And get angry with us lol and then return to good friendship. You are really fun @Samuel_H_Young even if you and I crash a lot.
1 Like
A lot of authors and other folks have already chimed in with great perspectives on marketing and how to squeeze out meaningful feedback from others. The only thing Iâd like to add is the mental perspective authors (and other creatives) should take in regards to feedback.
I think thereâs always a period of vulnerability whenever you release a story (or whatever) out into the wild, a time period where your Ego will have you counting your stars and where every random person with an opinion affects you very deeply. In my personal experience: Fatehaven was like that for 6 months, Samurai of Hyuga for 6 weeks, SoH 2 for 6 days, and SoH 3 for 6 hours. This window-of-vulnerability fades the more work youâve got out there and the more you invest into your own opinion as opposed to others.
It really is all about not taking things personally, even things that are very personal to you. Like that baby you just spent a year+ slaving over! The way to do this, Iâve found, is to realize that the readerâs experience, emotions and thoughts are all their own. Their reality and their truth really have nothing to do with you.
I always, always learn more about a reviewer from their feedback than I ever learn about my own story from them. Thatâs not to say thereâs nothing to gain, of course! I consider constructive criticism to be an articulated-out version of stuff I already knew was iffy (this characterâs development had issues, that scene was cut short, that scene went on too long, and so forth). I canât stress how valuable it is to have that âiffy feelingâ coherently expressed.
To summarize: I think itâs vital to realize and accept that the opinions of others are projections of their truths (not your truth). This is key when it comes maturing as a creatorâand as a person, really!
11 Likes
I think this is very important for everyone writing and developing a CS game to realizes happens to every developer.
Just to emphasize this point let me share a quote from the directer of a Fallout game from the 1990âs:
Emphasis is mine but this quote shows that game designers and developers have been feeling vulnerable for decades, even from the earliest days of computer gaming.
As @MultipleChoice says, perhaps we build a tolerance over time concerning âpressâ or âreviewsâ but the amount of actionable feedback gained from these sources often is meaningless and even contrary to the reality. Again I turn to this designer/developer from the 1990âs to emphasis this point:
Again this thread is to encourage you to build your own specific feedback loop that is relevant to you and that works with and for you and your efforts and not to rely on feedback that does the opposite.
3 Likes
I think another reason Steam reviews and the like are taken so seriously is because those of us on the forums and on authorsâ personal websites represent a niche audience. Getting the opinions of those within the community is important, but I canât help but think of an echo chamber wherein feedback all blends together and creates a certain flavor.
Direct reviews offer represent the thoughts of a population beyond this community. I think that itâs important to interface with the perception of the general population if for nothing else than to better understand how one may appeal it. Granted, one can only take this approach so far.
2 Likes
Steam is not general population either. sadly the people that normally left reviews are people that tend to be extremely extreme in their way of value things. Or fans that probably have already give you feedback.
General buyers doesnât left reviews. A big chunk of reviews came for people with very entitled mindset. that give zeros of 1 for random facts of canât choose have x color of eyes or because a romance is not white or several random things.
Donât get me wrong feedback from buyers is important but is not an accurate measure of anything as there is a drop in the ocean of buyers that doesnât left anything as feedback.
An author should know what is their idea and cores in their work and maintain that as pillars if not criticism or mere suggestions could dilute your project due you could erase easily the concept you wanted to express adding stuff just because feedback.
It is a very difficult situation what games and books are have in a balance Artists view and intent vs what feedback and readers want from you.
6 Likes
Not to sound insensitive, but he deserved to feel a little bad. I played through Brotherhood of Steel in the mid-2000s and it was generic garbage not suitable for the name. They just spread a thin veneer of Fallout over that Baldurâs Gate Dark Shadows (or whatever it was called) engine that wasnât all that entertaining to begin with (think Diablo 2 without the atmosphere). Just because you have Radroaches and bottle caps doesnât make you a worthy Fallout game. I played it shortly after trying F2 for the first time and it was just a kick in the nuts.
To pasetto Behalf The Brotherhood is wasnât they wanted to make. It was pushed and changed by the developer and rushed What you played was a wreaked remains twisted by the same people than then closed Interplay. Than then killed Troika by same reasons after a jewel called Vampire was terribly launched. I remember that launch.
Still to interplay the several projects they have to Fallout 3 were so amazing. I love Van Buren playable project.
The rpg is fill with graves of passionate developers and games. Like my loved Morrowind pre project. That was discarded and end with part of daggerfall people out of Bethesda. Sadly the people out where the real role players.
1 Like