waldoch’s view is that it is built for the end user — employees — instead of HR. Which means that it’s actually fun. Today the company has experienced some churn, but still sports net retention rates of just under 100%. That’s great for a product that doesn’t feature enterprise-SaaS level upsells.

And the service is cheap. Probably too cheap frankly. At $100 per month for 100 seats, Water Cooler could likely boost what it charges and push its revenues higher in short order. Waldoch said that his company might start raising its rates in Q4 of this year. But even without that, Water Cooler thinks that it has a huge amount of growth open to it from its core product.

I dig it. Long live software making life a bit more fun.

Drift, Xometry, Carrot

It was a busy week with infinite IPO filings and eight billion YC startups pitching, but other things did happen that we need to talk about:

I’m curious about Drift’s sale to private equity: Boston’s Drift sold the majority of its shares to Vista Equity Partners, it announced this week. I’ve been to the Drift offices, as the company once lent us a room to record a podcast in. The folks there were nice. But with the company reporting 70% ARR growth in 2020, I am dead curious why Drift didn’t just raise more capital and keep growing. The company was able to raise lots of private money in the past, including, say, a $60 million round back in 2018. Exiting the bulk of the company early feels a little weird, similar to how the Gainsight sale to PE was a bit of a head scratcher. For Boston, the exit is good news as it may help mint new angel investors. But it still feels like an exit for which we’re missing a key detail.

Boston’s startup market is more than setting records in scorching start to year

Xometry: This one has been in the notes folder for too long, and since I’m off next week we’re including it here. I spoke with Xometry CEO Randy Altschuler after his company reported earnings a few weeks back. Recall that Xometry went public earlier this year. Altschuler reported generally bullish views on the process of going public during the COVID-19 era, calling his company’s Zoom roadshow efficient in a manner that allowed his company to chat to more folks while also saving on travel-related exhaustion.

Xometry, continued: But past the standard post-IPO chit chat, Altschuler had a few notes that stood out in my memory. The first being that inflation can impact technology businesses. Rising costs are impacting companies like Root, who have to deal with used car prices impacting claims costs. Inflation also crops up in Xometry’s business connecting manufacturing demand with manufacturing supply. It’s a good reminder that macro market conditions really do matter in the technology world, just not in ways that we can always easily see.

Xometry, even more: Altschuler also said that he thinks that a carbon tax at some point is inevitable. This came up in our discussion of onshoring manufacturing in the United States over time. Shipping stuff is expensive today and would prove even more costly if we added in the price of carbon emissions via a tax. That could make local manufacturing more competitive, notably. Perhaps that will prove a boon to folks in favor of more industrial production in post-industrial societies. For tech companies that deal with physical-world goods, it’s something to keep in mind.

And, finally, Carrot: Another entry from the notes archive, let’s talk about Carrot. The startup raised a $75 million round a few weeks back, so I asked the company about its growth history and a few other things. Carrot sells a product to employers so that they can offer their workers fertility benefits. Given falling human fertility rates, coverage of this sort is, in my view, likely to become more popular over time.

Other factors are at work, of course, but the last 18 months have proved accelerative for Carrot’s business. Per the company, it has seen “nearly 5x overall growth” in the last six quarters. The startup expects to reach 450 customers by the end of 2021, which will add up to around one million covered folks.

Carrot declined to share a valuation differential from its Series B to its Series C. Happily PitchBook has data on the matter, so we can report that per its dataset, Carrot’s valuation rose from around $66 million (post-money) following its $21 million Series B to around $260 million after its Series C. That’s a good markup for the company’s employees and founders.

My general bullishness around rising needs for fertility support matches the company’s ethos, which it described in an email by saying that it thinks fertility and “family-forming care could and should be the fourth pillar of employee benefits and health care more broadly, much like medical or dental or vision.” A hard yes to that one.

OK, that’s all from me for a few weeks. Stay safe, get vaccinated, and let’s be kind to one another. — Alex

#TechCrunch

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tkmedia · 3 years

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Just how good has England´s defence been at Euro 2020?

