Player numbers dropped?

[Stigbob]

Except for the bit where you're disingenuously reframing my comment. But you wear the crown of a senior white knighter, so that was to be expected.

You compared the two games, its not overly complicated. I get that you are upset though.

The part of the CIG business model FD are partaking in is the massive hype with virtually zero delivery.

Paid expansion (planned) for 2020. If that hypes you massively you need to be a little more realistic I think.

Yes, FD shipped a game. A game that 4 years later is still full of tepid placeholders and broken, half-baked mechanics and severely lacking in content. But a game nonetheless.

They always planned to release as was and then add to it if was successful possible and viable. How did you miss that, they kept on explaining it ?.

 

[Stigbob]

Well they're surely trying hard enough with their announcements without any substance.

If they give specifics people lose it when things change.

 

[Captain Thea Kreutzer]

If they give specifics people lose it when things change.

Change is not allowed. Burn it down

 

[TheSynopticVision]

Yes, FD shipped a game. A game that 4 years later is still full of tepid placeholders and broken, half-baked mechanics and severely lacking in content. But a game nonetheless.

This is the point. There's no point for Frontier Defenders to say "ah, but you'll see, all the promises will come to pass, the Content to Come will arrive and rapture us all". I believe that, I believe that the ice planets will come, I believe that the fleet carriers will come, and I believe that the 2020 update will add something very substantial. How good these things will be, I am a bit less hopeful.

The problem is not "the future of Elite". The problem is the past of Elite. The problem is the last 5 years of development. And while of course there will always be a more or less steady flux of new people (how many, that's anyone's guess), right now this past experience, -- coupled with the request to just "wait and see" for 18 months -- is pushing many people, formerly affectionate players, to give up and just move elsewhere, because faith in Content to Come can only go so far towards making your forget about the holes in the Content Right Here.

 

[Hellakitty]

This is the point. There's no point for Frontier Defenders to say "ah, but you'll see, all the promises will come to pass, the Content to Come will arrive and rapture us all". I believe that, I believe that the ice planets will come, I believe that the fleet carriers will come, and I believe that the 2020 update will add something very substantial. How good these things will be, I am a bit less hopeful.

The problem is not "the future of Elite". The problem is the past of Elite. The problem is the last 5 years of development. And while of course there will always be a more or less steady flux of new people (how many, that's anyone's guess), right now this past experience, -- coupled with the request to just "wait and see" for 18 months -- is pushing many people, formerly affectionate players, to give up and just move elsewhere, because faith in Content to Come can only go so far towards making your forget about the holes in the Content Right Here.

Yup, again it's the Star Citizen "THE NEXT PATCH IS THE JESUS PATCH JUST WAIT AND SEE" mentality.

The next patch rolls around, is broken/lacking/whatever and as soon as it's criticised, we're right back to 'oh but just you wait, the next patch is gonna do this and that and bring x and y and be the patch of all patches'.

Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum.

 

[Burke]

Banks are now making tv comercials making it an advertising point that they love and respect their existing customers just as much as new ones. Just saying

 

[TheSynopticVision]

Yup, again it's the Star Citizen "THE NEXT PATCH IS THE JESUS PATCH JUST WAIT AND SEE" mentality.

The next patch rolls around, is broken/lacking/whatever and as soon as it's criticised, we're right back to 'oh but just you wait, the next patch is gonna do this and that and bring x and y and be the patch of all patches'.

Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum.

One day not long ago I realised that I was playing with "what is to come" in mind much more than I was because I was enjoying what I actually had. I had some good times with Elite (mostly the first couple of months tbh), but then for far too long I played because "one day this will become amazing". I broke out of that, and I'm just doing other things now. And I have the feeling that this is happening to a lot of people lately.

 

[Viajero]

The part of the CIG business model FD are partaking in is the massive hype with virtually zero delivery.

Oh? That is refreshing.

First FDEV is criticised for not communicating at all, or nearly enough. And now it is criticized because of massive hype. I mean, lol. Sometimes I am not sure if we are just too lazy to come up with proper criticism or we are just honest to god having our cake and eating it. Either way it is very difficult to reach the hype levels CIG incurs in willfully specially when SC is still asking the community for their good will, trust and money to fund it 7-8 years after start of development without a product to release in sight and based exclusively 100% on hype. And whereas FDEV has actually released multiple ED related products and has been subjected to the full evaluation and critique of the market, and where the buyer can 100% transparently decide to buy or not based on the actual products (not just the hype) that have been put out out there so far.

And given its communication practices FDEV is still lagging light years behind CIG in that particular hype department I am afraid.

 

[Stigbob]

Banks are now making tv comercials making it an advertising point that they love and respect their existing customers just as much as new ones. Just saying

Ads are like Santa Claus beyond a certain age its very odd to believe.

 

[babelfisch]

Err no they haven't.

