Posted on 01/21/2013 by Overlord Tardbunny
Source:http://tardbunny.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/in-defense-of-jay-wilson-bullying-is-not-a-game/
Jay Wilson is a man who has given years of his life to the gaming industry. A good chunk of them were spent as the game director Diablo III, a game that has proven to be almost as divisive within the player base as Mass Effect 3. He recently celebrated his seven-year anniversary at Blizzard — let’s think about that, SEVEN YEARS, whereas most of us can’t even stay in the same place for a year. That’s seven years of 80-hour weeks, late nights at the office, tackling unforeseen crises as they arise, being the one that everyone looks to when they’re not sure how to proceed… and now he’s set to do it all again for one of Blizzard’s as-of-yet unnamed IPs currently in development.
Three days ago, Mr. Wilson announced on the D3 forums that he would be making this switch. You’d expect that he’d get a bunch of “gratz” replies thrown his way, maybe some good-luck wishes for the future, right? Go ahead, click that link. By the second page I guarantee you that you’ll be ashamed to be a gamer.
The outpouring of hate that followed his announcement is nauseating to read. It runs the gamut from snide remarks to personal threats in such volume that chief creative officer Rob Pardo had to step in to try and put a stop to it. And this tidal wave of cruelty doesn’t just stop with Blizzard; one of the lead writers for BioWare’s Dragon Age franchise recently revealed that he avoids the forums as much as possible because of how toxic of an environment it has become.
Once upon a time, gamers were the ones being bullied. We hid in our bedrooms and rec rooms with our D&D sets and a group of like-minded friends, never daring to tell anyone what we did every Thursday night lest we risk getting stuffed into our lockers the next day at school. There was a certain sense of community that came along with it, a solidarity in suffering, if you will. As gaming worked its way more and more into the spotlight, it was no longer exclusively considered a hobby for social outcasts and began attracting a much wider audience. Jocks picked up the controller alongside the nerds they once noogied. It should have promoted a commonality between us all, proof that we could all share a bond and play nice. Perhaps it was bitterness over years of torment, or the creation of a new, digital outlet through which bullies could torture others in previously inconceivable ways (griefing, for example), but for some reason, it totally did not end up that way.
The gaming community has developed an ugly sense of entitlement over the years that only exacerbates this simmering rage. We feel that we deserve to have every request and demand catered to by the developers, that the game companies should kowtow to us because we’re the ones dropping $60 on their game. When we don’t get our way, we throw a temper tantrum, not caring what effect our harsh words and irrational behavior could have on those exposed to them. We are selfish, we are childish, and it has to stop.
Tonight I lost part of the core PvE group in the guild I run because I stood up for Jay Wilson. While I am, of course, worried about the future of said guild, I don’t regret what I did at all. We have been too silent and too permissive of bullying, and it’s been allowed to run rampant through our community. ”That’s just the nature of the game industry,” I’ve heard the argument made. ”Devs need to grow a thicker skin or get out.” Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not sure that it’s possible to keep a stiff upper lip when somebody starts threatening to rape and murder my entire family or tells me that I should kill myself solely because they didn’t agree with a line of dialogue. Telling victims of bullying, whether children or adults, to just toughen up is a complete dismissal of their feelings and their right to feel safe.
Here’s a disturbing statistic, too. The game industry tends to attract the nerdy type who typically have high IQs. Multiple studies have shown that people with high IQs are more prone to suffering from mental illnesses, such as anxiety and depression. Therefore, that game dev you just chewed out? Yeah, he’s potentially fighting depression, and being told that he should “quit life” could be all it takes to push him over the edge. Hope you enjoy that blood on your hands. Sound dramatic? It isn’t. You have no idea what another person is going through in their personal life. You cannot possibly know how deeply your words or actions are going to affect them because everyone handles things differently. I’ve already mentioned several people who have chosen to take their own lives because they could not deal with the harassment and abuse visited upon them by others. I’m not saying that everyone who works in the game industry is mentally ill, but statistically, a few of them are, and you don’t know if you’re lashing out at one of them.
But let’s refocus on Jay Wilson for a moment. Though I refuse to reprint any of the hateful garbage that’s been spewing forth from the community because I do not believe that these bullies deserve the attention, I will paraphrase some of the complaints that I’ve heard in an attempt to “rationalize” the cruelty directed towards him.
