The Price of Transperancy

I will not argue the intricacies of what is or is not inconsequential; not feeling very existential and I don't have any interest in nihilism today. I believe you know exactly what I meant by what I said.

 

welcome to every job that involves customer service ever

 

The cost of transparency is people will question. If you give information and there seems to be some missing context people will ask.. wait, what do you mean?

For example we still don't know plant behavior despite us having been spoiled of their existence for some time. Will they grow on your ship while you are away? How do trees regrow? The constellations do you draw them or are they pre-generated?

Transparency is great when enough is given that we aren't left more confused then before we where given the information. Chucklefish is great at giving people daily updates but the content of them often leaves more questions then answers which actually is confusing, more then transparent.

Until a recent responce by Omni many people felt left in the dark due to several factors, not intentionally but that is the price of this. Sometimes customers are going to ask questions and be critical of your work. It isn't being ungrateful, if anything its wanting to be informed like Chucklefish wants and wanting the game to be the best that it can be in the long run. To do that, to offer up any sort of response people have to be informed to an extent more clearly.

Also Chucklefish has received and receives no less then at least one thread daily of praise, and every update the praise given by many drowns out such concerns. I feel the opposite.. that the praise is drowning out possible responses that could lead to an overall better game if addressed. That or could help clear up confusion. Transparency isn't just throwing out any information, its throwing out /meaningful/ information. Its showing how things are progressing and sometimes, this has been in question by some people.

Thankfully, they do believe in communicating with their fanbase, and that leads these sorts of things to being cleared up. Unfortunately the drawback is many people have mistaken these questions as some sort of attack, or lack of respect. Despite daily threads saying thankyou to Chucklefish, you think there is an imbalance on the board? Its very confusing that you feel despite questions being drowned out by praise, they are lacking such things.

I see them in abundance, even from those who are critical or simply asking questions.

 

I fail to see how constructive criticism and polite inquiry for information can be viewed as bad things.

Certainly if they're done with the wrong tone they can be detrimental, but no more so than zealous defense of the company. Any behavior carried to an extreme can be bad.

The OP makes a lovely strawman argument, one of life's great logical fallacies. Being that those asking questions are unappreciative of the developers, which is simply not true. Being critical and asking questions does not necessarily mean one is unhappy with the current state of things, they just simply wish to have more information to have a clearer view of the situation.

The developers are undertaking a creative endeavor. One they're going to release to a much bigger audience than themselves. They should do so with the knowledge that there will be a large number of comments about their work, both positive and negative. They should not have such fragile egos that they need constant reassurance and not let the slightest negative or questioning response deter them from their vision. And very thankfully that doesn't appear to be the case here. The devs are working diligently, and when a large concern came about, it was addressed reasonably. And when it was addressed many of us that had concerns gave our thanks very freely. Mindless devotion should not be a prerequisite to playing the game. No one should want that. And the devs shouldn't want a legion of mindless fans, it could lead to intellectual dishonesty and laziness if they were praised no matter what they did.

So to bring this back around to the main point, yes, the devs are awesome, but they're not above reproach, and simply because they're doing awesome doesn't mean we shouldn't question things when we feel there's room for improvement. No one is expecting perfection, but that's no reason not to strive for it when it's reasonable to do so.

 

I can't believe the amount of responses this thread garnered overnight. I agree with everyone who said I could break everything into paragraphs. The lack there-of was an oversight on my part . I'm grateful for the discussion my post garnered, including all positive and negative criticism of myself. I AM very prone to hyperbole and have always had a certain elemant of "Drama" surrounding my opinion of things such as this. I wasn't trying to elevate the developers to status to that of "Gods" as some have said here. They're just people who are doing a beautiful thing under an unusual amount of pressure. Not unusual in its existence, this kind of pressure as has been stated is present on ANYONE who does something in the creative arts. But unusual in how it's so readily apparent and tangible to the developers.

I'm not involved in the video game business, but I am a theater performer and musician, so I have a sense of what it's like to work on a piece of art and then present it to the public. While I know the comparison is a bit of a stretch, I'm just explaining where I'm coming from.

Again, thank you to everyone who responded!

 

Well you only need top break them apart when you shift in subject if we are going MLA style but I guess most people are scared if the text is not cut up in little digestible pieces on the internet. What I learned really is transparency is not worth it in my humble opinion.

 

Transparency often brings to light mistakes or makes it easier to spot mistakes. And that can shake some people up.

 

Sure there are two sides to every coin.

 

This thread seems to be dripping venom. Conversations on an intellectual level hard for me to follow, but still venomous.

 

The symbiotes have invaded the thread it's become a web of shadows.

 

Mistakes can show the true nature of a person, the mistake itself isn't the important part, but how it's dealt with. Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone tries to fix them or learn from them, because that often takes a lot of dedication. A true artist is only separated from an amateur by their dedication, even without natural talent, if you're dedicated enough you'll eventually become a master of whatever you dedicate yourself to be. Showing the whole process including the mistakes presents a great opportunity to prove that you're not just an amateur. I think the Starbound devs have done just that.

