Chapter 4.3: Customer Support in Massively Multiplayer Online Games


Overview

Terri L. Perkins

<terri67@bellsouth.net>

Customer service in an online game faces challenges that other service industries do not. Not only is the product always changing and "open" for business 24/7, its customers speak a variety of languages, come from extremely diverse demographic backgrounds and knowledge bases, demand top-of-the-line service for a product they are paying an average of less than 50 cents a day to use, and hold the representatives accountable for many things that are not in the game company's control. If you can imagine a large theme park with only a handful of paid employees and thousands of customers demanding changes to the rides, corrections to the weather, a refund for time they spent waiting in line, demanding the annoying person standing next to them be made to disappear, and complaining that something in the park's pavement is making their shoes slower than everyone else's, then you can imagine the challenges that plague online games.

The challenge then: to provide fair, quick, respectful, and consistent service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a dynamic world, to thousands of diverse people scattered over the globe, and to do this for a very nominal fee. Customer support, like your game, is not an end product but a process. Ole Schreiner, customer service manager at Funcom Inc., states:

"One of the most important factors in satisfying customers in an online game is to treat all customers with respect and having a customer service team that can fulfill the customers' needs regardless of the experience level the customer might have with on-line games."




Secrets of the Game Business
Secrets of the Game Business (Game Development Series)
ISBN: 1584502827
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 275

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