Why the devs might love to update the community but often can't
So in recent times when something is amiss like the game needing color blind options more than ever or people wanting some details of if something is in the works the devs are usually silent about it.
Most people think its a cut and dry thing that the devs just don't want to tell people things but its usually not as cut and dry
Most gaming and media companies have they employess and everyone else involved sign a NDA, or a non-disclosure agreement
The rough rundown of a NDA it is an agreement of confidentiality sharing confidential information like new updates or changes being made or new features like color blind modes, can lead to people being sued, fined, or fired.
Im sure the devs would have loved to tell everyone that X was getting changed as soon as they decided or that Y was going to be different to ease backlash, but due to NDAs there is not much information that can get through and most of the time you can see / hear them trying to carefully word things so they can ease tensions without breaking the NDA
So whenever you blame the devs for being silent remember, its probably because they can't give that information and depending on the information they will wait until they get the go ahead just in case
Comments
Almo is 100% in a NDA and he said so himself before the incident. Spamming him with the same thing that the Devs are already working on to get an answer might put him into trouble if he slipped. No wonder he got pissed.
Incident?, but also yea of course like most people that take pride in their work he would love to talk about what he is working on but knows the nda is holding him back, it must be annoying to see 100 of the same question come in about something that he heard is being worked on or is being worked on himself but he can't say anything, that or maybe that person was just spamming the same question and almo already said he can't answer it a few times and kept badgering him, don't know but it must be rough
NDA or not, BHVR the company could of said something. This isn't some big crossover with another company. It's an assessiblity option that was a growing concern to the community that plays their game.
I think alot of times when people say "devs" they really mean BHVR - so "devs" instead of the specific department(s) at BHVR responsible for organizing and sharing information. While devs like Almo/McLean are under NDA there are those above them that can work with PR department to put out informative updates more often.
There are some that unfortunately do mean specific devs. I'm pretty sure based on the way those players comment they think Almo is only person working on DBD and makes 100% of the decisions.
Yeah and the fault lies with the company and blaming one person who I don't think had any part in making colorblind mode isn't the way to go and only shines bad light on him among forum lurkers and his co workers alike.
But I agree with you. BHVR should have atleast said that they are working on it like they did for blight's POV changes. But then if they did, how high are the odds that another person would spam a different question and lead to the same situation? I've checked his streams recently and he does answer DBD related questions until this happened but spamming just in hopes of squeezing an answer out will annoy anyone. And idk how many people know what really happened and just take things out of context.
Of course the company could have said something, thats how we got the tweet, but it took like a full day of everyone going ape after a week or two of people rallying to actually get a response to calm people, im sure they started trying to pass information up to ease tensions much earlier but it just took that long
I don't expect individual employees to be doing it. I expect a official response. There's no shortage of companies that do a far better job at progress updates than this one.
I have never played a game with so little communication and I played League of Legends for years. Players complained of a lack of info back then from Riot and they were more open than BHVR. Blizzard is more open than BHVR and they are Blizzard.
Colour Blind Mode isn't something that needs to be kept secret. Literally just say "we are working on it, no ETA but we are working on it." Most of us would have been fine with that. They never said anything remotely close to this, so yeah. Fact is, the colour changes look like they would take an hour to figure out, not months or even years.
But I dunno. Probably just the pessimist in me. 🤷♂️