Are we Unfocused as a community?

I've been kind of scoping around the forums a little for a time and I've seen to have noticed something I'm sure most have noticed already. When it comes to game features, there is a lot of debate over how and/or what the game should be. Usually this is a good thing, but more often then not it seems people can't seem to agree on anything about what the game should be about. "The combat should be like this not this.", "This combat just needs more work not to be thrown aside like trash.", "PvP should be unforgiving and exciting, not placating to the casuals." "PvP needs to be more like this game (insert footage of another game here) that would be neat.", "This game needs to be like its predecessor not this card game stuff.", "This game is a spiritual successor to that game not a remake of it."
Don't mistake me for saying statements like these are wrong and should be ignored, of course not. All these statements and more are perfectly understandable and legitimate statements about the game and can be argued for/ against. But it seems like people are trying to make the perfect game more for themselves than for others. Now we shouldn't be trying to appeal to everyone in the entirety of the gaming world to play this game, that's utterly ludicrous. But we do need to agree about who this game is trying to appeal to. We know that this is supposed to be an RPG that can be played either by yourself or online. We know this game is supposed to have more role playing elements than simply "right click, accept quest, kill 10 trolls, come back, complete quest, 500 exp earned, 2 silver earned." We know this game is supposed to have PvP with guild battles. We know this game has an experimental combat system using cards to try and shake up the style gameplay seen in most WoW clones. And we know this game is supposed to have player housing among other features. But we can't seem to agree which direction should the developers take with the combat, the PvP, the housing, the classless system, the online, etc. And I think if we can't come to some kind of consensus about what the game wants to be, compromises on how the game should play, or scrap one idea of the game and have the developers rework it or remove it. Then this game will fail. And WE the community, if our feedback truly is important, are just responsible for the failure of the game as the devs are. Our hands may not mold it but our words and our ideas help give it shape.

I could be wrong though, as I haven't seen all of the forum posts and most seem to be a lot more civil than some...other forums ( *cough cough* WoW forums.) So what do I know?

 

Nope. I don't blame the community ONE BIT.

 

So are you saying that the feed back from players is not being heard?

Could it be all drowned out by the chorus of the EVERYTHING IS OK ALARM?








The truth is out there.

 

Everything is not ok and we know it.

 

Who is "we?"

I disagree with you as do many others. I think this was the point the OP was trying to make. I don't see how this can be solved, however.

 

Actually these boards are pretty well behaved, compared to some I've read through the years.

Whenever you get creative, passionate people together and allow them the freedom to express their minds you'll eventually get differences in creative visions. Portalarium seems to be doing quite well listening to all the viewpoints expressed and using the parts they feel will expand and add depth to the game. That does not mean everyone's personal vision will get used, but it does mean Portalarium actually listens and considers.

Housing is starting to gel nicely and they are working on a bunch of the things tied in with combat right now. I think it is wonderful to be able to be involved with the creation of a game (more than just beta testing it, this reminds me somewhat of my Infocom testing days).

They'll get through all this cat herding!!

 

Yeah the community is pretty mild compared to Star Citizen for example. As far as the different camps, the UO PvP camps, the Single Player camps, the general MMO camps, they disagree for obvious reasons. The different ideas are great, as far as which ones are used, most have to be ignored, no game can cater to every demographic, so some will enjoy the progress made, some will not. I wanted the barrels to be a little less Donkey Kong. I'll give 1 example on the difference between Star Citizen and here, white knight fanbois rule the forums there. If you say 1 single thing that can even be construed as negative, even when it's legitimate constructive criticism, you'll be seen as a hater and not a real fan, and your thread will be locked/deleted very quickly (Hasn't happened to me but I've seen it happen to others). That's less the case here, which should be seen as a good thing. Good ideas don't exclusively come from white knight fanbois, a good amount of the time they will come from someone who's looking at the picture for the first time with new eyes. As far as the community being unfocused, it's like being a freshman in highschool, and 5 schools merged into one freshman class, that's kind of what it feels like, lots of differing groups, different backgrounds, came from different sub-communities as I mentioned above, UO PvP, PvE, Single Player, general MMO, etc.

