Bannished Rogue
Member
|
quote:
Constructive Criticism
• What is it?
Constructive criticism is being able to process and offer your own thoughts and opinions in order to give courteous and friendly feedback. This is done by explaining what you like and dislike, while at the same time providing feedback that is useful. This is what separates constructive feedback from ranting/complaining and flaming.
Essentially a "compliment sandwich", while a common tool, is not indicative of nor should it be necessary or a requirement to be provided for criticism to be/deemed "constructive".
• Example of Constructive Criticism:
"I didn't partularly like this war because it felt too empty. To have made it better, I think the staff could have had a 50% cutscene to unlock rather than just a shop to progress the storyline. As it was, I personally was a little dissapointed that this war felt more rushed than previous wars, however I do understand that the staff had a lot on their plate when making this release.
That said, I greatly enjoyed the boss fight, the animations and art fit perfectly with the song that was playing in the background. So while not one of the best wars DF have done, I still enjoyed it. Thank you, DF staff!"
Saying you liked something, is the equivalent of saying, "just keep doing what you're doing"; which isn't constructive feedback, it's just a compliment. While I understand the provided is just an example, to suggest that this is necessary, is a disingenuous ego trip and skews perception of people's honest opinions.
• Example of Unconstructive Criticism:
"I didn't like this war at all. What were the staff thinking? The items in the shop were ugly, overpriced and were bugged!! No cutscene? That was never done before and it is not how it should be done ever. Seriously, doesn't the staff ever listen to us?! The boss fight was too hard and took forever to beat :( And there was no sound. I dont think the staff even care anymore. Best war ever /sarcasm I hate this game D:<!"
Or "I didn't partularly like this war, but I enjoyed the boss fight." This is also not constructive just because it has a compliment or because it doesn't only focus on the negative; this is just a criticsm and a compliment. The "constructive" part comes from the specific details that provide fair, logical, and actionable information that can be used to improve something.
That being said, lets see how well I can generate some constructive criticism.
Not to not beat around the ambush, this is.. in a sense, a continuation to the discussion regarding the popular opinion concerning the changes made to the Wrath armor, however this is MORE than just about that armor. That armor is just the most recent circumstance, thus easy to reference.
This recent circumstance has however, brought to light a few things I've noticed and obviously feel like is worthy of discussion; though I WILL do my best to attempt to not have too many different topics/variables/factors/things crammed into this in order to prevent multiple discussions that would probably be worthy if their own thread. I digress.
In the wake of the initiative to increase focus on the narrative of the plot going on with each quest. Which I appreciate, to an extent. It is has been my experience and observation that effort has taken away from the rewards in general.
Before I continue, I do want to throw in a curve ball. I actually do not have a single problem with the armor nor the changes made thereafter. I know, shocker. So why am I talking about the armor?
Speaking for myself, the armor or item alluded to from a quest is the primary thing that gets me interested in the story. The frostval "no way home" quest would not have been nearly as interesting for me if the armor that we got was the armor advertised in the plot of an alternate reality where the hero became omega, a vessel for the devourer. Believe me, I was drooling at the mouth at the thought of actually getting the armor for which I was pleasantly surprised.
I'm not sure if Staff understand that (i will go out on a limb on this, and I could be wrong but) without that initial appeal, I would venture to say most people just click through every quest and skip the story. Therefore to help with continued player investment and improved opinion, it is my opinion that the focus on the narrative has been generating a net negative return and that effort should be put back into items and equipment.
This circumstance has also brought to light the growing evidence that the process that items were made in the past was flawed and is now catching up to the Staff as evidenced by Ianthe's comment:quote:
if we deliberately overpowered armor then the next time we release a Wind armour we'll also have to make it deliberately overpowered too or else what's the point? And then we have to do the same for all other armor elements, and then we have to update monsters so that they're not too easy, and then we'll have to release over-overpowered equipment, etc. etc. It's a vicious cycle we want to avoid. Which is precisely the point, there are already too many "what's the point armors" that are just floating around existing in the game without any real viability for the current meta if the game. This is essentially a false sense of variety as everyone already uses pretty much the same armors or grit their teeth and use things less viable because they just like the aesthetic. No endgame player is seriously using the Yulgar's plate armors (save for the retro golden plate) unless they explicitly built their character to be a generic and plain as possible.
I am not saying that staff should start rapod firing a whole bunch of brand new armors. However a concern I've noticed, is that Staff seem to be so quick to act on an item they believe is too powerful, but that same energy is not applied to items that are "underpowered". This isnt to say Staff haven't been making ANY efforts to update/revamp items, that clearly isnt true. However, changes made to depower an item is made at a fever pitch break-neck speed without much concern to whether or not the item will be virtually ruined. There seems to be this weird fear the Staff project that the player will commit some sin against humanity to corrupt the game, like beating the Essence of Wind Dragon, thus must be stopped immediately at all costs.
However, this only prolongs the aforementioned underlying issue. I do not claim to know any special circumstances or reason, however my eyes see that, when the staff want to, they/you can make changes happen quickly and worry about the consequences later. Why is that same energy not given the otherway around? It seems like Staff would much rather let player satisfaction suffer.
Instead of the rapid firing new items, my proposed solution would be a new model by which items are generated from and "balanced" by having 5 different "types" of items in terms of use/viability (which generates actual variety):
• plain Jane overall useful- generally good in most all situations, nothing unique however
• class- I'm not talking about literal class armors, more so items that can be used in multiple situations, but very clearly is better at certain things than others
• niche- items that are super good if not the best in very specific situations, but not most situations
• hidden gem- items that on first appearance don't seem to be that useful. However if you put in the time and commitment to learning exactly how to use it properly and possibly finding the right combination of equipment, it really makes it surprisingly one of the best
• temporary- items that as they are described, are temporary. However, for that nature, these should be stronger than your average item. Also it would also be smart to have multiple tiering of temporary items based on the difficulty of acquiring them. Take for instance the Dragonbane weapons would be a tier 2 or 3 temporary item, due to the difficulty of your average player mostly not being anywhere close to casually completing quest. This allows a condition for which allows items to be more powerful than a normal permanent weapon so players get to enjoy that version that is significantly more powerful, while also not forcing the players whom don't want to use an overpowered item (which is something I personally never understood, just don't use skill 3 then).
Niche, hidden gem, and temporary provide the feeling of having a fun extremely useful item, while also balancing themselves put based on their application/nature/acquisition.
The point is, all of these have viability and there are plenty of different factors that give enough variety potential (element, playstyle, aesthetic, narrative relevance, status effect, item type, etc.). Everything's already a mess, I say take advantage of the mess and start trying stuff, buffing stuff like how the Mark of Wrath was "corrected". There are plenty of items that could be given simple buffs (increase damage, MRM, decrease resistance modifiers, reduce costs, add affect etc.) That could bring them into relevancy and possessing legitimate viability.
< Message edited by Bannished Rogue -- 5/5/2023 0:40:08 >
|
Printable Version
Icon Legend
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread
