While 15, I was managing a game that was getting tens of thousands of visits a day. The constant messages were getting pretty intense on my well being, and it was really creating a lot of stress for me on top of the development updates. So I hired a few friends to do moderation and support for players, so that I could just ignore most messages, and the important bug reports and stuff would be passed on to me by the staff team. I highly suggest doing this.
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I went through the same thing years ago. I think its easy to forget for every negative message you get there’s 100’s other people who enjoyed what you made. Cause honestly only a fraction of people message you about what they liked, most people who message you are there to send complaints. Everyone mostly just focuses on negatives or feels as there’s not a reason to message you cause they have nothing to say. Plus, hey if you do want to respond to negative messages make sure to analyze if its hate or criticism. I think criticism can be responded in a serious manner and tell them your reasoning for your choices or, give them your word that future problems will be fixed soon. If its hate don’t respond
but if you want to, its always a bit of fun to make a joke reply.
You mentioned people treating you like a developer robot, this will always be an issue. I think it helps if you talk to your community in a friendly way and be more down to earth with them when talking. At a point I personally decided to disable my messages. It’s less stressful, plus if you need to you can hire some people to handle messages for you.
Anyways, good luck man!
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Thank you, and I love the idea of joke replies. just wondering if that could esaclate things?
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Honestly, if it does then just stop responding. It could escalate things if you respond in a aggressive tone. I find just responding with something very nice when they flame you. Like if someone was insulting the game in every way possible you could say something like.
“Thanks for the great feedback!”
I hope this helps.
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I guess we kill 'em with kindness 
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