Game Designer Says Developers Would Be More Candid If Gamer Culture Wasn't So Toxic

Started by the-pi-guy, Sep 25, 2017, 10:02 PM

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the-pi-guy

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The other day a friend commented to me "I wish game developers were more candid about development." He was surprised when I said we are. The caveat is that we're only candid with other industry people. Because gamer culture is so toxic that being candid in public is dangerous. See that recent twitter thread about game design tricks to make games better -- filled with gamers "angry" about "being lied to."

Forums and comment sections are full of dunning-kruger specialists who are just waiting for any reason to descend on actual developers. See any thread where some Franz Ferdinand comments how "easy" it would be to, say, add multiplayer or change engines. Any dev who talks candidly about the difficulty of something like that just triggers a wave of people questioning their entire resumé. "Questioning" here being an absurd euphemism for "becoming a target of an entire faction of gamers for harassment or worse."

There are still topics I can't touch because I was candid once and it resulted in dumb headlines, misunderstandings, and harassment. So while I'd talk candidly about certain big topics right now -- I know doing so would lead to another wave of assholes throwing shame at me. (And of course I face almost nothing compared to women/PoC/lgtbq+ folk)
Game Designer Says Developers Would Be More Candid If Gamer Culture Wasn't So Toxic

darkknightkryta


Legend

Pretty much true but it's also very one sided. Games are a billion dollar industry and there are definitely times when there needs to be backlash. Some of his tweets say there shouldn't be any of this.

darkknightkryta

Pretty much true but it's also very one sided. Games are a billion dollar industry and there are definitely times when there needs to be backlash. Some of his tweets say there shouldn't be any of this.
There's an over arching problem with the internet in general.  People complain, but they're not constructive.  How can devs improve if the majority of what the internet says is "This sucks make it better" when the game in question that sucks is at least average and nothing constructive is given to improve it.  I can see why devs are getting more and more afraid of backlash.

Legend

There's an over arching problem with the internet in general.  People complain, but they're not constructive.  How can devs improve if the majority of what the internet says is "This sucks make it better" when the game in question that sucks is at least average and nothing constructive is given to improve it.  I can see why devs are getting more and more afraid of backlash.
Oh gosh I hate the internet with this. There are so many nuanced issues that always develop into extremes.