General / Off-Topic Forum posters angry with developers

What I would say to any game developer who feels this way is that whilst I understand (really, I do) that it's obviously not a barrel of laughs to have people with no real understanding of your work environment or the technical skills and knowledge needed to operate within it quacking on about how you're stupid, lazy, ignorant and ca't do things which are obviously 'easy' you are lucky beyond belief to have the option of not dealing with those people. In a hell of a lot of other occupations we face exactly the same issue and don't have that option.

I dont get it? Why should people deal with stuff that isnt fun or productive just because other people have to deal with stuff that isnt fun or productive?
 
I've said this before but do you know what disheartens me?

The fact that some gamers behave like this is seen as a valid reason to withdraw from communication by developers like the cap whose twitter is linked in the OP.

What I would say to any game developer who feels this way is that whilst I understand (really, I do) that it's obviously not a barrel of laughs to have people with no real understanding of your work environment or the technical skills and knowledge needed to operate within it quacking on about how you're stupid, lazy, ignorant and ca't do things which are obviously 'easy' you are lucky beyond belief to have the option of not dealing with those people. In a hell of a lot of other occupations we face exactly the same issue and don't have that option.

More to the point you know the players who don't do all those things? You're treating the opinion of idiots as being a more important factor in your decision making than the wants and needs of the reasonable players when deciding whether to communicate. That's fine, your choice to make (again, lucky you) but at least own it.

Red, problem is that it isn't *some* gamers. They are quite a lot of them, and they are very, very toxic. That's whole issue. You know what is nature of toxicity right? It tends to poison *everything*. Posibility of toxicity will tie up devs when talking about new possible features. Possibility of toxicity won't allow developers defend or explain their gameplay decisions which are really needed to calm people down.

Yes, some devs are brave (or ignorant, or just have right technique) to fend off such people and stay classy but some devs just don't have time for this. That's why companies hire community managers. They are essentially bouncers. It is thankless job.

I also think it is important to know that devs STILL READ THIS FORUM as we speak. They just don't respond to all of it. I just wish they could do that more. But hey, them being healthy mentally and being able to develop game for us is good enough for me.

One technique I use, is to try to remove myself emotionally from the speech/message.

  • I imagine the message is meant for someone else &
  • I make a conscious effort to watch what is happening with my emotions &
  • I don't send/reply to an email/text etc, until I feel calm & rational.

Check out "Emotional Intelligence"; lots of books & training courses about it.

Those are good suggestions, however if you are not sociopath, toxicity will still leave the mark. That's why many people just leave outright together. After all, taking part in Internet conversation is a choice, not an obligation.
 
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Frustrated at some design decisions? (Why do we need to deploy hard points for scanners to work, when they are not mounted to hard points? Why do scanners need to be assigned to fire groups at all?) Sure.

Angry at the devs? I have much more serious issues in life that deserve anger (and don't get it). If you're life is so comfortable that you feel devs of a computer game deserve your anger? Wow, I envy how easy you have it!

Z...
 
I dont get it? Why should people deal with stuff that isnt fun or productive just because other people have to deal with stuff that isnt fun or productive?

Some may say life isn't just about having fun and being productive. Without adversity, variety & challenging situations, we never truly grow & develop.
 
I think its simpler than that.

Keyboard warriors, sitting in momma's basements pouring forth whatever criticism/bile that the mods will allow before banning. Easy to do when there is no physical conversation, no consequences to insults and vile call outs. The internet has destroyed manners and created insta-gratification addicts. Don't u just luv technology :)
 
Marvel vs Capcom Infinity Edition. You can see what was sold for $200 and what was received. You can also see the reflections of the real items they photoshopped out in the promo image.
This belongs on the Capcom forums and has zero to do with Frontier. Zero.

It's not to say Fdev is shady, but I think most of us play other games, it's hard not to be affected by this in one way or another. Fdev have skirted close to some of the crappier practices.
People who can't isolate their feelings toward one particular company without being influenced by the negative actions of others show a wanton lack of objectivity on their side. That's pessimism of the lowest order.
 
Some may say life isn't just about having fun and being productive. Without adversity, variety & challenging situations, we never truly grow & develop.

True, but I am not entirely convinced 'adversity, variety and challenging situations' are best examplified by 'being insulted online by a bunch of Billy Basement's'. There may be better ways to grow and develop as a person. :D
 
I just really appreciate those posters who give me a heads up in the subject line so I know what not to bother opening...

"That's is I'm Leaving."
"Engineers Suck"
"FD Can't Balance a Game to Save Their Life"
"2.4 is so Disapointing"

Nothing more courteous to my time than a good subject line!
 
