There’s a LOT of negativity in the online world, and it’s taking it’s toll on people.

I had a 1 on 1 with a direct report, and they mentioned how exhausting it was seeing that despite all of our metrics (players, hours, revenue, sentiment) being very good, all they see online is lots of negativity. And I get it. When you’re a game dev who wants to do right by your players, reading all that can really lower that motivation.

It feels like gone are the days of hopping on to a game’s forums or the GameFAQ for the game and finding people curious and explorative, and instead we’ve replaced it with online circles that act as venting areas for personal frustrations. Whether it be struggles with PvP ranking, or affording game purchases, or general video game burnout…going online to tell everyone about it seems to be the current thing to do.

This isn’t just a video game thing either. This is just general human discourse with topics online right now. And it’s really a shame, because it’s not the real picture of how the world is. When you REALLY dig into it, the online discourse of any topic right now represents a fraction of a fraction of the actual people involved or passionate about something.

On counter example here was the Vegas Open for TFT. Getting to meet and talk to all those players who LOVED the game and the scene. It was super invigorating to get to see all that positivity, and I wish there were ways to bring more of that to the limelight in everything.

For now, I’ve had to advise people internally to ignore the negative circles and focus on the big picture. Look at the learnings from our insights briefings, talk to players in smaller setting that are really interested in giving legit feedback, and just focus on continuing to do right by our players. If they do that, they can hopefully stay motivated to continue to do great things and over come the challenges of developing the world’s biggest strategy game.

That’s it for today. The new patch is out, and I have to say the early data has made me glad I made the choice I did. I think if he had done a quick A patch, then Kent’s favorite deer would be running away with it. Now we can make some adjustments and get it right. I’ll post as soon as we’ve locked anything in. Until then, stay positive, and take it easy 🙂