Some of my perceptions at present

You know, perception is a funny thing.

From my perspective, I see that being negative and complaining is widely accepted and tolerated by the community at large, while anybody who has anything positive to say about the game is labeled a "fanboy" or supposedly in love with Richard Garriott.

For some reason I don't understand, people seem to have a hard time allowing others to exist in the middle space. There's a tendency to divide everybody up into two extreme camps, and then insist that people choose one "side" over another. This dynamic is by no means unique to this game or its community, but is a disturbing trend of life in general these days.

I also see a false narrative being promoted by many that says "Only praise is allowed, while criticism is censored." when it comes to this game. From what I have observed, it is more about the form that the criticism is taking. And also saying the same thing over and over again. Nevertheless, I see a whole LOT of criticism around this forum, and so I find it hard to believe the claims that Portalarium is unfairly censoring anybody.

There also seems to be this undertone among many that somehow, someway, the folks over at Portalarium are unaware or in denial about the state of the game. As if they are oblivious to its shortcomings, and just living in a la-la-land where this is the "best game EVAR" and don't want to hear anything different. I think it would be much more fair to suppose that they are acutely aware of the game's flaws more than any single player or member of this forum. I would imagine they struggle daily with the awareness that this game will NEVER be "quite" as great as they imagine in their minds, because they simply do not have the resources or time to implement every great idea or tweak every little dynamic to make it "just right" for all players.

No... I don't think it is fair at all to attempt to divide up the SotA community on false terms... minimizing everyone with something positive to say by dismissing them as fanboys while making martyrs out of those who "speak up" for what they believe.

Truth. Love. Courage. Isn't that what the game is about? Isn't that what life is about?

How do we be truthful, without becoming hateful?
How do we be loving, without falling into delusion?
How do we act with courage, without being reckless and inadvertently causing harm to others, especially innocents?

I would ask everybody to consider that for a minute.

Are you playing a game? Or are you playing a game-within-a-game?

How do we engage one another here in this forum? How do we engage one another in the game?

Yes- housing is important. Because it is the foundation for giving the community to express itself digitally within the game. It also raises money to pay living, breathing, human beings to develop this game.

What is more important than that right now?

The ability to cast Armageddon and loot Lord British's corpse?

To find out the answer to that old joke... you know... The Guardian and the Oracle walk into a bar...?

You already know the answer. We all do. But it is still fun to play the story out over and over again, isn't it? Don't worry, the game will have a better story when it actually gets released.

For it to get released- it needs backers. Because it needs money. Because it needs programmers. Because programmers need to live and eat, and perhaps support a family.

Creating a firewall of negativity around the game isn't helping the game to blossom into the fullest expression of what it could be. It is stifling the growth and development of the game by making it harder to access the money (i.e. the talent and the time) necessary to make the game a reality.

 

You are right of course but on the other hand just praising everything about the game and wanting to not have criticism in the forum is also not helping the game to become what is is/was supposed to be.

 

I totally agree because there's so much yet unseen...

Praise be the gospel of @Lord_Darkmoon !
Without the critical eye there is no contrast for even better

I think our SOTA got it going on if you know what I mean!
~Time Lord~

 

Hail, my Sister, and Well Met...

The best course is to "stay true to yourself", do not let Evil win (negativity) for that is what the World is made of Good & Evil (positive & negative), two factions at War with each other for dominion... Keep your own vibrations high by thinking positively, don't let the negativity bring your vibrations down to their level for it is your "thoughts" that count the most, and it is contageous... Your thoughts will emanate to everyone around you, everyone in the World... Stand steadfast against negativity by remaining positive, and not allowing negativity into your life... No matter where it comes from, a forum post, an encounter ingame or in real life...

Portlarium is well aware of this, just because they are so transparent to show their development hand, doesn't mean they're straying from their course of pleasing the crowd they're targeting. They've been in this business for 30yrs, they know they can't please everyone, that's not possible, but they can please the positive ones, the ppl who back their product without threats of negativity...

