Why did they take a holiday break? Can't wrap my head around it.

Most companies enforce 4 weeks off a year for employees.
FD is a company.
FD has employees.

This is a UK company, by law the employees are entitled to a minimum 5.6 weeks off a year paid (well I suspect the directors take way less than that), and considering they have been working like slaves for the past few months I don't begrudge them a holiday, the game is stable, and I am sure they are keeping an eye on things.
 
Yep happy Holidays!! to all

BTW there should be a Wordfilter activated in the Forum
with words like

Endgame, casual Player and so on...
 
This is all irrelevant. The OP started a 19 page discussion over something he/she has no control and no right to opine over.

They are on holiday. The servers are up, the game is working; get over it!
 
Yup, I'm American. Regardless of that 4 week policy, a company (especially a game development company) would never place those 2 weeks post launch.
I can't recall anytime a game development company took a hiatus immediately post launch, even in SP development. It's unheard of.

I'm not saying that ethically they don't deserve that time off, I just know if I was in their shoes, there's no way I could take that time off.

So I have to ask, how many game or software companies have you actually worked at? I've worked at a couple and I know for a fact, after a major release is completed most of the devs, most of the testers, and probable all of the Project Mangers take a vacation. Of course there is tech support and a handful of devs still around to handle problems, but there is absolutely no reason for everyone to just sit around after a release, especially if they've been working non-stop on something for weeks, months, even years. You might want to try walking in those shoes before assuming you'll never, ethically, want to take a vacation.
 
If a business has more than 1 person employed then staff should be working over any cultural holiday period to support the business. If FD has 200 staff say, there are 52 weeks in the year. The maximum number of staff to be allowed a holiday in week 52 for example should be 16 persons. So at any point of time in a year FD, even on xmas day should have 184 staff in attendance for full time work.
It is not like that, but in my view it should be. It is also perfectly fair and non offensive in religious or belief aspects.

Believe me forcing your staff to work Xmas day is the height of business stupidity.
 
I dont disagree with their need to take holiday and spent time with their family.

I do disagree with them releasing a game two weeks before they do so and leaving it completely unsupported over that time. .



You people are acting like the servers have been down since christmas eve and nobody is there to turn them back on again.

It still comes down to the two demands Riepah made

1. The devs should be working full time through the holidays to improve the released game
2. The game should not have been released before Christmas

I find the first option to be laughably selfish and the second option I don't understand either. The game works, there's just more content to be added still. Delaying the game for two weeks would have just resulted in only gammas playing the game over the holidays, but it certainly wouldn't have pushed new content out the door any faster.

I'm really bloody happy I can play this game right now, and I do not understand why you aren't. If you hate this game so much in its current state, why can't you wait? Why should others also not play it now?

And this is also totally ignoring the fact that they didn't just release and drive home, they released three more patches between launch day and Christmas. I get the strong feeling with some of you that even if they had released in January 2015, we'd see this very thread in December 2015 as well - Why did you go home for Christmas, your game is not done yet!!
 
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I'm really bloody happy I can play this game right now, and I do not understand why you aren't. If you hate this game so much in its current state, why can't you wait? Why should others also not play it now?
I'd be happy if I could play the game right now too, but unfortunately they never gave me access after I bought it, and support is so barebones at the moment that my ticket's gone untouched for almost a week now. Not that I'd ever begrudge anybody their Christmas break, but I can't wait for the holidays to end and things to get back in full swing, either. ;)
 
You American? The Euros seem to do a much better job of getting their priorities right. These guys have been killing themselves and been strangers to their families for the better part of 2 years. It was the Grade A, 100% right call to take some time with their families this Christmas.

They know they already have their first wave hooked, cuz we've been hooked since 1984.

It's their choice of course, but the "right call" isn't objective. It depends. To take this break will severely hurt the game's sales and viability in the long-run, but that said, spending time with family can be more valuable than long-term commercial success (and this break doesn't guarantee failure it just makes it harder for success).
 
It still comes down to the two demands Riepah made

1. The devs should be working full time through the holidays to improve the released game
2. The game should not have been released before Christmas

I find the first option to be laughably selfish and the second option I don't understand either. The game works, there's just more content to be added still. Delaying the game for two weeks would have just resulted in only gammas playing the game over the holidays, but it certainly wouldn't have pushed new content out the door any faster.

I really do not appreciate being misrepresented like this.

