Effects of Impatient Fans on a Project

[Sirencel]

So, uh. There are some thoughts in my head, caused by the last couple of posts done in the newest Blog Post topic. I'm talking about the issue that started from here, in case you don't know what I'm talking about.
The purpose of this topic is not to start a flame war about this user or any sort of this, so pretty pretty please restrain from this, everything's been said over there, actions by the devs have been taken I guess, case closed, OVER. phew.

It's just that these kind of posts make me really, really sad. It reminded me how one of my most beloved projects, led by very talented people, was left unfinished - right before the very end of all! - because there were fans (fans, not ordinary trolls) that went ahead and ... raged about the project leader's activities that were not part of the actual project. (It was a very popular and famous German audio play of a certain MMORPG, made by fans for fans.) Well, 4LS consists of a lot of people, while the project I mentioned was mainly lead (written, directed, casted, handled, yaddayadda,....) by a single person. I feared for a very long time that this person wouldn't want to handle with all this rage anymore, despite the fact that were millions of other fans who really loved and enjoyed the project.
And so he finally did not care anymore. He simply had enough. Poof, big cliffhanger forever.
Now, I don't think this would happen to KatawaShoujo at all, since there are so many people working at 4LS who just really want to get this thing finally done ... uhm ... right? Right.

So devs, as someone who went through such a very traumatic experience (.... naaah. it's too bad, really, but, uh, you know what I mean.) I'd like to know: What effects do cause impatient, rude or selfish comments of fans on you? I still think that KatawaShoujo is a project that's too good to be true, with it's very high quality, done by amateurs. When I see said comments, there's always the fear inside of me again that it could be dropped completely any time. ...Though maybe unreasoned, but, I don't know.

I guess we're all a bit impatient. ... No, okay, the whole fan community must be a huge bundle of impatience! But I think there's good and bad impatience. Well, it's obvious ... what I think of as bad. On the other side, does it motivate you that there are so many people out there who wait for the release of the game? I'm a little bit of an artist myself, and people load a lot of requests on me sometimes ... Since I want to be nice I always accept them, however with the condition that they might wait a long, long time until I work on them. I'm actually just lazy I tried to imagine how I would feel in your place: discouraged. very, very discouraged. Not so much as to drop the whole thing, but very disappointed as well.

I just wanted to tell you that you're not the only one who's offended by such comments about the game process. And that most people do appreciate the little extras you do. You probably know that, but man. Feel's bad reading something like this. And, you probably do this as well already but still, take your goddamn time to finish dat game and do as much refreshing things as you want to. I for myself wouldn't care if I had to wait for 3, 6 or 24 more months for release than originally scheduled. well... maybe a bit. But time flies.

Well, uhm, I don't know if this is worth a topic ... but maybe this brightens up the mood. People tend to bash when something's not alright with them and then stay silent when a job was done well. Though I must say, overall, the KS community is very nice from what I know!
Uhm, and sorry for any typos or strange expressions of mine. I'm German. And I'm a girl, so please be nice to me. ;; Thanks for listening. No tl;dr for you, I'm sorry.

[Darlat]

I can get the german part... but being a girl doesn't really have anything to do with language in any way.

[Shujoxa]

Of course, there are some of us (myself included) that came in extremely late, have "waited" all of a month, and have no right to be impatient whatsoever, and thus I am not. Anticipatory and a little anxious, maybe, but not impatient.

[G3n0c1de]

I wouldn't worry too much about the devs, they seem like hardened individuals. But the biggest thing is that they still care about the project. What we say or do can't change that. They've said that in the beginning, they were doing KS for themselves, and didn't even expect to get this many fans. And if that were the case throughout the game's whole development, they'd still finish and release it. Even with less than twenty fans to play it. So yeah, it should work out fine. This was just a case of some spoiled guy getting his panties in a bunch.

[Esa94]

This was just a case of some spoiled guy getting his panties in a bunch.

I know for sure that I'd go FUCK YOU on the community if I was pretty much the sole developer on a project I'm doing in my free time and people were just whining at me for not doing it fast enough.

The problem here was probably that it was being made for the community, who were then just bitching about it instead of contributing or appreciating the work.

Edit: And about the matter of waiting, I didn't even realize I've been here for more than a year already.

[Suriko]

We don't really care. We didn't even expect to get this many people's attention in the first place.

Haters gonna hate.

[UnknownFan]

Of course, there are some of us (myself included) that came in extremely late, have "waited" all of a month, and have no right to be impatient whatsoever, and thus I am not. Anticipatory and a little anxious, maybe, but not impatient.

I've been here since the demo came out and I still don't feel I have the right to be impatient. This is all free, after all, and the quality seen thus far has proven to be more than worth the wait.

