Is ED cursed? 'Cursed Problems in Game Design'
- Thread starter Rocky-451
- Start date
The video is 51 minutes long, so we really need a TLDR summary.
By accident I happened upon the point of the video at the 5 minute timer. Skim through, the guy is still saying the same thing through and through. (Others' opinions may vary.) The essential element appears to be, don't make promises you can't keep ... which, of course, leads to silence
By accident I happened upon the point of the video at the 5 minute timer. Skim through, the guy is still saying the same thing through and through. (Others' opinions may vary.) The essential element appears to be, don't make promises you can't keep ... which, of course, leads to silence
The main reason Frontier are so silent, is not because of making promises, it's just their approach to community management. They were like that before the kickstarter, with me pushing them to officially announce the status of The Outsider (which they still haven't done, and an article in a video game website, doesn't count, I'm talking an official statement),The video is 51 minutes long, so we really need a TLDR summary.
By accident I happened upon the point of the video at the 5 minute timer. Skim through, the guy is still saying the same thing through and through. (Others' opinions may vary.) The essential element appears to be, don't make promises you can't keep ... which, of course, leads to silence
Then after the kickstarter, I think it first happened with the announcement of no offline mode, Frontier experienced a huge push back and criticism from the community, and after that, Frontier have been very reluctant to say anything, because when they do, we hurt them, both as a company and the individuals at that company .... and yes, I too am guilty of this, but I'm not alone.
So you can look for reasons all you like "Frontier are bad at community management", "cursed aspects of game development" or whatever, the blame lies firmly at our door, not Frontier's (and no, this doesn't excuse Frontier, but don't blame them before you acknowledge our own faults first).
THIS.
I don't blame FD one bit for remaining silent. It is their game, NOT a community design, which no one wants.
“Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”
– Aristotle
“Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.”
– Neil Gaiman
“The trouble with most of us is that we'd rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”
– Norman Vincent Peale
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
– Winston Churchill
– Aristotle
“Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.”
– Neil Gaiman
“The trouble with most of us is that we'd rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”
– Norman Vincent Peale
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
– Winston Churchill
You haven't skimmed far enough. He makes loads of examples. He may call it promises - but it's about incompatible design goals.The video is 51 minutes long, so we really need a TLDR summary.
By accident I happened upon the point of the video at the 5 minute timer. Skim through, the guy is still saying the same thing through and through. (Others' opinions may vary.) The essential element appears to be, don't make promises you can't keep ... which, of course, leads to silence
Also Churchill:
“A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.”
Not exactly. I think there's only a problem because of the massive logical disconnect between their marketing and what they build. Read the newsletter for the beta 2 announcement even, they use the words "excited" etc, which carries with it expectations... at the bare minimum, you read that and subconsciously seed an expectation for the same word (which THEY planted!) yourself.
But what frontier make falls short of the marketing 100% percent every single time.
I don't know what the solution is, the developers are making the game with their philosophy, and you can assume marketing are doing their jobs to what they see in the industry also.. but when the face doesn't match the output of course people are going to be disappointed, which extends then to public discourse.
I know it would defy logic to suggest that frontier marketing and community management should change to be as frumpy as the game they build, but as long as there's a difference in tone from what they're selling to what they're building.. its not our fault.
BONUS: Added into that their need for perceived infallibility over a flawed product and the second chance / forgiveness token is gone too, if you're not a white knight, or a beneficiary of frontiers marketing spend at real world events.
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Churchill is gud.Also Churchill:
“A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.”
He haz so many gud quotes
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
If you're going to hell, keep going.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
My favourite Churchill quoteChurchill is gud.
He haz so many gud quotes
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
ED is not affected by cursed problems.
This game is in a confusional state. The game only needs one person with clear ideas able to give clear directions.
Take this example:
FDEV put the basic for a game with a simulated economy.
Spent most of the time developing pew pew stuff and tools achievable without affecting the game economy.
Does anyone see here the double inconsistency?
This game is in a confusional state. The game only needs one person with clear ideas able to give clear directions.
Take this example:
FDEV put the basic for a game with a simulated economy.
Spent most of the time developing pew pew stuff and tools achievable without affecting the game economy.
Does anyone see here the double inconsistency?
That argument is always brought up, but it falls a bit short.
If the outcome is the same no matter what, why not try being more open every once in a while. Absolutely nothing would change, right?
I'd say ED's cursed problems are PvE and PvE in one bucket and marketing a MP game to SP audience.
AWWWW!
Hopefully their profits, share options, dividends &/or salaries will ease the pain, somewhat!
I think we may have differing opinions of what makes a game "fun" - I do have, and occasionally play, NMS and wouldn't give it the accolade of "100 times better" than ED...
Wouldn't it be good if the NMS developers took over, nerfed PC graphics to be the same on the lowest to highest spec hardware, made PCVR the same resolution and clarity as PSVR and introduced cartoony graphics to ED?
I'll pass on that one, thanks, FDev may not be 'perfect' but at least they try to present a game that scales along with hardware...
Yeah, this is something that can happens between friends or relatives. In a professional environment communication is the key so I don't see this the reason why they don't talk to the community. Learning that this is the real reason would be very unprofessional.
This is simply their policy.
I find anyway contradictory having Community Managers when their only role is writing announcements a couple of times a year.
The reason why this policy is frustrating for many of us is because the game has delays in releasing meaningful contents and issues too. Silence on their part is a bad sign for the player community that gets frustrated, that's why when they come out they get a lot of salt.
If ED was a finished game with nothing major to fix no one would be interested to talk with them.
If anything FD kept them apart because people would cry if they were mixed up - imagine Thargoids wrecking the bubble, drastically changing the simulation. Who would be complaining in this instance?
Plus, the BGS has come on leaps and bounds from what it was. But you are right in that ED cannot be all things to everyone everywhere. It needs to choose.