Article: Developer-Player Miscommunication

Developer-Player Miscommunication

By Utsanomiko

We may greatly appreciate this game and the efforts made by the Star Wars: Galaxies development team (or not), but let's face it: we are, at best, suffering from a communication deficiency. But rather than add yet another complaint, argument, or full list of points to the mix along with the ones written by everyone and their chinchilla, I felt more interested in getting a few observations fleshed out by looking at it with a more humorous perspective. If there was a 'fun' in 'analogy', I'd be the guy who put it in there.

Let's look at how these communication standards work on something different yet also communication-intensive. Let's look at how it plays out with Relationships (bum-bum buuum).

For reference, just so nobody gets confused by the format, in the following dialogue exchanges the DEVs are the developers, their SPOUSEs are not.

SPOUSE: "It's been three months since we've had hot water in our place. Shouldn't you at least call a repairman?"
DEV: "I'm looking into it."

SPOUSE: "I can't figure out where half our bill payments are going..."
DEV: "They are working as intended. I can't say anything more beyond that."

SPOUSE: "Not getting anything for my birthday or anniversaries is very disappointing. You could at least buy me flowers or a card."
DEV: "The response I'm getting is that you'd rather wait for the possibility of original gifts."

SPOUSE: "Haven't you bought any briefs in the last six years? These have practically fallen apart, wouldn't it be better to get new pairs?"
DEV: "I believe it's an art issue."

SPOUSE: "Be honest with me: this light switch does nothing, despite how many times you've insisted it does. It did nothing when we moved in, but you insisted it had functionality. I tested all the lights, outlets, and appliances to see if it did, but it didn't. You insisted its always done its job, so I went ahead and tested all the circuits and breakers, and it clearly isn't even connected. At this point I don't even care that it doesn't do anything, I don't need it to do anything, and I just want you to remove it so nobody wastes time with it."
DEV: "This issue has been reported many times. The purpose of light switch has been very important to me, but working on content for it has proven to be a long and difficult process. I'll be adding functionality to the light switch in a future unscheduled addition. Stay tuned. :-)"

SPOUSE: "Um... Where's our car? Wait a minute, did someone steal the car?! ...Or did you just get rid of it again without asking me?"
DEV: " I felt our experience would be more immersive and social if we were to rely on public transportation instead of a personally-owned vehicle. It also promotes interdependence."

SPOUSE: "Five hundred bucks on DVDs and a car stereo? We've spent nearly a year trying to get by paycheck-to-paycheck with $15 a month for food budget, and you've been spending Five hundred bucks on DVDs and a car stereo?"
DEV: "This was a complicated decision. My coworkers and I I felt it was necessary to make interesting expenditures, without giving out 'extra checkers'."

SPOUSE: "Last month we got together and I talked about adding a few decorations to this place and liven and freshen it up a bit, make it feel less like a men's locker room and such. I specifically wrote down potpourri and new drapes on the list as quick simple fixes to make this place nicer and feel like I have a place in it. This morning I find the house littered with two dozen Playboy magazines. What's the deal?"
DEV: "Potpourri and drapes turned out to be too difficult to implement in our timeframe, since all my attention concerning art is focused on a future house addition. I instead focused the current addition on the central theme, which you had expressed that the house was 'too masculine' in decoration, and didn't 'feel like a woman even lives here'. The magazines add feminine presence to the house. Enjoy. :-D"

SPOUSE: "You're not meeting my needs. Particularly my *bedroom* needs. Don't pretend you haven't noticed, because I've been clearly getting the short end of the deal here, and you know what I mean."
DEV: "By the way, have you seen me wear that tight tank-top that shows off my abs? *Very* cool. :-)"

SPOUSE: "You never give me a straight answer, you never run any decisions by me, you never remember anything I tell you, and every time I try to get our problems worked out, you stop talking to me for days or weeks! I simply can't keep a relationship like this together!"
DEV: "I'm not going to listen to feedback if it isn't positive."

See? Miscommunication doesn't work there, either. I can only hope the Devs currently don't run their relationship communication like the live development communication, else I can only imagine ThunderHeart or Q-3PO as divorcees, sitting alone in an apartment wearing only "one-laundry-load-gray" T-shirts and boxers, eating cold Spaghetti-Os out of the can. But hopefully they don't run their lives like that, and this can be somewhat insightful.