How to contact PD...

[paskowitz]

I cannot believe I never thought of this. All this posting of, PD never listens, there is no news, etc is useless because PD does not read this forum. Its so obvious... PD has a website. On the website they have the address for their offices. What is preventing any of us sending them a good old fashion letter? (well besides shipping costs).

 

[Jay]

Nothing is prevently you sending a letter, many have attempted to contact them directly before with no response.

 

[paskowitz]

Really that sucks... Oh well I will try.

 

[RacingFreak2k3]

I cannot believe I never thought of this. All this posting of, PD never listens, there is no news, etc is useless because PD does not read this forum. Its so obvious... PD has a website. On the website they have the address for their offices. What is preventing any of us sending them a good old fashion letter? (well besides shipping costs).

Actually, if I recall, I thought I read somewhere that PD does actually scan forums around the internet, and I'm going to assume that if they do, that they've been here...but it's not a 100% guarentee.

 

[Jay]

Yeah KY said that they have people doing scaning in internet, and a SCEA employee in charge of GT USA has said he reads GTPlanet. I am sure they are aware of how people feel here.

 

[paskowitz]

Well if they know how we feel then why have they done so little?

 

[Jay]

They have their strategy, we'll learn whats going on soon enough.

 

[RacingFreak2k3]

Well if they know how we feel then why have they done so little?

Concerning what? They haven't really released any concrete information about GT5 at all, so we won't know until they release anything.

Patience, my friend...patience

 

[Paulie]

They have their strategy, we'll learn whats going on soon enough.

I don't like their strategy. One day 5 Christmas's will all come at once, and I think most of us will have a heart attack and die with the overload.

 

[Jay]

Haha, none of us really like it, I wish they would leak us some screenies at least.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Well if they know how we feel then why have they done so little?

Uh, given that Polyphony Digital have pretty much only produced Gran Turismo games since GT3 (including Tourist Trophy), I'd say it's a fair bet that they're actually working on GT5 right now. Just because they haven't realesed any news about it doesn't mean they're not doing anything; indeed, all the time it takes to put together news is time that could be spent working on the game. Besides, Kaz is a notorios perfectionist. The game won't be released until he says it will, and not a moment beforehand. The closer we get to release date, the more news we'll get, but as for now ... what o you think they're doing? Getting drunk down at the local watering hole and laughing at all the GTP members who think another game is in the works when in reality the game's budget has been turned into a bar tab?

Common sense, man!

 

[Jay]

KY has said besides some business trips (probably mostly motorshows like Sema etc) they have been working hard non stop. I don't doubt it considering the scale and quality of game they are trying to produce.

 

[Touring Mars]

Well if they know how we feel then why have they done so little?

You have to remember that Gran Turismo never was and never will be Little Big Planet or Playstation Home. If PD are anything, they are extremely thorough - the attention to detail they have demonstrated in their games from the very outset is a clue as to why progress is sometimes considered "slow".

I'm sure that PD do take on board as much constructive criticism and ideas as they can, but with any aspect of the game's development, there must come points in time where decisions have to be made either way, and therefore no amount of criticism or great ideas are going to influence or change that decision after a certain point, for purely logistical reasons.

We only see the end products of a long process of design, development, testing and decision-making, and hence some end-users may get the false impression that any particular aspect of a game can be simply changed at the drop of a hat, when infact it cannot. Some gamers believe that being loyal to a game franchise gives them the right to be part of the creative process, and indeed, some new games like LBP are actively designed with this concept at its core. But you only need look at PS Home as an example of what can happen if there is a gap between what the end-users demand and what can actually be done yet... (as the link in this post alludes to).

As these forums are testimony to, there is room for discussion on every detail of the game, endless possibilities and room for improvement, and therefore endless decisions to be made on the shop floor at PD - hence why whatever PD do decide to do (for whatever reason, be it "popular demand" or plain old "that will take too long and we want to release the game next year, not next century") there will always be people who are delighted and others who are left disappointed. Take this classic thread for example. It addresses a key issue and is one that is most likely closer to Polyphony Digital's hearts than any letter you could possibly send, and is no doubt a discussion that KY has had many times himself...

This is why I think you are better off saving yourself the cost of a stamp, and putting away that "Japanese Phrasebook For Writing Helpful Letters" and contributing to a thread here instead. You never know who might be reading

 

[paskowitz]

All great view points, all valid opinions, but I stand by my belief that PD could be doing a lot more related to the community. My comment about "why are they doing so little" is in reference to there interaction with the community not with the game itself. We all know they are hard at work. All it would take is something like every month until release they reveal a new car on the PS Blog. That is something that takes about an hour or two to hash out and publish. Or have one of the people working on the game PD or SCEA/J/E share some insight or have a quick q&a. Simple stuff that is within reason. I am not asking for a play by play of the GT5's development or for every track to be reveal but really just small tidbits on a regular basis. I do not think that is unreasonable.