A lot can change in a month. Think back to England’s pre-Euro 2020 friendlies and most fans or pundits were likely highlighting the defence as their primary concern. Harry Maguire was injured and seemingly a doubt for the entire group stage; Trent Alexander-Arnold was ruled out of the tournament; and certain decisions made by Tyrone Mings had alarm bells ringing. Yet, here we are, four weeks on and England are preparing for a Euro 2020 semi-final having not conceded a single goal in five tournament matches. While sceptics might suggest the general level of those opponents wasn’t always world class, the fact is their five clean sheets has equalled a major tournament record – it is a genuine achievement in itself. That record is extended to Jordan Pickford as well, with the Everton goalkeeper one clean sheet away from setting a new record for the most clean sheets at a European Championship (six). Before Euro 2020, most will have been championing England’s forward options as the team’s strongest element, but now there’s more than a case for the defence. Solid and dependable While Everton fans would insist Jordan Pickford’s form has been strong for a while, it’s fair to say there are many who’ve been surprised – rightly or wrongly – by his showings at Euro 2020. His kicking has been an asset to England, while he’s produced some excellent saves and his importance to the team is quantifiable as well. According to xGOT (expected goals on target) conceded data, Pickford has actively prevented 1.5 goals at Euro 2020. Now, that may not sound massive in the grand scheme of things, it’s actually highly impressive given the small sample of matches involved. Only Stole Dimitrievski (2.6) and Tomas Vaclik (2.5) have prevented more goals than him in the tournament, though their respective xGA (expected goals against) figures of 8.85 and 6.7 show their records come from a larger pool of quality chances than Pickford (2.95). Of course, away from goalkeeping, defensive excellence can be difficult to outline with statistics, particularly in good teams. For example, if John Stones was leading the charts for the most tackles, it would suggest England were playing a risky game because of the over-reliance on someone in their backline. He isn’t, and that obviously reflects well on the Three Lions’ organisation. But two individual metrics reflect particularly well on Harry Maguire. The Manchester United centre-back has received great praise since returning to the team for the third group game, impressing with his reliability at the back. The acclaim is backed up by the fact he’s not lost a single aerial duel (8/8) and come out on top in 14 of his 16 overall duels since coming back into the side. Both he and Pickford will be looked to again on Wednesday, particularly given Denmark – whose 15 direct attacks is the most of all teams at Euro 2020 – have scored 11 times so far, a haul bettered by only Spain (12) before the semis. Shields up Central midfield was another area of the team that had sections of the support unconvinced ahead of the tournament, with the double-pivot of Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips deemed by many as too conservative. Granted, few Premier League fans would have looked at them and thought, “these two guarantee goals”, but international football over the past nine years has given great credence to the idea pragmatism rules. It’d now be fair to assume the majority of England fans would start both players for the remainder of the tournament, regardless of the opposition. As a pair they possess great athleticism, good ball-retention ability, work ethic and defensive nous. Phillips has arguably been the greater eye-opener. While his advanced role against Croatia may not have developed into a continuing theme, his ability to sniff out danger and be in the right place at the right time has been notable, and as such only six midfielders could better his 28 recoveries prior to the semi-finals. Similarly, his athleticism has translated well to aerial battles as well, with his 10 