Question re: Guest "Lurkers"

[MaiveTheSheep]

10 hours ago, Quinine said:

I see the struggle, and i figure your life on internet (and obviously IRL) must be generally difficult as a transwoman. I feel and hope though that these traits are not very looked upon by the majority of TLD players. By this tranquil and slow pace, TLD is a game that attract more subtle gamers I think ? More calm and thoughful...
For the technical parts, I think my favorite TLD youtuber admited that I doesn't like the tapping against wolves. I've seen countless times on the forum people saying "meh, everybody plays the way they want, there is no wrong way if the games allows". Never saw hostility to newcommers either.

Edit : i don't want to look like I'm dismissing your fears though. I feel that all of them are valide and you might meet hostility on these. Just wanted to be reassuring and express my trust in this particular gamers community.

I'm going to respond to this but i appreciate the other comments related as well
I hope its not in poor taste to talk about a completely unrelated game but I also play league of legends, and the champions that are more about strategy or mind games (like i play singed) then the players who mostly just play those champs are very chill (not to say they can't delight in the enemies getting tilted by their playstyle, but they aren't toxic) while the reverse of high mechanic focused champs (riven and yasuo) lend well to very toxic players. there is exceptions but as a general rule the mindset you have lends to the champs or games you gravitate towards. and this game being more focused on strategy, analytical thinking lends well to the playerbase being more positive imo

and the welcoming to newcomers i think most gamers should do. it helps games grow, gets new ideas, helps the companies to expand upon it

there is one other aspect of myself that will no doubt be found out sooner or later that i have worries of how it will be treated. I am diagnosed with aspd (antisocial personality disorder) which for me basically means different moral code then social or legal or disgust based morals (mine is benefit vs detriment. so trying to bring more good then bad). anger issues in the past which i worked through, not the best at maintaining a job or working towards long term goals (trying to improve), distressed by boredom. and no guilt, shame, or affective (reflective) empathy. but i have cognitive (understanding) empathy, care, compassion, and most importantly, when i have done something bad i reflect on why and work on doing less bad in the future. I try to be a better and more good person by my actions all the time. but that existence and parts of it (e.g. no guilt) will get some people to view me bad and call me all sorts of derogatory terms like "sociopath" "psychopath" "monster" "demon" to try to vilify me. and this is definitely not the only mental condition with this problem. schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, and npd are the main ones that come to mind but various others struggle as well.

i have no doubt that some people that play this game struggle with these conditions and worry of being found out and treated badly cause of it

i do hope me being open about it in this thread will help bring some reassurance, whether to lurkers or members that have it but growing anxiety that found out and how might be treated

[Dan_]

Well, given I joined the forum on Nov/2017 and I was a lurker for a good few months before doing so, I figure I might have a couple cents to share. 

For starters, I hope nobody takes personal offense as to what I'm going to say as it is not geared to any specific person, past or present, This is just a personal account of my own observations across these 7.5 years I've been part of this community.

If you happen to observe the forums from a distance, the white-knighting of the game gets old very very fast. It is commonplace to see more acid posters get ganged up by multiple people defending the game and getting into super long-winded arguments which seemingly have the sole objective of "changing that persons's opinion" or the ridiculous internet jousting of "winning the forum debate". I don't see this happening right now, but it always does whenever an update arrives, as it tends to bring new people in. 

Do not get me wrong as I love this game and I do think it is an unrivalled masterpiece of the it's genre. Ridiculously high value for money for all the quality, craftsmanship and love the developers put into every single feature that makes it's way into the game. HL has my trust ( and money ) to whichever project they have lined up next ( TLD-related or otherwise ). 

But this is just my opinion and I've bought the game for 3 other people who think TLD is just 'meh'. It is okay for people to complain about the last release bugs, or specific choices in balancing or the direction the developers chose to take with TFTT. I just feel there's always unnecessary animosity towards people who genuinely have a strong dissatisfaction for something specific about the game, which sometimes ends up escalating towards personal attacks.

When you are lurking and just perusing the forums, that gets old really fast. Thinking that game-breaking bugs are unnaceptable ( for as much as they are short lived, in fairness ) is a valid criticism for any product, so it is questioning the murky waters around TFTT and the Nintendo Switch release. Being confrontational of such posts seems very unproductive, as those are valid feedback and useful data points for the developer. No evolving product is perfect to everybody's eyes.

The forum is a private endeavour of course, and HL is entitled to decide what is and what is not allowed on their platform, and granted, basic decorum and good will is a must in any conversation. I just feel like you get a much better read on the community on reddit (as much as I despise that platform) for example than here. As the forum does seem 'sanitized' of dissonating opinions to a degree, and became an echo chamber in the long run. 

[s7mar7in]

Forum was a welcoming community in my experience.

Sometimes the answer to a question such as this threads original post is too simple. 

Most of us have been here a long while and are hopefully using an updated computer, I had not noticed that my current computer was not automatically logging into the Hinterland Forums, so some of the excess lurker numbers is perhaps that simple. Good luck keeping up with technology my friends. 

