I've only been on the beta for a few weeks, but the more I look at the forums, reddit, and the dev twitter posts, the more I start to feel like the relationship between the playerbase and the devs is distinctly one way.
In many cases it seems like the players know exactly what they want. Sometimes the devs acknowledge their wants, but usually only to the effect of saying 'no, we're not including it', seemingly because they feel they know better. They refuse to even trial concepts, despite this being beta.
It annoys me because the entire point of a beta is to get the community's input, find out what they want, what they find fun. It also makes me worried for the future. SEO seem to believe in future they'll be able to use the playerbase as a source of player-made (free) content, like what Valve managed. This worked for Valve because they have such a healthy relationship with their fans, but it will only work for SEO if the players feel like they're being listened to and their opinions taken into consideration. Otherwise they'll be disenfranchised and unwilling to contribute.
Do the devs have their own vision for the game that they're stubbornly sticking to, even if fans disagree with it? Would reworking some game mechanics require too much programming? Do they just have a better, fuller conception of what the final, released game will look like, and are confident that people will love it?
One of the few positive responses I've seen is their stated commitment to the metagame, but I've yet to see anything concrete actually implemented.
tl;dr: Are the devs too stubborn to listen to fans? Arrogant? Lazy?
Last edited by Gaalsien; 2012-11-03 at 12:05 PM.
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2012-11-03, 11:49 AM
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