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Post by TheSplature on Feb 7, 2015 18:10:55 GMT
We're all excited for Splatoon. But we're also paying consumers. We've already bought the Wii U, the necessary peripherals, and now we'll be putting down additional money to jump into Nintendo's latest IP. This affords us the opportunity to give our feedback on the product we'll not only be buying, but playing for a long time. A clear channel of communication between player and developer is crucial to a healthy game. It allows the player to voice concerns and feedback that may affect the longevity of the game past release. It allows developers to gain a better idea of how their game's players are reacting to certain or whole parts of the game.
It's clear that this channel needs to be established. There are a lot of uncertainties surrounding the game already - voice chat, LAN, split-screen, equipment, etc. - that haven't really been clarified for those anticipating the game's release. Clarification may come, but will it be too late for community feedback to have a hand in the final product or post-release patches? I think so. Further, the need for a legitimate means of vocalizing the collective concerns of the community will hinder the current trend of "boycotting" the game because of no voice chat in random matchmaking (so far), which will do more harm than good in the long run (and boycotts never work anyway).
Most importantly, a means of voicing the community's feedback and critique will legitimize the community's voice and will keep things civil. We don't want harsh, unchecked voices rampaging against the developers because of something they don't like. That will only push the developers and Nintendo away from opening things up to us. If our voices are collective, constructive, polite, logical, and respectful, then we may actually get answers that we're looking for and we may gain the influence that we want to have on the final product.
At least on my end, I know it's critically important to have a lot of the features currently up in the air, at least to have a game that will survive a year or more. People constantly bring up Smash or Mario Kart's online system as a sufficient medium for Splatoon's online play but I have to disagree. Mario Kart's online population is practically non-existent at this point and Smash's system is very isolated and lends little for player-to-player interaction outside the battlefield (not to mention that Smash has always been strongest offline, so that's where its community will always be anchored). Splatoon has the potential to outlive most games out today, but without the right tools, it'll fade just like other titles on Wii U have.
So how do we collectively and constructively represent and spread the voice of the community? How do we try and establish a stronger connection with Nintendo and, of course, the developers themselves? Where do we start and how do we continue?
I'd love to hear all your thoughts on the matter before I delve into mine. Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below. I'd love to see this thread get hot with a big discussion, one that's vital to the long-term health of the scene and game.
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Post by TheBlackbird on Feb 7, 2015 18:22:49 GMT
Honestly, I don't know. I certainly wouldn't mind doing this if I knew that everything would actually be looked at, and were this Nintendo of America's call, I think it'd stand a reasonable chance of happening, but IIRC, Nintendo of Japan calls the final shots (ALL of them), and they don't much pay attention to what's outside of their own bubble unless forced to do otherwise by their native users (I.E. Japanese) and investors (sometimes). My wager would simply be you, actually.
You're the biggest possible opportunity we have due to your ability and connections to people at NoA (even if it's just through roundabout means). The task at hand, really, would end having to be executed in one of three ways (as far as I can see):
1: Get the explicit attention of the Splatoon devs themselves: They're Japanese, and do not speak English, which means that we'd have to have a great many people on hand to speak Japanese themselves, to potentially Tweet at them until they hear the case. Hardest to pull off, but highest chance of success. The fact that they're on Twitter at all is a boon, but I doubt they pay any attention to the English tweets.
2: Get NoA's explicit attention, who MAY be able to get NoJ and the devs' attention: This is arguably the easiest method to execute due to your stature, desire to grow the community, general popularity, and connections, but even odds that NoJ/the devs get anything from them, as NoA has to run every single thing they do by the upper Japan suits. One 'No' and NoA's hands are tied, and there goes that avenue.
3: Just everyone make a fuss about it everywhere: Not my preferred method, as again, NoJ and everyone there tend to live in their own world unless otherwise forced, and chances are they'll just ignore the shit out of this. NoA wouldn't be able to do anything, unless they were feeling particularly generous.
Sorry it's not as battle-ready as you or some folks might want- I'm just trying to approach this from the most practical perspective, taking into account prior habits by Nintendo staff, and otherwise making educated guesses via general information gained from various sources such as interviews from NoA staff and other sources I have access to. It's not a fantastic, even positive post, but that's the best I can think of the situation at the moment.
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Post by JP4464 on Feb 7, 2015 21:38:09 GMT
I think the best way to have our voices heard regarding the game would be to make videos on YouTube, posts on Twitter, etc. to bring the attention to other people.
