"The customer is always right" seems to be the overall message from the community here.
We consistently complain about every design, when we have it.... then it's gone.
There's an old saying so obvious I really don't need to repeat it, I'll just hint that it has something in common with the sentence above.
Maybe we shouldn't be considered right afterall.
No that is the message of the blog. This is Us vs. Them, which implies there can only be one winner. People are saying if there is a winner, it's going to be the customer, because if the customer doesn't win, they don't pay, and if they don't pay there is no "them". The customer may not always be right, but they are not always wrong either. Business needs to treat them like they are always right, even when they are wrong because 99% of the time, you treat a customer well, even an angry one, you'll go from you, the representative of your company sucks, to your company sucks, to your phone won't work, to I don't get reception to getting the customer in the store to have their phone looked at. The problem is the developers stop at "you suck" because they have no interest in figuring out what the real problem is and just want to whine to the media who is made up of all their old buddies.
Finding out the real problem, well that takes work and patience and money... everything the MMO industry doesn't want to be bothered with. After all, if you have to get to the bottom of a problem, you'd have to admit there was a problem to begin with, which means your product may not be perfect and admitting that... oh no that is not okay. Can't admit that half-finished products are in deed half-finished. They just want the money, everything between them and the dollar is just a cut in profits.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
This is one of those topics that is NOT complicated, but is made so by devs, and dev-puppet sites like MMORPG.com.
Some players, some people in any group, are obnoxious. Sure. As in any situation, usually that minority is easy to ignore.
The poor relations between devs and players isn’t about that.
There isn’t any mysterious, strange, unfathomable mix-up in communications between devs and players. That’s NOT it.
Devs have to manage expectations by not promising all sorts of things which they can’t deliver, and devs have to realize that players expect minimum features and content that have come to be industry standard.
Instead, devs often promise the world, then fall short of their promises, and fall short of what players have come to expect from playing other games. No amount of understanding and compassion from players is going to make up for the HUGE failures we’ve seen lately.
Cryptic Studios (home of Bill Roper), released Star Trek Online unfinished. They promised full pve for both Federation side and Klingon side, but the box only included Federation side full pve. Should players be happy with half a game? In WoW terms that’s like having full pve, quests and such, on the Alliance side, while, with few exceptions, there’s mostly just pvp on the Horde side. That’s like trying to sell a jet airplane with one wing. Thieving Cryptic studios wanted all their money without actually delivering what players paid for.
Cryptic studios also opened the C-store, to buy game items with real money, right from the start, thus charging customer box fees, AND subscription fees, AND game store fees. Bill Roper and other morons point to WoW and say that microtransactions are a normal part of the gaming experience.
That is NOT a valid comparison.
I vehemently disagree with Blizzard recently setting up fees for some game fluff like pets, BUT, Blizzard at least waited five years, FIVE YEARS, during which the game was fully developed, expanded, refined, five years to build a mountain of content and a loyal player base before starting down that shady path.
Cryptic Studios released a game half finished, full of flaws and glaring omissions, and then has the gall to double dip, charge box and subscription fees, AND store fees right away?
Players don’t get angry because of lack of communication. Players get angry because of dev broken promises and dev shameless money grabs, plain and simple.
Beyond that, keep in mind, players pay, devs get paid. For devs, dealing with criticism and trying to deliver a quality product IS THEIR JOB. When gaming forums are toxic after a company delivered a steaming pile of poo, devs often try to claim that “we’re all in the same boat”, “we’re all in this together”, “I love the game just as much as you do, I play too,” and other nonsense like that.
You’re staring at that jet plane they tried to sell you, a plane with one wing, ONE wing, and the dev wants to put his arm around you, and face the plane just like you and say, “Oh well, stuff happens, that’s too bad, but we did our best, we’ll work on it, I’m disappointed too, but it’ll all work out.” Um, no, NO, Mr. Dev man. If you deliver a plane that can’t fly, you and your company don’t deserve my money, you do deserve my contempt. Simple as that.
"CCP: Good dev's, generally well liked by thier players, because of the content they provide and the cost of the new content.... free aside from subscriptions."
You're kidding right? CCP are the same group of devs that were playing favorites and cheating within their own game. That's great if you are their buddies but what about those paying customers that are the ones being cheated against? Devs should be developing games, not "being one of the boys" and forming conflicts of interest within the player base. CCP is easily one of the most corrupt and unprofessional developing studios around.
