The developers of the indie game Tale of Immortal made an apology letter yesterday in response to a recent review bomb by fans on Steam regarding a dispute over not using steam workshop to host mod content.
The developer Guigu Zhangsan claims he was “not familiar with the mod ecosystem and modding community.”, “blinded by his self-righteousness” and “made a very stupid decision”.
In August last year, Tale of Immortal promised to use Steam Workshop for hosting mod content.
The official Weibo of Tale of Immortal promised steam workshop support last August.
But in the end, they chose to have mod content hosted on a relatively less known platform called Fanbook. Compared to the Steam Workshop, Fanbook has very strict moderating rules regarding the content of mods, and the upload process is quite tedious. Some fans took pictures to illustrate that fact, as follows:
The tedious procedure of getting a Fanbook mod for Tale of Immortal.
Since most of the players are playing on Steam, they questioned the decision of introducing a third-party platform that is more complicated to use than the Steam Workshop. Especially after the developers’ sudden change of plans.
The first few online stream discussion sessions between the developers and the players were unproductive. During the stream, developer Guigu lost his temper and argued with players. This further complicated things and caused the mass social media call outs and review bombs later.
In the recently issued letter, Guigu addressed his behavior and apologized for it, and claims the reason the game is using a third-party platform is to have a better regulation on mod contents. To avoid potential political risks, given the tightening of video game regulations by the Chinese government.
Guigu, the developer, said in the letter they would now communicate with Steam staff for more details, and they would guarantee the play experience for fans. Another solution provided by Guigu is that the developers will push the Fanbook team to improve the player experience.
However, these improvements look very superficial and technical and didn’t’ solve the core problems pointed out by the fans.
Judging from the players’ response, they are not entirely buying Guigu’s explanation. Many of them suggest that the Steam Workshop also has a review before post function, they’re just trying to outsource their review duties to the platform.
Angry fans have posted tons of negative reviews for Tale of Immortal.
Tale of Immortal was a highly anticipated Chinese indie game, but now, despite the developer’s attempts to express themselves better, their reputation has already been damaged. Only time will tell if they bounce back from this.
Source: Bilibili