I've been gaming for over 35 years. Started online gaming with a Commodore 64. I've been a part of some great gaming communities. For nearly 20 years I have been a member of a community known as LIGS Long Island Gaming Servers. We started out in the late 90's with Counter Strike. We used to have lan parties every couple of months. Then we grew when Day of Defeat came out and we opened up a server for that. Soon it became ten servers. I was a lead admin overseeing all of the DoD servers. I made so many friends while gaming. We had our own forums and there was always a lot of good conversations going on.
What I'm trying to get at is, I have never been a part of a game that elicits so much emotion either good or bad. Sure I've played some games that completely sucked and just put it away never to be seen again. Whenever I went to a forum, it was to seek advice on how to play better and you usually got a lot of good responses. Sure you had your 'git gud" people but for the most part, people are generally really helpful. So that's not the issue.
The issue I see more and more of is the disdain towards the developers. World of Tanks and League of Legends were probably the two "saltiest" forums I was ever a part of. I gave up on League but I stuck out tanks for a few years. The thing I saw with WoT was the developers actually listened to the people who played the game. They would fly people out to Cyprus or L.A. just to hear feedback. And by no means is World of Tanks in any danger of losing their player base but still they engage the players and make changes accordingly.
Is everyone happy? No. But at least you get the feeling you're being heard and things change because the majority of the players are asking for the change. Massive and The Division is a whole other level of animosity. I remember back in May one of the community managers said this was the most toxic community he had ever seen. Which set off a firestorm of backlash from the community. What he didn't realize was that since alpha and beta people had been telling Massive they need to change the design of the DZ, what we call gankers now, they called trolls. It was obvious way back then that Massive was not listening. Massive collectively put there hands over their ears to drown out the players point of view.
What I have found in taking part in the PTS is that people are defending their turf like a pit bull. "Too much loot" "easy mode" not good for the game. On the flip side people happy with too much loot and happy being able to solo a mission. What the defenders, to me, have lost sight of, Massive as well, is the people who left the game. Games are supposed to be fun and yes I know fun is subjective.
Yet, the very people testing the game are the people who have stuck it out since launch. That's why they are defending their turf. This is where Massive has failed by not taking charge, showing true leadership and vision to bring back players who have left. Even at the expense of pissing people off.
When I say piss people off, I don't mean take away heroic. No I think they should have had levels that kept getting more and more difficult to the point you're getting whipped by a cat-o-nine tails as you run the mission. Some people like that... I mean they should have added so much content in the open world it would probably piss off the DZ fans but at the same time, we're all for TDM, PvP arena and whatever else makes PvP players happy. Just separate the PvP from PvE and be done with it.
I think this has been Massive's biggest failing. Not separating the two and giving each plenty of content. Their vision of TD doesn't work.
When massive asked us for suggestions to improve the game, they got a huge response from the players. That's like asking a kid what they want for Christmas. That whole idea of asking us how to improve the game by making suggestions was a non-starter. They never meant to add anything to this patch. That was a lot of false hope they gave us.
http://forums.ubi.com/forumdisplay.p...eedback/page39 From page 39 onward was after the SoTG where they asked us to submit our ideas.
"Hey, thanks for the well thought out suggestions and ideas. A lot of great stuff in here! I will compile it and forward it to the team.
/gabelikes"
Having participated in the PTS, I can tell you, you're not getting a new game. None of your suggestions for adding content was added. This was massive's chance to be a real game changer and they didn't grasp it. They really could have made some drastic changes to add content but they didn't. They could have made a PvP arena but they didn't. All you're getting is a different TKK and TTBK and some more loot.
So, all the defending of turf by folks in the game, you didn't help make the game bigger and better, you inhibited it's growth. What made me start this entire thread was why? Why are things like this? We all see the potential for this game. That's probably the only thing everyone will agree on. And I think everyone will agree the potential is not being lived up to. We all want a better game so why is it that we are so divisive towards one another? Why are you not focused on the developers for not delivering you a much more rewarding game that actually lives up to it's potential?
This was your chance to make a difference and instead you focused on the little things like too much loot or easy mode rather than asking for a better DZ a bigger DZ a true PvP arena. You didn't keep on Massive for more content in the LZ. You stopped at the four hour boss respawn. Why not ask for Queens to be opened, Staten Island or the Bronx? This was your chance to make the game you thought The Division could be.