How absurd I find it that my April Fools joke should be taken out of context and used as proof of Pstruth's bizarre claims about the comportment of the PlaneShift Development team.

Disparaging remarks have been directed against my person also. Yet they are left to stand.

Remember this vital fact good readers: While the developers of PlaneShift are human and can have emotional reaction to the way certain things are phrased on the forums or irc, the player-base of PlaneShift is assured daily that the developers are at least reading their complaints.

We take action on all we can in as reasonable a time frame as our budget (zero) allows. We hold polling to have players help us choose which of the planned features the players want most or first. We actually interact with our community, is this sometimes a mixed bag? Yes. Do the positives outweigh the negatives? Yes.

Go and see how long it takes you to get a response from a lead developer at Blizzard, or Crytek. Or go one further and speak about them and their games in the fashion Pstruth speaks of PlaneShift and see if they will respond at all, and if they do, how nice it is.

It occurs to me that this pstruth person spends a great deal of energy disparaging PlaneShift, one must wonder, what is the source of such bitterness, such bile? 

Ask yourselves if you were volunteering for 10 or more hours a day, would you want to spend a good portion of it listening to this brand of "critique" Would you want to be called all manner of negative names or be treated as if you are a mean-spirited cruel power-abusing dictator because you said "No" to some shoddy player request?

There seems to be some lack of perspective and inability to see from a developer's perspective at all. Whomever this pstruth person is he/she/it seems to have countless hours to snipe at the game. I am really curious as to where so much dedication to negative posting about the game, or endless argumentation with anyone who says postive things about the game or its developers/mods/gms comes from.

Alas.

Originally posted by Anumesa
Back to the original post in this thread.. Yay PS Devs, you deserve a medal :) Thank you for everything you do, and all the crap-*looks back across all 8 pages of this thread*-that you put up with every day. I, for one, appreciate it ;)

I second that! Yay devs!

Queen of fools, your post is filled with the pot calling the kettle black.  Blame for negativity towards the dev team lies with the dev team.

Karyuu, moon's examples were flawed.  The official forum has a feature where you can read through all posts by a particular user.  Since you're asking me to name names, I've found that Caarrie and Xillix are particularly bad for making obnoxious posts.  Xillix for snide one liners - Caarrie for replying with an aggressive tone of superiority.  Talad's posts on this forum here make for a more dramatic read however.  I do not mean any of this as a personal attack, these are merely my observations on posting habits.

Oh no, snide one liners!

It is funny to me how mostly only trolls dislike my posting style, generally speaking, I am pretty well respected in the community.

Originally posted by QueenofFools

Oh no, snide one liners!

It is funny to me how mostly only trolls dislike my posting style, generally speaking, I am pretty well respected in the community.

You can be well respected and imperfect at the same time.

Nevermind.

Originally posted by pstruth

Originally posted by QueenofFools

Oh no, snide one liners!

It is funny to me how mostly only trolls dislike my posting style, generally speaking, I am pretty well respected in the community.

You can be well respected and imperfect at the same time.

Perhaps as head of the settings team taking time out of the busy work  to be done, there is only time to make short posts, at least it lets me know Xillix is reading the posts I make and pondering them. ;)

Originally posted by Karyuu

pstruth, Moon provided direct links to threads to support his argument. I am wondering where yours are? Clearly not everything is removed, for you yourself state "the posts are there for anyone to read." Perhaps instead of being vague and general, you can start backing up your claims with examples.

I am here and willing to listen, and make changes if they are within my power. All you have to do is take advantage of it and follow through with my request - that way we're not floundering in What's-He-Talking-About land.

Assuming this offer hasn't gone stale, here's recent example of unfortunate happenings on the official forum:

http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=32342.0

I would pay special attention to Under the Moon's posts in that thread, but the problem is general overall.

Someone new to Planeshift came to the game and gave a reasonable critique of the game.  He was met with unwarranted opposition.  Developers responded to him with a defensive and accusatory tone.

You can reply back saying that these individuals are not trained in public relations, that they are merely volunteers doing the best they can, and the dev team includes "strong personalities", but those are merely excuses for the problem and my point is that the problem exists.  There's no good reason why threads like that should turn into four pages of fighting.  It would help if certain individuals had it within them to say "Yes, I see where you're coming from on this.  There does appear to be a [contradiction / shortcoming / hole / area of improvement] here, at least to those who are new to the game."

Start by saying "Yes" and THEN go into all the reasons and excuses for why things are.  Don't come out attacking.  The dev team won't make many friends that way, although you will attract more "strong personalities".

Here's another good example of devs acting inappropriately.

http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=31945.0

Another new player posted with his impressions of the game.  He gave a very reasonable critique of the game in its current state.   Jeraphon (another repeat offender) could have responded with something like this:  "Yes, we're aware of these problems and we're currently working on them.  Thank you for taking the time to write about your experience.  Here are some things you might try to improve game play."  Instead, he posted this brilliant piece of rubbish:

> "(The OP as quoted by Jeraphon, Jeraphon took out this one line from a very long post) I am affraid I will be found on Runescape!"

>(Jeraphon's response): Yeah...that sums it all up in more ways than one.

Jeraphon's reply was useless and arrogant.  Under the Moon's post isn't great either.

