As far as I am aware FD have two people working their PR at the moment, most likely because they stupidly put all their funding into developing ED. So don't expect too much to come out from FD until after the 22nd, SSA everyone else is busy. They told us six day ago what was happening and nothing is going to change between now and the 22 nd so just chill and wait a few days.
Why no communication?
- Thread starter Kernel Kwatz!
- Start date
This is more a case of some people being waaaaay too close to the game. The post from the reddit seems to me that they're avoiding accidentallying their release goodies by keeping comms low till there's actually something concrete to talk about. Don't want a pizza-induced lapse of judgement to let some kind of NDA info slip out ahead of schedule. It hasn't been ages though, the newsletter's tomorrow and the gamma's the 22nd. Along with the 3.05 we got, it's not like they forgot there were players.
But really, this is an internet game forum. It's already full of the loudest most opinionated players of the game, every game forum is; but it's certainly not the majority of the playerbase, just the most vocal. FD engaging the forum at this point in time is literally a waste of their time. Nobody who's all bent at this stage will be reassured by anything they say, and nobody else needs reassurance.
Yeah, there is a lot of truth in that. I suppose one of my initial concerns was the potential for negative press so close to the release and how this could damaging to a game I think needs early commercial success. There is much development still to do and all that take money - and loads of it. Forums are a great way to not only get a sense of how the community perceives the game but also how welcoming the it is in general. For example, I briefly played Robocraft and that community was notable only because it was poisonous, most especially towards the devs. I'd be keen for this place to not mirror such an environment and I don't think the silence on Frontier's part has been helpful.
(Please note that I'm not saying that this forum is a toxic place or that it will become one.)
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Our community of spacers is pretty tame and pleasant compared to some I've been involved in, especially during a beta process. Tons of relatively reasonable nuts here. There's a few monstershouters but their population is small.
As far as fears for cash, the company is stable and reliable. They're not putting all their cargo in one run without insurance, so to speak; they have other titles that keep the company as a whole afloat. This is just their flagship offering. Nobody's getting fired after release like some giant megapublisher so the same devs will be working on this game for quite a while. Nor are they Chucklefish, a cheap indie lazing about eating the cash they got for part of a game.
And again, it's not been that much silence over time. Anticipation is causing a time-dilation effect. When you're waiting for a release every day seems like forever. If you have trepidations you can multiply that dilation effect by eleven.
Lol, funnily enough I was watching that clip yesterday for a similar thing with promoting what our dept. does for everyone at work.
I've never been on a beta test before so I don't know what it's meant to be like, but I'm pretty sure I expected a lot to be kept under wraps even from such a small, closed group as us backers
Tomorrow you will get the information that they have got a stack load of stuff going into gamma, and the game will great. They wont have less story line than frontier or first encounters, that would be silly! Will the game feel empty at times ? even with loads of stuff to do etc, of course it will its the whole fricken galaxy in your computer!
This game has the framework to eclipse all other games, in fact you could put star citizens universe in one end of the spiral arm and run it has separate mini game for giggles and poops! Once the dynamic trading starts going the game will flow beautifully. The networking is an issue but will improve as peoples connections improve. Believe in FD!
Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark!
This game has the framework to eclipse all other games, in fact you could put star citizens universe in one end of the spiral arm and run it has separate mini game for giggles and poops! Once the dynamic trading starts going the game will flow beautifully. The networking is an issue but will improve as peoples connections improve. Believe in FD!
Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark!
Have you read the thread about whether or not pre-orders get gamma access? the community managers are busy in that thread and have told us they have had information from Frontier Developments saying there will be an announcement to clear the confusion in todays newsletter. If that is not listening and communicating with us then I do not know what is.
What do you want? tweets about how the devs have been eating too much pizza and mainlining caffeine to get the game out?
Pics too or it didn't happen. I want to see the mountain of Red Bull cans and pizza boxes entrapping the team at their workstations.
I wasn't talking about the confusion about pre-orders or how Frontier have responded to that. (Though at the same time I welcome any clarification if it addresses customers confusion, especially if this confusion has been a source of tension.) I was talking about what Frontier could or should do to head off some of the angry threads that have popped up on the forum recently. Perhaps I could have been more explicit in my title because it doesn't look like you read much beyond that.
I've actually put some thought into what I perceive to be a problem (one that might disappear with the next newsletter) and I've offered a solution. So please do me a favour and spare me your asinine quips.
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Personally I think the FD devs. are borderline loquacious in comparison to some, for example Ubisoft prior to the release of Assassins Creed Unity (although they did have a lot to keep quiet about as it turned out) They will be working their tails off for the Gamma release and better that than gabbing with the huddled masses.
I think someone pointed you towards my comment in the similar Reddit thread, so I'm sorry if it's now going to sound like I'm repeating myself now.
I absolutely don't want to seem like I'm ignoring anybody on the forums, Twitter, Reddit or Facebook, but things are incredibly busy over here. The developers are hard at work on getting the game ready for launch, so there's not much time to get new information out of them. Along with that we have a launch premiere to arrange, and a European/American press tour to organise - we want this game to preview and review as well as it possibly can so it takes a lot of preparation and hard work.
When people mention things like: 'they've hired two people to specifically look after the community!' you could just as easily say something like: 'they only hired two people to specifically look after the community?' But that's no excuse, it is my job to be the community's eyes and ears here at FD - and I'm going to work hard to give you as much information as I can, whenever I can! I promise. It's just that our hands are loosely tied at the moment (because it's so close to launch day).
Let's face it: it would take ten+ full-time jobs to read through every Elite: Dangerous forum thread, and you guys have done an amazing job at sending me PMs to look at certain information - thank you for that, I implore you to keep sending me messages whenever you spot something you think deserves my attention (whether big or small).
It's only going to get busier on here in the coming months, and you guys, as the original backers and early forum users, are essentially going to be representatives of Elite: Dangerous on the forums. So please bear with us, and remain confident that we're putting out an amazing finished product.
If you have any specific queries, send me a PM and I'll answer your questions as directly as possible.
Cheers,
Ed
Philip Coutts
Volunteer Moderator
To be fair to Frontier we get a weekly newsletter which I think is pretty decent. You also get developers commenting on threads on a reasonably regular basis. One of the issues for me is people are now so used to being blasted with information 24/7 that anything less is seen as a failure. I would rather have a little quality information than a load of drivel. But hey I'm old and grumpy!
Thank you Ed! Have a rep!
I greatly appreciate the response Ed and I also understand that you are all busy at the moment. I wont belabour the my initial point. Thanks for the reassurance. A little goes a long way.
Its before the holidays. If they want to enjoy their time off on Christmas with the family, the game needs to be in a condition stable enough to be under-staffed for a week (or hopefully more, they deserve it)
There is no such thing as getting a shift covered in the game and CG motion picture production industry.
The average crunch time shift is 8am-10pm and an extra drop in on the weekend, sometimes un-payed personal catch up time. (sometimes)
edit: Thanks for response Ed.
There is no such thing as getting a shift covered in the game and CG motion picture production industry.
The average crunch time shift is 8am-10pm and an extra drop in on the weekend, sometimes un-payed personal catch up time. (sometimes)
edit: Thanks for response Ed.
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That's perfectly understandable. Some people here seem to miss the fact that you are a small company making an ambitious-as-fugg kickstarted game, and that the forums are the customer service end of a failing ISP. I can only speak for myself, but I have a feeling that the silent majority is just giddy with anticipation. This is gonna be great. At least on my behalf, thanks for the fantastic work, and sorry for the displays of... "Humanity" that have taken place on the forums.