GIANTS Software - Forum

Noraf wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:17 pmAnd the ones of us that actually doesn't have problems with the game probably should voice that better too.

Here's the reality of the situation, only 5-10% of the player base even reads the forum and a smaller % actually posts anything on the forums. Forums are but one tool to gather feedback from the community as a whole and gaming companies would be in error if they used forums as their only source of information. On the other hand, forums work well for seeing where your game as issues or positives and when combined with other feedback avenues, they provide some guidance on where to take the franchise.

Here are what I've seen on the forums:

• People generally are ok with the game and would really like it if their annoyance/bug of choice were fixed. Some of these annoyances/bugs are minor in some peoples eyes, some are great travesties in the eyes of others.
• People who transitioned from FS17 to FS19 did so mainly because of Deere, graphics update and the placable/terrian system. Therefore if FS21 doesn't have some good incentives, FS21 will be challenging to get people to transition too.
• Due to some software changes and some modders dropping their support, some key mods from FS17 (seasons, GPS, courseplay) are causing people to have a poor gaming experience until these mods come out. For those who want to use these mods, this exposes issues with the Helper AI, causing people to claim they are reverting to FS17 or moving to different games.
• DLC is good, nitch DLC means less to the broad audience.
• Communication is satisfactory to pathetic depending on expectations.

The forums indicate that the game would be fairly well received if the annoyances of bugs and perceived required mods were addressed. This brings up the question of will the game still be in peoples interest once the issues are addressed. If we look at google trends for the terms Farm Sim 19, Farm Simulator 19 and Farming Simulator 19, the data shows a 6 month high on November 20. If we sum the values at that point and set it to 100, we are currently at 11% interest as of today as there was on November 20, almost a 90% fall off. The data also shows some spikes, most of these are weekends, but there are two that are significantly higher than the trend line, December 26 and February 10. December 26 is fairly obvious because that is the day after Christmas where people are purchasing/playing the game they received as a Christmas gift or finally have time to indulge. The other spike is February 10, which is the weekend after the 1.3 beta patch was released. You know where there are no spikes, the DLC announcement; which generated no additional interest in the game. German data is relatively flat after release, has a worse fall off; with many other countries being the same, most without the 1.2 beta patch spike.

As of now, FS19 is only generating about 3x the interest of FS17, a mature game that is over 2 years old. FS17 took over 2 years to see the same 90% drop off in its trend line, which was basically driven by FS19s release, and was only at a 70% drop off 5 months from its launch, 19% better than FS19. Using this source of data, it would imply FS17 was better received than FS19.

Putting the forums together with the trends data means Giants needs to get the game back in front of the public; which they are currently failing at or they will have a hard time pushing new DLC to their player base. They also need to fix the game and provide innovative content so the players will promote the game to their peers. What communications they provide should be on a regular rhythm and provide some reasonable value.

The primary problem is the total lack of communication. They assign a new community coordinator, who manages to post and coordinate even less than the previous one. And what he posts mostly pertains to the new DLC, and not any of the issues people are having. I personally don't have any game breaking issues, but the lack of communication is bothering me. Combined with the announcement of the whole eSports debacle, and how that supposedly would not cause any delays in the development of the actual game. I'm not that interested in the DLC either, not enough new functionality and the brand means nothing to me. It's also not just the english forums that are mostly ignored, there isn't much official activity in the german forums either. The lack of competetion will likely mean that this won't impact the future of the series that much, but it does create a window of opportunity for a potential competitor to step in and do better.

I'm sorry but these dev blogs don't make sense. They don't have any flow and the pictures in the first one did not relate to the content. This blog was titled "the impact that the new DLC has on animals" but the article explained how FS19 has horses and that you need to transport cows milk ?

I love the game and have no complaints with it unlike many. I was looking forward to the dev blogs being just that, articles about new content and future features in development or what is being worked on right now.

Keep up great work with the game content, so far FS19 has been amazing, landscaping and placeable animal pens has changed the game completely for me.

instead of complaining about how it is done, why not show how you think it is done and work together, no wonder the world is turning to what it is, just bark and no help, then wonder why no one there to help you, we are just hurting ourselves and the progression of the game for things that are moot,
lucky giants made its game available to mod, snap out of it people, dont expect from another what you can not or will not do for yourself,

I agree with you. Maybe we have ALOT less nagging and complaining if giants went back to the way it use to be and just keep fs to the PC format and forget about the console users. Heck most of the great modelers went to selling there mods on F
acebook. With some on here can you blame them?

MrMystery wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:06 pm Wow! Just wow!
I can't get over how toxic the forums here have become of late.
It's like every post from Giants gets met with abuse, sarcasm or just general complaining.
It's such a shame because I used to come here and search for solutions and find helpful answers. Heck, just passing time by reading random threads was pleasurable. But now? Honestly the Steam forums are much less unpleasant than here. Congrats to those who have ruined the forums here. I hope you are pleased with yourselves.

DeDenker wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:41 pm

MrMystery wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:06 pm Wow! Just wow!
I can't get over how toxic the forums here have become of late.
It's like every post from Giants gets met with abuse, sarcasm or just general complaining.
It's such a shame because I used to come here and search for solutions and find helpful answers. Heck, just passing time by reading random threads was pleasurable. But now? Honestly the Steam forums are much less unpleasant than here. Congrats to those who have ruined the forums here. I hope you are pleased with yourselves.

Exactly how it is!
I am with FS since 2011. Back then forums were really enjoyable. Everybody was helping everybody and sharing their enthusiasm for the game. The game was not even close to where it is now, and mods were neither, but we all had fun! It seams the more you give people, the less they appreciate it.
Every 'complainer' on this forum, has a decent PC or at least a console, access to internet and a house with a non leaking roof to put his stuff in. Then he chooses to nag about every little thing that isn't exactly he wants it, forgetting that the majority of the world population would trade places within a second because their problem isn't if Giants put the crop they like in the next FS-edition, but their problem is will I have something to eat today!
More then 10 years ago Christian Ammann and Stefan Geiger started to work on the FS-series, and brought it all the way to FS19, and are still going. And I say thank you for that because it gave me a lot of pleasant hours enjoying the game.
To all the naggers I say be at least grateful to them for that, because if Stefan and Christian would have spent their time nagging about some else's work, then you couldn't nag about FS and you wouldn't know what to do with your life....

To Christian, Stefan and the whole Giants team I say thank you for doing what you do! There a lot of people like me who like FS and who will keep buying the next edition and enjoy it!

What they said

Also i feel the more you give someone the more they will expect, they will always want better and more, it reminds me of a scene in Harry Potter where Dudley got two less presents than the prev year, and the tantrum he threw, nothing can ever be good enough for some i'm afraid!