Posted 08 September 2014 - 08:44 AM
CC'd from another topic, for relevance
Aside from all the silliness about moderation.
I personally don't feel like this is the end. People have been over-reacting, and blowing everything out of proportions since the dawn of time, and people have been saying this game won't last 2 months lilterally since before alpha development even began. I don't think the new game is going to cause any problems to MW:O, right now. Until they start moving key dev staff members to it. No, I'm not talking about something silly like marketing staff, or publicity, or even QA. I'm talking about critical asset developers for MW:O. Until those guys start shifting from MW:O, without new ones (wiht comparable, if not better skill) being brought in, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Remember: People will ALWAYS find something to exaggerate, or complain about.
Can't say I find the moderation part to be silliness.
Simple truth is, there was a subset of people who posted for no reason other than to undermine the Devs, and this Community. One could argue that some felt they had justified reasons. I generally disagree. If people consistently, repeat blatant lies, exaggerated rumors, and generally, consistently play merry little Forum Anarchists, to keep the Community at a low simmer, or in some fever dream that they can get PGI stripped of the License, and some other studio will ride in and save MechWarrior (despite no one touching it with a 10 ft pole for a decade), do they belong in the community?
In the real world, there are repercussions to undermining the order of a community. Fact is, on a Online Forum, there is ZERO "right" to free speech. And the fact is, certain individuals have been abusing the general leniency on these forums for some time. These can at times, be amongst the most toxic forums. Such individuals do not provide constructive criticism, they simply look to tear the community down, be it because the game didn't unfold the way they thought it should, or because they think they are being a BD(i)H, or because certain individuals and groups simply like to watch things burn.
That is known as being a cancer. Cancer left alone, festers, and eventually kills a community and a game as surely as anything. So one must take drastic action, and cut out the cancer. Surgery is never pleasant in the short term. But if it save the life of the subject, it is worth it.
Now.
That doesn't let PGI off the hook. In my mind, it now put the burden even more squarely on them. PGI has one less excuse for issues, for not communicating with us. The millstone of certain people rampantly attacking their every word, should be reduced or removed. So now they need to step up in a big way. Communicate. Deliver. LISTEN. And when things go sideways, as will ALWAYS happen, communicate some more. The same standards we the community are held to, the Mods, volunteer or otherwise, and Devs, need to be held to, ALSO.
Our role?
CONSTRUCTIVE Criticism. When and where there are legit issues, that can realistically expect to be balanced, fixed, etc? We need to, in concise and civil manners, bring it to PGI's attention. I have actually found considerable success just tagging Russ on Twitter, and instead of being confrontational, saying "hey, discovered this issue", or "hey, had this idea". Doesn't mean everything is handled the way I want, and doesn't mean I like having to go to twitter to get it done. Perhaps now though, Russ can actually get a word in edgewise on PGI's own forums, he might use it more regularly.
There are certainly things to complain about. SOme of the Clan Balance ideas were just poorly handled. Invisible walls on 2 year old mps, etc. Yet I get the feeling that half the people doing the complaining, have never bothered to submit detailed support tickets about these things, either. And other things, we just have to accept are NOT going to change, like the Heat System. Sized Hardpoints, etc. Would they make it better? Almost certainly. And nearly 3 yrs down the rabbit hole, such a core tear down is almost certainly NOT going to happen. So stop cluttering every post opining about these things, and then decrying PGI as idiots. It just makes getting the things we can realistically expect to see fixed, harder to dig out and find.
And if that is not acceptable to folk? There's the door. Get off PGI's Boat. Go, live long, prosper. FInd a game that DOES make you happy, and go enjoy the rainbows and sunshine there. (Though I have a feeling many of the usual suspects, including the ones who were banned, will be just as miserable and complaining on other forums too, as some folks are only happy when they are making things miserable for everyone, themselves included). But there is no reason to be HERE, making themselves, and everyone else miserable, and stirring up trouble.
So me? Yeah, there are issues. And I plan to keep calling PGI out when I see them. But it is past high time this town had a Sheriff, and the riff-raff got the heck out of Dodge.
As for the continued life cycle and viability of this game? Can't say my name is Nostradamus. But it would be silly for them, at this point to abandon it, now that the "hard part" is mostly over (finally, and yes, well behind schedule). PGI is a Dev Studio on the other hand, not a Mechwarrior Studio. If you expected them to spend every cent, every waking moment, from now til eternity on MWO, then you really need a reality check. They need to develop games to grow and have a chance at being stable and healthy, as a business. But as CW get's implemented, the actual staff demand for MWO will go down, freeing up programmers for other games, which are known as Revenue Streams, which keep the lights on, and all the titles running. So if you are secretly hoping this new game fails, or that PGI loses the MWO franchise, you are really sabotaging yourself. BEcause if this new venture fails, MWO will almost certainly go dark. And since no one BUT Smith and Tinker/PGI were willing to actually pay for the license in the last decade of MWO, don't expect some major "good" studio to run in, scoop it up, and save the day. PGI fails, MechWarrior is probably dead, for a very very long time, if not permanently.
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BLOOD WOLF, on 07 September 2014 - 10:38 AM, said:
