Topic: Failure to Communicate

This months Game Informer has a article entitled "Failure to Communicate" that is written by Corey May the co-founder of Sekretanent Games. He is a Harvard Education and has written for many of the Prince of Persia games to name a few of the guys accomplishments. In the article, that I recommend reading if you have the magazine, it basically is a developer saying that the communication between the devs and the gamers is very poor. When they track forums, they get a lot of "this is the best game ever" and "worst game ever, even though I haven't played it" and to a developer its just completely worthless. Its very hard for them to find useful conversation that are critical to their games, because they actually do need criticism to help with the development of the next game, to know what we did/didn't like. Its the reason I'm critical and not just ranting and raving over a brand of game/games. I know that this is a site that is looked at and monitored by developers, we have had some even chat here, and I'm not just going to fan-boy, because its not what they look for, or need. If they make a great game that is awesome, but there is always something that can make it better, and you can post it, send it to the developers, etc. Get our post out and help get some good info to these guys/gals that make our games we love to play. I think this site has carried on some great conversation here and the next time a thread is started about a games issues, post things that are relevant to it and don't just flood it with "The Company Sucks" or "That game is garbage", etc. All it takes is a quick Google search for a Developer to find the thread and get some useful info they can use. I think this article needed a post like this, as you can Google it yourself and find a few rants against the guy, Cory May has a very valid point he was trying to make. The economy is horrible, and thousands of jobs are on the line constantly in the gaming industry, and these people have families they are supporting. They need good feedback and try to get some from forums, but they have to wade through thousands of wasteful post to find anything useful. As a gamer who keeps up with the industry, and a active forum user here on NintendoLife, I felt I should post this. I would like to see our site here be heard by the developers more and more.

are you kidding? i come here to chat with people about games and stuff, not to pander to developers. I don't see why i (or anyone else) should be guilted into constantly having to give full reasoning about things just because a developer may be trawling the forums looking for feedback. If they're that desperate, all they need to do is post a thread (or post in a thread) about their game specifically asking for feedback, as a few devs have done already, and people will gladly oblige. :/

@TBD..... oh, I do the same thing lol. I mean there have been many a thread created here that has been about a certain game and what needs to be fixed. Those are the threads I was refering too. This forum has a awesome community and I come here and laugh my butt off mostly at some of the post here in General Discussion and that is the best part about it. I just meant about the thread specific to a games problems. Nooooo has been pretty active here and Im sure they took some good advice from us, I thought that was really cool. Example a new game comes out with online issues and a thread is created about it, it could be a great place for a dev to get feedback. That is all I was talking about.

A huge wall of text like that just reads "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah..."

Use the "enter" key.

It's your friend.

What do you expect? He only went to Harvard...

Hawr Hawrrrr Hawwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr................

He's welcome to open a thread and get his hands dirty here with us, just like Eripmav (Legendo), et al. (That's Latin for "and others," for those of you less educated, knuckle-dragging gaaaaaaaaaaaaamers - whose opinion he seeks to make his games better.)

I find people usually end up asking why they think "this game sucks" and then they never get an answer. When you're looking for feedback, you look for threads which are ideas or suggestions.

Right. Legendo, Nnooo, Gaijin Games, and others whose names elude me, have all taken it upon THEMSELVES to come here, engage their user base, and solicit feedback. And while I'm sure they still get a lot of one-sentence "this sucks" / "this is great" replies, they also get a lot of well-expressed concern and criticism.

But the key is that they solicit it themselves. They ask for it. They make themselves open to it.

What they DON'T do is hover silently in the background and then get all pissy that the answers they seek aren't being found. Guess what, phantom game developer: you're not getting the answers because you never bothered to ask the question.

Most people don't write essays regarding what they did/didn't like about the game, along with a length appendix on how that game could have been improved. (Excepting actual game reviewers, of course.) The reason people don't write that is because there's no perceivable reason to invest that much time and energy. When a developer opens a thread, however, or pops into one in progress, then folks realize that they are being listened to, and they respond accordingly.

Honestly, I've never felt the need to go through an itemized list of why I might like a game when I reply on here. So I think they should make the effort to "connect/communicate" with gamers by creating a forum handle and contributing to discussion. I don't see why someone would complain about lack of communication when they just need to register.