Forum mob mentality

Hilgara

In any game the percentage of people who use the official forums in small. Most dont.
The forums are a place that people come to give opinions on the game and invariably the people who have a negative opinion are more motivated to post than those who have a positive opinion.
The majority of player who enjoy the game just play. The doom sayers in this forum seem to be assuming they have the following of the greater player base. You dont. You have the following of those that, like you have not enjoyed the game and that is far from representative of everyone.


If you enter the complaints department don't be surprised if its full of people who want to complain.

Ser Lobo

Simple logic, but never fails to stop posters from claiming 'majority' approval to their ideas or opinions.

Many have a grief, and want to vent. Problem is, it's a forum mostly full of either lifers like myself, or other people with problems. So in a quick and dirty hurry, it can turn into a riot.

EvE Online has demonstrated this numerous times. People enjoying the game hurt by a minority who hated it.

AlexDougherty

I never assume that everyone agrees with me, in fact I'm happier to believe that a proportion disagree with any statement I make. That way I believe that people have their own minds, and can decide for themselves.

But you are right about most of the posts being negative.

UrQuan

Hilgara wrote: »

The doom says in this forum seem to be assuming they have the following of the greater player base. You dont.

More accurately, they may or may not. We don't really have any way to reliably know one way or the other.

Rylana

We do not talk about the family here unless youre a made poster.

hk11

Some of it is warranted I think. During every play session I see some of the hot topics here being debated in the chat channel.

ebondeath

Constructive criticism is not a strong point of many forum-goers. They don't want to provide it, and they certainly don't want to read it if it's more than a paragraph long.

They just want to wave their pitchforks and torches and hope they set something on fire.

Hilgara

ruze84b14_ESO wrote: »

EvE Online has demonstrated this numerous times. People enjoying the game hurt by a minority who hated it.

EvE online has been like that since launch. 50,000 people playing and a couple of hundred complaining on the forums.

Its been going for 11 years

Buck

Ur-Quan wrote: »

Hilgara wrote: »

The doom says in this forum seem to be assuming they have the following of the greater player base. You dont.

More accurately, they may or may not. We don't really have any way to reliably know one way or the other.

I agreed with this... /facepalm

Fuzzylumpkins

Hilgara wrote: »

In any game the percentage of people who use the official forums in small. Most dont.
The forums are a place that people come to give opinions on the game and invariably the people who have a negative opinion are more motivated to post than those who have a positive opinion.
The majority of player who enjoy the game just play. The doom sayers in this forum seem to be assuming they have the following of the greater player base. You dont. You have the following of those that, like you have not enjoyed the game and that is far from representative of everyone.


If you enter the complaints department don't be surprised if its full of people who want to complain.

You don't know who the majority are in this case.
Maybe the "majority" of players quit and of those left, many prefer to play forums.

Ironic your post "assumes" your side as you state the other posters "assume" their side. And your very post here, in your own terms, is stating you are not enjoying the game? I am not confused you are trying to represent yourself as a minority but by the very nature of this useless topic you have presented yourself as the "majority" complainers.

AlexDougherty

Fuzzylumpkins wrote: »

You don't know who the majority are in this case.
Maybe the "majority" of players quit and of those left, many prefer to play forums.

Maybe, but if they quit, then they aren't players anymore, and thus can't be the majority.
They might be the majority of forum posters, but not forum players.

Arsenic_Touch

Here's the thing if you don't say anything, your opinion doesn't actually matter. It's the equivalent of not voting and thinking you have any say in things. The majority aren't going to care or say anything either way, even if they're enjoying themselves. Most are too lazy to post, some don't even know there's a forum.

So ultimately you're not accomplishing anything here by trying to downplay and discredit any negative posts as the vocal minority.

UrQuan

Arsenic_Touch wrote: »

Here's the thing if you don't say anything, your opinion doesn't actually matter. It's the equivalent of not voting and thinking you have any say in things.