 

If you were to just look at where we are now it certainly would look like they are the most gracious of developers on the planet and we are whiny, unappreciative, horrible people. But lets rewind a bit and see how we got here.

~Summer of last year, chucklefish was saying starbound should be finished by november ish. Everyone was happy, everyone was looking forward to it. November came and went, the only thing that was said to us regarding this was just another estimate. "Should be done before the end of the year". Now i don't know about you, but if someone tells me "Hey man, i know i said i'd be done with this thing in november, but i'm gunna have to say it's looking more like mid to late december" which is about 2-3 weeks later, I would imagine that means they're putting on some finishing touches, or something went wrong, no big deal right? Okay so the next thing we hear is early next year. So a little more push. Then "Beta won't be Q1". Then of course indeterminately 2013.

Now ignoring what could possibly cause a push back from just a few weeks, to a few weeks, to a few weeks, to "whenever", let's also look at what happened between all that when we ask for a heads up on what's going on. We ask for some form of check list, and Tiy talks about a road map. After a while of waiting for it we try explaining that a list is fine, but he wants a graphic interesting... thing. Okay, his time, his project, his choice. We get the Roadmap and it rarely sees updates. And even today it's about two or three months without one. Now i get that "The roadmap is a gift" as Tiy likes to put it, but it's one we said was a waste of time and would be more time updating than it's worth. A list would be better. So when we complain that this roadmap is ignored we are scolded for shunning this "gift". The same thing happened with the ask us anything thread. Just tossed away.

The reason the Daily updates even came about is because the deafening silence between estimates was killing us. We ask for info and we get something that gets no updates or ignored. Eventually after enough boiling they start doing the daily updates. Now daily updates are awesome and all, but when the biggest question floating around is "How much more till you guys are done, or at least beta", and the daily updates don't even come close to addressing this, it's only natural that some people are going to be ungrateful. It's like taking a road trip with someone who every time you ask "So how much further till we get there?" after an already longer than expected wait, instead of giving a mile count, or a time estimate, or anything useful they tell us how great it will be when we get there and how many beautiful things we are passing out the windows.

 

I personally will properly never get the impatience, I'm sure they have vaild reasons but I still don't understand them fully.

I mean, knew that the date for the game was end of 2013 when I pre-ordered and still only expect that date.

 

I think plenty of people appreciate it. They just don't say anything because there doesn't always need to be something said. Also, I suggest not starting any sentence with "I've been part of this place for.. : I've played games for.." or any sentence relating to your perceived expertise.

You can bet; however, that where they stop being posted, they'd have someone say something.

I also think that Chucklefish doesn't need any praise or admiration. Your money is more than sufficient. If you already paid, then nothing more needs to be said.

 

You are correct. The Dev's are extremely active compared to other games. They listen to their community and want to make a product they are both proud of, have fun playing, and allow others the same gratification. However you can not please everyone ALL the time. That is where this also becomes a curse in game development.

I appreciate everything the Devs do and simply try to let them know we ALL really care about the game as much as they do.

 

Well said. Example, as outspoken i am about CF failing hard at communication and handling certain things wrong, i've purchased twelve copies of the game so far. I'm no 500 dollar backer or anything like that, but i do fully say they deserve the money. I just wish certain things were handled differently.

 

I'm sorry, I probably could've used a clearer method for self-identification. I was trying to just give slight context for my musings. I do not claim in any way to be an expert. I am merely a fellow fan who had a thought and wanted to write about it. I understand the difficulty of communicating the subtleties of speech through text though. I can definitely work on improving that area of my communication skills.

Again, thank you to everyone who's responding. This is a wonderful discussion .

(And for clarity, I'm not being sarcastic, I actually do believe that.)

 

Yeah, they really do deserve a bit more slack on account of being very up-front and honest with us about development.
Such transparency is extremely unusual in the gaming market. While it has been very interesting it is also, sadly, disheartening.

Mainly because it proves that no matter how objective and honest you are with your market, some of them will inevitably give you shit just for the sake of giving you shit.

Every purchase, no matter how great or small, carries some risk of dissatisfaction or (more broadly) "failure".
We always invest something into our motivations; be it the smallest cost of time. (economists call that an opportunity cost)

 

If it was a purchase it would be a simple Pay-And-Get transaction. We so far have received no product for our money therefore by definition it is an investment.

Definition of 'Investment'

An asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future. In an economic sense, an investment is the purchase of goods that are not consumed today but are used in the future to create wealth. In finance, an investment is a monetary asset purchased with the idea that the asset will provide income in the future or appreciate and be sold at a higher price.

Where wealth is enjoyment.

 

OP has a very good point and I like the guy thus far.

The paragraph thing was an advice to have more people read the post and help readability.
Try not to sound too harsh please .