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The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

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Re: The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

#11

Post by itronitron »

jancsika wrote: post #4

Do all game devs experience similar types of abuse, or only the devs of games with environments in which the developer's company is attempting to monetize the player as they move through the game? For example-- there is some beautiful sidescroller game I've seen where the animation looks like old-school Fleischer studio cartoons. Do devs of games like that get abuse from players, too?

> old-school Fleischer studio cartoons...

Sounds like the game you are referring to is Cuphead in which case I am pretty sure the devs for that game are getting plenty of abuse from players.

Re: The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

#12

Post by justinpombrio »

jancsika wrote: post #4

Do all game devs experience similar types of abuse, or only the devs of games with environments in which the developer's company is attempting to monetize the player as they move through the game? For example-- there is some beautiful sidescroller game I've seen where the animation looks like old-school Fleischer studio cartoons. Do devs of games like that get abuse from players, too?

Yes - look at the tweets in the article. I've played Don't Starve Together and Terraria, and neither of them have any in-game monetization. Those are also both family-friendly games. Don't Starve has a cartoony art style, too.

I can't speak for the other games. Strangely, the tweets don't either. They're not like "I am angry about this particular feature", they're like .

Re: The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

#13

Post by dorkwood »

jancsika wrote: post #4

Do all game devs experience similar types of abuse, or only the devs of games with environments in which the developer's company is attempting to monetize the player as they move through the game? For example-- there is some beautiful sidescroller game I've seen where the animation looks like old-school Fleischer studio cartoons. Do devs of games like that get abuse from players, too?

The first tweet they link to is directed at the makers of 'Firewatch', which doesn't have any in-app purchases at all.

http://www.firewatchgame.com/

If Firewatch isn't safe, I'm not sure anything is.

Re: The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

#14

Post by djroomba »

I've seen a few indie developers actively antagonize so called gamers.

I've seen abusive companies like EA get rightfully called out.

So Im skeptical of the depth of the claims, but I believe there are a few crazies.

I've ran a few foreign tax information websites, and I got extraordinary death threats very graphic and very detailed.

I think the internet really allows the mentally ill to scream for the attention they desperately want.

Re: The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

#15

Post by m00g00 »

jancsika wrote: post #4

Do all game devs experience similar types of abuse, or only the devs of games with environments in which the developer's company is attempting to monetize the player as they move through the game? For example-- there is some beautiful sidescroller game I've seen where the animation looks like old-school Fleischer studio cartoons. Do devs of games like that get abuse from players, too?

No idea, but there was a bunch of articles and probably related tweets accusing this game developer of racism because of the era their animation style is an homage to.

I'm very much tired of articles whose sole basis for existing is random fucking tweets. You can always find bad ones, from every sect of society. Deranged scribblings on walls did not used to be worthy of news articles.

Re: The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

#16

Post by vvanders »

arkades wrote: post #6

I don’t understand what forces devs to participate directly in this public discourse. Barring those so small they can’t hire someone to run interference, why precisely are you publicly interacting with your customers? Anyone who works with the mass public, be they cashiers or physicians, knows damn well that the Public is terrible. Don’t give them a hotline into your head.

Did you read the article? He laid it out pretty clearly:

> All of this is hardest on indies for two reasons. Firstly, because they are generally at the coal face of their games. They don’t have a marketing person standing between the hostile feedback and their work — it all comes in direct and unfiltered. Secondly most indies don’t make mass market games that appeal to the broadest cross section of players, and that include every feature under the sun.

Lots of book authors and other artists who have to "promote" themselves on social media run into similar issues.

Re: The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

#17

Post by Pfhreak »

arkades wrote: post #6

I don’t understand what forces devs to participate directly in this public discourse. Barring those so small they can’t hire someone to run interference, why precisely are you publicly interacting with your customers? Anyone who works with the mass public, be they cashiers or physicians, knows damn well that the Public is terrible. Don’t give them a hotline into your head.

Games have credits. Developers have Twitter accounts. Devs are excited about their work, share what they are working on. The devs are not seeking these interactions at all.

Re: The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

#18

Post by jstewartmobile »

If this is such a problem, how about making a game that teaches people to show a little class instead of yet another 8-bit remake for supercomputers?

Reminds me of that Don Daglow talk[0] at GDC Europe where he basically told them that Americans are idiots and how to cater to that. I would like to think that most people would do something less cynical if they had come to the same conclusion -- like Wozniak[1] did.

[0] http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.385041-Don-Dag...

[1] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kb7y3v/steve-wozn...

Re: The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

#19

Post by vvanders »

djroomba wrote: post #14

I've seen a few indie developers actively antagonize so called gamers. I've seen abusive companies like EA get rightfully called out. So Im skeptical of the depth of the claims, but I believe there are a few crazies. I've ran a few foreign tax information websites, and I got extraordinary death threats very graphic and very detailed. I think the internet really allows the mentally ill to scream for the attention they…

That article was signal boosted by every indie game dev I know of so I wouldn't dismiss it so casually.

Re: The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

#20

Post by itronitron »

keriati1 wrote: post #9

I guess it's not just game developers, I work with my team in finance sector on a customer portal and we also get almost similar level of feedback from some people... But we have millions of users. I like to think that at this scale we can't avoid to have some of those guys.

I was going to write something insightful but then realized that yeah, people are just being incredibly rude when they provide feedback in that manner, to the point that their comments are not useful as feedback.
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