If the message of having legitimate critiques be heard by the devs is to be made clear, it would be most efficient to have a multitude of people give their critiiques on social media and YouTube too, instead of just one person representing the community.
Strength in numbers, I suppose.
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Post by TheBlackbird on Feb 7, 2015 21:59:58 GMT
I honestly don't think the Japanese developers pay enough attention to general social media outside of certain avenues (yet) to really have that be a major effect. Like I said, I'm willing to wager they'll ignore it all unless we go as high as possible from word go.
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Post by JP4464 on Feb 7, 2015 22:33:32 GMT
I honestly don't think the Japanese developers pay enough attention to general social media outside of certain avenues (yet) to really have that be a major effect. Like I said, I'm willing to wager they'll ignore it all unless we go as high as possible from word go. Good point, I think I was aiming more towards NoA, as you mentioned. Its pretty clear though that certain big names from NoA do pay attention to social media and various nintendo communities (Bill trinen and the smash community come to mind)
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Post by TheBlackbird on Feb 7, 2015 22:36:30 GMT
I honestly don't think the Japanese developers pay enough attention to general social media outside of certain avenues (yet) to really have that be a major effect. Like I said, I'm willing to wager they'll ignore it all unless we go as high as possible from word go. Good point, I think I was aiming more towards NoA, as you mentioned. Its pretty clear though that certain big names from NoA do pay attention to social media and various nintendo communities (Bill trinen and the smash community come to mind) Oh, no, absolutely. Like I mentioned, if NoA had any actual power, our whole mission would be a LOT easier. Problem is, they don't. They can't set one foot out of place without Big Daddy Japan giving it the nod first (at least as far as I'm aware in regards to anything involving software). So I'm trying to think of methods to cut out the middleman and thus minimize potential 'stopping points' on the way to getting this information directly to the developers.
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Post by JP4464 on Feb 7, 2015 22:45:33 GMT
I just think that Reggie and the rest of NoA have to have SOME say in terms of software capabilities.
It's pretty clear that things like voice chat and DLC are all major points of Interest for the splatoon community, and if the devs haven't thought of implementing these things, someone must have given the idea.
Not saying that the devs should be catering to our every wish, I just think that it's crucial that out voices be heard, and the higher ups outside if Japan certainly hold weight in regards to how things are developed
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Xeiros
Inkling Admiral
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Post by Xeiros on Feb 8, 2015 0:13:13 GMT
This topic is adorable. What a lovely idea! How thoughtful! I'm glad you're delusional enough to even remotely consider it could ever happen. To call this entire "plan" far fetched would be a gross understatement. Keep dreaming. Want to get their attention and not utilize the collective mass of angry fans method? Put down your pitchforks guys! We've got to me civil about this. Hey listen to us! Hey! Listen! Good luck.
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Post by JP4464 on Feb 8, 2015 0:31:24 GMT
This topic is adorable. What a lovely idea! How thoughtful! I'm glad you're delusional enough to even remotely consider it could ever happen. To call this entire "plan" far fetched would be a gross understatement. Keep dreaming. Want to get their attention and not utilize the collective mass of angry fans method? Put down your pitchforks guys! We've got to me civil about this. Hey listen to us! Hey! Listen! Good luck. I really appreciate your enthusiastic, optimistic, and overall positive attitude towards this topic! It shows just how much you're willing to discuss things in a hypothetical manner. Thanks for bringing such insightful, moving, truly passionate ideas to the table, as I'm sure we'll all take them into consideration.
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Post by TheSplature on Feb 8, 2015 0:48:26 GMT
This topic is adorable. What a lovely idea! How thoughtful! I'm glad you're delusional enough to even remotely consider it could ever happen. To call this entire "plan" far fetched would be a gross understatement. Keep dreaming. Want to get their attention and not utilize the collective mass of angry fans method? Put down your pitchforks guys! We've got to me civil about this. Hey listen to us! Hey! Listen! Good luck. Your brand of pessimism and sarcasm is charming but blinding. This topic is quite literally about how there isn't a plan. That's why I posted this call to action and discussion.
