devtrackers.gg
I've got a lot of thoughts on this topic.
It feels like there's a stalemate between devs and the people that play their games. I don't just mean here, but everywhere.
The same patterns play out in cycles, and it has all become very predictable.
Devs hide in their trenches, mostly, and occasionally you'll see one stick their head out and get torn to shreds. Cue the thread with 20k upvotes with players lamenting it. Then next week there'll be some fire about pricing on a cosmetic, and it's back to trench warfare.
We're hoping to help break the stalemate with things like seasonal AMAs, more regular messaging on our owned channels (like new content types on Respawn.com), and with more direct support for brave soldiers like Daniel Z. Klein who like to wade out amongst the people. That stuff matters, and it'll be worth doing.
But man. I sure wish the overall relationship between devs and players online felt different.
Keep in mind this isn't just a Respawn/Apex problem.. This is a industry wide problem with gaming industry.
whispers it was actually much worse over in League of Legends land you all are kind of tame <3 <3 <3
whispers it was actually much worse over in League of Legends land you all are kind of tame <3 <3 <3
Lol this is true.
And neither this sub or r/leagueoflegends has anything on r/PUBATTLEGROUNDS
It’s tragically toxic for you guys to be regular participants, as we’ve seen around here time and again. I wish it weren’t so, but there are patterns that emerge from the cash-cow machine that get people lit up. We don’t expect you guys to work for free, or any dev, but things like mismatching weapons skins from their parent skin in the Xmas bundles is a clear cash grab for buying two bundles to match up. If there was honest marketing, you’d get honest purchases. I’m sure the numbers are there to show this model works, but it’s predatory, and there might be a better revenue model if there was honest marketing, as more people would participate.
As a dev, there's no upside to talking about monetization online unless there are positive changes to announce. People want action, not talk.
If y'all see me or other devs popping into threads and then not responding to (totally fair) monetization questions / feedback like this one, please know that this is why. I don't want to waste your time with bullsh*t answers.
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Literally none of it is deserved. That was the whole point of my post.
Honestly, I’d rather have no answer than an answer that won’t be delivered on. It’s completely fair that way and if you aren’t the person who knows, it’s not your job to answer.
Yeah if we have something to say about monetization stuff in the future it'll come through official channels (playapex.com or Twitter), definitely not through my Reddit account. Tell your friends, repost this far and wide, like and subscribe, etc. etc.
Damn what did he post that had him be so hated on he deleted his comment 💀💀💀
He said it's much worse but some of it is deserved. I pointed out that none of it is ever deserved.
Surely some amount criticism is deserved when Respawn have specifically chosen to adopt the predatory use of loot boxes, purposefully mismatched bundles and other anti-consumer practices?
Not saying that abuse should be personally directed but surely it's understandable that people aren't happy about that?
It's absolutely fair to discuss and criticize and call out our actions. It is not ever acceptable to deliver this feedback in the form of personal insults and threats, and there should be no expectation that people will show up personally here to be yelled at. That's my point.
How many devs have they driven mad? Lyte, Ghostcrawler, yourself, Cactopus, etc.
I’ve been looking at r/LeagueofLegends recently and all the Riot staff posting there are new names. All the old hats are gone.
I mean, I'm quite mad, but cactopus is posting in this very thread and he seems fine ;P
The funny (well, not that funny) thing is that he didn’t even specifically call anyone an asshat. His quote was something like, “I’ve been in this industry to remember when gamers weren’t complete ass-hats to developers and it was pretty neat.” The sub took it out of context and continues to take it out of context. And then folks act like they’re innocent when devs say that this sub isn’t healthy to interact with lol. I’ll always defend the devs for how they reacted during Iron Crown and I don’t care how many downvotes I get. Professionalism is overrated and gamers can’t take what they dish on here
I think for me this is one of the scariest things about interacting online. You write one sentence or word that can be misconstrued and you are on the front page of reddit and gaming journalism sites, it's a PR problem, you worry for your job, etc. The risk is there, you gotta tread very very carefully. This is why I will never answer people about monetization and other things that people are super passionate/mad about in the moment (also I don't work on that stuff). It's a minefield.
But, coming from working on Destiny, and seeing other subs, we really do have it quite good here! This sub isn't really too toxic and people have generally been super nice. When there are a couple bad faith actors people usually call it out as not cool, and that's super great! Not to say no one can complain or desire change, by all means that's good and healthy!
I think one problem may be that your flair says “Designer”, but doesn’t designate that you are a game designer in terms of weapons; not anything related to monetisation. As such, people think you’re the one to yell at (which shouldn’t happen to anyone, really). Or that couldn’t matter at all and people will still take anger out on you as they do on the VA’s twitter when all they do is voice the characters. Additionally, bad PR is understandable since DK and McCord tried to talk last year during Iron Crown in an informal “community style” as they did with Titanfall, but ended up getting sound bited and posted everywhere on the internet (although, the argument of vulgarities/informality in official replies can still be debated). That’s probably why one artist stopped commenting here a long time ago after everyone started getting uneasy about the recolours.
On a very minor side note and this being an extremely long shot (since you work with weapons in Apex, not Titanfall), Titanfall 2 and Titanfall 1 just got released on GamePass and Steam for the latter. Since the servers were patched to get rid of a hacker for Titanfall 1 sales, is there any chance of a slight balance patch for Titanfall 2 to increase playability? Would really help the influx of new players of GamePass according to data I’ve gathered off of forums, gameplay, content creators, etc. Apologies if it’s unrelated to anything you work with and possibility of derailing the discussion. Just think it could help increase sales and liven up the game again for the dedicated community.
Yea, it could be more specific! I also understand people wanting to voice their concerns to a place they think will cause change (a dev) instead of into the void.
As far as tf / tf|2, I really don't know I'm sorry! If I had to guess I would guess no, because changing that executable and sending out the patch and stuff would require dev time we don't really have to spare, a lot of testing time at least. Testing time is sadly something that always gets eaten up really quickly with all the content for Apex that's always in the pipe (5 by 5). Covid makes testing and stuff even harder too. I can't definitively say no because I don't know, but I wouldn't bet on it, sorry!