DAW 2017 wrap up

It's been a few days since the eighth annual Developer Appreciation Week (DAW) ended, so it's time for the wrap up post!

This year, a total of nine different blogs participated, writing a stunning total of 22 dev appreciating posts! The devs of the MMO Star Wars: the Old Republic (SWTOR) had the most dedicated to them, with three entries. Others receiving multiple messages of commendation were the LOTRO dev team, Daybreak Game Company and Concerned Ape of Stardew Valley. New this year were players thanking devs on Twitter with the hashtag #DAW8, spreading some extra dev positivity.

Managing a ten year old MMO: thumbs up to the LOTRO devs

I've never written so much for Developer Appreciation Week (DAW) before: one post a day. I don't know, I think I just finally found the right format for this thing. When I thought of developers to thank beforehand, I came up with eight, more than I had time for! So I'm saving one for next year (which one will have to stay a secret a bit longer).

Note that this is the last day of DAW 2017, a bonus day (as I was late with the announcement post). I will write a wrap up post with everyone's contributions later this week. If you are too curious to wait until then, you can already check some out in the comment section of the introduction post or on Twitter.

This last DAW entry is dedicated to the developers of Lord of the Rings Online. I know, I've featured them in previous years (read To the people making the sun go up and The things I love about LOTRO), but if you read my DAW 2017 introduction post...

"Have you ever been so critical about a game that you read back that post later and gasped? As in, you start wondering if any dev addressed would jump off a cliff after reading it?"

Well, let's just keep it at that I have opinionated LOTRO posts that would qualify.

Love for the SWTOR Stream Dream Team

Yesterday, a SWTOR developer stream reminded me of the need for a Developer Appreciation Week once again. For those who don't know: Star Wars: the Old Republic is about to release a major update (5.2) coming Tuesday, adding an operation boss after two years without a new raid. I was expecting news about that and indeed we did, but the team also revealed another cool new feature coming with 5.2: a renewed galaxy map. Right now, you can only access the galaxy map when you're on your ship. But with 5.2 you can use it from everywhere to travel, as long as you've unlocked a legacy perk. The map also looks very slick now and it is easier to locate planets. I was really happy with this quality of life addition.

However, Twitch chat wouldn't be Twitch chat if people would use it to complain. When Eric and Charles said they were working on tweaking class balance but it was delayed, people felt the need to complain about one dev working on class balance being on maternity leave. At this point, the developers felt obliged to state that no, there was not just one dev working on class balance, it was a team effort; they had just mentioned the maternity leave on other media to congratulate their collegue.

All the feels of Life Is Strange: how a video game helped me cope with life

So this is another post in which I come out as a lover of non MMOs. This one is dedicated to Dontnod Entertainment, the French game studio that developed Life Is Strange.

There are many praising words about originality and beauty that befit Life Is Strange. But for me, the game stands out because it helped me through a difficult period of my life. I've been meaning to write about it for a while now, but never managed because it's an emotional thing (although I did mention the game in my Steam Awards article). It's now more than a year since I played, so I will give it a try.

Standing firm in the wake of progress: a tribute to Standing Stone Games

Somewhere during the course of 2016, news reached me that Turbine was transitioning into a 'mobile game studio'. For us, the fans, this came out of nowhere and didn't make much sense: after all, thusfar the studio had been working on MMOs. It sounded ominous for the many Turbine developers that were working on MMOs such as the one I've been playing for almost ten years now: Lord of the Rings Online. After the short announcement, things went on as usual and the worried feeling retreated into the back of my mind.

Fast forward a couple of months (December 2016) and we hear that the developers that worked on LOTRO and Dungeons and Dragons Online for Turbine are starting their own 'indie game studio': Standing Stone Games. The gaming community is blindsided: nobody saw this coming. Some people preach doom and gloom, others regard it as a liberation from the shackles of the 'evil' corporate Turbine. Myself? Somewhere in the middle. I don't believe Turbine is evil; that's a product of gamers having the tendency to blame unpopular decisions on corporate greed.

The heart and soul of Stardew Valley

As this year's DAW initiator, it's about time to post a developer appreciating post of my own. Seriously, mere hours after I posted the DAW announcement, people had already written and published their contributions. Some people are even writing one DAW post a day. Teach me, senpai!

Meanwhile, I am having start up problems with this post. Which all by itself already proves I don't do this enough. (Serenading developers, I mean.) Gotta up that blogging APM! I may have to settle for less perfectly balanced pieces of art and just hit that publish button. And I should definitely spend less time contemplating whether this or that dev needs my appreciation more. I'm just gonna hug them all.

