An Open Letter To Chris Spears

So, in the recent Newsletter, you say this;

Let me start with a simple point. If someone tells you they feel you aren't listening to them, and you then tell them they are wrong, you still aren't listening to them.

So let's talk here, Chris, about why that is. Can we talk here at the Shroud forums? Unfortunately I suspect not, due to both the risk of censorship and the fact the community you have developed, the "most people" who support you, will browbeat any criticism and prevent you the critic feeling you are a respected person, with your own valid feelings. I will post here all the same to try leave my mind open to being wrong, but I fear it will be pointless.

Now, I don't think you're a bad person, Chris. Even with the little passive-aggressive snip about "not so constructive people"; because it's understandable to get a bit annoyed with criticism, especially in the gaming industry where passions run so much higher. I worked on UO as an EM briefly and some of the community are absolute monsters, so of course it will get you down sometimes. Even those wild west forums had to ban one poster for appalling racism. So I do understand not everyone is an angel, or can always be one. But here's the problem; who are you talking about? Someone here? There? Me? Him, her? You name the PvP players but leave the criticism open ended. Can't you see how that appears to the public? Would you feel comfortable if someone told you "Oh, someone at Portalarium is terrible, but I won't say who?"

Now, I've said publicly I despise who ever is controlling the model of the funding. Did I mean you? Maybe. But then, I can't be sure. That's the problem of "Collective Responsibility"; just who is to blame? If it's not you then I'm sorry if you felt unfairly criticised; Again, on UO, I ended up taking the blame for a lot of things that weren't my fault, because I wasn't allowed to point the finger at where it really was. I ended up walking in large part because of that. You Chris may love your job more, you've got more responsibilities than me too including your daughter you mention in the newsletter, so again I do understand. But if you won't answer for the funding model, who will? And if everyone is to blame, then you are and no one is, and nothing gets done.

Again, it's about feeling listened too. If no one answers, no one is listening. That's how it is experienced. It isn't fair, but if you don't challenge the business model, it doesn't change. People aren't attacking you, personally. They're attacking the structure you're enmeshed within. You may consider that unfair, and on an inter-personal level, it is. But on a personal level, if faceless troops or terrorists shoot or bomb one of your loved ones, wouldn't you naturally hate the system or faith that sent them there to do it? There are people on both sides of any debate, Chris.

Now, notice the line "I'll let Dev+ people give feedback"... In 3 short lines you encapsulated why so many of us dropped from supportive to critical and then finally out; The Dev+ people are not your only audience. All of us are; Fully committed, or critical, or somewhere in between, you can't openly acknowledge tiered respect and then expect people to give impersonal, undiscriminating respect back. I've tried to talk here on the forums about this, in academic terms about how you have to be very, very careful about self selecting bias. How you learn more from your critics than your fans, because they're already happy with what you do. There's a huge swathe of industry based experience on this, but let's talk person to person here Chris; let's talk about what it feels like from the other side.

The reason I was so angry with the deliberate devaluing of pledges was because it treats people more decently if they happen to have been rich, or just lucky by a certain point in their lives. It differs from the initial pledges because everyone who signed up at Kickstarter or any point along the way did so on the basis there was a clear pledge progression path they were committing too. They may not afford all of it, or even want it, but they could see that all were being treated equally. It felt fair. Portalarium then yanked this equality later in order to encourage even further mega-donations from the smaller crowd they were listening too, by making them feel more important and valued. Can we call it "let(ting) Dev+ give feedback" now? Fair or not again, this is what people are hearing. And I was outraged by the principle of it; I held a Royal Founder Ancestor account, I was safe from the devaluation of future hopes and rewards, but I was concerned with those being left behind...

... Here's my last couple of weeks since, Chris. I work as a personal assistant for a brain injured man; during one shift, another member of staff cursed him, said he deserved his injury and accused him of being a rapist. I was appalled, and said it was an unprofessional attitude. To get revenge, that staff member reported me for supposedly falling asleep on the job. I discover this month that not only have I been suspended, my wages have been docked hundreds of pounds. Meanwhile, my mother, who isn't the most stable of people, has had her motorhome wrecked overnight by someone who drove off without leaving details. I've had blazing rows with her for days about things like depreciation and legal responsibility whilst she records without permission the insurance company agents and stalks online the purchasers of the vehicles remains. On Monday I have to go into hospital to have a lump removed, that fortunately didn't turn out to be cancerous but will require some rather personal stitching; I had booked a holiday in France with the girlfriend for the weekend after, non-refundable as it was at such short notice and her suggestion, but apparently this week was a good time to say "I've been thinking about it for a while now and... let's just be friends."

And what was the point of all that confessional detail? Well, wouldn't you agree I could really use a bit of financial security now? So that's why I'm selling my Shroud account.