“He Destroyed the Diablo Franchise”
No. No, he did not. He tried to take the Diablo franchise in a new direction rather than letting it go stale and become just another example of “more of the same” that has taken down so many other giants in the game industry. Whether or not this choice worked varies depending on who you ask. Was it like Diablo or Diablo II? Of course it wasn’t! This may be shocking for some of us to realize, but those games are officially old now. They run on technologies that would be decried as last-gen these days. The flip side of this is that they’ve had years for patches, expansions, and add-ons to really polish their experience. Diablo III came out less than a year ago.
Making the decision to try something new with a time-tested franchise is pretty scary. There’s always the chance that the player base will… well, react exactly like they did. But bringing new blood and new ideas into any game is vital for its survival. Just look at the plethora of expansions for World of Warcraft, and the difference in play style from patch 1.1 to 5.1. Of course there are those who claim that Mists of Pandaria “ruined WoW,” but once we push the melodrama and hyperbolic statements aside, it’s impossible to deny that it was, in fact, a gigantic success.
The D3 servers are still up and running, and at least one expansion is currently in development. Jay Wilson did not “destroy” Diablo. If anything has chipped away at it, it’s the refusal of internet tough guys everywhere to embrace change and look at things from all sides with an open mind.
“He’s Kind Of A Jerk”
I have yet to find any examples of Jay Wilson being an outright jerk, which is surprising, because the way that people like to throw this accusation around, you’d think his creative process included filling his pens with puppy blood and stealing his lunches from Darfur war orphans. The worst I can find is him trying to defend himself and his team after someone started slinging abuse their way, in a Facebook thread that was between friends. Let’s think about all of the conversations we’ve had with friends on Facebook and see if we’re so innocent ourselves. I really don’t think any of us could fault him for being upset, seeing the words that spurred him on. In fact, I think we all need to give this guy a huge round of applause for not coming out and saying exactly what I’m sure was on his mind, let alone going on to apologize publicly for what amounted to standing up for himself. In addition, so what? You’ve never met him face to face. Text is a horrible medium for subtleties and tone. Jay Wilson could be the game industry’s version of Princess Diana for all any of us know. Also, as a smarty-pants-creative-type, I’d like to just put it out there: we suck at social interaction. We really do. If you’re also a smarty-pants-creative-type who’s about to put up their index finger and say “But I don’t!” then let me just stop you, because you do. We’re good people and we don’t mean to come across as abrasive, but we often do. A little bit of kindness and understanding that maybe we’re just trying to make conversation rather than be antisocial jerks can go a long way here. Take us with a grain of salt.
But everyone is entitled to their opinion. Maybe you just really cannot stand the guy for some reason. That’s great. Don’t talk to him. Don’t invite him to your parties. Don’t buy him a beer. Belittling and threatening him is not going to magically turn him into your best broseph. Dishing out such cruelty requires effort and going so far out of your way that the only real reason for doing so is because you enjoy hurting other people, and if that’s the case, I really hope you get help for those serious issues of yours before you end up murdering people.
“He Disappeared For Like 37486964 Months!”
A lot of people have unrealistic ideas about what it’s like to work in the gaming industry. In their minds, everyone walks around in nerdy T-shirts and spends all day playing videogames and eating pizza. I have some close personal acquaintances and relatives who work in this industry and while they do have the occasional anecdote about an inter-office Nerf gun battle, for the most part, it’s more like “Oh man, I can’t hang out this weekend, we’re pushing the final version through so I’m working a double shift.”
Recruiting websites for game companies tend to show mostly play and very little of the actual work, not because they’re dishonest, but because they’re trying to let those familiar with the 80-hour work weeks and horrendous amounts of pressure and deadlines know that after six months of constantly being on the edge of a nervous breakdown, they encourage their employees to kick back and relax — at least until the next patch is due. Maybe if they showed the neglected spouses, missed dance recitals, and nights spent sleeping on the office couch, the ignorant among the laypeople would be a bit more sympathetic. Brad Gray of Electric Mammoth Studios, who happens to be one of the game industry folks that I stalk and beg daily for a job follow on Twitter said it best: “Game devs spend their lives so we can have fun.”
