IMO FD went from a what I perceived as an "indie" feel good vibe to full on EA rubbish. There's a long list of outright lies, denial, shady (at best) and just "keep quiet" and it'll go away crap I never expected from FD. It's not about dates, roadmaps or "secret future information" it's about being honest with your customers.
The whole "offline" thing was the start of what IMO was the beginning of it. Let's pretend offline is impossible and doesn't fit with David's vision of a "rich gaming experience". Ok, I can choke that down, even though I know its rubbish as "offline" wasn't big on my personal list of must haves, I can swallow that. What I choked on was the denial flippant way David blew it off in several interviews. The next thing was the way refund request were handled. It was and still is ongoing and IMO is dirty sleazy greedy rubbish. It's just wrong on so many levels I don't know where to start.
Then there's the DDF/DDA and what the vast majority of us thought was "finalized" design turned into "a neat wishlist of things we never promised would be in the game but, decided to talk about for fun" so to speak. So, the DDA is out the window and barebones features were implemented so at least (for example mining) was "in the game" at release and now apparently that was always the plan. Rubbish.
How about the big premiere event? We all remember the "I bring friends" staged rubbish FD put on. If you've never played the game one would think "Hey! ED has great multiplayer/coop gameplay!" but, as we all know, that's not the case. It may be possible but it certainly isn't like FD portrayed it, not even close.
About that "release trailer". What a bad joke and classic rubbish, ties in nicely with the "I bring friends" rubbish as both are misleading at best.
Billionaregate is another blunder that is just total amatuer rubbish. Who decides these things? I have no issue with billionaires but, it was just a poor decision in a long list of stupid calls.
How about that "rich" gameplay offline was scrapped for? Guess what? It's not there. It's broken and doesn't work and even when/if it's fixed, IMO, it's hardly "rich" or justification to pull offline. The whole "background simulator" is a mess and hasn't to date worked correctly.
Ships. Where are they? How about the 25 (we'll forgo the other 5) ships? We have half what was promised after two years.
Missions are a handful of rinse and repeat tasks that I'm sure will grow and become better but, if missions are "complete" them I'm a monkey's uncle.
I could go on and on but, lets just do a quick check of what isn't complete.
1. Multiplayer/coop? Nope
2. Ships? Nope
3. "Background simulator"? Nope
4. Navigation? Nope
5. Weapons? Nope
6. Modules? Nope
7. Anything? Nope
Was this the plan all along? NOPE
I understand that adding content, features above what was supposed to be in the release is normal for some games but, these are things that were supposed to in the game at release but, has turned into "the plan all along". No, no it wasn't "the plan" all along. It was a financial decision to maximize profit and beat the glut of new space games that's already released and to be released over the next couple years. Surprisingly. I love the game and I'm ok with spoon fed updates to get the game where it was supposed to be at release. What I'm not ok with is the rubbish spin that magically made this "plan all along". It's just simply not true and FD knows it. So stop blowing smoke up our butts telling it is.
IMO, if FD had been honest, I'd be ok but, again IMO, FD is less than honest and playing the "cover our butt" games. I'd have so much more respect for FD if they had just told the truth. Something like the following"
"In order to continue developing the game it became necessary to release it in an incomplete form above and beyond what the normal "incomplete" means for a game. In this case incomplete entails missing and/or barebones features, content and mechanics. We apologize but, feel we made the right choice to ensure the continued growth and development of this amazing game."
Insteads, again IMO, we got something like this:
"Elite: Dangerous is a finished complete game. We never promised anything, the Kickstarter and DDF/DDA was a wish list of neat discussions and never meant as a design document or guideline, you weren't promised anything and should have known that things implied as supposed to be in the game were just wishful thinking on our part. Our marketing was creative visions of what's in our heads and does not reflect actual gameplay or features, we like to call it "mood pieces". MMO does not mean what has become the standard understanding of gamers across the world, it just means you may see other players from time to time on your "island". "
"However, now that you've purchased the game, we will sell you ship "skins" and other rubbish trinkets to maybe get the game where we implied (never promised) the game would be when you purchased it. We want to stress that we never have promised anything and actively avoid boxing ourselves into a corner we can't get out of by saying "we never promised that". We may (in the coming weeks) tell you what we intend or would like to do with the game but, we don't know yet so you'll have to be content with "in the coming weeks". As far as your Kickstarter/backer rewards, we never said "when" (except those couple of times we lied) the rewards are coming so, you'll have to wait with no information until we get our act together after recovering from this mess of a "release" we've created is under control and we can deal with it. Remember, now that the finished release is out we will continue to work towards a "release" version of the game but, can't promise that'll ever happen."
"It's not our fault some of you took what we implied as fact, shame on you for thinking that but, we will have a few more contests and "mood pieces" plastered incoherently in pieces across various social media sites that you'll need to hunt for the results to weeks after it was supposed to be over."
That's how I feel right now anyway. Do I like the game? No, I love the game. Will I continue to play it? Maybe, if I can get this bad taste out of my mouth. What I would absolutely love though is an end to the PR cover our butts spin FD has been putting out and instead an open, honest and COMPLETE discussion about the current mess ED is in with some kind of "plan" moving forward that's different than what the last few months has been. There's been entirely too many bad decisions, spins. slips and just plain stupid amatuer mistakes that's somehow no one's fault except our's, the customers.
I feel there's been a whole lot of covering of butts and way too little open and honest answers to obvious questions. Continued development of ED was always the plan but, NOT LIKE THIS. If anyone at FD claims that releasing ED in the state it was in on Dec. 16th was "always the plan" is a liar and/or an idiot. The "plan" as it was implied (never promised) was a COMPLETE game with paid expansions down the road. It was not "planned" to be rushed in the ninth hour to get it out the door in order to "complete" it "in the coming weeks, months or years". I know a game is "never finished" but, that's just a play on words (covering of butts) and a pee poor PR spin.
If we could just get a simple "We had to get it out the door to be able to keep realising our dream" or "Hey, we screwed up, we're sorry" or something similar to that I'd request this thread be closed and/or deleted but, apparently what I believe is the truth is like pulling hen's teeth, it just isn't going to happen. FD, is that so hard? Wouldn't it save time, effort and money just "coming clean"?
That's how I feel right now anyway and that's about all I have to say at the moment.
[edit] I lied, I have more. I should state that FD has done a lot of what I feel is good things, some are great. My issue is with "management" NOT the entire dev team and should not be taken as a slam against the "little people" at FD. I'm sure those FD employees unfortunate enough to read the forum has had a few cringe worthy reactions similar to mine on more than a few occasions.
