How important is feedback to you?

[druadic]

Just how important is feedback from fellow VP'ers to your work? It means quite a bit to me for the fact that if something needs to be updated or just to know if you've done a good job then let me know. Please vote and post a small bit of information about WHY feedback is important to you. The less the feedback to me, the worse I've done. Let me know folks and thanks for voting!

Will / druadic

 

[tiltjlp]

Extremely Important

With me, it's more input than feedback, since with my origianls, I send them to at least a dozen folks, and ask for suggestions and opinions. A good example is Reactions Bagatelle, which I sent to 18 people, both flipperless folks and ones who are mostly VPM fans. Of those 18, I got 14 replies, and some very good input. A number of the suggestions I got led to improvements to the table, and one even helped me solve a problem I was having.

I also use this system as quality control, and I've uncovered a number of glitches I might have missed otherwise. I do this to a lesser degree with my recreations, but still use it, but mostly as checks and balences with my partners. As Druadic knows from me being his game tester, I am a demon for testing and tweaking, often testing a table for longer than it took to make. But I take it seriously, and am proud to say that with 7 tables to my credit, alone or in partnership, there has nevrr been even one glitch involving anything I could control.

To sum up my attitude, which every one of my partners get's tired of hearing, Let's test it for another week or two just to make sure.

John

 

[Rockinghorse]

YES

Hi All,

Input is important. It doesn't matter if it is good or bad, so long as it is intended as an aid and not an attack........

I find that having the input from others helpfull.....Just check out the thread for "Heretic WIP" which is still under going changes and you will see what I mean....Others have given their ideas and they have transferred to the table and it is improved by this....It just makes the whole process easier because you know before you release a table if it is in the Good, Bad or UGLY categories....

Thanks

BCNU

RH

 

[druadic]

Okay....

Thank you John and Rockinghorse for the votes. We have a total of 3 for YES they ARE important. The other two only count if those folks post. So we have three votes so far. Thanks for the info guys.

Will / druadic

 

[bob]

Feedback - If you release a table, usually your friends will give you a little feedback, they aren't going to be very critical of your work, so you really have to disregard what they say. If you are a heavy feedback giver, then you will also get some feedback "payback" where the person feels he owes you a little feedback, so you can disregard what they say also. Now what feedback is left after you take away your friends or your payback feedback is what counts, and if you're lucky enough to have any left, then your table is still on someone's harddrive.

This sounds very critical, but it is just a reality, there are well over a 1000 tables out there now, and you'd be lucky to find someone who plays more than 25 to 50 different tables on a regular basis.

Making tables is suppose to be fun, it is not a job, no one will ever make a fortune with these tables. Make them for yourself, enjoy them, share them with everybody, but do it for the fun of it.

I have made 7 tables, and a couple have received zilch feedback. Memory Zone is really cool and it was fun to make, but it's not a pinball table. I doubt if anyone ever plays it, but I like it :) and even I don't play it anymore :) I really don't play any of my tables after I release them, I'm already bored with them myself :)

Feedback - it's nice if you get it, but don't expect it, and don't forget to thank them for it. We all can't be Scapino's :)

 

[brutus]

Good and i'm workeing on it.

For 8 years i have been buying and finding PC pinball.As far as i'm concerned the end user of VP should have nothing to complain about,but maybe being a Beta Tester like i am.
:D
Please provide where we can give input,not complaints.
:D

 

[druadic]

Re: Good and i'm workeing on it.

For 8 years i have been buying and finding PC pinball.As far as i'm concerned the end user of VP should have nothing to complain about,but maybe being a Beta Tester like i am.
:D
Please provide where we can give input,not complaints.
:D

Brutus,

I am not asking for complaints but input. I'm asking exactly the opposite of what you just typed. Nothing more. Thanks folks for the posts. It's appreciated.

 

[scapino]

For me, the best feedback is bug reports, and also pointers from owners of the real machines, as to how I can make my tables more realistic.

Most of the kudos, and complaints, really come down to a matter of personal taste.

Some people like my tables, some dont.

As they say in Hawaii, where I grew up,

aint no big ting, brudda!

Kurt

 

[bob]

I just reread my previous post and it sounds like a downer, but I was just trying to be honest. Feedback is Great! But unless you're the Pinball Wizard, or Homecoming Queen, it just ain't gonna happen in abundance.

