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Old 01-31-2008, 05:33 AM   #18
KaVir
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
Posts: 2,052
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Re: How not to be still-born

Although I certainly get a lot of feedback from real-time conversations, I'd say it's probably secondary to the amount I receive from posts made to the forums. People were invited to join the discussions on the forums many months before the first closed beta test, so I think many of them got into the idea of using them as a primary form of feedback, and that mindset has been passed on to later generations of players.

The advantage of discussing ideas on the forums is that every player has the chance to have their say, not just those who happen to be online at the time - and that is very helpful in getting a balanced view (or as one of my players recently phrased it in response to a complaint about class balance, "Originally posted by Scissors: I think Rock is too strong. It should be toned down. Paper is fine."). Having a permanent record of every suggestion also reduces the amount of repetition, as if something has been proposed before I can simply point the player to the earlier thread.

I'd certainly agree with that. Many players are hesitant at first, but with a little encouragement they can be a real goldmine of ideas (some of my coolest features were originally proposed by players). I think it's also very important not to simply shoot down ideas you don't like, but to explain to the player exactly what you don't like about those ideas (even if it's as simple as "That really doesn't fit with my vision of the mud") - I've seen muds actually ridicule player suggestions before, and they're really shooting themselves in the foot, because their players just learn to keep their mouths shut.
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