开发者谈自由表达时代如何应对粉丝的社交情绪

原作者：Alex Nichiporchik 译者：Willow Wu

死熊孩子，离我们家的草坪远点！

我们之前去tinyBuild总部开会（位于西雅图北部郊区的一座房子），回来后我们看见门廊上有一个包裹，里面都是《你好，邻居》（Hello Neighbor）的面具。我们想：哦真是好极了，刚好可以带去PAX游戏展。我们当时不知道这个包裹其实已经放了好几小时了，也绝对不会料到由此引发的一系列事件。

那时《你好，邻居》的YouTube视频播放数已经超过了10亿次，虽然尚未发行正式版本，但Alpha版的游戏已经卖疯了，也获得了很多主流平台的关注。当我们正在为展会做准备的时候，门铃响了。领居家的孩子们问我们是不是《你好，邻居》开发者，还问说能不能送他们几个面具，我们自然是满足了他们的要求。然后我们继续打包，把需要的产品都寄往展会举办地。

第二天，有更多的孩子来了，但是面具已经送完了。

那个周末，我们的房子遭受了鸡蛋的猛烈攻击。

然后接下去的那个周末我们的汽车也遭殃了。当时天气非常冷，房子的外墙又脏又恶心，汽车也被弄坏了。

我们去商场买了监控，装在房子的周围，就像是游戏里那样，看看这些熊孩子是怎么搞破坏的。这简直就是《你好，邻居》的现实版。在这种情况下我才是那位邻居，阻止孩子们接近我们的东西。

应对粉丝们的不同情绪

有时候，开发者和粉丝之间的关系会变得相当棘手，本篇文章将会就此话题展开讨论。我们这个行业中的所有人都对有游戏有相当大的热情——也包括粉丝们。但是在最近几年，他们对于游戏的热情又上了一个层次——他们想知道游戏幕后的那些事：团队是怎么运作的，项目要怎么做，还有商业方面的各种事项。

我经营tinyBuild已经五年了，我是企业的CEO，同时也是旗下大多数游戏的制作人。多年来，人们对我们的争议不断，这也帮助我们长出了厚脸皮。

Love and hate from fans（from gamasutra.com）

看热闹不嫌事大

现代人的注意力持续时间变得越来越短了。在Twitter和Facebook之间来回查看就是一种常态。无论什么时候哪里有新的话题出现，短时间内就会引来很多人围观讨论。如果你在这场闹剧中是不太有利的那一方，那可能就会有世界末日降临的感觉。在陷入绝望与焦虑之前，我们先来分析动机。

对于那些不太知名的媒体以及影响人物来说，这么做就是为了骗取点击量。想想看你有多少次被YouTube视频封面骗了？或者是Twitter上的那些博人眼球的标题？你看完文章/视频之后才发现这些内容跟标题并没有什么关系，特别气恼对吧？很多人只看个标题就转发了，事情扩散的特别快，而真正清楚事情来龙去脉的人没多少。我认为这跟Simon Sinek所说的工作场所中的千禧年一代有很大的关系——Simon Sinek认为千禧年一代更缺乏自我价值认同感和耐心，再加上社会科技的进步，大部分人会非常依赖社交媒体。

但万幸的是这些丑闻一般过几个小时、几天就平息下去了（如果你是当事人的话可能会感觉度日如年）。事情很容易就会被淡忘，人们总是会有新的话题。

紧急情况的应对方法

卷入丑闻或者是被恶毒言论围攻很容易会让人变得消沉。就比如说，你的游戏发行了，但是有一些非常明显的漏洞，这时候你就可能会遭受攻击。我们来过一下这些事项：

·不要强迫性地把恶毒言论逐句看完。瞥一眼，大概知道他们说这些话的原因就好了。

·不要去回复那些非常偏激的评论。不然这些人会抓住你的评论断章取义，继续搞事情，把你的解释黑成荒唐的借口。

·把问题进行分类。用excel表格对游戏中的问题和漏洞进行分类，看看哪些东西是你可以立即解决的。

·如果这个问题你不能用技术来解决（不是bug也不是漏洞），这或许就跟其他人说的话有关系了。我之前也遇到过，某个人在reddit上发了某个帖子，然后事情就一发不可收拾了。

让我们来讨论下最后这种情况。在这时，回复评论并不是个好主意。你需要重新把控舆论方向。这就是为什么那些PR机构或者是部门一直都是发布声明，而不是回复。最好是在自己的博客发文章或者是在论坛上重新发帖子。这么做的主要目的就是不让标题党继续嚣张下去。还记得我怎么说这些骗点击的文章吗？就算你一条条去回复、解释，那也改变不了舆论的方向，因为继续扩散后首先占据人们视线的还是那个误导性的标题，而不是混在无数跟帖中的你的回复。但如果你重新发声明，人们分享的就是你的标题、你的信息。这样你就有了一个解释的机会，同时也能更清楚地分析当前的局势状况。