Here's an example of an actual thread I saw by a popular top author. . . . In his 1st post he shows a screenshot and anounces his release and gives the download link. Then there are (7) posts where members are WoWing this table, 3 posts commenting on how much fun it was to play this table.

Then the next post is from someone saying he can't get the table to startup, "He Can't Get The Table To Start!!!" The author then explained that he changed something or goofed up, (I can't remember) but he said "sorry" he would reupload a working table. So what does this tell you? I forgot the "Suckup to" feedback and the "BS" feedback in my original post. We all have seen it, but when they tell us this BS, we like it :) Hey Feedback is Great!

If I like a table, I try to always leave a little positive feedback. If I think you are the best, I'll tell you. I never criticise someone's hard work, I even have been guilty of the "BS" and "Payback" feedback.

And I haven't even mentioned the "Sympathy" Feedback yet :) and then there's the "Let's give the Newbie some support" Feedback. And another type of feedback isn't feedback at all, it's where the poster says "nice table" and then proceeds to tell everyone what his new table is. I call this "Butting In" feedback.

I guess I still sound like a feedback downer, I'll try harder in my next post :) But I DO appreciate ALL feedback, even the Sympathy feedback. :D

 

[tiltjlp]

Well, what you're talking about, Bob, I don't even consider feedback. To me feedback comes in respose to WIP, when it might actually help the author solve a problem or improve his work. Like anyone else, it's nice to hear positive comments about a release, and I appreciate it, but I see that as somethjing other than feedback. So I guess there are really two different things here, input, which is very important to me, and feedback, which is nice to hear, but not as important, since it comes after the table is released. But I do agree with Bob, except for most flipperless and a few favorite others, most table get played by me a few times and then forgotten.

John

 

[bob]

Yes! John, you are right! I speak ONLY of feedback in a Release thread! When I release a table, I have grown tired of it, from testing it and working out little problems, and basically doing the best job I am capable of doing. There may be things I would have liked to have done differently, but alas, I didn't possess the skills to accomplish it.

I really am not a team player when it comes to creating, I like to have control of my project. I probably won't do WIP threads anymore, because of this. WIP to me means. . . . Here's an update of what I'm doing, not, here's a project that I need advice on or suggestions for. BUT, I only have done originals, not recreations, where input could make the table more accurate.

So, you may already have figured out that I was the one who voted "No, I could care less - I make what I like." It was the closest choice to the way I feel. I DO like and want feed back, I just don't want you to redesign my table for me when I am done with it. Like I stated above, when I release a table, I've done my best and I am tired of it, I am just making it available to the community.

I also don't read to many WIP threads, as I don't feel qualified or comfortable in making these table changing suggestions. My suggestions are more like "I would like to see this in a cabinet."

Did I mention that Scapino is the pinball wizard? He has recreated some beauties. And that new guy, who's green, Wow! What a first table he released, and the feedback was almost endless for him. Which proves, if you build a superior table, the feedback will come.

 

[tiltjlp]

Some good points Bob, and yes, by the time I release a table, with all the tweaking and testing I do, I need a rest from it too. And most of the input I get from WIP come, as I've said, from sending the table to selected folks rather than from public posts. I do post WIP, since there aren't too many of us flipperless authors, and we all seem to have a specialty, so we do WIP as much for information and promotion as for ideas.

I don't agree with you about not offering comments in other authors WIP. I only offer input if they ask for ideas, or are wondering about something that is giving them fits, and a few times my suggestions have been used and credited. The least important part of all this to me is receiving credit for an idea, all I want are the best tables possible.

And if I could code worth a tinkers dang, I'd work solo all the time, but Reactions wasn't nearly as much fun as it could have been, because I'm lousy with scripting, and needed major help from both BJ & Will. I don't have any problem asking for help, but I hate feeling useless.

And unlike you, I still play Reactions, Bronco Buster, both flippered and flipperless, Seven Up, and County Carrnival weekly or more often. There are a few others of mine I play less often, but I do play them all, and not so much because I made them, but because they are the kind of games I most enjoy, which is why I made them in the first place. And I still play Ultimate Alphabet now and again.

John

 

[druadic]

Thanks for the posts guys!

I really appreciate the posts. A thread that is going in the right direction. I figured most folks appreciate feedback and it's needed not just for an uplifting experience from your just released works, but sometimes fo some important feedback.

John - I've always credited you for ANY help you give me. You know that You've been there when my brain fails to work properly.

Keep the posts coming folks.

Will / druadic