The silent majority, the 80% of the crowd...

 

If it were actually the case that praise was resulting in devs:

Resting on their laurels, not really working on the game.
Thinking it is much better than it really is. ignoring real problems with the game.
Trying to pass the game off as in a further state of development than it really is.

I can see how any of that would be very concerning. I certainly don't know everything (in fact very little) about the people at Portalarium, but I also can say that I haven't seen any evidence that any of the above are actually the case.

I get that you really care about the game, or else you wouldn't become so impassioned about it. But I'm not sure what you are concerned is the alleged consequence of a few people heaping some undue, starry-eyed praise on the game...

Typically speaking, telling somebody that they are doing a good job, and pointing out what you think they are doing right is going to be encouraging to them.

I believe that Portalarium wants to build a great game, and part of that is most certainly telling a great story. I hope they can do it, but I know that nothing is guaranteed. The project could fail for many reasons, and some of them outside of anybody's control.

But even with 40 hours of solid story content per year, we all know that we could blow through that in a few days if we really wanted to. What are we going to do the rest of the year? Well... yes POTs and player-created quests will play a HUGE rule in that. I'm almost certain that it is very important to the devs to make this a priority, and to me seeing a lot of effort put into housing looks like a positive move in that direction.

I think it would be super cool of every scene could be instanced... and I understand how allowing the state of things to change over time is an important aspect of creating a truly immersive world. There are also at least 10 other things I could whip off the top of my head that would be awesome if this game had in each category. The possibilities are truly endless!

EDIT: Well... not "truly endless" the possibilities are actually limited by the constraints of Unity.

 

Whatever gave you that impression? Two "negative" threads were just locked and one of the I love SOTA threads just had DarkStarr and Chris select a bunch of praise posts they like. Perhaps the expression should be "Only praise is heard, while criticism is ignored".

 

You want them to like posts where they're belittled left and right?

 

I don't think @Lord_Darkmoon belittled left and right. I think he has some very valid criticisms and I am not the only one that thinks that way. I'm not expecting them to acknowledge me but he clearly is someone who really likes SOTA and his voice should be recognized by the devs. Something like "we hear you, what can we do to make it better?"

It seems to me there was a discussion among the devs and they felt they needed to turn off the negative threads (one of which certainly had gotten too long anyway) and praise all the people that praise them. It's a kind of passive censoring.

 

Somehow I'm wary of reading too much into a like.

Yes, someone uses them to acknowledge the message (Time Lord or Tahru come to mind), and others may just click "Like" for a post they agree with and don't click it for a post they aren't enthusiast about (that'd be me).

But saying that they censor Darkmoon because they don't click Like on his messages...

Don't know, I guess it's a tiny bit overboard. But I fully agree it's just me.

 

Personally I "like" posting members who post on topics I think are useful to the game, or beneficial in a critical way. I love critics, because everyone should be critical of things as if it's a "Bug Report Light", where things aren't living up to a person's expectations. But I do wish we had a "love" button, because I'd then use that one for all the humorous posts I find
I think liking some ones post is something when I've found that I actually took the time to read it

''

I like trolls to, because they need to troll as much as possible so they get banned and out of the way sooner more than later
~Time Lord~

 

I like posts when they give good information or ideas, or are funny in some way to me. Or when the post has been directed to me and it's friendly. Or a friendly post in general, sometimes I just click like on happy posts because it's nice to read. Guess that's why Darkstarr and Chris liked the posts praising SotA.

 

I suppose I cant speak for the "community at large," but this is very much untrue for me. I have been practicing mostly ignoring it, which I must say feels of atlassian difficulty at times. I cant be the only one . So yeah, Id say negativity and complaints are not widely accepted by the community. In webforum communities, its often a small minority that produces the majority of the negativity. After being on here over a year, Id say negativity is not the norm. Sometimes my emotions tell me otherwise, and I think strongly negative emotions are so much easier to remember than the mundane that sometimes we start to believe its the norm when its the minority.

