A potentially great game ruined by spite, incompetence and mediocre performance and poor AA

It's not gaming, it's the internet giving people a way to voice their opinion. Before that it was the pub where people used to crap on car brands now you have forums and social media
Without doubt, the ease of getting your opinion out for potentially thousands to hear. Cultural products like movies, TV series and games are of course especially "vulnerable" as I don't think it is quite as easy to vote brigade a new Kia model.

But, since we were talking about computer games, gaming culture seems most relevant.
 
Just tried to point out that gaming is not exclusive to this phenomena.
Although I would assume since people investing more time and emotions in a video game it's it's to be expected that any deviation from the expectations of the user will be promptly and harshly punished.
 
The incompetence is the UI, but some of this crap i dont see any other explanation for, other than FD hates its players. I cant believe they actually seemed to have racheted up the grind as well.

Just finished a mission, got the power back on and when i tried to hand it in, a voice said "mission failed". In addition to automatic failure i got a 100k fine on a mission worth only 116k.

Frontier is going to pay for this over and over and over again in lost sales and reputation. Imo they have a small window right now to pull it out of the fire before the negative reviews and feedback snowball, and boys and girls at FD, that window is closing fast. Im getting a refund on my other acct tomorrow and if things dont improve im going to agitate for a refund on my main account. Im sure my bank will cooperate with the specs peekaboo being what it was.

I cant even believe the outfitting and shipyard UI, how could they let it out the door in this condition? I guess when money is on the line, pride in your work suffers.

Spite?
 
Although I would assume since people investing more time and emotions in a video game it's it's to be expected that any deviation from the expectations of the user will be promptly and harshly punished.
Agreed. It'll be interesting to see if this will be less of an issue when/if game library subscriptions supersede bought games and people can just put away games they dislike, like a movie or a TV series in a streaming service. Won't of course change anything if you have 2000 hours in a game that gets a bad DLC or really like some Marvel franchise that gets "ruined".
 
I've noticed it is mostly a 'modern gaming' trend. I've been playing games since the arcades in the 80s .. and if you released a bugged/broken game back then, you would be out of business pretty soon.

Eventually , it is the fault of the players. They pay for non-working games as long as they get an 'early access pass'. Then they pay for a bugged/broken game at full release. Sure , some complain but at the end of the day the developer makes a LOT of money. And who in the world is going to stop doing something if it keeps being profitable?

It's not a trend. Instead it was always an artificial and manufactured construct; created by companies to increase their sales and justify poor product quality.

The thing to realize here is that most "trends" are backed by money. Disney's Marvel movies for instance are not popular simply because they are good (some are indeed quite mediocre). Instead they were backed by millions of dollars worth of advertising - to the point that the marketing budget equals or exceeds the production budget. And a lot of that advertising is covert - using unmarked social media accounts for instance to build up hype.

The modern "gaming culture" is no different. Companies can now simply amplify voices - via fake Twitter and social media accounts - who promote the idea of "entitled" players and try to shut down dissent over bugged/broken products.

Thing is, when you have enough fake voices chanting in favor of a trend, you start to have real people start believing them too due to FOMO. And even if they figure out that they've been conned; they keep chanting anyway - because they're too embarrassed to admit they had been fooled. It's for that same reason you see so many voters screwed by the politician they elected, and yet they still insist on continuing to vote for that politician anyway.
 
Agreed. It'll be interesting to see if this will be less of an issue when/if game library subscriptions supersede bought games and people can just put away games they dislike, like a movie or a TV series in a streaming service. Won't of course change anything if you have 2000 hours in a game that gets a bad DLC or really like some Marvel franchise that gets "ruined".
In my experience it's not about the amount of games, it's about the attachment to the in-game character and urge the publisher/developer create to play said character on daily basis.
Take ED for example, one could just put the game aside, take a break and pick up the game again later. Now you could do this before the carriers were introduced. Now with carriers FDev created an urge, necessity to play the game. Let's be honest who would like to pick up the game just to realize they have to grind to either buy a new one or get enough money for upkeep.
Point is devs are creating this drama by trying to get the players attached to the game as much as possible and then act upset if the customers act up.
 
