Well, I appreciate the bump Redfly Studios gave. Here.  The motive behind my post was really an anger at all the “game haters” that bag on a game before it’s even released. Many cannot make the distinction between what their personal taste are in games and what a good game makes. Just because it doesn’t appeal to you, doesn’t mean it doesn’t appeal to others. Not everyone is into twitch gaming, though I’ve bagged my fair share of head shots, and it doesn’t have to have a BFG and camping to be a great game. There is something to be said for a finely crafted platformer or highly refined turned based strategy. Unfortunately giving people the ability to make anonymous statements on the internet has had an unhealthy side effect of giving the village idiots a voice. Go look at the forums of many game developer’s sites and you’ll see what I mean. They are blind fanboys or game haters, both equally absurd.  I hope developers don’t put too much stock in either.

Back in the day I was a play tester for FASA, specifically the Shadowrun series (pen & paper gaming) and the process of developing any game is a difficult challenge.  The Shadowrun community was an incredible group to work with because of the quality of input that was given.  I really think that is what is missing in development today.  And it’s hard to find reasonable input in the forums of many sites because reasonable people get pushed out by all the haters/village idiots.  We as the gaming community have the opportunity to make a difference in the quality of the games being made and would see more interaction with developers if what we were offering was of any quality.  Both “everything XYZ makes rokz” and “this game sux cuz I can’t let go a game I played in ‘98 that was a lot like this but it wasn’t” aren’t the kind of input developers are looking for.   Well thought out ideas and helpful criticism are what is lacking….not flame wars.

Now I understand people’s cynical view of new games coming out and apprehension to hype because if ANY industry has hype, the gaming industry has hype….with a capital H. We’ve all been victim’s to hype and bought games that were pure D coding trash (I pre-ordered Mage Knight DS).  However I believe the healthiest attitude is to maintain a wait and see approach to any new game coming out. Try and understand what the developer is trying to do THEN hold them to it after the game is released. Shooting down every game before it comes out is bad form and only stifles creativity. If a developer bricks a game or publishers rush an unfinished product to market then by all means blast away. It doesn’t take long for word to get around the net.  What developers need are people that can set aside gaming bias to offer solid criticism and comments into what it is they are trying to build.  Remember in the end it’s their livelihood and reputation on the line when it’s all said and done, not yours.

What I don’t want to see is a bad cycle of haters followed by more hype to try and drown them out.  Think before you post.  We can make the industry better.  BTW If I’m making you so mad you are ready to start a flame war then please listen closely….your village is calling.

-Wes

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Gaming, Sections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.