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Wy does everyone have to flame the developers?
happytrails7
Member Posts: 36
I just wonder about this sometimes. If you look on any games message boards about half of the posts are flaming the developers of the game for changing the game, or not changing the game. COH is my first MMO and I've been playing for a little over a year and I still have a great time, I find teams pretty easily and always seem to have fun. I do get bored from time to time an take a week or two break but I've always come back and had fun.
If you look at the WOW forum people flame Blizzard and the same with any SOE games. I just can't see the reason for this. If you don't like a certain game, sorry but it wasn't your cup of tea, why must you feel the need to say that the game will never make it and its the worst game ever. I really don't care what people say about COH, I'll play until I'm not having fun anymore. But I do have to say that what people say about other games makes me wonder if I will ever switch to a different MMO. I guess I'm comfortable in COH and even though they have changed alot, nothing has broken the game for me.
Comments
"Flaming' a design team never does anyone any good, except maybe relieve some player's need to vent. But they may as well vent to a wall because no one pays much attention to rants.
That is different, however, from telling a game company what you like and don't like about their game, and why, and what solution or alternative you would recommend for things that detract from the game. That type of input most developers welcome and find helpful.
MMOs are always evolving so it's not a "like it or lump it" scenario. Changes do get made in response to player feedback.
So far as CoH specifically, I would say they are liked and appreciated more than most Dev teams. I used to play that game and I think Statesman and his team are awesome! Unfortunatly, they let some experience exploits go too long unresolved, and ultimately I decided there were greener pastures. Still, it's a pretty good game.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
It is force of habit.
They play a game like SWG or EQ and are used to lousy service and idiot devs screwing up everything... so they are used to complaining.
Then they come here, and have to make a mountain out of a molehill. It's a hard habit to break.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
When someone you are paying does not achieve the standards or results you seek, you should complain. Not to do so encourages them to continue.
Without criticism, there is no progress.
Few things are more pathetic than listening to people fawn and pander to "the dev's". With reagrds to COH the teams responsable for creating the games seem to be highly capable, but the support end typically miserable. They have got to grasps with the product making but have no real grip on what it is to be in a service industry.
Sometimes it's nice to hear some words of appreciation too for the things that work. The otherside of the coin is where the vocal complainents cry unfair, while the quiet majority are perfectly happy; and as a result something that ought not to be, gets nerfed.
Poll of the day built into the game launcher might be a useful tool to better guage customer wishes.
On a personal level if I am having a good and engrossing time with the game I never get to the forums, it is only when I hit a snag and am looking for solutions or to report the fault that open the pages. (or when I am bored and looking for feedback on new games).
Dev's are scum they should be beaten more. Lazy overpaid types, cut off from any understanding of where their money comes from. They do their jobs, the wannabe kids and betanoobs on the forums give them a load of kudos and the money is always mysteriously in the bank on Friday night. "Look at me, I m genius I made a 3d model of a rock".
The reason why you see the more flames than praises on the boards is no one cares if about something if its not broken. It's all about self interest. There's not many "I just posted this to give you devs the credit you deserve." posts.
My suggestions is that every time you start up a game their is a poll direct from the devs that asks of the consumers opinion of the latest feature, patch, etc.
A little democracy never hurt anybody...oh wait.
I either completely disagree with this, or completely agree with it. Here's why I may disagree with it.
They NEVER played the formentioned games, and don't realize how poorly a service can actually be. That is the only reason I can see anyone complaining about it the way we tried to get EQ and SWG by complaining. And you see what they've done with those games. I check the SWG boards and still see people complaining about the same things we were complaining about when the game started. out of the two years I played that game, I can say one thing they did right, and it took them almost the entire two years to do it. They got the Imperial Hat clothing option to work. TWO YEARS, TO MAKE A HAT WORK THAT WAS IN THE GAME SINCE BETA. Now please, calm down, everything in CoH is not going to hell. In fact be patient, it could be for the best you never know.
The service in CoH has always been great imo. It's the game itself that lacks.
Months of nerfing everything in sight has served only to reduce the playability of an already lacking game, even when Statesman himself made numerous comments that they had no intention of removing soloability.
Of course, they did it anyway. This is Statesman's doing, not some random developer's. And I never appreciated being bullshit at by people that assume I'm stupid because I play a game.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
I disgress.
If I flame EverQuest (I would never do that, would I?) I doubt SoE will change anything or consider anything. However, Blizzard devs attends those place and read them, Cryptic as well and most other devs teams. So if you can elaborate and explains so they understand, you may have influence another game that try to beat the current product.