《你好，邻居》案例分析

《你好，邻居》所引发的一系列令人难以置信的事件就是本文的最佳素材。游戏的“开放式”开发工作已经持续一年多了，玩家可以预订游戏或者是先购买Alpha版本。《你好，邻居》在YouTube上非常受欢迎，宣传视频也非常多。对于我们的玩家来说，开发过程也是游戏体验的一部分。他们就像是侦探那样拿着放大镜仔细观察视频片段，拼命挖掘新的线索。很多YouTube播主也在解说这个游戏，视频数量近千个。粉丝进行各种同人创作，他们画画、写歌、cosplay。但是玩家中也有一群不好对付的人，这群人更加注重游戏评论和游戏的核心体验，其实我也是这种玩家。看到这种事情在我所参与的社区中发生其实是一件挺难过的事情。

作为一个注重社区体验的游戏，我知道媒体们对《你好，邻居》评价不会太高。我们预料得到这个游戏只会得4或5分/10分。从表面上看，这游戏或许还和宣传效果有差。这是因为《你好，邻居》在这些人眼中就是一个非常简单的小偷主题游戏，而那些没有参与开发过程的人就会把宣传视频当作是游戏体验的评判标准。

Arstechnica把《你好，邻居》称作2017年最差的游戏之一，这就验证了我们的观点。

针对这个现象，我们是有所准备的。但是我们没想到的是游戏发行时会出现的一些技术问题，一些忠实玩家也生气了。想想看这些情况：

·我们很清楚这群媒体人不会喜欢这款游戏，无论我们做什么都不会改变他们的态度

·我们有一群忠诚、直言不讳的游戏粉丝，其中有些人可能会因为技术问题而对游戏体验失望

·还有一群用户会因为媒体的评价而同样不喜欢游戏，游戏体验不如到宣传效果会让他们的恨意增加

这就导致了游戏发行日变成灾难日。社区管理员可能会建议你去YouTube以及reddit上回复一些评论。但是我们可没有忘记《星球大战：前线》的前车之鉴——EA回复了玩家评论，结果却是火上浇油。

行动胜于语言

我们开始了问题分类工作。我们必须得让那些想要帮忙的玩家分享bug报告。于是，我们就发了一篇帖子，告诉玩家们怎么分享游戏日志。后来我们收集到了各种反馈，继续加以分类，搞清楚哪些问题是可以立即解决的。这两天，关于游戏的恶毒言论一刻都没有停止过，就算有积极评价也全部被掩盖了。

两天过后，我们上传了补丁，大部分问题都得以解决，恶毒言论戛然而止。

我知道，默默承受这些攻击会让人既生气又挫败。尤其是还有一些玩家一直轰炸你的收件箱，要求解释。对我们来说，最佳选择就是以行动结果昭示天下。与其用一种充满歉意的低姿态语气来作出解释，我们选择了最“简单粗暴”的办法——上传游戏更新包。

到现在，《你好，邻居》销量已经超过了60万份，时间不过三个月。

当你别无选择只能回应

有些时候你还是会遇到没办法立刻着手解决问题的情况，而且必须作出回应。我不想再谈论G2A那件事，这样只会让密钥销售商更加尴尬。（tinyBuild CEO曾公开指责G2A，称其利用低于市场价的价格销售来源不明的非法游戏密钥，使他们损失了大约45万美元。）有一次，我们的合作伙伴Team Shifty就Mr. Shifty的严重掉帧问题在推特上给出了应付式的回应，还嘲讽了任天堂Switch平台。这一推文迅速引发了热议，很多人也将矛头指向了我们。在这种情况下，真诚的态度就显得特别重要。诚实、简洁、奔重点，其它的多余的都不需要。

遇到不适合的时机也真的能让你崩溃。事情发生时我正在度假，这是一年之中仅有的假期，我喝了很多鸡尾酒。推特炸开时我的第一反应是要跟所有相关人员打电话解释，缓和事态，或者是对着合作公司痛骂一顿。但是这些都不是解决办法。我的计划很简单：

