This (image below) was posted on the Steam Community forums some time in November from Hedge, in response to a player asking why weapon attachments were not implemented in Darktide.
Inspired by this post on r/Darktide.
Please, do not harass Hedge. He’s not a bad person. He is, however, a public speaker for Fatshark. Criticism is warranted, but absolutely not harassment.
I know Hedge is just doing his job, but I think his response to this player perfectly frames the issues that this game has had, and will have in the future.
Hedge doesn’t have all the answers. But is it not his responsibility to try and accurately answer a player’s question by consulting the developers instead of dismissive responses like this? No one was asking for the game to be designed like Call of Duty, but would weapon attachments not have been an extremely beneficial addition? They were definitely planned at one stage or another.
(The links direct to a quote from one of the game designers in an Edge magazine interview mentioning weapon customization, and an article referencing that Edge interview, respectively. Subscription required for the full Edge article.)
If attachments were planned to be implemented, what happened? Is it something that can/will be introduced later, or is it just another Versus Mode?
Again, please do not harass Hedge. He’s not a bad person. He is, however, a public speaker for Fatshark. Criticism is warranted, but absolutely not harassment.
Hedge is just beyond arrogant and is a PR nightmare. He should just stick to whatever else he does at FS and let somebody less sensitive take up the role.
He’s basically just gaslight this person into thinking what they asked for wasn’t originally promised using his position on a public forum to have them mocked. Very problematic behaviour.
I’m willing to give Hedge the benefit of the doubt and assume he wasn’t aware that attachments were planned. The only mention of weapon attachments as far as I’ve seen (with what limited searching I’ve been able to do in a short time) is that Edge article and a YouTube video by milkandcookiesTW.
Unless he says otherwise, that’s all I’m comfortable with assuming.
My main issue is the dismissive response he gave to an otherwise fair question.
Why? He is like this with lots of people. His posts are screengrabbed frequently for their abrupt/condescending tone. I’ve not seen any posts from Aqshy shared in a similar way.
Mostly because the only mention of weapon attachments I could find were in those sources I listed in my initial reply, and partially because I feel a little sorry for the guy. He may make mistakes, but he’s endured his share of personal harassment, and at the very least, in the argument I’m presenting, I feel a responsibility to be a fence-sitter in this regard.
I don’t think he should be harassed, but it’s even more troubling to me that he would speak to players so disrespectfully. Given that he was so disrespectful, I’m not surprised that people would air their grievences to him. Bad behavior should be met with proportionate consequences–not harassment. People should let him know that being disrespectful to players asking questions in good faith isn’t okay.
Absolutely. It seems a little strange to me that the initial Reddit post regarding this issue got locked down. I’m not sure if this topic in particular is being monitored by moderation, or if Hedge was being harassed as a result of it. This thread can serve as a test of that, I guess.
He is condescending because he gets approached in a condescending manner a lot.
Similiar to the other thread where you took on a sort of snappy writing style, I replied in kind and then suddenly you made me out to be the bad guy for “being patronizing”.
It seems nowadays a lot of people have a passive-aggressive tone ingrained in their language, but expect to somehow be serviced in a friendly manner back. Some people don’t even notice they take a spiteful tone constantly.
You can be snappy, you can give people reasonably s***, nobody is saying you can’t - just expect things to be returned in the same kind of manner.
Look at the question Hedge was asked.
“Why cant we just have a system in which we can modify our guns, barrels, scopes, attachments, bayonet, etc.” ← entitled sounding question, sort of implies something was withheld maliciously “was it really that hard to design for you devs?” ← direct attack by implying incompetence, indicates the opinion it SHOULD have been there as a feature just because
Here a possible alternative: “I’d really love the game to have advanced gun customization such as barrels, scopes, attachments, bayonets, etc.
Any chance of that happening?”
That’s just one casual way to ask it with a decent chance to get a kind and forthcoming answer back.
I totally see why. Yeah maybe it would be better if he kept his composure more, but then it’s no real harm done holding the mirror up now and again.
I wouldn’t mind Hedge telling us the feature has been canned.
But just not in a condescending way. There is no reason to answer in an abrasive manner.
If the question gets asked to often, just make a FAQ.
If you respect the players, they will respect you back.
It’s a two way street, you reap what you sow.
i will take “arrogant” ( i dont see problem with his answer) any day, its better then silence. would weapon attachments be nice? sure so is baneblade. were they planed definitely? show me concept art, screenshots or gameplay. you cant take all the promises or what they say 100%. did you ever play Fable ?
As a company, you do not want arrogant as your public figure interacting with the people who will make noise about your game…
It’s just common sense.
Nothing keeps people from taking the highroad and be courteous.
If you lose patience and lose your cool, that becomes an unprofessional behaviour.
And just like that you go ahead and prove my point.
You asked why he talks in such a condescending tone and I just took a good guess based on the evidence presented.
Guy got approached in a snappy manner, guy responds in a snappy manner.
And why do I give such a response? Because I know what it’s like to be in his shoes and I find some of the people nowadays to be unreasonable.
That and, yes, I do like to play Devil’s Advocate. So you’re not far off.