Jay Wilson was out of touch for a few months? Really? Nobody thinks that maybe it was because he barely had time to get up from his desk and use the bathroom, let alone answer the flood of questions — most of which I would assume were probably the equivalent of “HOW I MINE FOR FISH?” — filling his inbox? Are we all really that needy and desperate for attention? People complain that the man’s work wasn’t good enough, but they curse him for working. It’s ridiculous and based solely in ignorance and a desire to villainize others when they don’t give us what we want.
It’s easy to be cruel when you’re hiding behind a computer screen. This is the entire reason that internet trolls exist. Too cowardly to say what’s on your mind to someone’s face? Log on to Facebook and insult their sexuality for the whole world to see! I guarantee you that if any of those voicing their “opinions” (which are actually nothing but thinly-disguised vitriol) were to sit down across from Jay Wilson, or any other dev who’s been blasted into oblivion, they’d suddenly find themselves with nothing to say.
So why am I letting this all bother me so much? Why am I sitting here at 2 in the morning writing thousands of words to defend people I have never met?
I was bullied all through school. It started in kindergarten and lasted until the day I graduated high school. I was a year younger than everyone else due to academic advancement — when I graduated I was only 16, too young to go see Resident Evil in the theaters without my mom — and everyone knew that once a week I left to go to special “Gifted” classes for exceptionally smart kids. I had huge glasses, wore unfashionable clothing, and didn’t discover makeup until 10th grade. I was short, always somewhat chubby, and due to my ethnicity looked completely different from the other kids. In short, I was a perfect target for bullies. The teachers turned a blind eye, claiming that it was just normal kid stuff and even deigning to say that maybe it was my fault for being so different. The other students didn’t dare say anything because they knew that if they did, they’d get it just as bad as me. So I endured it all alone, for years. Even though no one was there for me, I have made it a personal mission of mine to stick up for victims of bullying. I don’t care if it’s a twelve-year-old kid or a 40-something year old adult. Bullying hurts at any age. It doesn’t mean that the victim is weak, it means that they’re a human being with feelings and emotions just as valid as everyone else’s.
This doesn’t mean that I think everyone expressing even the slightest bit of dissatisfaction with a game is being mean. There’s a huge difference between saying “Hey, I didn’t like x because of y” and saying “OMG WORST GAME EVER YOU SHOULD BE FIRED QQ.” A successful development team will listen to constructive player feedback and at least consider tweaking their product accordingly if they decide that doing so would not break the game for others (the eternal battle between rogues and Greg Street wages on to this day) or have some other far-reaching negative effect. When I was participating in the betas for Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, completing a quest would trigger a window to pop up asking us to rate our experience and explain what we liked and didn’t liked. I filled out every last one, sometimes with legitimate suggestions, but sometimes just to say “This was fantastic, great job, guys!” On several occasions, I noticed that changes had been made between beta and release based on the results of the player feedback. To say that players are ignored by the big bad game companies is a total falsehood. If you feel that you’re not being listened to, maybe you need to check how you’re presenting your argument.
As an aspiring game designer I’ve been able to develop a very unique view on this. No developer or other creative type likes knowing that their work has been poorly-received, but it’s important that they do. Without constructive criticism, we can’t grow. Sometimes it helps us to see better options that we may not have even thought of during development. If you have an issue with something in a game, there are many ways to get your point across and be heard as a level-headed, contributing member of the gaming community. There are even more ways to look like the complete opposite.
WAYS TO PROPERLY GIVE FEEDBACK
“I really like this game, but I was a little disappointed with x because of y. Here is how I think this could be improved.”
“I was surprised by the direction taken in this installment. Can you explain why you chose to make such a drastic change?”
“I find that {insert quest or zone} is too difficult” followed by some sort of proof, whether it be damage readouts, comparisons to similar levels, etc.
“x isn’t working properly” followed by a detailed description of what happened and what you were doing at the time so that the bug fix team can check it out
WAYS THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER, EVER GIVE FEEDBACK
“Your game sucks now. GG, {insert offending game company or employee}. I’m gonna go play {insert competitor product}.
“Holy crap, what idiot designed this? They should be fired or quit because they suck at their job.”
“F&#^ THIS S^&# YOU F^&*ING F^&S STEALING MY MONEY I WILL COME TO YOUR OFFICE AND KILL YOU”
“I pay {insert monthly amount} to play and you can’t even release a game that isn’t broken. GG.”
If what you are about to say includes personal attacks, expletives (unless they’re followed up by “awesome” or “sweet”), broad generalizations, threats, or hearsay — “the entire rogue community thinks our class is broken, FIX IT” — don’t say it.