Now imagine that on top of all of this, because I won't have an Ancestor account by the 17th of this month, I lose all of the rewards I once already owned, even if I raised my account back up to prior levels later with better fortune or back owed wages. It's literally just a little time either way and I'd have been safe. But selling now, I could never get them back, despite being a Royal Founder, despite it being a temporary liquidation of assets. Titles? Gone. Pets? Gone. And all just to encourage a different sub set of funders to feel even more special, more special than me.

How would that feel to me, do you think?

NOW do you see? I never planned to be a personal example of how brutally unfair it could be, but NOW can you see why, on the personal level, Portalarium are struggling with public relations? Those of us who don't follow the ridiculous American ideal that, as Steinbeck wrote after the Great Depression, "the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.", those of us who know that wealth is not the same as character or hard work or personal judgement, either through just empathy for others as people, or from personal experience, absolutely hate this kind of funding model?

It's not about you, Chris. But it is about Us. We don't think it does fairly by the wider "Us" than is found in Dev+, where by definition membership is based on current wealth; why should they get to guide how developers speak, and how the game develops any more than us?

Let's continue to talk man to man, Chris. Did you ever read any of the earlier threads I made? I tried to give you positive feedback. Some of it you may have listened too, but how would I know? You had plenty of ways to show it, even within the strangled confines of the gaming industry's paranoia about favouritism. Oh yes, we had lots of that on the EM program too. But when someone doesn't tell you something, when "you're just expected to know" what someone is really feeling, is that really any better?

But it doesn't have to be that way; A simple post locked to the top of the forums saying "If we Like one of your posts, it shows we've read it, not necessarily that your voice matters more... but we're listening!". And then you just click like on people's posts. Open, transparent, democratic. How many arguments could have been avoided if you just publicly committed to something people were misunderstanding? I hate the fact gameplay mechanics associated with Player Owned Towns have an entry point of $900 up. Someone later quoted this from the Wiki;

"NOTE: There will be a path to achieve this in game via in game gold purchase but the ownership of the scene will incur a rental fee. "

But that was dated June 2014. You've had over a year and two months to address this since. You knew the community was up in arms about the question of paid for only content; How many times did I personally say I was uncomfortable with this? Because again, on the other side of the debate, we're still people too, we remember what we've personally done and feel. Why did I have to find out what you'd said a year ago on MMORPG.com of all places? And can it even still be valid when you've massively oversold them so now the map looks like it has measles? Why didn't you talk to us about this, why wait until it was far too late for it to be anything but an appallingly messy break-up? Ahem. But that IS how we personally experience things again.

Again, I don't know what industry rubbish you're constrained by, so it's not a personal thing to you. But we take it personally. That's why, even though in theory, after wrestling with the figures for hours last night, I can still trim sales and keep my Ancestor account if I really wanted too, I no longer want too. You say you're listening, but as a company you again and again do things which we've told you we find abusive. I personally complained about ship homes being store based only, and now you add air-ship homes, and yet again, you can't bring yourself to state that there will be a way to get something similar via in game gold. We know it helps you get more money out of those who have been lucky in life. We know it funds the game. But you're not listening to the rest of us.

Or to put it another way, to turn around the old lie... "It's not me; it's you." I never wanted to walk away from you Portalarium, but you just don't stop hurting us. And great as you may be in so many other ways Chris, you're part of something that hurts us. I'm sorry if that means people lash out back at you. But don't you think the bigger man would reach out and try and find out why, instead of keep on doing it? Someone at Portalarium needs to do it.

So... who are you talking about when you say "not so constructive people"... and how do you think they got there? Talk to us as people too, please.

 

Sorry to hear things haven't been going so well for you lately.

If it's any consolation, the Dev+ forums seem to contain most of the same criticisms as the general forums. So I don't think the self selecting bias is as significant as you think it is. Even (perhaps especially) those of us who are heavily invested in the game financially don't want to see it cater only to the rich, because then no one plays, the game dies, and that investment becomes worthless.

 

I honestly don't get what you are rageing about.
I mean i get it but....what has this to do wiht constructiv or non constructiv critic?

 

Dev plus info is sorely lacking. Several things have been released through other channels ie Use Base skills being announced on a third party pod cast and changes to the combat system being kept to the "scrum"

Alot of people have been speaking out about the state of this game for a long time. It falls on deaf ears or is drowned out by the chorus of the willing.

Less add on store more content yeah? Open communication, which Portalarium and yourself claim is a foundation stone of this project, yet it is through censored and edited channels.

Reference pledges they are not holding to original purchase price. So offloading it may be problematic.

 

The Dev+ section really isn't anything special, I don't even bother to comment on there any more, then again I hardly comment in the regular forms anyway as it's all pointless.
Good luck selling your account Nemo, I hope you see a return on what you put in.

 

Nemo if you're still upset with Chris, and really want to make your point, I suggest you find his house, paint it maroon, and use Roundup to burn "Gig 'em Aggies" on his lawn.