Treyarch: Angry Gamers Stunt Creativity

I don't get it. I agree with this guy but a Call of Duty developer speaking about how angry gamers stunt their creativity. Wait what?

Agreed.

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by 4Player Podcast, Kevin Hernandez. Kevin Hernandez said: Treyarch: angry gamers stunt creativity | 4Player Podcast http://t.co/mGCeMpV via @4PlayerPodcast [...]

wut people did to final fantasy 13

Couldn't agree more

Who cares what fans think on forums. Mankind gives its best speeches with money.

Angry Fanboys are indeed the worst

Damn...I wish I had that clap gif because this article and Treyarch deserve it.

And...I wouldn't say that he's being hypocritical in saying this; Remember: Treyarch =/= Infinity Ward. While both developers worked on the Call of Duty series, each developer has left their mark. Infinity Ward's mark may be a bit...blurred; Treyarch's mark, on the other hand, is more defined with it's Zombie portion of CoD: WoW and BO (And other aspects of gameplay for the regular campaign, but I won't go into that).

Some may not think much of the zombie portion at all, and that's understandable. But at this point, with a lot of gamers being so jaded with games, every little bit helps.

I'm no worshiper of the series by any means; however, I do enjoy Black Ops for what it is: an enjoyable FPS with growing gameplay tactics and a healthy (or maybe unhealthy) portion of Zombies.

If Anything I have to agree with the Treyarch guy, the reason treyarch is stuck doing the same stuff with CoD is because Activision wont let them add much thats new to it. Look at all the "New" games that came out recently, alot of them get trashed for being "Not like the other games". It seems now days there are two policys on games. If its different, its ruining the franchise, if its the same, its a rehash. There is no safe ground anymore for game devs to actually be creative.

This is why I believe that developers should NEVER, EVER listen to their fans. Simple as that. Creativity cannot be controlled, lest it cannot reach the potential it may have.

Yeah, I can see that. Everybody bitched about Wind Waker, then we got Twilight Princess, which didn't stray very far from Ocarina of Time.

Creativity is a hard thing to grasp for these days, isn't it? It's only become more evident with all the great games that splurged out at the early 00s to now: it's kind of sickening how games can't make real progression.

For example: Bioware acts like they are putting in so much change/creativity in their games( Like Dragon Age or Mass Effect), but in turn they are secretly dumbing it down and its kind of sad.

Yes, angry fanboys may stunt the creativity of the developers, but if they give into that pressure then the developers have no one to blame but themselves. It just shows that they have no confidence in their product, at least in my eyes.

Society as a whole is moving in a negative direction, but using the fanbase as an excuse to lengthen the amount of time placed into creating games or to use the same game idea over and over is complete bull.

There will always be negative feedback. The consumers will always find something wrong with a game no matter how "perfect" it may be. Game creators need to know the consequences of taking risks and develop something completely different that can either appeal to a different target audience or that looks so unique that gamers will be interested in playing the new game.

I agree with this except for the fact that all the angry fan boys are complaining about the fact they took out all the stuff that really wasn't cheap (I.E. Drop shotting and adding the stupid random aim to snipers for the first half second).

Plus the single player was generally just not that fun. I understand moving towards a different direction but making the already fine single player advancement method and basically turning it assbackwards was kind of stupid. There is a little charm to having a faceless mute as a main character in CoD.

I can understand what he's saying. Read the Crysis 2 Xbox 360 message board on GameFAQs, or spend some time on BioWare's Mass Effect message boards.

Actually, don't.

A lot of it seems to come from the idea that the original was better, as people like s1yfox would have you believe. Despite the supposed "dumbing down" of Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 (not even out yet! perfect example of negativity!) there are still things in those games that have their own value, things that may be better than what we had before. And that means that developers are trying to do better.

A very double edged comment. They complain that fan criticism limits their creativity, which is true, but at the same time when said caring fanatics generally give feedback as to how a specific game can be improved, the developers either completely ignore the complaints or cut corners around the issue.

Oh my God, this guy's an idiot. Who cares about what the gamers think? As long as a developer is confident about a product, it'll sell. I mean, look at Left 4 dead 2, all the angry gamers said they were gonna boycott it, valve said okay and released the game. What did the "boycotters" do? They brought and played the damn game! Why? Because valve were confident with it and it got good reviews because of that. Treyarch could change so much in cod if they had the balls. Although i do think COD is a whole different situation. With a player base that big, change could be catastrophic. But then you look at WOW with Cataclysm...

As always developers never look upon themselves to see that these angry fanboys are their own creation. This is what call of duty is, a majority of stupid, close minded and angry kids who want to quick scope n00bs and be dope.

Maybe if they tried taking it in a different direction We would actually see something creative, not just another CoD but with MS paint

What does Treyarch have to complain about? They get full creativity with zombie mode in COD and everyone always loves it.

"Society as a whole is moving in a negative direction, but using the fanbase as an excuse to lengthen the amount of time placed into creating games or to use the same game idea over and over is complete bull."

This I disagree with and two words come to mind: Sonic Fanbase.

We have seen what happens when a developer tries to cater to the original fanbase; it brings up mixed results and sometimes outright hate because of the fact that it "isn't perfect" or "isn't exactly the same as how it was 10-20 years ago". And god forbid if you actually liked Sonic 4; then you're not considered a fanboy/girl/gamer at all.

And game creators actually HAVE taken risks and gone towards a completely different target audience, and I can provide three examples that are self-explanatory: Playstation Move, Microsoft Kinect, and the Nintendo Wii.

IMHO, I think people are forgetting that, not too long ago, being a gamer used to be very niche. I may be overgeneralizing when I say this, but if you were a gamer back then, chances are you were a fanboy/girl of certain games and franchises.

Fast forward to present day and gaming has exploded out of it's niche and has started to become a more widely accepted part of life...IMO, it's getting closer to becoming one of the "norms" of society. (Some peeps may not be...happy with this.)

Bringing this back to the original topic at hand, I believe that developers are caught in a bit of a dilemna: How do you appeal to new gamers, while at the same time, keep the faith of your fanbase?

While I agree that the video game community is devolving, blaming the fans for being unoriginal as a developer is complete bullshit. If they wanted to make an original game, they would've. Not everyone thinks Call of Duty should stay as static as it is.

Why is this guy even complaining? How much money did Black Ops gross? I could possibly see the complaint if they actually tried something new, but as it is he sounds like a whiny douche that's trying to make his fans play the guilt card.