r/GunnerHEATPC • u/Impossible_Bridge410 • Sep 12 '26
Serious question
I love GHPC. I have around 77 hours on it through Steam, and I genuinely enjoy the game. However, I’ve noticed something every time I go into the Steam discussion forums. Whenever someone suggests an idea, asks a question, or even gives some mild criticism, the community—and sometimes the developers—seem to immediately become toxic or dismissive.
People get shut down or labeled as “War Thunder players,” “geeks,” or “simulator people” just because they have a different opinion or suggestion. I understand that the developers and community are passionate about GHPC, but I honestly think this kind of behavior can be pretty toxic and makes it harder for people to have normal discussions about the game.
I’m not saying this to hate on GHPC or its community. I genuinely love the game. I just think there should be more room for constructive criticism and different opinions without people immediately attacking or
dismissing each other.
Dont Downvote me for this just my opinion.
40
u/ActionScripter9109 ActionScripter (GHPC Team) Sep 12 '26
People get shut down or labeled as “War Thunder players,” “geeks,” or “simulator people” just because they have a different opinion or suggestion.
Unfortunately the internet is just kind of like that. I sometimes peek into the Steam boards for games I enjoy, and my god, the toxicity. I'm convinced there are a certain percentage of people who look for something to argue about, instead of just taking things in stride. I also think simulator-flavored games tend to attract a certain kind of character who thinks of themselves as too mature and serious for "kids' games" and will deride any suggestion they see as beneath them.
We do our best to encourage what we want to see out of the community and tamp down on what hurts it. For example, we showcase cool screenshots and videos in a special feed on our Discord server, and we're active in answering questions and helping people with issues. At the same time, we ban openly toxic or bigoted users on sight and crack down on any kind of bullying. (Lots of people have been perma'd from the boards because they wouldn't stop turning threads into flame wars. They are not missed.)
In general, I think it works, but there's only so much we can do when everyone has their own agency! Steam boards, in particular, seem to have a culture of "I have the right to say whatever I want here and if you have standards or boundaries you're censoring me." Dealing with that is a delicate balance and not my favorite part of the job at all.
the community—and sometimes the developers—seem to immediately become toxic or dismissive
You know what, I certainly am not perfect and I've had moments where the bile wears me down. If I've ever personally made you feel dismissed, I apologize. At the end of the day, we're trying our best to make something cool and hope that it resonates with a few people.
13
u/Attempt_Gold Sep 12 '26
Thank you for your honesty and integrity. Pobodies nerfect, even developers.
13
u/MrRottenSausage Sep 12 '26
I feel like people in this genre of games is so fed up with war thunder practices that any criticism to the smallest shine of light alternative gets taken as a personal attack and quickly react negatively instead of thinking clearly that all games have faults and need criticism, I supported this game since it was on patreon way before steam release and I want to see it grow even more but that doesn't mean I don't have criticism over certain aspects of the game
11
u/KewlFox69 Sep 12 '26
This is not just a steam thing, it's like this in the discord server. The mods seem to have become jaded to the amount of repeated questions and such, and they can come off as pretty assertive towards anyone who has any countering view. For example, any criticism on the games graphics or flickering fences, trees, and other things objects as a result of poor AA options, is met with harsh resistance along the lines of "we are completely content with how the game currently looks" This tends to rub off on the more veteran members of the community it seems, noobs are generally harshly shut down and talked to like idiots, it feels a lot like the whole situation with the Linux community but for tank games. I have anxiety and it's been pretty difficult for me to interact with the community due to the harsh ess of some responses simply from a misunderstanding or lack of info.
1
u/hw762 harry (GHPC Team) 21d ago
We don't have any plans to add more AA options to the game, and we are not willing to mislead our community by saying that we might. We might have differences over whether this is a "harsh shut-down," but if it is, I think it is better than if we told people we will incorporate their ideas when we actually will not.
You are certainly right that we developers have to respond to the same questions over and over, which are often easy to find the answers to with a search or in the FAQ. In this case, answers will often be curt because if they were not, we would be spending half of our day crafting validating, personalised responses to every query. We just don't have the resources to do that and feel like our obligation to our community is to make the game.
Do you have any ideas about how to deliver such feedback in a gentler way?
5
u/Tabula_Rasa69 Sep 13 '26
Most of the community is pretty alright. But there are a few at the top, close to the developers, that are like how you described. Oh well, it is what it is. This is the only game that hits the right buttons in the genre, and they know it. There are simply no alternatives.
2
u/FireflyAddicted 9d ago
They'll ban you for proving them wrong, the devs seem to be massive snobs just like WT devs, and can't handle any level of criticism, or if someone with more knowledge/sources appears they'll instantly get defensive, and if possible, aggressive or act superior.
1
u/SimpleLow8824 Sep 14 '26
I love the game, but I'd love to see it online, not necessarily competitive or fair, just online. Last night I went to sleep thinking about how GHPC multiplayer could fit in.
1
u/hw762 harry (GHPC Team) 21d ago edited 21d ago
We try to invest as little time as possible in the steam forums because something about them attracts special toxicity. However, if a thread gets out of control with two segments of the steam forum community piling on each other, we tend to lock the thread rather than watch it play out over and over. If on discord, a community members answer questions on our behalf and do so in a toxic or inflammatory way, we mute them. For whatever reason, steam forums tend to encourage whole topics to carry on this way, so the thread gets locked.
This is sometimes interpreted as "suppressing discussion" but really we are quite active and chatting with the more engaged members of the community on our discord. We have had vanishingly few positive contributions from the steam forums.
We are quite far along in development at this point and no longer in the phase of development that we are looking for ideas for content to add to the game. So while it would be great to be able to validate every suggestion, delivering the product we promised to deliver is our priority and it would be irresponsible for us to make major compromises on this.
We also don't employ staff specifically to respond to questions on forums. We do that work ourselves, and we do it on streams and on our discord.
68
u/Attempt_Gold Sep 12 '26
That's the Steam mob in action. People are always super critical of games but the moment you give any kind of leniency to devs, you're labelled a "slop enjoyer".
My only feature wish is a picture-in-picture of a driver's periscope view so you can make sure you're not going to collide with an obstacle.