Frontier is a multi game developer which can only be good for the future of Elite. Revenue for each game is not spent on the corresponding game but all goes into the collective pot so to speak and allocated accordingly. They are currently in a state of expansion and things look positive for the future of not only Elite Dangerous but the company as a whole.

On topic: Yes, player numbers fluctuate depending on what the current state the game is in i.e. new content etc.. I'm on a hiatus myself at the moment but will be back "soon.™" and I'm sure that's the case for others. Their will always be a natural depreciation of existing customers (Players) which are hopefully replaced by new ones as new content becomes available, and returning customers.

That's my thinking anyway.

How dare you to play something else 4 years after release?! If the game dies the blame will be on you.

 

[Stigbob]

Oh? That is refreshing.

First FDEV is criticised for not communicating at all, or nearly enough. And now it is criticized because of massive hype. I mean, lol. Sometimes I am not sure if we are just too lazy to come up with proper criticism or we are just honest to god having our cake and eating it. Either way it is very difficult to reach the hype leves CIG incurs with willfully specially when SC is still asking the community for their good will, trust and money to fund it 7-8 years after start of development without a product to release in sight. And whereas FDEV has release multiple ED related products and has been subjected to the full evaluation of the market. And given its communication practices FDEV is still lagging light years behind in that particular hype department I am afraid.

You clearly don't understand DOOM development.

 

[babelfisch]

Well they're surely trying hard enough with their announcements without any substance.

So keep your expectations low based on the lack of substance. Hopefully you will be positively surprised. What's wrong with that?

 

[babelfisch]

This is the point. There's no point for Frontier Defenders to say "ah, but you'll see, all the promises will come to pass, the Content to Come will arrive and rapture us all". I believe that, I believe that the ice planets will come, I believe that the fleet carriers will come, and I believe that the 2020 update will add something very substantial. How good these things will be, I am a bit less hopeful.

The problem is not "the future of Elite". The problem is the past of Elite. The problem is the last 5 years of development. And while of course there will always be a more or less steady flux of new people (how many, that's anyone's guess), right now this past experience, -- coupled with the request to just "wait and see" for 18 months -- is pushing many people, formerly affectionate players, to give up and just move elsewhere, because faith in Content to Come can only go so far towards making your forget about the holes in the Content Right Here.

The problem is that some people just don't like the game. The other problem is that they feel the need to repeatedly tell us, despite knowing it will not change.

 

[Burke]

Ads are like Santa Claus beyond a certain age its very odd to believe.

Yeah its true. Also with banks people get to take their money back out again. No such luck with gaming im afraid!

 

[Viajero]

You clearly don't understand DOOM development.

Well, we are almost 5 years following release of ED, so any time now.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Is anyone noticing a marked drop in players? Just noticed a convo in my player group's discord where the guy has tried a few groups and found people are quitting the game. My group is the same (I'm also on hiatus). I know we don't have official numbers but just wondered what others' anecdotal experience has been recently. I hope FDev haven't really misjudged this 2020 announcement.....

Is there really all that much going on atm, OP?

If there is some crazy interesting twist in the story, I've missed it.

 

[babelfisch]

Yup, again it's the Star Citizen "THE NEXT PATCH IS THE JESUS PATCH JUST WAIT AND SEE" mentality.

The next patch rolls around, is broken/lacking/whatever and as soon as it's criticised, we're right back to 'oh but just you wait, the next patch is gonna do this and that and bring x and y and be the patch of all patches'.

Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum.

That's not what the 'Frontier defenders' are saying though. I for example believe that Frontier will continue to release updates with the same quality like those of the past years. For me that's a good thing, because I enjoy playing Elite Dangerous.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

That's not what the 'Frontier defenders' are saying though. I for example believe that Frontier will continue to release updates with the same quality like those of the past years. For me that's a good thing, because I enjoy playing Elite Dangerous.

Hmmm... I'm quite skeptical. If I recall most (if not all) of the updates and patches have introduced problems of their own. Some of them major.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

That's not what the 'Frontier defenders' are saying though. I for example believe that Frontier will continue to release updates with the same quality like those of the past years. For me that's a good thing, because I enjoy playing Elite Dangerous.

Let's agree to disagree regarding the meaning of "quality update" then. As you said, it really boils down to the fact that some people think that Elite is the best game ever, and others actually don't find particularly good.

 

[Han Zulu]

That's not what the 'Frontier defenders' are saying though. I for example believe that Frontier will continue to release updates with the same quality like those of the past years. For me that's a good thing, because I enjoy playing Elite Dangerous.

Personally, I hope the updates this year are of better quality than last year. There's a lot of bugs, stupid bugs, in the game right now that shouldn't really be there by now (use comms, tab modes, talk to someone direct, switch to FSS and back, comms complete mess, and so on). I like the content that was added though, but the quality itself has to improve. I hope this year will be bug-fix year and QoL and such. The game isn't on back-burner. It's on fix-up-before-next-big update mode, or should be.