HemlockReaper said:@Lghtngfan
I can appreciate the sentiment of this post, but I feel there may be some misconceptions within it. In your post you seem to be drawing the conclusion that the events taking place here on the boards are similar to a previous forums and therefore could suffer the same fate for the company.
You state “But then as the timelines stretched and people were left wanting more, the complaints started.” And then go on to state “But what started the ultimate downfall of the game and N-Space itself was the unrealistic expectations from some D&D fans”. I feel your under the assumption that the fans are what caused the downfall of the company “N-Space”.
You seem to be implying that the fans are responsible for the outcome of this company believing as you stated “But in the world of the Internet, it only takes one lone voice to start a rumor, then a panic, then a witch-hunt, ending in the deafinging silence of an empty space.”
I disagree completely with this view.The consumers are never responsible for the outcome of any company, it is the company's responsibility to understand the desires of their target audience. The company in question “N-Space”, by your own words failed to deliver on their deadlines leaving their customers unhappy, that eventually lead to the failure of the company, not a result of “rumors” that in this day an age are quickly debunked Via the Internet.
The Internet may have the capacity to spread rumors faster than before, but lets not forget that people today are not reliant on the local grapevine either, and any concerns the consumers have can be addressed immediately though the forums or social media if the company so chooses.
Id also like to point out that while a negative atmosphere can have an impact on the company's image, the reverse of “white knighting” is equally true, because when a developer(in this case) only hears positive things about their creations because their fans can see no wrong, they don’t make adjustments based on feedback, since they really didn't get any.
I think its important for both parties, fans and developers to find a middle ground, and this starts by first having a place of discussion and just as importantly, proper management from the developers or customer representatives. Proper management means not throwing up a forums as a sinkhole for complaints, but constant attention to the concerns of the fans, while directing discussion on topics of importance for the company.
Ive spent a lot of time with my own creations, Writing stories, Drawing, and producing videos for my channel, so I can tell you that its very easy for a creator to get trapped by the vision inside their head, that they fail to see it from another perspective. It’s imperative that we give honest feedback to the developers if we expect to help them create the best game the can. The developers must have that feedback unfiltered by our feelings towards them or the game, and we should trust that the can filter out the ideas or opinions that do not support their vision.
In your post you mention fans who state they wont play if this or that feature is in the game or not. I feel its important to give developers that information, provided its not emotionally charged. I personally would find it very difficult to play pantheon if they decided to allow players to join multiple guilds the way ESO did because I feel if goes against what I believe to be the focus of pantheon, a group centric game.
Final Fantasy XI actually pulled this off pretty slick. Basically you could switch back and forth between a primary raiding guild, a crafting guild, family guild, or even a social event type guild. I remember when Dynamis came out, a bunch of people formed a "Dynamis Linkshell" that would raid the zone around the same time every week. It didn't matter what your main guild was, all players were able to join and it was a pretty cool feeling because it was a melting pot of different players that you otherwise would not normally be playing/interacting with. Once the Dynamis Raid was over, people would swap back to their primary guild and go on with their day. If someone was heavily involved in the crafting community, they might also be a part of the crafting guild. In my opinion, this type of thing actually helped improve the social aspect of the game. It's not like people would be in multiple raiding guilds because generally raiding guilds wouldn't allow it. As far as any other hobby/enthusiast/family type guild ... no problem.
For the most part, I only played in one guild for the majority of the time I played the game. Every now and then though I might join one of these weekly dynamis get together type guilds and have some fun with them. There wasn't anything anti-social about it. It's similiar to business networking groups like the Chamber of Commerce or BNI (Business Network International) ... they are more like associations of people from many different professions (sometimes you'll see multiple people from the same profession but different competing companies) that have regular get togethers to share referrals with each other. Just a group of people working together towards a common goal in helping each other succeed.
I'm not saying that multi-guilding is always appropriate, but I've seen it pulled of in an MMO before and it actually improved the social networking on the server. It allowed players from different guilds that usually only compete against each other to be on the same team for a change. Their true loyalty was with their primary raiding guild, but every now and then there would be opportunities to work together toward a common goal without anybody questioning their integrity. This helped keep drama in check because players were actually able to form meaningful relationships with each other while wearing their social event link pearl.