Interview Actually, Some Developers Should Read Their Forums

[Roguey]

"Anyone who claims forum poster geeks arer worth listening to have to be deemed crazy and stupid."

Haven't you mentioned several times before how you told Tim Cain/Troika that adapting ToEE would be a mistake because you knew it'd be lousy content-wise? So he should have consulted you before he made that decision.

 

[bylam]

It's the same old balancing act.
Sawyer is talking about post launch - it is imperative to acknowledge paying customers and listen to their feedback (It also improves you as a designer to see that 500people hate feature x)
Pre-launch - They aren't paying customers and they only have some vague ideas in their mind of what your game is going to be based on whatever hype your marketing department is spinning. This is useless feedback.

Beta forums are the best source of feedback, IMO. People get really invested in making that game better and that is where you see the best ideas come through.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Some companies do listen to feedback. It's just that they take the wrong lessons away from it. A lot of the adjustments between Morrowind and Oblivion were made to help retards who couldn't even find Caius fucking Cosades.

 

[ElectricOtter]

Shit, Jeff got his ass handed to him

I think he needed that. Somebody had to put him back in his place.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I was going to walk into incoming traffic but bought BG2 before the 'day', played it and decide that romancing Aerie is worth living for.
True story bro.

That is the power Hate bro.

 

[HardCode]

I didn't claim there were better forums. I just don't believe Codex itself is better.

Any forum where a user with 14346 posts still doesn't know how to use the Quote button is the best place on earth. R00flez!

 

[Volourn]

"Haven't you mentioned several times before how you told Tim Cain/Troika that adapting ToEE would be a mistake because you knew it'd be lousy content-wise? So he should have consulted you before he made that decision."

To be arrogant, I'm not your typical internet geek - I actually know my shit espicially when it comes to D&D.

But, Tim Cain wasn't making TOEE for me perosnally, he was trying to make it for millions... and epically failed at it.

No game company - including BIO - would daqre to make a game for me because most gamers can't handle my ideal game.

Trust me on that.

Though I know enough about how the 'masses' (and that includes the Codex) to have an idea would they do want.

P.S. In never said TOEE was, on its own, a horrible choice to make a game. Afterall, it's one of the oldest and most popular DnD modules out there.

The problem is Troika's stated goal was to be as 'true' to the original as possible. Anyone who has played DnD PnP official modules knows that's epic failure in the makming since pnp modules are purposefully made as bare as possible so Dms can craft the moulde to fit their individual campaigns.

This is why everyone's experience with TOEE in pnp forum could be different from each other. Troika, depsite being self proclaimed RPG geeks, just didn't get this.

The POR2 tools were even worse than Troika, and I told them so. But, they did not listened, and epically failed.



p.s.s. All the above could be broken down to 'HAHAHA! I WAS RIGHT HAHAHA!" smugness!

 

[HardCode]

No game company - including BIO - would daqre to make a game for me because most gamers can't handle my ideal game.

Trust me on that.

I don't know - tasteful rape would probably sell big.

 

[laclongquan]

You think western game companies got the cojones same size as those crazy japs? Think again.

 

[Drakron]

Its not really "having the balls", they simply fill a niche but dont think they will not renegade their H past as KEY is a good example of that.

Also I dont think developers should be reading the forums during development and take notes, its simply too chaotic and people simply want completely different things so trying to please all would just please none.

 

[Nael]

I think any developer with half a brain wouldn't listen to their own company's forums though. The sycophantic drivel that goes on at TESF and Bioware especially would make the most cynical and self-effacing person pat themselves on the back. Therefore the only answer is us. Because we are that damn smart.

 

[Volourn]

No. Double no. Triple no.

 

[shihonage]

one of my co-workers received an e-mail from a gamer saying that she credits one of our games with saving her life

I guess she got the drop on home intruder and slammed him unconscious with a boxed copy of Baldur's Gate.

I miss old game boxes, you really got your 50 bucks' worth in weight.

 

[Drakron]

I miss old game boxes, you really got your 50 bucks' worth in weight.

I remember picking up Falcon 4.0 box and almost drop it because of its weight.

