You are absolutely right, and you should continue to post your concerns, suggestions and comments as much as you prefer. I know you've spend considerable effort on helping improving this game with many actually constructive comments and thoughts, so dont think I am seeing you as a 'hater' or something. I dont even think we disagree very much on where we want this game to be, but I do think we disagree on where this game realistically could be, and the 'direness' of the road FD is travelling on so to speak. If I came over as jumping your throat or trying to 'silence' you for having a different opinion or a non-raving thought about ED, thats not my intentional at all. I have a tendency to shift into 'debate class mode' when typing in English, which doesnt always help what should be a friendly discussion. My apologies!
Respect
I am not a hater despite what some may think. But I am a realist and while i see a great number of things that FD has done an amazing job on and lets be honest, even the bad isn't that bad, I do have a serious problem with the design decisions that are being made or at least the order in which they are being addressed.
I understand the building block approach they are taking. I can see they need to implement some things to make putting in others at a later date possible, but where my issues lie is that there are major problems that need serious attention at the same time. What I see are numerous updates passing us by while still these issues go completely ignored. It is all well and good to see ship launched fighters and multi-crew as hard hitters that can be flogged to the media and promote the game. It is all well and good to see these as stepping stones toward other features down the road too. However, it is my belief that FD needs to be adding small steps toward fixing these other major issues such as interactivity with the environment, exploration and the BGS at the same time. These need only be small steps toward an eventual goal.
The problem is that each update takes so long to come out and when we are hit by things like power play and CQC that turns a a 3/4 month wait into an 8 month wait for something to actually move the game forward. Then we find yet again these problems are not even mentioned and we are given even more ships that while flashy do nothing to make the game more playable. That is a big deal when you consider you are trying to maintain interest in the game. Of course what one deems to be important is subjective, but I consider the BGS and a means of having a deeper way to interact with your environment the most important issue in this game. It provides goals and meaning to the game beyond upgrading your ship. It brings groups of players together toward a common goal and most importantly provides a sense of purpose this game so badly needs.
If you take the Horizons season as an example you can see that while these headline features are very nice, they do little to solve this problem of purpose. THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM. So we find ourselves another year down the road playing the same game we have been since before launch - The ship buying simulator.
When we see these issues ignored over and over again you cannot help but feel FD is missing the biggest oppertunity to create a brilliant game instead of a shallow flashy lightshow. Nobody is saying that they need to drop everything and work on only this, but it should be an element of every single release. Otherwise, they will never get there. Each and every time they ignore it more and more people become disillusioned, complain on the forum about the lack of depth and pretty much get bored if we are honest and find a different game to play.
The flashy flashy only sparkles for so long until something else sparkles brighter. I would hate to see this game fail to become what it deserves to be.