aerial wins ranking him fourth among midfielders. Rice has generally been the one of the two with the greater defensive responsibility, as reflected by his eight interceptions, two blocks and seven clearances, all of which put him in the top five for midfielders at Euro 2020 prior to the semi-finals. Though it’s also worth highlighting that, although Rice works effectively off the ball, his influence in possession is also significant, as evidenced by the collective xG value of build-ups he’s involved in being 3.1, only bettered by four Spain players. Sure, this metric will be weighted in favour of teams who play more games and have a greater share of the ball, but he’s ranked higher than the likes of Jordi Alba (2.3) and Jorginho (2.6), which speaks volumes. So, while the defence and Pickford are certainly doing a fine job, their defensive shield is also proving highly capable. Passive effective In 2021, high-intensity pressing is very much in vogue, which is another reason why this England team is so interesting. While some teams almost religiously stick to such principals, the Three Lions prefer to pick their moments. This is partly reflected by England’s 35 high turnovers being the lowest of the four semi-finalists (Spain and Denmark on 47, Italy on 42), while their 98 defensive actions is also well behind (Spain 159, Italy 134, Denmark 127). England’s average starting position of 42.6 metres (also a low among the last four) shows how they tend to defend deeper, and the fact they allow 18.6 passes on average before initiating a defensive action (PPDA) further reflects Southgate’s desire to have a lower line of engagement. It’s not that England don’t press, they are just more passive in general. This certainly won’t be a surprising revelation to anyone who has watched them at Euro 2020. This passive nature doesn’t necessarily lend itself to many people’s idea of exciting football, but it seems to be having a real impact… How it all comes together Whether or not Southgate’s masterplan was to shutdown the opposition and rely on their own clinical finishing, only he can say, though it’s worked out that way so far. Again, generally speaking England games haven’t exactly been packed with excitement for the neutrals, with their matches averaging just 15.8 shots – that’s the lowest of any side in the Euros dating back to at least 1980, with the next being Germany (2021) on 18.5. Seemingly England’s low defensive line – which has often comprised of a back three – coupled with two defensive-minded deep-lying midfielders has contributed to England facing just two shots on target per game, second only to Italy (1.8). On top of that, 43 per cent of their shots faced have been outside of the box, the fourth-highest share of all teams at the tournament, and that undoubtedly plays a role in England’s 0.07 xG against per shot being the lowest at Euro 2020 ahead of the semis. Additionally, their 2.95 xG against and two Opta-defined ‘big chances’ conceded are the lowest. Of course, that would all be for nothing if England couldn’t put the ball away at the other end, yet their 21.6 conversion rate is the highest of all 24 teams prior to the final three matches and shows just how efficient they’ve been, despite Harry Kane coming in for significant criticism earlier in the tournament. Nevertheless, England’s excellence at the back so far is by no means a guarantee of success on Wednesday. It only takes one moment of genius or calamity to ruin all the hard work, and that could come from anywhere, anyone. But the data helps paint a picture of structural effectiveness in the team, as well as a collective quality that is breeding consistency. While the relevance of the past certainly pales in comparison to what comes next, it’s undoubtedly comforting to Southgate and England fans alike that they’ve had such a solid foundation to this point. However, it will be defined by what happens in the next five days: crumble and England will fade, or stand firm and the Three Lions will surely roar again. Read the full article