 

[Ardius]

All great view points, all valid opinions, but I stand by my belief that PD could be doing a lot more related to the community.

They could be, but they aren't, the main reason most games companies don't bother speaking to their communities is because anything they mistakenly say or word badly, they get a massive backlash for it.
For example, Harmonix regularly talks to its fanbase about its Rock Band franchise. Around the launch of RB1, they were quoted as saying that Nirvana's Nevermind album "may" be coming to the game at some point.

However, much later on, after it never came out, Harmonix got quite a bit of flak over it even though they had never officially announced it and I think it really hurt their links to some of the license holders of other music.

It works the same here, a PD representative could come on this forum and say "we might be getting close to securing Porsche's!" and although its not an official announcement, people will take it as such and become particularly enraged when it doesn't happen. This can have a negative effect on PD's reputation and might hurt what chances they did have of securing such licenses.
Same goes for revealing release dates, Harmonix have never revealed the release dates for the PAL launches of Rock Band - because it was EA's job to do that - and still get a lot bad backlash for that.

Also, even if we did have a PD or Sony rep here telling us new info, it wouldn't be any more than we already are getting, they would only release info that they are safe to reveal and that is confirmed. Usually we are informed about confirmed information through the general gaming media, so I don't see what else Polyphony can really tell us at this point, not even release dates.

I agree that sometimes its nice for developers to give us information and talk to us, but overall, its better off for the company to not get involved, ignore the whiners and get very little backlash than to get involved, say the wrong thing/say very little and get large amounts of backlash for "false promises".

 

[balang_479]

ive been thinking alot about GT5 and the more i think the more i am willing to wait for it... i do believe it is going to freaking amazing...
as one said before, patience.

 

[paskowitz]

You make a very valid point, Ardius. I am not saying that it is totally unreasonable for PD to be keep silent. I just think that with such a high profile game that has such a loyal community the community could get a LITTLE something in return. I really mean little. No big news like Porsche in GT5 or Lambo but stuff like I said, "The MB C63 AMG is in GT5 here is a screen shot and some small info about the car. Next month we look at Lotus." No promises or big reveals just small tidbits. I agree it would be a mistake for PD to say stuff like, "well we think GT5 will have every great car every made". But small things, I think are reasonable.

 

[Ardius]

But thats my point, the fanbase is fine as it is, there are very few people who would make real their threats to not buy the game, barely anyone I see here complaining says they won't buy the game, and even if they did I doubt they wouldn't.
I don't feel that Polyphony needs to tell us any more than they already do and with development taking longer and longer as games and consoles become more advanced, we should expect the gaps between information and news to become longer too.

It would be nice for perhaps the team to do little blogs about things, but that requires the employee's personal time, which generally, they don't have much of.
The other alternative is specifcially hiring community managers, but my past experiences with such personnel is that they don't last long. The problem is the same again - they can't talk too much and in the end the community just doesn't listen to them anymore.

Even Relic, a long-time supporter of their fan community, has started scaling back how much they interact with them, Dawn of War 2 will no longer have official mod tools created for it and the communication between the developer and the fans has slowly decreased.

Personally, I will keep this in mind as I attempt to enter the games industry, because I do believe its a massive benefit to a game's life to have a loyal fanbase, but I can full well understand when the fanbase is already extremely loyal that the developer feels it doesn't need to support it anymore. Its also not completely necessary as the core audience that buys the game does not even look at the official sites or even talks on forums about the game. Forum-users make up a very small percentage of the game's fans.

I would have at least thought that creating such a high-quality game series would be reward enough for loyal fans, Polyphony don't owe us anything for continually buying their series, once they have made each game its our choice to buy it. As a amateur programmer I have no idea how much work they have to do on each game just yet, but from what I have been told and heard its not a particularly relaxing or easy job.

 

[DaddyVDUB]

Just a thought Ardius, if your going into the gaming buisness,or any buisness for that matter. The ideal that you dont owe your customer anything will not get you very far. ANY buisness owes EVERYTHING to there customers,because without them you have NO company. As many companys are finding out now.

I know the Ideal you meant...Yes making a quality product very important,but in the long run any unsatisfied customers even if they feel they need to just know something, will at some point just buy something else. In todays world the folks at PD, who a great many are well compensated should be MORE than happy to throw a little tid bit from time to time to those that put them there.

