***Mod hat of
I've said this a few times over the years but here's my thoughts on Frontier Developments.
Frontier primarily is run by people who have a true passion for the games they make, it starts from the top with david Braben and filters all the way through the company.
I've seen how they work and how passionate they are, it's been mentioned you're more likley to see David working with the Dev team than in his office and that's a pretty accurate description.
I've been lucky to have met a lot of the people who work at Frontier not only in a professional settings but in personal settings also and I can honestly say I've never met one of them who isn't 100% enthusiastic about the company, the games and the community that has grown around them.
In my capacity as one of the moderatiion team I've seen a lot of what's happened here on the forum and yes on a few occasions it's turned quite tough as in the Offline situation where Frontier initially didn't mention offline but with the demand that grew decided to include it in the kickstarter only to find later on it wasn't feasible, Now I don't believe for one second the timing of the announcement that offline wouldn't be achievable was anything but them trying up till the last minute to give what hey promised and the frankly appalling way some reacted when the announcement was made sickened me. I can understand the frustration but the way some staff were subject to the vitriol and aggression would not be tolerated in any other business type, the fact that they took it all on the chin, issued refunds to those who asked for them says a lot about the good intentions as a company they have to their customer base.
At no point do I beleve they set out to dupe anybody.
Yeah I'm a fan of the games they make and I know I'm in a lucky position to have the levels of contact I've had over the years all the way back to when the forum started and I was searching to a sequal to First Encounters; at that time there were only a few posters who regularly posted and a lot of us are still here (they know who they are). But in all honesty I really would have not stuck around if I didn't think that they were a great bunch who are really trying hard to make the best games they possibly can.
On the flip side to above, the way the forum and community has grown firstly around ED and then other games has been incredible to watch, seeing groups like the Hutton mug lunatics, the Lave Radio nutters, the Fuel Rats and the Pixel Bandits to name just a few has been a joy to be a small part of, for those who attend the various offical and unofficial meets you can see what is for all intense purposes a huge family. Another example; Mike Brookes ran a small Drabble competition with the Writers in their forum and as part of my Mod duties I saw this and thought it would be fun if the main forum did the same, I asked and Mike said yes go for it and so I started a thread which caught the attention of some forum members and it grew and grew and took on a life of it's own with the likes of Psykokow, Smoof, Gal Midd, Alien etc etc etc... so I stepped back and let them run with it. Psykokow has been such a enormous source of creativeness and fun since he 1st joined, and he's not alone in being such a incredible influence in the community which has so many great contributers it would take all night to list them but who I consider good friends.. except MikeSnoz as he supports Ipswich (love ya really Alvi.. I mean Mike.
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I've seen great generosity by many people who have given up not only their time but their money, my daughter ran the pretty muddy race this year and some of the community got wind of it and she ended up raising £600 which we were so very very greatful for, thanks again
At the recent FX17 event most of the time was spent chatting and laughing with great people whether it Staff or Community, and everyone was made to feel very welcome by everybody.
To summarise though, yes frontier don't always get it right, but hen who does? and I know they always listen to the community and on more than one occasion have performed a u-turn on a decision, that to me speaks volumes on what kind of a company they really are when they listen and understand the passion many of us have for a little game made by two university students in the 1980s.
It's a community I'm very proud to be a small part of.