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xtruss · 3 years

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‘March Mammal Madness’ Brings Simulated Animal Fights to Huge Audiences

The annual science education event describes imaginary encounters to teach ecology

— By David Shiffman | February 22, 2021 | Scientific American

What mammal might defeat a pygmy hippo in a one-on-one battle? Credit: Alamy

Ever idly wondered if a capybara could somehow take down an elephant in a beachfront brawl? That’s the kind of thinking behind March Mammal Madness (MMM), an annual social media event based on the March Madness NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament. Like its namesake, this educational project encourages viewers to fill out brackets predicting which teams would triumph in a hypothetical head-to-head showdown—with the “teams” in this version being specific mammals. The virtual fights, each set in a randomly chosen arena, unfold as Twitter threads posted by participating scientists—with each move backed up by very real research, planning and pedagogy. As an approach to science education, the project is paying off: A new paper put together by the nearly 40 co-organizers suggests that hundreds of thousands of students, in addition to younger and older participants, have participated in MMM since its creation.

March Mammal Madness combines biological facts with a running narrative of fictional action that encourages those following along at home to hit “reload” as the Twitter thread updates. “All of that drama, those emotions—this is what makes MMM a shared experience that facilitates long-term retention of information,” says the paper’s lead author Katie Hinde, the event’s creator and an associate professor at Arizona State University’s Center for Evolution and Medicine. “For example, in 2019 moose was battling tiger in the Elite Trait [the round featuring the final eight competitors], and we waited until that battle to remind everyone that moose drop their antlers in the fall. Moose fans were shook,” she explains, as they realized that their chosen fighter would lose one of its key advantages against its feline foe. Then her team reminded them of the fact that a moose would never have used antlers against a tiger in the first place, because it employs its headgear in competition against other males, not as a defense against predators. “This is part of the roller-coaster ride of a battle narration,” Hinde says. Other past confrontations have involved pygmy hippo versus coyote, manatee against tapir, and one epic bout between short-faced bear and honey badger.

The project’s efforts at engaging narratives are based on educational theory. “Humans are psychologically and cognitively adapted for fireside storytelling, shared experiences, artistic imagery and jokey-joke-joke-jokes,” Hinde says. She believes that adding drama to science communication helps lessons stick. “Too many scientists ignore the evidence and continue to talk facts and probabilities in a vacuum,” she says. “Folks remember the science that ended their pick’s hunt for the MMM championship. There are people who can now tell you that platypus venom is seasonal, who would never pick up Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B to read ‘Grant & Temple–Smith 1998.’”

Though MMM players might not read the scientific literature, the co-organizers do—and they take in a lot of it, citing over 1,000 scholarly works that justify the behavior and biology on display in their virtual fights. “It’s evident that the folks writing the battles put their heart and soul into this project,” says Sarah McAnulty, the executive director of a virtual science education nonprofit called Skype a Scientist, who is not involved with MMM but follows the event. “I’ve learned about all kinds of animals and adaptations, and the process of researching the animals to pick who you think will win is a great and fun way for kids to dig into the science. It’s a super engaging way to learn animal facts.”

Many teachers agree, and have encouraged their students to join in. The new paper estimates that about 1 percent of all high school students in the U.S. participate—a relatively large audience for a science communication initiative. “Even though it’s simulated, I love that it takes all of these biology concepts we’re learning and makes them real and cohesive and applicable,” says Linda Correll, the science supervisor for Fauquier County, Va., public schools. “All of a sudden understanding biomes, symbiotic relationships, and adaptations gives you an edge in trying to answer the question of who is going to win.” In addition to creating the contest, the MMM team provides free educational resources to help students with their research. “The narratives are exciting and educational, and I love when my students get upset that [an] unstoppable apex predator loses to something they find helpless or weak,” Correll says. “These are great teachable moments.”

March Mammal Madness has formal partnerships with science teachers around the country—and also reaches adults who have outgrown traditional science classes. “To see so much engagement with the content we create is really exciting,” says Eduardo Amorim of the University of Lausanne, a co-organizer and co-author. “Families play together at home. Adults, teenagers and kids, scientists and nonscientists—I never imagined this would be something that reached so many people.”

Hinde is thrilled by how much March Mammal Madness has grown since she started it on her own in 2013. (Although the event is not directly affiliated with Arizona State University, and the current co-organizers come from a variety of institutions, ASU’s digital library still hosts MMM’s educational resources.) “I love this community brought together by our shared delight in the natural world,” she says. “Also, I love the trash talk. But really, the community, even in pandemic times, has been a refuge from despair.”

— Editor’s Note: The writer works part-time at a remote ASU-administered research center that has no relationship with the MMM program.

— The March Mammal Madness bracket will be released on February 26. Anyone wishing to participate can predict a winner for each listed match, then wait for the action to unfold on Twitter at preannounced times.

— David Shiffman is a marine conservation biologist, scientific consultant and science writer based in Washington, D.C.

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jemishvasundhara · 4 years

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Tips for Developing Word Game Design

Word games are perfect because they help children focus on sounds and letters and create skills for reading, writing, and orthography. We give them the advantage of our business by playing word games with our children, as well as illustrating to them that playing with words is a lot of fun. Word games are made into board games and toys, but those you can find below require minimal equipment.

