Open letter to the staff

[Deadpoet]

In this open letter I would like to give everyone their due, from my humble and necessarily limited point of view. These are dark times for this community and I am going to share my take on the recent crisis resulting from an ill fated QnA session.


First, tons of appreciation and recognition to ALL the people who have worked in this project. (I specially sympathize with people like Yalishka or Max Hayman or so many other devs who make everything possible and are happy to take a step back and play a secondary role. I really appreciate their generosity and lack of ego). Most players do realize how hard and unrewarding your efforts must have been. There is already a Thank You Devs thread open so I won’t dwell on this point.

Secondly, I would like to speak my mind and address the two public figures that polarize the conflict, and my take is hardly a positive one (I’m sorry to shatter Solitick’s wishful thinking image of me as a nauseating asslicker that applauds every dev’s decision and opposes any hint of dissent or criticism to the holy game staff).

@Azarael. I, like many others, was happy with the new direction that you gave the game after your return. I appreciate especially your willingness to listen to the players and quickly implement suggestions. I was hopeful. But I was very disappointed in the way you chose to make your revelations. There are always other ways, and I understand that people like Yalishka felt like you let them down with a secret agenda of your own. The mental strain you visibly carried helps explain your behavior and make it pardonable, but I think you might have unwillingly contributed to ruin the future of this game by acting too rashly.

@Torquemadra. Azarael accused you of many things. I won’t enter there. It looks like there must be something to it but I don’t want to be other than objective. I don’t have any proofs for or against. But there is something that we players don’t need any proof of because it’s been in plain sight since you assumed control of this project. In all that time you have been dismissing players’s opinions right off the bat, allowing bad blood or a tantrum (you despectively mention players’ tantrums in your letter but you aren’t immune to them yourself) to forsake the minimum standards of respect in human communication, harassing and bullying and outright denying players’ right to speak. And yes, I understand that many forum users are infantile whiners and that it can drive you crazy at times. But:

1. Not everybody in the forums is an attention bitch or a troll or a drama queen that will lose it (openly or disguised as a friendly issue discussion) over any change that affects their cherished character (my precioussssss). I read many posts with 100% thoughtful and respectfully worded criticism and 0% whine. It is this sector of the RoR population that you should listen to, instead of getting triggered into rage by all the selfish change questioners.

2. Not everybody in the staff descends to the level of aggressiveness and personal attacks of some players. But you do.

I don’t like your vision of a game leadership. I don’t like dictatorial regimes. In your letter you write you don’t need our respect. You forgot to add that you are happy to substitute our fear for our respect. But you don’t even have that. If things continue like this people won’t fear to be banned from an empty server.

[Nidwin]

To be a Skeptic

1) Apply ciritical thinking and not wishful thinking
2) Scientific method isn't perfect but still the best tool available to find acceptable answers

Dirty Harry quote "Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one."

[wargrimnir]

Just to cut this off before people think it's the new cool thing to do. We're not entertaining a pile of "open letters to staff". We deal with enough of your opinions every day. Trying to make a game here, that's all.