1 dev, 4 years ago, who has long since left.
"CCP is easily one of the most corrupt and unprofessional developing studios around."
Bbased on what, exactly? Please use facts in your answer.
There have been numerous other cases of corruption and rigged storyline events. Just because the company denies it doesn't mean it wasn't true. Remember they denied the original t20 developer cheating incident as well, despite knowing it was true. There were players involved in other incidents and their experiences and account of events differ from the official denials given out by CCP's mouthpiece Internal Affairs department, staffed by employees paid by those that are the target of investigation.
I as a player have experienced some of these and also known other players who have been in these issues. I have seen some of the evidence directly before it was brought to light and before CCP's official denials and know CCP was outright lying, which doesn't surprise me since they were caught lying before already. Their policy if you look at the t20 scandal and the later accusations has always been the same: first deny, then cast doubt on the accuser, then claim no evidence, then dangle some PR stunt to distract the public, such as the original idea of CSM which has turned into a joke from its original statement of being some supervisory body over misconduct. In essence it is still "deny everything, admit nothing, and wipe out the evidence."
I refuse to pay money to a company for the developers within it to lie and cheat.
Don't open any public forums before game launch and keep on to your (developer) vision.
Because that worked so well for Mythic and the now defunct Sigil?
A shitty game is a shitty game and there's no getting around it, when DEVs hype it up like the second coming of Christ and it turns out to be a fail fest with more bugs than National geographic and hacks than MTV then cry because gamers get obnoxious and personally abusive they need to grow a pair and own up to what they did. All these DEVs ended up paying the piper at some point wether it was Gaute's "sizziling steak" or Brad's "vision" or Smedley's "Iconic", then they go crying to their softball interview journalist buddies who're all on the gravy train to in one sense or another about how hurt their feelings are!
They're poor liars and unethical businessmen for the most part and until they change their attitude towards gamers and treat them like customers they want to keep then they can keep on crying to their buddies for all I care. Why should I treat them with respect in the hope they will stop lying and cheating me in the future ... soon(TM)?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
Don't open any public forums before game launch and keep on to your (developer) vision.
Because that worked so well for Mythic and the now defunct Sigil?
A shitty game is a shitty game and there's no getting around it, when DEVs hype it up like the second coming of Christ and it turns out to be a fail fest with more bugs than National geographic and hacks than MTV then cry because gamers get obnoxious and personally abusive they need to grow a pair and own up to what they did. All these DEVs ended up paying the piper at some point wether it was Gaute's "sizziling steak" or Brad's "vision" or Smedley's "Iconic", then they go crying to their softball interview journalist buddies who're all on the gravy train to in one sense or another about how hurt their feelings are!
They're poor liars and unethical businessmen for the most part and until they change their attitude towards gamers and treat them like customers they want to keep then they can keep on crying to their buddies for all I care. Why should I treat them with respect in the hope they will stop lying and cheating me in the future ... soon(TM)?
I have a certain amount of sympathy with the developers when it comes to their relationship with the gaming public. Say a dev was thinking of creating an entirely new game and asked us what should be included in the game and everyonesopinions no matter how farfetched were taken seriously . The wish list would be something like this:
Great graphics, realistic models and fights, with blood spraying everywhere and mutilations. Realistic armour and weapons, but it would also have to be cool looking, with big swords, huge guns and crazy looking armor. The graphics must also not need to high an engine since some of us want to be able to play it on a laptop.
There shouldn’t be any grinding.
There should be “some” grinding for the rarer objects in the game.
Players should be able to solo whenever they want.
MMO’s should be focused on grouping.
MMO’s should be open world.
MMO’s need to be instanced.
MMO’s should be focused on PvP
MMO’s need to be focused on PvE.
I think you get my point. With all these contradictory and conflicting views on what a MMORPG should be, it’s no wonder the devs stop listening. A lot of them got sick of our insights and opinions and looked at the hard evidence. Never mind what we actually think and say we want, look at what we actually buy. The vast majority of us bought WoW.