I remember my first design project and the weeks I spent slaving over a technical document outlining proposed mobs, quests, linked dungeons, new tech for quest and item delivery, the whole nine yards. I was so proud of it when I handed it over to a buddy of mine who works in the industry. He read it, passed it back to me, and gave me a whole list of recommendations on how it could be improved. He wasn’t mean about it, he was very matter-of-fact. Of course there was the initial feeling of disappointment that he didn’t immediately pick me up and twirl me around while singing my praises, but it faded in a matter of seconds and I got to work on the next draft. The next draft wasn’t quite there yet, either. Five drafts and a steady stream of constructive criticism later, I finally produced a document that netted me a high-five. If he had cursed me out and told me I sucked right off the bat, I probably would have crumpled the whole thing up and never touched it again. Because he gave me real, meaningful feedback in a way that was helpful rather than harmful, I was not only inspired to continually improve my work based on his recommendations, but learned a ton of new skills that prevented me from making the same mistakes in later design projects.
We need to pull together as a community and put a stop to the cruelty now, while we still have people willing to endure our abuse in order to produce games purely so that we, the players, can enjoy them. Let’s review our personal expectations and make sure that they aren’t unrealistic or totally selfish (I would love for shadow priests to be able to wear plate, but that will not and should not ever happen).
In the meantime, Tweet using the hashtags #ISupportJayWilson and #LetsPlayNice to try and get the good will trending. Jay Wilson and all of the other devs out there really need to know that they have the support of their community behind them. For anyone working in the game industry who’s experienced any degree of bullying, you have nothing but my best wishes, and I truly hope you keep doing what you love without letting the cruelty out there get to you.
As a special and important note to any developers or individuals within the game industry that I have previously poked fun at, including but not limited to the guy who came up with cross-realm zones in WoW and the team behind Dragon Age 2, I am truly sorry and hope that no feelings were hurt. Even if what you created was not my particular cup of tea, I know there were many others who absolutely loved it, so keep up the good work, and remember that despite my attempts to be “funny”, you possess a rare degree of talent, creativity, and intellect that the rest of us could only hope to one day aspire to.
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Source:http://tardbunny.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/in-defense-of-jay-wilson-bullying-is-not-a-game/
Jay Wilson is a man who has given years of his life to the gaming industry. A good chunk of them were spent as the game director Diablo III, a game that has proven to be almost as divisive within the player base as Mass Effect 3. He recently celebrated his seven-year anniversary at Blizzard — let’s think about that, SEVEN YEARS, whereas most of us can’t even stay in the same place for a year. That’s seven years of 80-hour weeks, late nights at the office, tackling unforeseen crises as they arise, being the one that everyone looks to when they’re not sure how to proceed… and now he’s set to do it all again for one of Blizzard’s as-of-yet unnamed IPs currently in development.
Three days ago, Mr. Wilson announced on the D3 forums that he would be making this switch. You’d expect that he’d get a bunch of “gratz” replies thrown his way, maybe some good-luck wishes for the future, right? Go ahead, click that link. By the second page I guarantee you that you’ll be ashamed to be a gamer.
The outpouring of hate that followed his announcement is nauseating to read. It runs the gamut from snide remarks to personal threats in such volume that chief creative officer Rob Pardo had to step in to try and put a stop to it. And this tidal wave of cruelty doesn’t just stop with Blizzard; one of the lead writers for BioWare’s Dragon Age franchise recently revealed that he avoids the forums as much as possible because of how toxic of an environment it has become.
Once upon a time, gamers were the ones being bullied. We hid in our bedrooms and rec rooms with our D&D sets and a group of like-minded friends, never daring to tell anyone what we did every Thursday night lest we risk getting stuffed into our lockers the next day at school. There was a certain sense of community that came along with it, a solidarity in suffering, if you will. As gaming worked its way more and more into the spotlight, it was no longer exclusively considered a hobby for social outcasts and began attracting a much wider audience. Jocks picked up the controller alongside the nerds they once noogied. It should have promoted a commonality between us all, proof that we could all share a bond and play nice. Perhaps it was bitterness over years of torment, or the creation of a new, digital outlet through which bullies could torture others in previously inconceivable ways (griefing, for example), but for some reason, it totally did not end up that way.
