#009 Orlando thinks: Your taste can destroy lives
Hello everyone, it’s me, Orlando. I’m an Apple fanboy and software engineer at arconsis. From time to time, I publish an article from the series “Orlando thinks” in which I highlight a specific topic that I see as important or exciting. Sometimes it might be just certain aspects of everyday life, but sometimes it might be tips, hints, thoughts, or appeals — but non-sense is not excluded either.
2022 is a great year for fans of point & click adventures: 32 years after the release of Monkey Island, the game’s creator Ron Gilbert announced that an official 3rd part would be released this year. In the meantime, other Monkey Island games continued the story of “Guybrush Threepwood” — but they never contained the secret idea Ron Gilbert had in his mind for decades.
(Click here if you only have question marks in your head by now: Monkey Island article on Wikipedia)
I was totally excited about this announcement. My memories of this game are great. I was a little kid just starting school when my dad once came home with the floppy disks of “The Secret of Monkey Island”. We often sat in front of the PC for hours, puzzling and riddling. And even my mother, who was never really into computer games, had to listen to our retellings of the adventure in the evenings — and laughed and had fun with us!
Why am I telling this? Monkey Island 1 & 2 were games that triggered similar experiences in many families. Even my wife (not a classic gamer) remembers how Ron Gilbert’s masterpieces spread great joy in her home.
Therefore, the anticipation for the announcement was huge worldwide. And with it, the expectations for the sequel.
However, that recently led to a disaster that left me shaking my head.
The attack of the “fans”
After only a teaser was released in April with the announcement, the first trailer hit the web now.
(Watch: Trailer on YouTube)
A wave of anger confronted Ron Gilbert and his team in various blogs, forums, and comment sections. Many so-called “fans” expected a graphic style reminiscent of the old games, maybe going toward “pixel art”. Unfortunately, many comments were deeply offensive and hateful, so Ron felt compelled to take action: Until the game is released, there will be no more news about “The Return to Monkey Island”.
Quote from him — “The joy of sharing has been driven from me.”
https://www.ign.com/articles/return-to-monkey-island-director-online-abuse
When I saw this, I didn’t understand the world anymore. People with similar, often very romantic-sounding memories of the first games freak out. They slander the entire development team and claim to know how it should work “correctly”.
It left me very sad. And at the same time, it also shows a problem that I sometimes recognize in rudiments of user feedback on standard software and in developer discussions.
The rage of the user
If you scroll through reviews of well-known apps, be it Google Play or in the App Store, you sometimes get the same feeling. Users can express their displeasure in just a few words, in the cloak of anonymity, and without having to respond to further questions of product developers or designers.
Yes, there is plenty of defective software in the world. Some features or bugs can also have far-reaching consequences. But it is NEVER and under NO circumstances appropriate to write unfiltered insults or even personal attacks.
Unfortunately, the same phenomenon is also known from other rating functions or comment sections on YouTube and Co.
It has become an everyday occurrence — “shitstorm” has become a common term and seems to “belong”.
However, people forget that only ordinary people are at the other end. Some are more responsible for things, others less. Some can put it away. Others are significantly affected by it. Empathy with these people, with developers who read this, sometimes doesn’t seem to be there.
That’s frustrating and especially bad for indie developers or others who work alone or in tiny groups. It often takes a lot of power away, making them sick and giving up. So it eats away at their self-confidence and demotivates them — the drive to continue disappears completely.
Looking away from these extreme examples (which, fortunately, are not the majority but are often louder), some still do not become entirely abusive but bring inappropriate expectations.
I’m talking about the expectation that one’s taste is used as a yardstick.
You can’t argue about taste
Okay, sure, you can argue about taste. It just makes no sense. If my favorite color is red, but my wife’s is blue, I can discuss with her “why that is”. But not to convince her that red is better. And I certainly don’t have the right to discredit her as a “Shitty blue lover” in order to conjure up a marital crisis.
Taste triggers emotions. And in the sad example of “The Return to Monkey Island” you can see that people use their emotions as a measure of “right” or “wrong”. That’s nothing new. With the Corona pandemic, we’ve seen it enough in the last two years.