I have a certain amount of sympathy with the developers when it comes to their relationship with the gaming public. Say a dev was thinking of creating an entirely new game and asked us what should be included in the game and everyonesopinions no matter how farfetched were taken seriously . The wish list would be something like this:
Great graphics, realistic models and fights, with blood spraying everywhere and mutilations. Realistic armour and weapons, but it would also have to be cool looking, with big swords, huge guns and crazy looking armor. The graphics must also not need to high an engine since some of us want to be able to play it on a laptop.
There shouldn’t be any grinding.
There should be “some” grinding for the rarer objects in the game.
Players should be able to solo whenever they want.
MMO’s should be focused on grouping.
MMO’s should be open world.
MMO’s need to be instanced.
MMO’s should be focused on PvP
MMO’s need to be focused on PvE.
I think you get my point. With all these contradictory and conflicting views on what a MMORPG should be, it’s no wonder the devs stop listening. A lot of them got sick of our insights and opinions and looked at the hard evidence. Never mind what we actually think and say we want, look at what we actually buy. The vast majority of us bought WoW.
That this is what the devs are focusing on, instead of the broken piles of crap they push out on release day... is probably a huge part of the problem. Who cares about PvE or PvP when the game being sold just isn't finished? Consumers are a lot more forgiving and patient when they don't feel they've been had.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
Developers can figure out what players want just by tracking the numbers. What classes people play, where they go to hunt, what players spend most of their time doing in the game. Raw data can tell you alot more than reading one troll post after another.
Smart developers adapt, most just stubbornly stick to their plan and watch their subs fall off.
I have a certain amount of sympathy with the developers when it comes to their relationship with the gaming public. Say a dev was thinking of creating an entirely new game and asked us what should be included in the game and everyonesopinions no matter how farfetched were taken seriously . The wish list would be something like this:
Great graphics, realistic models and fights, with blood spraying everywhere and mutilations. Realistic armour and weapons, but it would also have to be cool looking, with big swords, huge guns and crazy looking armor. The graphics must also not need to high an engine since some of us want to be able to play it on a laptop.
There shouldn’t be any grinding.
There should be “some” grinding for the rarer objects in the game.
Players should be able to solo whenever they want.
MMO’s should be focused on grouping.
MMO’s should be open world.
MMO’s need to be instanced.
MMO’s should be focused on PvP
MMO’s need to be focused on PvE.
I think you get my point. With all these contradictory and conflicting views on what a MMORPG should be, it’s no wonder the devs stop listening. A lot of them got sick of our insights and opinions and looked at the hard evidence. Never mind what we actually think and say we want, look at what we actually buy. The vast majority of us bought WoW.
That this is what the devs are focusing on, instead of the broken piles of crap they push out on release day... is probably a huge part of the problem. Who cares about PvE or PvP when the game being sold just isn't finished? Consumers are a lot more forgiving and patient when they don't feel they've been had.
/qfe
As for the list of things various gamers want, or don't want, MMO companies need to learn how to develop a vision collaboratively with their playerbase. They then need to stick to that vision, refine it, and build on it over time--also in respectful collaboration with players. These skillsets exist in other service industries. A lot of MMO companies simply don't seem to have them.
Instead we have games trying to copy yesterday's success story. In their haste to cash in, however, they don't complete or debug even the basic game mechanics. Then they jam them with layers of fees and wonder why players complain.
Also, I've seen game revamps pushed live on the basis of one or two devs' bright new ideas to make the game a WoW-killer. Player feedback was not an issue. It was largely ignored.
I do agree with the statement that the players do not know what they want.
I have worked with several companies and customer satisfaction on the products, most of them software and some game related.
But that also does not mean that the game developers should not try to find out what the players really want. I know that this can be hard but the only way to find out is an open dialog with as many players as possible. One mistake that I regularly saw game companies make was in how they selected the people to do closed testing. Often these people wanted the game to be like and played the game like the developers did. When the game went live the developers were shocked in how it was actually being played and had to make major changes. The best example that comes to mind is WoW and the Burning Crusade changes to Retribution Paladin and WoWs ongoing revisions to deal with raid being a challenge for the hard core player, but still accessable to the more casual player so that they can participate in the story and not miss out on it.
On the opposite side the player often takes the view that the developers do not want to hear what they have to say. In some cases, like PvPers in SWG, the vocal participants want things that will drive more players from the game than it will retain. So of course they then complain that the developers are not giving them what they ask for. Then there are those that see comments like that and just do not bother to experess their views about anything.
