With the first notebook entry of 2011, I had planned to discuss something project related.
And then my plans changed. Brace yourself, this is going to be a long one.
You see, I read an editorial blog post recently. King Cobra re-tweeted a message by JD_2020 on Wednesday, 5th of January. You might know of JD_2020 as one of the public faces of a certain Black Ops related project.
In said message, JD_2020 commented that a buddy of his had written a blog post that all gamers should read.
It was an editorial by OneOfSwords, “the social media guy for Activision”. His article entitled “Editorial: Here are your 2011 Resolutions“, was posted on New Years Day. Having now read the article, I can tell you that I see flaws.
Oh sure, I know what he means. As the developer of Cat-Life, one of the slowest developed and least progressed mods in history, I’ve had more then my fair share of complaints from fans that want a released project and / or want to see the mod on THEIR favorite engine. If anything, all the “is dead?” type of comments on ModDB have been trying at best, learn now why tiktok is so important.
I’ve even had one follower on ModDB decide to threaten to stop watching because of our plans to develop CLS. It can be almost funny when these “overreactions” occur. But there are more and more of them it seems – at least if you have many “fans” at all.
[ I’ll explain the use of quotation marks in that last line shortly. ]
OneOfSwords points out the number of people that overreact to changes in initial plans including raised prices, engine and planning changes, and release dates. He asks us to stop being cynical just for the sake of being cynical. He asks us to try games before we decide if we like the product. And he asks us [ get ready now ] to lower our expectations.
To summarize he said, “Without the soapbox, it all comes down to “Be rational.””
That’s good advice. And it’s also all really just the same one resolution. Gamers overreact far too often these days – or so it seems. The truth is a bit deeper. People on the internet and social media networks tend to present their opinions and overreactions for attention’s sake. It’s not only gamers, but bloggers and video makers of all sorts.
But let’s try looking at this a bit differently. I think the best way to work on this notebook entry will be to create a set of four resolutions for gamers. And four for developers.
First up… Gamers.
1. Be reasonable – It’s good advice and OneOfSwords raised some good points.
If you plan to lead a boycott and start a petition because you don’t like the fact that a given game is being delayed by a few months, you are probably overreacting.
Sometimes – as a fact of life and not simply game development – delays occur. Sometimes changes are made because they honestly need to be made. On occasion, a bug slips through beta testing unchecked and has to be fixed during an update. That is life and some of us – indeed a fairly large number when sampling the overall population of gamers – need to mature a little and learn to understand that simple fact.
Likewise, many of us need to learn the difference between cynical commentary and honest critiques. A game isn’t bad just because you have an opinion. What specifically don’t you like and why? Posting a forum message on a developer’s website slamming their latest release with witty insults does not make you a good critic. It makes you obnoxious.
Remember that games take time to develop. Remember that resources – all to often in short supply – must be dedicated to development and support for any given project. And remember that developers can make mistakes too. It isn’t fair to expect a game to be exactly what you want unless you personally make it.
In short, remember that we as gamers are already scrutinized and demonized by some people. There is absolutely no reason to act especially angry, hateful, or insane. Rational discussion of bugs will – under most circumstances – lead to a fix. Thoughtful discussion of concerns and desires will help developers better understand what you as gamers really want.
And try to understand that you are one of millions of gamers that these developers are trying to please. They simply cannot make everyone happy, nor can they create a product that is beyond their means.
2. Expect a perfect game, but be self-aware – As OneOfSwords pointed out, developers are people. Heck, some companies have even hired mod teams to develop games for them. And let’s not forget about the rising number of indie studios. This means that developers are largely gamers that were fortunate enough to be hired to make the games we play.
It also means that there will be mistakes. There will be bugs. There will even be *gasp* delays. Problems are a fact of life in every aspect of this modern world. You can’t stop all the bugs. It is physically impossible to create the perfect game.
Nevertheless, gamers must never lower their expectations. High expectations demand that we better ourselves. Expecting the perfect game from a developer should make the developer strive for perfection. They won’t attain perfection, but they should be trying.
The key here is that we must remember that we are asking the impossible. We should certainly keep our high expectations, but we should also remember that developers can never possibly meet them all. Just the fact of the millions of gamers and their millions of different expectations will guarantee that developers cannot truly produce the perfect game.
Defining a perfect game with hopes and dreams is a subjective pursuit. As such, we each must remember that we are looking for the next great game that comes closest to meeting our expectations… not the literal perfect game.
3. Commit, vote with your pocket book, and stop threatening everyone – The single most disturbing issue I have seen in recent years is the trend toward gamers threatening boycotts or worse because some aspect of the next game has been changed or dropped.
Remember all the folks that insisted they wouldn’t buy Modern Warfare 2 because of the lack of dedicated server software?
What about the boycott of Left 4 Dead 2 because it was slated to release 364 days after Left 4 Dead? Gamers felt that they had been promised DLC and much more and that the game couldn’t possibly be improved in such a small amount of time.
