The moderators of their platforms and diehard fans of the game series unite to create an air of toxic positivity surrounding the game, where any “negative” discourse surrounding it is immediately silenced or dogpiled by fans. (Much of this negative discourse ends up being genuine criticisms of the game, FYI, thought that was worth noting.
It seems that on the internet there are only two general states that can exist namely: Toxic negativity and Toxic positivity. Nobody seems interested in a forum that is a balanced and respectfully negative and positive. Sure, we SAY that's what we want but think about threads that are blandly critical or praising. Those aren't the threads that go on for dozens of pages. So robust debate and arguing seem to be what people want from the internet.
That being said let's categorize the various 7 Days to Die message boards and chats and which type of toxicity they are dominated by:
Toxic Negativity: Steam, Reddit, X, Discord, Facebook, Youtube
Toxic Positivity: Official Forum
You have so many places where you can feel completely supported and comfortable posting criticism that even includes insulting the devs and calling anyone else who disagrees mindless fanbois. This is the only place where you feel nervous enough posting your criticism that you have to preemptively flinch about possible bans or warnings even though you didn't break any rules in your post. You can't abide even one outlet of toxic positivity? Do they ALL have to be toxic negativity sites?
And look at the contrary opinions in this thread. They are milk-toast compared to the horrid things that people from toxic negativity controlled forums post.
I don't know that I completely agree with you on your assessment of this site, but even if I did and this forum truly is toxically positive---thank god there's one place in existence that offers an alternative atmosphere. And don't worry, members of the dev team do visit Steam, Reddit, Discord, X, Facebook, and angry streamer chats so they don't just sit around here and tell themselves "This is fine".
We want a game we want to play, we respect your vision for the game, but game development has ALWAYS been about compromise. Games that have a rigid concept of their identity and refuse to compromise beyond that do not succeed nearly as much, so why do you all mistakenly believe that yours will? Especially when you’ve actually already diverted from your original identity, simplifying game features that the original fans flocked to the game for and complexifying others that nobody asked for. (I.E. taking away smell mechanics, dumbing down noise mechanics, removing the ability to find specific gun parts, and continually improving the zombie AI to unnecessary and unrealistic degrees that make the game more tedious than fun)
In general, I still play the game exactly the same way I've always played. The mechanics have changed for how progression happens and how crafting happens and how farming happens and how exploration happens but I am still progressing, crafting, farming, mining, and exploring. So what if the trader gives a job to clear a POI. Before traders existed I was clearing POIs. I understand that some changes were bad for your personal taste but the game wasn't a mix and match gun parts to slowly get your gun improved to the best it can be game. That was simply one method of improving your gun. Improving guns is still a part of the game but just with a different mechanic. The forest of the game is still the same forest. You are pointing at individual trees and saying that tree is new, that tree is different, that tree got cut down. It doesn't change the game's overall identity-- at least not to me.
I'm always open to them improving the specific mechanics and making them more fun, immersive, and rewarding but I'm also cognizant of the fact that what I find more fun, immersive, and rewarding someone else will find more tedious, artificial, and punishing. There is no consensus on these things in the community.
The player base is now understandably peeved about 2.0, and it’s part of the reason I am making this right now. But I can always expect TFP to deflect and blame other people, rather than addressing what the community actually wants.
What does the community actually want? TFP finds this out often observing and reading feedback for months before making changes. They are talking about adjusting the storm and biome hazard mechanics but they aren't going to immediately make those changes. The reason is they want to have time to discover what everyone is saying and not just the initial angry reactionary responses. They also want to give people who aren't automatically embittered and who are willing to try it to get used to the mechanics and see how they feel.
When the update first dropped most critics were absolutely convinced that the only response to a storm was to immediately hide and wait. But now weeks later we are reading more and more posts by those who haven't immediately hidden and didn't just wait out the storm and we are seeing more positivity about the storms. This doesn't mean they won't enact adjustments but they want to see all the feedback and give the players the time needed to explore the new mechanics.
I and many others have a lot of genuine criticisms about the way this game is going, and if they continue to go the way they are, they will alienate their prior fanbase and end up with a mixed bag of a game that doesn’t complete half of its roadmap. (Keep in mind that they were already multiple months late with 2.0 which in turn is going to affect all the other updates, so now the roadmap is out of date and up in the air)
So far if you read the bullet points for each milestone on the roadmap they have accomplished 100%. They are behind schedule. That's obvious and everyone knows it. We can put that aside. The roadmap dates are outdated. But the content bullet points are not and when the next major update comes out we will have everything promised for that milestone. Guaranteed, some will like the implementation and others won't. That can't be helped.
Just thought I should throw in at least something positive. I feel like the games perk system has done nothing but improve for the most part, keep doing what you’re doing there.
That's great that you feel positive about how the perk system is going. I've read plenty of hate and toxic negativity about the current design pathway of the perks. So do you feel that TFP is failing to listen to the community about the perk system since there are a lot of people posting criticism about it? How would YOU feel if they listened to those people and changed the system in a way that you then hated?
Can't you see how ridiculous it is to claim that TFP is listening/ignoring the player base? You can't just assess game mechanics as poor bad and lazy if YOU happen to not like them-- especially if there exist other players that do like them. You have to assess them on how well they fulfill the design goals of the developer. What do the developers want to acheive by making crafting progression governed by magazines? Does that mechanic do a good job of fulfilling the design goal for which they were created? Those are the questions--not does Roland like it or not or7DaystoBreaktheGame like it or not. Those are reasons for us to decide whether to play or not period.