About a week or so ago I bought the Cobalt Alpha. It isn't exactly my kind of game but I did believe it had potential. My friend, Neillithan, loves these kind of games, so I let him play my copy. He loved the game and quickly started finding bugs and thinking of ways to improve the game. He decided to make a YouTube video of his thoughts of improvement and suggestions.
December 21, this video was posted as a thread on the cobalt forum and youtube at the same time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BBpOkvRU0Q&feature=youtu.be&hd=1
YouTube comments were disabled to help create discussion on the thread. The thread quickly became heated as the fanboys of the community swarmed, not wanting the game to be changed in any way. According to them, a brand new ALPHA game, that has NEVER had a update, was perfect.
Cobalt is hardly a polished game (It is however, a very decent game), and the issues Neil brought are were legitimate, and his suggestions reasonable. Debating occurred. Some people liked some of the suggestions, some people thought both ways should be enabled in the game, but some were adamant that nothing be changed ever and everyone who disagreed should be chased from the community.
The next day something amazing happened. TheWreck (Head developer of Cobalt) posted in the thread with a massive comment. He agreed with all of Neillithan's ideas except for the ability to use the mouse to aim. Neil posted a response and we waited to see if he would reply. Being very near Christmas, we didn't expect a post for a few days, and the debate in the thread continued.
This morning I checked the thread to see if anyone else had responded or maybe TheWreck. But I couldn't find the thread. After checking three times I realized that the thread had been deleted for apparently no reason.
Neil logged on and couldn't believe it, and checked himself to make sure it had been deleted, and then found this message, along with a warning of violation, from the moderator Opeth.
http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/orig/12/35804040546-orig.jpg
This thread was watched by the moderators for four days, with moderators even posting in the thread, reminding people to be civil (It was at times a very heated debate). The fact of the matter is, Opeth disagreed with Neil's ideas and suggestions and deleted the thread, despite the fact of it having a response from the head developer.
We attempted to get the thread restored, but the Opeth would not budge. The Cobalt forums block caching with google, so we're unable to get the thread back (“
http://www.cobaltforum.net/topic/659-some-of-my-constructive-criticisms-ideas” if you want to give it a shot). But if you look at Neil's profile, you'll see he has 30+ post, all of which were part of that thread.
This is incredibly oppressive and immature, and should never be tolerated.
So what do I want from this. I'm not sure. This is just fucked up and I know the Penny Arcade community loathes this kind of stuff. Do what you will with the information.
Posts
anything
o...k?
Because that will most definitely NOT happen.
and so it goes, a snowballing tale of forum moderators deleting boring threads
Possibly even serious business?
this is a hacking thread now tell me all about your hacks
get over to the christmas hangout!
Did you say a raid? I'm sorry, is this 4chan, or did I somehow arrive on reddit? Anon? Scumbag tactics will never solve anything. Crawl back into your hole and go fap to some Shota.
THIS is what supports PAX, and Child Play? I find that fucking hilarious. I expected decent people, but now I know exactly how Jerry and Mike get their ideas for the comic anymore; they just go on their forums and look around for a few minutes.
we are slain
talk about a disproportionate response
So what do I want from this. I'm not sure. This is just fucked up and I know the Penny Arcade community loathes this kind of stuff. Do what you will with the information.