What is the purpose of making a statement like this? I understand you’re frustrated, but you went on to make a post that took you a bit of time and effort. But you began it like this.
This doesn’t help the situation and if you’re trying to get feedback to someone to fix an issue, accusing them of trying to make you suffer, isn’t how to do it. You could have easily said, “The game has so much potential but unfortunately each change makes the game worse off than it was before.”
It says exactly what you meant without the vitriol of an attack on the developers. Because I don’t believe for a second you believe in the very statement I quoted.
I’ve had my disagreements with the devs in the past. I’ve never felt the need to make need to make such accusations of them trying to make the game worse. I don’t believe doing so would have gotten the fixes I desired, or any other privileges afforded me since I’ve played this game.
And this is the frustrating point I have with many of you. You have valid concerns, have some decent suggestions in many cases. But then much of it gets lost or ignored because quite frankly no one wants to read through insults, personal attacks, and accusations.
Imagine for a moment if your supervisor or boss came to you and said in front of your clients, customers, and co-workers claiming that a screw up you had was done deliberately to sabotage the project or customer satisfaction. I doubt many of you would tolerate that. I’m not even certain that’s legal in some jurisdictions to talk to a subordinate like that. We have that privilege because we’re users and customers obviously. But that doesn’t make it right.
I don’t even understand why either. There’s nothing in the forum rules against criticism. The issue IS the criticism. Usually they just lock and delist; you were part of recent discussion about another game and know what happens when it’s something a bit controversial even when it is in the right category. As you’ve pointed out before, yet some remain like the abomination thread.
I agree with the basic premise as well. While things haven’t always been the best, it WAS better. Like the hacking XD
Cursory glances in my previous research on several topics I’ve brought forth kind of supports his points. We are on the outside looking in and can only use deductive reasoning for much of it. This is where clarification makes a big difference so conspiracy theories don’t take centerpoint.
Even then, piecemeal scraps are thrown at us. Mystery games are created, all hush hush and only when you happen to visit twitter there’s an inkling, so some invested can get busy cracking the code. Feels like we’re ants being watched through the glass. Sure it can be fun; I’ll give it that. These little games though… marketing stunts? Do they really scratch the itch of engagement? Does it go viral as it seemingly is attempting to create? No.
Now relegated to poor attempts of throwing a bone that really only appeases few. I’m not really mad about it honestly. Being replaced with deafening silence and abrupt “oh by the way” updates.
Where’s the roadmap? Why does it have to be so secret? Barely anyone is sitting on the edge of their seats salivating for the next best Conan surprise. I feel dread instead; thinking “oh shit, what are they going to f-up next”. I participated in a thread recently and mentioned game fatigue. Are they trying to avoid creating too much expectation? But why make it so it’s virtually unknown for the greater playerbase?
Feels more like we’re guinea pigs on the half-cocked ideals of someone else though. Sure ya, it’s their game, they can do what they want. It’s a slow and sure death as far as I am concerned. I’m not so self-absorbed to believe the game is to be what I want, but damn, I remember when it was what I wanted. I craved it. My free time was devoted to it and it meant something. Not anymore.
As you and others probably know, the ToC topic has been something I’ve keenly paid attention to. Watched so much happen to prove suspicions, the advocacy for myself and players, trying to assist players in game and in the forums to understand what they were getting into, the consequences of decisions, the processes involved. This is and will always be the worst when it comes to their inability to communicate. It is a huge example of how they lack the ability to simply talk to us. We don’t have to like it. We don’t have to agree with it. We just need to understand it.
The surprise updates with no context or after the fact developer letters is tough on everyone. Why can’t there be some discussion beforehand to help us to understand and manage expectations? What is so ■■■■■■■ hard about doing this? Seriously? Maybe part of the secrecy I mentioned above.
These behaviours create distrust and anger. It drives players away.
A sore spot is favouritism. I’m not stupid, others that have mentioned it in the past are not stupid. It’s happened. I’m not talking about special treatment regarding Official servers either, but those who are privy to information regarding staff, the company and direction of the game that the rest are not. Those who get picked quietly to test the game or are asked for their opinions, without extending the same courtesy to the community as a whole. It’s accepted as ok within the community or not believed to be true because of gaslighting apologetics who have had the honour becoming abusive when anything remotely close to it is mentioned (wouldn’t be surprised if that happens to me here, again).
