I love this game, but...

Disclaimer: This isn’t a slander post. I’m not interested in attacking the devs or official content creators, nor am I trying to just repeat common gripes. This is purely MY opinion, which has been influenced by my own observations and personal experiences. I’m not an expert in any regard. I don’t know anything about game development, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

Much to my surprise, Phasmophobia became my top-played game on Steam this year. Maybe it’s the “casual” nature of its gameplay, which allows me to jump in, play a few investigations, and “escape” real life for a bit- unlike my other favorites (extraction shooters and RPGs) that I rarely have time for these days. Whatever the reason, I’ve fallen in love with the title—logging over 200 hours this year alone—despite owning it since 2021.

That being said, as I’ve expanded my knowledge of the game, I’ve begun to notice some serious flaws that are slowly pushing me away from it. These flaws extend beyond the other common complaints from the community and official content creators (e.g. photo system, lack of new content, etc.) I’ve outlined them below for ease of readability:

Console Release: The past year has been tough for the Phasmophobia community. The game developers decided to expand access to the game to console players, which seems to be the event that brought us to the current state of turmoil. The player base is upset about the console release for two key reasons:

• It’s been pushed off multiple times, resulting in the community losing trust in the devs.
  • The most recent update, announcing the Halloween release officially, wasn't exactly met with the optimism that I think they hoped for- highlighting where the level of trust is at, presently.
• The console release has seemingly diverted much of the development team’s attention away from their 1.0 roadmap, limiting their ability to add meaningful content and resolve persistent bug issues.

It’s understandable that the community is frustrated. Point Hope/Eventide took much longer than many expected and, even after release, it has frustrated much of the community due to its instability and underwhelming additions beyond the new map. However, I also empathize with the dev team.

It seems that the dev team somewhat(?) regrets taking on the console release at this point. They have stated on several occasions that console release has been far more difficult than they initially believed. It has affected their ability to reach the 1.0 release, which must be just as frustrating for them as it is for us. Scrapping the project now would cause irreparable damage to Kinetic Games, making them “prisoners” to console development this year- they can't really do much until it's done. It is what it is and there’s no changing that.

~Community Relations:~ Community relations have been contentious since 2022. The Discord scandal was horrible PR for the devs, and their initial response was less than ideal. However, the studio eventually recovered by apologizing and acknowledging their errors.

Earlier this year, Kinetic Games faced another major PR nightmare when th3bearededbaron, a former official content creator, exposed favoritism and toxicity within the studio. This event highlighted the level of animosity between the community and the developers. If you’re unfamiliar with the controversy, you can find th3bearedbaron’s perspective on YouTube.

The community and developers need to do better if we want this game to continue growing. The player base needs to be more empathetic to the dev team. Kinetic Games is a small team. Phasmophobia was initially created by Dknighter alone and, due to its early success, was able to bring in a few others over time. The community critiques Kinetic Games for remaining small, pointing to the “hundreds of millions of dollars” they have made. None of us know the financial state of Kinetic Games, nor is it our concern how the studio operates as a private business. If Dknighter hypothetically pockets 90% of the earnings (which I’m sure is NOT the case), that’s his prerogative. They created one of the most unique indie games of the 2020s and can spend our $12 however they please. We’re not owed anything beyond the Beta copy of the game that we initially purchased, for better or worse.

However, the developers are not blameless. Transparency is becoming less and less a theme in Kinetic Games’ community relations strategy. Since the console release announcement, Kinetic Games has mishandled their public relations. The community expects more frequent updates due to their prior transparency. CJ seems to be the primary voice of Kinetic Games, which he does a mostly fantastic job of, but it’s frustrating that the dev team has consistently felt obligated to ONLY communicate if there’s concept art or major announcements. The community would like to hear more from them, even if it’s light-hearted topics that aren’t about content updates and bug fixes.

~Bugs and Changes:~ This is maybe a ~personal~ gripe, but annoying, nonetheless. The bugs in this game are extensive—not “game-breaking”—but extensive. Unity seems to be extremely complicated and prone to bugs. Escape from Tarkov, which has existed for four years longer than Phasmophobia, is Unity-based and constantly faces similar bug problems. It universally frustrates the dedicated player base that bug-testing remains entirely closed to “private testing.” Opening a volunteer-based, NDA-protected Alpha program would go a long way in streamlining the bug identification process.

As it stands, the Discord sub-server (#bug-reports) is wildly ineffective for several reasons:

• The pinned note by Shuee (Lead QA) is incredibly vague. Many of the bugs listed are poorly written/described, making deciphering what is/isn’t a known issue frustrating.
• The required format for bug reports seems redundant if the issue is already described in depth. Numerous legitimate bug reports are archived due to incorrect formatting.
• Short, condescending replies from Shuee to new players reporting “bugs” that aren’t bugs isn’t a positive look for Kinetic Games. It’s understandably frustrating for them to constantly receive non-bug reports (like inexperienced players not understanding Mimic evidences); however, it’s the QA team’s job to handle these reports professionally. A short response explaining what bug is on the #known-issues list or why it’s not a bug would foster an environment where the community feels comfortable reporting bugs.

Suggestions/Closing: Here are a few summary suggestions:

• Transparency: Open the dialogue back up. The dev team needs to humanize themselves to their loyal player base. They could take a page out of “Shadows of Doubt”/Colepowered Games’ book. The Shadows of Doubt community is a prime example of a small dev team that actively shares light-hearted content, encourages community contributions/ fan-art, and also set a goal on console release this past year (set to release this Summer already).
• Voluntary Alpha Program: Beyond the existing #bug-reports subsection on Discord, opening a voluntary/unpaid Alpha testing program could streamline the bug fix process, re-ignite positivity in the community, and make the player base feel more involved.
• Embracing Being a Small Team: Nobody wants Kinetic Games to turn into another Activision. The beauty of indie game developers is their humanity. The more “corporatized” Kinetic Games tries to become, the more hostility they face. It’s okay to make mistakes- admitting that goes a long way.

I’m curious to see what everyone else’s thoughts are. This sub-Reddit is seemingly filled with incredibly passionate fans of Phasmophobia, who want nothing but for the game to continue to grow and succeed. What else can the community and developers do to help each other make Phasmophobia even more successful?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and share your thoughts! Please try to keep your opinions constructive, I really do not want this to turn negative- that's the LAST thing that we need right now.

 

 

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