Why do bad developers tend to use Reddit as a forum?
There is an interesting phenomenon I have noticed: Often what I would dub generally as a "bad developer" will tend to rely more on Reddit than others (ie Daybreak, etc), while beloved developers (ie Eleon Game Studios, etc) tend to facilitate and communicate through their own forum or other non-reddit venues?
Is it because the less than desirable developers need the subtle behavior modification concomitant with Reddit?
Comments
Your approach seems perfectly logical to me, which is why the words and actions of some developers are so perplexing.
http://wyrdblogging.blogspot.com/
it could very well just be an isolated case
diving into it as you are is what I call 'theory crafting'. thinking of possible answers to a question that may or may not be based on reality in the first place
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Those were two 'placeholder' examples of many. However, I consider Reddit a perfect example of behavior modification. Heidegger spoke of similar patterns that dissolve the 'I' in favor of pattern, structure, and strata -- too bad he couldn't cure himself.
Two samples represent poor statistics, but I have already taken that into consideration. I was just trying to get away with listing two examples without fleshing out all of the verbosity. lol
http://wyrdblogging.blogspot.com/
Could be but unlikely
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Reddit used to actually be a not bad site and then they started censoring and adding algorithms to change the way things were posted up.
I actually think the more you stay away as a developer from Reddit the better, game sub-communities are generally known for salt, really a lot of salt, when it comes to game drama, Reddit will be there.
But some subs do control that and can turn the place into a constant stream of feedback that in that aspect is better at it than what we usually see in forums.
Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent.
"At one point technology meant making tech that could get to the moon, now it means making tech that could get you a taxi."
Bad developers lack vision
Building a game is extremely difficult to do well. To deliver a truly epic game, the person/people in charge need to be able to visualise all the different components of the game and how they all fit together. This requires a lot of talent, from understanding maths and statistics through to human psychology. Good developers have the vision to be able to comprehend all these moving parts and pull them together into something other humans will enjoy.
Bad devs lack vision. Often, they have a single good feature or idea - a new world to explore, or a new way to doing combat, or a new way to revolutionise crafting - but they lack the vision to take that one idea and mesh it well with all the other associated gameplay elements.
How does this relate to social media and forums? A good dev will also have a vision for how they want to engage with their customers, a vision that hopefully includes protection of their customers as well as dedicated channels for discussions / feedback etc. Public forums cannot provide them with what they need, so they create their own.
A bad dev, again, lacks that vision. So, rather than creating optimum channels for communicating with their customers, they instead just look around for what is already popular and use that.
To dumb it down to simple quotes:
Good Dev - "build it and they will come"
Bad Dev - "I must find out where my people are going, so I may lead them"