The gaming community has developed an ugly sense of entitlement over the years that only exacerbates this simmering rage. We feel that we deserve to have every request and demand catered to by the developers, that the game companies should kowtow to us because we’re the ones dropping $60 on their game. When we don’t get our way, we throw a temper tantrum, not caring what effect our harsh words and irrational behavior could have on those exposed to them. We are selfish, we are childish, and it has to stop.
Tonight I lost part of the core PvE group in the guild I run because I stood up for Jay Wilson. While I am, of course, worried about the future of said guild, I don’t regret what I did at all. We have been too silent and too permissive of bullying, and it’s been allowed to run rampant through our community. ”That’s just the nature of the game industry,” I’ve heard the argument made. ”Devs need to grow a thicker skin or get out.” Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not sure that it’s possible to keep a stiff upper lip when somebody starts threatening to rape and murder my entire family or tells me that I should kill myself solely because they didn’t agree with a line of dialogue. Telling victims of bullying, whether children or adults, to just toughen up is a complete dismissal of their feelings and their right to feel safe.
Here’s a disturbing statistic, too. The game industry tends to attract the nerdy type who typically have high IQs. Multiple studies have shown that people with high IQs are more prone to suffering from mental illnesses, such as anxiety and depression. Therefore, that game dev you just chewed out? Yeah, he’s potentially fighting depression, and being told that he should “quit life” could be all it takes to push him over the edge. Hope you enjoy that blood on your hands. Sound dramatic? It isn’t. You have no idea what another person is going through in their personal life. You cannot possibly know how deeply your words or actions are going to affect them because everyone handles things differently. I’ve already mentioned several people who have chosen to take their own lives because they could not deal with the harassment and abuse visited upon them by others. I’m not saying that everyone who works in the game industry is mentally ill, but statistically, a few of them are, and you don’t know if you’re lashing out at one of them.
But let’s refocus on Jay Wilson for a moment. Though I refuse to reprint any of the hateful garbage that’s been spewing forth from the community because I do not believe that these bullies deserve the attention, I will paraphrase some of the complaints that I’ve heard in an attempt to “rationalize” the cruelty directed towards him.
“He Destroyed the Diablo Franchise”
No. No, he did not. He tried to take the Diablo franchise in a new direction rather than letting it go stale and become just another example of “more of the same” that has taken down so many other giants in the game industry. Whether or not this choice worked varies depending on who you ask. Was it like Diablo or Diablo II? Of course it wasn’t! This may be shocking for some of us to realize, but those games are officially old now. They run on technologies that would be decried as last-gen these days. The flip side of this is that they’ve had years for patches, expansions, and add-ons to really polish their experience. Diablo III came out less than a year ago.
Making the decision to try something new with a time-tested franchise is pretty scary. There’s always the chance that the player base will… well, react exactly like they did. But bringing new blood and new ideas into any game is vital for its survival. Just look at the plethora of expansions for World of Warcraft, and the difference in play style from patch 1.1 to 5.1. Of course there are those who claim that Mists of Pandaria “ruined WoW,” but once we push the melodrama and hyperbolic statements aside, it’s impossible to deny that it was, in fact, a gigantic success.
The D3 servers are still up and running, and at least one expansion is currently in development. Jay Wilson did not “destroy” Diablo. If anything has chipped away at it, it’s the refusal of internet tough guys everywhere to embrace change and look at things from all sides with an open mind.
“He’s Kind Of A Jerk”
I have yet to find any examples of Jay Wilson being an outright jerk, which is surprising, because the way that people like to throw this accusation around, you’d think his creative process included filling his pens with puppy blood and stealing his lunches from Darfur war orphans. The worst I can find is him trying to defend himself and his team after someone started slinging abuse their way, in a Facebook thread that was between friends. Let’s think about all of the conversations we’ve had with friends on Facebook and see if we’re so innocent ourselves. I really don’t think any of us could fault him for being upset, seeing the words that spurred him on. In fact, I think we all need to give this guy a huge round of applause for not coming out and saying exactly what I’m sure was on his mind, let alone going on to apologize publicly for what amounted to standing up for himself. In addition, so what? You’ve never met him face to face. Text is a horrible medium for subtleties and tone. Jay Wilson could be the game industry’s version of Princess Diana for all any of us know. Also, as a smarty-pants-creative-type, I’d like to just put it out there: we suck at social interaction. We really do. If you’re also a smarty-pants-creative-type who’s about to put up their index finger and say “But I don’t!” then let me just stop you, because you do. We’re good people and we don’t mean to come across as abrasive, but we often do. A little bit of kindness and understanding that maybe we’re just trying to make conversation rather than be antisocial jerks can go a long way here. Take us with a grain of salt.
