Matt Colville's Community

[Professor Murder]

Have yet to watch this vid, but yeah.
It is also what you let yourself stew in. Besides trying my best to not bother with unneeded negative critique, I am trying to consume less media that engages in such.

 

[TiQuinn]

So I'm only about halfway through the video, but one of the best observations in the video:

You can be a fan and still be a bad community member, i.e. someone can think they're helping promote the game, and they're actively turning people off.

Some other thoughts/takeaways:

If writers hate the act of selling, or the act of community building, I can easily see how some creators are their own worst enemies within their own communities. But there's also a good amount of community building that revolves around constant inside access...and that just always seems like trouble to me.

There's a space for just about everyone out there, even if it's about something you dislike - there's a community out there where people talk about the things they dislike. And that's fine. They should totally own that space.

 

[A_Carrington]

Criticism is good, and life wouldn't be worth living without disagreement.

 

[TwoSix]

1) You can't generate a productive discussion unless the participants are all willing to be swayed from their starting position.

2) People are very unlikely to ever be swayed from their initial aesthetic judgments.

Therefore, don't try to discuss aesthetic judgments. Go into discussions about techniques, or ways to improve, or specific use cases about where a game has success, or doesn't have success. Try to never walk into discussions about whether X game is good or bad because "reasons".

 

[Aldarc]

Criticism is good, and life wouldn't be worth living without disagreement.

I disagree!

 

[AnotherGuy]

I no longer watch Matt. I see his video is 1 hour long. From my experience all his videos could be 15 minutes long. I don't have the extra 45 minutes for him.

I find Matt to be an easy listen - I'm a fan of his temperament (Mercer's too - not that I watch CR).
Thankfully I'm in a job where I can just play a podcast in the background most of the time.

 

[Umbran]

.... But when Matt talked at length about individuals that spend most of their time talking about things that they dislike as opposed to things they like, I immediately thought about the growing need for (+) threads to keep conversations positive and fun to engage with. So I think if a few of us could learn a thing or two from the video.

I am curious to see if anyone else has such reflections, or what they think about Matt's analogies or general philosophy behind communities, moderation, price, etc.

I haven't watched the video yet, but from the above, yes, we've been aware of the tendency of folks spending large amounts of their time talking against things they don't like, rather than for things they do like. And yes, that approach does impact the community.

The concept is behind a couple of thoughts from Piratecat, years ago, including, "Tell us what is super-awesome about your favorite game, without comparing it to any other game."

 

[Umbran]

Criticism is good, and life wouldn't be worth living without disagreement.

Sure. But if you are trying to be part of a community, maybe concentrating too much on criticism does more harm than good.

 

[payn]

I'll try and find time to watch the video. As far as building communities goes, I think its good folks are discussing discourse here. One of the best things I got out of college was from a 99 page book about negotiation. There was a tip to focus on interests instead of positions. The idea was that the path forward is often out of common interest and the wall or stalemate happens when people draw lines in the sand. I find being mindful of interests has helped a great deal in all the discussions I have in my life. YMMV

 

[The Firebird]

1) You can't generate a productive discussion unless the participants are all willing to be swayed from their starting position.

2) People are very unlikely to ever be swayed from their initial aesthetic judgments.

Therefore, don't try to discuss aesthetic judgments. Go into discussions about techniques, or ways to improve, or specific use cases about where a game has success, or doesn't have success. Try to never walk into discussions about whether X game is good or bad because "reasons".

I find value in conversations even if the other person is not willing to change their mind, because the act of discourse will help clarify my thoughts and the justification for my position. It helps me go from "I know I like this but it is hard to say why" to "I can say very specifically why I like this".