Please stop blaming the Devs

abmoraz
abmoraz Posts: 712 Critical Contributor
in MPQ General Discussion
Listen, I know the new supports are a dumpster fire.  But...


As a developer (not for D3/Demiurge, but in another market), I can 99.99% guarantee that these decisions did not come from the developers directly.  They came from Management, Sales/Marketing, and/or other bean counters at the company.  While the Devs get "tinykittied on" a lot around here, it's rarely actually their fault.  They get their projects and generally, assuming D3/Demiurge is like just about every other software house out there, have little to no input on WHAT is done, only HOW it is done.

The way it works is usually a dev gets a ticket.  That ticket has a description, estimated hours, some other tracking info, and acceptance criteria.  A sample ticket might be:

<br>Create a new character for Dazzler.&nbsp; Attached are the sprites created by the graphics department for her cover, headshot, battle stance, icon, animations, etc...<br><br>Estimated hours: 20<br>Sprint: 18-may<br>Priority: High<br><br>Acceptance criteria:<br>- 4 star<br>- tier 2 health<br>- match damage order: yellow, blue, red, green, purple, black<br>- critical multiplier: 2.5x<br>- yellow power: laser light: damage base per power level: X, damage base per level: Y<br>- blue power: Light show: stun target 1 turn per power level, at power level 5, stun target's teamate's for 2 as well<br>- red: passive power: distraction: opponent matches in a X random colors (Determined at the start of the match) gain 1 less AP per match.&nbsp; Where X is the power level of the power.&nbsp; At power level 5, opponents gain 1 less on any match.<br>

The Dev who gets assigned the ticket has to code all of those criteria into the game.  (S)He didn't decide "hey!  Lets make this character" or "This should be the powers" or "Let's make a totally useless PvE item and only reward the most powerful versions to the top PvP players."  They don't get to say "well, even though this is my ticket, I'm going to fix Gambit instead."  Well... they don't get to say that and keep their job.

To pull the curtain back further, someone else made those tickets, usually not the Devs.   Someone else yet then went through all the tickets and assigned them a timeline (known as a "Roadmap").  Managers (usually upper management) says "We want this feature out by this date" and the middle managment/supervisors of the Dev/graphics/database/documentation/etc teams have to figure out how to take those tickets and fit them into the sprints to make those release schedules.  Most of the time, sprints are over-stuffed and have more man-hours of tickets in them than there are available to work.  This is what causes "the crunch" (seriously, google, "game development 'the crunch'", then feel bad after reading the horror stories).

I'd go on, because there is so much more, but this post is long enough.  I didn't even get to fully flesh out the QA->re-Dev cycle, feature creep, priority creep, or to even explain sprints and "the crunch".

tl;dr:
Stop tinykittying on the devs.  Blaming them is like blaming the Privates and Corporals in the Army for the decisions that the Generals and Lieutenants make.
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Comments

  • ZeroKarma
    ZeroKarma Posts: 513 Critical Contributor
    You're assuming that the people that we speak with are foot soldiers who do nothing but plug in code based on the decision of someone that we have never met. My impression is that they are not, something that Brigby could comment on. 

    Will from Demiurge has come on and specifically discussed WHY features were added, what the prevailing feeling is regarding characters, buffs and nerfs. Very much the marketing folks of who you speak. 

    Correct marketing would also assume some research of target audience (perhaps direct outreach which I guess the polls are), a vetting of a new feature with their target audience, and preferably beta testing with said audience to make sure the feature hits home. Also, a post-mortem on what happened for better or for worse would be helpful. 

    I think these guys wear many hats and maybe don't specialize in any specific role, and that could be part of the problem. 
  • Straycat
    Straycat Posts: 963 Critical Contributor
    I think the forum has 2 targets, D3 and Marvel. The devs refer to all of D3, so character design, bug fixes, reward structure, which might be 3 different departments, all get conflated into 1. Then there's Marvel, which we assume has veto/ mandate power  on any move the devs make.
    I think there is a lot of mistrust that the devs do not deserve, and we should chill out a bit. But that doesn't seem to be the point you're making
  • Punisher5784
    Punisher5784 Posts: 3,845 Chairperson of the Boards
    grenadier said:
    I suspect that when people say "the devs" that it's become a quick shorthand for "the devs, their bosses, the company/development studio as a whole".  It's not that people are literally blaming just the coders with no one else shouldering their share of it.

    I was just about to reply with this. Basically the term "devs" is anyone at D3 or Demiurge who made the specific decision we're complaining about. We're unhappy and someone needs to be the blame.. for Supports it's everyone who had their hands on this implementation!
  • The rockett
    The rockett Posts: 2,016 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited May 2018
    While yes you are right about “The Devs” could not be to blame for some of this, but as Zero said, Will had been here and it has been discussed in other outlets that D3/Demi are small companies and they all wear many hats.  