The longer a game goes on - and the more the developers engage with the community - the more the players 'take ownership' of it and start making demands of how it must change. "This is how I'd like it to work" -> "This is how it should work" -> "THIS IS HOW IT MUST WORK, OR ELSE!".

I've played games like GTAV for a few weeks, finished all the missions I could find, then put it aside. I don't think Rockstar ever asked us how the gameplay mechanics should work, and I never felt like telling them. But I've pontificated endlessly on ED's past, present and future. :p

The fact that the game is a WIP and not a finished work also invites comments and 'uninvited feedback/suggestions'.
 
I've played games like GTAV for a few weeks, finished all the missions I could find, then put it aside. I don't think Rockstar ever asked us how the gameplay mechanics should work, and I never felt like telling them. But I've pontificated endlessly on ED's past, present and future. :p

Genre also seems to play a role: Noone seriously tells Rockstar "GTA5 was great, why not do it again in GTA6 but make it like a whole planet with hundreds of cities?". Mostly because people understand that is just plain stupid to ask. But in space games there seems to be absolutely no limit whatsoever as to what people consider reasonable expectations. There are armies of space/sci-fi gamers here, on NMS, SC, whatnot forums, who all seriously expect to be able to land on hundreds to hundreds of millions of planets. Be able to order different beverages in dozens of bars in hundreds of cities on each planet, go scuba diving and find amazing sea creatures in undiscovered underwater caves, tame them and sell them on black market animal auctions for people running their own alien zoo. And it has to happen soon, or one of the other games will surely have done so by then.
 
Welcome to dealing with the public as part of your job, no matter what field you work in.

There are good reasons other industries don't expect their creative or technical staff to do PR, the way the game industry often seems to. A certain amount of PR involves handling abusive customers, which isn't exactly conducive to creativity. Then you get people like this guy, who eventually turn their stress and frustration into a whole new PR trainwreck by publicly attacking your entire customer base over the behaviour of a minority of idiots.
 
Some may say life isn't just about having fun and being productive. Without adversity, variety & challenging situations, we never truly grow & develop.

Ok, I will bite.

This is a and have been proven . It is 'feel good' claim for people with bad fortunes (as me for example). Life have tendency to go sour or even worse. People sometimes tend to be egoistic jerks. In both cases there's very little to learn except to gain either survivor depression or post traumatic stress. Yes, I have learned how to treat those situations - I hope with right attitude - but overall I educate youngsters to steer clear as possible. If co-worker verbally attacks you - you just leave to cool it. If life goes sideways - yes, prepare for impact, but don't pose it as something positive. It is a problem, deal with it, and look for something more positive to reach out.

As for development it is quite simple. If post is toxic, angry or attacking you personally - just ignore. It is worthless feedback to you. Or give to someone else with no connection to digest and give report back.

Same goes with any social interaction on web really. No, people don't have to face toxicity and 'get gut'. Nonsense. Life isn't a game.
 
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Genre also seems to play a role: Noone seriously tells Rockstar "GTA5 was great, why not do it again in GTA6 but make it like a whole planet with hundreds of cities?". Mostly because people understand that is just plain stupid to ask. But in space games there seems to be absolutely no limit whatsoever as to what people consider reasonable expectations. There are armies of space/sci-fi gamers here, on NMS, SC, whatnot forums, who all seriously expect to be able to land on hundreds to hundreds of millions of planets. Be able to order different beverages in dozens of bars in hundreds of cities on each planet, go scuba diving and find amazing sea creatures in undiscovered underwater caves, tame them and sell them on black market animal auctions for people running their own alien zoo. And it has to happen soon, or one of the other games will surely have done so by then.
Small side note - good thing that as ED game goes along, so does community. That's why we have majority of community voting for core updates first and then maybe atmosphere planets - which seems to be aligning with FD plans. No one says that 'we don't need that' that often. People know rather well what they *can* to expect. This might be good for both genre and ED individually.
 
I personally admire and respect FDev and what they've given us in ED. That said, I'm quick to point out things in the game that I think are totally bonkers.

I actually feel bad for the devs because they are caught in a tug-of-war trying to make everyone happy. Half of us want the game more realistic and challenging, the other half want it to be "Overwatch In Space", and we end up with a hybrid that has elements of realism (fuel weight affecting jump range, ship transfer times) as well as elements of an arcade shooter (instant ammo synthesis with massless, volumeless materials). Someone like me will bemoan the latter, whereas other people are downright angry that they have to wait for their ship to transferred across the galaxy. That's why I personally advocate for different gameplay modes, but even that is controversial :p

Of course there are other things like beige planets which are the result of mistakes made by the devs, and they need to own that. Should players be angry about these things? I can't say that anything in the game has made me "angry" (some of the people in this forum have, but that's another matter). Regardless, there's a difference between angry and hatefulness, and I don't think there's any reason to be hateful toward FDev.
 