It is. Damage control, pretty words. Sometimes pretty words help, reassurances, communication and we’re asking for it. But it has to come with action too.
Now to the other instances I have seen personally. One was a ToC discussion (surprise XD) where mass reporting was being heavily discussed and supported as a working truth to eliminate anyone and was deleted and another for an art contest where the winner (awesome piece btw) commented about a month later that they still hadn’t received the prize nor any communication regarding it. So usually these deletions are done well after the fact and tends to go unnoticed.
But not this time. Ya I wouldn’t be surprised with that heavy hand having done what it did to @Pugilist doing the same again to yours.
I’ve been a pretty brutal critic but I absolutely adore this game, I have said it in the past and to this day I still love it. I can also still call many of you in the community as friends and have deep respect for those that treat me with respect in kind despite my sometimes abrasive words even when we don’t agree with each other. Sometimes our words are not well received… but that should be reserved to other players. Not to a company that should welcome the freedom to give criticism. It’s part of running a highly visible business.
There will always be low effort insulting tirades from players; that comes with it too. Funcom is lucky to have had the devotion of their player base for 7 long years and should be happy that the majority of the criticism, both good and bad, is well thought out, intelligent and thought provoking.
Removing entire posts that are within the forum guidelines, are polite and provide criticism though… it’s embarrassing.
I was Talking about FC, the company, which are bought by tencent.
I don’t know who exactly is responsible for what and who makes the decisions, but they don’t care.
We bought their product, and it doesn’t work.
I thought i made that standpoint clear in the past.
In the end it doesn’t even matter who exactly is responsible. I‘m a chef, if s patron tells me his food is salty i don’t tell him it wasn’t me.
I apologize and try to fix it.
FC also doesn’t do that. They “run away back into the kitchen… never to be seen again”
While I agree with what you say, it is not my prime concern. When I look at the truly gamebreaking bugs like inventory and foundation falling, introduced in the last patches and months going by without proper fixes, that half baked communication just makes it worse for me tbh
They dont like communicating with the community. They did try a long time ago, but the community can be harsh. The replies sometimes just look harsh, even if the person meant well.
People who are enjoying the game dont complain about anything, they just play the game and dont say anything unless its a comment in an dev stream.
Only people who are dissatisfied with the game show up here and complain. I’m fairly certain the complaints were the reason they gave up on Steam forums, a lot of users and some of them were really vile. I was quite active there, there were real jerks around(and I left because FC left). Not many companies that create their own forums these days.
Here too a lot of people complain(as I have done myself in the past). And every change will lead to some people complaining about something. Some people liked the old purge and some hate it(like me), for example.
I think they’ve come to the point of “whatever we do, someone will complain” and while some of them might see the need to communicate with the players, they just cant be bothered.
Thats the explanation from someone who has been since the very beginning, do with it as you will.
I know I complain, but if I didnt like the game, I would have left long ago. I want the game to be good or better, so I’m here. I assume its the same for others. Someone should remind them.
Ahh, a subject that has had me put it in the corner more than once.
TBH, i have no probpem with them selecting actual players for NDA type testing. My problem is when the release of the “special test” gameplay flops, they use those same people over and over. And thus the “flops” just stack. Full player feedback on release should tell you thay maybe that test group may not be as connected to the whole, and may need some overhaul on occassion to get fresh opinions.
BTW, if you pay attention to the replies on new updates critical threads, you can tell the secret testers by thier defensive tone
What difference does it make who you are talking about? A human being is a human being.
You don’t know who, but someone doesn’t care? Really? That’s what you’re going to stick to?
Except that isn’t what you told the chef here. You didn’t say the food was salty. You accused the chef of adding too much salt to ruin your dish on purpose. There’s a big difference. I’d suggest trying it out next time you’re at a restaurant, but I’d prefer you all not to abuse your hard working waitstaff and service-people in the same manner.
You are much longer part of this forum than me, so you should know better than me how many times some issues have been brought up.
