Your game update caused a trust crisis among players. How do you regain their confidence?

To regain players' confidence after a bad game update, start by apologizing and explaining what went wrong. Fix the issues quickly and let players know what you’re doing. Listen to their feedback and show you care about their opinions. Offer in-game rewards as a goodwill gesture. By being honest, responsive, and proactive, you can rebuild trust with your players.

Best to acknowledge something went wrong as soon as it was reported or the issue was found. The earlier the better. Give a sincere apology and if possible explain when the issue will be fixed. Also, it is best to also thank the community for voicing their opinions so they feel heard. The important thing is to not come across as fake or uncaring. People make mistakes and owning up to the mistake goes a long way. Then keep your community in the loop and up to date with progress. Also if possible roll back the update, so that it will quickly undo the issue. This way the customers can keep enjoying their game and not have to wait till a new update comes out to fix the issue.

Craft a comprehensive post-mortem report, accessible to the public, that dissects the issue, its underlying causes, and the specific actions being taken to fix it. Use this as an opportunity to enlighten your players on the intricacies of game development, fostering a greater understanding of your efforts. Establish a dedicated feedback loop, like a community advisory board comprised of passionate players who can offer real-time insights and suggestions. This not only rebuilds trust but also empowers your player base, making them feel like an essential part of the game's evolution. Provide immediate compensatory rewards—exclusive in-game items, premium currency, or extended access to premium features—to show concrete goodwill.

Host regular developer diaries or livestreams to discuss ongoing work, answer questions, and display progress, turning transparency into a collaborative endeavor. Form a beta testing group from your most dedicated players for early access to updates and direct feedback. Establish a suggestion board for players to upvote and discuss ideas, implementing the most popular and feasible ones. Recognize top contributors in-game and on social media to foster a sense of belonging. Integrate social features like guilds and user-generated content to encourage collaboration and community building, transforming your community into an engaged, loyal, and proactive force aligned with your team's goals.

Roll back the changes if possible, and if not then release a hot fix to fix an issue. But if the issue is more around a new gameplay decision or changes to the game, then be transparent about what the plan is to fix the issue. Make micro fixes as quickly as possible so the customers can feel confident that you are going to address the issue quickly. Include detailed patch notes and if you can address the concern in the next patch or two let them know why and that you are still working on it. Also, what is the ETA on the fix? Also long as there is consistent communication the community won't feel you have abandoned the game or are not hearing their concerns and taking it seriously. This will give you the time to fix the issues.

Immediately deploy hotfixes for game-breaking bugs while outlining a detailed timeline for more complex fixes. Keep players informed of progress using real-time communication channels like Discord or in-game messaging. Create a beta server for players to test upcoming patches and provide feedback before they go live, making the fix process a collaborative effort. Provide tangible proof of progress with regular "state of the game" updates, detailing what has been fixed, what's in progress, and what's planned next, following Riot Games’ approach with League of Legends. Strengthen these technical fixes with community engagement initiatives, such as Q&A sessions with developers, to humanize the process and rebuild emotional connections.

Compensation is always a good way to make people feel like the wait was worth it and a start to make amends but this isn't always possible. But the type of compensation will also need to feel like something valuable and useful, not just some cosmetic change or useless in-game item. Things like a discount or free DLC, if it is a live service game, then free premium currency, discount on other games by the company or in the digital store of their choice. As long as the compensation feels like something of value then it doesn't matter what the compensation is. Also sometimes a free game (like if it is a digital store outage or something) that the players can download but give the players options on what they can get.

Provide a blend of immediate and long-term benefits: instant rewards such as premium currency, rare items, or exclusive content to tackle immediate frustrations, and ongoing perks like double XP weekends or special events to strengthen long-term dedication. Clearly and transparently communicate this through all platforms: in-game alerts, emails, and social media, ensuring every player comprehends the worth of what they're getting. To add a personal touch, segment compensation packages based on player engagement levels, rewarding your most devoted players with unique, high-value items.

It is super important to have a retrospective to chat about what went wrong and how can we prevent it from ever happening again. What safeguards can we put in place in order to prevent future releases from having a problem again? What kind of disaster plans do we have in place to roll back the patches/updates in case it happens again? What can we do to get hotfixes out quickly to address the issues? Do you need a staging environment in order to catch the issues before things go live and it is in production? Also, figure out if you can automate more tests to catch issues and prevent new releases from breaking previously working issues. Perhaps consider having a closed or public beta of the upcoming changes to get more QA on the releases.

Kick things off by setting up a detailed testing protocol that covers both automated and manual testing in various player environments. Involve a dedicated beta testing community to gather early feedback on updates, using platforms like Steam Early Access for making iterative improvements based on player input. Have a clear plan in place for rolling back updates if needed, with predefined checkpoints and communication channels to quickly address any unexpected issues, demonstrating proactive risk management. Educate your team on the importance of quality assurance through ongoing training and certification programs.

Open communication is the key to regain the trust of players. 🏎️As quickly as possible, publicly apologize for the mistakes made which broke their trust 🤦The longer you don’t acknowledge the mistake, the more players will get pissed and never return 🤔List out how you intend to fix the issue and plan to make sure the same mistake isn’t made again ♟️List out the next few months’ roadmap of content to help give them something else to look forward to/discuss 🙇Thank players for their passion and continued support, then give them valuable rewards upon their next log in as part of the apology This should mitigate most of the damage, but you’ll need to continue an open dialogue with players to really build that relationship over time.

At the end of the day, players want to feel like they are heard, issues that are causing them to lose enjoyment from the game or preventing them from completing it, are being addressed and fixed in a timely matter. They want to make sure the company is hearing their complaints and that they are updated when fixes are made. The worst thing a company could do is go silent on a gamer or not communicate enough. If a bug is reported, acknowledge that there is a bug, take down all the info, and communicate with the player, then keep them updated, even if there are no changes, give ETAs if you can and ultimately a date when it is fixed once you have it. If it is something that can't be fixed or won't be, then work to get them compensation.