But everyone is entitled to their opinion. Maybe you just really cannot stand the guy for some reason. That’s great. Don’t talk to him. Don’t invite him to your parties. Don’t buy him a beer. Belittling and threatening him is not going to magically turn him into your best broseph. Dishing out such cruelty requires effort and going so far out of your way that the only real reason for doing so is because you enjoy hurting other people, and if that’s the case, I really hope you get help for those serious issues of yours before you end up murdering people.
“He Disappeared For Like 37486964 Months!”
A lot of people have unrealistic ideas about what it’s like to work in the gaming industry. In their minds, everyone walks around in nerdy T-shirts and spends all day playing videogames and eating pizza. I have some close personal acquaintances and relatives who work in this industry and while they do have the occasional anecdote about an inter-office Nerf gun battle, for the most part, it’s more like “Oh man, I can’t hang out this weekend, we’re pushing the final version through so I’m working a double shift.”
Recruiting websites for game companies tend to show mostly play and very little of the actual work, not because they’re dishonest, but because they’re trying to let those familiar with the 80-hour work weeks and horrendous amounts of pressure and deadlines know that after six months of constantly being on the edge of a nervous breakdown, they encourage their employees to kick back and relax — at least until the next patch is due. Maybe if they showed the neglected spouses, missed dance recitals, and nights spent sleeping on the office couch, the ignorant among the laypeople would be a bit more sympathetic. Brad Gray of Electric Mammoth Studios, who happens to be one of the game industry folks that I stalk and beg daily for a job follow on Twitter said it best: “Game devs spend their lives so we can have fun.”
Jay Wilson was out of touch for a few months? Really? Nobody thinks that maybe it was because he barely had time to get up from his desk and use the bathroom, let alone answer the flood of questions — most of which I would assume were probably the equivalent of “HOW I MINE FOR FISH?” — filling his inbox? Are we all really that needy and desperate for attention? People complain that the man’s work wasn’t good enough, but they curse him for working. It’s ridiculous and based solely in ignorance and a desire to villainize others when they don’t give us what we want.
It’s easy to be cruel when you’re hiding behind a computer screen. This is the entire reason that internet trolls exist. Too cowardly to say what’s on your mind to someone’s face? Log on to Facebook and insult their sexuality for the whole world to see! I guarantee you that if any of those voicing their “opinions” (which are actually nothing but thinly-disguised vitriol) were to sit down across from Jay Wilson, or any other dev who’s been blasted into oblivion, they’d suddenly find themselves with nothing to say.
So why am I letting this all bother me so much? Why am I sitting here at 2 in the morning writing thousands of words to defend people I have never met?
I was bullied all through school. It started in kindergarten and lasted until the day I graduated high school. I was a year younger than everyone else due to academic advancement — when I graduated I was only 16, too young to go see Resident Evil in the theaters without my mom — and everyone knew that once a week I left to go to special “Gifted” classes for exceptionally smart kids. I had huge glasses, wore unfashionable clothing, and didn’t discover makeup until 10th grade. I was short, always somewhat chubby, and due to my ethnicity looked completely different from the other kids. In short, I was a perfect target for bullies. The teachers turned a blind eye, claiming that it was just normal kid stuff and even deigning to say that maybe it was my fault for being so different. The other students didn’t dare say anything because they knew that if they did, they’d get it just as bad as me. So I endured it all alone, for years. Even though no one was there for me, I have made it a personal mission of mine to stick up for victims of bullying. I don’t care if it’s a twelve-year-old kid or a 40-something year old adult. Bullying hurts at any age. It doesn’t mean that the victim is weak, it means that they’re a human being with feelings and emotions just as valid as everyone else’s.
