on getting criticism

Amazing article on getting criticism by Raph Koster:

https://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/

worth not only reading but following @Cerus @DarkStarr @Chaox

People who tell you you’re awesome are useless. No, dangerous.

They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is. Especially watch out for the ones who tell you that nobody understands your genius.

Honestly, this is going to sound horrible, but self-doubt is one of your most powerful tools for craftsmanship. None of the designers you admire feel self-confident about their work in that way. None of them think that they are awesome. They all suffer from impostor complexes the size of the Titanic.

I am not saying that you need to lack confidence in yourself. (Heck, you’ll never put anything out if that’s the case! You need to have the arrogance to assume anyone will care in the first place). I am saying that nobody is ever done learning, and people who tell you you have arrived will give you a sense of complacency. You should never be complacent about your art.


Everyone who dislikes your work is right.

This is the hardest pill to swallow. I’ve never gotten a piece of feedback that was wrong. You see, you can’t deny a player their unique experience. Whatever they felt, was true. For them. And something in your work triggered it.

It is useless, and worse, actually self-defeating, to attempt to deny the critique. Sure, there are sometimes reviews that seem spiteful, unfair, and the rest. But the vast majority of the time, people are giving their honest reaction.

And the bottom line is, you put the game out there in order to get reactions. If it were not for reactions, you could have just kept the game in your drawer and gotten everything you needed out of it.

and so much more...

 

As long as both the compliments and criticisms are fair, thought out, well reasoned, and put into a constructive format that offers ways to improve or better the game.

Far too many just complain, or throw a generalization out there in complaint form with no details... or worse, try and rant/rage against the devs, game staff, gamers/players, etc with heavy sarcasm, attacks, over-the-top negativity, twisting facts to push their agendas, etc etc ad nausem. Then people complain that they get "moderated" by doing so. As I've said on these forums, it's generally the same people over and over that post the majority of the things here. So if you're one of the people that have been doing this over the years... then the devs/staff ALSO see the same people posting this way and you get pictured as a troublemaker because you keep doing the same things over and over without any change and wonder why your posts get moderated.

Keep it civil. Keep it informed. Bring something constructive to the argument and if you're very passionate about it... keep up the good fight for it but in a civil manner. Some people think ranting and protesting outright in any fashion is their right and that devs/staff/players must accept it. That is not true. Try and keep the posts from flaming/attacking devs/staff/gamers/and those who like the game and keep the dialogue constructive and you'll find you won't get near as much moderation and probably better input & reception from the community as a whole.

 

As a hobbiest musician, that is some great hard hitting truth right there. Can be certainly applied to creating anything. Damn.

 

In before the lock!

 

Not entirely true. There is a vocal minority who are locked on hate, and nothing you can do will ever be right.

I have to agree about this. It's not just the people who always say you're awesome without good reasons why, but also the people who always say you're awful without any good reason why or suggestions on how to get better, or sometimes just no realistic suggestions (impossible to implement or nearly so, especially at reduced staffing levels, or something you did once in the past and are not doing now). Both the white knights and the black knights are useless, though for different reasons.

 

I find that hard to believe. There's plenty of times that the feedback was actually factually incorrect. As in, asserting something that was demonstrably false. The entire premise presented here is assuming subjectivity.

 

Koster is right.

 

This is the guy that drove UO in to the dirt, and was fired... Darkstar replaced him....

 

no

 

It is not incumbent upon the player to propose solutions to problems. It is only to identify the issues.

It's the game developers' job to design the game and fix things that don't work.

 

Dude, I was there...

 

What about those who won't post anymore on the subject, like me ?

Oh crap, I posted something. Sorry about that. No need to report this. I'm out.

 

My Favorite Part:

If you don't like it, ban or block it

The best way to deal with criticism is to try to hide it or turn the community against whoever is posting it. Many times simply labeling people with dissenting views as trolls will work.
If not, keep strict moderation of any forums. If a person posts that they don't like something, simply call their posts combative and either delete or lock the thread. Under no circumstance,
question what you are doing as not possibly being right. This will lead to the demise of the project.

 

Lecturing the dev's because you think they don't know the simple concept of positive reinforcement?

The article was interesting without the dramatic Editorialisation tones.

 

Like flies on feces.

 

Here's what I have found with "any" community:

-10% will absolutely Love your work...
-10% will absolutely Hate your work...

Then there's the 80% that are in between, they play the game for other reasons, to have fun, to escape, to just kill things, to just help ppl, just to hang out... They accept the game at face value, they either play it or they don't, they don't take it seriously because they have other things to do...

It's only the 20%ers that take the time to post, it's up to the "company" to take notes: Nays or Yays... Look at everything, see what they can change AND what they can't/won't change (because there's a lot of work that's been paid for, they're not going to scrap it, and start over), moving forward is the goal...

The old saying: You can't please everyone... Is so true, so don't try because when you start trying to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one...

 

where and more importantly in what capacity?

 

Like white on rice.

P.S. It's "flies" not "flys"

 

Correct, thank you. Edited.