I didn't preorder anything.
Just to be clear "you" wasn't meant to be singling you out in particular, English is weird like that. I meant "the people that bought pre-release or on release and complain now". I didn't buy it, based on the removal of VR support from the expansion. I'm waiting for VR support to be back in, it means on foot sections - and for what I gather from other threads, huge performance problems in "regular" VR sections. Meaning this will drip down to Horizons eventually. They can tempt me with a huge sale, because it's not worth for me without VR. I'm voting with my wallet here.
it is not above the realm of imagination to want a release of a game that asks you to pay money for it, and releases in an unoptimized, almost unplayable extremely buggy state. Watching Obsidian Ant's latest video you could tell that he was trying very hard to be polite about the state of the game currently, and could barely find any positives other than hoping things will be fixed faster than FDev's usual patch speed when it comes to bugs. And there's a lot of bugs. A lot.
And I say we're being milked like cows and expected to be happy about it. I have absolutely no qualms about buying odyssey even for $70 if it was worth it. It isn't for me, currently. You're talking about moral expectations, when it comes to a publicly-traded company. That's not how it works, unfortunately. And yet people take it calmly. In my opinion, @Obsidian Ant should totally lose it on camera, so that maybe someone high up the managerial ladder would scratch their head and ask "have we really screwed it so bad that even OA lost his cool?". But no, people showered fdev with money. Job's done. Nothing to see here, see you in two years, suckers.
IMO, downplaying the issues right now is worse than being angry at people who preorder a game expecting it to, you know, actually work as advertised. Sometimes outrage is needed to light a fire under the management of these games, but downplaying it cuts the voice of the gamers that want to inflict enough negativity to push for change in the product they buy. You say this release is consistent with their past offerings, but point your finger at your fellow gamers rather than the million dollar company asking you to fork over another $40 for a game that has microtransactions, and that's happy with delivering the sad status quo because half their fanbase thinks is this fine and the other half doesn't.

It's mind boggling.
If you got the idea that I'm downplaying the issues, it was probably a miscommunication on my part. I only said that it's a) consistent with what FDev always does and b) consistent with what every major release looks now more or less. Because when your responsibility is with sales numbers and shareholders, and not with the actual customer who is merely a pawn in sale stats, you won't be bothered by the "wave rage", you weather through it while already banked those sweet sweet sales numbers which then you will proudly present on the quarterly report.

And sorry, we (gamers) are to blame. I'm doing my part, as I said, I don't have odyssey and don't plan to buy it soon, unless discounted or VR is back in. Despite being interested in what the DLC offers mind you, because I was advocating for Space Legs since start. If enough people followed through with that, maybe that would send a message loud enough. Companies won't listen to us gamers if we're complaining (we're already a complaining bunch). They will listen when their numbers tank like fps in Odyssey, harr harr.

So I'm comfortable pointing fingers, because I do as I say. CP was the last game I preordered (and that was basically on trust given spotless record, now no more spotless). Before that it was X:R and FO4VR, but in the latter case, I got a very good discount on FO4VR, so I wasn't complaining and patiently waited for them to fix it. Currently I wouldn't even preorder HL: Alyx, but I was given it alongside my Valve Index. Because even if CDPR, the "saints of the industry" can "do wrong", who won't. No trust whatsoever.
Heck, even witcher 3 is back in the Steam top seller lists, together with CP2077.
Witcher 3 at 5€ or so is a no-brainer if someone doesn't yet have it. There are new gamers that were too young when it released for example :D As for CP... if you're on a PC, the bugs I experienced weren't so bad, and they patched a lot of them by now. So actually sensible people who didn't shower CDPR with money based on pre-release hypetrailers (guilty as charged here, but it was more of a national pride thing and CDPR can do no wrong, right? right?!), are now buying the game, and at a reduced price. It's a sensible, rational behaviour. And shame for me for yet another time trusting a software company on pre-release marketing. But now there isn't a company that I trust enough to pre-order. Either give me tangible discount for trusting you with my money pre-release, or no sale.
 
People are right to feel disgruntled and frustrated to have received a product that was released in such a poor state, people also have a right to refund a product if it doesn't meet their satisfaction, or otherwise - EDO doesn't work for me, I'm entitled to a refund based on that alone, however, I choose not to, people are also right to voice their frustrations and satisfactions, after-all, how else is FDev to improve without feedback? constructive or not.

My initial reaction to this launch was very negative, more so being tired, after I had my coffee, browsed the forums, and watched some gameplay, I can see that FDev were trying, and I can see EDO becoming something better despite how low my bar is set for FDev - truth be told, I was only expecting ship interiors, some novelty locations on stations, and walking around my SRV, so I'm pleasantly surprised with the scope of EDO and I wish to see FDev polish it.

