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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FDP Mike" data-source="post: 918321" data-attributes="member: 325">Greetings, Bryan.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />First off, I suppose that I chose my words unwisely. Perhaps, "An intriguing flipside ..." would have made for a better, more exact direction. I'm not at all faulting Mike for any sort of silence -- I'm just making an observation on a related, if tangential, issue (particularly if you consider that the ranting, angry fans are often the ones that will draw publishers into responding, as ColonelHardisson notes).Secondly, I'm not sure that I necessarily distract from Mike's admittedly very on-topic and focussed post (I hope that I am adding to the discussion). Publishers play a role in this dialogue as well; they must be willing to accept the need for and/or possibility of change. Yet I've noticed that "rude and angry" gamers turn up the volume even louder once they actually get a publisher to respond, often attacking the publisher for the very act of responding at all. Publishers thus often find themselves between Scylla and Charybdis precisely because of "angry gamers" -- i.e., bite the tongue and let the (sometimes unjustified) fear mongering go unchecked or enter the fracas and get roasted anway.One aspect of why the Internet is such a powerful tool also involves the opportunity publishers have to engage directly with gamers and game critics. Insults and rants get us nowhere, to be sure, and publishers can be just as guilty. I think, though, that publishers could make what they do and why more transparent so as to head off or dampen the fires of the "rude and angry" -- with Monte Cook's cautions to publishers firmly in mind (see below).I'm not at all trying to make an excuse for publishers to respond to anger with anger. We all saw the fruits of that strategy with Jim Ward's rant(s) against reviewers. Henry cites Monte Cook's comments on how publishers should act with regard to criticism, and I agree with Monte pretty much wholeheartedly. Publishers who lack tact, civility, and professionalism do and should lose fans. Yet in this era of such free communication on the web, why should publishers be expected always to hold their tongues? I don't subscribe to the notion that the customer is always right (neither is the publisher, mind you). I do, however, believe that a healthy, constructive exchange of ideas can quite effectively forward "change in the gaming industry." Change is not a one-way com link; there's a receiver of criticism, a respondant.I did not suggest anything to the contrary, I hope.I might also add that gamers should set examples for each other, for, as I wrote, maybe part of the source of "angry gamers" lies in how gamers tend to treat each other.Take care,Mike</blockquote>

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