John Hamp

Join Date 10/2001

Is anyone else getting annoyed with the nasties?

Decency, a rare commodity on Internet forums it seems

I was in the beta for GalCiv II. I was in the gamma to. I love the game. I also really like the community here on GalCiv2.com. It's not like other game sites, or I should say, it wasn't like other game sites.

Here, you have the developers, the actual coders, hanging out, chatting, giving suggestions, helping people, putting in suggestions. It's a great thing. They've always made us feel like part of the team.

But now that the game has hit "the big time" the forum seems to have attracted Battle.net rejects who simply what to put down, insult, and nitpick everything they can in the rudest possible way. Then there are the full grown adults doing their best immitation of children who say the nastiest, most unnecessary things to these guys who don't have to hang out here listening to us. And for what? just to be small, petty and mean?

What really aggravates me is that I've always had a revulsion for fan boys on forums. Sychphants who defend a game no matter how flawed or bad it is. Some of these guys are like anti-fanboys. And they make me feel like I have to behave like a fanboy simply because next to their hate and bitterness I look like a g-darned fanboy.

Am I alone in this feeling? Is anyone else as frustrated as I am watching people come in, say nasty rude things, not bother to read any of the pinned topics? Saying rude and nasty things to the developers or anyone who happens to like the game?

It's easy to forget that there are real people on the other ends of these messages. It seems like some people have totally forgotten that. Some decency and politeness won't hurt anyone.

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Xan

Join Date 01/2003

+29

I know I am. It's really sucks the fun out of things when you see people who just seem to get off on being jerks. It's a real shame. I've seen other developers driven off their own forums because they simply didn't want to deal with the haters.

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i hope the devs stay on the forums.....

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Stardock has never been one to turn away because of criticism. Usually the way people associated with Stardock deal with it is outclassing with their actions and outperforming with their software; I don't see a reason why this latest iteration will be any different.

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The good's always going to win out. People who love the game will stick around. Nitpickers will always move on to find something else to nitpick. Constructive picking and critique is good. I always feel proud when I read someone's review that has been well thought-out and gives both sides of the issue because they know there is someone on the other end who the game was made for and someone for whom the game was not made. These people honestly try to help you make choices. Most of us don't like the, "I hate this game and so should you!" types.

But "I love this game and so should you!" can be just as bad since different people have different tastes. I think overall, though, this game has a lot of appeal across the gamer spectrum.

Remember, substance and creativity last. Critics are limited to what other people create.

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Who cares about people like that? The absolute worst they can do is trash a thread: they're not materially affecting the quality of the game or anyone's attitude toward it.

As an aside, I've never seen an 'official' forum with such candid and open devs. It's certainly very refreshing, particularly compared to the likes of Blizzard.

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Guys, it's a known fact that when you grow, your little hardcore-supporting-community changes for the worse. Face it - people like to complain, people like being nasty, and on the internet, people usually behave like maniacs. I don't know why, I guess it's because they think they're anonymous, because they're hiding behind a nick-name and so they can say or do whatever they want.

You cannot deal with these people. You just somehow cannot ignore them complaining and insulting your baby. and even if you ignore them, they become even more nasty, insulting you personally, your way of life, anything to get attention. And the problem is that every nasty thing they say hurts. I've been there. I eventually grew a thicker skin, but it still hurts to see others behaving that way. You just can't do anything against it. You either have to really detach yourself and let others deal with these remarks for you as they tend to get mighty Drengin-evil like, behaving like it's some sort of anarchy in a post-apocalyptic movie (just check out a few major forums), or you have to grow a thicker skin. My solution was taking a few of these &$*#@%, and write a really nasty response to them, but avoiding pressing the "submit" button. It sometimes helps, sometimes not.

But you cannot do anything against it. Anything at all. Well, actually, you can - you can become small and hardcore again, but that's just shooting yourself in the leg.

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No matter how much they rant or rave they can't kill the professional reviews nor stop the game from selling 100's of thousands of copies. Psychologically I guess they think they are significant, but, really no one is. Gaming is like a hive and just because some drone doesn't like his job doesn't mean the rest of the hive won't survive and flourish. Just ignore them, if you feed the trolls you're just letting them control you and that's what they want "attention". Don't give it to them, ignore their threads and they will leave. Probably 99.9% of them haven't even played the game, you can look at scores on Gamerankings and see many people haven't played the games that are voted on. All the 10's and the 1's I don't even pay attention to. There's really no such thing as a 10 or a 1 it's just a war of voting rights, fanboys vs trolls. Everything in the middle are the true gamers.

