Have We Become Overly Critical?

[OMGTwitchTV]

It's no secret who supports Blizz and who crucifies them with every, single decision; however, I have to wonder...

have we become overcritical of a 15 year old MMO that continues to get updates? Ultima Online, EverQuest and World of Warcraft have been around for a long while and still have a large and dedicated fanbase, yet other MMOs like Aion, LotRO, Warhammer, Age of Conan, and even Guild Wars 2 all set out to dethrone the long standing favorites and eventually faded into nothingness. What do you suppose prevents some players from just being excited to still have new content and millions of other players?

[Stricks]

The WoW community? Surely not!

[Ringthane]

In other news, fire is hot and water is wet.

[Marxman]

No. Remaining critical is how you get improvements made.

[Mysterymask]

Hi welcome to the internet here we have a fandom that will never be satisfied until person the youtube man told them to hate's head is on a stick for all to enjoy until the next man they need to be angry at arrives at blizzard and once again ruins everything. To your right you have weird fetishes that will shock the living hell out of you and some you might just randomly enjoy for some reason and to your left is yet another cesspool of terrible. Please pick up your complimentary gift basket and remember this is society now.

[terminaltrip421]

the only thing I'm truly critical of is their slowing me down during my time played. removing flight's availability at the onset, removing flight master's whistle, sparse flight points. if they want to time-gate stuff that's fine If I'm happy I'll be subbed anyway but if you make it feel like my time logged in is being unnecessarily wasted traveling I'm not happy.

[Jonnusthegreat]

All criticism is constructive criticism. There is nothing wrong with providing feedback.

[Atrieus]

the only thing I'm truly critical of is their slowing me down during my time played. removing flight's availability at the onset, removing flight master's whistle, sparse flight points. if they want to time-gate stuff that's fine If I'm happy I'll be subbed anyway but if you make it feel like my time logged in is being unnecessarily wasted traveling I'm not happy.

So you want to just teleport where you want to be and not travel to get there at all?

This sort of logic is the reason the game is getting worse not better, the gotta go fast mentality.

[Marrilaife]

have we become overcritical of a 15 year old MMO that continues to get updates? Ultima Online, EverQuest and World of Warcraft have been around for a long while and still have a large and dedicated fanbase, yet other MMOs like Aion, LotRO, Warhammer, Age of Conan, and even Guild Wars 2 all set out to dethrone the long standing favorites and eventually faded into nothingness.

How did Guild Wars 2 "fade into nothingness", they already announced 3rd expansion this year, yes, the game has different focus than WOW, but it's f2p with b2p expansions so at least isn't milking people subs - which we should take into consideration when talking about "frequent content updates", a sub-based game should be held to a higher standard than f2p or 1 time purchase one.

Every MMO has their own "dedicated fanbase", hell people play Runescape to this day.

But yeah, a game which costs 130$ per year should be looked at with bigger scrutiny than a game which is much cheaper to play.

[Master Guns]

No. Remaining critical is how you get improvements made.

Denying that you've become overly critical when you obviously have is a sign of not really realizing where you are in life.

[Swnem]

With the most stubburn dev team in the world?!

No, i don't think so. Honestly, it's the criticism that managed to turn the game away from the destructive path it was on (AP, titanforging,corruption, basic class design, etc).

If we didn't criticize, the game would be in a much worse place.

Honestly, the problem is they don't listen until we riot and even then they choose to be stubburn. #pulltheripcord was right and we are paying the price now cause they wanted to be stubburn.

The faction balance thing as well. They are more worried about Blizzcon shouts than preventing an incoming issue where you can only play challenging content in a single faction. This stuff should be getting adressed now and they are waiting too long as usual.
No, we are not overly critical. Only if you take every single complaint with 1 reply in the forums and project that as a complaint at large.

[OMGTwitchTV]

All criticism is constructive criticism. There is nothing wrong with providing feedback.

I would have to disagree. A few years ago, I remember discussing this in another forum and someone shared this link about criticism with me and ever since I have to wonder if the person offering the criticism is doing so constructively. Sometimes when I read through the comments, I often see items from the past being thrown back into the argument rather than addressing the need on its merit and offering a solution, rather than a problem. I am certainly a fan of "constructive" feedback, I just feel like most people miss the mark when they think they are being the right type of critical.

[Jonnusthegreat]

I would have to disagree. A few years ago, I remember discussing this in another forum and someone shared this link about criticism with me and ever since I have to wonder if the person offering the criticism is doing so constructively. Sometimes when I read through the comments, I often see items from the past being thrown back into the argument rather than addressing the need on its merit and offering a solution, rather than a problem. I am certainly a fan of "constructive" feedback, I just feel like most people miss the mark when they think they are being the right type of critical.

I believe that it is up to the criticized to make criticism constructive, not the criticizer. Even something as unintelligible as "you fucking suck" can improve someone if they allow it.

