Complaint Department
This is something that has been on my mind for quite some time, and if you follow me on Twitter then you know this is a subject I’ve beaten well beyond the point of Dead Horse. We need to get back to the mindset of allowing developers to make their games without having to deal with this new phenomenon of fans dictating the development process. Most of these developers, especially those at AAA studios work pretty hard and have developed games in the past. My point is that they’re more than capable of building a decent game. Now of course over time developers have been more welcoming to the public inviting them in for Alpha and Beta testing, something that in the past was more of a myth.
This is good for gaming but I’m beginning to think that this welcomed aspect of game development has opened some unwelcomed doors in the gaming community. Time and time again I see gamers arguing in public spaces about the development of games. They talk about “the numbers” in early performance reports. They illogically forecast failures of games yet to be released. The truth is they honestly don’t know how the game will perform.
Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand and support wanting and even demanding quality out of developers of these games. My issue here is that we aren’t even waiting until the games are released. We need to get back to the days of allowing the devs to work on these games, tap into us consumers for testing and “pulse” of the community for the game. This energy is the complete opposite of that. What gets created is a very high level of divisive sometimes toxic energy that often turns into attacking developers directly.
Opinions Still Matter
Has this devolution of the the expectant gaming community effected how ambitious developers are comfortable being? Without any proof I feel like it has. I feel developers play it really safe now especially when it comes to time it takes to develop the games. Look what happened with games like Redfall. Before the full launch, opinions about the updates of the process were all over social media.
First was the 30FPS announcement that sent the community into a split tizzy. This was 1up’d by the full release of the game, that split the community 4 different ways. As a fan of Redfall it was painful. There was this “Nobody can like this game” attitude quickly sent the public enjoyment of this game into the underground. It didn’t get better from there. Developers took to Twitter and other platforms responding to complaints and even throwing their publishers under the bus for blame.
I just want to see gamers get back to being gamers. We don’t need to be Gaming Boardroom Warriors. There is no need to crunch numbers in the boiler room. There is no need to fight online with others about sales reports. We just need to play games. So let the devs work!
-Stix