·深吸一口气

·评估当前的精神状态——脑袋清醒吗？能思考问题吗？（当然不行，鸡尾酒喝太多了）

·能等吗？（当然不行，事情正在加速恶化）

·喝点咖啡

·洗个冷水澡

·把一切仔细考虑清楚

·开始行动（对我来说就是写回复）

我真心不希望任何人在这种时候遇上这种紧急状况。这是最后一招，而且可能会产生严重的反效果。

接近粉丝

可能这篇文章会让你觉得有点可怕，但我还是觉得当下的游戏行业是处于健康发展状态的。我们可以直接跟粉丝交流，对于小型游戏公司来说这就意味着多了很多机遇。我们近期举办了HelloSwitch，在活动上我们公布了6个将会移植到Switch平台上的游戏，整个活动充满着神秘的氛围。直播期间虽然出了点音效问题，但还是有超过2000名观众通过各种渠道观看了这次活动。
我承认跟玩家面对面是一件非常吓人的事。这就是为什么我建议你先练就一副厚脸皮。要学会控制你的情绪，作为一个独立开发者，你要明白社区的核心作用，保持冷静。

如果玩家对游戏的制作过程非常感兴趣，那么开发视频也可以成为你的营销工具。学会过过滤掉那些仇恨性发言，不要理会引战的人，把玩家的评论看作是反馈和批评。

永不气馁。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Get off my lawn, you damn kids!

We come back from a meeting to the tinyBuild HQ which at the time was a suburban house north of Seattle. A package of Hello Neighbor masks is sitting there on the porch. Hooray we think to ourselves, it made it just in time for PAX. Little did we know the package has been sitting there for a few hours, and that it’d trigger a series of events we couldn’t foresee.

At the time Hello Neighbor crossed 1 billion views on Youtube, has been selling like crazy during it’s Alpha Access stage, and gained a fair amount of traction in the mainstream. As we’re packing up for PAX, a doorbell rings. Neighborhood kids are asking if we’re the devs of Hello Neighbor, and if they could get a few masks. Naturally, we’re humbled and oblige. Then pack up and ship our merch to PAX.

The next day, more kids ring the doorbell. We have no masks to give out.

That weekend, the house gets violently egged.

Then the next weekend. This time it hit the cars outside. It was cold, so the eggs — outside of being gross and dirty on the sides of the house — damaged the cars.

So we went to Home Depot and bought cameras, setting them up just like in the game – around the house, to watch for sneaky kids doing damage to it. This is literally the premice of Hello Neighbor. In this situation though, I was the Neighbor – keeping kids away from my swag!

Dealing with love and hate from fans

In this article I want to talk about the difficult relationship you can sometimes have with fans of your games. We live in an industry where everyone is passionate about games – including fans. In recent years though, fans have become even more passionate about how games are made. About the behind-the-scenes. People are getting more curious about the inner workings of studios, their projects, and business side of things.

I’ve been running tinyBuild for about 5 years now, acting as CEO for the company and producer for most of our games. We’ve had a fair amount of controversy over the years, which helps to grow a thick skin.

Let’s dive right in, starting off with how people love drama.

The Love For Drama

Our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Checking twitter and facebook in-between respawns is a norm. Whenever there is some sort of drama, it can instantly explode — and if you’re on the shorter end of the stick, it will feel like the end of the world. Before we dive into how to deal with the end of the world and how to properly run around tearing your hairs out, let’s talk about motivations.

For less reputable press and influencers, it’s all about the clicks. How many times have you been baited to clicking a sensationalistic Youtube thumbnail or a clickbaity headline on twitter? That feeling of when you read the article/watch the video and realize it’s nothing to do with the headline. It sucks. What sucks more is if you’re part of whatever the scandal is, information spreads so fast that people just only read the headlines. All messaging is taken at face value. I believe this goes hand in hand with what Simon Sinek talks about regarding millenials in the work place. It’s a good video:

The best part about this is that — while not obvious to you if involved — scandals pass within days or hours. People simply move on and forget. While for every hateful comment there are hundreds of happy customers that just don’t voice their opinion.

In Case Of Emergency, Use This

Whenever you’re involved in a scandal or hit with a wave of hate, it’s very easy to get demotivated. Let’s say your game launched with some sort of obvious glitch as an example. Let’s use this cheat sheet

·Do not obsessively read every single hateful comment. Glance at them to get a general picture.
·Do never ever reply to comments that are rage-induced. This only puts you in a negative position to get someone to use your comment out of context. It will also sound like excuses.
·Categorize the issues. Create an excel sheet and categorize whatever the bugs or glitches are, and see what are the lowest hanging fruits. What’s the thing you can fix ASAP? Start working on it.
·If the issue is not something you can solve technically, it’s not a bug or a glitch, it’s probably regarding something someone said. I’ve had a few of these. Person X said _this_, and now it’s an exploding reddit thread.

Let’s talk about that last point in-depth. Replying to comments here is also a bad idea. You need to take control of the narrative. This is why in case of crisis, PR agencies or departments issue “statements”. You’re much better off though making a statement on your own blog or by creating a new thread. The main goal here is to change that “face value” narrative. Remember how I said that any kind of clickbait article is taken at face value? Even if you end up replying to every single comment and trying to shift the tides, it won’t work – the title of the article or thread is still there. It’s still what’s being shared. Whereas if you take control, your message is what gets shared. This gives you a chance to explain yourself, and provide insight that’d otherwise get lost in the social media abyss.