My thought is not that criticism of the “graphic style” should be backed up with facts. Other game areas would be more suitable for that — Is the control flawless? Are there bugs? Does the story have logical errors? Can you find your way around, and is the game beginner-friendly? — In the case of “The Return to Monkey Island” these questions can not be answered by now.
Same for other software
And that’s how I see it with the software I use or even build myself. Talking badly about a program purely based on whether you like it is simply wrong. The only consequence you can draw from such an emotion is not to use the program. If you want to criticize something, you should be able to name how something does not behave as the program suggests. And if you “don’t like” the user interface and want to criticize it, you have to be able to explain the user experience that goes along with it. An example would be, “I don’t like the button because I don’t recognize it as a button, and I always search too long until I find the place where I have to click”. But whether the button is round or square is purely a style decision.
I know it is not easy for everyone to identify a reason for displeasure. Perhaps because you are unfamiliar with the matter or because it is not easy to name in concrete cases. And in the end, it’s not necessarily their job — I can understand that attitude. It’s okay. But if that’s the case, it would be appropriate to say so. “The user interface bothers me somehow, but I can’t say why”.
If people come up to me with this sentence, I, as an expert, can ask the appropriate questions: “Is it too confusing? Is something distracting you too much? Or do you simply not like the color yellow?”
Developers arguing with taste
However, it is interesting to note that even among developers, taste sometimes drives which technology is preferred. I found this out again recently in discussions about cross-platform development. For example, for what reasons is React Native better than native development, or vice versa. In fact, you can discuss here based on taste when it comes to what a team is “comfortable” with. But if you want to know what is better in a specific case, you should focus on the product you are building.
Another good example are reviews of merge requests. In a team that places great value on appreciation, you will notice from the comments in the code that they are trying to improve things and motivate a counterpart — not to pillory them because of mistakes. As with the user feedback mentioned earlier, too much negative emotionality can erase a developer’s self-esteem — they question their performance, and it builds up to a dispute within the team.
The most friction points always occur when you argue only with taste. Curly braces at the end of the line or at the beginning of the following line are just one example. Purely a matter of preference — nevertheless, real wars have broken out among developers over such questions. One can argue with better readability — but this is also personally different and depends on habits.
It is best to pour such things once into auto-format rules and agree on a variant. If you realize that in the end, it’s all about taste, and you don’t even have to care about it yourself, the variant doesn’t matter. Problem solved.
And we all know them — the quasi-religious disputes that have been going on for decades. Mac vs. PC, vim vs. emacs, Android vs. iOS, tabs vs. spaces — it’s always about taste. So if you look at these things free of emotions, you’ll do yourself a big favor — and everyone around you, too.
Be kind
Ultimately, it boils down to constantly thinking about things you say or write first. Just before giving feedback, ask yourself how it might be received. For example, try to put yourself in the shoes of someone sensitive — how might they take it?
Often there may be an assumption that developers don’t care or don’t give a s***. I have never experienced that in my career so far. Most software engineers are passionate about their job and always want to deliver a great product. After all, they define their work with it. However, in some companies, company policies or complex and historically grown systems prone to errors can hinder the process. Of course, such circumstances need to be fixed — it’s just important to be aware that inappropriate feedback doesn’t always get directly to the right place — and can still hurt some people along the way.
Good job, Ron!
I have nothing but praise for “The Return to Monkey Island” so far (also about the graphic style). I can see the work behind such a project. And in both the teaser and trailer, I immediately felt pushed back to my childhood. The old characters are instantly recognizable, the wit from back then is present, and the music is still a masterpiece.
I am looking forward to it immensely — This goes out to Ron Gilbert and the team: Great work! Don’t let it spoil the mood — the “real” fans appreciate your work!
Maybe that’s just a feeling — or taste — but here it’s a good thing ;)
Cheers 🍻
Orlando
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Update July 8th 2022:
On Twitter I got the hint that the debate around “tabs vs. spaces” can be fought with good arguments — and not just taste. For visually impaired people, tabs are indeed a boon. Thanks Dirk, for pointing this out! Here’s another link to an article that sheds some light on this:
