because of comments like these made me less and less show up here. you kind of get the idea
Well, people don't owe devs a tug just for making a game. You've put something out that people have a right to praise or be critical of and, unlike your own moderated platforms, mods aren't here to save your feelings.
I've seen comments sections going too far, but I'm forced to agree that an update taking more than 3x longer than the dev stated is a big issue. Story driven VN's being reduced to grindy sandbox games with next to no story content in new updates, that's a problem. Hell, the people crying about the 5th ai ntr phone game of the day is still a valid complaint.
Criticism isn't insults, but insults can still be criticism. And all criticism IS valid, even if it's not the direction you choose to take your own game. If you can't accept the fact that some people aren't going to like what you've created, you shouldn't be putting what you've created out there in the first place. Most people aren't trolls, they literally just want you to succeed bc they want to enjoy the time they spend playing games. When you have a bunch of people all voicing the same complaint, you can be sure the underlying issue is a very real, very big issue. You've probably got 10x the number of people voicing that complaint feeling precisely that way and just moving on to something they are enjoying. And when those voices disappear, you've typically completely lost your audience. And this holds true for every creative outlet, not just games.
No one wants any dev to fail. We want every game, every tv show, every book, every movie, every streamer and every YouTuber to make great content. No one wants to come away from doing the thing they love feeling bored, disappointed, or ripped off. And yes, even when someone isn't paying for a product, they're still investing their most precious currency into that thing - time. Time they could've spent on something they get enjoyment out of. For those people, there is no sunk cost fallacy - they don't try to justify the money they've spent, you just get their raw feelings for better and worse.
It's easy to forget that, but I'd suggest any dev that is hurt by criticism to ask themselves why they'd complain about a game they're playing. I can guaranty that the reason people complaining about your game are doing so for the same reason you'd complain about someone else's. What you need to ask is if you're drawing out that response intentionally or if you just made a mistake that you can fix.