 

[paskowitz]

I was kinda trying to make the point that Daddy made. PD can only benefit from responsible consumer relations. What does this mean: everything we have been saying. Interaction but not too much, info but not promises or proclamations. Companies that actively seek info from the people buying their products are generally produce better products and are more successful as a result. The proof is out their. Look at Critereon and Burnout, Bungie and Halo, Kojima productions and MGS. All these games have been hugely improve as a result of mass community feedback. The thing is even if our interaction delays the game, our interaction will ultimately produce a better product. I am not one of the people here that wants GT5 to come out as soon as possible, I want it to be the best game it can be and that is why I think PD should start actively engaging with the community.

 

[Sureboss]

They could be, but they aren't, the main reason most games companies don't bother speaking to their communities is because anything they mistakenly say or word badly, they get a massive backlash for it.

It's an industry which is very difficult to keep promises on, which is why, as you've said, many just don't bother and I always have a massive respect for companies which do try to keep a 1 to 1 contact with their customers. But they have no idea of problems occurring, so many factors to take into consideration. For example, last year we said we'd have a patch out, we'd done all we needed to on it, yet there was a problem with some publishers which meant the patch was delayed by about 4-5 months. Now, its not got a massive fan base, but the response from the customers is the same. Wasn't fun to try and convince people that we were doing all we could.

If you were PD, would you commit to a release date when you don't know that release date? Because there'll probably be people beta testing it now. I'd be surprised if they aren't. It is impossible to predict problems that may arise so how can they set a release date?

One of the principles of customer care is to never make a promise you can't make. It's consumer suicide.

 

[DaddyVDUB]

I understand what your saying,very valid points. But a little wisdom in WHAT kind of information you release can keep most folks satisfied. No you dont want to commit to spefic dates and such but there is a lot that they could release to keep folks interested.

 

[JAGUAR1977]

I see Sonys Gods of War 3 is now being promoted with screenshots and videos, yet this is a game expected after GT5.

 

[Paulie]

KY has said besides some business trips (probably mostly motorshows like Sema etc) they have been working hard non stop. I don't doubt it considering the scale and quality of game they are trying to produce.

Given that it's actually their job as well, you'd think they go to work every weekday just like everyone else........

 

[DaddyVDUB]

Given that it's actually their job as well, you'd think they go to work every weekday just like everyone else........

WOW, What a novel concept.

 

[daan]

PD are aiming to make GT5 as attractive as possible to the casual gamer. To a certain extent, they don't really care about us, because we are a minority of the total sales that GT5 will achieve, and we're going to buy it anyway.

 

[Jay]

Given that it's actually their job as well, you'd think they go to work every weekday just like everyone else........

Except they have sleeping quarters within the building, the whole building appears very personal (unlike most peoples work places).

Dunno how often they use the sleeping/showering facitlities but I imagine they do more hours then the average. Though thats just speculation.

 

[DaddyVDUB]

PD are aiming to make GT5 as attractive as possible to the casual gamer. To a certain extent, they don't really care about us, because we are a minority of the total sales that GT5 will achieve, and we're going to buy it anyway.

I'm afraid that makes a lot of sense.

 

[Ardius]

Just a thought Ardius, if your going into the gaming buisness,or any buisness for that matter. The ideal that you dont owe your customer anything will not get you very far. ANY buisness owes EVERYTHING to there customers,because without them you have NO company. As many companys are finding out now.

I know the Ideal you meant...Yes making a quality product very important,but in the long run any unsatisfied customers even if they feel they need to just know something, will at some point just buy something else. In todays world the folks at PD, who a great many are well compensated should be MORE than happy to throw a little tid bit from time to time to those that put them there.

When I said "owe us" I literally meant "us" as in, we the forum-community, we the rabid loyal fans. They don't need to do anything to make us buy, because we already will, especially when their product history is so good, the better (and well known) your history, the less you need to do to market yourself.

I'm not so stupid that I'd think they could make any game they want and expect everyone to like it without talking to the audience.

I understand what your saying,very valid points. But a little wisdom in WHAT kind of information you release can keep most folks satisfied. No you dont want to commit to spefic dates and such but there is a lot that they could release to keep folks interested.

I made a point about this earler, with the wisdom of only releasing "safe" news, they end up not releasing very much news at all. People will still find the amount of information we get unsatisfactory and in essence, PD can't win.
They don't need to keep us satisfied with constant information updates, because we all know we are going to buy the game anyway because their product history has been so good, and its not like I'm saying they shouldn't tell us anything, just that they don't need to go out of their way talking to us because there isn't much more to say.

 

[paskowitz]

Well so far I have sent a letter to PD, contacted the PS blog and various members of SCEA (Home manager, marketing director etc). With some luck I will get a response. Keeping my fingers crossed.