What is going on?
What happened with the communications, BHVR? As far as I recall, you Identified this as one aspect that needed improvement, that the communications with the community had been lacking and inconsistent. I personally felt you improved for a while. But these last couple of weeks you have slammed shut like a clam.
Don’t get me wrong here, if you don’t want to let the community influence the game and be a part of the upcoming changes, that’s your call. But you keep inviting us in. And you keep letting many of us down.
Take the latest Q&A as an example. You decided to put it out there - no one forced your hand. “The best questions will be answered”, you said. I saw the questions drop in, a majority involved concerns about the suggested nurse change. I watched in real-time how you skipped each and every question that had anything to do with the nurse. And then you did the same thing with questions about the business model of the rift/archives. The concerns of the community remained unanswered.
Another example: The devs/community managers have been very active on the forums. But as soon as some members of the community uncovered that there had been a change in grind somewhere between pitching the idea to us and implementing the project, the devs/community managers went silent. This may be a coincidence of course, but it seems very convenient that you later address the selling points in a stream, rather than responding to the concerns of the community.
Here’s a few questions I would like to have answers to (and I don’t care about the selling points on the other side). Again, if you don’t want to answer, that’s your call:
- How many hours/day do you need to play to complete a rift according to your (BHVR) calculations?
- Why did you add to the original 80h grind?
- Will you implement the changes on the nurse as is?
- What’s the plan regarding the dedicated servers? Basically, how are we coming along?
- Will we ever have events again, or is the rift/archives-model the new thing?
TL;DR
I feel that the communication with the community has been slacking. Q&A was a cherry-picking of questions that were easy to answer, ignoring questions about major concerns. Community manager/devs have stopped responding to threads/points that cause a stir. If BHVR want the community to have a voice, it needs to be consistent, not on demand.
P.S If you’re into the Fallout series: Outer Worlds releases on friday. A small win!
Comments
I miss the old livestreams, where they actually talked to us.
Oh yes, you are completely right. There used to be hours-long streams and developers answered questions live. Now we see a record for 20 minutes without any answers to questions. At the forum, developers also avoid answering hot questions, instead they just say this:
They say that they want to be closer to their audience and listen to it, but actually not. There is a complete ignore.
Everyone is amazed.
A series of nerf
There is no logical reason.
@se05239 Hell yes. I’ll take that any day over some sazzy special effects.
@VSLI It feels like they want to contain the damage until they can showcase something concrete. But in doing so, they are loosing crediblity instead.
@monka I don’t get why they can’t let us in on the thought process. Maybe they have a grand scheme. Maybe they want to equalise all killers in the long run. But unless they communicate this, it seems haphazardly and uncalled for.
completely agree. The devs have not been communicating at all for this upcoming patch. I think it's because they don't want too affect the sales of the battle pass, as any response taken in the wrong direction will make less people buy it.
I mean, look at the dev updates. They only happen once a month, and even then they really don't tell us much half the time, other then "we're looking at X thing so don't worry about it" and X thing never changes.
Pretty much. That would be my guess - that they're worried about saying anything for fear that they'll say the wrong thing and disappoint us because nothing is set in stone. But it's gotten to the point where the level of disappointment and dissatisfaction at the lack of communication has surpassed anything that a proper address from the developers could incite, regardless of what they say.
At any rate, I commend you for giving voice to the concerns of many in such a reasonable, constructive way. Really hit the nail on the head, in my opinion - the problem isn't just the lack of communication, which is in many ways understandable. It's that the stated intentions, to listen to player feedback, to include us in the discussion, etc., aren't lining up with the actions of late.
Thank you for the kind words @Fibijean.
My thing is, Is there used to be a live stream almost every week ALMOST.
I get that "not alot happens for us to be updated on" But come on..We haven't really had much lately.
They used to be so much more verbal with us. They say that they will let us know. But truth be told. We won't hear or know ANYTHING until they decide to post when its going to happen. Either the day before or a couple days. But until then its going to be radio silent.
Another thing is, is that some people want the battle pass and some don't. Well I think its a smart move, BUT I also think that its kinda dumb in a way. Because (I don't play fornite) every battle pass that I've ever played everyone had the chance to get the SAME THING. unless you wanted different bundles thats when you had to pay extra and actual money.
I honestly think that it would be a smart move on their part to not only have the PAID but also allow people to use their shards for the battle pass as well. I know alot of people that have over 30,000 shards because they don't use them. I think that would be a smart move BECAUSE there are people that can't put in x amout of hours in one day, BUT they could spend the however many cells to unlock a tier. Just whats going on in my head.
Back to them not telling us as much..How long has DH been broken? And it still isn't fixed, we don't even know if there is a fix happening. Not only that but people are having their accounts wiped or not earing the BP that they are supposed to. There is alot of stuff going on that we haven't heard any feed back on.
Im not upset that they postponed the event. Im upset with how little feedback we've been getting when they all say "This isn't our game, its yours" but it surely hasn't been feeling like it.
@Sairek I’m totally with you on this one
@MrsMaliciousX don’t get me started on DH! I would love it if they said “schmuck it, let’s focus on game health this chapter”. Here’s to hoping!
They're busy with everything going on this time of year why cant people understand a bit... plus when they have stuff that's supposed to be a surprise for everyone I can imagine that they would wanna close doors because some how stuff always gets leaked.... maybe they have something big cooking up for us...
Doubtful..
Im in no way trying to be rude But my comment that I posted is facts. Nothing more nothing less, I don't feel entitled I know that things happen and ######### breaks it needs fixed. BUT i don't think that devs would be cookin anything if they were they'd tell us, They always do. They don't want their fans to be mad so they'd say something to calm everyone down, But as I said. They have been and will be radio silent until the day of or a couple days of. The Devs just don't seem the same anymore.
or they say this
Peanits Dev∙Community Manager › Dev, Community Manager Posts: 3,951
9:57AM
(KenshinOct 22, 2019
that sounds like extra work, they would never do that lol. ) <- (This is what Peanits was replying too)
I don't see how the rudeness is necessary. Everyone here is working hard to get it ready as soon as possible. This is one of the biggest updates in a long time combined with an engine update. Some things went wrong and we wouldn't feel comfortable putting the update out in the state it's in. I'm sorry if this is disappointing to you, but shoving the update out the door right now isn't a better option.
As far as the event goes, everything will still be happening according to plan, just slightly after it was originally planned. You won't lose any days, the end date will be shifted back to match.
Want a screen shot?
It's starting to become a trend nowadays with Game devs becoming more and more silent with their fanbases. EA have become the most greedy devs with their constant loot boxes. Activision have done the same, but making their games so P2W it's unbeleivable. Bungie with recent D2 Shadowkeep was just a complete recycle of a single location from D1 and broken servers. Epic Games with Fortnite Chapter 2 has become so much of a grindfest that they're practically making people pay for that battle pass progression. I really hope BHVR aren't following trend with these devs actions, because I love DbD, but this battle pass thing is making me very concerned for the future of this game. I don't want everything handed to me on a plate from this pass, but if it's going to be a mega grind, it might not be worth even doing all that much. Nobody wants to spend hours a day grinding out for items when they have other priorities in life, or maybe even other games to be playing.
I don’t follow how this ties in with my post though. I’m talking about the general disconnect between BHVR and community.
It was more in reply to the top thing and shows that the Devs still care about us.
@UlvenDagoth I see. I also think the developers still “care” about the community. However, there’s an obvious divide between the interest of the community and what generates a big profit for the company. IF they just acknowledged this, it would be much easier to discuss. They are a business after all. But right now, it feels like they’re keeping up a facade - and no one likes being decieved.
I feel you. Slightly off topic, but here goes: the new trend in the gaming industry with P2W is scummy. We all know that. What is even more scummy, for me, is building elements that benefits from pure psychological tomfuckery.
What really grinds my gears about the upcoming system for DBD, is the fact that it s designed to be impossible to complete. At least according to the data of several members of the community. There has been sooo many studies on how human brains react to potential loss. And this system benefits from this. Pay to not lose out on tiers.
This type of deal makes me lose respect for BHVR big time. But we’ll wait and see. Here’s some good reads on the subject f you’re interested:
How can you be sure that everything they are doing is just to line there pockets? I don't believe that they are in this just for greed or anything like this. I agree with you that if they said something then it would be clearer, but it's enough to me that the Devs care about this whiny, toxic community enough to put up with us. That's my opinion I know, But it's honestly all I can ask for from a company that deals with so many people at once.
The Fear of Missing Out is a very powerful psychological trigger that companies abuse in their players to maximize revenue. That's what the Battle Pass is, afterall. They made it too hard to complete normally, so they want you to open up your wallet and buy tiers instead.
First, I’m not saying “everything they do”. I’m exclusively talking about the battle pass system, as the post I responded to was about. We cannot know for certain until the actual pass comes out but from the looks of it, the pass is created based on some of the common monetisation schemes.
Now with that out of the way, do I think BHVR are greedy to the core? Absolutely not. I believe they are as passionate about the game as we are. I also believe they genuinely care about the community and that they do what they believe is best for the time being. It just doesn’t always line up with what the community thinks is best.
P.S Read this and tell me they are not in it for the money:
Yup. I’m just hoping there has been a major mistake in a line of code somewhere, and that the rift pass is much easier to complete than what we anticipated.
I mean, you arn't gonna change my mind. So... hmm... respectful agreement to disagree?
@UlvenDagoth :) accepted without hesitation.
Cool! hope you have fun in the game and have good games in the Fog no matter which side you play! Have fun in the Fog