Dominus: A Note to the Vocal Minority

SBFord

We all know who they are...heck, some of us might -be- these guys. You know the ones we mean: The passionate followers of any game. In today's Developer Perspectives, we take a look at the 'vocal minority'. See what you think and then weigh in with your ideas in the comments.

For example, right now, somewhere in an MMO, there is a combination of abilities that normally are not used together. That's because it requires split second timing, the reflexes of a 22 year old ninja, and a very specific set of circumstances. The VM is screaming about this, because one of them can pull off this combo and insta-kill a giant or whatever, and he posts screenshots every day with "Fix This Now, Game Company." The "You Suck" is implied. Usually.

Read more of Sanya Weathers' Developer Perspectives: A Note to the Vocal Minority.

BloodEagle

Sanya, if I were not a happily married man, I would ask you for your hand in marriage so I could have YOUR babies! Loved you in the days of DAoC, and cannot wait to play Dominus, because it appears the Devs are doing things right.

 

BloodEagle

AdamTM

Wait, this is an article?

Bigdaddyx

If you read it you would know it is an 'article'.

Yamota

Looks more like a rant to me.

FrostWyrm

Just a comment on the "22 year old ninja" comment...

Everyone knows that ninja are Japanese, and in Japan if you're older than 15, you're considered past your prime.

Jjix

Equating passionate followers of a game with whiners is extremely hostile, and why gamers constantly feel the need to put down other gamers for being into the very thing we all love is beyond me. Its like a group of nerds who gang up and bully another nerd because they are deeply resentful of their own nerdom.

 

Is it gamers who, deep down, are embarrased for being gamers that like to find other gamers -- ones that are even more passionate than they are -- to target for redicule and scorn?

 

Vocal minorities of the kind you are describing do the community a service. Really, they ought to be paid for what they are doing.

Ozmodan

Kind of an amusing post Sanya.  Since no one ever listened to the vocal minority at DAoC, where nerfing classes and abilities into oblivion was SOP.  And of course the famous Trials of Atlantis fiasco that did a major deflate on the playerbase.  Sometimes the vocal minority is screaming for a darn good reason and ignoring them is the wrong move.

someforumguy

But, but, but..I do really know the game better then anyone else!

KenFisher

Any dev that does anything will find they have their own VM.  If they follow the rules, it's wrong.  If they break the rules, it's wrong.  No matter how much they do it's either too much, not enough, or both.

 

The reason is, these people are bored silly.  They've been following the genre for a decade now.  They've made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, they've climbed the mounts of Azeroth, they've done thousands if not millions of FedEx missions.  They've seen the genre grow from 2D sprites to half-naked hi-poly elvens.  They've played game after game after game, to the point where they all seem to blur together as some sort of bad recurring dream.

 

But more than anything, they're starting to realize one thing.  The cake is a lie.  In the end, all the games, all the achievement, all the effort amount to nothing more than a large waste of time.  They don't like this.

 

They have grand ideas on how a game could be perfect.  Anyone shaping a game in any even a slightly different fashion needs to be educated on their epiphany.  They feel it their duty to speak out, loudly if needed.

 

Developers shouldn't be angry at these people.  It's not their fault.  The industry has failed them.  The "magic" of first-love with an MMORPG cannot be recreated.

 

After a thousand iterations, each new game is just another "La Petite Mort" with little if any satisfaction.  They want the "magic" to come back, if only for a few moments.

jusomdude

Originally posted by ActionMMORPG

Any dev that does anything will find they have their own VM.  If they follow the rules, it's wrong.  If they break the rules, it's wrong.  No matter how much they do it's either too much, not enough, or both.

 

The reason is, these people are bored silly.  They've been following the genre for a decade now.  They've made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, they've climbed the mounts of Azeroth, they've done thousands if not millions of FedEx missions.  They've seen the genre grow from 2D sprites to half-naked hi-poly elvens.  They've played game after game after game, to the point where they all seem to blur together as some sort of bad recurring dream.

 

But more than anything, they're starting to realize one thing.  The cake is a lie.  In the end, all the games, all the achievement, all the effort amount to nothing more than a large waste of time.  They don't like this.

 

They have grand ideas on how a game could be perfect.  Anyone shaping a game in any even a slightly different fashion needs to be educated on their epiphany.  They feel it their duty to speak out, loudly if needed.

 

Developers shouldn't be angry at these people.  It's not their fault.  The industry has failed them.  The "magic" of first-love with an MMORPG cannot be recreated.

 

After a thousand iterations, each new game is just another "La Petite Mort" with little if any satisfaction.  They want the "magic" to come back, if only for a few moments.

YES, gimme the magic, I wanna be a wizard!

77lolmac77

The hard part must be balancing appealing to casual players (for financial purposes) while still maintaining an in-depth game with deep gameplay.

When a developer walks that tight rope perfectly then we might have a real WoW killer.

AdamTM

Originally posted by Yamota

Looks more like a rant to me.

Its not even a rant.

At first I thought they took a random forum post and published it.

Mors.Magne

I'm a member of the "vocal minority": I post on forums and I play Eve Online (a niche game compared to SWTOR).

 

And I don't agree with important aspects of SWTOR.

 

I do have the experience to see how SWTOR could be improved.