 

[Baron]

Yeah ha, weight was always a good purchase guide. From memory I think Origin's Knights of Legend was pretty chunky. Old games delivered with content. Mines of Titan came with a sealed envelope instructing me not to open until instructed to by the game.

...I never did find out what was inside. I always suspected it was a piece of paper with my name and some photos of my house.

 

[baronjohn]

It's a miracle, but I agree with Volourn that developers definitely shouldn't listen to other people. Have some spine, you fucking developers! Listen to your own internal artistic taste. Fuck the unwashed masses. Art for art's sake.

Do it right and you may die poor, but you'll be vindicated in the end.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

I miss old game boxes, you really got your 50 bucks' worth in weight.

I remember picking up Falcon 4.0 box and almost drop it because of its weight.

The manual alone was pretty much an ideal murder weapon.

It is still my proudest acheivement as a 9 year old boy to have mastered that game.

 

[Mastermind]

Did I say that they weren't?

Still, there's more people who know what they're talking about in the Codex than in any other forum I've visited.

No there aren't. The codexfags are just as stupid as the rest of the gaming world, only they're considerably more off-putting due to their arrogance and self esteem that far surpasses their actual intellect and skills.

Only on the codex do you see retardedness like praising gothic 2 which has about 10 skills and complaining that Skyrim has "only" 18 even though 18 is about as many as the holy trinity's Fallout 1 had. It's pure unadulterated .

 

[circ]

Or praising MoTB even though it's still the NWN2 engine or FNV even though.. Yeah whatever.

 

[Mastermind]

Or praising MoTB even though it's still the NWN2 engine or FNV even though.. Yeah whatever.

This is precisely the type of dumbfuck retarded faggotry I'm referring to. I point out the hypocrisy in complaining about the NUMBER of skills specifically and fucktwat here jumps in with a completely irrelevant and worthless analogy about engines.

Son, if you were any dumber, they'd make you President of the United States of America.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

This is precisely the type of dumbfuck retarded faggotry I'm referring to. I point out that they'll reduce the number of skills again in the next elder turds iteration and some fucktwat here jumps in with a completely irrelevant and worthless comparison with the number of skills in completely unrelated games.

 

[JarlFrank]

Cut mastermind some slack. It's not his fault his mother accidentally dropped him on his head when he was a baby. It's also not his fault that he has ever since considered his special brain condition to be über intelligence instead of dumbfuckery.

 

[Mastermind]

I point out that they'll reduce the number of skills again in the next elder turds iteration

I didn't have you in mind at all. If all you've ever said on the subject is point out that the number of skills was reduced then I wouldn't have you in mind at all. I'm guessing that's not why you're crying like a bitch though, but I can't be arsed to look through your post and find out.

and some fucktwat here jumps in with a completely irrelevant and worthless comparison with the number of skills in completely unrelated games.

You haven't actually said anything in this thread other than plaster a quote in the OP. So it's difficult to tell how you've come to the conclusion that I jumped in on you pointing out that they reduced the number of skills in Skyrim as you did not, as a matter of fact, say anything about skyrim, let alone the number of skills in skyrim in this thread. So the only conclusions left are:

A) You forgot to switch back to your alt account.
B) You're a fucking lunatic who cannot distinguish between imaginary conversations and real life ones.

That said, it's certainly not irrelevant to bring up the number of skills in games codexfags worship when they make an issue of the number of skills in games they hate. You're just butthurt codextard hypocrisy and stupidity has nowhere to hide from my brilliant light.

So fuck you.

 

[Mastermind]

Cut mastermind some slack. It's not his fault his mother accidentally dropped him on his head when he was a baby. It's also not his fault that he has ever since considered his special brain condition to be über intelligence instead of dumbfuckery.

There's words in your post but all I really see is ubermacht caliber cock sucking. Try not to choke, you're reasonably entertaining.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

bro mastermind, your post started reasonable but then went full loony, it's funny how you dared to accuse me of being a lunatic though. But since you have to get everything explained: neither am I butthurt, nor do I give a fuck about the number of skills in any Elder scrolls game. I merely used the same logic on you as you used on circ using the same sentence slightly altered, I thought it was obvious. What was the purpose? To show you're hypocritical as well. For the record: i don't think the number of skills is a decisive factor, as I said earlier Mass Effect had 40 skills, so what?