In this case I fear they may have received the useful feedback of customer sentiment regarding this proposed/hypothetical feature at the cost of additional funding. I appreciate Brian Fargo sharing these sorts of preliminary thoughts on possible features and options - this sort of transparency is promising. I do wish he contained his exuberance about these particular thoughts (on multiplayer and social networks). Instead of posting them as somewhat hastily considered "updates" it would have been far better if he had started a discussion in his forums about them. That way he wouldn't have had to learn the importance of delineating something meant to be considered a tentative proposal which invites discussion and informative announcements which are to be read as settled/confirmed elements in such a messy way.
I think it is important to realize that this is what Brian Fargo is doing - he's sharing the musings and rough ideas that get tossed around during this stage of the design process. You don't get to see that thought process until well after most games come out - if ever.
The reason this level of insight into the process is traditionally seen as more useful in bonus features post release than for pre-release communications is because a lot of the ideas that come out in a stage that encourages sharing concepts amongst the developers without fear of ridicule are in-fact quite often ridiculous. In that environment, the fact that someone came up with a bad idea that went on to be rejected doesn't hurt your funding prospects. That's why some of the more condescending and vehement reactions - including those hoping it doesn't get above certain dollar marks - highlight the pitfalls with Brian Fargo's choice to share this brain-storming as news updates on the Kickstarter page rather than wait to discuss it in his forums.
Brian Fargo and InXile need to be able to comfortably share their ideas - even in the messy earliest phases of HLD - if this is to be a collaboration with the community to the degree he seems to want it to be. The problem is that he's putting what ammounts to the roughest of the rough drafts for possible additional features/brainstorming in news updates on his project site. That makes them read as anouncements of intent and plans rather than the spitballing/back-and-forth that is actually what goes on in this pre-HLD phase of a project.
That is why it would have probably been wiser to follow DoubleFine example. Until funding has concluded and they know the limits of the scope of their project, they should only really talk about the broader qualitative goals of the project in their kickstarter update posts. For specifics and actual collaborative communications as opposed to announcements, they should use their forums since blog posts and news updates do not inherently read to most people as an invitation to a discussion and feel more like one-way statements.
I think it is important to realize that this is what Brian Fargo is doing - he's sharing the musings and rough ideas that get tossed around during this stage of the design process. You don't get to see that thought process until well after most games come out - if ever.
The reason this level of insight into the process is traditionally seen as more useful in bonus features post release than for pre-release communications is because a lot of the ideas that come out in a stage that encourages sharing concepts amongst the developers without fear of ridicule are in-fact quite often ridiculous. In that environment, the fact that someone came up with a bad idea that went on to be rejected doesn't hurt your funding prospects. That's why some of the more condescending and vehement reactions - including those hoping it doesn't get above certain dollar marks - highlight the pitfalls with Brian Fargo's choice to share this brain-storming as news updates on the Kickstarter page rather than wait to discuss it in his forums.
Brian Fargo and InXile need to be able to comfortably share their ideas - even in the messy earliest phases of HLD - if this is to be a collaboration with the community to the degree he seems to want it to be. The problem is that he's putting what ammounts to the roughest of the rough drafts for possible additional features/brainstorming in news updates on his project site. That makes them read as anouncements of intent and plans rather than the spitballing/back-and-forth that is actually what goes on in this pre-HLD phase of a project.
That is why it would have probably been wiser to follow DoubleFine example. Until funding has concluded and they know the limits of the scope of their project, they should only really talk about the broader qualitative goals of the project in their kickstarter update posts. For specifics and actual collaborative communications as opposed to announcements, they should use their forums since blog posts and news updates do not inherently read to most people as an invitation to a discussion and feel more like one-way statements.
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