Flaming CoH here won't make CoH or CoV better, the game is advanced and changing stuff in it is quite hard and costy...and the devs need quite some nerves to read those flames without crying and turning everything off (I would not have the nerves myself, would really take great folks to be able to stay, to read, to understand and than to adapt). However, I suppose that SoE devs can browse freely around and since they don't feel any link to them and what they did, they may learn a thing or tow, maybe not what the poster have in mind, but something nonetheless.
Blizzard (or would be Blizzard devs) was on Everquest board scanning every flame post 5 years ago and they where to dimwit to understand how flawed a raiding ending is, their trouble! So they reproduce the same raiding mistake, which happen to be a good decision on the short term, but in the long term it ruin your fanbase. Yet for someone who doesn't know if Blizzard high up will go berserk and fire them in the next few months, ruining the fanbase over a few years is hardly something they consider. And the high up are way off to understand such stuff.
So flaming about bad stuff in WoW or CoH may actually improve EQ3 or the like. Just try to do more than a flame, elaborate.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
I dont flame the developers unless I feel strongly about it. They made bad changes each patch.
Each time killing my fun. How is it fun weakening a character youve been playing for a while
that i've gotten use to? It isnt fun.
They should have fixed problems before it ever reaches my hands. Otherwise, its in the game,
and therefore a perfectly right way to play.
Cryptics/NCSoft Development staff are a bunch of bad decisions pricks wasting my time and money.
Never again will I ever buy there products.
I generally don't flame developers for bugs in the game or even for design problems that make the game less fun than it could be. Instead I try to be constructive, explain the problem, and when possible, offer potential solutions. However, when I am blatantly lied to about the nerfs (CoH) or when a long-term pattern of indifference to anything but their own greed becomes obvious (SOE), then I start to complain about the developers/publishers of the game.
I usual start with suggestions or tips on bugfxes, but once it becomes clear that they have no intention of supporting them, I lose patience.
I find developers attitudes can often be quite insulting. I feel in these cases it is only fair to return the compliments.
In COH terms, with each nerf, certain posters would attempt to sway the developers decisions by gathering large volumes of data and offering interpretions of these figures. Complainents were then advised by the loony squad that complaints that were not reinforced with this level of data were invalid and unhelpful.
To my mind these analysis were counter productive. All that was relevant was whether or not the people paying the bills wanted it or not. Full marks to the devs for offering up these changes, but a negative score for implementing them agianst player wishes.
Giving detailed analysis like that was simply allowing the devs further opportunity to justify changes that no one wanted. One 6' 6" angry fan in the Cryptic office with a good right hand could have settled the debate favourably in about 2 minutes. The problem is the developers are very divorced from their clientele. If they wish to ignore them, they may do so. They are not accountable*. This is bad for everyone.
While rationally debating a subject with a rational person may in someway influence their future decisions, when it becomes clear that all they seek to do is rationalise an unsustainable viewpoint, a short sharp biff to the nose is a most effective manner to remind them where reality lies. When confronted with a lunatic, humoring them just allows their madness to continue.
Being polite or helpful doesn't work with everyone. Some people only respond to force.
(*)Publicly flaming dev's and pointing out faults costs their bussiness. Bad press costs them sales. Consumer power FTW. In the end what other tools do you reasonably have at your disposal?
Another example: recently I was looking for a new game and I thought Star Wars Galaxies was a much loved and intresting looking game. I read up on it, and they were having a big change to the combat system. Many many customers were very angry. So I didn't buy it. Those flames helped me from buying a ringer and punished the company with a loss of sales revenue for the people they aggrieved. Flame on.
To a certain extent I expect to hear a lot of flames on the forums about every game.
You know the usual ones, nerf hunters/regens/snipers etc. Where's the patch? I'm sueing for false advertising. The game is full of hackers. Bla bla bla.
I expect it. If it is not there at all then the forum is censored and the game is too much of an unknown to warrant buying (in the case of SWG I noticed that all dissent was being sytematically deleted as fast as the forum moderators could edit. Clearly their attitude towards their clients wasn't healthy). And then on the other hand, there are games where the floods of complaints are so overpowering (Matrix Online or Soldner for example) that it is quite clear something is vastly amiss.
If a caustic flame offers nothing more than to point out to me that 1 customer is not happy with his purchase, then thats one more for my mental tally. I still find that useful data to influence my decision. I find complaints a very positive and useful part of forum discussion. I learn more from them than I do the accolades or gameplay discussions.