To Arms!

comment=38123
With those words, you pretty much just told everyone besides your testers to drop reviewing this game, not suggest anything in regards to the game, and silently play and either love or hate the game as anything we say is totally and utterly meaningless gibberish to you.

I congratulate you on further alienating your already distant intended audience.

Eh, that's really picking apart his words and pulling them way out of context. For the record, I know what Max was trying to say, and I understand.

Max does take a lot of beating from all of us "shitheels" each time he releases content onto the site. One can't deny that when he does release something, there is a pack of ravenous wolves ready to tear it apart (and conversely, he has his own pack of wolves ready to counter anything being said). Now, I'd like to believe that there is an intelligent portion of the debate; such as words coming from Solitayre, Fallen-Griever, and myself. These words aren't intended to harm, but appropriately challenge Max's vision; sometimes harsh, but always meaningful, criticism.

The reason the trolls come out to play, however, is because you (Max) DO see harm in these words, and then only because you fear the ramifications it will have for your career. Sure, you expect a degree of criticism as anyone would, but you have actively tried to silence those that would diminish the quantifiable worth of your game. Why is this? Because it might look bad on your resume. This greatly devalues criticism against your work, which would be fine for you, but not for us.

I don't know where I'm going with this. I guess I want to let everyone know that we can provide Max with intelligent criticism without lending credibility to his argument about being the scrappy underdog. In turn, I hope that Max can look past criticism that attacks Max for being Max, and continue to provide an intellectual defense to these concerns. Know one thing, Max: we ARE hard on you, on purpose. I, personally, don't even play RPG Maker games, but I play yours. Your accomplishments aren't a one-way ticket to praise, in fact they are pretty much a one-way ticket to criticism; there are higher expectations from you because of it. If you think this is unfair, then you're thinking in the wrong direction.

I'd figure someone who's "by far" his own harshest critic would actually be able to handle other people's criticism a lot more easily instead of being so defensive about all of it and even trying to get people to retract it. They'd just be saying things you already know or would really amount to a drop in the bucket anyway.

You must be straight up lying.

That's something bad guys do.

I think I've been eminently civil and understanding this time around. I think a lot of my critics have too. This time around. Except a few assholes. If you're not letting past incidents color your perceptions then I don't know what you're talking about and I wish you could acknowledge that you're blowing things a teeny bit out of proportion.

It would be impossible to judge anything unless the past is taken into account; I'm not sure how you're asking anyone to not look at your recent actions to judge your current and future actions. Past actions can't describe everything, but they form a basis of what to expect now and here on in.

Moving on, the manner of your rejection of criticism has indeed mostly been civil, except for some harsh-sounding words like the one that I picked up on. My guess is that the mileage of perception will vary. However, to say you're understanding is an overstatement. Criticism that is rejected, when done in a proper manner, generally does not result in drama. This situation, however, has escalated into a cesspool of drama. Most of the critics have been pretty reasonable in their opinion, so that suggests something is being done incorrectly on the end of the receiver.

I will say this, though--I did not expect the general public to pick apart the game. That is what testers are for. The general audience I just expect to play and enjoy.

Look around you; the game-making community on average has a higher percentage of developers of some trade than average players. Almost all the games that are released in the audience you approached are met with developers players who pick apart the game, both to improve their own skill and to help the game and its creator improve when applicable. To expect otherwise is nothing short of ignorance. Perhaps you approached the wrong audience all together?

That's not to say that I can't get helpful feedback from unexpected quarters, of course.

Your words keep contradicting your actions, but I digress. I would only be repeating myself from my previous post here.