Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida has asked players to stop sending harsh, non-constructive criticism to developers as it can be demoralising.
Yoshida discussed the topic of dealing with feedback at a panel during PAX West last week. The MMORPG’s community is known for being particularly vocal, while Yoshida himself is in frequent dialogue through the Letter from the Producer streams and Fan Fest events.
Yoshida first noted players and developers are “in the same community” due to their love of games. “Whenever there are comments being directed towards us, I try to understand where they’re coming from, what they’re trying to tell us,” he said.
He continued: “Positive feedback is great and it’s a great motivator to aim to continue making those players happy.
“We see gamers as allies or friends…I want to continue that mutual understanding.”
Yoshida then specifically addressed negative feedback.
“I want to emphasise here, there is a person behind the games,” he said. “While I understand some harsh criticism might be necessary sometimes, there’s a person behind the games that you enjoy and if you have that harsh criticism, I think we would want to have it be constructive.
“Some players I know want to express their frustrations, but I think very harsh words will sometimes hurt developers very deeply. I think this applies for any creator in the video game industry. And some of the harsh words that were thrown at some of them, it could potentially demoralise them so much that they don’t want to make video games anymore. And in the end we – as in the gamers – would miss out on good work that these people could potentially have made just because people have thrown these very harsh words and non-constructive criticism at those people. It just becomes such a negative environment.
He concluded: “So whenever you are drafting your post before you hit enter you might want to reconsider.”
While Yoshida didn’t specify any particular experience here, he has previously discussed transphobic criticism sent to Wuk Lamat voice actor Sena Bryer following the release of the Dawntrail expansion.
Really, though, Yoshida’s words apply to all game developers. While players are often passionate about their favourite games, sending abuse is never a valid response.
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