Outriders has been struggling with numerous issues since its release. This has led to controversies within the community and also accusations against developer People Can Fly and its communication with players. Now, the community manager thearcan has given a very open statement about the situation.
What is it about? It all started with a reddit post by user DocDevice (via reddit). In it, he expresses his concerns about the supposedly poor communication from the developers and community managers regarding the numerous issues with Outriders.
What kind of problems are there? In addition to server problems at launch, a severe inventory bug, and other issues, there are currently difficulties with damage mitigation through equipment. This doesn’t work properly, leading to many players dying quickly in the endgame.
Additionally, many players feel as if they are being virtually ignored by the developers. The list of improvement requests is long, and numerous frustrated voices can be found on Outriders’ social channels. DocDevice takes this as an opportunity to give the developers tips based on a specific example.
Outriders should communicate openly, “like Star Wars: Battlefront 2 did”
This is what should be emulated: DocDevice compares the situation of Outriders with the problematic release of Star Wars: Battlefront 2 in 2017, the multiplayer shooter from the Battlefield developers DICE.
What happened back then? The release of Battlefront 2 was a debacle. Major points of criticism back then were loot boxes, which EA and developer DICE eventually removed from the game. In the first months, the game sold rather poorly.
In the meantime, developers couldn’t go online without fear. However, over time, the situation improved. In 2018 and 2019, things went much better for Battlefront, and huge updates that were celebrated by players followed.
Alongside changes to the game, DICE achieved this through better communication in the form of the then community manager F8RGE, who now has a sort of cult status among fans and currently works as a producer for DICE. (via Twitter)
Therefore, the Reddit user now suggests that the developers of Outriders should proceed similarly, communicate more, and appoint a capable community manager: “If PCF really wants to be successful here, they should follow suit. Have a ‘face’ we can talk to, a mediator who understands what players want but also knows the corporate landscape. Someone who could ‘translate’ between us so we stay updated on what needs to be fixed/added/changed and to gather our opinions on what should be tackled first.”
There is even a suspicion that developer People Can Fly is deliberately withholding information and limiting communication on reddit.
This prompted the actual community manager thearcan/SE Toby to respond with a remarkably open statement.
He oversees the Outriders subreddit, the official Twitter account, and serves as the developers’ spokesperson to the community. He is very active in the Outriders subreddit; however, he faces criticism regarding his communication.
“I was open and honest and at this point caused more harm than good.”
This is what the community manager says in his statement: First, he clarifies that no one from People Can Fly or publisher Square Enix actively limits what he can write and what he cannot.
Rather, the restraint stems from his experiences with other communities and the past weeks in the Outriders subreddit. To illustrate this, thearcan provides a specific example of a reddit post he made about the multiplayer issues:
I gave as transparent a view of the situation from our side as possible. I was open and honest. My response was completely misinterpreted by certain elements in the community, and a whole week was spent with these sub- and then content creators and their audience literally misquoting me.
And by misquoting, I mean literally the ‘The developers don’t care about us, look at what they said’ type of thread titles. We as a whole team were demonized based on intentionally provocative comments that were completely false. I was open and honest and caused more harm than good at this point.
Even after correcting his statements, the issue continued, and the claims received significantly more attention and reach than anything he could correct at that time, the community manager explains.
He makes it clear that people certainly have a right to express criticism and may be angry. However, his restraint also has another reason.
Since launch, I have worked weekends and long nights due to the problems we were facing to support Outriders as best as possible. And when I take a few days off (for example, on a weekend), I usually come back to a flood of complaints claiming that we have stopped communicating and have given up on the game.
All complaints are very highly rated, indicating that there is a general consensus on the topic in the community. Therefore it is difficult for me to take time off work, as this exacerbates perceived communication problems.
At this point, I am quite exhausted. This is no one’s fault, and no one at Square Enix or PCF is forcing me (or has ever asked me) to work this much. It’s my choice. It always has been.
But in this state, I return to my role every day. And day by day, I feel that we can’t win, no matter what we (or I) do or say. […]
I am not trying to be a victim or seek sympathy. I am not telling people that they should not express their concerns about real issues […] I am not saying that people do not have the right to express their complaints.
I am simply explaining my own human limits.
The full and more extensive statement can be found in the reddit post: reddit.com
Community reacts with understanding and anger
The author of the post, DocDevice, has since supplemented his reddit post and relativized his criticism. He apologizes for accusing thearcan of a lack of effort.
It now states: “I was completely wrong, we have a very dedicated CM who is being overwhelmed from all sides. […], I encourage everyone to read his post and take a moment to understand what they are currently dealing with.”
This is how players are reacting to the statement: The remaining reactions are mixed. Many praise the openness of the response and see it as a nice change from the “watered down” statements of most developers and publishers in the industry.
- User Freschu writes (via reddit.com): “This is ‘Realtalk.’ It totally confuses me how it came to this point. There are so many ways to express frustration, to raise concerns. For some reason, these few voices choose exaggeration, toxicity, defamation, and entitlement.”
- Others, however, also have understanding for the frustration within the community and feel that both sides are correct in some points. sicsche writes about this (via reddit.com): “I think PCF is very much responsible for the situation. The entire community here was very supportive from the start of the demo and remained cool even after the initial launch problems.” However, this has changed due to all the problems.
- Some see it as merely whining about his job and feel that he should actually know what comes with it. Distict-Ad-7416 finds the situation predictable (via reddit.com): “8 years as a CM and you are surprised by the backlash that this game has received? Listen, I understand, we are all human, we have limitations. But you should have seen that coming from a mile away.”
That problems with a game can lead to strong reactions from fans is nothing new in the community.
The problem with hate comments and nasty feedback has existed for quite some time; in some cases, this toxic behavior has even escalated into death threats.
Aggressiveness in discussions is increasing
Where else have there been these problems? A prominent example is EA’s failed loot shooter Anthem. Released in 2019 in a dismal state. Initially, however, like Outriders, the game was supported by an active and engaged community, especially in the subreddit. Community manager Jesse Anderson was particularly active.
After a few months and many other issues, the subreddit became increasingly worse and more toxic (via ScreenRant.com). Posts targeting developer BioWare became more and more frequent. The developers almost completely ceased their communication.
Things ultimately escalated further with Cyberpunk 2077. The game was delayed multiple times, from late October 2020 to December 10. Some developers from CD Projekt RED received death threats from angry players.
Similarly, with the remastered version of Sony’s Spider-Man, where the original actor’s face for Peter Parker was changed, which drove some hardcore fans crazy. The developers of Insomniac Games still received death threats afterwards.
At this level, the criticism of Outriders does not seem to have reached yet. Nevertheless, it shows how quickly emotions can escalate and lead to a very aggressive mood.
What do you think of the statement? Do you find the openness good? Do you also see the current way of discussing critically, or do developers just have to put up with such things?