Developer Appreciation Week 2017

Have you ever been so critical about a game that you read back that post later and gasped? As in, you start wondering if any dev addressed would jump off a cliff after reading it? Fear not, this week you have the chance to atone for your sins, for it is Developer Appreciation Week!

Developer what?! Yes, you read it right, dev appreciation week. This week you're going to lay down that pitchfork and dig up the lyre to go serenade some devs. Or at least I hope you do, after you've read this post.

The things I love about LOTRO

As the last day of DAW is upon us, I find myself writing a love letter to Turbine. A disclaimer: you might grumble that this post is very optimistic and free of critique, and you're right! After all, it's Developer Appreciation Week, the one week of the year in which the gaming blog community gives game developers some time off from being under constant fire of their customers. DAW is about the people behind the company, despite all the vitriol from the playerbase hardworking persons with a passion for gaming - of this I am convinced. So yes, fangirl mode is engaged once more; better save your whining for tomorrow!

To the people making the sun go up

The sun in (from left to right:) SWTOR, LotRO and Guild Wars 2.

Today the gaming PC died on me, which left me with no means to play computer games.* At the moment of writing, I cannot take the pictures for the SWTOR outfit designer post I was planning and Conrad is raiding with our progression group, getting to 13% of the boss we've trying to kill for about a month (I'll kill him if they make it tonight!). So here I am, all alone at home, getting a bit bored. I know, right, the harsh life of a gamer without PC.

So while I'm letting out a deep sigh, my eye falls upon Rowan's latest post urging me to become all zen. How could I have forgotten? It's Developer Appreciation Week (DAW)!

Appreciate your developers, before it's time for the naked gardeners

Someone needs to create our monsters...

I learned something new today: apparently it's Developer Appreciation Week ("DAW").

I'm usually not a sucker for events that memorate a special group of people. Mother's and Father's day (not to mention Valentine's day) cause spontaneous nausea ("I think it is silly and I know she says it is silly as well, but won't she just say that to be nice to me and secretly be disappointed when I don't bring her a present?" etc). And then there are these events that nobody does something about and which I had to look up, such as Secretary day, Programmer's day, World Smile day and World Naked Gardening day. (Yes, World Naked Gardening day, it exists. If you're interested, it's in two weeks.) So what then about Developer Appreciation Week?

Well, for a starter, DAW isn't organized by some huge organization and you're not supposed to wear a silly ribbon to show off how considerate you are. Rather, it's an (originally) small-scale initiative that was started in 2010 by a blogger, Scarybooster from Scary Worlds, to show his appreciation of developers (and perhaps to make up for all the stuff he posts the rest of the year!). I thought that was sympathetic, so here I am, doing what a blogger's gotta do for DAW: write a post in salutation of developers.

I've been bad

However, I just found out that I'm a very bad person. Apparently, in order to participate in DAW (yes, you need to do things, I told you it was better than the ribbon stuff) you need to "1. Tell the blogsphere about your favorite developer(s) in at least 1 post next week." And it just dawned to me that I could not comply: I don't know a single developer by name.

Awwww.

Just think about it. These people spend hours thinking about how that boring reward system is supposed to work. How many seals/coin/points/marks you get for doing that thing. What your character can and cannot do. Basically, how YOU are going to spend your time in-game. And in return we barely notice their work, and only shout out on the forums if something doesn't suit us. We don't even remember their names (or well, I should speak for myself, but I usually don't).

Okay, well, in that case perhaps they're happy we don't.

We ride through it without noticing, but even this grass was developed. And not by a naked gardener.

Staying positive

I consider myself as generally being fairly positive about the games I play and changes that occur within them, although even I have my weak moments (e.g. the barter wallet, the diminishing level of difficulty in LotRO). I really don't want this blog to be just full of rants. I want to show the beautiful things in gaming, and at the same time I don't want to be without any critical thinking either. It's a balancing thing.

The place of horror for developers may not be blogs, but rather their game's official forum. This is where players spit their dismay at whatever they don't like in their game. When changes are announced, players overrun the forum with complaints about 'nerfs' when they fear their class will not end up in the best spot. Developers are left with the though job to balance gameplay and need the forum for feedback. And on that forum it's hard to filter useful comments from all the trash. I find myself avoiding gaming fora because the general tone just makes me sigh all the time, so I'm happy I don't have a reason to hang out there. I usually keep up to date by hearing out Tiger and friends. But devs don't really have a choice.

...and someone our heroes

Sooo...

What I'm trying to say is that 'we gamers' aren't always so nice and thankful to our developers. We tend to only bring back the bad stuff (even while it might not actually be that bad) and forget about the positive things. Perhaps it's not a bad idea to show our developers our appreciation of the wonderful worlds they have created for us, you know, just for a change. So, whether one will read it or not, participate in DAW and write a post for your favourite dev(s)!