Time, effort,and the invisible response!
Author: | Death Reaper X
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Submitted: | 4th November, 2002
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Views: | 5446
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This is in link with peter's previous article.
What I've noticed is the majority of games either have few comments, are offensive, or just aren't constructive. From my experience of releasing several demos -- just for the exact purpose to get feedback to know whether I should continue the game -- hardly anyone comments, or if they do it's just not helpful. I think in some ways that is worse than getting negative feedback, because you don't know where you stand. Do you continue the game or not?
Is it worth bothering with? How do you know if people don't tell you? If it's crap, fine -- I won't bother, no problem, but it bugs the hell out of me when you get 150 downloads and 2 or 3 people comment--extremely unfair.
You're absolutely right Peter. We should always look for the positive points, and if there aren't any then yes that needs to be improved, and then the kliker can work harder the next time round. The amount of times I've seen things like "This is a joke right?" "Worst game ever" "Don't bother downloading" etc.
In of my recent demos, khaos knights I worked pretty hard on it and wanted some feedback. I got a good number of downloads, but little replies. The ones who did reply simply said "Graphics are ok. Gameplay's nothing special." But they didn't say any way in how to improve gameplay which just isn't helpful! Another example of mine is Wizstar demo-only 20 people bothered downloading anyway (which is bad enough) and the ones who wrote replies simply wrote "needs better controls"...after all that: THAT'S IT!!?? You just think "Why did I bother?" It would be much better if there was a rule that if you downloaded a game, you had to comment on it-with 150 comments you'd know whether it was worth continuing or not.
One more example: Reaperworld p&c adventure demo: it was a TINY test, and I NEEDED it to be tested because a friend of mine said he experienced a problem, and I needed to know if this was an individual case or if it happened to everyone. Out of all the people who bothered downloading (and this should be regardless of whether they like the game or not, because the point was I was asking for help to continue production and I would do the same for anyone else if they had a problem such as this) only 1 person replied saying it didn't happen...which didn't tell me much because it might have happened to the 50 others...So that game was scrapped because of limited feedback, and it drives me crazy!
Having said this though, I'm a bit of a hypocrite as I rarely comment either. But in the future I am going to make the effort. But if I do really like a game I will email the maker as it's more personal.
But yes we make games for the fun of it, but we can't deny we do it to please fellow klikers also. Which just doesn't make sense if people don't reply, as it is them we are making it for! The games won't get better without decent feedback, and it's always going to be the same as long as people dont't seem interested in one another. Sad to think once upon a moon ago this issue didn't exist!
I know I've been whining on for ages, but just had to get some of this of my chest, as I can't understand why people on here are like this. We are a COMMUNITY and should behave as such. It'll probably never change though.
-Reaper
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Death Reaper Xfont colorredbDarran Baker/b 1984-2006/font Registered 02/07/2002
Points 1454
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