But to claim this was spite I think is a bit of a far fetched claim - I feel this whole situation was more a lack of management to a degree, from a business standpoint they were probably pressured into an early release, stakeholders and all that, but who knows, it's just my speculation, aside from biting off more than they could chew.

*Management is likely the wrong word here, so when I say management, I mean managing their resources, time, and so forth.

Given time, EDO will prosper.
 
Given time, EDO will prosper.
See that's the part I'm worried about. You mean prosper like Multicrew or New SRV Types in Horizons prospered, right? 😂

And I think management in the traditional sense of the word, managing people, played the very key role in what odyssey looks like. Because I know that developers always stride to make the best product they can, even if that would kill the company with endless refactoring 😂 So some control is needed, but too much curbing and you will end up with a rushed release like this. Quarterly reports much, FDev?
 
Agreed. It'll be interesting to see if this will be less of an issue when/if game library subscriptions supersede bought games and people can just put away games they dislike, like a movie or a TV series in a streaming service. Won't of course change anything if you have 2000 hours in a game that gets a bad DLC or really like some Marvel franchise that gets "ruined".
Oh this will only make things worse. Because now you will only have to bargain with the platform holder for "sales", and you will be able to take away games from the customers at a whim. Like movies are currently being shifted from platform to platform. I'm sure it's the future, it is also publisher's wet dream. They will be able to finally stop supporting older titles for example, have steady income from subscriptions and what not... It might result however in magnificient games being created in the long term, provided you will find a publisher who actually follows business ethics...

... who am I kidding 😂
 
Oh this will only make things worse. Because now you will only have to bargain with the platform holder for "sales", and you will be able to take away games from the customers at a whim.
I meant that maybe under subscription libraries people will have less attachment to individual titles (MMOs are actually bit of a breed of their own when it comes to gaming). I've had a number of subscriptions (Xbox Live & Origin) and in my experience they work pretty well when it comes to consumption gaming - I seriously doubt I will ever play Gears 5 again, or Fallen Order that I'm currently playing, nor would I had ever bought them as individual titles.

Never had a personal issue with streaming service movies "disappearing" as the movies you really want to see are bound to be always available somewhere, but your point about publishers excerting a lot of power in subscription based services is definitely valid. It's just that they are often very good deals for the consumers as well.
 
The incompetence is [...]

... the consumer who preorders any video game in this day and age. Would you like a Rolex watch? I've got a dozen to choose from under my coat here. Granted, my selling fake watches makes me a grifter, just like Frontier selling this DLC as a finished, viable product makes them a grifter, but everyone could have saved themselves a lot of rage and bulging forehead veins by using a little common sense and waiting until this DLC was properly tested and reviewed before buying it themselves. And if I'm reading it right, you preordered MULTIPLE copies of this DLC, sight unseen!

While I have been poking fun at Frontier and clearly calling them out regarding every terrible thing in Odyssey (mainly with the hope that they will either fix it or NOT backport it into Horizons), I feel zero anger or rage or need to shake my fist at Frontier, except in jest. Why? Because Horizons continues to work like it did before and no money has left my wallet. Oh, and Space Engineers is on my hard drive but Odyssey has never touched it :p

Sorry OP, but I feel about as sorry for you as I do Frontier getting terrible reviews. 🤷‍♂️

(I did call Frontier a grifter, so that should make you feel better. I can't have people thinking I woke up a white knight!)
 
PS: and it would help with finishing games too :D knowing that it can be taken away at any moment.
I'm actually pretty sure that the future of gaming will still be a combination of both subscription and ownership rather than simple dictatorship of publisher subscription catalogues. Hard to see any game except perhaps truly obscure indie games to become completely unavailable for purchase.
 
In my opinion, @Obsidian Ant should totally lose it on camera, so that maybe someone high up the managerial ladder would scratch their head and ask "have we really screwed it so bad that even OA lost his cool?".

Well he kinda did. Not that often you hear oa say directly negative things about elite.. though in all honestly i wouldn't have checked him as a white knight for many years now. Want some white knights, try the elite week podcast. They sound like start citzen people but directed at elite. Its a little spooky. They'll be broken like every other youtube knight though just wait.
 
I need to ask. By "poor AA" does OP mean Anti-aliasing, or is there something else AA stands for?

I mean, I always thought Fdev forgot to actually insert anti-aliasing into the game and options were there just for show, but that's hardly new issue now.
 
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