Cannonballing into a deep developer discussion, original Fallout mastermind Tim Cain asks if "gamers know what they like" in a new video exploring player feedback and preferences.
One conclusion he draws is that, no matter what you look for in games, "it would be far better if you said exactly what it is you want instead of just saying what it is you don't want." Riffing on similar remarks from Game of Thrones author George R.R.
Martin, Cain agrees that "people love to talk about what they hate" – a type of feedback that has become more prominent over the years, in his view. "I totally understand that rage bait gets more clicks," he says, but this "doesn't really explain forums or comment sections where the people who are leaving the comments have no stake in how many people read their comment.
But still you find that complaints about features are on the rise, and constructive feedback saying 'I wish they had done this instead' or 'I like this in my games' is on decline." Cain goes on to say "I see people complaining about features they can absolutely, 100% ignore." He singles out "100% cosmetic-only microtransactions" and the pushback they may get even though they don't affect gameplay (though, I think he misses some counterarguments regarding pricing, free player expression, intrusive promotions, or RNG).
Fast travel comes up as another example of contradictory player behavior, and Dragon's Dogma 2 comes to mind here with its stance on "boring" games.