For the record, I do value the many commentaries that I react negatively to, both for the sake of practicing the understanding a counter view, and also because there should always be diversity in the views directing this game's development.

Basically, this

Yah I think the SotA forums have little to do with this observation, as you say, its a trend you observe many other places. I always question when it will be that the Western world escapes diametric extremes as the baseline of our ideologies. "If you dont like 'mericuh, you can get the hell out!" and such ;-).

 

Atlassian is a good description because yes, it does feel like that at times... and no, you are not alone.

 

~Time Lord Confessions~
I will have you all know though, that I have been banned before a few times. So it's not like it's a big deal that needs feeling hurt about it. You just keep on keeping on and try and do better to avoid it.
"No One is Immune"
~Time Lord~

 

Me too.

Nobody is immune, as someone would like to imply.

 

I have not been banned or even had a warning. I made one someone personal comment (which I did not intent to be personal) and I apologized for it when I saw the effect it had. And I don't seen any evidence yet that Port bans without good reason. However, I do have to give credit to @DepGames and @Vallo about Port being biased in these forums. I'm a bit surprised by this. This is unfortunate, unless they listen to people with valid complaints SOTA is destined to be a game almost exclusively for UO users and people in the Garriot cult. And that appears to be exactly where it's headed.

 

*Walks up to podium, shuffles his feet a little, looks out the window and not making eye contact*
-Hello, my name is Spoon and I'm a besserwisser.
*group answers* - Hello Spoon
-I often get grumpy when I'm tired and when people use incorrect data to forward false conclusions.
*group answers* - We know.
- I have been moderated, I have been warned and I have been timeout banned.
*therapist shakes her head* -Spoon, say that again but with the correct causality.
*Spoon's shoulders slouch a little more* - I have posted angry corrections that got moderated, I have posted degrading explanations that got me warned, and I have resorted to belittling nincompoops that got me a timeout.
*group murmurs and therapist looks annoyed* - Spoon, really?
*Spoon looks defiantly at the therapist* - But that is the correct term, nincompoop; someone who is not very intelligent or who lacks good sense or judgment. I'm a besserwisser so I should know.
*group gets into a minor uproar and the therapist stands up and points at the door* - Spoon, get out, we will talk about this later.
-...but they were wrong, they ...
-No Spoon, get out.
-...but they didn't understand that...
-Out! Now!
*Spoon kicks an imaginary stone and walks sulking towards the door while mumbling audibly about ignorance not really being blissful...*



- - - - - - - -
Also people mix banned with banned which isn't the same as banned. Just saying...
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/information-on-the-topic-of-banning.32074/
For instance getting a timeout to cool of is not the same thing as being censored.

 

On the other had a few days ago I posted a favorable review on a third party site, and it got deleted.

I cannot understand why people would start a "down" thread, no without proposing a fix.

Everything if life can be perceive as a bad thing, or as a good one. Using that basic psychology to hurt the game is not of my liking. A fanboy? Of Ultima, certainly...

 

It's too bad Port closed @Lord_Darkmoon's post because @Leostorm had just made a helpful comment
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/an-honest-opinion.61229/page-4#post-644449
Perhaps there were some nasty posts after that I did not see which had to be deleted which would explain why @Berek closed the thread because otherwise it just looks like they had enough and decided it was time for the other devs to like a bunch of I love SOTA posts.

 

Perhaps you read the nasty post and didn't got the full meaning. Several months ago I got insulted on this forums, and when started to fight back, the threads (happens several times) were closed. It was painful twofold, for being attacked and for being deprived of a defense. But then the mods didn't fully read the post, they were just looking for keywords, like **** or ****, you know. Current mods are doing a much better job.

Of course, when we act always some people get grazed, or displeased. It's the way of things and it requires some courage to lock a thread. But you can trust he has seen something wrong.

BTW, I come to this forum to talk about the game, and perhaps about Ultima. Winning posts and threads, I can pass, and frankly I am happy they are banning them.