There’s something I noticed with the launch of Areae, but also in other cases: Raph was all over the forums within seconds. Discussing the name, teasing and even answering back to some harsh comments that systematically come up when his name appears on a “gaming” board (that is where he has the most obstinate antagonists).

And it looked like he loved all that.

From an interview at Stratics, where he demonstrates again that we can only aspire to become very pale, miserable imitations:

Really, it’s about touching players, and all of us being in a community. Today, it’s all so big that it can be hard to do.

His way of dealing with the revelation of Areae is something I noticed because it’s exactly how I deal with things, or how I would deal with them.

I cannot understand other devs and designers who go along doing their thing completely isolated. You have to beg to have your feedback considered, and it’s crazy.

I always thought that if I ever actually designed something, something under my responsibility, then I would be all over the boards when that part is revealed. I would refresh every forum I know every thirty seconds to read possible feedback about what I did, to see if it works, to see if the players liked it or not, to discover its flaws. I would BEG to get as much feedback as possible and then I would be there answering the questions and already figuring out what is going to be the next step. What needs fixing, what needs more work, how I can tweak things so they can better match the intended purpose.

You can be sure that within hours I would have already a very good and exhaustive picture of the whole situation and already laid down a plan about the next move. If there’s a problem you could be sure that it would be promptly acknowledged and that I’d do my very best to find a better solution.

I consider the “evaluation” like the most important part of the job. And not just because it’s the outcome of your efforts, but because it represents the next starting point. Reiterations. You learn from what you did and that’s the basis of what you’ll do next.

I really don’t know how I could do *without* that. If there’s something I’m working on, then I’d be all over that. Because the answer of the players, positive or negative is everything that feeds what I’m doing, that suggests me ideas, that gives me a good perception of how things are. I’d be anxious of seeing how players react to what I’m doing, to see if my ideas are confirmed.

And that’s also the kind of “communication” that I think is indispensable. I just cannot imagine things in another way. It’s natural.

Well, Raph has always excelled on this front.

And today, there’s this whole cloud about whether SWG interacted with the community, but I really think we had a very special connection to players in the development days.

And it’s true. I was only able to peek in during the final weeks, but there was definitely something special.

There’s always something special when Raph is involved. I just hope the different focus of Areae won’t make the discussions lose the “heath” that is typical when we deal with worlds that we are really passionate about. From a meanie comment on FoH:

Well, you have to be happy that he’s off screwing up his own thing, instead of screwing up things we care about.

But it’s exactly when he screws things we care about that I like him the most :)