 

From experience I know that the chances of SWTOR being improved are very unlikely. This is because companies and devs, like the author, are generally very resistant to change (with the rare exception of CCP).

 

I think the author of the article should be aware that if his company does not respond to good advice, then he and his colleagues will sooner or later be sacked. This is just the way of the world. This is why just about every company on the Forbes 100 list of 1930 is no longer in existence (with the exeption of General Electric).

Many good directors are often sacked from companies because they report the truth the the board. The companies continue to live in denial until they go bankrupt.

 

nomss

Originally posted by BloodEagle

Sanya, if I were not a happily married man, I would ask you for your hand in marriage so I could have YOUR babies! Loved you in the days of DAoC, and cannot wait to play Dominus, because it appears the Devs are doing things right.

 

BloodEagle

 

14 year old female from Fairfax, VA, United States

That is from her profile LOL

So I think you might want to take your statement back before police is knocking on your door for cyber whatever it is these days

someforumguy

Originally posted by nomss

Originally posted by BloodEagle





Sanya, if I were not a happily married man, I would ask you for your hand in marriage so I could have YOUR babies! Loved you in the days of DAoC, and cannot wait to play Dominus, because it appears the Devs are doing things right.

BloodEagle

 

14 year old female from Fairfax, VA, United States

That is from her profile LOL

So I think you might want to take your statement back before police is knocking on your door for cyber whatever it is these days

 

14 yr old 'Sanya - Pitchblack Games Director of Community' ...ehh Oo

someforumguy

There is something seriously wrong with the edit/quote function if you use it directly underneath the article instead of the forums. It adds a lot of white lines.

gotha

someone have a rough day at work?

 

nice article though

Tanemund

Just say "no".

But that would take more guts than any gaming company had.  It should be "here is your world.  Good luck with the rest" but no one would play that game because that's too much like life.









 

 

sketocafe

I just kinda skimmed this. I'm mostly glad to learn they dropped the "Prime: battle for" from the title. That was just really really really awful.

fenrisblue

i didn't bother reading this article, i just wanted to comment on the title, anyone who works ina a customer service industry knows taht most people are not going to tell you what they think, they are just going to either stop using your product and tell 10 people or keep using your product and  tell 4 people, people who complain should be considered a cross section , the term vocal minority makes it sound like they are the only ones complaining, instead of what it really is, the minority of the people who are actually disatisfied who are also vocal

LancerVI

 

 

 

 

LancerVI

Originally posted by ActionMMORPG

Any dev that does anything will find they have their own VM.  If they follow the rules, it's wrong.  If they break the rules, it's wrong.  No matter how much they do it's either too much, not enough, or both.

 

The reason is, these people are bored silly.  They've been following the genre for a decade now.  They've made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, they've climbed the mounts of Azeroth, they've done thousands if not millions of FedEx missions.  They've seen the genre grow from 2D sprites to half-naked hi-poly elvens.  They've played game after game after game, to the point where they all seem to blur together as some sort of bad recurring dream.

 

But more than anything, they're starting to realize one thing.  The cake is a lie.  In the end, all the games, all the achievement, all the effort amount to nothing more than a large waste of time.  They don't like this.

 

They have grand ideas on how a game could be perfect.  Anyone shaping a game in any even a slightly different fashion needs to be educated on their epiphany.  They feel it their duty to speak out, loudly if needed.

 

Developers shouldn't be angry at these people.  It's not their fault.  The industry has failed them.  The "magic" of first-love with an MMORPG cannot be recreated.

 

After a thousand iterations, each new game is just another "La Petite Mort" with little if any satisfaction.  They want the "magic" to come back, if only for a few moments.

 

Absolutely nailed it! IMHO.

That's why I'm not really playing anything right now. I just can't get that 'first time' feeling from anything. FOR ME, the MMO genre is dead. But I keep looking for a 'new love'.

Konfess

"Is it happening once a month? Leave it alone and leave it to your community weenie"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na19KDGrQLs&feature=related

"That's great. Could you hold on to your broken elbow while I finish dealing with this sucking chest wound (glossing over all the broken elbows in a powerpoint presentation so he gets his yearly bonus for hitting a milestone)?"

"This nekojin game would be perfect without all the cat people."  example = "This Sci-Fi game would be perfect if it had free-form space combat"

adam_nox

too often are critics called the vocal minority when in fact, the ratio of defenders to detractors often is representative of the playerbase as a whole.  I've honestly lost count of how many mmo failure defenders have used the term 'vocal minority' before their titanic goes under.

Teala

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Kind of an amusing post Sanya.  Since no one ever listened to the vocal minority at DAoC, where nerfing classes and abilities into oblivion was SOP.  And of course the famous Trials of Atlantis fiasco that did a major deflate on the playerbase.  Sometimes the vocal minority is screaming for a darn good reason and ignoring them is the wrong move.

 

I couldn't have said it better, I have tried to figure out what to say and then I found your post and I think you summed it up nicely.   I think too few people recall just how heavy of hand the Mythic CR used back in the day - but it was enough that it finally drove me away from the game.  Mythic didn't care for criticism in the least.   You(Sanya) and Scott were very quick to shut down anyone that might disagree with Mythics handling of things.  Rarely was their room for debate.