In a subscription model that's completely not true. Whether you say anything or not, your opinion matters because your opinion determines whether you will continue to subscribe or not. If ZOS changes something because 100 people complained about it, and that change causes 10,000 people to unsubscribe then the opinions of those 10,000 people matter a lot more than the opinions of the 100 people who said something (especially since there's a significant chance that the people complaining are also unsubscribing). That doesn't mean that ZOS should just ignore everyone talking about what they want changed, of course, but it does mean that they should take everything with a grain of salt and think it through before blindly following the advice of people on the forums.

PBpsy

Yes the forums population is a self selecting sample but you can't really quantify how large is the actual bias is without comparing with some other survey using a random sample of the game's population. You make the assertion that forum use correlates with displeasure but you do not really have the data to support this either since we do not know what the people that don't post here think about the game. You only see that the majority of posters do have issues with at least some aspects of the game. This may be a good representative sample even though it is self selecting or it may be skewed as hell but we certainly can't tell with the data that we have.

Worstluck

Hilgara wrote: »

ruze84b14_ESO wrote: »

EvE Online has demonstrated this numerous times. People enjoying the game hurt by a minority who hated it.

EvE online has been like that since launch. 50,000 people playing and a couple of hundred complaining on the forums.

Its been going for 11 years

Heh...you can't compare these forums with Eve Online's forums. They interact with their playerbase on a daily basis and use those forums, in addition to developer blogs, as their main source of communication. I am not trying to advertise another game FYI...links are just for comparison.

Information portal: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=247

Here are some recent dev posts: http://eve-search.com/search/dpf/dev

Hilgara

Worstluck wrote: »

Hilgara wrote: »

ruze84b14_ESO wrote: »

EvE Online has demonstrated this numerous times. People enjoying the game hurt by a minority who hated it.

EvE online has been like that since launch. 50,000 people playing and a couple of hundred complaining on the forums.

Its been going for 11 years

Heh...you can't compare these forums with Eve Online's forums. They interact with their playerbase on a daily basis and use those forums, in addition to developer blogs, as their main source of communication. I am not trying to advertise another game FYI...links are just for comparison.

Information portal: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=247

Here are some recent dev posts: http://eve-search.com/search/dpf/dev

Dont disagree. But the communication or lack of it isnt the issue here.

AinGeal

Hilgara wrote: »

Worstluck wrote: »

Hilgara wrote: »

ruze84b14_ESO wrote: »

EvE Online has demonstrated this numerous times. People enjoying the game hurt by a minority who hated it.

EvE online has been like that since launch. 50,000 people playing and a couple of hundred complaining on the forums.

Its been going for 11 years

Heh...you can't compare these forums with Eve Online's forums. They interact with their playerbase on a daily basis and use those forums, in addition to developer blogs, as their main source of communication. I am not trying to advertise another game FYI...links are just for comparison.

Information portal: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=247

Here are some recent dev posts: http://eve-search.com/search/dpf/dev

Dont disagree. But the communication or lack of it isnt the issue here.

Speaking of EVE forums...

Posting in a stealth "complaining about complaining thread".

Worstluck

If they did communicate more, there would be less room to complain. In addition, more people would want to come to the forums, because they could serve more as a place for information on game systems, explanations for mechanics, and future goals on what the developers want to see...rather than a place to air our grievances. Only my opinion, I can see where you are coming from regardless.

IrishGirlGamer

Hilgara wrote: »

The majority of player who enjoy the game just play.

Which is why if you like something about the game, you should speak up. Truly.

Because what you're saying is true. People who enjoy the game, play the game. People who hate games - or, in some cases hate people - come to forums and complain.

But it only takes five minutes on a forum telling the devs, "Hey, you know, I really thought that quest was well done or that feature makes the game more enjoyable for me." It makes them feel about their work and helps to make the game better.

Of course, you might lose your membership card to the "He-Man-Game-Haters-Club." Because, you know, being nice is so not cool.

