ArmoredStone

You seem very confident that there are no successful games designed, heavily influenced by their communities. Games heavily influenced by communities and mod-makers (taken just from a glance at my steam library and wishlist): Rust, Scum, Satisfactory, Space Engineers, Eco, Rimworld, Don't Starve, Battlebit, Raft, Project Zomboid, Stranded Deep, Ravenfield, probably hundreds more I don't care to keep writing down to prove a point. And what point are you trying to prove by the second paragraph? The entire purpose of a poll system is to appeal to the majority of players. You arguing that the devs should do whatever they want and the community should just deal with it, would likely result in the game NOT appealing to as many people as it potentially could. That paragraph literally made no sense. Oh, and a passive-aggressive winky face 😉

What do you mean it's almost finished? Is there any evidence from TFP that they plan on releasing soon? They're going into Alpha 21, after 9 years of development on Steam alone (probably 11 or 12 years total). You think it's fair to say that the game is nearing completion when the devs are changing one of the biggest gameplay frameworks (the skill system) 9+ years into development???

But you still could be a contributor to deciding something such as the leveling and perk system. I guess we have differing opinions on how game development should be approached, but hypothetically, say a poll was made that said something like: We're considering changing how leveling and progression work. We would like your opinions on what we should do. 1. Keep the current system of "Learn by Level-up", where all skills and perks are chosen and limited only by experience points. 2. Revisit the old "Learn by Doing" system, and revise it to be more intuitive than "crafting hundreds of wooden clubs to make a better club" 3. Try a new leveling idea which requires you to loot containers to obtain skills. This idea was recently presented and we have the framework drawn out for it. And this would be accompanied by a brief summary of the Learn by Looting concept Would you feel inclined to vote on that from the in-game menu/pause menu?

Unfortunately, unless we're developers of the game, our opinions don't seem to matter. Or at least this is what I've gathered from my experiences today with some of these forum members.

Your first paragraph basically just tells me that you don't want to give your opinion because it's different from others...that's the entire point of an opinion. And there are better ways to implement a poll. They have a tool in game for reporting a bug, why can't they put the newsletters and polls in game and have anyone be able to vote from the main menu/pause menu? Then categorize those votes based on the amount of play time the player has so more seasoned players opinions are heard loudest vs the guy that just bought the game on sale and thinks tanks would be cool lol. There are ways they could do it. If they had a poll system, I wouldn't even be bringing this up. How many people asked for a "Learn by Looting" system? I challenge you to find someone that asked for that. It could work if TFP cared about their communities' opinions and asked about new ideas before working on them. And why are you bothering to apologize? You already made it clear you're just waiting for me to get bored and leave (definitely unrelated to the hive-mind in this forum). Don't pretend to be the nice guy now. I'm literally here trying to make a point that YOUR opinion, as well as everyone else's, should be better listened to.

Alright now you're just putting words in my mouth. I never said that my opinions on game features are "what the people want". All I want is to have the opinions of the community be involved more than they currently are. These are massive game changers, but none of these changes were based on what the community collectively wants. And that's a fun analogy, but if I paid for a burger that tasted great, but gave me food poisoning the next day, you bet I'm going back in to complain. Also, did you ever stop to consider that those people leave right away because it's apparent that the forum is constructed with a hive-mind that TFP can do no wrong and don't need to consider the opinions of others? I even have a super-moderator implying I don't have friends when I complain about balancing for multiplayer servers. I don't doubt for a second that "trouble-makers" aren't just removed from the forums, if they aren't already bullied out by white knights defending the all-powerful TFP. Take a minute to consider that.

Thank you for constructing the best argument so far, but I still think that, as paying customers, we should have a say on how this game should be developed. They claim to try to appeal to the masses, but they don't take any time to actually heed any concerns, or have any form of vote/poll on how we want the game to play. The A21 devblog said that everyone on the staff team liked the new update, which is all well and good, but that's a sample size of 20. I paid for the game to take part in the development of it, not to have my opinion cast to the side. Why can't the devs find passion in making a fantastic game that brings the most of 14 million paying customers joy, instead of only focusing on their 20 team members?

If you enjoy paying for your opinion to be ignored, there are better ways to do it.

These are some EXTREMELY well paid "slaves", sir.

Apparently I'm an idiot for thinking that paying developers for a game should imply an obligation on the developers to build the game based off of feedback from the buyers. If you guys truly think that is wrong, then why was there a massive uproar about No Man's Sky? And why did the developers take time that they didn't need to to develop the game to the communities' liking? Those developers made the game they made. They had no contractual obligation to fix anything. That's an example of developers that actually care about their community, and deliver on a product. Also, the argument about DLC not existing is nullified by the fact that these devs still have the game in ALPHA, with a ton of broken promises of content they told us would be coming. If they lied about adding content, and started selling other content, that could arguably be grounds for legal action. But hey, if you guys like paying for a game with developers that don't care about your opinion, more power to ya Can't wait for the white knights to respond to this xD

You guys are aware that after the release of A20 back in December, you've lost nearly 50% of your players, correct? Has anyone considered...ya know...asking the community what THEY want in the game? I understand it's your game, but WE are the ones that have been giving you your paychecks. Don't you think it would be wise to appeal to your community so we can continue recommending the game to people? How hard would it have been to make a poll on twitter asking your community if they even would want a change like this?

From my experience and view on social media, you guys ignore player feedback and popular mods, and just do whatever you want. You guys have been on Steam for 9 years and are STILL in Alpha. Don't you guys think you should have the basic gameplay framework figured out by now and be just adding content? Have you guys ever actually done polls for your community (the ones that give you your paychecks) to understand what the majority of people want? Or do you just have a "flavor of the week" you guys push on everyone, like it or not?

You do have enough meat in that skull to realize they could implement the "learn by doing" system in a way that doesnt require you to craft 800 wooden clubs right? Just a quick 5 second idea I came up with: You use clubs to gain experience with clubs. As you gain experience with clubs, you can craft better clubs. *gasp* Also, why do you support gameplay that makes you feel like you're REQUIRED to invest points in something in order for you to do it at all??? (Such as Salvage Operations) Gathering/looting perks should only be for harvesting speed and calorie efficiency. Not for amount harvested. That just results in people feeling like they can't even play the game until they invest points. Have you ever played with friends? Have you ever experienced the fruatration of one person being specced into Lucky Looter and when ANYONE else loots, they get yelled at because the containers they open magically have worse gear than the lucky looter? LOGIC! Now imagine that but only even worse with this new system they want to implement. On a side note, if you bothered to read the rest of my initial message, i wasn't even suggesting that system to be better than the current "buying skills" system. Just stating its preferrable to this new "learn by looting" system. Granted I think not having skills at all would be preferrable to that, but thats just me Or just don't have the perk at all

.........why are you changing the skill system again? Who thinks this is a good idea? I already hate the fact that Lucky Looter makes loot magically better (and people without it in the group get yelled at for looting). I always need to remove that perk and remove better loot from level ups. This just makes that even worse. Make the loot tables once, and leave it alone, at least on MP servers. I hate this idea. Reduce the frequency of high quality/tier guns and equipment, raise their prices in the shops, and remove ANY alterations made to the loot tables by perks and levels. You will see high tier equipment become COVETED by players, instead of everyone having all quality 6 gear by day 20. This is what I always do for my crew, and it works well. We sometimes get to day 100 still looking for better rifles and armor. I rate the "Learn by Looting" system a "Please God No" / 10 Bring back the "Learn By Doing" system if anything.