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Xeiros
Inkling Admiral
Posts: 253
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Post by Xeiros on Feb 8, 2015 1:59:55 GMT
You cannot simply sum up the collective opinions of potentially millions of Splatoon players. Forget how you'd even get them to actually listen. It's disgusting to even consider one section of the communities opinion should ever hold any more weight than another. This is not a science fiction hive mind. Feedback comes from everyone corner of the community be it online or off. We made a legitimate channel therefore our feedback ought to be taken more seriously! No. Each of our voices have no more or less value than anyone else. That's precisely why the majority opinion is so powerful. It's not so much whether or not it's "correct", but that it's big and loud.
Should they care at all which one might assume they would, they'll be looking at the big picture. They'll be tallying all the feedback from everywhere to try and get a better grasp as to how the community as a whole feels. From Japan, to Europe and Australia, and so on to America to say that's a lot of feedback to take a board would be putting it lightly. So just leave your thoughts where you can so as to add your voice to the collective whole. That's about all the power the community has. Only in numbers with a focused goal will you actually get their attention. Which doesn't actually amount to much in the end.
This is all assuming the game lasts that long. Anyone who just assumes they'll still be playing a game months after it launches, a game many of us here haven't even played so much as a demo of, are getting way ahead of themselves. You want the game to be competitive,you want it to be chalk full of online features, but understand how your wishful thinking is not at all the reality. We don't even know what the final game is going to be like. There's still so much up in the air. At this point people are just hungry for solid confirmation on what is and isn't in the game. It's still just a foggy cluster with no clear image.
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Post by TheSplature on Feb 8, 2015 3:40:27 GMT
You cannot simply sum up the collective opinions of potentially millions of Splatoon players. Forget how you'd even get them to actually listen. It's disgusting to even consider one section of the communities opinion should ever hold any more weight than another. This is not a science fiction hive mind. Feedback comes from everyone corner of the community be it online or off. We made a legitimate channel therefore our feedback ought to be taken more seriously! No. Each of our voices have no more or less value than anyone else. That's precisely why the majority opinion is so powerful. It's not so much whether or not it's "correct", but that it's big and loud. Should they care at all which one might assume they would, they'll be looking at the big picture. They'll be tallying all the feedback from everywhere to try and get a better grasp as to how the community as a whole feels. From Japan, to Europe and Australia, and so on to America to say that's a lot of feedback to take a board would be putting it lightly. So just leave your thoughts where you can so as to add your voice to the collective whole. That's about all the power the community has. Only in numbers with a focused goal will you actually get their attention. Which doesn't actually amount to much in the end. This is all assuming the game lasts that long. Anyone who just assumes they'll still be playing a game months after it launches, a game many of us here haven't even played so much as a demo of, are getting way ahead of themselves. You want the game to be competitive,you want it to be chalk full of online features, but understand how your wishful thinking is not at all the reality. We don't even know what the final game is going to be like. There's still so much up in the air. At this point people are just hungry for solid confirmation on what is and isn't in the game. It's still just a foggy cluster with no clear image. You're pulling things out of thin air, so the long response I typed out that I just lost is kinda worthless. Nobody here is saying to collect millions of opinions or that one opinion is better than others or that one community or part of the community should have a larger voice or that their voice is correct. Assuming that the developers would want feedback solely in that way isn't necessarily true, either (otherwise there wouldn't be closed betas, closed alphas, developers working with specific individuals, community members joining development studios, individual players being asked for feedback on games) nor is it necessarily correct to assume that the developers wouldn't want any other kind of feedback except a globalized collective of voices (which isn't even that useful anyway). Having an open channel to the developers benefits everybody, not just us who happen to be part of the initial discourse of the game. To assume that it would be exclusive in that way is kind of ridiculous, too. Obviously we don't know a lot about the game. It's speculation. It's hope. It's fun discussion. I made the forums because I'm confident that I'll be playing the game a while after launch, just from what I played from the demo. Nobody has to agree or subscribe to that notion. I'm just being hopeful in the case that it is worth being hyped and ready for.
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Post by philmaster227 on Feb 18, 2015 3:34:45 GMT
In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with the game of Splatoon in itself. There are things that nintendo's choices have effected Splatoon though. I am referring to voice chat. Nintendo needs to just add a mode like Xbox LIVE party chat to the Wii u so anyone can talk to their friends, regardless of what people are doing on their Wii u.
Now, we obviously don't know much about the game's specific mechanics in regards to the multiplayer. But really everything I have seen has checked out with me both being fun for my normal enjoyment of the game, and also with the competitive side.
Of course, we still need a private match mode so we may have tourney play or "Clan Wars." But that is just an unknown, so I'm very happy with the way Splatoon is shaping up!
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