[2022] Veteran devs explaining to new devs how to deal with the playerbase

Real talk. There's an element of this that is true. Hear me out. When a new developer begins they are often bright and full of enthusiasm, they want nothing more than to make the content that they feel the players will love. They get excitable, they reach out to offer their thoughts and then they're often torn apart because they used a poor turn of phrase rather than sit there and edit it down as if they had a degree in marketing.

This tends to make them a little jaded, or upset.

Developers are human (shocker I know) and we make mistakes (not me I am flawless and will hear no argument to the contrary) and the response to that can be cruel. It can be mean. Sometimes it can be a little frightening. I've had death threats, other devs have had very very personal attacks made against them. This unsurprisingly has many devs reconsider ever interacting with the playerbase and that's understandable.

Developers are not required to be on social media, or interact with the players at all. It's not a part of their job. It's something they do because they care.

When you see a developer posting on reddit, or twitter, it's because they care. It's because they want to hear what the community has to say and it's because they want to use that feedback to make the game better. But, and this is important, we also have social media guidelines that we must follow. This includes not telling you about future content until it's been presented by the company. It means we can't answer questions on certain decisions, even if we do have the answers (and honestly, we often don't. Jagex is a fairly big games company and we don't all share a hive mind). We are employees of a business and businesses have guidelines and plans that they have to follow.

So when I say there's an element of truth to this, what I mean is often when a dev reaches out a hand it is immediately and savagely bitten. As a manager I often have to coach developers on how to deal with that. The best answer is indeed to ignore it and focus. Focus on the players that are talking, rather than barking. Focus on the players that are giving constructive criticism, rather than those making death threats. Focus on the players, not the haters.

Ignore them, and focus. Is not the same as "stop listening". Sometimes it takes time for a dev to get back onto social media/reddit. Sometimes they never do. But they still read and listen, even if they're a little too burned to talk.

I mean there are also some people who I just tell people to ignore, but you probably say the same thing yourselves. ;)

= Raven =

<3