Why threaten anything over a changed dynamic or an earlier then expected release date? If you see something in a game you don’t like, such as the lack of dedicated server support in MW2, then simply don’t buy the game. That’s what I did. And I still haven’t bought MW2. I don’t plan to.
Understand that threatening anyone is bad form. And beyond boycotts we occasionally hear of someone threatening worse, such as cracking a developer’s network, other such criminal activities, or even occasionally physical harm.
WHAT THE HELL KIND OF A MESSAGE ARE YOU TRYING TO SEND!?
If you don’t like the direction a game is turning, just don’t play it. Commit yourself to not playing the game and don’t bloody play it! If you really want to be internet famous, write a blog post that cleanly and clearly explains why you won’t be buying the game. But leave the threats out of your message.
4. Communicate like an adult – This is the single most important resolution of all. If you plan to play M-rated games, at least act like you’re over the age of 17. If you have a complaint about a game and want to send an email to the developers or post on their forums, do so in a professional manner.
“Hello, my name is Johnny. I’ve been playing your games for four years now and have really enjoyed them. However, this latest title has been locking up fairly often when… and I don’t really like the new two-weapon system. It feels forced and clumsy to me. I’m really interested in what you think about these issues and I would much appreciate a response.”
If you write a message thoughtfully and politely – as with any encounter in life – you are much more likely to receive a positive and helpful response.
Remember, the developers are people too. I know it’s easy to look at a twitter account or a blog and then think of the developer as that series of text messages. But they are not. At least try to remember that there is a person on the other side of that message, sitting at a monitor and keyboard or cell phone or whatever.
When you throw out threats, rant uncontrollably, or generally act like a spoiled 7-year-old they have to make a decision about how to react.
If you decided to walk into the nearest convenience store and start demanding service with threats and ranting, how long would you have before you were in police custody for being mentally insane or an attempted robber.
Now with all of that said, it wouldn’t really be fair or accurate to stop with the gamers alone. We need to look at four resolutions for developers too.
1. Be reasonable – Oh my… did I just tell the developers to be reasonable too?
Of course I did. If you release a DLC for $10 in this economy, maybe it should have more then a few new maps. Seriously. Mod tools allow gamers to make new and better maps. If you are holding back on mod tools and releasing a map pack for money, then you appear to be greedy.
A big part of being reasonable here is maintaining your relationship with the “gamers”. [ Uh oh, there are those pesky quotation marks again. ] The appearance of impropriety can be just as harmful as actual impropriety. When a developer releases a game and the fans immediately start complaining that it feels like a beta release and not a finished product, you probably did something wrong.
Certainly, the way your “fans” react can be frustrating… and tiring… and somehow they managed to find a bug you didn’t know existed. But it really is – quite literally – YOUR job to find the true source of the problem.
Sometimes, it will be a simple matter of unreasonable gamers. Unfortunately for you developers though, many times it was something that YOU did. We payed $60 for an 8 hour SP campaign and a laggy, buggy multiplayer experience. You didn’t know of the bugs the players found, but they were released with your “finished” game. The best thing you can do is admit a mistake and start debugging.
And try explaining your reasons for passing the cost of that pesky DLC to the gamer. Even though you will encounter many who won’t listen, there will always be someone who can be reasonable. Often, those gamers will even defend you to the trolls in an effort to protect you. Keep that kind of loyalty in mind, but remember that you aren’t a superstar or even someone really important. For many gamers, all a developer really needs to do is be a little more humble.
2. Offer gamers what they want, not what you want – In business, you must make the most financially reasonable decisions possible, for example if you have employees using paycheck stubs templates should be an option for them, so they can have their business resolved. You need to offer your product with the lowest cost and the highest profit that you can while also maintaining your relationship with gamers. We all understand that.
Even so, you must be willing to consider what the gamers actually want from your product. This is the era of relationship marketing. Which means that you must think about more then just sales figures. What features are gamers asking for? What characters? What type of game? What type of story?
Dedicated servers.
Yep… I went there for an example.
Back at QuakeCon 2010, after John Carmack [ Technical Director and co-founder of id Software ] finished his key note address, there was a period of question and answer time. During this time, one of the many gamers present asked him about his opinion of the recent trend away from dedicated server software releases with modern games including id’s own RAGE. Carmack had previously indicated that RAGE likely would not have dedicated servers, but that was before the stink over MW2.
He said that he was “puzzled” by the issue and that he couldn’t understand why fans were so angered by developers not offering dedicated servers anymore. I can’t begin to tell you how sad that is.
Yes, it could raise costs to spend the time developing better server software, but here’s the real trick: gamers WANT dedicated servers. A great many of them will pay a little more to get a good dedicated server.
It doesn’t matter if you as a developer understand why a gamer wants a dedicated server. It doesn’t matter if you think you know better. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to offer it. It doesn’t matter if you as a developer think that we all have 20Mbs internet connections and consoles and could thus host our own listen servers or use a limited supply of your own network.
It doesn’t matter because gamers WANT dedicated servers.
