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Originally Posted by
RiotingSpectre
1.) The users who have a problem with certain games should speak up, and we've already talked about this in the thread. Things like making reviews, giving constructive feedback to the developer so they can update their content with improvements, and numerous other things will help make some of these bad games into acceptable ones. The problem is that indie developers tend to act like spoiled divas that have more self-absorbed complexes than anyone else which means that even if you were to give constructive feedback then it may fall on their divine deaf ears. Another problem is that a lot of users prefer to choose to simple route of giving destructive feedback amongst other things like not choosing to do anything about something that bothers them. In conclusion, everyone is their own worst enemy..
Gnargh.
This over-generalization irks me every time I see it.
No. We're not.
OK. Not all of us.
Some of them - and I've met some of these folks in person - are indeed, self-absorbed a-holes who cannot take criticism in any form and unless you're gushing over them, they don't want to know.
But there are SO MANY out there who can take and in fact seek out constructive criticism. They're the ones, myself (to some extent) included, who know that we will likely ship something that isn't everyones cup of tea (no pun intended) and needs work. And the only way we can make it into a better experience for the masses is by putting it out there, hearing what comes back and adjusting accordingly, where appropriate.
But saying that we're all Divas is just as bad as the majority of Indies saying that players are "entitled" or "spoiled" or whatever. Yes, I threw out that word, but it's in quotes, so I don't actually mean it! It's just what always goes back and forth. Indie Devs are too sensitive; Consumers are a'holes to Devs. Back and forth, back and forth.
I'd like to put one thing out there - if you write something that comes across as though you've broken Wheton's Law, then you suck. Not your point. Your point is probably valid and pertinent. But you, whomever wrote that thing, you suck. You don't have to be a dick and slam someone's work to get your point across.
Oh, and I also don't mean sugar coat anything.
Hell no.
That never helped anyone either (like this idea of everyone getting trophy just for competing. Or in the UK, if a (kids) football/soccer team beats another by more than 13-0, then the game is over, regardless of time left, and it becomes something like 3-0 (Hello!? Goal Difference!)). What I mean here is, if you have something so utterly and incredibly poignant and useful to say, then say it! Just don't say "hey, you made a <expletive> game, you suck, give up." Instead, how about "I really didn't like it, I felt that X, Y and Z were bad" and move on. It takes 10'000 hours to become a master of some skill, so why not help add to their repertoire, rather than crushing.
Shoot for the stars, if you miss and hit the moon - so what, at least you hit the chuffing moon... next time you'll go further.
Originally Posted by
Schizophretard
The way I go about it is to either give all stars and a purchase or no stars at all because I rather give the ultimate like or ultimate dislike instead of trying to order them in a way the O-Rank already does. I either like it or I don't. I also don't like to give criticism for the games in the unliked category. I reserve that for the games I like and/or see potential in because they are games that I wish to be better. In other words, if it is shovelware then it gets ignored but if it is good it gets construction attention.
At least you're giving back to the community/game!
We've had some 800 downloads (to date) and 46 votes. I'd wager that we would probably have an abysmal score if everyone voted, as not everyone likes the game... but this is one of the ways that players have the power to feed back into the system, give their opinion and hopefully drive up the more positive games to the top of the heap.
[Slight off topic]
I mentioned about sugar coating above, well, a friend of mine was, when this story occurred, working at a MAJOR development studio on a HUGE franchise when we put out our first demo of 7Teas. He asked me if I'd like some feedback, so naturally I said yes! What we received was the hardest 7 pages I've ever read.
It started with "I'm not going to say what are the good points because you should know what they are - but the things I thought were bad, need work or could be added are...", and this went on for, like I said, 7 pages.
He was absolutely right, though. And I know the things he said never came from a place of malice, but only to better the game. Oh, and he said he liked the concept and the demo, just that these suggestions would help to bring it forward.
Come forward to January and a similar thing happened at a conference. Someone whose job it is to rip games apart and inform devs of what focus groups liked or didn't, and propose suggestions to fix them, did this on 7Teas for an hour. That free consultation would probably have cost us a lot of $$$, but it was a fellow gamer giving his 2(million) cents. It hurt. It was tough to hear all the negative things. But again, never in the conversation or discussion did he slam it and he was working to help us find the best solution and make a better game.
Everything he said was correct.
So while I was the one who bore the brunt of both of these encounters, I filtered them a bit and delivered them to my team. Not because they're any less thick skinned than myself, but because coming at things positively trumps negatively EVERY time.
[/Slight off topic]
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