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In celebration of Foundry creators
docsc00ter
Member Posts: 291 Arc User
Well, after getting lots of very positive feedback on my first quest, I got my first low-star review with criticism:
"Boring story, veeery traditional gender roles. The design is OK."
Hmm. Fair enough. A quick, simple story may not be everyone's cup o' tea, and perhaps the storyline with a jilted suitor touched a personal nerve or something. (Heh... one man's "traditional gender roles" about a witch getting vengeance upon a town for being scorned is another man's classic fairy tale plot. But whatever...)
This got me thinking a bit about creating in the Foundry, offering feedback and reviews, reading reviews (hopefully with a thick skin), etc. And I just wanted to make this simple declaration:
HURRAY FOR ALL THE FOUNDRY AUTHORS!
If you've never tried creating something in the Foundry, you may not realize what a frustrating toolset it is. You have no control over loot. You have a limited number of mobs to use. There are rules about how a quest is constructed, and you have to comply in order for the adventure to work correctly and be published. The tool is extremely sluggish to use, even on the fastest of computers with a great connection. You're constantly popping back and forth between the toolset and the "in-game" 3D editor in order to manipulate objects. HOWEVER, because of the sluggishness, more often than not trying to get into the 3D editor to see if things are working correctly causes you to time out of the game. (Better hope you saved recently... assuming that saving is working... which sometimes it's not...)
It takes a lot of time to craft a good environment for an adventure. I realize that when a player pops into that haunted castle, or orc-threatened forest, or hidden cavern by the sea, it's easy to take it all for granted. But all of those details... from the cavern walls, to that stack of crates, to the cool purple lighting effect, to that painting that was painstakingly placed into the map and then manipulated through trial and error until it was facing the right direction and actually looks like it's hanging on the wall... ALL of that took many, many hours of work.
A player may complete a quest in 15-20 minutes or whatever, but I can assure you that if everything worked correctly, if the combat was reasonably balanced, and if the visuals were interesting, then someone put in dozens and dozens of hours of work with a flaky toolset in order to provide those few minutes of entertainment.
The game of Neverwinter may treat Foundry creations as a low-reward optional element for gameplay. There isn't a lot of reward for playing the quests, much less creating them. But if you've tapped into the Foundry as a source of fun, then you've benefitted from someone else's hard and largely thankless work.
So, yeah, offer a fair review. Throw whatever stars you think the quest deserves. Hey, all opinions are subjective, and yours is as good as the next guy's. But keep in mind that someone else took the time to try and create something for you to enjoy. Be nice. Give 'em the benefit of the doubt. At the very least, offer something constructive if you were disappointed.
Oh, and it's always okay to throw a tip in the tip jar on your way out the door. While you were gathering T2 loot from the latest Dungeon Delve event, someone else was dragging 3D objects and placing sound Fx on a map just to make you happy for a few minutes.
"Boring story, veeery traditional gender roles. The design is OK."
Hmm. Fair enough. A quick, simple story may not be everyone's cup o' tea, and perhaps the storyline with a jilted suitor touched a personal nerve or something. (Heh... one man's "traditional gender roles" about a witch getting vengeance upon a town for being scorned is another man's classic fairy tale plot. But whatever...)
This got me thinking a bit about creating in the Foundry, offering feedback and reviews, reading reviews (hopefully with a thick skin), etc. And I just wanted to make this simple declaration:
HURRAY FOR ALL THE FOUNDRY AUTHORS!
If you've never tried creating something in the Foundry, you may not realize what a frustrating toolset it is. You have no control over loot. You have a limited number of mobs to use. There are rules about how a quest is constructed, and you have to comply in order for the adventure to work correctly and be published. The tool is extremely sluggish to use, even on the fastest of computers with a great connection. You're constantly popping back and forth between the toolset and the "in-game" 3D editor in order to manipulate objects. HOWEVER, because of the sluggishness, more often than not trying to get into the 3D editor to see if things are working correctly causes you to time out of the game. (Better hope you saved recently... assuming that saving is working... which sometimes it's not...)
It takes a lot of time to craft a good environment for an adventure. I realize that when a player pops into that haunted castle, or orc-threatened forest, or hidden cavern by the sea, it's easy to take it all for granted. But all of those details... from the cavern walls, to that stack of crates, to the cool purple lighting effect, to that painting that was painstakingly placed into the map and then manipulated through trial and error until it was facing the right direction and actually looks like it's hanging on the wall... ALL of that took many, many hours of work.
A player may complete a quest in 15-20 minutes or whatever, but I can assure you that if everything worked correctly, if the combat was reasonably balanced, and if the visuals were interesting, then someone put in dozens and dozens of hours of work with a flaky toolset in order to provide those few minutes of entertainment.
The game of Neverwinter may treat Foundry creations as a low-reward optional element for gameplay. There isn't a lot of reward for playing the quests, much less creating them. But if you've tapped into the Foundry as a source of fun, then you've benefitted from someone else's hard and largely thankless work.
So, yeah, offer a fair review. Throw whatever stars you think the quest deserves. Hey, all opinions are subjective, and yours is as good as the next guy's. But keep in mind that someone else took the time to try and create something for you to enjoy. Be nice. Give 'em the benefit of the doubt. At the very least, offer something constructive if you were disappointed.
Oh, and it's always okay to throw a tip in the tip jar on your way out the door. While you were gathering T2 loot from the latest Dungeon Delve event, someone else was dragging 3D objects and placing sound Fx on a map just to make you happy for a few minutes.
Post edited by docsc00ter on
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Very well said! +1
Threads: Part 1: Rising of the Dragons (NW-DNGIC6AJC) | Part 2: Abyssal Pursuit (NW-DESQ9HQAZ)
Please feel free to try mine below for ideas and possibilities.
Which is just as well as our brave fingers have bled on unbalanced combat and broken quest objectives. We've fallen through worlds, been trapped in immovable objects and often find ourselves spawn-camped by 'bosses'. And while most of us aren't morons, we suffer being dismissed as part of some collective unwashed. So in the same spirit, I say:
HURRAY FOR ALL THE FOUNDRY PLAYERS!
May we live in Never-Ending harmony for many moons to come :cool:
PS:
On the upside, you see far less of this now than you did a month or two ago, so the penny is dropping.
And still you pull off some brilliant feats!
Prologue: Fort Neverember
NW-DL2RVQ54C
Chapter 1: The Gray Portrait
NW-DHGEFBMGD
34567890
[UGC] Kolde Acres (Discontinued)
*goes back to bughunting his own quest*
[SIGPIC]http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/image.php?type=sigpic&userid=98570189&dateline=1372572330[/SIGPIC]
NW-DCJV53UTU
[Open for play, link to spotlight thread]