Questions/Interview - Raphael please respond


MueckE

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Now, that Wintermute is out for a while and the dust has been settled, i'd like to ask Raphael a few questions - an Interview about Wintermute. The questions are mostly connected to the community.

 

1. Developing the game via EA and with a community has certainly pros and cons to it. Can you tell us which you experienced developing The Long Dark?

 

2. Some players of the sandbox were criticising Wintermute because of it's "disconnection" to the sandbox-experience. Are you disappointed or does it motivate you even more for the upcoming episodes?

 

3. The Long Dark turned out to be a very good and unique game. What are the things you like the most about "your baby"?

 

4.  Although the final The Long Dark is quite successful, the release was a little bit bumpy. Some feel that Wintermute is unpolished and had too many bugs with the release. Have you already plans how to change that for the upcoming episodes and if, how?

 

5.  Are there plans to change the approach to Survival Mode or will you mainly focus on story mode like before?

 

6. Parts of the community feel  disconnected  from  Hinterland. From their perspective this has been confirmed because of the diffrent experience of Wintermute compared to the sandbox regarding the aspect of "survival". Also a few bugs and other things like "the breath"  that have been mentioned before the release found their way into Wintermute. The translations (into german) have been discussed in the subforum but haven't transitioned into the release. How do you respond to these things?

 

7. Would you like to make more seasons or do you prefer to start something new after season 1?

 

8. When people speculate about the story, hints and possibilities, what do you think about that knowing how everything will turn out? Are you surprised about the conclusions people sometimes come up with?

 

9. What was the biggest challange for you while developing the long dark? What technical aspect was harder to do than expected?

 

Thank you for your time @Raphael van Lierop

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Am I allowed to comment now @MueckE?

I wouldn't say the dust has settled till the game works properly. Since Jerimiah's flare cache won't appear in the quest log, on the map, or in the game I would say we are not there yet.

Also, the last patch seems to have broken the elevator part of the final quest.

I believe items are still disappearing in certain buildings.

Some wolves are bugged and don't respond to bait, and get stuck on the edge of the viewable screen....

That's just on PC....not sure how things are going on the console versions....

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22 hours ago, MueckE said:

well, no answer is also an answer i guess.

With respect, I think this passive/aggressive follow up is uncalled for.  You posted the original message on Friday morning and by Monday afternoon are implying a snub.  I would be interested to see responses to some of your questions.  They strike me as being steeped in some of the sense of grievance that the forum community are exhibiting, but you are up front about where you are coming from.

Perhaps a better avenue might be to communicate with some of the community moderators to set up a post-release AMA with Raph and others.  I too would like to get some insight into design decisions about story and music that, in my opinion, did not meet my own expectations (for what that is worth).

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Hi @MueckE . Not intended to be a snub, sorry that it came off that way.

Raph and the developers often don't respond to questions -- it's not anything personal. They are pinged pretty much constantly from both players and journalists with requests for information. They don't have the bandwidth to answer everyone, so they try to be strategic about when and where they discuss the game -- especially when it comes to information that hasn't yet been publicly announced.

However there have been some interviews with media outlets that cover some similar questions to what you asked above. We'll try to keep an eye out for them as they are published and share them here in the forums.

If you haven't seen it yet, you might be interested in this interview Raph gave with Gamasutra.

 

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Thank you @Mel Guille

The thing is, there is no interview anywhere with similar questions because an media outlet isn't the community. When it comes to buiseness, i can understand that you have to have a specific strategy regarding media, but this here is something completly diffrent.

For the community it's not a question how much they gain from such a relation, in fact they are giving more than necessary have to. In the end, the community is who made all that possible via EA. After the last years, people became suspicious about EA.

These questions are meant to relieve some of the tensions that have built up in the last two months between parts of the community and Hinterland. Ofc you wont find these questions in any article, nor answers to them. The only "hints" we can see there is that "the community is pulling me down, i don't know if i will do EA again, i avoid reddit because of all the haters, apoligy for bugs or countdown for countdown".

To sum it up, if the community is asking how the relation between them and Hinterland is viewed -in specific aspects - than no answer is a very clear answer.

Don't get me wrong, that's not a complaint. But so we know where Hinterland stands. It is also not a personal thing, i'm happy with the Sandbox. It is more in general  for me also for future games and all the other Indys out there and on what basis i write reviews or comments.