Finally for both sides there is the problem of being allowed to post on the various game forums. Most do not allow people who are not subscribed to the game to post in their forums. I can understand that they do not want trash talk about the game in the forums and by keeping non-subscribers out that deals with most of it. To a certain extent this is why most players in LotRO can not post in those forums since they do nto allow the F2P players to post there. This is the first time that I have seen that in a F2P game.
The problem is that the developers really can not hear from players what it would take for them to convert from F2P to subscriber or why they did not subscribe after a trial period. All of this is valuable to a game developer who wants to expand their player base.
Total Internet F*ckwad Theory: Complete Anonymity + Massive Audience = Total F*ckwad.
That's what it boils down to. No way in a million years 99% of these people would ever say to the face of a developer what they say on the forums. The media is condusive to douchebaggery. Period. And people on the recieving end are simply sick of the ridiculous immaturity. I would be too. Would you listen, entertain, or even acknowledge some idiot you don't know calling you untalented, stupid, or telling you basically go f*ck yourself? Think about these repercussions when you decide to act like an asshole to someone in control of the content your playing. It's the same as being an a$$hole to a waiter. They will win, and they don't really need your tip. If these devs werent working on your game, they'd be working somewhere else, so quit whining about how your money pays their checks, and pay them some respect.
For the most part, developers need to be creative people. Whether they are in design, art or code..
No, not the programmers. Programming is a science, not an art. Have you ever tried to debug art?
Creativity and style ruin programming.
Awesome example of someone with absolutely no clue. Programming involves solid logic flow. Creating solid logic flow requires a different type of person, with a unique style and the ability to think creatively to achieve the most sound goals. There are definietly crappy programmers, and programmers who make it into a true art form. Period. I'm a Sr. Programmer Analyst, I spend all day looking at people's code. Trust me, there's a true art to it.
Comments
Don't you know that you can't trust anyone with an accent other than your own?
Already done.
"The customer is always right" seems to be the overall message from the community here.
We consistently complain about every design, when we have it.... then it's gone.
There's an old saying so obvious I really don't need to repeat it, I'll just hint that it has something in common with the sentence above.
Maybe we shouldn't be considered right afterall.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
No that is the message of the blog. This is Us vs. Them, which implies there can only be one winner. People are saying if there is a winner, it's going to be the customer, because if the customer doesn't win, they don't pay, and if they don't pay there is no "them". The customer may not always be right, but they are not always wrong either. Business needs to treat them like they are always right, even when they are wrong because 99% of the time, you treat a customer well, even an angry one, you'll go from you, the representative of your company sucks, to your company sucks, to your phone won't work, to I don't get reception to getting the customer in the store to have their phone looked at. The problem is the developers stop at "you suck" because they have no interest in figuring out what the real problem is and just want to whine to the media who is made up of all their old buddies.
Finding out the real problem, well that takes work and patience and money... everything the MMO industry doesn't want to be bothered with. After all, if you have to get to the bottom of a problem, you'd have to admit there was a problem to begin with, which means your product may not be perfect and admitting that... oh no that is not okay. Can't admit that half-finished products are in deed half-finished. They just want the money, everything between them and the dollar is just a cut in profits.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
This is one of those topics that is NOT complicated, but is made so by devs, and dev-puppet sites like MMORPG.com.
Some players, some people in any group, are obnoxious. Sure. As in any situation, usually that minority is easy to ignore.
The poor relations between devs and players isn’t about that.
There isn’t any mysterious, strange, unfathomable mix-up in communications between devs and players. That’s NOT it.
Devs have to manage expectations by not promising all sorts of things which they can’t deliver, and devs have to realize that players expect minimum features and content that have come to be industry standard.
Instead, devs often promise the world, then fall short of their promises, and fall short of what players have come to expect from playing other games. No amount of understanding and compassion from players is going to make up for the HUGE failures we’ve seen lately.
Cryptic Studios (home of Bill Roper), released Star Trek Online unfinished. They promised full pve for both Federation side and Klingon side, but the box only included Federation side full pve. Should players be happy with half a game? In WoW terms that’s like having full pve, quests and such, on the Alliance side, while, with few exceptions, there’s mostly just pvp on the Horde side. That’s like trying to sell a jet airplane with one wing. Thieving Cryptic studios wanted all their money without actually delivering what players paid for.
