could probably cut and past it into any gaming forum, but seemed especially relevant to pox http://forums.firefallthegame.com/community/threads/criticism-vs-negativity.2457821/
I don't understand, are you leaving aside your negativity or mocking that developer that thinks that he can stop it with a post?
I just think that his point of view was well articulated. I also find it interesting that there are similarities between firefall and pox (at least their forums).
The game looks a lot like Planetside. Do the two have similarities? I loved Planetside (the original).
So you think its interesting when people say "can't we all just get along"? The problem is Red 5's inability to remove his own emotion from the equation. The only reason all the negative posts start hurting the game would be because he starts getting pouty and making pouty decisions. The critics in the game world have very little power. They only have the power to not buy stuff. Anywhere else it's a much more serious environment. I've been evaluating businesses for years now and I'd never loan to a business that only shows incompetency. Telling other that they are mean for saying it out loud/posting it won't fix anything. All you have to do, if you don't want negativity, is moderate it. Ban them. They will go away. Why wouldnt you do that? Well everyone knows in games like this, that'd mean almost everyone is gone, you'd fail, and you'd shut down the game that you just paid $87,153.00 to obtain, and who wants that? What you can do, if you have the ability, is understand what the masses are really saying. Listen to them (they are your customers) and respond to them successfully. Human nature is extremely predictable. They will quiet once they have what they need and some of what they want. What they say they need and want is not always accurate (rarely, I'd say) so you need to be able to translate and categorize their discontent. Then you need to come up with a plan to fix all those problems without creating new ones. If new ones arrise, catorgize and rank that one as well. Just keep doing that in an efficient manner and if you are fixing faster than you are creating problems then you'll arrive at an acceptable conclusion at some point. Major problem with Pox is that the council has become a decision force. These are adolecents, teenagers and youngadults writing checks that their experience and capabilities cannot cash from an account that has Geddens name on it. No leader has ever been successful saying "I'm going to lead by telling you guys to lead". Either he gets an understanding of this game or it just continues to wander and drift and accomplish nothing. I have no idea of the dynamics of that game, but transfering that post to pox forums would accomplish absolutely nothing. Sure the "yesmen" and "fanbois" (as that post says) would say "YEAH GEDDEN YOU TELL THEM" and "YOU GUYS BE NICE TO GEDDEN", your net change would be temporary and end result would be no change. The things that make people "mad" would still be present and the negativity would return and its not just because people want to be negative and mean, its because they are somehow invested(not just monetarily, probabaly mostly emotionally) in the successful future of this game and are frustrated that its direction is contrary to that investment.
the thread wasn't aimed at your typical online game whining imo. rather it was a response to its older playerbase (the beta testers) who had been there for years and seen the game go through major changes. imo it was an appeal for that particular group to 'get on board' with the new direction. This to me is analogous to the situation here at Pox and so I chose to share it. imo it represents an attempt to 'partner' with the older playerbase, rather than to 'manage' it. and yes, the post was whiny itself, it showed a certain level of vulnerability, 'we NEED you' kind of thing. Pox could do with a little more of that. Perhaps not in the form of scolding the malcontents, but rather recognizing their unique role in pox. Of course the playerbase itself has to be open to that kind of appeal. I think when I read the general forum, I see two kinds of older players, the first make critiques in a genuine effort to help the devs improve the game, the second type are either trolling or simply responding to the day to day frustration of trying to play ranked during a beta (which is what this is). It's also interesting imo to see that there are other games and other playerbases going through a similar turmoil as we are. /shrug
I'm saying that trying to change human behavior is nearly impossible. Once you remove emotion it's just information. Find the root cause, fix/change and then examine the outcome, repeat. That or mod it out.
Ug, really? Trying... so.. hard.. not.. to... be... mean. It's an exercise by where you get to the root of a persons(peoples) intent behind their words and actions.
and yet appealing to their emotion can be more effective in terms of influencing behavior. for example, you may have very legitimate balance concerns. but how do you choose to express those concerns? if you feel that you have been 'left out' of the design process and are being treated like just another scrub player, you may spam every semi related thread with one liners and doomsaying. If on the other hand you are made to feel like part of the 'team' then the tone of your posts will be different, even if the core balance concerns are slow to be addressed. and go ahead and be mean Bakki. I barely recognize you when youre not.
