I certainly am going to get my fair share of opposition because of this, but I nevertheless decided to voice my opinion.
(I put the term “elitist” in qutation marks because of it’s delicate and complex nature, no insult intended. It generally is used for people with much experience who place themselves over others.)
So, what do I mean with that?
I’ve seen it many times, e.g. over at Paradox, that the developers listen mainly to the loudest community members when it comes to change gameplay mechanics and stuff… Since the loudest are the ones heard, this isn’t a surprise, of course, but still not advisable.
The reasons:
The loudest people, often corresponding with the “elitist” faction, are usually not the majority of the paying customers, which leads to the conclusion that they are not voicing the opinion of the majority.
Statements like “too easy” are used inflationary and often is only self-adulation, to show how much pro one is.
Everything seems to be cheesy, a cheat, gamey and should better be erased out of the game, because they fear a disadvantage or other threads. Often it’s actually just using your given tools: your brain and the game environment.
I’ve seen quite a bunch of games suffering from this issue. The result is often limiting the player to the “one true way” of playing the game, abolishing other ways and therefore the variety of playstiles.
If You - Funcom - think you found something which a lot people are unhappy about, why not create a poll for that? (Same applies to ideas/suggestions.) Give everyone 7 to 14 days to answer, maybe even with explanations via answer.
I would assume that answers with detailed explanations should be the more important voices than just voices without anwers or explanations. (Sometimes people have good ideas, then others can list reasons in favor or against it; this can sometimes lead to very interesting solutions.)
Ahem.
“Melee game.”
(Really, screw the existance of bows and throwable weapons then… I am still sad how weak archery is compared to melee.)
I think when they would consider adding new features for the game, they should open a pool thread to see the community’s thoughts. Like “we had this idea, good ? bad? modifications?”
Is True & the So called Elitist this what they always do… Get tired in 1-2 months Max Move on to another Game. A small Percentage of them are one Making cheats & when they claim Game is too easy is because they found a flaw in programming that if they get fix there way will allow for the cheat to work better. There’s so many variables that can be used in Game complaints to use to your advantage. that being said. Not all Elitist resort to cheats only like around 38%. Now is Like Age of Conan game few times u listen to PVP saying stuff change it & they knew that would create a bigger flaw in Game. after they abused it left the game came back 3-6 yrs later. Like it or not they manipulate must programmer’s with so called Logic for the change knowing Dam well they have Nefarious intention behind it all.
I assume that this wouldn’t adress the problem of the “silent majority”, since the participants would be the ones who already are active and “loud”, so to speak.
The worst part probably is, that no ingame polls will be possible.
Though… If they would work with steam to have everyone (who has CE in his list) being asked to take part in those polls… That might work, wouldnt it?