Cryptic studios also opened the C-store, to buy game items with real money, right from the start, thus charging customer box fees, AND subscription fees, AND game store fees. Bill Roper and other morons point to WoW and say that microtransactions are a normal part of the gaming experience.
That is NOT a valid comparison.
I vehemently disagree with Blizzard recently setting up fees for some game fluff like pets, BUT, Blizzard at least waited five years, FIVE YEARS, during which the game was fully developed, expanded, refined, five years to build a mountain of content and a loyal player base before starting down that shady path.
Cryptic Studios released a game half finished, full of flaws and glaring omissions, and then has the gall to double dip, charge box and subscription fees, AND store fees right away?
Players don’t get angry because of lack of communication. Players get angry because of dev broken promises and dev shameless money grabs, plain and simple.
Beyond that, keep in mind, players pay, devs get paid. For devs, dealing with criticism and trying to deliver a quality product IS THEIR JOB. When gaming forums are toxic after a company delivered a steaming pile of poo, devs often try to claim that “we’re all in the same boat”, “we’re all in this together”, “I love the game just as much as you do, I play too,” and other nonsense like that.
You’re staring at that jet plane they tried to sell you, a plane with one wing, ONE wing, and the dev wants to put his arm around you, and face the plane just like you and say, “Oh well, stuff happens, that’s too bad, but we did our best, we’ll work on it, I’m disappointed too, but it’ll all work out.” Um, no, NO, Mr. Dev man. If you deliver a plane that can’t fly, you and your company don’t deserve my money, you do deserve my contempt. Simple as that.
There have been numerous other cases of corruption and rigged storyline events. Just because the company denies it doesn't mean it wasn't true. Remember they denied the original t20 developer cheating incident as well, despite knowing it was true. There were players involved in other incidents and their experiences and account of events differ from the official denials given out by CCP's mouthpiece Internal Affairs department, staffed by employees paid by those that are the target of investigation.
I as a player have experienced some of these and also known other players who have been in these issues. I have seen some of the evidence directly before it was brought to light and before CCP's official denials and know CCP was outright lying, which doesn't surprise me since they were caught lying before already. Their policy if you look at the t20 scandal and the later accusations has always been the same: first deny, then cast doubt on the accuser, then claim no evidence, then dangle some PR stunt to distract the public, such as the original idea of CSM which has turned into a joke from its original statement of being some supervisory body over misconduct. In essence it is still "deny everything, admit nothing, and wipe out the evidence."
I refuse to pay money to a company for the developers within it to lie and cheat.
Solution:
Don't open any public forums before game launch and keep on to your (developer) vision.
Because that worked so well for Mythic and the now defunct Sigil?
A shitty game is a shitty game and there's no getting around it, when DEVs hype it up like the second coming of Christ and it turns out to be a fail fest with more bugs than National geographic and hacks than MTV then cry because gamers get obnoxious and personally abusive they need to grow a pair and own up to what they did. All these DEVs ended up paying the piper at some point wether it was Gaute's "sizziling steak" or Brad's "vision" or Smedley's "Iconic", then they go crying to their softball interview journalist buddies who're all on the gravy train to in one sense or another about how hurt their feelings are!
They're poor liars and unethical businessmen for the most part and until they change their attitude towards gamers and treat them like customers they want to keep then they can keep on crying to their buddies for all I care. Why should I treat them with respect in the hope they will stop lying and cheating me in the future ... soon(TM)?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
/thread
Give me liberty or give me lasers
I have a certain amount of sympathy with the developers when it comes to their relationship with the gaming public. Say a dev was thinking of creating an entirely new game and asked us what should be included in the game and everyonesopinions no matter how farfetched were taken seriously . The wish list would be something like this:
Great graphics, realistic models and fights, with blood spraying everywhere and mutilations. Realistic armour and weapons, but it would also have to be cool looking, with big swords, huge guns and crazy looking armor. The graphics must also not need to high an engine since some of us want to be able to play it on a laptop.
There shouldn’t be any grinding.
There should be “some” grinding for the rarer objects in the game.
Players should be able to solo whenever they want.
MMO’s should be focused on grouping.
