Gaming Signal: Does DICE Really Not Care?

Does DICE Really Not Care?

Over on Kotaku, blogger Florian takes the opportunity to rip DICE over statements made by their senior producer, Marcus Nilsson about Battlefield 2. Nilsson pretty much says that the vocal minority of BF2 gets all the attention in gaming circles, while the majority of people are too busy playing BF2 to post about it. Florian then opines:

....After all, you are part of the minority that speaks... the majority loves the game and has no problem with it, as evidenced by the fact that they aren't talking.

Actually, if Florian is really into the whole gaming scene, which, his gig as blogger on Kotaku would seem to indicate, then he should know that this is very true. The majority of people are too busy playing or are not interested enough to post about the problems they have. BF2 sold how many hundreds of thousands of copies? I'm guessing a very small minority of those purchasers ever bothered to descend into the troll infested BF2 forums, and, for many that did, they ran screaming. So while you can't really determine the 'happiness' of the non-posting players (raises hand), I think we can assume that they like the game, witness its still going strong today.

Another:

Man, Marcus, shut up. That vocal minority? Those are the true fans of your game.

Nice attempt to categorize all the vocal players as 'true' fans, while everyone else isn't a fan, apparently. I consider myself a fan, I've played BF2 a ton, and I haven't whined or complained a bit on the forum. Of course, I won't generilze, but I feel my experience mirrors many people. The people who are fans of the game, but don't engage on BF2 boards.

And lastly:

Silence in gaming forums, as in death, does not indicate satisfaction.

Aside from the fact that most people won't post on BF2 boards, and therefore silence can't be taken to mean one thing or another, there is on additional reason for the silence. Its human nature to encounter a problem, then to want to go and complain about it to someone, somewhere. If you're having a good time and whatever bugs you encounter aren't bothering you, then you won't go post, let alone expose yourself to the daily flamefests. It isn't worth the time.

Do the above comments mean DICE doens't care? Of course not. They know that you can't please everyone and that the intricacies of software development are beyond most people, even gamers. Could Nilsson have said it better? Probably. But so could have Florian.

Frankly, it surprises me that someone who is ostensibly a professional gaming blogger doesn't understand this about the gaming community. If Mr. Eckhardt can't or won't realize this, it makes me wonder what other areas of gaming he isn't up to speed on. All I ask is that some thought be put into a diatribe and not just the reflexive hate for DICE/EA and with the concomittant sexual reference (which no one at Kotaku seems to be above using). Is it too much to ask for people being paid to blog about gaming to rise above a high school level of reporting?

concomittant?? I have to look that word up...
Without knowing specifics about this case however, the gaming community (loosely defined by myself as anyone who plays games) has always been "represented" by nitwits whose only skills seems to involve complaining loudly to anyone who will listen. Trolls are unfortunately a fact of life in the on-line world and woe unto them who hearked only to their siren call. or something like that. But a lack of complaints by a game with hundreds of thousand of copies would seem to indicate to me a general satisfaction with the product...

Posted by Doug on Tuesday October 03, 2006 at 3:07 PM

I have been known to dabble in software development a time or two, and I can tell you that folks need to chill out when they see problems. Given the diversity of platforms and the sheer quantity of code and other assets in a single title - the thought of finding an issue in the field should be quite obvious to everyone. There are a number of influences on any game company, the least of which being how to pay the guys writing the code, and if consumers are expecting a completely problem free experience - I suggest they not look at gaming.

While they come off sounding arrogant and folks claiming that they refuse to listen, the game developer is working diligently on releasing a product that you will be happy with. This is due to the fact that they will want you to tell your friends and so more copies will sell. But back to the main point, no game/software package ships without a problem or two. This is a fact of life, and the other fact is that problems are the one thing you hear about alot. Meanwhile, praise is given rather seldomly.

Posted by Tim on Tuesday October 03, 2006 at 3:30 PM

The only issue I really think Dice burried their collective heads in the sand for was the RED/BLUE bug.

I truly beleive that they tried and failed repeatedly to address it just like they replied a thousand times.

What they WERE guilty for though was NOT acknowledging that it was really a bug. All they said for a while was "we can't replicate it" yet there were hundreds of thousands of posts.

That was the only egregious foul I saw.

Posted by Trent on Tuesday October 03, 2006 at 3:52 PM

As most of us here know, replicating issues is a major challenge for software teams.

They also have to deal with false issues. I hate to say it, but sometimes people invent false issues to explain away their own limitations. For example, you get pwned by some guy multiple times and seemingly never hit him while he's jumping and suddenly you claim that people are near invulnerable while jumping. The fact that he was down to 5% health and barely beat you isn't known. The fact that he is an FPS veteran and is actually better than you couldn't possibly be the issue. Naw...

Posted by Scott on Thursday October 05, 2006 at 10:19 AM