Tip 1: Create all the stages with different score-cards

The make-up of a score can make or break a game, though still a number, in the end. It's the one status to which everybody clings, brags about, contrasts with others. If no prizes are included in the scoring rules, the game would lack engagement in play. Players would have more fun and a more memorable experience when a design invests deep thinking in this model.

Tip 2: The Randomness Effect

Like scoring, with pure randomness, a successful word game development does not create a mystery. This approach typically results in unnatural puzzles where few words are possible with isolated letters or boards. Choosing a random word from the dictionary with alternate spelling games results in odd obscure terms. Also, complexity should play a part. We cannot fully eliminate randomness as designers. This will create a digital-format puzzle book and create a consumable game that would be discarded after resolving it.

Tip 3: Make a great impression, change the situation

For each level, some games have the same operation. They're fun for a while but once the pattern of how the puzzles are created is found, some magic is lost. Make the words studies reviewed, maybe all phrases should be kitschy for one point. The game doesn't have to disclose this directly, but most would smile and offer gratitude when a player knows that all the words have a motive. Every once in a while, offer a twist or two-a bonus piece, a different board arrangement, maybe new letters come into play in various ways. The game varies and the players stick around.

Tip 4: Input graphics and its typography

In word games, graphics are of special interest relative to other categories. Letters of various states must not mess with readability. The special effects do not normally overlap the puzzle. When a square grid of white letters has 1 letter that is bright blue, it almost always becomes so distracting that the color takes hold of the thinking. UI and game pieces usually have the same tones. Input is of special importance as well. Immersion and story are usually not the focus but have a more day-to-day aspect when it comes to playing word games. Word games are much more susceptible to this, that is, something that 'breaks' the thinking process. I always recommend that you do not try to do something in the game that creates a diversion.

Tip 5: Progression is more than a bar of development

It is often not enough in a casual game to accept progress as a progress bar. If a game is well finished, progression is a series of information, or tiny secrets, the minutiae that a player learns after playing for a while. Secrets whose disclosures are going to improve efficiency. It's the feeling that if one were to start over, they'd be able to level up to 20x faster after learning the 'tricks.' Progression, in a word game, is a celebration of rights. The MMO has a character setup and an inventory panel. Word games have high screen ratings. A good game can be compared, side by side, to a veteran starting player and a strong visual difference can be seen. Longer terms, scores, higher points, completion counts, the best word of all time, awards, stars, or whatever the game is considered to be an acceptable show.

Tip 6: Sense of accomplishment

Somewhat similar to success is that the ranking will only go so far, no matter how good it's achieved. Successful games have a range of activities. The mental model should have a range of things' to do when logging in. All of these aspects are in word game design to encourage players to do things. Even with arcade games, there was a feeling of pride on the kill screen and not just #1 on the scores chart. Adding to milestones and achievements and side goals is always a positive thing. These goals are mainly stats in word games.

Tip 7: Bragging rights

Even when you lose a competitive match overall, joy can be had if someone has a stat they can laugh or talk about. Anything is better than silence. Designers want players talking, even in the face of a technical loss. Sure, your team may not have captured the flag three times, but you have the most headshots. Word games are no exception. Good quality stats increase the vocalist of a game and also its long term retention.

Tip 8: Difficulty and being fair

There are almost 300,000 written words in the English language from books, and an average adult knows 60,000 of them. Fresh ones are going to be used every day. That's not to suggest the dictionary should be exclusive, but if you're generating puzzles in a casual context, keep the word list to something equal and enjoyable in the game settings. So many word games deal with puzzles like vocabulary tests.

Tip 9: Don’t ignore current trends, and consequently, the players

Too many times I see games these days that disregard current trends, leaving players alone. Streaming and twitch are a huge thing today, and so is voice chat. As programmers, we need to consider adding these features to the game. Players will find another way, but they're going to be your champion if you help them. You want them to love you in the end. People want to engage in the word game genre, play together and play when they have a spare 10 minutes. The features of these games should make this easier. If players want to have themed tournaments, add a feature to help them.

#Word Game Development #word game design #Word Game Development Company in San Francisco

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