MMO’s should be open world.
MMO’s need to be instanced.
MMO’s should be focused on PvP
MMO’s need to be focused on PvE.
I think you get my point. With all these contradictory and conflicting views on what a MMORPG should be, it’s no wonder the devs stop listening. A lot of them got sick of our insights and opinions and looked at the hard evidence. Never mind what we actually think and say we want, look at what we actually buy. The vast majority of us bought WoW.
That this is what the devs are focusing on, instead of the broken piles of crap they push out on release day... is probably a huge part of the problem. Who cares about PvE or PvP when the game being sold just isn't finished? Consumers are a lot more forgiving and patient when they don't feel they've been had.
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
Developers can figure out what players want just by tracking the numbers. What classes people play, where they go to hunt, what players spend most of their time doing in the game. Raw data can tell you alot more than reading one troll post after another.
Smart developers adapt, most just stubbornly stick to their plan and watch their subs fall off.
My youtube MMO gaming channel
/qfe
As for the list of things various gamers want, or don't want, MMO companies need to learn how to develop a vision collaboratively with their playerbase. They then need to stick to that vision, refine it, and build on it over time--also in respectful collaboration with players. These skillsets exist in other service industries. A lot of MMO companies simply don't seem to have them.
Instead we have games trying to copy yesterday's success story. In their haste to cash in, however, they don't complete or debug even the basic game mechanics. Then they jam them with layers of fees and wonder why players complain.
Also, I've seen game revamps pushed live on the basis of one or two devs' bright new ideas to make the game a WoW-killer. Player feedback was not an issue. It was largely ignored.
I do agree with the statement that the players do not know what they want.
I have worked with several companies and customer satisfaction on the products, most of them software and some game related.
But that also does not mean that the game developers should not try to find out what the players really want. I know that this can be hard but the only way to find out is an open dialog with as many players as possible. One mistake that I regularly saw game companies make was in how they selected the people to do closed testing. Often these people wanted the game to be like and played the game like the developers did. When the game went live the developers were shocked in how it was actually being played and had to make major changes. The best example that comes to mind is WoW and the Burning Crusade changes to Retribution Paladin and WoWs ongoing revisions to deal with raid being a challenge for the hard core player, but still accessable to the more casual player so that they can participate in the story and not miss out on it.
On the opposite side the player often takes the view that the developers do not want to hear what they have to say. In some cases, like PvPers in SWG, the vocal participants want things that will drive more players from the game than it will retain. So of course they then complain that the developers are not giving them what they ask for. Then there are those that see comments like that and just do not bother to experess their views about anything.
Finally for both sides there is the problem of being allowed to post on the various game forums. Most do not allow people who are not subscribed to the game to post in their forums. I can understand that they do not want trash talk about the game in the forums and by keeping non-subscribers out that deals with most of it. To a certain extent this is why most players in LotRO can not post in those forums since they do nto allow the F2P players to post there. This is the first time that I have seen that in a F2P game.
The problem is that the developers really can not hear from players what it would take for them to convert from F2P to subscriber or why they did not subscribe after a trial period. All of this is valuable to a game developer who wants to expand their player base.
Total Internet F*ckwad Theory: Complete Anonymity + Massive Audience = Total F*ckwad.
That's what it boils down to. No way in a million years 99% of these people would ever say to the face of a developer what they say on the forums. The media is condusive to douchebaggery. Period. And people on the recieving end are simply sick of the ridiculous immaturity. I would be too. Would you listen, entertain, or even acknowledge some idiot you don't know calling you untalented, stupid, or telling you basically go f*ck yourself? Think about these repercussions when you decide to act like an asshole to someone in control of the content your playing. It's the same as being an a$$hole to a waiter. They will win, and they don't really need your tip. If these devs werent working on your game, they'd be working somewhere else, so quit whining about how your money pays their checks, and pay them some respect.
Flys. Honey. Vinegar. You know the saying.
Awesome example of someone with absolutely no clue. Programming involves solid logic flow. Creating solid logic flow requires a different type of person, with a unique style and the ability to think creatively to achieve the most sound goals. There are definietly crappy programmers, and programmers who make it into a true art form. Period. I'm a Sr. Programmer Analyst, I spend all day looking at people's code. Trust me, there's a true art to it.