    At the end of the day, personally, I don’t care if it Hydra Bob in Marketing, Benedict Arnold as the President or Howard the Duck as the communicator, they are all in this together.  

    Players are not happy with the current direction. It doesn’t matter if it is Demi, D3 or Marvel not letting them do things, Devs, President of the company or captain of this ping pong league, we are just not happy.  

    This comes back to 1 point that has been brought up many many many many many times.  Communication and the lack of it.  Will came here and everybody that posted head very respectful of his answers.  That was great but now we are back to the same old thing.  Crickets.   
  • LavaManLee
    LavaManLee Posts: 1,414 Chairperson of the Boards
    To add in agreement, Devs is just (lazy) shorthand for D3 in general.  I don't think anyone here is really mad at the actual coders who have to implement the functionality.  It's the people who came up with the functionality in the first place.
  • Yepyep
    Yepyep Posts: 952 Critical Contributor
    edited May 2018
    grenadier said:
    I suspect that when people say "the devs" that it's become a quick shorthand for "the devs, their bosses, the company/development studio as a whole".  It's not that people are literally blaming just the coders with no one else shouldering their share of it.
    I agree with you, and @aesthetocyst, that "devs" functions for many as a prooun for the whole business behind the game, but the OP is still extremely interesting to those of us on the outside of this process. I, for one, am glad s/he posted it.
  • Michaelcles
    Michaelcles Posts: 100 Tile Toppler
    Funny, D3 has a job opening for Digital Marketing Manager.

    https://d3go.com/your-career/

    I wonder what happened to the last one?!?

    some highlights:

    “D3 Go! is looking for an aggressive and growth-minded individual to help us expand the userbase of our growing portfolio of mobile games including Marvel Puzzle Quest, Magic: The Gathering – Puzzle Quest, Adventure Time Puzzle Quest and many more to come!”

    • Analyzes campaign performance and provides optimization solutions for maximizing return on investment.
    • Collaborates with Product Development team to create and evolve strategies to improve game KPIs, including initial designs for features to improve acquisition or monetization.
  • Michaelcles
    Michaelcles Posts: 100 Tile Toppler
    I am jailed?!?
  • The_A_Train
    The_A_Train Posts: 45 Just Dropped In
    I think there is a big difference between a game's developers and the code monkeys you've described.
  • LifeofAgony
    LifeofAgony Posts: 690 Critical Contributor
    Call them whatever name youd like.  The people who make decisions for this game are the “devs”.  And they are oblivious to the current state of the game.
  • Daiches
    Daiches Posts: 1,252 Chairperson of the Boards
    Yeah, that would be the case if the devs were just code monkeys and not also the design team as well.
    This is a smal operation and a small studio. 
  • Wumpushunter
    Wumpushunter Posts: 627 Critical Contributor
    The upper echelon of management will never read this forum or get passed this feed back. All they will get is quarterly monetary statements. Why address my feedback to them? A dev, community manager or passionate employee might actual read our words, take them to heart and do something. This is what I believe happened on vaulting.
  • feraldayor
    feraldayor Posts: 48 Just Dropped In
    Devs != programmers
  • Yepyep
    Yepyep Posts: 952 Critical Contributor
    edited May 2018
    Jarvind said:
    Michaelcles said:
    Funny, D3 has a job opening for Digital Marketing Manager.

    https://d3go.com/your-career/

    I wonder what happened to the last one?!?

    some highlights:

    “D3 Go! is looking for an aggressive and growth-minded individual to help us expand the userbase of our growing portfolio of mobile games including Marvel Puzzle Quest, Magic: The Gathering – Puzzle Quest, Adventure Time Puzzle Quest and many more to come!”

    • Analyzes campaign performance and provides optimization solutions for maximizing return on investment.
    • Collaborates with Product Development team to create and evolve strategies to improve game KPIs, including initial designs for features to improve acquisition or monetization.
    Can we talk about how the "physical demands" section of this posting is hilarious oh my god.

    • Occasional stooping. Frequent standing.  Constant walking, sitting, climbing, reaching high/low levels, finger movement, feeling, speaking clearly, hearing conversationally, and seeing far and near.
    You will need to move your fingers and feel things. And Talk! Sweet lord above!
    Not to mention yelling!
    :P

    *Edited post to remove all caps. - fight4thedream
  • fight4thedream
    fight4thedream GLOBAL_MODERATORS Posts: 1,963 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited May 2018
    ***Mod Mode: On***

    Please refrain from writing in all caps as it violates rule 15. Even if doing so for comedic, sarcastic or ironic effect. Thank you for your understanding.

    ***Mod Mode: OFF***
  • Scofie
    Scofie GLOBAL_MODERATORS Posts: 1,318 Chairperson of the Boards
    The physical demands are fantastic. 

    I was also struck by the workplace environment section:

    "Routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, telephones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines."

    Is the use of fax machines a tie-in the Captain Marvel movie set? :smiley:

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