Posted by Ryan Collins | 15 Comments
Highlighting Feature In Human Revolution Could Be Optional
There are some developers that are receptive of criticism from gamers, and they might change features before a game ships if enough people want something changed. The newest Deus Ex game has a highlighting feature that many are against, and if the actions on the Eidos official forums are any indication, it may be toggle-able option.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is being created by Eidos, but it has a problem that some claim takes away the exploration aspect. In the previous games, if your mouse hovered over an interactive item, it’d have a bracket around it. For this game, they’ve taken it a step further, highlighting all the possible interactive items in the area without having to mouse over each piece. Granted, it doesn’t show you what the necessary objective item is, but some are claiming it’s far too intrusive and ruins immersion despite the fact that it is part of the main character’s augments.
Eidos is listening to their forums goers, as user Graeme mapped out why that feature is bugging him so much. Instead of just telling him that it was wrong or banning him from the forums, they’ve “stickied” his thread for all to see. Moderators are actually asking for people to post criticism, so long as it doesn’t devolve into trolling. But their kindness doesn’t end there.
There is now a poll asking if people want that highlighting in the game or not. “Modify highlighting; have ON/OFF toggle in options menu” is currently winning, and it ‘s something that I hope personally wins. Why would you vote for “Remove all”?
It’s the little things like this that count in the end. The bridge between developer and gamer hasn’t burnt into the river for everyone.
Update: His thread isn’t stickied. I thought the paper thing was such. Thanks to the comment section for pointing out my error.
[Source: Official Eidos Forums and Polls]
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Needs more underwater timed escort stealth missions, that fail if you’re spotted.
Do not listen to this guy.
dear god please no
Phil, C’mon, you’re taking away our last chaaayaaayaaance. Don’t take it away! Can’t you hear our heart?! Hahaheh.
Will it have reversed controls, and an NPC that moves slower than you run but faster than you walk?
Will not happen. They shat on us for every feature we complained about, I don’t see this changing now. Also Eidos doesn’t give a single shit about their forums or anything else, so stop calling them “receptive of criticism”.
Sounds like your an avid connoisseur of wine.
Somehow your condescending comment loses something when you misspell you’re…
You are grammar moron.
[...] by loveline1 to gaming [link] [48 [...]
OK this just looks like a lot of fun dude.
http://www.privacy-online.it.tc
Eidos Montreal aren’t receptive to feedback at all. Fans have been giving feedback on their forums for over three years now, and up until this, every single issue, without exception, has been ignored. Every. Single. One. The fact that they’ve not banned someone for starting a thread highlighting (no pun intended) the issue does not, by any means, make them a shining example of fan interaction: they’re bloody terrible.
Also, the thread’s not stickied (at time of writing, at least: there’s an overzealous mod who’ll probably sticky it if they see this article) it’s just at the top of the non-stickied threads because people keep posting in it.
Look at that picture you posted btw: Doesn’t it look great? Now imagine if the computer, chair and window (on the very left of the screen) were outlined. It’d look much worse. Even aside from the handholding aspects, the highlighting is aesthetically terrible.
who gives a shot u spammer?
This story is pointless and bullshit. In the end they didn’t do anything. Nothing is sure.
BUT! Here is what Splash Damage did with Brink. Now, this wasn’t even that big of an issue, but there were people complanining about the fact that enemies have red outlines (since the game has crazy customization). And they made it optional.
There was no big rage about it, just a few people suggested it on their forums. And boom. They did it.
That is a much better than just this “May be optional”.
There’s a stark difference between taking off an outline on a total of 7 characters onscreen than an outline that highlights every interactive item in the game which is part the concept of the character.
When the game is released and this is useless, then we can throw hissy fits and pout all day. I, for one, am happy that any consideration is being taken.
EM receptive to criticism? Since when?
Let’s ignore the debate over whether it’s even healthy for a developer to allow forum feedback to affect their design. The Human Revolution forums have been a hotbed of unhappiness with EM’s direction for YEARS, with too many issues for me to count off my head. EM’s general response to any voiced criticism has either been dismissive or to ignore it outright. They’ve been extremely cagey and and sometimes downright misleading when asked questions about basic features and the PC version and their relationship with HR forum community has basically been non-existent. For all their self-touted admiration for “DX Fans”, they’ve shown surprisingly little.
That they finally (MAYBE, NOT SURE) caved in on the issue of highlighting is nothing to give them kudos over, because out of the huge list of things many players don’t like about HR, highlighting should be the easiest problem to fix and a no-brainer at that.