D&D Blog - Just Bigger Numbers

[DEFCON 1]

The polls are getting worse and worse.

I wish they wouldn't bother.

If they're getting out of them information that is useful to them, what difference does it make if none of you like them?

 

[D'karr]

The polls are funny in their lack of... "something"

In the back of my mind as I read the polls and many of the responses to them this is what the polls sound like to me.

We are designing D&D Next and we'd like to get your opinion about our direction:

Poll Question 1:
When would you like us to kick you in the nuts?
A: Now
B: Tomorrow
C: Right before the playtest
D: Right after the playtest
E: Before we publish NeXt
F: After we publish NeXt
G: I prefer to kick my own nuts

Poll Question 2:
If we could do something for the game what would it be?
A: Make it suck more
B: Make it suck less
C: Keep the same ratio of suckiness

Poll Question 3:
If we provide High level play what would you like to see?
A: That it would rock
B: That it would suck
C: I don't like High level play

Poll Question 4:
If we could only give you one option for the game which would it be?
A: A sexist game
B: A racist game
C: A game that only somewhat sucks

Every poll just seems to go deeper in that direction. At this point I'm not feeling very encouraged.



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[D'karr]

If they're getting out of them information that is useful to them, what difference does it make if none of you like them?

Maybe that is the problem. The perceived attitude of indifference is what makes the polls "frustrating", though that is probably not the appropriate word.

I know they have a plan, I know they are good designers, but the polls give the impression that they really don't know what the hell they're doing, or that they don't care. It's a matter of impression, not necessarily actuality.

If enough people start feeling that way then eventually the customer indifference will equal or exceed the level of indifference they feel coming from the designers. This only leads in a bad direction.



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[FireLance]

I know they have a plan, I know they are good designers, but the polls give the impression that they really don't know what the hell they're doing, or that they don't care. It's a matter of impression, not necessarily actuality.

I detect a fiendish plot. Maybe they're hoping that by focusing all of our vitriol on the polls, we'll have none left to spare for the things that really matter to them?

 

[DEFCON 1]

Maybe that is the problem. The perceived attitude of indifference is what makes the polls "frustrating", though that is probably not the appropriate word.

I know they have a plan, I know they are good designers, but the polls give the impression that they really don't know what the hell they're doing, or that they don't care. It's a matter of impression, not necessarily actuality.

Probably closer to reality is that they've had over a decade of producing games to discover that we're all a bunch of whiny, ungrateful bastards who are going to complain about everything regardless of whether it warrants complaints or not. So if they have enough to do that they don't want to blow 2 hours of their workday trying to create a wonderfully grammatically correct blog and poll just to try and cut down on the sheer number of us who are going to get up their butt about it... they'll just write a quick one off knowing full well they're going to get lambasted about it ANYWAY.

The company got raked over the coals when they WEREN'T keeping in contact with the playerbase on a consistent basis... and now they're raked over the coals when they are, because we don't like HOW they're remaining in contact.

If I were them, I wouldn't waste time trying to placate us either because we're exceedingly ungrateful about it.

 

[D'karr]

If I were them, I wouldn't waste time trying to placate us either because we're exceedingly ungrateful about it.

I agree. Doesn't change the fact that what I'm feeling from their "conversations" is not truly exciting.

Of course they're always going to have detractors. That problem only gets worse when the attitude seems to be "I don't give a F#".

 

[FireLance]

The company got raked over the coals when they WEREN'T keeping in contact with the playerbase on a consistent basis... and now they're raked over the coals when they are, because we don't like HOW they're remaining in contact.

I think it's closer to the mark to say that we don't like how little effort they seem to be putting into getting our opinion.

It's a corollary to the old adage that if a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well - if a job isn't done well, it could be that someone, somewhere doesn't think it's worth doing.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I think it's closer to the mark to say that we don't like how little effort they seem to be putting into getting our opinion.

It's a corollary to the old adage that if a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well - if a job isn't done well, it could be that someone, somewhere doesn't think it's worth doing.

And yet how much brouhaha would there be if they decided to just stop doing them at all? I would imagine we'd have more complaints about WotC not caring about our opinion at all, then we do now from people complaining that WotC isn't writing "good enough".

Personally... I'd rather they use their time and energy to work on the game than trying to come up with beautifully handcrafted blog posts that somehow eliminate all possible complaints about them.

Because we all know how likely THAT would be...

 

[FireLance]

And yet how much brouhaha would there be if they decided to just stop doing them at all? I would imagine we'd have more complaints about WotC not caring about our opinion at all, then we do now from people complaining that WotC isn't writing "good enough".

Personally... I'd rather they use their time and energy to work on the game than trying to come up with beautifully handcrafted blog posts that somehow eliminate all possible complaints about them.

Because we all know how likely THAT would be...

Oh certainly some effort is better than no effort, but decent effort would be better still.

That said, I'm a firm believer in obscure management concepts such as the 80-20 rule and the Voice of the Customer. The first states that it takes relatively little effort to get things mostly right - so, taking more time to craft good questions would make little difference to the quality of the rules, and would result in much better polls. The second states that without some mechanism to check that what you're producing is what the customers really want, all the time and effort you put into making your product could end up being wasted.

That said, it could be that WotC is banking on the public playtests for this feedback, which brings us back to the conclusion that they don't really consider the polls to be important.

 

[n00bdragon]

Well, since they went and hired a truly C-list design team the end result was all but guaranteed to be garbage from day 1. These blogs and polls just allow us to be angry about it now rather than when it comes out.

My only hope right now is that WotC is pulling an elaborate stunt in which on release day they will announce "Surprise! Everything we said about D&DN, which you have all become disappointed with for your various reasons, was totally 100% false. Here's the game we really made!" and it will be glorious.

We have zero tolerance for trolling in the d&d next forum. Banned for 7 days