It's the way one complains that makes the differece. In this case and on many others people complain without going into details and without considering the changelog.
They complain mostly poor, not going into details, using only a one path save file, not taking into account that there might also other paths and above all without any reason they act even aggressive.
Here dev admitted it took him a long time to update but also told us the reason why,
Then there comes one smartass who claims to know better and throws a brainless complain about the update and
Saint Blackmoor did what had to be done imo.
I actually agree entirely with you. "Complaining" and "criticism," in my opinion, are at ends of a spectrum. Yes, complaining is more like whining about something, without much detail and without the right sort of magnifying glass. Criticism is more objective and should go into finer details about what works well and poorly in a given product.
So your post seems to me, at least initially, about complaining/criticizing responsibly. Except you defend Blackmoor when he does the opposite. All Blackmoor does is tell the guy to shut up and stop bitching because the first guy didn't pay for the game. That doesn't help anything. All you get is one guy bitching about another guy bitching. Instead of saying something like, "Well, actually, this is a solid update and should set the stage for awesome stuff later, and here's why . . ." he just tells the guy to shut up. Yeah, sure, the first guy is ultimately responsible for his ignorance, but he's not going to be enlightened with basic insults. If you want to rep the positive aspects of a game . . . you have to espouse the positive aspects, not resort to insulting an ignorant consumer.
But my response wasn't meant to criticize Blackmoor directly, nor was it to condone the disrespect blatant in the first guy's comment; it was meant to point out that I think such reviews from nonpaying people do have value, when taken cumulatively, for discerning creators--if the developer is willing to look past the rudeness.
For example, take the general complaint already floating around this thread over the recent update, the very same that inspired this discussion: "This update shouldn't have taken this long . . . like what's new?" Several things might be gleaned from this bland, simple-minded criticism, which is oft repeated for most of these games on this site. Here's my take on what I see with this sort of comment:
A) In general, most people are not going to judge a work/update by the blood, sweat, and tears that went into an update. They are going to judge it by the pleasure they derive from it.
B) The longer the time between updates, the more people expect better quality and more content.
C) People seem to be more accepting of longer development times if a couple of banging scenes are present in the update.
D) The more people like your game, the more frustrated they'll get at longer production times and lack of content.
In my opinion, DDfun failed in relation to topic C. Yes, he worked hard to overhaul the game . . . but what content did he add with what time he had? A long-winded, humorous narrative with little sexual content. That was his choice. His strengths, I'd argue, are his willingness to dive into full-on sex scenes with little preamble (how many other games have we all played where it's rubbing and teasing update after update, for years on end?) and his UNIQUE poses--that is, the poses of his characters in his animations are crazy hot and one-of-a-kind. Instead, the content for this update was geared mostly toward that long-winded story. In short, he did not play to his strengths in this one, for the content that was there.
I'd argue that if DDfun had added at least a superb scene or two with the depth and quality of the animations he has earlier in the game, a lot less people would be complaining about the longer update time. But this is my point of view. The whole balancing act between production times and providing engaging content for players is probably hard to handle. But my point is that if more and more idiots start complaining, in poor language, about the production time and content in an update, it might behoove the creator to look past that rudeness at the deeper problem. The developer may have a balancing problem.
This is a long-winded response, but I'll once more reiterate my point: even harshly and simply worded reviews, when repeated frequently and taken cumulatively, might hold some insight for the keen developer. And, by extension, reviews given by nonpaying people. Again, I am not condoning being rude or insulting in reviews, but nor would I call those people bitches and simply tell them to shut up.
