Author's Note: I've written fewer unprompted posts like this one recently. Given that various technical demons are preventing me from writing much code right now, I'd thought I'd start some discussions.

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine. ~Robert C. Gallagher

We constantly fiddle with things here at Carrion Fields. Whether you realize it or not, it's why you're here at all. For years, lots of commercial games used a model of putting out their best product on Day One, watching it sell many copies, get good reviews, then gradually fade into obscurity as people got bored of the same-old-same-old. More recently, you see a lot of games which operate under the model we do: releasing expansions, free downloads, and creating tools to allow other people to generate even more.

We use change constantly because we've been up for over ten years. Everyone would have departed in boredom a long time ago if we were still using the same code and areas we used in 1994.

Unfortunately from a designer perspective, we seem to have a lot of Change-Fearers. They often post things like the following:

1) "This new feature is useless. I read the helpfile and I know."
2) "This new feature is overpowered and will ruin my fun. I read a log where someone used it, and I know."
3) "This new feature isn't as good as the old version. Of course, the old version isn't as good as the one we had back in 1995, when game balance and roleplaying were both perfect, and no one ever took anything from anyone's corpse."
4) "Blah blah blah nerfed blah blah blah."

What Change Fearers don't realize is that designers are inherently change-fearing. None of our discussions are of the form "This works well. Let's change it." Any idea posted automatically starts with one strike against it- it will require work and possibly introduce unforeseen consequences. At least the current implementation is the devil we know, and it's already done. The idea has to overcome that with its own merits. This leads to:

Valg's Cardinal Rule of Design #664: Most new ideas are bad, my own included.

This rule tends to cause consternation among both players and newer staff members. They post lots of things, and the vast majority are ignored, shot down (*), or drastically changed before implementation. Our internal discussion boards are littered with corpses of bad ideas. I can call them bad ideas without offending my fellow staff members because I'm near the top as far as proposing things that never get implemented.

Now, despite #664, some ideas are good. Any design staff that shoots down everything is a bad design staff. Once an idea is deemed good, it often (**) survives implementation. It gets announced, help files are added, coders sometimes put in some sort of tracking/evaluating device, and....

Here come the Change Fearers!

My favorite example of change-fearing is Scion. We introduced the current version of the backstory/powers roughly two years ago. The forums were littered with change-fear. People didn't know what it was. People thought the powers were too weak. Despoil was no good because it required the sacrifice of a valuable object. The backstory was vague and confusing if you only read the helpfile. Nightwalkers were 'nerfed' because they occasionally decided that they didn't like fighting for you and left. They didn't have anything to "do". Etc.

We didn't do much. A few tweaks, some new code to support things we forgot or learned as we observed, etc. Part of this was because I'm convinced it is a quality product, though I also recognized that it would take time for people to get used to it. Part of this was because I was busy with other things (Legacies, or maybe Ooze). Part of this was because some of the complaints were based on obviously false premises. Part of this was because change-fearers love posting on random unofficial boards so they are shielded from the possibility of an informed reply (often under an anoymous handle, for double-sissydom), and two-way discussion got limited. Part of this was because several top-tier players were already getting into the roleplay and making good use of the powers.

The result? Some players play Scions over and over for one reason or another. Others never touch it. People argue both sides of whether the powers are any good or not. Some Scions have been among the most recognized PCs of their era. Other Scions have been forced out in shame, or quietly faded into autodeletion. In short, it's much like every other cabal.

(If you're too new to remember the most recent Scion revamp, my instincts are that you can safely insert the word "Outlander" above and wait a bit.)

There's lots of examples of this. Change-Fearers complained endlessly about our new thieves. Nowadays, it's hard to find anyone that would want to go back to the old one-trick ponies. Legacies brought non-Battle warriors into the hero ranks again, where they do fine and don't really overwhelm anything. Etc.

So, what to do about it?

1) If something new comes in, wait a bit before posting about it, aside from bugs and whatnot. Let things settle in. Some changes get more powerful with time (as people learn to use them), and others get less pwerful with time (as people learn to counteract them).
2) Please do not be the guy who begins the post with "I've never played with or against this new feature, but..." Step back, and if you really have a point, someone who has evidence will figure it out and bring it forward. Let them have the stage. A badly articulated argument for a point can actually damage future arguments for the same point.
3) Avoid ranting like a fourth-grader. If you have a point, you will be able to make it without name-calling, excessive punctuation, or apocalyptic proclamations of how the change will single-handedly destroy CF. You'll also discover that people will actually read your post all the way through if it's not obviously crippled by hysterics. If you know you tend to post rant-y stuff, give it a day and try it then.
4) Take responsibility and post to say "This new feature is fine." or "Here is why I think this new feature should change." if you've had more experience with it than most players do. The Battlefield is a good forum for this, and people use it well in this respect, but Gameplay, AskanImm, or email to the appropriate people can also work.

- V


(*) It is better to shoot down than to ignore. Shooting down (hopefully) teaches the idea's creator what to avoid in the future, thus improving the next generation of ideas.

(**) Sometimes good ideas don't make it in, either because they'd be too technically difficult, or because no resources are available (i.e. we're swamped with different good ideas).

valguarnera@carrionfields.com