Andy Collin's comments re censoring playtester reviews

[Primal]

primal, have you considered a part of this 'hostility' may be reactive?

They are also humans, and you know how fandoms can be.... creepy at times. Read on otaku and trekkies by example, if you never saw the extend of 'fandumbness'. Read on Evangelion and it's story behind the product.

I saw personal insults, trashing, perhaps evemn death treats by pm and email,. I bet. They face heat, bad heat. So, I am not surprised some lashe back, in despair and rage.

I've seen them too, yet consider this: Rich Baker has probably taken more "heat" than the rest of the WoTC staff members put together. In fact, if anyone has gotten "death threats", that'd most likely be him. Has he lashed out "in despair and rage"? Ignored the fans? Treated the fans in a condescending manner? Stopped posting? No, he has done none of those things. He still answers our queries in a polite and reasonable manner. Why? Because he *knows* that it's the fans (customers) who're actually paying his bills. It's a very simple business principle: keep treating your customers badly and you're (sooner or later) out of business.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Yet, that forget always one detail - stars, pr guys, politicians, etc... they remain human.

And even such 'image elite' can fall.

It's weird, I read between the lines... At times, the strange mix of calousness of snark plus eerie calm... There is something that eerily feels like one or two of them is barely stoped from breaking down. You can not always 'smile up down' or whatever is the public relations term, there is a line where anyone freak out.

And fandom can be truely nasty, freaky, again.

So, I would not be surprised that one of them guys break down very publicly after the new edition is done and out. They force themselves to keep it, but it's failing, it's apparent. The masks have crack.

look like at a certain pop singer woman who made much the headlines over the past months.


(this is said as a man who suffers from mental illness - i would NOT pass such a trial. Not without an heavy breakdown, to suicide attempt I guess.)

 

[med stud]

I could give you some examples of WoTC designers and freelancers (not Ari, though) "lashing out" (on the WoTC forums) at the fans who dared to criticize DI and 4E.

I don't think this is an honest description in those situations; "dare to criticize" sounds like a polite, maybe even humble critique. What I have seen that designers etc have lashed out at has been self righteous tirades bordering the insulting.

In those situations even professionals lose their cool.

 

[BASHMAN]

I'm curious-- how is this different from 3.0? A lot of the negativity I think regarding Wizards' tactics regarding 4e is that people are comparing it to how awesome they were about releasing 3e and comparing them.

If 3e had a Gaming System Licsence, we would have said, "Oh, cool, people can make their own D&D products!". But because 3e had an Open Gaming License, which allowed people to make their own game systems based on D&D, a Gaming System License looks restrictive & mean-spirited by comparison.

I bet when 3e was coming out, people would have been thrilled to get a preview book telling them that there will be some new class called the Sorcerer, and that Barbarians, Monks, and Half-Orcs were back in the core. However, 3e testors were filling Eric Noah's site full of "black pages" that essentially were the entire SRD of 3e before the books were ever released, and Dragon magazine was giving up a lot of stuff in those Countdown articles, people seeing the tidbits released now compare it and say, "what a gyp! $15 for preview books that don't have any game mechanics at all? WHere are my black pages?"

In essence, I think the open-awesomeness of 3e's release has "spoiled" us-- and now that 4e's business model is trying to go "back to normal" instead of "open", people are feeling somehow cheated.

Now with 3e I don't remember hearing about any "censorship" of people's playtest reports, but I also don't remember reading any playtest reports that were negative at all either...

 

[zoroaster100]

If the designers have created a great new edition, hopefully they can focus on that for now and take comfort in the fact that when it finally gets released, most fans will take it up enthusiastically. No matter what, some will not like it, but that is a given because there is so much variety among D&D players. I imagine no matter how confident they are about the system, I'm sure they must have some nervousness about how the world of D&D fans will receive the product once it is fully revealed for scrutiny. But hopefully the designers will get to tell us "I told you so" in June and there will be much rejoicing.

 

[pemerton]

Dragon magazine was giving up a lot of stuff in those Countdown articles, people seeing the tidbits released now compare it and say, "what a gyp! $15 for preview books that don't have any game mechanics at all? WHere are my black pages?"

To suggest that W&M has nothing useful in it for playing D&D (any edition, really) is pretty bizarre. It has no action resolution or character build mechanics, but it is utterly full of high-quality discussion of world-building with the goal of supporting (rather than hindering, as too many past D&D campaign worlds and system features have done) heroic fantasy RPGing.

 

[pemerton]

It's quite simple. There are a lot of people here who are absolutely sure that Fourth Edition will totally suck. Therefore, any opinion other than that is clearly the work of someone who is "biased" or "intentionally misleading" the public.

So because Ari doesn't think 4e sucks people feel free to accuse him, in effect, of deceptive conduct? You may have correctly divined the reasoning process, but it's pretty bizarre.

Which I guess was your point. I guess I just find the pointless, unjustified and vitriolic insults a bit hard to put up with. (And I feel sorry for the actual targets of them.)

 

[Ourph]

I don't think this is an honest description in those situations; "dare to criticize" sounds like a polite, maybe even humble critique. What I have seen that designers etc have lashed out at has been self righteous tirades bordering the insulting.

In those situations even professionals lose their cool.

I disagree. I think the term "professional" implies a certain level of decorum that precludes losing one's cool, even in response to the most annoying of customers/critics. The problem is that WotC has designers/developers trying to be professional PR/marketers and they aren't qualified for those roles.

In almost any other field, all developer comments would be filtered through a PR department before being released to the public. WotC is both 1) very generous; and 2) very silly to not be following that sort of protocol with their customers.

 

[malladin]

I don't think this is an honest description in those situations; "dare to criticize" sounds like a polite, maybe even humble critique. What I have seen that designers etc have lashed out at has been self righteous tirades bordering the insulting.

In those situations even professionals lose their cool.

Really, real professionals, law enforcers, social workers, educators, health care staff and emergency service personnel to name a few, cope with worse abuse and maintain a professional demeanor-thats part of being a professional. If they can't I'm not convinced games designers, which is hardly a profession in the strict sense anyway, who don't like what people are saying about what they do should be given more leeway in their behaviour. Not if they want to be classed as professionals anyway. Its not like their doing anything actually important to society as a whole unlike real professionals where you can understand it to some degree due to the meaningful pressures they face. Sorry, lashing out not only demonstrates poor personal professionalism, but is a negative reflection on the employer. This concerns the real world of professional, not fandom, and not everyone likes how you do your job, learn to live with it or move on and don't excuse people for not doing the same.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Really, real professionals, law enforcers, social workers, educators, health care staff and emergency service personnel to name a few, cope with worse abuse and maintain a professional demeanor-thats part of being a professional. If they can't I'm not convinced games designers, which is hardly a profession in the strict sense anyway, who don't like what people are saying about what they do should be given more leeway in their behaviour. Not if they want to be classed as professionals anyway. Its not like their doing anything actually important to society as a whole unlike real professionals where you can understand it to some degree due to the meaningful pressures they face. Sorry, lashing out not only demonstrates poor personal professionalism, but is a negative reflection on the employer. This concerns the real world of professional, not fandom, and not everyone likes how you do your job, learn to live with it or move on and don't excuse people for not doing the same.

Humour isn't lashing out. It's not the same as punching a fan in the face or something like that.
Or is it lashing out, but in healthy, sensible manner. In a fair manner.

But why am I even reacting to this post? The fact alone that the post claims that game designer is not a profession alone sounds too arrogant to be worth discussing. So I stop. Now.