when so many people want so many things fixed, changed, added, taken away, buffed, nerfed etc.? Does it ever bother you? Do you sometimes wish we would STFU and be happy with what you have created?
That's game development. Especially when you plan on supporting your game. Have to have thick skin to do what we do. If you don't, don't make games.
I don't think I could stand it.... SO many people wanting so many changes to something I created. But I guess ya'll didn't make it for yourselves. You made it for us.
I'd guess there would be a few plusses to it if you were able to shake off the negative; at least people complaining means they're paying attention. Plus there is little chance that you won't hear how a player that plays seriously will feel about changes both upcoming and past. The "Splode-a-Pro" type of contributions must go a long way for you too. I haven't been on any other game forums but seem to hear that this one is relatively well behaved, has there been anything about the forums that isn't what you expected as game developers?
Go check out the Steam forums for Team Fortress 2 if you want to see an example of a badly-behaved forum.
I think this sums up how the devs feel about the general community's ideas (from the meet the dev team page); I got a good chuckle out of this when I read it. Between the stages of being a complete newbie at the game and having full enlightenment by being an all around professional gamer specializing in a certain game, ideas about game balance and cries for nerfs and buffs will be abundant because the majority doesn't understand how game balance even works, and they feel they are being cheated by one thing or another so they complain. Most of us gamers have terrible ideas and don't understand the full potential of every class and / or full grasp on game mechanics, even as much as we think we do. Instead of full out telling us what we are doing wrong the developers let us figure it out on our own because that is part of the 'growing' experience that keeps games mentally stimulating. Developers have to sift through the pool of complaints with a sieve to find the few nuggets of information that is actually accurate and true and would make a positive impact on the overall game. I imagine that the devs think our ignorance is cute and laugh and smile at most of our ideas the way you would laugh at an ignorant child who has yet to fully understand something. They take comfort in this and allows them to do what they do for a living and not worry about the negative criticism too much. TL;DR - Dev's know what they are doing and the majority of us consumers do not fully grasp game balances the way we think we do.
I'm on my sixth playthrough of Game Dev Story. I love it! When I'm not making games, I'm at home playing a game about making games.