Edited June 28 by s7mar7in

[borishu]

Honestly I've been a lurker for a few years, and the largest reason I didn't create an account was there didn't seem to be any reason to. The conversations usually seem to focus on optimizing the game for people who want far more difficult play experiences than I'm interested in (not throwing shade to different play styles! Just not interested the more punishing difficulty style). At a certain point, I couldn't participate in 80% of the conversations because I play on the switch and TLD has been out of date for months, meaning I could either be a part of the community and have everything pretty spoiled and explored before I ever see the gameplay myself, or I can just be excluded but not get spoiled. 
I only ended up making an account because it felt like the only way to get any chance of information on the Switch build because the website, FAQ, support page and interim steam posts didn't ever address the switch. 

[exeexe]

My first post back in 2015 was to post about screenshots
 

So i probably made an account to post about screenshots

Edited Monday at 04:33 PM by exeexe

[ElSuperGecko]

Just made this jump from perennial lurker to poster myself, and really the reason was simply wanting to leave feedback on and discuss the latest game update.

For what it's worth, this is the first video game forum I've signed up for in roughly a decade, since the Mass Effect games were released.  No Steam account, Reddit or Twitter either.

Shows how much I like the game, I guess!

[MapleTaffy]

Just made the switch today. I really wanted to be able to talk about the latest TFTFT update, and leave positive feedback about the updates as a whole. Also, if I run into trouble, I have forums to help me out!
 

[xanna]

Welcome @MapleTaffy! Very happy to have you join us here.

[ManicManiac]

@MapleTaffy

Welcome to the wilderness.

[ManicManiac]

@ElSuperGecko

Welcome to the wilderness.

[Kranium]

On 5/10/2024 at 3:50 PM, Dan_ said:

Well, given I joined the forum on Nov/2017 and I was a lurker for a good few months before doing so, I figure I might have a couple cents to share. 

For starters, I hope nobody takes personal offense as to what I'm going to say as it is not geared to any specific person, past or present, This is just a personal account of my own observations across these 7.5 years I've been part of this community.

If you happen to observe the forums from a distance, the white-knighting of the game gets old very very fast. It is commonplace to see more acid posters get ganged up by multiple people defending the game and getting into super long-winded arguments which seemingly have the sole objective of "changing that person's opinion" or the ridiculous internet jousting of "winning the forum debate". I don't see this happening right now, but it always does whenever an update arrives, as it tends to bring new people in. 

Do not get me wrong as I love this game and I do think it is an unrivalled masterpiece of the it's genre. Ridiculously high value for money for all the quality, craftsmanship and love the developers put into every single feature that makes it's way into the game. HL has my trust ( and money ) to whichever project they have lined up next ( TLD-related or otherwise ). 

But this is just my opinion and I've bought the game for 3 other people who think TLD is just 'meh'. It is okay for people to complain about the last release bugs, or specific choices in balancing or the direction the developers chose to take with TFTT. I just feel there's always unnecessary animosity towards people who genuinely have a strong dissatisfaction for something specific about the game, which sometimes ends up escalating towards personal attacks.

When you are lurking and just perusing the forums, that gets old really fast. Thinking that game-breaking bugs are unnaceptable ( for as much as they are short lived, in fairness ) is a valid criticism for any product, so it is questioning the murky waters around TFTT and the Nintendo Switch release. Being confrontational of such posts seems very unproductive, as those are valid feedback and useful data points for the developer. No evolving product is perfect to everybody's eyes.

The forum is a private endeavour of course, and HL is entitled to decide what is and what is not allowed on their platform, and granted, basic decorum and good will is a must in any conversation. I just feel like you get a much better read on the community on reddit (as much as I despise that platform) for example than here. As the forum does seem 'sanitized' of dissenting opinions to a degree, and became an echo chamber in the long run. 

I couldn't agree more with this post. (MY BOLD) It's why I don't post much here any more, compared to other platforms.

 

I posted first due to enthusiasm about one of the special events, IIRC. It's a fun & welcoming forum to participate in, but only when the vast majority's feelings agree with you.

[Veskaida]

Been a part of TLD community for years but mainly on other platforms: Steam, FandomWiki, Youtube and Twitch. I've lurked here for several years, reading threads and watching posts, but only decided to make an account and post recently because I saw other user's asking questions and wanted to help them.

From other online forums I've seen, 1:1 registered account users to active guests is a pretty good ratio; that's about 10-20x from other sites I've seen. Could be higher by requiring an account to view content/etc., but I'd consider that a fairly high level of engagement.

Edited Thursday at 06:47 AM by Veskaida

[Mroz4k]

I am suprised not a single person mentioned the kind of obvious.

Wouldnt a significant amount of Guest accounts (like at least 20%) be various bots that scan websites etc? I would guess those would utilize guests.

But trully, I think a lot of people just end up lurking because in general, internet requires so many various accounts and some people wont make em because they dont plan to engage and are just looking for information.

It is nice to see some people taking the leap and making accounts, it would be nice if we gotten closer to the traffic of the past. Though, that might be wishful thinking.

[ManicManiac]

I hope that more folks will choose to become active members of this community.
We do always strive to foster a safe/welcoming space for TLD fans.
All we ask is for folks to abide the Forum Rules and Guidelines... and keep the discourse civil and respectful.

 

Edited Thursday at 05:04 PM by ManicManiac