Titanfall Developers Secretly Listen to Players Complain

Josh Engen

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Titanfall Developers Secretly Listen to Players Complain

Accoring to Lead Artist Joel Emslie, Respawn Entertainment is constantly trying to improve Titanfall, which often means surfing YouTube and listening to in-game bellyaching.

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Sigmund Av Volsung

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Dec 11, 2009
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Ah yes, I can't wait to find out what sort of improvements can be extracted from comments such as:

"F*** this ******-ass game. Fu**ing bulls**t retards Respawn, Suck my dick you f**tards!"
 

Vigormortis

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I have a lot of respect for the team at Respawn. Namely because of the respect they show to their community and fans. They understand what it takes to make a fun and entertaining multiplayer experience. And while I'm not fond of their exclusivity dealings with EA[footnote]Though, from a logistical standpoint, I understand it.[/footnote] nor of their DLC practices thus far[footnote]I like that they're adding a wealth of content and features in free updates, but $10 DLC packs with only 3 maps are a bit....money grubby.[/footnote], just about everything else they've done so far is refreshing to see in an industry that seems to care less and less about the players.

That said:
I really, really, REALLY wish Respawn would fix the damn R-101C Carbine. I know their reasoning for holding off until the next big update is because the weapon can be equally exploited by anyone; regardless of skill; but for those attempting to complete Regen challenges it's an unfair imbalance. Many of the Regen requirements utilize weapons other than the Carbine, so being stuck with an inferior weapon while facing a vastly superior one makes completing the challenges a chore.
 

xEightBitPlayerx

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Jun 26, 2011
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If you like the game or not, it's nice that they are actually taking the time to listen to the community to make improvements.
 

xEightBitPlayerx

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Sigmund Av Volsung said:
Ah yes, I can't wait to find out what sort of improvements can be extracted from comments such as:

"F*** this ******-ass game. Fu**ing bulls**t retards Respawn, Suck my dick you f**tards!"
You actually made me laugh out loud at work and have thus, made my day. Thank you.
 

JPArbiter

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So does that Mean Titanfall 2 will have an in depth, comprehensive and comprehensible single player campaign that can maximize the wide potential of the mechanics that make up Titanfall 1?
 

Glaice

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Well it would be nice if Titanfall was on Steam as well, got yourself a whole new market if EA would actually want to make more money..
 

tehroc

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JPArbiter said:
So does that Mean Titanfall 2 will have an in depth, comprehensive and comprehensible single player campaign that can maximize the wide potential of the mechanics that make up Titanfall 1?
I hope not. Let's be real, the stories in FPS are garbage. You want story, go read a good book. I'd rather them ignore all story and just focus on multiplayer. Mostly on how to make the experience less shallow. Titanfall is fun, but there isn't much there.
 

JPArbiter

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tehroc said:
JPArbiter said:
So does that Mean Titanfall 2 will have an in depth, comprehensive and comprehensible single player campaign that can maximize the wide potential of the mechanics that make up Titanfall 1?
I hope not. Let's be real, the stories in FPS are garbage. You want story, go read a good book. I'd rather them ignore all story and just focus on multiplayer. Mostly on how to make the experience less shallow. Titanfall is fun, but there isn't much there.
I did not say I wanted a story, I said I wanted a single player campaign to take advantage of Titanfalls more unique mechanics, to promote game play beyond "chucking a bunch of dudes together until one team just doesn't give a flying piss anymore
 

RJ 17

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Nov 27, 2011
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"You have to listen to these guys," Emslie said. "A lot of times they have valid points. And you have to be responsible and fix it, to make your game better."
Good god, imagine what the industry would be like if even half the developers out there had this kind of mentality...
 