And most people did it in a civil way. Like the thrall and pet feeder boxes for example.
Not only didn’t it get addressed or fixed, they even implemented a reskin with the sacred hunt event that is just as broken.
Yes i stick to that.
If so many issues got brought up but nothing happens, the only explanation i have is someone doesn’t care.
If someone would care they would at least tell us what is going to happen or not to happen.
And i think most people won’t blame me for that assessment.
But if you paragon of wisdom have a better explanation feel free to enlighten us.
Also, to say someone doesn’t care is not exactly an insult is it?
What brings me back to what i said earlier on: we are all responsible for our actions, we are grown adults. But a lot of the toxicity FunCent is facing was caused by their own actions.
We could accept if they are short on people, money or resources what causes delays, but they should at least tell us what is going on.
But “oh no, instead of fixing things we mess with already existing features and overhaul them instead.”
However, that’s where the conversation becomes the equivalent of a car spinning its wheels in the mud.
You’re acting like nothing gets fixed. I’ve brought up several issues in the last six years, and my goodness most of them got fixed. Some haven’t, but we don’t always get what we want when we want them. But that’s no excuse to resort to insults and attacks.
There’s quite a few guys that think this way. They verbally and mentally abuse their significant others on a daily basis and blame them for making them treat them like that. I pray you are not one of those people and are simply infected by the sense of internet detachment.
But I would say that if you sit back and think before you type something and then speak it aloud and consider how it would sound in public. For example, if you said these things to a waitress at a restaurant. How do you think it would be received?
“Are you trying to ruin my dinner?”
“Do you even care if you get my order right?”
Or misusing the name, to denigrate them.
Do you do that to people who serve you in public when they mess up? Or just on the internet?
This hits the nail on the head, I think. With spare resources, one has to make rrrreally good prioritization choices.
New tavern? New inventory? New stamina/combat balance?
Why not… let’s say, finish the corrupted attributes that were left out in Age of Sorcery. That seems like a relatively easy, probably popular choice.
At least I would be perfectly fine with something like some of the corrupted attributes missing due to personal shortages. But if there’s time to introduce completely new systems, that explanation doesn’t hold water. Obviously, there IS time to do a lot of stuff.
And these changes weren’t even on low-hanging fruits one can put a junior developer on for training or something. The tavern system and the combat rebalance seem pretty intricate, at least to a technical layman like me.
The former is nice and seems to work without bugs - great work. But that time could and should have been spend on other things.
And the UI and combat changes are just… well, not great. Working on fixes and filling gaps would have been a wiser choice for that time, too.
About critizing the developers:
I think some of the defenders/censors are you’re confusing criticism of one’s work with personal attacks. If somebody isn’t happy with the work Funcom put out, that certainly is criticism of its developers, managers or whoever is responsible. And that’s okay. All the points made here and in the deleted threads - as far as I could read them - are about the game and the game’s direction, not about the developers as a person.
In short:
Okay: “You did bad.”
Not okay: “You are bad.”
We all weren’t here if we thought the developers were bad developers. If they were, they wouldn’t have created a game that got people engaged.
But good people can do bad things.
And sadly, the game’s direction is steered into a wrong direction.
The reasons are nebulous to me. Is it Tencent? Is it developers not playing the game themselves? Is it too much alcohol during work hours? Who knows - personally, I don’t care that much. It’s the result that matters.
This! This right here sums up everything perfectly!
This again is perfectly put! Simple honest communication, even if it is something that we may not agree with, as long as it is open and honest and explains WHY is so vital, and yet so utterly missing.
To save you from there just look at their own website for a source to prove your point.
Judges will be from the community managers, community support, dev team and a select few Exiles volunteers. Click here for source
There is a particular joy in screaming into the void.
But it is all the more gratifying when the void, in offense, screams back.
Someone is reading and reacting, otherwise threads wouldn’t be locked and users suspended for their statements. In many ways, of the only acknowledgement is efforts to silence, that indicates that someone is on to something. A suspicious habit of the information age, that the more a topic is suppressed, the more merit, however illusionary, it gains.
While this one understands the frustration and sympathizes, even empathizes at times, this in specific is a small wibble.
