Why is GGG caving in to casuals' demands?

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mushioov wrote:

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I_NO wrote:

Yo I'm still lol'ing that the OP considers PA to make things easier that's fucking amazing.

Not necessarily PA itself, but the issue that GGG caved in under the pressure of casuals constantly whining that they want PA when it wasn't part of the design philosophy of the game. I've always said it's a slippery slope on these areas. Once you "give" something, the demands will just keep coming and coming and unless those who are in control (GGG) stop it, it will end up a mess.

Let me quote a LEGENDARY game designer on this:

"Diablo II and the expansion are the games that we at Blizzard want to play. That is our formula for success. Companies that design games based on focus groups, marketing opinions, and even fan input do not succeed. Although hearing the opinions of others are valuable to us, every design decision must pass the test of whether or not WE would want it in the game. In many cases, we've changed our minds after hearing compelling arguments. But we've decided that PKing is part of the Diablo universe. We are well aware that this does not please everyone. However, you are right: we are not apologetic about it. Not at all. Sure, we could implement a PK switch. It's a trivial coding task. But we wouldn't be being true to ourselves, and our goals as gamemakers.

We are proud of what we've made in the Diablo universe, and the overwhelming success and support of our customers vindicates our core decisions from a business standpoint as well. Sure we've made mistakes, after all, we're just gamers who are fortunate enough to have built a successful game company. We spend each day doing what we love to do: make and play fun computer games. The sales and success are nice, but they are secondary to our goal of making the games that we want to play.

Max Schaefer
Vice President and co-founder, Blizzard North"

So you think this guy doesn't know what he's talking about?

Discuss.

well its not that the words he says are 100% truth.

its that people should look at the words them and draw truth out of them. as in identify it and acknowledge it.

that there is no golden rule.

Ignoring your player base is not the rule to "stand your ground".
constantly obeying the player base is not the rule.
any combination of ignoring or obeying any random amount of your player base is not "the rule"

they do have to be honest to them selves. and from that letter it seemed as if they (max schaefer and the crew) are doing so.

they are allowed to make a choice about how easy or challenging their game is and then the live with it.

if 80% opf the players are upset and leave. oh well. thats their (the gaem companies') choice .

if 80% of the player base is supportive great. but its their choice to decide the foundational design of that aspect of the game. its not a good thing, its not a bad thing. its just a thing.


but it reference to the original question of this thread?

Why is GGG caving in to casuals' demands?

again. no clear answer. They are making a choice. they shape the difficulty curve of the game, they decide if hardcore characters are deleted totally. they decide the overall challenge level. they decide if loot allocation options are allowed to be set.

if they are being honest with themselves then they dont have to feel even the least bit cornered in regards to the accusatory statement "you're caving to casuals' demands...

Companies like GGG are a BILLON MILES away from the shit-hole companies around that are creating games that could be identified as "bending over and flaring their filthy cunts open to the casuals"

the fact that GGG is under the microscope is pretty crazy...o well...

I personally love the idea of providing many options in regards to dividing up the loot automatically. but that's just me...

Whoever coined the term Hardcore in Video Games obviously has differing perceptions on life than I.

My work is hardcore, my wifes bitching is hardcore, my bills are hardcore...video games are casual.

I know "casual" players who have more time in than people classifying themselves as hardcore.

Most people bitching and moaning about PA geared/skilled themselves to be loot snatchers and hate it when they lose the extra warm bodies to provide their living. Oh well lifes a bitch.

The only thing in this game that I would consider "Hardcore" is the de-sync, the E-mouths spewing hate/whine/nerf/L2P/Bye/Can I have your stuff.

Id like to see a few things changed too, whether or not they get changed who knows, but the game is set up to have leagues and options so those who want to do one thing are going to do it regardless of what anyone else is doing.

I don't hardly ever party except with a few friends and no matter how much its focused otherwise that wont change, nor would it for most people I know. If you try to force a single-minded vision on people, your going to lose a lot of players and Im sure GGG knows that.

There is such thing as compromising vision without compromising integrity of either the company or the game. I dont agree with everything they do, but they dont work for me.

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mushioov wrote:

I'm a game developer myself so yes I pretty damn well do know how the system works. I have a feeling that you don't understand what is happening under the hood. If you have any understanding about the issue you'd understand that GGG can't "fix" the issue no matter how much people cry on the forums or on facebook comments.

^ This.

You can't "fix" desync any more than you can "fix" lag in other games. Mitigate, yes - eliminate, no.

Doesn't matter how many times you try to explain it though, someone will always trump actual knowledge with "omg teh netcode sux" and the peanut gallery gives a standing ovation.

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mushioov wrote:

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TheAnuhart wrote:

I mean, let's take desync, GGG should do nothing about desync because the masses demand they do?

Horrible example. Desync happens to maybe 1% of players. It's only that those 1% are loud as hell. It's not GGG's fault if your internet connection is wired through the jungle.

Aaaaand any credibility you and the OP may have had, just went out the window at light speed.

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Aaaaand any credibility you and the OP may have had, just went out the window at light speed.

+1

GGG fix the speed of light plox.

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Miszou wrote:

^ This.

You can't "fix" desync any more than you can "fix" lag in other games. Mitigate, yes - eliminate, no.

Doesn't matter how many times you try to explain it though, someone will always trump actual knowledge with "omg teh netcode sux" and the peanut gallery gives a standing ovation.

There is a point of mitigation that any reasonable person refers to as "fixed."

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reboticon wrote:

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Miszou wrote:

^ This.

You can't "fix" desync any more than you can "fix" lag in other games. Mitigate, yes - eliminate, no.

Doesn't matter how many times you try to explain it though, someone will always trump actual knowledge with "omg teh netcode sux" and the peanut gallery gives a standing ovation.

There is a point of mitigation that any reasonable person refers to as "fixed."

Very true... for varying degrees of "reasonable" and "fixed".

;)

The reason is as simple as you might think: There are 10 x more casual gamers than hardcore no-life 24/7s. And the collective is more important than the individual.

this game is already too easy for some, look here:

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Ventor wrote:

~b/o 140 exa each FIRM.

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