Even with identical consoles, no one has identical internet connections or configurations. I would never be able to host a game of MW2 on my own system or on a PS3 or 360. Why? Because I don’t have the bandwidth or the support by my ISP.
More importantly, I prefer being able to rent servers such that BWL can have our own official servers. And when I do have higher bandwidth, better ISP support, and another rig… I want to be able to host dedicated servers for my own purposes. I personally want dedicated server software.
Other gamers have their own reasons, but the bottom line is… gamers want dedicated servers. Your job is to fill that and other wants and needs for a price. If you can’t handle that, then you need to get out of business.
3. Remember that “fans” and “gamers” are actually your paying clients – And so now we come to the big explanation. Do NOT confuse gamers with a fawning, adoring fan that would do anything for you. We… are… your… customers. If we bring a problem to light, you have a responsibility to seek a remedy for that problem.
Stop leaving the debugging to us. Stop relying on us as gamers to find workarounds in order to play “your game”. We are all paying $50 to $60 before taxes to purchase a license to “your” software and / or hardware. We gave you our money [ directly or indirectly, it does not matter ]… now you give us the respect we deserve as your clients.
We love to be treated like you care about us. That’s relationship marketing. We love to chat with you folks and play your games with you. We love to tour your studios and better understand how you make your products. And many of us secretly hope to work with you somehow some day.
But that doesn’t make you the center of our universe and it doesn’t give you free reign to treat us as your friends or followers. We are paying customers and we expect to receive quality products and services for our money.
Until such a day as you personally go around to the houses of all of your “fans” and start spending time just hanging out with them, you DO NOT get the right to ignore our criticisms. You do not have the right to get angry with us for expecting “too much”. You do not have the right to treat us like your close personal friend, or your personal minions that will play whatever game you want to make.
WE PAY FOR YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.
They aren’t YOUR games. Yes, we buy a license for the game and you retain the rights for the copyright material, but you didn’t make the game just to have a copyright. You made the game to make some money. You offer a product or service via license agreement to your customers. And we as your customers WILL guide your decision making.
4. Communicate like an adult – Oops. I did it again.
All of the previous resolutions come together for this one. You as developers need to learn to communicate with gamers. Nothing is sadder then when I learn of a series of tweets in which a group of developers are seeing a bunch of gamer overreactions and then respond by overreacting themselves.
You as the developer should be above that. I know how frustrating some gamers can be. I know that many of them act like 7-year-olds. But that is a by-product of the internet and the perceived anonymity it brings. In fact, some of them actually ARE 7-year-olds. *gasp*
Developers should be well above responding to complaints by complaining about not being respected. Developers should be able to show a bit of maturity and recognize a troll when they see one. Developers should know better.
Don’t forget about franchise fans and their questions either. Yes, you must keep many details of your plot secret until the release date… that’s part of the fun of playing a campaign for the first time. However, when fans start growing irate about some element of your project, be prepared to sit down and give interviews about what you improved.
It isn’t enough to just say “we made a better game”. Tell us about it. Did you increase some of your engine’s abilities? Did you improve your particle effects? Did you re-write net code? Why did you need to make a design change? What happened?
Giving your customer the silent treatment like they are somehow your enemy will make them your enemy.
With all of that said, and my own soapbox standing several times larger then OneOfSwords’, I will freely admit that I believe I could stand to use both of these sets of resolutions. I am not a professional developer, but I want BWL to be a respectable institution and I have found myself not properly representing it in the past.
It is very easy to react negatively. But it is much harder to repair the damages of your reaction. Developer and gamer alike need to improve their communication skills. This is the only way to prevent the extraordinary degree of negativity we are all seeing.
OneOfSwords called gaming an experiential hobby and asked us to try games before deciding that we hate them. [ Price is of no consequence to us after all. ] And he asked us to admit that we don’t know what we’re talking about.
But that is a problem in his reasoning. You see, many of us do know.
Such a comment is reflective of the error many developers and publishers are making. They assume we know nothing of how games are made, nothing of how to tell a good story, nothing of what a good on-line game should be, nothing of the technology, and nothing of the games they are preparing to release. No other assumption could be more misguided.
I don’t have to play a game to know that I won’t like it. I can look at the information available and see that it isn’t my preferred style, or that my system can’t handle it, or that I wouldn’t be able to play it online.
Some of us have worked in technology industries, and some of us have much more important software or hardware jobs then you developers do. [ Not me personally mind you, my real job sucks. ]
It is very much true to say that some gamers speak out of turn. But some don’t and more importantly, some make their issues with a given project perfectly clear. The question is, will developers actually listen?
Communication is about more then just you telling your side of the story.
OneOfSwords said, “Gaming evolves every year. Let 2011 be the year that gamers evolve.” But that isn’t fair to gamers. It is a statement that blames gamers for not being satisfied by developers.
Gaming does indeed change, but not always for the best. And gamers do need to grow up a little. But the same can be said of developers that seem to view gamers as nothing more then a debugging tool or servant or test subject that dispenses money every so often.
Instead of hanging the responsibility on gamers, let’s make 2011 a year of maturity and growth for everyone.
