Designer Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Gautam Babbar in a 10-minute video for developers spoke about the principles of work Valve with the community and feedback – or rather, why the company refuses to engage in dialogue with its audience.
The key thesis of the speech was the principle of “unfiltered comments”, which implies a passive study of comments and publications of players on social networks – how they communicate with each other about the game.
“If we join, they will stop talking to each other – they will start talking to us. This negatively affects the quality of reviews.“.
According to Babbara, developers can join the discussion only in case of erroneous statements or if more data is required about something specific. Otherwise, they just read the comments.
This is exactly how Valve approaches work on upcoming updates – whether it is a bug fix or new content, it is better not to talk about it until the last, because plans can change one way or another, and the words cannot be returned. This can seriously undermine audience confidence.
“We limit ourselves when we promise to add or solve something – priorities can change both in the studio and in the community“.
Also, if we talk about the future, the attention of players can move away from the present – after which an endless pursuit of new content will begin, although the audience should focus on what is now.
In short, Babbara’s idea boils down to the fact that instead of words and promises, Valve proves with deeds – and by moving away from direct dialogue with the audience, the team gets more honest feedback and greater flexibility, which makes it possible to make more successful long-term decisions.
Babbar’s speech drew controversial reviews among the community – especially considering that since December 2018, when Global Offensive became shareware, the problem of cheaters has become more relevant than ever, but after more than two years nothing has changed much.
“Of course, many will agree that actions are more important than words. So what about the current action on the cheating issue that has become more urgent since the move to shareware distribution?“.
Another problem in CS: GO is the irregularity of updates – they are released extremely rarely, and some games like Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 may remain without fresh updates for several years.
“Nobody knows if you are working on something or if you just quit the game. Of course, thanks to this, you can return to work on the project at any time – but in the same way, you can announce the freeze and resumption of work.“.
The ratio of likes and dislikes speaks volumes
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