This one does not necessarily think anyone is deliberately trying to enshittify the game to drive players away. If there was a will to make things worse, there is far more that could be done.
Some things have improved over recent updates. The current system of the purge (compared to when new purge was first released) is better, as an example.
While this one both sharply disagrees with many design decisions, and has a dim view of the excellence with which these decisions are executed, this one doubts deliberate malfeasance.
Ask this one for a list of ways to make the game worse, this one can go on a very long tirade.
But not in public.
Trolls eat that stuff up and then think they are clever in suggesting it to those who do make decisions.
We all see great potential in this game, and this one agrees that resources are badly misapplied. Even if the ideas were executed effectively, this one simply finds the direction chosen to be other than enjoyable in many instances.
They no longer seem particularly interested in making a game this one finds particularly interesting.
But this one doubts it is done to deliberately spite this one.
But if it is, this one has been saving a cigar and some cognac for just such a triumph. With apologies to everyone else suffering thru the last Age of What is it Good For, this one will do a happily little level up dance if the devs of this game have become so obsessed with this cantankerous old fool that their motivation is to thwart this one in what little way they can.
And if they are acting directly to harm you, this one will raise the glass to you. What immense power, to guide the maldevelopment of a game just to hate on one of the players, that is influence all out of scope with the nature of the situation.
you seen to forget that in many instances many people here has tried to provide feedback in the most respectful ways, i have seen people been considerate, even defending funcom from others, in the end nothing changed, and people eventually gets frustrated and angry.
i have no idea how many times i have heard of promised improvements, we are still waiting, and its not coming.
i do belive funcom is responsible for how some people (not all) is reacting. dont expect kind responses when people are lied, or a corporation try out PR spins that could eventually insult other people intelligence…
people is not stupid, we can see things, we might not know exactly the reason but most people is smart enough to understand that something is going on…
i bet they will come back in force if dune fails as this tittle is the only things that is paying their bills, sadly for funcom, CE has been the only really profitable tittle they had in many years, heck it even saved funcom from being bankrupt. (wonder why)
i know i am not giving then a dime for dune, cant do it, not after the treatment i am seeing with CE, this game is now officially not important for funcrom.
me neither but i suspect, white knights for sure … i can think of a few die hard that will cut their veins for a corporation that does nto give then any financial benefits… maybe some of those who posts fast builds?
people has asked valid questions, over the annoucement and at least since yesterday i have not seen them even caring to respond. ill check and post back
A sentiment with which I would wholeheartedly agree, if it weren’t for the reality of the current situation that led to this thread existing - to whit, the community team has been actively removing polite but critical threads from the forum, without comment, or the courage to even suggest why. And they are doing so at a time when they are ignoring unpleasant or rude complaints - apparantly that is fine - and, worse still, ignoring bug reports and polite requests from players for help getting the game to even function. If they were absent from all aspects, I would agree ‘tis July, and all is as expected’, but there is no even hand here, just corporate censorship that makes me believe properly thought out criticism is no longer considered acceptable.
At this point the whole ‘star of our own story’ claim is nothing but hot air. Just take, for example, the complaints I’ve made several times over the Kurak dungeon - in what way is being an evil sorceror’s minion (and make no mistake, that is what the character is when doing the Kurak stuff - and Mek talks to you exactly as to a servant) being the “star”? In what way is the only ‘heroic brabarian’ act in the entire storyline being performed by Conan (an NPC, since apparently Funcom have forgotten that) somehow centring the story on the player?
I have always resisted this interpretation. I have sought to view errors as well-intended, and partial implementation of ideas as a function of time. But when the community team acts to silence polite criticism, while not acting to help players that actually need help, I find it hard to view the situation as anything less than adversarial.
Indeed so - yet seemingly those are often considered acceptable by the community team and ignored. This leads to the suspicion that polite but potentially accurate criticism is the problem in their view. Most players reading a dissatisfied rant will write it off and ignore it - the writer is incoherent and angry - but polite and well-written criticism, whether we agree with it or not seems to scare the community team into action.
There was a comedy skit, a somewhat, how do modern humans say, spicy one, called Assistant Principal’s Big Day.
It is very illustrative of how this one views all action during the designated vacation time.