Micah Weil

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RJ 17 said:
"You have to listen to these guys," Emslie said. "A lot of times they have valid points. And you have to be responsible and fix it, to make your game better."
Good god, imagine what the industry would be like if even half the developers out there had this kind of mentality...
...part of me wants to say that we'd maybe get a handful of games a year if they did.
 

unstabLized

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xEightBitPlayerx said:
Sigmund Av Volsung said:
Ah yes, I can't wait to find out what sort of improvements can be extracted from comments such as:

"F*** this ******-ass game. Fu**ing bulls**t retards Respawn, Suck my dick you f**tards!"
You actually made me laugh out loud at work and have thus, made my day. Thank you.
Seconded. I'm still chuckling.
 

Vigormortis

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RJ 17 said:
Good god, imagine what the industry would be like if even half the developers out there had this kind of mentality...
So you're proposing an industry full of Respawn Entertainments, CD Projekts, Valves, ReLogics, etc?

Holy hell....would such a thing even be plausable, let alone possible?!

I wish it were.
 
Aug 1, 2010
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tehroc said:
I hope not. Let's be real, the stories in FPS are garbage.
This is a horrifically incorrect statement.

OT:
I always wondered why devs didn't do this. It's so simple and it's free.

Now if only EA would do the same so we could get the damn game on Steam../.
 

The Grim Ace

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It is rare these days to hear of game developers having a mature response to their customers. I never got into Titanfall (since nope to Origin) but this makes me very interested as to what this would mean for a Titanfall 2.
 

Zulnam

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I'll believe an actual multiplayer improvement when I see it, Respawn. For your reputation's sake, I hope it is free.
 

Denamic

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Sigmund Av Volsung said:
Ah yes, I can't wait to find out what sort of improvements can be extracted from comments such as:

"F*** this ******-ass game. Fu**ing bulls**t retards Respawn, Suck my dick you f**tards!"
Even if the complaint is pure gibberish, you can still look at what caused the rage.
 

Metalrocks

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that is sure great of them that they actually do something if people complain about a certain problem. in a civil manner of course.
i personally have no real issue besides that the last patch makes the game freeze which i never had before. at least yesterday it was fine but still, very frustrating when you managed a round and got a good score and the game crashes and you lose the whole progress.
 

IndieForever

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RJ 17 said:
Good god, imagine what the industry would be like if even half the developers out there had this kind of mentality...
The only note of caution I would add to this is that you can't design or tweak a game based on the feedback of players alone. Generally, and I use that word carefully, the most vociferous complaints and demands for change come from a small minority of *very* vocal and persistent people; a much smaller percentage of players sign up for forums to leave comments like 'I love the way weapon X isn't overpowered, making it too easy.' The more likely response to a change is 'argh, fucksticks, now my over-looked and over-powered weapon/item/skill doesn't let me kill teh everythings by pressing spacebar.' This is not always the case (see ME3 ending, the latest AC for example) and there is no harm having a look, but sometimes you have to stick to your guns.

What there is *never* any harm in doing is trawling all available sources for feedback and having an active and visible online presence for your customers, even if it's just to say, "look, we've heard the feedback about X but we're not making any changes because of Y." People appreciate that instead of the usual round of silence or apparent lack of interest after the game has shipped and the money pile is being counted.

valium said:
Arenanet did this exact same thing for Guild Wars.
They did. They also collected metrics about gameplay/skill usage and, at any point they considered anything was overused or becoming stale, they changed it. Without warning. The ensuing pre-pubescent forum rage could have powered a mission to the edge of the solar system, but they stuck with their changes and eventually the fuss died down as people adapted. They did this repeatedly, sticking to their vision of the game. That they genuinely did care what people thought was never in doubt in my mind, but some people even complained about the devs giving some kind of *illusion* of player feedback driving change.

The thing is, unless your game exists in a quantum state of superposition where (from Vigormortis' example) the R101C carbine is both simultaneously nerfed and not-nerfed, and you can't let anyone play it in case their version's wavefunction collapses into the scenario they didn't want, you're always going to have someone telling you you're wrong.

The signal-to-noise ratio with game feedback is often very, very low. The trick is to pick out the important from the whining and that is a difficult skill to acquire indeed.

Good luck Respawn.. you'll need it, but kudos for doing it. Most don't.