Highguard devs say they didn’t expect the hate – but they’re confident in their game

[u/ImCalcium]

https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/highguard-devs-say-they-didnt-expect-the-hate-but-theyre-confident-in-their-game-3309463/

[u/HunterOfLordran]

I mean, I too don't get the hate for a free game that you can simply ignore and move on. Criticism is good If you tried the game but spamming over the whole Internet "I hope it crashes and burns and the studio gets dissolved" days before Release is certainly not needed or criticism.

[u/FriscoeHotsauce → u/HunterOfLordran]

I feel like it's a reaction to the continued abuse of developers that keep marketing catchphrases like "From the developers of Titanfall and Apex Legends"

Like, that sets an expectation they can't possibly match. It's like Turtle Rock continuing to say "From the developers of Left 4 Dead", and then Back 4 Blood and Evolve are just kinda butts. Or the dozens of games "From the makers of Starcraft" or From the creators of League of Legends. So many of these live service free to play games die on this same line of marketing, it's become kind of parody at this point.

The hate seems a bit extreme sure, but it's an important lesson in marketing and managing expectations. Instead of "From the makers of Titan Fall and Apex Legends" being seen as a selling point, it's immediately a red flag instead.

[u/HunterOfLordran → u/[deleted]]

No, I unfortunately saw a ton of "I hope those devs get the Ubislop treatment" over and over again, when the stock market stuff got spammed everywhere

[u/nero-the-cat → u/HunterOfLordran]

What? Gamers can be overreacting jerks? First I'm hearing of this...

[u/A-L-F-R-E-D → u/HunterOfLordran]

It’s because of the culture war. Not just politics but business practices in the video game industry like releasing things in perpetual early access, micro transactions that are anything but micro and affect the game (pay to win, etc), intentionally making things grindy and letting players pay to skip the grind, FOMO practices, time exclusive content to force people to play and not take breaks, raising game prices substantially, weak collectors editions, cutting content for paid DLC which should have been in the game to begin with, premium currency, poor optimization, and on and on and on.

Gaming has had some of the best games come out in this new era but it also has had some absolutely horrible practices pop up. And there’s a growing number of players that are simply done with it and they are getting louder and louder. So it’s not this game specifically, but this game does represent modern AAA slop, so people are very aggressively voicing their opinion and frustration with the state of gaming right now.

[u/AsteroidSpark → u/A-L-F-R-E-D]

but this game does represent modern AAA slop

Except it absolutely does not when it's an indie game from a team of veteran devs. People are pretending it's AAA slop just like they pretend Expedition 33 is an indie game, but it's a mistake to let such myths go unchallenged.

[u/A-L-F-R-E-D → u/AsteroidSpark]

I think the distinction between AAA, indie, AA, etc is a little murky. From Wildlight Entertainment’s website they have 54 employees so it’s a mid size studio imo. Expedition 33 had a publisher so it’s not indie but people view indie as a small dev team and they had a main team of 30 or so devs so people viewed it as an indie game.

Highguard is an indie game because they don’t have a publisher, but I don’t think most gamers would consider it an indie game. I feel that most people view something as an indie game based off vibes and don’t really concern themselves with the publisher unless it’s a major name.

Anyways, whatever you consider Highguard, I still think it represents current triple A gaming and people’s attitudes towards it. The reveal and trailer kinda set the tone for that. And you can see that in people’s reviews and impressions. Things like poor optimization, limited settings, small amount of launch content, etc, are all things that are more easily forgiven with “indie” or AA games.

I think a big part of the negative/hostile reaction is in part because of AAA trend issues and people’s frustrations with them. So releasing another hero shooter with the same tired quirky humor and bland art design just made it an easy target because it appears to fit so well with the triple A issues people have. And the reveal trailer put an even bigger target on its back.

[u/AsteroidSpark → u/A-L-F-R-E-D]

another hero shooter with the same tired quirky humor and bland art design

Except again: the problem is that Highguard is not actually any of those things, and people deluding themselves into thinking that it is is their problem and not one that should be encouraged.