Jman5, on 06 October 2013 - 07:13 AM, said:
It's pretty obvious when you see them all regurgitating the same talking-points, posting the same screenshots, and using identical signatures. These people are the biggest sheep in the community and yet they always put on these airs of being thoughtful and critical analyzers. It's pretty sad to see people so easily manipulated, but I take heart in the fact that their zombie-like brains will switch over to the "like" column once the people driving the hate-train decide the game is pretty good.
I can imagine people calling me a White Kniggit - I've never paid a lot of attention to it, but I assume that's the case. I don't necessarily defend PGI, though. I merely question the gains of attacking them all the time.
For example, I recently received a PM questioning why the Phoenix Pack was released at all, why they needed the "cash grab". The answer, to me, is simple: They are a business, and their job is to make money. The PP is a way to do that. There's always a segment of the community that seems set on proving somehow that MWO is dying, and trying to identify ways to prove that.
My opinion on this is simple, and related to the above.
There is no point in pursuing that line of reasoning at all. There's only a couple outcomes that are possible, if you think it through:
1) These folks are actually right. MWO is failing, PGI is struggling to get $ to pay the bills. If this is the case, broadcasting that just hastens the inevitable and gets things shut down faster. Nobody wants that.
2) They're wrong, MWO is NOT failing, but is struggling. Constantly screaming the sky is falling does nothing but scares off players, resulting in less sales, less income - and thus leads to failure. At that point, failure is entirely the fault of the naysaying sorts.
3) They're wrong, MWO is doing just fine. They're screaming nonsense into the wind, and it just doesn't matter.
I imagine they hope to somehow motivate PGI into doing what they feel is the right thing to "save MWO". This isn't going to happen. The reality is simple - PGI is doing what they feel is best. They're not going to halt their current development plans because quite frankly it's too late to get off the road they are on. Whether this is good or not is irrelevant, it's how things are. Throwing out their current development pipeline to change direction is just not a viable approach, and while every naysayer seems to feel they are part of a grand, unified group - close looks very quickly show how there are countless variations on what people feel PGI "should" do. Who does PGI listen to?
Now, I'm right there with constructive criticism. Sure, when something is released, you can point out flaws - balance issues, hitbox issues. I don't propose players only say shiny nice rainbow filled good things.
But complaining about sales? Constructing elaborate theories wherein PGI is performing manipulative marketing voodoo to trick players into forking over mounds of cash before shutting up shop and running off with the loot? This isn't constructive in any way, and is quite frankly both ridiculous and useless.
Ah well, what's the point of this, anyways? Nobody is going to stop and suddenly be reasonable, they'll continue their cries of doom and gloom because that's what people do, no matter what actually happens.