This is a problem anywhere the customer is completely disconnect with the costs of the product they consume. To the a feature is a costless idea that simply can be implemented by saying the word. As we know in real life every feature has time, money and community costs -- many of which are hard to estimate.
It's why I can ever work in the videogame industry, a fickle and unsympathetic user base who often has no comprehension or respect for the scale of the product they are using.
Actually, for a videogame community, the MWO community is pretty mature and helpful. But if people spend $100+ on a promise of a game concept and no progress towards that happens in a couple of years, they will get grumpy even if mild tempered.
I think PGI could have saved themselves a lot of grief by:
- Getting private matchmaking out much earlier than May this year. It's been requested since day one, and would have kept the hardcore folks busy until community warfare.
- Learn the art of tweaking game balance. They drop patches every two weeks. Instead of making huge, sometimes game wrecking, balance changes every three months they could have nudged the balance slightly each patch. "Missiles seem slightly too easy to avoid - making them 3% faster" doesn't make anyone blow a gasket. "Bumping missile speed 75%" will.
To the a feature is a costless idea that simply can be implemented by saying the word. As we know in real life every feature has time, money and community costs -- many of which are hard to estimate.
Except this is an example of features being added that the community didnot want.
Comments
This is a problem anywhere the customer is completely disconnect with the costs of the product they consume. To the a feature is a costless idea that simply can be implemented by saying the word. As we know in real life every feature has time, money and community costs -- many of which are hard to estimate.
It's why I can ever work in the videogame industry, a fickle and unsympathetic user base who often has no comprehension or respect for the scale of the product they are using.
Actually, for a videogame community, the MWO community is pretty mature and helpful. But if people spend $100+ on a promise of a game concept and no progress towards that happens in a couple of years, they will get grumpy even if mild tempered.
I think PGI could have saved themselves a lot of grief by:
- Getting private matchmaking out much earlier than May this year. It's been requested since day one, and would have kept the hardcore folks busy until community warfare.
- Learn the art of tweaking game balance. They drop patches every two weeks. Instead of making huge, sometimes game wrecking, balance changes every three months they could have nudged the balance slightly each patch. "Missiles seem slightly too easy to avoid - making them 3% faster" doesn't make anyone blow a gasket. "Bumping missile speed 75%" will.
Except this is an example of features being added that the community didnot want.