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  • Hinterland
On 2017-08-28 at 10:04 AM, MueckE said:

well, no answer is also an answer i guess.

No, no answer means I didn't see your post until today because you didn't use the tagging system, @MueckE.

I happen to agree with @rla1974 -- your post is fairly passive-aggressive. If you're genuinely concerned about possible tension with the community, you can do your part to help alleviate it by not jumping to conclusions or insinuating some kind of intentional snub that isn't at all there. And if you want to get a message to me and think you're not getting the responsiveness you feel you are entitled to, feel free to contact the members of the community team, whose express role it is to support you and this dialogue. They are:  @Mel Guille and @Patrick Carlson

As for a more "formal" address to the community at large, about our plans for the future, yes that will happen when I'm ready to do so.

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12 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

No, no answer means I didn't see your post until today because you didn't use the tagging system, @MueckE.

I happen to agree with @rla1974 -- your post is fairly passive-aggressive. If you're genuinely concerned about possible tension with the community, you can do your part to help alleviate it by not jumping to conclusions or insinuating some kind of intentional snub that isn't at all there. And if you want to get a message to me and think you're not getting the responsiveness you feel you are entitled to, feel free to contact the members of the community team, whose express role it is to support you and this dialogue. They are:  @Mel Guille and @Patrick Carlson

As for a more "formal" address to the community at large, about our plans for the future, yes that will happen when I'm ready to do so.

My mistake @Raphael van Lierop, I was under the impression he DID tag you because he used the little "@symbol and your name" and somehow made your name clickable, but it isn't red (like it normally is) and looks peculiar, so @MueckE must be "tagging" people incorrectly. I'm not sure how he's doing the thing that he is doing to make it almost appear like people are tagged, but whatever method he is using is not the correct way.....Obviously....or it would have worked....

 

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The following is an example of a "couched criticism" interview. It's a fun way to make accusations by asking questions. It's obviously taken to the logical extreme for maximum absurdity.

1. Do you like ponies?

2. What's your favorite color?

3. Why are you so terrible at community response? Is it true that you are bad at everything and no one likes you? Is it definitely true that we pay your bills, Mister?

4. Is neat stuff good?

If you don't answer within 40 minutes, I'll assume neat stuff is not, in fact, good. ;)

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Coming from me it sounds pretty ironic, but this thread needs more "chill" to it :D
OP, you can "tag" someone by adding the "at" symbol then typing their name, properly (for example @Mroz4k ) - if it shows up in red box, you did it properly. There cant be any spaces in between, so type the name slowly, it will show up on a list of all the forum members who can be typed that way. Be careful of the spelling, some people have a bit difficult names to write down, for example I sometimes have a bit problem to remember that Thrasador has a "r" in his name, and I struggle for a while when I am tagging him in.

Also, if you want to be noteworthy forum member, it pays to remember to avoid logical fallacies, for example your questions are indeed rather agressive since several of them are loaded. (meaning no matter how they would be answered, the outcome would look negative towards the Hinterland)

Another thing I would like to point out - perhaps it would be better to next time turn your attention to one of the Community engagement people first - ask Mel or Carlson, instead of going straight up the chain. I am sure they would happily answer some of your questions by pointing you towards other, similar threads or interviews. It is safe to say that Raphael is rather busy man, so put yourself into his shoes - if he needs to answer hundred people complaining every single day, what do you think that will cause for the game? It will only contribute to the delays further, because he will be spending extra time, answering the same questions over and over.

On 30. 8. 2017 at 2:47 PM, MueckE said:

When it comes to buiseness, i can understand that you have to have a specific strategy regarding media, but this here is something completly diffrent.

This is another example of a logical fallacy, in fact two of them - this is something in between an ad hominem attack and anecdotal statement, because you claim "from your experience, businesses have strategies to deal with media" - in which you assume that the businesses may be purposedly lying. That just makes me question what your experience with businesses is, but I think it is safe to assume that what they say in public to media is their real stance on the issue, because if it was not, they would be only adding fuel to a fire for later. Might not be what you wanted to hear, but I would say behind honest in front of the public would be Hinterland strategy, seeing as they are already under a lot of scrutiny from community members for the past mistakes made, with roadmaps and all of this.

Being upset with something in the game is okay, but if you are, you should make double the sure that the questions you are asking are not aggresive or judgemental - because if they are, in the better case nobody will answer them.

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