 

@Razimus: I have to take issue with your statement "If you say 1 single thing that can even be construed as negative, even when it's legitimate constructive criticism, you'll be seen as a hater and not a real fan, and your thread will be locked/deleted very quickly".

I have not seen that.
What I have seen is lots of different people starting their own thread on the same issue, and the mods rolling all those threads together into a single thread.
That is not censorship - that is common sense. The posts are all still visible - they are not deleted unless they break forum rules.

 

Well, I think the disagreements are good. The devs (and the players) get to see the pros and cons of different ideas, and the ones that get a ton of community conversation demonstrate the weight of the issue. I do think sometimes conversations devolve into something less constructive, but sometimes that happens when it is an issue that is extremely important to a person or group of players. Firelotus and the other mods do a pretty good job of keeping those types of threads in check.

 

You realize I was talking about Star Citizen forums and not here right? I'll repeat...

Apparently you skimmed my post and randomly pointed out 1 line and took it out of context, great job. I was complimenting these forums for not being like that.

If you *know* that I was talking about Star Citizen I'll have to agree to disagree, I've been on those forums since day 1, day 1 and day 1, fanbois rule the Star Citizen forums. Here on the SotA forums, it's more open and friendly, new comers are more welcome. Those that nitpick 1 tiny thing are more welcome here, they are unwelcome at the SC forums from what I've seen. Yeah ideas are repeated to nausea but it's only because the game is a hangar where you can't do anything, or a test arena where you still can't do much. I was saying, the whole point, was I like it here better.

 

Disagreements are healthy, its just when threads turn into outright ragefest arguments where it turns pointless.

 

I don't really think it's unfocused. We are all very focused on the game and most passionately so. This game will end up being a something for everyone type of game which suits me. We'll just keep going with our thoughts and ideas as we think of them. Not too much chance of organizing it to be a certain way. We are all over the place. I think that makes it more interesting.

 

I agree, we are an unfocused community.
But nothing will change that because everybody is here for a different reason and the game itself has 4 different modes.
We will just have to deal with the chorus of different opinions.
And in my opinion it could be far worse.
But yes, we have some serious white and blacknighting here ^^

 

In my experience game communities build up around games which already exist and therefore well defined. Despite any complaints the influence they have on game mechanics is minimal.

SotA doesnt exist as a completed game, nor is it fully defined. It is clear that many people have an opinion on the direction that the game should go, but it is impossible for everyone to be right. Until decisions are made and mechanics are implemented then the community will debate it long and hard in hopes that their side will win. Even after the mechanics are in, many still debate the mechanics in hopes that the game can be changed before launch.

This shouldn't be a surprise. Some members have been successful in enacting change and given that the launch date isn't fixed then it shows that "winning" on almost any topic is still possible.

 

Im...just gonna leave this here...

 

While there are communities within this 'community', I'd have to say that as a whole we are more of a commonality than a community, being that we are here due to a common interest, this game.

 

The only real focus I have seen so far is a bunch of people putting forth their cash in support of a personal dream. If we want to label this group a community then obviously it is a community of dreamers. There is no reason to expect that all their dreams are identical. So yes, there is focus (the dream) but the contents of those dreams are extremely diverse.

 

I agree, we have many communities within a commonality. We have the social butterflies with delecate wings, we have the PvE that want nothing to do with pvp, We have the PvP that want nothing to do with PvE. We have PvP that want to be pampered like PvE. We have hard core PvP that wants to have the rush of the hunter/prey. We have the RP and RP/PvP. *puts in blender and hits puree*

 

Us Cajuns would just put them all in a pot add some roux, a bit seasoning, fill the pot with water and call it a Gumbo! Laissez les bons temps rouler!

 

You make me smile