The Reddit AMAs are unproductive [07/09 AMA Feedback]
Disclaimer
This is NOT meant to be a thread bashing the developers, nor anyone who took part in the Reddit AMA (both yesterday's and the one in June). The attempt to increase developer communication and transparency this year is highly appreciated, I just think the format this should take could use some adjusting.
Links
For those who don't know, the development team hosted an "ask me anything" over on r/DeadbyDaylight yesterday. I believe it is the second one this year, with the other taking place back in June. I'll link the AMAs here and here.
The Problem
While the opportunity to ask the devs questions is very welcome, it feels like yesterday's AMA (much like the one back in June) didn't really achieve much. I considered raising this concern three months ago, but given that it was the first Q&A session we'd had in a while (and I believe the first in that particular format), I thought I'd wait and see how the next one goes before I said anything. However, yesterday's AMA was unfortunately plagued by the same problem as the last one:
- A lot of the questions picked to be answered are very safe and surface-level. Not that there's anything wrong with the questions themselves, it's just that it feels like these type of questions receive way more focus.
- The AMA isn't seen by a large chunk of the community. A lot of players only become aware of these things when content creators make videos after they've already happened. Those who don't watch content creators, don't hear about them at all!
- Almost every answer reads as some variation of: "We hear you and recognise this problem, but we can't provide any details of when or how we're going to resolve it."
Questions about some big topics were answered (the Twins rework, the Freddy rework, and the Skull Merchant rework to name a few), but the answers were so vague and didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know. In every case, the response was along the lines of: "Yeah, it's happening at some point but we can't give you specifics or a timeframe of when you can expect it."
At the end of the AMA, I was left wondering: what did I actually learn here? I appreciate that there's probably a lot of things the developers would love to share with us, but can't due to NDAs, licensing issues etc. But it does raise the question of what's even the point of this? If the vast majority of responses are just generic nonanswers, then why bother? I know that sounds harsh. I don't mean it to be, I just can't think of any other way to say it.
The Positives
Like I said, I don't want this to come across as just mindless bashing of the developers. I do think the AMA format has some merit. There were a number of responses that were fun and helped us to get to know the team a bit more, which is always nice.
The Solution
Personally, I think instead of investing time in AMAs, they should just release more frequent Developer Updates. Dev Updates tell us what the developers are working on, why, when we can expect it, and give us some insight into the development process. They're incredibly informative -- much more so than the AMAs. The only problem is, they're few and far between. Making them a more regular occurence would be a much better way to increase transparency and communication.
If that's not feasible, then why not try "Mini Developer Updates" that periodically showcase one specific thing you're working on.
It doesn't need to be anything huge. We're not expecting BHVR to tell us about every decision they ever make. But something regular, that we can look forward to would be nice.
I also remember back when the developers would do weekly streams, where they'd show behind the scenes stuff of what they're working on. Way back when Decisive Strike was problematic, I remember they showed some footage of some rework ideas they'd been testing. Showing something concrete -- like screenshots, videos, stats -- let's us know that the things important to us are actually being actioned.
With something like The Twins rework, where we've only had vague statements and empty promises for years, it's very easy to feel like nothing is actually happening. Obviously hours-long weekly streams are very time consuming, so I don't expect them to return. But I'd love for the developers to showcase the things they're working on more often, on Twitter or their website or something. A short clip, with a "Not final product; subject to change." watermark would do.
I think it's likely that they'll probably continue with AMAs or some other Q&A-style format though, so I'll give some ways to improve them:
- Announce them using the in-game news feature. That way, everyone gets to hear about them!
- Where possible, give an ETA on upcoming content. Shoud we expect this in the coming weeks, months, or years? We understand that things don't always go to plan, and sometimes things need to be pushed back. So something along the lines of "We're hoping to get this released in early 2024, but the timescale is subject to change." would do. It's much better than something like "soon", or "the near future".
TL;DR
The AMA format doesn't feel like it's working at increasing transparency and developer communications. More regular developer updates, or something similar, would be a better use of time.