Goonhub
05-08-2021, 02:57 PM
I've been playing this game a long time, since 2011, and I've been a developer here since like 2018 or 2019 or something; and I feel pretty strongly that we, as a development team, have never been more transparent or more accepting of player feedback and contributions than we are now.
Prior to last year when we open sourced much of our code base due to code leaks, when we had only a small developer team and a small community of non-affiliated contributors; I'd say that about 60% (minimum) of all changes made were undocumented. And the main way developers collected feedback was on the forums here, with dozens of suggestions posts made for every one that was acted on by a developer.
Now, most changes added to the game by devs is done transparently in the open source repository of code, and everyone can see exactly any change made if they care to comb through the git history. I feel like this has warped player perceptions into thinking we make warrantless changes devoid of any thought or internal discussion simply because they can now see everything. When before they could see only what a developer explicitly states.
When we went open source, some people got the impression that we were changing our whole development workflow so as to be beholden to community input on every decision. This is not the case, and was never planned. That's not to say that we ignore player feedback, but the final decisions on changes and game direction rest with the developers. That's how software development works everywhere. You try to make a good product and be accomidating where you can, but often times, people are averse to change and you'll find someone somewhere who dislikes any change, if not brand new feature.
I don't like every change made by every other developer, certainly there are similar feelings towards my changes at times. Usually my initial reaction upon seeing a change to something I like is to be annoyed or upset before thinking to give it a chance. And it's only after I give it a chance that I find that I might be okay with that change if not actually come to like it or see its value.
Prior to last year when we open sourced much of our code base due to code leaks, when we had only a small developer team and a small community of non-affiliated contributors; I'd say that about 60% (minimum) of all changes made were undocumented. And the main way developers collected feedback was on the forums here, with dozens of suggestions posts made for every one that was acted on by a developer.
Now, most changes added to the game by devs is done transparently in the open source repository of code, and everyone can see exactly any change made if they care to comb through the git history. I feel like this has warped player perceptions into thinking we make warrantless changes devoid of any thought or internal discussion simply because they can now see everything. When before they could see only what a developer explicitly states.
When we went open source, some people got the impression that we were changing our whole development workflow so as to be beholden to community input on every decision. This is not the case, and was never planned. That's not to say that we ignore player feedback, but the final decisions on changes and game direction rest with the developers. That's how software development works everywhere. You try to make a good product and be accomidating where you can, but often times, people are averse to change and you'll find someone somewhere who dislikes any change, if not brand new feature.
I don't like every change made by every other developer, certainly there are similar feelings towards my changes at times. Usually my initial reaction upon seeing a change to something I like is to be annoyed or upset before thinking to give it a chance. And it's only after I give it a chance that I find that I might be okay with that change if not actually come to like it or see its value.