It’s like the well known saying, “You get what you give.” The quality of the forum posts, the ideas, the testing, the feedback, and the discussion on the DUST 514 Forums is actually pretty good. The community should be proud. I am part of that community and I am proud.
In a time long past (over 12 months!!!) when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone only to find he had three missed calls from Chuck Norris — there was CCP and the DUST 514 forums. For many moons Developer feedback with the forums was sparse. Acknowledgement of players ideas and posts was virtually non-existent. Posts were rarely thought out, overly emotional, and quite ‘ranty’ in nature. The forums were cursed with the specter of ‘whiny raging.’
Then, everything changed.
A strange descendant of Vikings with an equally strange and hilarious accent, known as Rattati, was put in charge of various things DUST. Instead of hiding behind a wall of mystique and Mountain Dew he actively took part in the forum community. He talked with the community as well as actively noted and discussed their ideas and opinions. Changes to DUST were made and the community felt like they could actively and positively affect the game.
And the posting quality improved.
People spent more time doing the math to back up their opinions. After looking at said math they would actually accept their own flaws in thinking and rewrite their opinions in the face of facts and logic. Ideas were seriously considered, discussed, and improved upon. Community members became more respectful to each other.
This in turn improved the quality of CCP’s interaction with the community. We’ve come a long way as far as discussion goes. Sure, sometimes someone posts or argues something absolutely silly. There is random ranting. There are some truly bad ideas posted. However, intelligent posters who would have, before, let their emotions or pride get the better of them, are tempering their personal feelings with a desire to improve the game for everyone. Some reasonable people who gave up trying to talk rationally started putting in effort again. Sure it’s not perfect, but we are all people who sometimes may type before we think. Generally I think we are all pretty fair towards each other. This is purely anecdotal, BUT, I’ve NEVER seen people apologize for comments on any game forum besides DUST, which says a lot.
Any game company can say, ‘we are gamers who work with gamers for gamers.’ It’s rare that we can see proof of it. CCP has been giving us great communication and serious consideration of our thoughts. We have been returning that with better thinking and more succinct communication. It has been quite a positive cycle, and I think CCP and the DUST514 community should be proud.