[MatPandaZ]

It's no secret who supports Blizz and who crucifies them with every, single decision;

I don't support nor hate them. I pay for a game that I enjoy enough, until I don't enjoy it enough and then stop playing it. I don't really see the need to get emotionally attached to a corporation either way. Especially when there are so many layers as to why they made the decisions they did - player interest, profit orientated, poor management or within a budget. They wouldn't dare tell the truth on the matter the majority of the time so I just keep it simple and play games I enjoy until I don't.

[OMGTwitchTV]

How did Guild Wars 2 "fade into nothingness", they already announced 3rd expansion this year, yes, the game has different focus than WOW, but it's f2p with b2p expansions so at least isn't milking people subs - which we should take into consideration when talking about "frequent content updates", a sub-based game should be held to a higher standard than f2p or 1 time purchase one.

Every MMO has their own "dedicated fanbase", hell people play Runescape to this day.

But yeah, a game which costs 130$ per year should be looked at with bigger scrutiny than a game which is much cheaper to play.

I get that it has 250k players, and is finally getting a 3rd expac after 11 years of activity, I just know even SWTOR, which was around just the year before has at least been through 5 expansions and the play model matches ideally. I get that some of these games are still considered popular, I just don't see it being much more than a PvP option among more powerful MMOs.

[ro9ue]

Can some people be overly critical? Yeah.

The good news is criticism is a sign people still care.

I actually see a lot of good criticism too. Long posts with well thought out feedback.

[OMGTwitchTV]

I believe that it is up to the criticized to make criticism constructive, not the criticizer. Even something as unintelligible as "you fucking suck" can improve someone if they allow it.

"You fuckng suck" is kinda vague. Now, if you change that to "No flying fucking sucks" or maybe "this gearing system fucking sucks", those could at least offer a jumping off point for discussion and collaboration for a resolution. But if someone walked into your office, with your work in their hand, threw it at your face and simply said, "This fucking sucks", you'd be sitting there wondering which part sucks, and how could you improve on it. Communication works two ways and the critizer needs to at least be on the same page as the criticizee. My opinion anyway.

- - - Updated - - -

Can some people be overly critical? Yeah.

The good news is criticism is a sign people still care.

I actually see a lot of good criticism too. Long posts with well thought out feedback.

Those I LOVE! There is nothing more impressive to me than someone who has facts, statistics, metrics, screenshots, etc. If I built cars, I would want driver feedback, and that level of comprehensive criticism is absolutely invaluable. I would love to see more feedback and criticism where there is a lot of supporting documentation, and even suggestions on how to possibly resolve the issue.

[arkanon]

It's no secret who supports Blizz and who crucifies them with every, single decision; however, I have to wonder...

To be fair, I get accused of BOTH on a weekly if not daily basis - in one thread im being accused of being a "fanboi" while at the exact same time im being accused of being a "hater". I think the only thing that isnt a secret is that if you disagree with someone, you absolutely will be accused of being either a fanboi, or a hater.

On topic, yeah, I think to some degree consumers in general have become extremely critical of things - from wow, to starwars, GOT, hell even UFC fighters, Car designs - everything is shit, everyone is shit, and everything new looks like shit.

I will say this though - many of the big hitters in the game industry continue to churn out repetitive, copy/paste, uninspired sequels and remakes, and some people have simply had enough. With the number of AMAZING games out there, they really should be on notice - but so many people who started their gaming addiction with wow are of an age now that starting something new is quite a daunting prospect; they want to stick with what they know, but what they know isnt what it used to be anymore. The Simpsons is another example of this - I know plenty of people who will sit there and watch every single new episode, even though they genuinely seem to be struggling through some serious discomfort while watching them.

I think the fact a game like Valheim, which costs about the same as 1 month sub for wow, are showing the level of displeasure some/many have with the current gaming climate - it has over 3,000,000 purchases and its only in early access, and hasnt been out for long at all.

- - - Updated - - -

Can some people be overly critical? Yeah.

The good news is criticism is a sign people still care.

I actually see a lot of good criticism too. Long posts with well thought out feedback.

Absolutely, and sadly, a thread titled "this feature sux and ruined the game and if you disagree with it you are wrong and I hate you" will get plenty of traction, while a new suggestion for a feature or change will be on page 3 by days end, as will anything even remotely positive.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

So you want to just teleport where you want to be and not travel to get there at all?

This sort of logic is the reason the game is getting worse not better, the gotta go fast mentality.

No, they probably want to fly there on a flying mount. That is the whole bloody point of having flying mounts, so you can fly on them.

[Jonnusthegreat]

"You fuckng suck" is kinda vague. Now, if you change that to "No flying fucking sucks" or maybe "this gearing system fucking sucks", those could at least offer a jumping off point for discussion and collaboration for a resolution. But if someone walked into your office, with your work in their hand, threw it at your face and simply said, "This fucking sucks", you'd be sitting there wondering which part sucks, and how could you improve on it. Communication works two ways and the critizer needs to at least be on the same page as the criticizee. My opinion anyway.

And if I chose to have the mindset of constructive criticism, I would look into what could be bad and improve my work. Specificity is not required.