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Thanks for linking this, and its not just true of this forum, it is true of ALL forums I've ever hosted, co-ran or been part of in some way, and its even true of the Lemon Amiga web site. Fans are passionate, and a forum incites opinions, but as soon as you start to tell people whats going to happen next, where is always someone who says "WHY does it HAVE to BE like THAT??? SURELY it WOULD be BETTER to do IT like THIS!!! :( ".

I think in a world of interactive discussion, on every media platform known to man, we are suffering from Too Much Information, what they used to call Information Overload, and when this happens there is a problem. Our reaction and the Solution is often to vent our concerns. This is normal and natural for people who care about any given situation. We compare and contrast and complain, and this is how mankind has been pushed forwards by saying "This is NOT good Enough!, We can do Better!". And this is how we made it into Space in the first place.

As someone who often makes blunders due to my big mouth, I feel sometimes fans over-react and go off on a rant, just because being an "Armchair Quarterback" behind a computer keyboard is perfectly safe. Several youtubers make it their mission to diss all games, good or bad, and this cynical behaviour has now become the cool thing to do.

Listening to the fans in this game has resulted in a system which is constantly being tweaked and balanced because fans say "Its now too easy", "Its now too hard", and these balance passes have slowed down development.

At the same time, I feel Devs not helped themselves by not being up front by telling us what will and wont be happening. e.g. "The next update wont have any new ships, normal weapons or SRVs" is a valid statement, and saves endless comments of "I was expecting ship X to appear in this patch, so disappointed". Or how about "We are aware of the Thargoid player stats being corrupt, we are looking into this" is better than endless "FD messed up again, even the player stats are corrupt!". There is no point giving away surprises to fans, but at the same time, it can help to be candid about things which are W.I.P. in case some bright spark gives you a heads up.

For example, I'd love to buy a new paint job for my Asp and my Corvette, and I have never owned a Cobra. So my feedback would be to lets have some paint jobs for larger ships, and we have more than enough for the Cobra already. Even though leaving the game to enter the shop is immersion breaking, I think FD could be losing income just by not having an in-game store (which only confirms final payment via the web). But I feel my comments are lost in a sea of fake bitterness and vitriol, science nuts and community counsellors, that FD will never notice what I write, never mind take any action on it. So its all just empty words and a waste of my time to type it.
 
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Guess no one told me I was supposed to be angry with FDev about anything.
I find minimizing my time here (and still being selective in my reading) has greatly improved the enjoyment of the game.
 
For example, I'd love to buy a new paint job for my Asp and my Corvette, and I have never owned a Cobra. So my feedback would be to lets have some paint jobs for larger ships, and we have more than enough for the cobra already. Even though leaving the game to enter the ship is immersion breaking, I think FD could be losing income just by not having an in-game store (which only confirms final payment via the web). But I feel my comments are lost in a sea of fake bitterness and vitriol, science nuts and community counsellors, that FD will never notice what I write, never mind take any action on it. So its all just empty words and a waste of my time to type it.

Don't stop posting suggestions and feedback, because they DO read it. For Sandro it's in job description even.
 
The point being made made is that one shouldn't have to!

That's a stupid point, though. Because this assumes that someone else does it for you or does something else for you by moderating community. This point basically requests someone to do work for them.
In a world where everyone would act the same way with the same moral understandings, yes, this would be a realistic request but in this dimension we don't have these circumstances. It is only naive to expect something like that. Adapt to your environment because the environment will not adapt to you ... actually nothing will adapt to you unless you have significant power ... which is not the case. Neither you nor the devs have said power. Alterantively you can change the environment to your desire but chances are that the environment resists.
 
I dont get it? Why should people deal with stuff that isnt fun or productive just because other people have to deal with stuff that isnt fun or productive?

I think you may have misinterpreted what I mean here. I'm not suggesting that they should actively engage with the idiot contingent. I'm suggesting that they should accept their existence, accept that they are idiots and not use that as a reason to withdraw completely from communication with people other than the idiot contingent, which is what the guy whose twitter diatribe was linked said he did.

He said (paraphrasing) some gamers are idiots so now I don't talk to people other than those in the industry. As I said, it's not especially heartening to know that his personal frustration with idiots seems to be front and centre in his decision making, ahead of any desire to continue engagement with the proportion of gamers (customers) who do not fall within that category.

Probably also worth noting what I actually said was that if he isn't required to deal with idiots and those with no real understanding of the intricacies of his job role by his employer, he is lucky. I didn't say he should have to deal with idiots. I said he is fortunate to have the option not to.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to get back to dealing with the 75% or so of the people I deal with in my job who are idiots. :D
 
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