Why do companies find it so hard to say two little words?
“Never say you’re sorry. It’s a sign of weakness.” Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Let me start by saying that I am a geek and a nerd. I always have been and always will be. I love fantasy settings with the usual tropes of wizards, knights, heroes, saving the day and (maybe) getting the princess. I also love the Sci-Fi settings. Showing us what technological wonders humans might eventually design. I would love the human race to come into contact with (hopefully) peaceful alien beings in my lifetime.
That being said, I love video games. One game in particular, in recent times has stood out for me. It combines two of my great loves. Video gaming and Warhammer (which I won’t go into. It would take me forever.)
I love Total War: Warhammer. It brings to life the table top game in ways I just wouldn’t have thought possible when I was but a mere child/young teen. Creative Assembly, who have made the game, have done a stellar job. Yes the game has its bugs and issues like all modern video games do, but recently there has been a different issue, bubbling away. Recently CA sold a piece of Downloadable content (DLC) called Shadows of Change. The problem with this DLC was that it was much more expensive, but offered a lot less content than previous DLC’s. There was immediate backlash from fans of the game. They wanted to know why. They wanted to know why the game they loved was still full of bugs (modders can only do so much) and why they were having to endure a massive price increase.
The answer that fans got was not what they wanted. A post was submitted from Rob Bartholomew (1). This post tried to explain about rising costs, which could have been understandable. The problem fans had was that whilst costs were up, the amount of content had decreased by a lot. Fans obviously took to the comments section to explain this (I haven’t read every comment but I’m almost 100% sure that whilst there were lots of people offering critical feedback about the situation there was also those that would have just posted abusive language at him.) The post also included a veiled threat. Accept the situation or we will stop releasing patches for the game. Obviously there was uproar.
Now since then there have been a couple more posts from CA employees on Steam. One not very well received once again (2) and one that, kind of has been (3). The problem though, that a fans still saw from these two new posts was the lack of an actual apology. The words “we are sorry”.
Which brings me back to my point. Why do companies refuse to say sorry for when they do something which receives negative backlash? All it would have taken was a CA representative to say “we’re sorry” and then lay out what the plan is going forward. I truly believe that the fans would have accepted this. Instead the fans got what amounts to a non apology and the results speak for themselves.
This is the current state of overall reviews as of the 1st November 2023.
Now I’ve looked at a few articles about why companies pretty much refuse to apologize. In 2017 there was an article from Forbes (4) that stated “Companies won’t say “we’re sorry” until after exhausting a litany of excuses, justifications and deflections. Only when they’ve been publicly shamed and their credibility is left in tatters do they belatedly express remorse. By then it’s often too little, too late.”
I just don’t understand it. As children we pretty much taught from a very young age to say sorry if you hurt a sibling or steal a toy from another child that you want to play with. I know, I know. Individuals and companies are different but companies only exist because of the individuals.
What do you think? Would you rather have an apology and then have the company try to fix whatever they’re apologizing for? Silence but the problem gets fixed? A non-apology and the problem gets fixed? Me? As long as the game I like get fixed they could tell me the sky is green and the grass is blue and I wouldn’t care. Just patch and fix the game I paid money for.
As for me. When I’m at sea this game tends not to work (ships Wi-Fi is sooooo poor) so I’ve had to play Hogwarts Legacy in the little bit of free time I actually get. I hope CA gets it’s act together and changes course as I’ve read other bits that’s suggest they’re really struggling which is a shame as its a great little British company and the job losses would be awful for the Dev’s that work there.
I hope people might find this a little interesting. It’s amazing what gets the old brain working when’re you’re knackered 24/7.
I hope I find everyone happy and healthy.
Vulkan
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1142710/discussions/0/3873718133746831966/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1142710/discussions/0/3873718133748250755/?ctp=1
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2017/12/27/apology-101-it-shouldnt-be-that-hard-for-companies-to-say-sorry/?sh=1e73f971aca1
I would guess their lawyers advise them very carefully on what to say. I'm over here thinking that the customer often gets too many apologies. Think retail, restaurants. Life would be much easier on retail workers of they had the courage to say, "I did nothing wrong and you are just a jerk. Please take your business elsewhere."
It's company politics and a legal topic. From a legal perspective a company is seen as an "expert". And experts don't make mistakes, because they are experts. We that's bs, as you already pointed out, it's a group of people. And people make mistakes. The are so afraid of "if this goes the wrong way we are bankrupt". That's why they behave that way. It goes this far that they lobby and set the "standards". Whatever theses standards might be. And if you do too many "mistakes" you get fired, that's the company politics part. I absolutely get where you are coming from. Been there as well many times as a fan of a product or company. And at the same time there are other people that just wait for an official "failure" from a company to start suing them. There is a whole industry specialised in suing cooperation. It's a weird world. :-)