Test Server Feedback

Bait and switch, bitches!

As a long-time, bitter-ass Eve player, I'd like to make a little ol' statement. I'd encourage you to bear with me, because this crap's been on the up-trend for a good two years now.

I'm going to talk about art, so if you're bored by that and want to discuss polar bears or some bull... leave a comment at the bottom. Because everyone loves polar bears.

Now, to the point at hand:

I take issue with how we, as a community, have been going about getting our opinions across. Not that our opinions aren't valid -- they absolutely are. We just aren't communicating right, and then we expect the world like it's owed to us. CCP redoes the shaders, then they get a massive wave of people exclaiming "I can't see my ships!" So they lighten up the ships a little, the first group of people settles down, and another one surges up with "my ships are too cartoony!"

No one here is wrong; we all have our own opinions. Personally, I liked the darker ships too -- Eve is a game with a serious undertone. Dark ships in dark space in dark times.

I think the problem is that we don't trust CCP to make artistic decisions on their own, and we all perceive the same thing, we just perceive it differently. Almost everyone gets a personal attachment to their ship/race, and would fight CCP to the death over the movement of a window on the underside of their favorite ship.

CCP has skilled artists and they do things for a reason. As a graphic designer, I can tell you there's nothing more frustrating than engineers, scientists, historians, businesspeople, mathematicians, and other artists trying to tell you how they can art better than you can. I don't go around trying to convince physicists that gravity isn't real just because "I don't think so," so the same respect should be paid in full to creative professions.

What IS valid in this regard is feedback. If I did the research and I discovered that gravity as we understand it is a cause of mass rather than an effect, it would be important for physicists to look into the possibility of some truth there. At that point, I leave it to them, and I trust they will objectively consider my point, do some mathy things, and make a decision. The same goes for art. Feedback is extremely important, as long as there's a reason that extends beyond [but is not without] subjective judgment. "These minmatar ships are too light-brown; they don't reflect the traditional Minmatar aesthetic" is valid criticism. It communicates the issue taken and reflects the reasoning, at which point CCP would evaluate whether or not to make a change. I can assure you that any respectable artists will do this rather than get defensive, and the art team at CCP is in every way respectable.

Things get ugly when complaints are purely subjective. "I don't like this!" is something that only creates fear for an artist. When a client isn't happy, it reflects poorly on the artist. The problem is that sometimes it shouldn't. People are loud, and there are too many variables when it comes to digital art. The biggest one that I've found is the quality of the display that people are viewing it on. On my desktop monitor, which I chose specifically for its ability to accurately produce colors and contrast, the V3 shaders look amazing. They're crisp, the lighting is believable and dynamic, and the color is dead-on. On my laptop screen, however, in some instances I can't even distinguish between the shadowy part of my ship and the dark space in the background.

It's not difficult to see how misunderstanding can and does arise. Wars are waged over differences in perception, and that's what's going on here on a lesser scale. If I only had my laptop and either wasn't aware that my screen couldn't accurately reflect the quality of the original art, or if I was aware but couldn't be bothered to buy a new monitor [which is perfectly valid -- that costs money] then I might complain about the art direction, because on my setup I'm not getting the quality I expect from a company that I'm paying $15/month. Whereas on my desktop monitor, which has good image quality, I'm perfectly content and adore the art team at CCP. Pretty easy to get two extreme opinions of the same product, and the discrepancy is on both ends.

But wait, that means there's no one to blame!

Exactly. Everyone is to blame, and no one is to blame. Everyone has an opinion that is perfectly valid because it is the result of an actual experience that person had. Others may not understand it, but that doesn't mean it's without merit.

I think what's going on here is that we're failing, as a whole, to consciously construct our viewpoints. It's not that we're stupid -- if anything, it's that we're smart. The problem is that we rush through almost everything in this day and age, and we're so sure and confident of our accumulated knowledge that we more-readily dismiss the knowledge that others present to us if it conflicts with our own. As a result, the whole world is becoming polarized, and these forums are reflecting that shift. I don't know if it's because of the speed at which information travels these days, or if it's because of the sheer availability [we all think we're right?] but it's going to present some serious problems if we don't start being aware and conscious of who we are why we are who we are.

In short, it would be beneficial for all of us to calm the **** down. CCP has a dedicated art team. Artists are artists because they're experts at visuals. It's what they do, and they should be able to count on us to speak up when it's important or when some perspective is needed. This community really cares, more-so than I've seen with any other game [and while others think it's nerdy, it's pretty cool, actually.] CCP knows we care, and we should return the favor and respect the fact that they care too.