The Guards - A calm discussion about existing issues.

Agreed, customer support does cost money. However there can always be a solution. I'm not asking for the developers to shell out their food money on a babysitter but a structured solution and methodologies need to be put in place. Judging by the response to this thread there is widespread agreement that the community would like some changes and refinements put in place to improve this for the better.

Thanks for being a reasonable person and being receptive to this thread.

If you need my help in any way do not hesitate to contact me. Many hands make light work and all that.

If there is anything I learned from developing, judging and playtesting flash games when I was younger its that when you are a game developer relying on the general public for feedback you have to filter through the vocal majority and find the nuggets of truth. I'm not saying the community should have a say in everything. But discounting their voice completely deprives a developer of an excellent resource for gaining useful feedback.

Edit: Shad you double posting whore! :)

 

Developers are under no obligation to communicate at all with the fanatic base. If the so called fanatics are too upset at that, how much are they really fanatics of the developers? All of the begging for more info, more pics, more details reminds me exactly when my children were a little younger constantly asking me if 'we were there yet' while on vacation. All it did was annoy, and it served no purpose and nothing came out of it but annoyance. I knew the kids were eager to arrive in the Dells, but I could only drive so fast. The children who did not understand the skill of driving and the laws of the land and the physics behind the driving could not comprehend what I, the adult, was doing to actually get them to the damn waterpark so they can have fun.

Did a magic trick involving an entire disconnected paragraph.
You made your point already -FinDude

 

Summation of a lot of the tl;dr comments: Talking to people is a good thing; especially if you want to sell them stuff.

 

Someone else should deal with the forum stuff and info release - NOT the people actually coding the game. Let them code the game, period. If they choose to interact with the fanatics of their game that is their choice. I am tired of people thinking they are 'owed' new info or screenshot or movies for a game they like. They are not.

Sure, it is nice to have but it is totally up to the developers discretion to do that if he/she wants. Begging for material from the developer is not a good idea if you want sanity.

 

Fun business fact: If you dont interact with your consumers on a regular basis your product will slowly deviate from the needs of the consumer. Once the consumer realizes that the product is a complete deviation from their needs, complaints begin to arise and customers begin to leave. Constant communication with your consumers is important in order to maintain the trust necessary for a business to succeed. If at any point in time a subpar product is release any future product will be put under scrutiny and consumers will be less willing to buy any future products. There is no obligation but if you want to run a good business it's best to talk to the people you are selling stuff to.

 

Jeez they are selling this content to people of course they *need* to talk to their community otherwise no-one will bother to buy it. If it was like an A-list game or something there would be no need. But this is a game in development in alpha already being sold. Customers are essentially buying on a premise of future content. It's like if you pre-order a game and the game is delayed, the customer must be told what is going on otherwise it's bad business.

Don't get me wrong. The current craziness of people ignoring the devs words about "just wait god dammit we're working" and constantly being impatient and madly requesting screenshots info is just retarded and shouldn't be catered to but that doesn't mean go the other way and say absolutely nothing to your community.

 

The way i see it theres a difference between not listening at all and not reading every single message

 

The problem I see in communication between the devs and fans is this. When does it cease to be the devs game anymore? If the dev keeps adding things from the community, does the community then own part of the game itself? The line can get blurry. I can see how the devs want to please the community, but does that mean they did not have a vision for the game in their minds, and they need the community to give them idea? Who's game is it really then? Just something to ponder.

Also, some developers just make what they damn please and never listen to their fans. I could name 10 companies that do what they want, never listen to the fans - yet the fans keep coming back because the games are so damn good and they did not need ideas from the community. Blizzard is one of the companies that just does what it wants, and their games sell 5 million copies on day one.

Also, this is a rather new trend that is gaining traction, developers asking for money for alpha builds of games - sometimes pre-alpha! I don't think anyone knows the full ramifications of this yet.

 

I have never understood the impatience and the nagging. Those must have really comfortable lifes if thats seriously a problem for them.

IMO the devs put some little bonus for compensation. Dunno, a hat-design competition and the winner gets his hat in game? Something little for the folks to calm down.

 

Communication does not mean submitting to the community it can be just telling them what is going on and not giving a damn about their complaints.

Yes, because blizzard are in real trouble for money aren't they. Of course they don't need to communicate with their fans, they have such a large fanbase it's not necessary. Games in alpha AND indie developers do not necessarily have that reputation and so must earn the communities loyalty by proving they trustworthy enough to deliver the goods. The basis of that *starts* with communication!

 

They make what they "damn please" because they understand their consumer and their desires. They have forums, press conferences, numerous mediums of communication with their consumers. Your argument about Blizzard is slightly... Off. Every time they patch something they say, "we have been listening to the communities feedback..." Succesful corporations communicate with their consumers in one way or another. One example is when Blizzard attempted to make their forums require player's real names. The community responded back and thus Blizzard did not go through with that endeavor.

Companies need to listen to their consumer's feedback. Some might argue that it deviates from the developer's artistic freedom. What I am arguing is that if you sell a product it is a pretty good idea to talk with your consumers in order to understand what they want. Geti and MM are both the developer and the advertisers... They need to communicate in order to sell their game.

 

Yes I was off with the Blizzard comparison a tad. They do listen to the fans but not during the development of a game before it is released. Blizzard will get what it wants with the real names within the next 10 years as they know they need to train their fans to accept it and to have young people were not alive when they first attempted to require real names.
It is coming, it is just a matter of time and it will greatly improve the quality of the entire Internet experience. History will remember that Blizzard was the first big video game company to try to force real names for the betterment of their company and for the net. I think they did it personally so they can say they did it - many at Blizzard have massive egos and rightfully so because they can deliver.

And like some people here are fond of saying about the future Internet , if you don't like it - you don't have to use it.

 

This is amazing!