I'm glad that we had an opportunity to hear you out in this thread and during the community meeting that we hosted. We genuinely appreciate constructive criticism and will definitely work on some areas for improvement that we've taken note of during the last few weeks. It's key for us to understand these and one of the most valuable inputs are of course our players who experience the gamemode and community regularly from the perspective of a regular user.
I will also point out that we don't agree with all of the criticism or statements that have been raised and that's the way it works. Criticism and disagreements work both ways, but we certainly welcome it as long as its with good intensions. Some really valuable criticism has definitely been raised and we are using it to improve aspects of the community and gamemode. With all that said, I will conclude and lock this thread now. We've locked these sort of threads in past and will continue doing so since they carry a high probability of escalating, becoming messy and turning into drama. You can disagree, but for me that's not about censorship, but about the having these highly critical and tense discussions in the right setting to keep them constructive and allow them to yield productive results. For example, better settings might be voice chats such as during community meetings or threads focused on specific and concrete topic as opposed to a broad free-for-all. Another example of this sort of sectioning is staff and player reports - we have specific sections for these to ensure some degree of due process and structure to dealing with them and reaching an outcome. In summary, we always welcome criticism, as long as it's channelled in the designated settings and with constructive intensions.
The point above is not something I invented overnight but something that has been close to heart ever since I founded Monolith. I've been in communities where large drama threads are a constant thing, leading to a depressing and tiresome atmosphere that ruins the joy and positivity that a game community is supposed to be about. Worst of all, those sort of threads generally failed to yield meaningful results since they quickly lost any structure and focus. Maybe just to show that this has been considered very carefully for a long time, I'll conclude this thread by pasting part of our Steam Group's description that I wrote before we launched Monolith:
"Our vision extends beyond the game experience. We hope to see a better kind of environment than what is far too common in many communities. This ought to be a friendly place. Not necessarily an overly polite one, but at the very least a respectful one. Of course, we will allow criticism and good-hearted jokes, but there's a line when fun goes from being just that and is rather more offensive and excessive. Nobody here should come home from school or work - tired from a long busy day - and confront hate, abuse or drama - and all that kind of nonsense that ruins what communities are really supposed to be about. This community is about achievement, ambition, and fellowship. We will do everything we can to make sure that you can contribute as far as you want, have a good time with your friends, and importantly - feel proud of what we accomplish together."
Thank you for all the constructive feedback and criticism over the last few weeks - now we'll be looking at how to concretely address it to improve the community and game experience.
