The motive behind my post was really an anger at all the “game haters” that bag on a game before it’s even released. Many cannot make the distinction between what their personal taste are in games and what a good game makes. Just because it doesn’t appeal to you, doesn’t mean it doesn’t appeal to others. Not everyone is into twitch gaming, though I’ve bagged my fair share of head shots, and it doesn’t have to have a BFG and camping to be a great game. There is something to be said for a finely crafted platformer or highly refined turned based strategy. Unfortunately giving people the ability to make anonymous statements on the internet has had an unhealthy side effect of giving the village idiots a voice. Go look at the forums of many game developer’s sites and you’ll see what I mean. They are blind fanboys or game haters, both equally absurd. I hope developers don’t put too much stock in either.

Back in the day I was a play tester for FASA, specifically the Shadowrun series (pen & paper gaming) and the process of developing any game is a difficult challenge. The Shadowrun community was an incredible group to work with because of the quality of input that was given. I really think that is what is missing in development today. And it’s hard to find reasonable input in the forums of many sites because reasonable people get pushed out by all the haters/village idiots. We as the gaming community have the opportunity to make a difference in the quality of the games being made and would see more interaction with developers if what we were offering was of any quality. Both “everything XYZ makes rokz” and “this game sux cuz I can’t let go a game I played in ‘98 that was a lot like this but it wasn’t” aren’t the kind of input developers are looking for. Well thought out ideas and helpful criticism are what is lacking….not flame wars.

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