Sooooo...this article from Paradox is interesting...?

[Snow Crystal]

My thoughts? Shameless PR tactic that's taking a minority of a minority of posts as a way to deflect criticism and garner sympathy.

You are conflating two issues that have nothing to do with one another. That has nothing to do with "PR" or to "garner sympathy", it is a Content Designer (and trust me, we are as far away from marketing as you get) being honest with people.

 

[Snow Crystal]

99% of posts are valid criticisms so please don't act like victims now. Did a single one of those say a bad thing about Arheo or you? Hell no, we appreciate your work in revitalizing IR:Rome, we recognize your value as devs.

No, but I don't believe we have called the Imperator forum toxic either? The points brought up by the HoI devs are not reflective of how the forums are for all the other games. I'd say the communities around the different games are quite different to one another.

 

[Jamor]

How to read this article and recent events really depends on one's world view:

Was this article part of a coordinated effort directed by the higher echelons, one seemingly directed at only part of community but which they knew the gaming press and larger fanbase would interpret broadly. Is there some direct relationship between the Leviathan, Nemesis and I:R issues and Paradox's responses? Perhaps I:R development was suspended to distract - relieving pressure on the flagship games - perhaps it is all a prelude to future plans. Maybe Paradox is trying to lower their value for some clever business plans, or defense. Maybe its all a conspiracy for an all DLC policy with no base-games at all.

Or does it all have no meaning at all. Are these releases and statements barely controlled and managed, with no oversight and foresight. Is there no communication between studios, offices, and HQ. Is Paradox so caught up in crisis management and disaster response that cannot see beyond today. Perhaps they truly believed I:R would continue, their DLCs were bug free. Perhaps there is no plan, no management, no leadership. Worse than it is all being a conspiracy, maybe it is a chaos, soon to lead to collapse.

I would say it is the middle, despite my cynicism, but seeing the world as such shades of grey, and then trying to find my - and Paradox's - position on that spectrum is far too hard and psychological disruptive.

I wish we were even half as smart and Macchiavellian as to be able to pull off a conspiracy of that magnitude. No, I'm afraid the reality is a lot more prosaic. The statements that kicked off this PC Gamer article were written, entirely unbidden, by my colleague on another dev team. A veteran content designer, with no links to marketing or PR whatsoever. Their only motive was to remind people that, except for community managers and ambassadors, no one at Paradox has "interact with fans on the forum" in their job description, and whether individuals choose to do so or not is entirely up to them. If the tone there is filled with hostility, many simply choose not to interact, for reasons that aren't hard to understand. Why would you face that if you weren't getting paid to?

As a producer, I can tell you that conspiracies may sound cool, but try actually managing thirty real people in real life and getting them moving in the same direction on a complex plan, with no one leaking anything. The sheer size of that task will erode your belief in vast conspiracies with the quickness, believe me.

People complaining at the lack of obvious personal attacks to back up the toxicity claim: you don't see what we delete. It would probably turn your stomach.

It's simple: we don't mind disagreement with our design decisions or business policy. Tell my teammates they are lazy or stupid though, don't expect a reply other than a ban. This is one of the last holdouts of company-specific, active online gaming forums that aren't only on social media. Let's hold on to this great thing we've built together, and not drag it down in to the general swamp of internet anarchy.

 

[KaiserJohan]

Maybe it's naive but I like Westers idea of "missdirected passion" or atleast thats how I decide to see it
Dev interaction on forums is great and despite it all something I hope we can get better at in the future!