We don't really care. We didn't even expect to get this many people's attention in the first place.

I see what you're saying, but it's really just about common fucking courtesy, man. It's always sad to see people like that.

Still, where would the world be without them?

[Censuur]

Look, there will always be people that think its a laugh to screw with other people, you can yell back at them, joke about it, ignore them or do whatever else works for you, but the sooner you learn to deal with cretins like that "bulldozer" fellow the better you will be off, because there is always people like him.

Personally, I'd say the best way to deal with a problem is changing what the problem affects, in this case, you, use his example to better yourself, and steel yourself from people like him in the future, this kind of guy has seen it all and heard it all and he likes nothing more than to provoke an as outrageous response as he can get so the best way to deal with him is to just wave him off as the insignificant pest that he is, because he certainly wont go away if you give him what he wants (attention, outrageous reactions)

You can take away a man's weapon, and get stabbed by the next guy coming along, or you can put on some armor and laugh it off, solve the problem by changing yourself, as you will never change the whole world.

Good day, and I hope this helped

[bradpara]

Look, there will always be people that think its a laugh to screw with other people, you can yell back at them, joke about it, ignore them or do whatever else works for you, but the sooner you learn to deal with cretins like that "bulldozer" fellow the better you will be off, because there is always people like him.

Personally, I'd say the best way to deal with a problem is changing what the problem affects, in this case, you, use his example to better yourself, and steel yourself from people like him in the future, this kind of guy has seen it all and heard it all and he likes nothing more than to provoke an as outrageous response as he can get so the best way to deal with him is to just wave him off as the insignificant pest that he is, because he certainly wont go away if you give him what he wants (attention, outrageous reactions)

You can take away a man's weapon, and get stabbed by the next guy coming along, or you can put on some armor and laugh it off, solve the problem by changing yourself, as you will never change the whole world.

Good day, and I hope this helped

Yeah I have to agree here, not that that's going to stop the guy from crying "censorship", "silencing criticism" or "cybernazis to whatever corner of the internet is willing to hear him whine. Good thing that is his problem not ours.

[atat]

The simple fact this is life and fans have as much right to whine all they want. It's up to the dev's to react how they want. If they are dedicated, they will simply ignore it and keep on trucking. If they are tired but not resigned they might lash out (a bad sign). All in all, it's simple, you have to hope the dev's have a stoic mindset when it comes to those who whine. We all have a right though, to whine.

Personally would I like it better if it would be finished sooner? Sure, am I going to whine about it every chance I get? No, and not because of any other reason then I really don't feel like it will make any difference. I say let people say their piece, and ignore it if it worries you because in the end it's going to happen and it should be allowed. Free speech is a bitch, but it's free speech for all. (though this is not the USA, it is the USKS, but on the internets free speech does kinda rule).

[DRKO]

In almost any group, you will have the trolls, the ones causing as many problems as they possibly can, just because they feel like it. It is sad to think, that in this day and age, you would still have people such as that, but what can you do?

In most cases, nothing you can or will say will shut them up. The only way to win the game is not to play, i.e., "Don't feed the trolls." Most of them will get bored and find more prey.

As for the rest of us (the majority), we appreciate all of the time, effort, and hard work the development team has put into this project.

[Suriko]

The simple fact this is life and fans have as much right to whine all they want. It's up to the dev's to react how they want. If they are dedicated, they will simply ignore it and keep on trucking. If they are tired but not resigned they might lash out (a bad sign). All in all, it's simple, you have to hope the dev's have a stoic mindset when it comes to those who whine. We all have a right though, to whine.

Personally would I like it better if it would be finished sooner? Sure, am I going to whine about it every chance I get? No, and not because of any other reason then I really don't feel like it will make any difference. I say let people say their piece, and ignore it if it worries you because in the end it's going to happen and it should be allowed. Free speech is a bitch, but it's free speech for all. (though this is not the USA, it is the USKS, but on the internets free speech does kinda rule).

I agree and I don't agree. I think "whining" is pretty harmless and isn't a big thing, and a stoic approach to it is the best approach, but something that should be made clear is that there isn't any right to whine, and there is no rule of free speech here. These forums are a dictatorship (albeit a more lenient one than IRC). There is no bill of rights, and no free speech. If we wanted to systematically cull every complaint (we don't, to be clear), there wouldn't be anything to stop us.

I was split over locking this thread, but I think I will given that I can't see much way for it to go on much from here; community self-assessment is something I'm deeply wary of. That shouldn't be taken as a slight against any in this thread though, as everyone's approached this in a reasonable manner. I'd just like the forums to be focused on KS, not the forums themselves.