Bungie. Epic. Hi-Rez. Lots of apologies this week for one thing or another. As one of our readers, @Helltrek, put it, “It seems that the only thing productive @Bungie has been doing since release is… apologizing.”
I’ve read so many thousands of apologies from game studios that they all blur together, literally, just like the “we’re sunsetting and thank you for your support” messages. They could replace all that with a robotic [sorrowful sentiment] and I’d probably be OK with it. What I actually care about (and skim for to quote in articles) is what they’re doing about it. The patch, the compensation, the rollbacks, the toxicity strike team – whatever. Just get to it. It’s likely because whoever is doing the apology is five times removed from the person who screwed it up to begin with.
Do you actually care whether MMO studios apologize for screw-ups? If they didn’t apologize and just gave you a stack of currency, would you be just as content? Or do you require some performative atonement from a community manager?