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I tend to agree, but hopefully, most of the posters still participate to the original atmosphere here. I remember in galciv1, from time to time a thread would also get out of hand. Here is a bit more frequent, and most of all, many people don't seem to read the posts (previous topics I mean) on the same subject. I don't know how many time I've answered the same question...
As an attenuating circonstance, I might say that the forum is not easy to navigate, very difficult to search, and one cannot track (Iat leasdt I can't) their own posts, which makes it difficult to look for your own questions in other threads... That amplifies the problem since people will then post another thread, cluttering the forum even more. I really think a decent forum will make things go easier, if I may say so.

And from time to time there are people who attack Stardock with really little cause, and though I'm not a gamer (can only play a few hours a week, only one game at the time) I can say that I've necer seen this level of support from any company, game producer, phone, internet, whatever. In this Stardock cannot be blamed. I onluy hope that stardock people don't take their tone seriously, and most of the times there are 20-30 oldgard people (from galciv1 times) that jusp in and defennd stardock, which is good.

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Well, after reading this thread ( Fuzzy math and game development, in the journals section) I must say I agree with you: no matter how much time Frogboy spends writing and explaining stuff some are never satisfied. I 'd think that at some point the dev said that's no bug and go on explaining why so is so , and that should be it. It is a game not a simulation. And yet, people go back charging at him. Somedays it must be difficult. Hold on Frogboy, keep up the good fight

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Without wanting to get into a debate about human nature, I think there is a tendency in a lot of us to focus on the negative rather than the positive in anything where an open forum is offered which the developers by all accounts actually read. Certainly I have posted more comments on ways the game could be improved upon than on ways in which it has nailed it, although I would like to think I have always been constructive (no 'OMG no multiplayer!!!!!!' etc.). This is not because the game is poor by any stretch of the imagination (I think it's top stuff), but because I hope it can be improved even further.
All genuine gamers hate the trolling posts, but the other side of the coin can sometimes be forgotten. Occasionally I have seen what I thought of as valid criticisms shouted down. Inevitably the original poster will feel victimised and the whole thing will degenerate into mud-slinging. I guess my point, to the extent there is one, is that the quality of GalCiv2 is self evident - even with it's flaws it is at the very very worst 'alright'. To read some comments I wonder just how high peoples expectations are, if they think GalCiv2 is 'rubbish' (have they not played MOO3)? However I am always wary of the corresponding hyperbole of those who see only perfection - such an attitude can be unintentionally repressive to those of us more critically minded.

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If you want to sell 100's of 1000's of copies you get 100's of 1000's of people with that spectrum you get ... well you see the numbers.... If your having trouble with the game you end up here.... if not your playing....so you see the ones with problems ...most gamers dont come to forums to "chat" they come looking for solutions to problems...
If this were multiplayer they might come looking for opponents, some come looking for strategy tips, but most probably have issues with the game running.
I have seen forums kill a game and sent the developers running glad to be rid of a project. I liked thier continued support / development of Gal Civ I up until they started on Gal Civ 2 several years later.. I hope they do the same ..I for one have to paitence to realize that any issues/bugs even design issues will be addressed sooner then later.
There are alot of good things about the interface .. zoom on main or mini map with the mouse wheel is great, I was suprised to move my mouse over the mini map and zoom it with the wheel was using the + - buttons on it for 2 days.

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One little sentence - ok maybe two ^^ :

GalCiv 2 is not a little game for a few "freaks", because of its quality its "MAINSTREAM" now !!! - The downside of it is that because of the few bugs that DO EXIST and because of a few DESIGN flaws that DO EXIST a small percentage of the customers are not satisfied. That is normal and to be expected when you sell a game to a few hundredthousend people. So these phenomenas ARE NORMAL for a succesfull game - live with it. Better than the other way around !!!

I ,by the way, am a total fan of galciv 2 and am convinced that Stardock will make major money with it and they deserve it !!

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The one thing I reccomend is for stardock to create a complaints and bugs section of the forum, and have a strict moderating policy of moving threads there.

I consider it a major eyesore to see all of these complaints threads, repetitious ones at that, and it'll both help people see that they are repetitious, and smooth out the forum for the real fans to read up on the latest comments, strategy's... well... whatever it is I come here for

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