Blackwidow

Hilgara wrote: »

In any game the percentage of people who use the official forums in small. Most dont.
The forums are a place that people come to give opinions on the game and invariably the people who have a negative opinion are more motivated to post than those who have a positive opinion.
The majority of player who enjoy the game just play. The doom sayers in this forum seem to be assuming they have the following of the greater player base. You dont. You have the following of those that, like you have not enjoyed the game and that is far from representative of everyone.

If you enter the complaints department don't be surprised if its full of people who want to complain.

I disagree about what constitutes the majority of posters here.

You say most people who like the game just play and don't post. Okay.

However, most of the people who hate the game don't post either, they just stop playing.

If you look at the forums, there are plenty of ZOS defenders and bashers alike.

wrlifeboil

OP's message is a perfect example of forum mentality.

It contains no relevant information or query about the game itself and appears to be a passive aggressive putdown of forum communities in general.

Yet here it is in the eso game forum. Other non-eso messages get closed in minutes. I guess this thread is viewed as community development.

Blackwidow

wrlifeboil wrote: »

OP's message is a perfect example of forum mentality.

It contains no relevant information or query about the game itself and appears to be a passive aggressive putdown of forum communities in general.

Yet here it is in the eso game forum. Other non-eso messages get closed in minutes. I guess this thread is viewed as community development.

It's pro ESO. It will not get shut down.

Hilgara

wrlifeboil wrote: »

OP's message is a perfect example of forum mentality.

It contains no relevant information or query about the game itself

So suggesting that some people not using the forum might be enjoying the game is not relevant? or are we only allowed to complain here? You just proved my point

wrlifeboil

Blackwidow wrote: »

wrlifeboil wrote: »

OP's message is a perfect example of forum mentality.

It contains no relevant information or query about the game itself and appears to be a passive aggressive putdown of forum communities in general.

Yet here it is in the eso game forum. Other non-eso messages get closed in minutes. I guess this thread is viewed as community development.

It's pro ESO. It will not get shut down.

Astroturf?

Blackwidow

Hilgara wrote: »

wrlifeboil wrote: »

OP's message is a perfect example of forum mentality.

It contains no relevant information or query about the game itself

So suggesting that some people not using the forum might be enjoying the game is not relevant? or are we only allowed to complain here? You just proved my point

We are all here to complain about something.

Some complain about the game.

Others complain people have complaints.

magickats242cub18_ESO

Oh boy...

Con64

Mate!...I can't see these guy's organizing a ***-up in a brewery for a long time!
It's time to get the beer goggles off and get real!

Cybrdroyd

I have very little to complain about. I am happily adventuring along at my own pace. I come here for ideas, and sometimes when I am stuck on a quest and need help. It's a good mmo, I like it. I know some of you find that statement shocking. I don't give much heed to those who just come here to troll and whine.

Blackwidow

Cybrdroyd wrote: »

I have very little to complain about. I am happily adventuring along at my own pace. I come here for ideas, and sometimes when I am stuck on a quest and need help. It's a good mmo, I like it. I know some of you find that statement shocking. I don't give much heed to those who just come here to troll and whine.

I just read some of your posts. Nice try.

trucqulent

This thread calms my blood.

Cybrdroyd wrote: »

I have very little to complain about. I am happily adventuring along at my own pace. I come here for ideas, and sometimes when I am stuck on a quest and need help. It's a good mmo, I like it. I know some of you find that statement shocking. I don't give much heed to those who just come here to troll and whine.

same. Think I've actually encountered maybe 5-6 bugs in total. all of which were solved by relogging or abandoning/retaking a quest in question.

lag spikes are more taxing than other games, but that'll get worked out in time.

Otherwise, I couldn't be happier. I've played every major mmo release you can think of, at some point or another... and I'm enjoying this more than I've enjoyed any game at all since early wotlk.

The downer is, as you politely put it, the community. If eso launched back in like 2007/8/9/10, the mmo genre would have given it raving reviews. it would have been a blockbuster hit.

crazy how times (and audiences) change.

Riptide

Recursive thread is recursive.