(Under the Moon) "We promise to offer players a better experience in the future. No, your complaints will not all be adressed to your personal satisfaction. Some may be. It will not all happen anytime soon. Tracking minimaps will never happen (as I have been told).

I would also like to point out at this time that PS does not have a single person that works full time on the game. Not one. Not a single person is paid to work on the game, or gets any money out of it. Not one. Not a single person working on the game is indebted to the players.

Am I defending the game? No. I am merely pointing out that we are not your servants. We work on the game because it is enjoyable for us to do so.

Having said that, and having briefly looked at Runescape, you are free to remain there as long as you wish."

Thankfully, later posts in the thread are better (including yours!), but no one can tell me there isn't a problem when clearly there is.

I concur, the official forums suck due to everyone's attitude. I'd even consider advertising my guild here just because I hate that forum so damn much. Hell, as of today it's summer for me so maybe I have time to do something about that forum.

And yet, you still have no evidence to back up your statement, "Negative feedback is banned, criticism is punished, and ballanced reviews are dismissed reflexively." Which happens to be what my post was about.

Honestly, is this new 'evidence' the best you can come up with? In your first 'evidence', the person had a 'minor' issue with why some things are the way they are. I explained it nicely. He dismissed my answers. In my second post, I explained it again, a bit mockingly, but not by 'punishing, banning, or reflexively dismissing' what he said. Once again, he dismissed what I wrote as wrong and started to get an aggressive tone, even calling me 'foo'. My next post was -very- specific why the things he was questioning are the way they are. I was not the nicest, but was not abussive either. Quite fair for responding to someone who 'reflexively dismissed' two of my posts that gave him the answers already.

Your second example... "very reasonable critique of the game in its current state". Yes, let me quote some of that.

"More annoying"

A very nice way to put something. Not insulting at all. Much better than, "I did not like how this was done."

"Worst yet"

Same as above.

"actually the worst thing is there is no map! zip! nada!"

"Aside from all this, when you log into the forum and mention ways to improve the game [by putting in minimaps], the creator pretty much flatly refuses!"

The Devs say no to something that has been debated for years before coming to the decision to leave them out, -and- give the reason why they choose to do so, so he attacks them for it?

"A horrible place [the Death Realm] of endless paths that lead nowhere"

Inaccurate, but we are striving to make it so. :) Of course, he did not mean it in a nice way. Finally:

"I have had the worst gaming experience ever!  What is wrong with having maps and compasses?  If you don't feel they add to your roleplaying, THEN DON"T USE THEM!  No one is forcing players to use features in a game...  ...So until the Death Realm dies, maps appear (or at least a compass, and npc's can understand SOMETHING I say to them, I am affraid I will be found on Runescape!"

His issue with the maps was already addressed in another thread (no), so that is not a problem for the game. The rest of his post was aggressive and demanding. Basically, he wants PS to be more like Runescape. As I am sure you know, most people around PlaneShift see being compared to Runescape as a severe insult.

Not to mention this post: Re: Pros vs Cons

Reasonable? I think not. What you have in that person is someone who thinks he is right beyond a doubt, wants everything his way, and wants it right now. He more than insinuates in an insulting manner that the Devs are not intelligent, don't listen to anybody, and are doing everything wrong just because -he- did not have fun. Come in that aggressive, and you will be met with the same no matter where you go. Also note that he talks about 'we' and how 'they' respond to 'us' by saying it is 'our' fault. Only one Dev responded to him before that second post, and he said nothing of the sort. Other players where the ones saying they did not have the same issues as him. My post after his insulting one was neutral and I would not change it nor apologize for it, and honestly, he can go play RS if that is what he enjoys. You can also note how many players came in to say they either liked the parts of the game he was complaining about, or adapted to them without much difficultly.

I am still waiting for your evidence to support "Negative feedback is banned, criticism is punished, and ballanced reviews are dismissed reflexively."

Originally posted by pstruth

 Jeraphon's reply was useless and arrogant.  Under the Moon's post isn't great either.

 

(Under the Moon) Not a single person working on the game is indebted to the players.

If a dev actually feels that they are not indebted to the players in any way, that dev has a screw loose.

Poor you.  Someone had an opinion you disagreed with, and he stuck to it even after you showed him the error of his ways.

As far as the second thread is concerned, maps were just one among many issues the original poster brought up.  He also was unhappy with:

- the levelling system

- the game being too dark to navigate

- awkward game interface and menus

- item manipulation being too complicated and involved

- difficulty communicating with NPCs

- the death realm

The fact is that pretty much every new player has trouble with these things.  It takes a while to get into the game.

Since you're intent on talking about maps, let's do that:  New players feel they need an overhead map when they enter the game so they know their way around.  So, does that mean we add an overhead map to the game?  NO.  But there IS a problem and there ARE creative solutions for it.   All you need to do as a dev is admit there's a problem, and show such players that you're interested in finding a solution to it.

You've admitted that there are people who see the devs as obstinate and resistant to criticism.  What I'm saying is that there's a reason for that reputation.

Originally posted by Zorvan

 

Originally posted by pstruth

 Jeraphon's reply was useless and arrogant.  Under the Moon's post isn't great either.

 

(Under the Moon) Not a single person working on the game is indebted to the players.

No players, no game.

 

If a dev actually feels that they are not indebted to the players in any way, that dev has a screw loose.

Even if a potential recruit isn't personally affected, they're going to see what cra