You spend all that time on the forums, and occasionally some lucky person gets red/blue name attention. It seems so much like one-way communication, with the occasional community manager contribution. Some games have some developers who comment on some topics, but often the hot issues are avoided or left for an official statement.
In the Kingdom of Loathing, developer Mr. Skullhead responded to some board feedback on the holiday event:
[player], and those who share the sentiment below, **** you. **** each and every one of you. **** you sleeping, **** you waking up, **** you standing, **** you lying down. **** the horse you rode in on, the groom that brushed its mane, and the blacksmith that made its shoes. **** your mother, your father, any siblings, and any other living members of your family tree. **** you.
This is a family blog, so I have edited out some of the 34 F-bombs, but I think we can approve of his candor. If you pursue the link, he responded to specific criticisms as well:
Low drop rates? Favoring farmers? **** you. …
Presents are suboptimal? **** YOU. …
No outfit in the pressies? **** you. …
No wrapping paper? **** you. …
The worst of all of this, the one that really pisses me off, is the whole “you guys were too lazy to write content so you stacked the deck so you wouldn’t have to do any interesting writing.” If you seriously believe that and you’re not just trolling, I invite you to get some mayo, mustard, and maybe a dollop of sour cream, and eat my **** ***.
I need to donate to that game again. I can criticize only the implied connection between graph-making and virginity, although I favor tables to graphs.
: Zubon
Linked changed due to wiki editor deletion. Thanks Noz. In case it re-appears: link.
The Steam Holiday Sale
Portal for $5? Holy crap. Some of the bulk packs look interesting too.
: Zubon
Achievement Unlocked. Because you do not care about winning or playing: you care about getting little badges next to your name.
: Zubon
I set up Google Reader today. Good golly, we have a long blogroll.
: Zubon
As the International Year of the Potato winds down, we remember that the original Mega Man game was set in 2008, and it looked nothing like this.
: Zubon
When y’all get done arguing about whether we should raid the same instance 40 times casually or we should raid the same instance 40 times because we are hardcore, call me.
: Zubon
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Before: I think the new instance may be bugged. The difficulty of the final boss is much higher than expected, and it does not seem to be possible for most classes to defeat solo. This should not be marked as solo content.
After: Devs! wut is up with that new boss?!?!!! lolbroken!! fix it
Wow. That kind of post really lets them know just who you are and how much thought you put behind your comments. I think we all know what kind of reaction you deserve. Show them what a winner you are, champ!
: Zubon
This is an interesting comedy of errors. The original poster did not realize that a maze quest instance comes with a list of riddles (inventory item). Solve the riddle at each fork and make it through safely. If you answer wrong, that path leads to an insta-kill trap, with an invisible wall beyond it in case you avoided the trap. To the player not noticing the riddle list, this looked like Trial and Error Gameplay: random, unavoidable death as an intentional design element.
A few pages into the thread, someone mentions the riddle list, but here is what interests me: until then (and after, for those who did not read the thread), at least half the posts were about how much a whiner the original poster was, how this is a good thing because the game has too much easy mode, etc. If you do not suffer, you suck: the litany of the hardcore. But these are people who really think, and will publicly avow, that trial-by-error gameplay is a good thing, especially when “error” is punished by insta-death. (One can only imagine that it would be better with perma-death.) This is odd to me. By what concept is “guess, die, guess, die, pass by process of elimination” fun gameplay?
Note: I am not criticizing the quest in question, which seems to do it right: give the player the needed information to get through without experimental suicide. I am wondering at the population that thinks clearing a minefield by random walks is a good time. On the other hand, recognizing that population, I wonder a lot less about how games end up like that so often (see the link above). There is apparently demand for it. We deserve the games we get, it seems.
: Zubon
Remind me someday to track down the various flash adventure and puzzle games that effectively say, “Welcome to the next-to-last level! Here is a new tool or mechanic: learn to master it in the next ten seconds with no instructions. If you fail, don’t worry! We will put a save or continue mechanic in our next version.”