Fallout lead Tim Cain wonders if "gamers know what they like" and reckons feedback is much better when it's specific and focuses on what you want

Cannonballing into a deep developer discussion, original Fallout mastermind Tim Cain asks if "gamers know what they like" in a new video exploring player feedback and preferences. One conclusion he draws is that, no matter what you look for in games, "it would be far better if you said exactly what it is you want instead of just saying what it is you don't want."

Riffing on similar remarks from Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, Cain agrees that "people love to talk about what they hate" – a type of feedback that has become more prominent over the years, in his view. "I totally understand that rage bait gets more clicks," he says, but this "doesn't really explain forums or comment sections where the people who are leaving the comments have no stake in how many people read their comment. But still you find that complaints about features are on the rise, and constructive feedback saying 'I wish they had done this instead' or 'I like this in my games' is on decline."

Cain goes on to say "I see people complaining about features they can absolutely, 100% ignore." He singles out "100% cosmetic-only microtransactions" and the pushback they may get even though they don't affect gameplay (though, I think he misses some counterarguments regarding pricing, free player expression, intrusive promotions, or RNG).

Fast travel comes up as another example of contradictory player behavior, and Dragon's Dogma 2 comes to mind here with its stance on "boring" games. Cain reckons some people can't help but fast travel in certain games even if it worsens their experience. "They would do it even when non-fast travel rewards them by giving them fun encounters or new location discovery," he says, and might argue that "it's the designer's fault" and the feature shouldn't be there at all. I'm also reminded of the classic locomotion problem where players will spam dodge to move around if it's faster than just running, even if it feels dumb. It's me, I'm players.

"If you just say you don't like fast travel but you don't say what you want instead, [developers are] not sure how to implement that fast travel-less game," Cain reasons. Even adding a fast travel setting to the in-game options may not work because some people will then say, "'Don't make me decide how to play your game.'" Consequently, "there's no good solution to this."

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Cain is partly building on the classic sentiment that players are very good at identifying when they have a problem with a game, but often bad at coming up with solutions to that problem, either because they may not fully know what they want, or because they don't have the dev pipeline knowhow to formulate practical ideas. To that end, he says "I would way prefer, on this channel or any forum where you're talking to game developers, say what it is you like, especially why you like that feature."

Cain does agree that sharing your dislikes is important and valuable "when it's specific," but clarifies that feedback like "stop giving us dumb enemies" doesn't help anyone. "It may be that what you meant was, 'These enemies never take cover when there's cover all over the place that I use, but they never take it.,'" he says. "Oh, you want enemies to take cover more frequently. OK, that's constructive, I can work on that."

If anything, Cain encourages players to vote with their wallet more precisely, because "people will say they want certain features, almost that they demand certain features and hate other ones, but then sales figures do not bear that out. They buy games that don't have the features they claim they demand and they buy games with features they claim to hate." Some opinions are minorities and games are made of a bunch of different stuff and some of those things may not be deal-breakers on their own, Cain acknowledges, "which is why it would really help, when you leave feedback on that game, to say, 'I bought it for these features, but I wished you had these instead.'"

"Why is everybody going online to complain?" he concludes. "Because there are a ton of games that you would love. The only conclusion I have is that you just like doing it, you just like complaining. And if that's you, that's fine, I get it. Just bear in mind it's not helping you get better games that you want. It would be far better if you said exactly what it is you want instead of just saying what it is you don't want. Then you have to sit and have that conversation with yourself. Do you even know what it is you want? Do you know what you like?"

Cain recently shared two playthroughs key to Fallout's history: his low-Int hero named Potato, and a mass-murderer who made them check "the entire game" again.