I think a lot of developers may gain a lot of insight from reading today’s Penny Arcade comic strip:
If you feel you EVER done that… well now you can look at it from a third-person point of view and perhaps realize where your error lies. 
I think I’ve done something like that but, of course not that exaggerated.
“What do you think I could add to this game?”
“blah blah blah”
“I think I might want to keep ‘blah blah blah’ out because it would take away from this.”
Sure I"m reasoning but I still could think of a compromise.
Cartoon makes a good point.
At one stage of my current game’s development I had gotten so close to Monster Truck Racing, I zoned in and saw the game as perfect in my minds eye.
I had a good friend come over to give some feedback who is a gamer, but who is also brutally honest…
As he laid out his brutal honesty on the faults of the game, what he didn’t like, or how something should feel, in my head I was cursing him and was actually very angry, as he didn’t ‘see’ my game as this perfect creation.
I still thank him for that day, the game has come in leaps and bounds since then and the feedback has helped polish the game immensely.
I still can’t help getting a little defensive when someone makes a criticism on my game, but I think that’s just human nature, our game projects become our baby child that we nurture, and become very protective of.
Feedback is good though. If it makes you emotional or angry, write it down in a list, and come back and look at the points the next day, when you can look at them with a clear head, in most cases you’ll see that feedback in a different light, and it will improve your game. Sometimes feedback is also just really bad, or it’s something you don’t agree with based on your game’s design, which is fine too.
I’ve seen a lot of people do this, on a few different sites. They just shut down any input that’s given if it doesn’t match what they want to hear.
Accepting criticism is a skill, apparently. Not everyone is good at it.
I totally see where you’re coming from here.
Coming from film making to game dev, I take constructive criticism well. I struggle to digest feedback like “It sucks!” and that’s it. Drives me mental.
Yeah. Using “honesty” in a non-constructive often way boils down to, somebody has an ego, they like swinging verbal clubs at people, and they are lying to themselves and saying the receiver should appreciate it, that it’s a good thing.
I think the problem is that when people ask for feedback, most of the time they are actually asking for validation.
And to be entirely fair, it’s not unusual for people asked to give feedback to get a little drunk on power and dish out abuse instead of useful opinions.
Most people stink at giving the kind of feedback that truly improves, but on the other hand, most people stink at receiving good feedback when it’s given. Fair and balanced?
Gigi
PS - I can improve products, but don’t ask me for validation. My feedback is designed to make a better product - it’ll be brutally honest. Unless your Will Wright or Jenova Chen, it’ll hurt.
I think one important aspect is that I would never ask another “designer” for feedback (unless they have a history of creating blockbuster games). Because we get back to the fact that 99% of indie designers’ ideas suck, therefore, their suggestions to you would also suck.
Show your game to gamers, not designers. Make sure these are people that want to PLAY a fun game, not make one.
This.
Also, it can very helpful to guide your testers if you are looking for specific feedback. For example if you feel your controls may be an issue and you ask overly general questions, you may get opinions about the color choices. Certainly general feedback can be helpful, but focusing the responses toward areas of concern is valuable.
Good point. After all gamers are your target market, they are the ones that must have all the fun.
+1
I don’t think it needs to be that way. I believe brutality and honesty are two orthogonal concepts, and that it is possible to offer an honest opinion without offending someone who is looking for actual feedback.
Shaderop offered me some advice for my own program. I may have been a bit stubborn about some aspects, but I did also take a lot of his advice to heart. It is true that not everyone is good at offering “honest criticism”. Its a tricky balance between the person offering the advice not being offensive and the person receiving it not being easily offended.
I think, as designers, we just need to keep in mind that most criticism will sound offensive to us (even if its not supposed to be). I love the idea of writing this feedback down and coming back to it later with a clear head.
So why do you think constructive criticism has to hurt?
Also how do you think people will react to the things you say if you already know you will hurt them?
In the intro to the Walker Boys’ Studio Unity Training they have a really interesting book recommendation: “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie. It has nothing to do with games at all. Yet you may want to read it.
One thing i learned from watching totalbiscuits wtf is series was that PC games love to have a very configurable option menu as well as having fully rebindable keys. Coming from a more console gamer background I thought he was having a laugh and would have probably overlooked a suggestion like that as unneeded but after watching video after video he kept on and it makes sense when you have such a wide variety of hardware and the people with the latest and greatest will want to push it to the max (something not even most AAA developers bother with).
How dare you even suggest that we’d fail to listen to others critisims? Bad joke is bad.
How dare you insinuate that i have flaws in my person and can’t take criticism!!!
People usually feel they need to defend their decisions all the time. If you want critique and feedback just be silent and listen, then say thank you, evaluate what was said and act upon it as you wish. If you want a hug, just ask for a hug
^ This!
Gigi