I have a lot of sympathy for the perils of game development. At the top of the list is the fear of not only getting feedback, but having to filter it: the wrangling over balancing, the difficulty of community management, and sometimes dealing with real threats that require police intervention. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

Keeping in touch with the community is part of the job, but it is not an enviable job, even if the community is full of good eggs. That's why I'm surprised that after the re-release of RuneScape's beloved "While Guthix Sleeps" quest chain, the developers at Jagex were forced to drag their feet.

First, some background: While Guthix Sleeps is a quest chain that ultimately brings players into contact with Tormented Demons; loot that Jagex has balanced for modern OldSchool Runescape users The table looks pretty hellish, as one player explains on the game's subreddit:

"For context, the original Tormented Demons back in 2008 dropped claws at a [drop rate] of 1/256," compared to the current drop rate of 1/ 637, "[which] is effectively five times the kill for a worse set of claws.

This has led to considerable criticism. Players routinely bring up Zombie Pirates, which by comparison was very generous before the nerf and much more accessible than this hellish Antirot Pinata.

Jagex stated in a news posting: "This has worked well for us (and the health of the game) and will continue to do so. That said, the "Tormented Demon" loot table needs some improvements.

Regrettably, however, players are focused on pitting certain developers against each other, and Jagex feels the need to call them out:

"Please do not target or single out individual developers when providing feedback. In many cases, the developer being targeted is not deeply involved in the content you are criticizing. In all cases, the spoils mechanism or table will be circulated among the team for review.

"You are welcome to criticize our work as a team, but you should stop repeatedly targeting individual team members."

It really is rock and a hard place - not listening to the players at all is the wrong way to develop a game. But give them a target and a vocal minority will turn you into their personal antichrist. I hope (against hope) that this will nip that in the bud.