Starisolator

This will be a quick one, not that anyone is reading right? ... . . . right?

I grew up playing games on C64, and then Amiga. When I was young I'd be happy to have a new game that someone (usually one guy sitting at home) decided to make - whether that was to simply make it or to actually make a living was not important to me at the time. The point is someone, with love and dedication made this game.

At no point during it's development did he (or she) take time out to construct an advert in DPaint, write suitable copy, and have that thing posted in the local paper or computing magazine asking for ever 'idiot' on the planet to tell them what they want in the game. No. They just made it the way they wanted it because they wanted it that way.

Today, we have funding sites. We also have forums, blogs, Steam Green light, public alpha & beta testing, and other ways to invite those 'idiots' into your house. Don't get me wrong, some people want it that's why they ask, that's why they send out the invites. However, for me it's setting a dangerous mood. One of entitlement.

I posted something else previous to this, talking about the passion and devotion in developers and how they must feel when they read some 'idiots' comment on a forum simply saying 'this game sucks', or similar base-instinct wording. It's with this thought that I approach this subject.

Unless a developer is asking for feedback, or inviting commentary on his or her game, what gives anyone the right (or entitlement) to start giving them 'free advice' or comments such as 'this game sucks' or 'if I made this game I would make it this way'. The point is you didn't make it, someone else did, they make it their way, not yours.

Maybe I'm way off the mark here but we seem to have landed ourselves in a land of entitlement. If someone is buying a game they feel they have every right to criticise it every step of the development way. And if you do not directly respond to their comments and make them feel self-worth, then 'your game sucks'. If I walk into a computer shop today and pre-order Microsofts Hologlass, does that give me the right to tell them how to make it? Nope. If I walked into a car dealership and pre-ordered 'insert new car here' does that offer me to hope that they will make it in exactly the right colour I want it? Nope.

It (kind of) angers me. If I make a game I hope people like it, I really do. But do I want their input on how the levels look or function, do I want their thoughts on characters, will I completely forget that it's my game and I want it to work in a way I would enjoy and feel others would also?

No. I essentially want the game to work and function the way I've designed it.

Constructive criticism. That's a whole other blog post ;)

ps. when I say 'idiot' I just mean.... an uniformed individual with little sense of self-worth and possibly jobless ;)

Kidding! Sort of.