At no point have I made any demands whatsoever. Never have I suggested that they should work "full time through the holidays".
I shall quote myself from the Private Message I sent in response to the one you sent me yesterday.

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I think I have made it more than clear that I have no issue whatsoever with developers taking holidays off, going on vacation or whatever.

The only thing some people disagree with, is their choice of timing. Releasing an always-online game before taking a vacation just seems risky. Considering the game is still quite rough around the edges, it is not surprising that some people would get dismayed if they get the impression that the developers don't care about their concerns and complaints.


Voicing disagreement with something is not the same as making demands.

I would like to politely request, once more, that you stop antagonizing me. Thank you.
 
You American? The Euros seem to do a much better job of getting their priorities right. These guys have been killing themselves and been strangers to their families for the better part of 2 years. It was the Grade A, 100% right call to take some time with their families this Christmas.

They know they already have their first wave hooked, cuz we've been hooked since 1984.

I am also American, but that has nothing to do with anything being discussed here... So anyway...

I agree everyone should and does deserve time off for major efforts put forth and what not, BUT I think the timing of release, and the timing of a break were not well planned. I agree with the OP, to release a game, especially with such large holes and gaps, then to just vanish for a month is not a smart business move. Regardless of time off, time off deserved, years spent in creation, development, etc.

It comes down to, in my own opinion, poor timing of a release and a sabbatical...
 
I'd be happy if I could play the game right now too, but unfortunately they never gave me access after I bought it, and support is so barebones at the moment that my ticket's gone untouched for almost a week now. Not that I'd ever begrudge anybody their Christmas break, but I can't wait for the holidays to end and things to get back in full swing, either. ;)

This is also the case with a friend's account. They charged his card, but the process gave him an error. He's unable to play and is waiting on support.
 
If a business has more than 1 person employed then staff should be working over any cultural holiday period to support the business. If FD has 200 staff say, there are 52 weeks in the year. The maximum number of staff to be allowed a holiday in week 52 for example should be 16 persons. So at any point of time in a year FD, even on xmas day should have 184 staff in attendance for full time work.
It is not like that, but in my view it should be. It is also perfectly fair and non offensive in religious or belief aspects.

Which brings us to a conclusion:
There is exactly 1 (ONE) developer working on this game.
 
Believe me forcing your staff to work Xmas day is the height of business stupidity.

And telling your customers "Oh you have a problem? Shame, you'll have to wait until the holidays are over" is so very smart.

Btw, you are aware that there are people (even whole countries) that don't celebrate Xmas, right?
 
Most companies enforce 4 weeks off a year for employees.
FD is a company.
FD has employees.

Actually it's a legal requirement of on a full time contract in the UK and EU. And few companies will let you take more than a few days to the next year. I've just had 3 weeks off for that very reason.
 
If a business has more than 1 person employed then staff should be working over any cultural holiday period to support the business. If FD has 200 staff say, there are 52 weeks in the year. The maximum number of staff to be allowed a holiday in week 52 for example should be 16 persons. So at any point of time in a year FD, even on xmas day should have 184 staff in attendance for full time work.
It is not like that, but in my view it should be. It is also perfectly fair and non offensive in religious or belief aspects.

Frontier is in the UK, Christmas day is a bank holiday in the UK. most UK companies close over the festive period except for critical staff if your company has them. Also no software developer will release to a live service over a period like Christmas unless its critical.

Get over your self entitlement.
 
I'd be happy if I could play the game right now too, but unfortunately they never gave me access after I bought it, and support is so barebones at the moment that my ticket's gone untouched for almost a week now. Not that I'd ever begrudge anybody their Christmas break, but I can't wait for the holidays to end and things to get back in full swing, either. ;)

Just a thought, you are checking the right page in your account?
I bought the game in September and in 'my downloadable' products the download is greyed out
It can however be downloaded from ''my dashboard'.
I'm sure you have tried this but it doesn't hurt to be informed again.
Hope you get to play soon :)
 
People can disagree about it all they want but the fact is that releasing the game before Christmas in the state its in, online only and everything, and then going on holiday leaving it unsupported is not good for the image of the game or the company.

I didn't buy until release, i'm not a backer, but i can tell you i have never seen a game this good be released so badly before.
 
Ok, if they released the game in January, i would be surprised if they took the holiday, but they would not. Everybody has a holiday now, including myself and just before release, they were releasing patches on Sunday midnight and so on. They deserve the holiday, they are not doctors in a hospital or workers in nuclear power plant and whoever has to ask this question should probably get some brain.
 
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