This doesn’t mean that I think everyone expressing even the slightest bit of dissatisfaction with a game is being mean. There’s a huge difference between saying “Hey, I didn’t like x because of y” and saying “OMG WORST GAME EVER YOU SHOULD BE FIRED QQ.” A successful development team will listen to constructive player feedback and at least consider tweaking their product accordingly if they decide that doing so would not break the game for others (the eternal battle between rogues and Greg Street wages on to this day) or have some other far-reaching negative effect. When I was participating in the betas for Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, completing a quest would trigger a window to pop up asking us to rate our experience and explain what we liked and didn’t liked. I filled out every last one, sometimes with legitimate suggestions, but sometimes just to say “This was fantastic, great job, guys!” On several occasions, I noticed that changes had been made between beta and release based on the results of the player feedback. To say that players are ignored by the big bad game companies is a total falsehood. If you feel that you’re not being listened to, maybe you need to check how you’re presenting your argument.
As an aspiring game designer I’ve been able to develop a very unique view on this. No developer or other creative type likes knowing that their work has been poorly-received, but it’s important that they do. Without constructive criticism, we can’t grow. Sometimes it helps us to see better options that we may not have even thought of during development. If you have an issue with something in a game, there are many ways to get your point across and be heard as a level-headed, contributing member of the gaming community. There are even more ways to look like the complete opposite.
WAYS TO PROPERLY GIVE FEEDBACK
“I really like this game, but I was a little disappointed with x because of y. Here is how I think this could be improved.”
“I was surprised by the direction taken in this installment. Can you explain why you chose to make such a drastic change?”
“I find that {insert quest or zone} is too difficult” followed by some sort of proof, whether it be damage readouts, comparisons to similar levels, etc.
“x isn’t working properly” followed by a detailed description of what happened and what you were doing at the time so that the bug fix team can check it out
WAYS THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER, EVER GIVE FEEDBACK
“Your game sucks now. GG, {insert offending game company or employee}. I’m gonna go play {insert competitor product}.
“Holy crap, what idiot designed this? They should be fired or quit because they suck at their job.”
“F&#^ THIS S^&# YOU F^&*ING F^&S STEALING MY MONEY I WILL COME TO YOUR OFFICE AND KILL YOU”
“I pay {insert monthly amount} to play and you can’t even release a game that isn’t broken. GG.”
If what you are about to say includes personal attacks, expletives (unless they’re followed up by “awesome” or “sweet”), broad generalizations, threats, or hearsay — “the entire rogue community thinks our class is broken, FIX IT” — don’t say it.
I remember my first design project and the weeks I spent slaving over a technical document outlining proposed mobs, quests, linked dungeons, new tech for quest and item delivery, the whole nine yards. I was so proud of it when I handed it over to a buddy of mine who works in the industry. He read it, passed it back to me, and gave me a whole list of recommendations on how it could be improved. He wasn’t mean about it, he was very matter-of-fact. Of course there was the initial feeling of disappointment that he didn’t immediately pick me up and twirl me around while singing my praises, but it faded in a matter of seconds and I got to work on the next draft. The next draft wasn’t quite there yet, either. Five drafts and a steady stream of constructive criticism later, I finally produced a document that netted me a high-five. If he had cursed me out and told me I sucked right off the bat, I probably would have crumpled the whole thing up and never touched it again. Because he gave me real, meaningful feedback in a way that was helpful rather than harmful, I was not only inspired to continually improve my work based on his recommendations, but learned a ton of new skills that prevented me from making the same mistakes in later design projects.
We need to pull together as a community and put a stop to the cruelty now, while we still have people willing to endure our abuse in order to produce games purely so that we, the players, can enjoy them. Let’s review our personal expectations and make sure that they aren’t unrealistic or totally selfish (I would love for shadow priests to be able to wear plate, but that will not and should not ever happen).
In the meantime, Tweet using the hashtags #ISupportJayWilson and #LetsPlayNice to try and get the good will trending. Jay Wilson and all of the other devs out there really need to know that they have the support of their community behind them. For anyone working in the game industry who’s experienced any degree of bullying, you have nothing but my best wishes, and I truly hope you keep doing what you love without letting the cruelty out there get to you.
As a special and important note to any developers or individuals within the game industry that I have previously poked fun at, including but not limited to the guy who came up with cross-realm zones in WoW and the team behind Dragon Age 2, I am truly sorry and hope that no feelings were hurt. Even if what you created was not my particular cup of tea, I know there were many others who absolutely loved it, so keep up the good work, and remember that despite my attempts to be “funny”, you possess a rare degree of talent, creativity, and intellect that the rest of us could only hope to one day aspire to.
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