The Curious Case of Hello Neighbor

The incredibly curious case of Hello Neighbor is the perfect storm for this article. The game has been in “open” development for over a year, selling pre-orders alongside alpha builds and generating tons of love and hype on Youtube. The game’s development cycle became a communal experience. Fans were hungry for more information, scouting every piece of content for clues. Youtubers were making hundreds of videos. Fans creating fanart, fan-musicals, and cosplaying as Neighbor. The game’s development process was part of the game. It also drove a specific part of the gaming audience nuts. This is the audience that’s more into game reviews and core games. which is the type of gamer I am. So seeing all of this unfold right in the communities I hang out at was devastating. I pulled through only because of following the principles outlined in the article.

Being a communal experience, we knew Hello Neighbor wouldn’t review well with the press. We fully expected getting 4-5 out of 10 in scores. At face value the game wouldn’t live up to the apparent hype. This is mostly because the game would be taken as a game, a single product you play from A to Z. Knowing the weight of the hype in this scenario devalues the game experience.

To prove the point, Arstechnica called Hello Neighbor one of the worst games of 2017. And nobody has yet to solve the ARG.

This we were prepared for. What we weren’t prepared for is a few technical issues on launch which angered some of our loyal fans. Think about it:

·We have the press that we know was going to hate the game no matter what
·A loyal and vocal audience that are fans, a portion of which would have a bad experience due to tech issues
·A core audience that reads the press that would never like the game, and would hate it because it was getting hyped

This resulted in the perfect storm of hate on launch day. A Community Manager might tell you that in this situation it’s better to go and reply to a few comments on Youtube or reddit. We know how that worked out for EA’s Battlefront.

Action is more powerful than words

Instead, what we did is started categorizing all of the issues. We had to create a situation where bug reports would be shared by people who want to help. So a thread with instructions of how to share logs was posted. Later we aggregated all feedback into categories, and figured out which issues could be solved sooner than later. All of this during 2 days of non-stop hate that was overshadowing (in our perception) any positivity the game was getting.

2 days after the launch, we posted a patch that addressed most issues. The hate instantly stopped. Right there.

Yes, it can be frustrating and infuriating to be silent for days. Especially when you have a vocal audience hammering at your inbox demanding answers. The best thing we could do here is show action. Instead of taking an apologetic and explanatory tone, I just went directly into the updates and what’s happening.

To date, Hello Neighbor has sold over 600k units. In under 3 months.

When you have no choice but words

everyone remembers this little story

There are cases when you simply can’t take immediate action and need to respond. I’m not going to talk about the G2A issue we had, because that was just embarrassing for the key reseller. Instead we’ve had a situation where a partner tweeted something very bad about a platform. It became a huge thread with lots of hate directed to us and the partner.

Here’s the aftermath of that story on Polygon

You can read my response to the reddit thread here

In these situations it’s extremely important to be sincere. Never be fake. Always be direct. Never bullshit. It can also be nerve-wrecking and at a very inconvenient time. It was 2am during my only holiday of the year after having a few too many sangrias. When I realized it was going down, the immediate instinct is to pick up the phone and start insta-replying to everyone trying ot mitigate and explain yourself. Or to get emotional at the partner. None of these options are a solution. My plan was simple:

·Take a deep breath
·Evaluate your mental situation. Are you thinking clearly? (nope, not after sangrias)
·Can it wait? (nope, it’s hot and exploding)
·Get some coffee
·Jump into an extremely cold shower
·Think everything over
·Take action (in this case, write that reply)

I highly discourage anyone from ever being in a situation like described above. This is the last resort and it can radically backfire.

We’re closer to fans than ever

While the tone of the article might be scary, I do believe the industry is in a very healthy place today. We can interface directly with fans, and for a small company to be able to build this relationship — it’s fantastic, and opens up lots of doors. For example, we recently did the HelloSwitch event, where we announced 6 games for Switch, surrounding the whole event in mystery. Despite the livestream’s audio glitching out, over 2k people watched across Twitch/Youtube/Facebook/Mixer.

I will admit it’s scary as hell to put your face out in front of fans. This is why before you take any advice, you need to grow a thick skin. Learn to control your emotions and not go off the rocker. Finding your center and keeping it cool are probably the most important qualities you need as an indie developer when dealing with community.

Seeing how fans are very interested in how games are made, your marketing can become just that – game development videos. Learn to filter through hateful comments and take them as feedback vs criticism.

Don’t feed trolls and never get discouraged.（source:gamasutra.com ）