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IF a mmorpg company listened to their community 99% would the game be better?
dmartination
Member Posts: 25
If a mmorpg company listend to their community 99% and the devs 1% do you think the game would be a lot better? Or 50 50? I am saying this because every game I play everyone says the company does not listen.
Comments
In many cases the company should NOT listen to the gamers because quite often the gamers are pushing their needs/wants ahead of whats good for the game.
And, in my experience, many gamers are just plain stupid in regards to game balance and beneficial game mechanics.
No. People don't know what they want. I didn't know I wanted half the things in GW2 then I realised I really miss mounts and stuff.
My bet is that if devs listened harder to communities it would cost a lot more money.
Play for fun. Play to win. Play for perfection. Play with friends. Play in another world. Why do you play?
People often confuse "not listening"for "not obeying their biddings" . You arent the only person speaking.
I remember looking at the suggestion forums for Guild Wars 2 during beta. It absolutely made me cringe, not only do 99% of all forum poster not known have to give proper feedback, but many of their suggestions are unoriginal experiences that have adopted from their previous gaming experiences. Examples of such posts would be "Why can't warriors dual-wield 2 handers" or "Why can't Guardian use axes".
Personally I've found only 87 users that I would take seriously on the Guild Wars 2 forums, consider that number for a moment.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
It really depends.
A lot of what the players want is good and the letters "NGE" tells us what happens then but there are a lot of bad player ideas as well. For example is there a lot of people crying out for nerfs and community ideas that just doesnt work or are so expensive to implement that they take the upddate budget for a year to implement.
I think 50/50 is a good idea, where devs look on player ideas and implement the good ones but also have a 2 way communication and post their ideas about future updates in a particular forumplace (where it is 100% clear that not all ideas actually will be implemented) to less the risk of future NGEs.
It is clear that many devs can become a lot better to listen to their players but players do not always know what they really want.
Developers ruin games 99% because they listen to QQ.
Developers need to have a vision and stick to it.
UO: Ruined- carebares.
DarkSpace: Ruined- carebares
DaoC: Ruined.- winny little +++++ crying 24/7.
DaoC: Ruined- Devs Adding crap we didn't want or need.
Rift: Ruined- Dude I don't know wtf they where smoking.
GW2: .....
(Insert name) Fantasy asain MMO grinder: LOL. p2w dude I broke into a car and found 50 dollars in change, then loaded it on to this prepayed card!!!!!
Make your game. Stick to your vision. Attract the people that like your vision... enjoy.
But thats just the thing, companies in general DO listen, they dont always do what people tell them to though.
They DO listen to feedback, they DO look at results and often make changes of the given feedback, keeping both feedback, suggestions etc etc and their own judgement in ballance before implimenting new features, content or changes. You'd be su[rised how many ideas, changes and adjustments came from players.
Frequently if not most of the time.. people say companies/developers dont listen to them because they didnt listen to the indifidual.
Yeah I agree, the best scenario is for developers to take their players feedback into consideration while at the same time not completely abandoning their own vision for the game. Somewhere in the middle is the ideal situation for both developers and gamers.
The better developer is probably the ones who know who not to listen to. Too many games are ruined by giving the loudest people what they want.
Hyperbole is the enemy of good game design.
PVP players screm and want to make themselves OP. Carebares scream louder and drive off the PVP players.
The best thing any Dev can do is NEVER listen to a fanboy and/or a troll. Find the players that like, but not hate/love, the game and drive the rest out of the betas.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
Of course it would succeed.
Because the people would keep playing and they wouldnt have to resort to fishy EA tactics to grab players.
However, it seems many (unsurprisingly) here don't grasp the meaning of the 99%. But its OK, you can remain ignorant, Anonymous will be there for you, they will protect you even if you turn on them, because they know its not your fault.
Boycotting EA. Why? They suck, even moreso since 2008.
Really depends on what people ask for. there are tons of threads that give great ideas and most official forums have suggestions section but i rarely see companies use the very good and well thought out suggestions. GW2 is a great example of this. there are loads of ui improvements they could be making but havent.
But as we can see listening to people demand things like more dungeons a lfg tool dps meters and gear check has taken the game down the wrong road leading to a very large number of players leaving due to the devs completely going against what they claimed the game would be.
I believe this video is the best answer to the question in this thread.
The simple fact of the matter is that players THINK they know what they want, but they either really dont, or they dont realize WHY they dont want something.
I like to give the example, a guy might think that having 2 girlfriends would be a fantastic thing. Sweet, i get to bang two hot chicks, and they're ok with it?!! Yeah, except, not so much.
People complain they want faster leveling because the "grind" is so bad, then in the same turn of breath they complain they dont have anything to do. Etc, etc.
I remember bitching about "The Vision TM" back in the earlier EQ days, but god what i wouldnt give for some devs with the testicular fortitude the original EQ devs had. You know, listen to the playerbase when they point out blatantly obvious dumb shit, like "uhm, this particular class is only doing 80% of the dmg of this other DPS class, here's some numbers, could you fix it please". VS what things are like today. Outside of that, when it comes to scope of the game, direction, etc, to hell with the players. If you dont like where its going, dont play it, amazing.
Of course, that day will only come once developers figure out a good way to get the fuckwad suits out of their hair. You know, the douche canoes that only concern themselves with making as much money hand over fist as possible.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
If this hypothetical company really wanted to give the players what they wanted they'd find out what that is without the players knowing. With that information the dev team could cook up several options to promote as possible development paths. So it would be the devs who decided beforehand based on research what an informed/lessened risk would be as opposed to a blind one. That would be the only way an MMO dev team could listen to the playerbase and it remain a success.
Still even with that sort of approach its best to stick with your original vision for the game if it was successful from the beginning. Yet completely ignoring your playerbase's tendencies while in your game would be just as detrimental. Not 50/50 per se, more like 85/15 with the dev team in the lead.