Constructive criticism of Milton Mailbag

[Carbon]

2 hours ago, EricTheGreat12 said:

The problem is that Hinterland, as a studio, does not release new information as often as they should and interaction with the members of their main forum is weak. If you want any juicy information on what's going on in the game's development you have to look at Raph's personal twitter feed, when instead you should be following what the official Long Dark page is saying. There is no incentive for players to participate here because there are no community activities brought forward by the team at Hinterland, and simply having a Halloween event once every year doesn't change anything. However, looking at some of the questions that the community has (for example, in regards to Episode 3 or multiplayer), then you realize that the members of the team are being asked the same ridiculous and obvious questions nearly every time.

I do feel that Hinterland has done a very poor job with its community and Raph shouldn't be the source of all information, when instead it is HINTERLAND that should be giving their players the information on future content. The problem with this Q&A is that Raph decided to take all his questions from Twitter and ignored his main community, so again this forum is being thrown in the dirt. Nonetheless, while some questions are important and can help us better understand what's going on, the community should stop asking Hinterland ridiculous pointless questions that have been answered before, and Hinterland shouldn't waste their time answering those kinds of questions.

Participate? Is this a democracy? I think some privilege checking is in order.   

 Raph doesn't post here because it's quickly overwhelming and pointless and there's no un-ringing that bell once rung. Things just turn into noise and nothing comes from it, an an inescapable whirlpool. If I were a dev, I wouldn't post on my forum either, getting into the inevitable factional fray and having to either meditate or moderate or worse still, compromise. This forum is quite well-behaved, but it is fundamentally no different from any other in terms of the pitfalls of interaction with the community.

 We have no claim to stake in development. We are only players with our voices and a soapbox here from which to make our views public, but to ask for developer acknowledgement for every idea that pours from the masses is not only quite childish, but terribly impractical.  To say that they aren't paying attention is simply hyperbolic; things get noted and this place is a great source of notes and potential tweaks and adjustments, but again, for the core dev team to be on here is fanciful. They have work to do and even an hour a day here means lost productivity.

 Then there is the whole hype-thing. Devs make a single mention of something and pretty soon things are out of control. People get themselves wound up into a frenzy, conflating fact with speculation and rumor creating false expectations.  I think the team learned a valuable lesson after last years' countdown to a countdown episode: silence is often golden. A monthly update is sufficient and I for one don't mind a bit of mystery.

[EricTheGreat12]

20 minutes ago, Carbon said:

Participate? Is this a democracy? I think some privilege checking is in order.   

?

Participating in discussion is when we help the discussion continue forward; although we both disagree with each other to a certain degree, we are both participating in this discussion. It has nothing to do with democracy or privilege

22 minutes ago, Carbon said:

 Raph doesn't post here because it's quickly overwhelming and pointless and there's no un-ringing that bell once rung. Things just turn into noise and nothing comes from it, an an inescapable whirlpool. If I were a dev, I wouldn't post on my forum either, getting into the inevitable factional fray and having to either meditate or moderate or worse still, compromise. This forum is quite well-behaved, but it is fundamentally no different from any other in terms of the pitfalls of interaction with the community.

 Then there is the whole hype-thing. Devs make a single mention of something and pretty soon things are out of control. People get themselves wound up into a frenzy, conflating fact with speculation and rumor creating false expectations.  I think the team learned a valuable lesson after last years' countdown to a countdown episode: silence is often golden. A monthly update is sufficient and I for one don't mind a bit of mystery.

You are correct- Raph stated in a speech (I forget which convention it was) that he realized that by interacting with the community on the forums almost daily, it just wasn't possible to do; this is why we now have Hinterland community managers, and probably why no one on the development team actually has an account on these forums (the original team of devs left these forums and the studio in 2015-2016).

 

But instead of being on the forums, he's giving out all the information on his Twitter; when there is a moment of tension in the community he'll post a spoiler, similar to how he posted multiple images of the cooking mechanic before Vigilant Flame was released: he's doing exactly what you think he shouldn't be doing, except that it's on his Twitter account instead of these forums. 

 

By posting information about the game's development on his personal account instead of using the studio's official channels, he's creating hype while drawing people to follow his account. What I am saying, is that even if he is fond of showing off additional content, he should show it through The Long Dark's social media accounts and forums, instead of showing it on his Twitter page.

[Seshins]

Back on topic - a work around for backpacks could be in the same vein as the Moose Satchel - you have a slot when you spawn with say a small satchel, or even just pockets (clothing could have a carrying capacity limit).

You then find a small back pack and "equip" - this shows up as an icon in the "backpack" slot and your carrying capacity is upgraded accordingly, and so on and so forth for larger backpacks.

If you were to "un-equip" your backpack then i imagine all your loot, not able to be stored in your organic carrying capacity is dumped onto the ground. Rifles and Bows should be slung, not carried inside your backpack - perhaps this can lead to more craftable items (rifle sling, quiver etc)

[Niajall]

10 hours ago, EricTheGreat12 said:

I do feel that Hinterland has done a very poor job with its community and Raph shouldn't be the source of all information, when instead it is HINTERLAND that should be giving their players the information on future content. The problem with this Q&A is that Raph decided to take all his questions from Twitter and ignored his main community, so again this forum is being thrown in the dirt. Nonetheless, while some questions are important and can help us better understand what's going on, the community should stop asking Hinterland ridiculous pointless questions that have been answered before, and Hinterland shouldn't waste their time answering those kinds of questions.

Whoever shouts the loudest, there is not a games company (big or small) who can deny that those who shout the loudest, the longest and the most often get answered or responses, iv not been with the game or the community long, but iv enjoyed the game enough to actually join in this little community that hinterlands have got going, and considering the grass roots of this game, i agree that maybe the devs should pay a little more attention to those who have backed them and stay active in the game community, taking all questions on board, linking repeated questions to an updated answer if there is one and i agree with Carbon that answering forums can be a full time job and it boils down to whether a company wants to fund that job, the person doing said job filters the right info back to the devs or the eventual lack of community interest makes the job obsolete.

[stratvox]

Yeah... and recently they added a second person to do just that

[EricTheGreat12]

1 minute ago, stratvox said:

Yeah... and recently they added a second person to do just that

Community managers come and go all the time on these forums ( Bethany and Mel come in mind) ... This time will be no different 

[stratvox]

Yeah, because it's a job. If a better job for them comes along, I can't really fault them for taking it. The point is that they do in fact make sure that there is someone about who will do the things that @Niajall is talking about.

[EricTheGreat12]

2 minutes ago, stratvox said:

Yeah, because it's a job. If a better job for them comes along, I can't really fault them for taking it. The point is that they do in fact make sure that there is someone about who will do the things that @Niajall is talking about.

Is answering questions the only part of their job? 

[stratvox]

I dunno... it's not my job and I haven't seen the job description. I'm pretty sure that dealing with spammers is part of their job. I'd also imagine that they pass key info on up the food chain inside the company when they come up on the forums. I'd also expect that they're tasked with making sure that we don't get a shitlord infestation by first remonstrating with said shitlords followed by banning if necessary.