NS Community, you are amazing
Daemonlaud
Join Date: 2002-12-30 Member: 11637Members
Join Date: 2002-12-30 Member: 11637Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Devs take stock of what you see on this forum</div>Anyone else here been on a Blizzard or Battlefield forum in the last 6 years?
Or just about any competitive or multiplayer game?
On this forum are several dozen threads of polite, insightful commentary and feedback. There has never been a community around a multiplayer game that has acted so mature, so intelligent, so close to its release.
I see, what, ONE retarded single-paragraph whine thread? And most of the people replying to <i>that</i> are doing so sensibly and in a restrained, constructive manner.
I hope the devs realise what a blue moon event this community is, and they appreciate and listen to the feedback given. They have put so much into this game, we all want it to end well.
Or just about any competitive or multiplayer game?
On this forum are several dozen threads of polite, insightful commentary and feedback. There has never been a community around a multiplayer game that has acted so mature, so intelligent, so close to its release.
I see, what, ONE retarded single-paragraph whine thread? And most of the people replying to <i>that</i> are doing so sensibly and in a restrained, constructive manner.
I hope the devs realise what a blue moon event this community is, and they appreciate and listen to the feedback given. They have put so much into this game, we all want it to end well.
Comments
"I could've been working at Zynga"- (paraphrased Charlie)
They've got a lot of money now. I'm betting they'll stay afloat in business for a good long time. NS2 has made them much more money than NS1, because NS2 is an actual product. It's time to hire some good hands, and... take a vacation. A year off, at least. That's what I would do if I were the devs. Let someone else carry on their vision. With a team this small, and this much money coming in? I bet they have the money to do just that.
But the community has existed for a long time, and people around here tend to only get bad attitudes towards people that actually deserve it. If that continues for the first couple months after release I think that people will know that we don't tolerate that kind of ###### around here.
We do realize it, do appreciate it, and we do listen.
<!--quoteo(post=2015020:date=Nov 8 2012, 05:05 AM:name=godrifle)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (godrifle @ Nov 8 2012, 05:05 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2015020"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It's time to hire some good hands, and... take a vacation. A year off, at least. That's what I would do if I were the devs. Let someone else carry on their vision. With a team this small, and this much money coming in? I bet they have the money to do just that.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ha, we'd love to take a lot of time off, but there is too much to do to keep making the game better and better! We have a lot of ideas for improvements and additions and are very excited for the future.
--Cory
What! I absolutely adore the LoL community even though I barely play the game anymore at this moment at least. And the community is huge, and in the kind of game you would expect toxicity to thrive, yet they surmounted it to a good extent.
--Cory<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--coloro:#FFC0CB--><span style="color:#FFC0CB"><!--/coloro-->Clearly this calls for a compromise. Use your profits to get a mini-bar and jacuzzi installed in the office. Best of both worlds!<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
I've always felt it has been a two-way street. From Max bootstrapping anything he looks at almost by accident ("oops, I built a CMS"), to Cory's terrifying imagination concealed by his bafflingly placid exterior, to Charlie's epic smile and eternally open kimono...
These guys, and all who have rallied to their cause since, have grown as one big surprisingly functional family. We have our moments of stress, and we certainly have our fights... But at the end of the day it is all driven by our love for this game and its universe... Even when we argue over game balance, client performance, or tournament rules, it always seems to be two sides arguing over what's best for the game as opposed to what is fair or unfair to an individual.
I've never felt an "us" and "them" divide between the devs and the community. I've seen devs disagreeing with other devs just as I've seen community members disagreeing with other community members. I've seen devs and community members working together to solve bugs and I've seen community members become devs. These devs have continuously trusted us and involved us in major game-design decisions, and even now a sizeable number of these community members now make up the bulk of what would normally be community management, comms & marketing, level design and quality assurance teams (forum mods, mappers, youtubers, internal playtesters, alpha/beta playtesters, etc).
The line has become so blurry I can't even see it any more.
<!--quoteo(post=2015035:date=Nov 8 2012, 03:32 PM:name=Hyperforms)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hyperforms @ Nov 8 2012, 03:32 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2015035"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Not to crush dreams or anything, but if NS2 ever becomes a success on the level of World of Warcraft or Battlefield or whatever, kiss the nice community goodbye. Generally games with smaller communities are friendlier, and it also helps that this game is a bit more complicated than the average game of today. Anything with mass appeal... forget about it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->There is some truth in this... The core community that stuck with Unknown Worlds through thick and thin are relatively small in number. Even if our population remains constant, we will quite naturally become a minority group if this game's popularity gains critical mass like NS1 did...
To be perfectly honest, the same thing happened back then too. NS1 had a small hardcore following long before it was released. When it was released, the masses flocked to the forums and their voices became the majority opinion of the "community". As an example of this, I still can't help but feel this is part of what caused the 1.x and 2.x versions of NS1 to be so vastly different from each other.
But NS1's popularity did eventually wane... The masses eventually did move on to the next big fad... And the core of this community remained.
Let the masses come. Let the forums be filled with more noise than signal. We'll still be here if the dust ever settles. :)
This community is really awesome and friendly, it is a pleasure to come read things here.
I am sad to say I actually left the community sometime in 2004, due to being unable to find a game of NS over the proliferation of combat servers and not massively liking the direction the 2.0 iteration was heading. Looking back at the PMs still in my account from that time, I see some of the arguments I was having with Dark Nemesis and MonsieurEvil (both who eventually became devs themselves I think - I wonder where they are now?) and...I really missed that community and the discussions we had on it.
And I am ashamed to say I wrote off NS2 as a vapour-ware mod. I have a friend who was asked for capital finance from Unknown some time ago, and he too thought it just too risky and unlikely to pull through, he told me, somewhat sheepishly yesterday!
But you did. I stand here astonished and very nearly reverent at the dedication and tenacity of the devs, past and present.
<!--quoteo(post=2015286:date=Nov 8 2012, 07:47 AM:name=Philk)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Philk @ Nov 8 2012, 07:47 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2015286"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I play Starcraft 2 and I frequently check the forums. It makes me ashamed of playing the game...
This community is really awesome and friendly, it is a pleasure to come read things here.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->This is much more Teamliquid than Battle.net...but it's still way better than even TL.
I wouldn't say that yet. They will have made something in the region of $1,000,000 in revenue from selling NS2 on steam, and they have about 10 guys working for them. That money will only cover operations of that size for a year or so I would guess (although of course NS2 will continue to sell and hopefully very well!). It's impossible for us to say how much cash they had around prior to release though.