And that's the point of interest. Even in the announcement stream it is mentioned several times that there is still something to come. And I don't mean the DLC announcements.
And of course I look at the game from today's point of view. After all, it's been on the market for quite some time.
Was that on Reddit or on FB, where the excuse came that the dinosaurs can't sleep because we players would be too stupid to tell whether a dinosaur is sleeping or dead? What malicious excuse is that?
The implementation of the herd system was a great step in the right direction. And the rank fight system, too. Is there any serious work going on? Because both systems are there but buggy like hell and do not work properly. It's nice that they came in, but the tweaking and the improvements are still missing completely.
Sometimes referring to JWE. What about the trailer and the promises about Planet Zoo? The AI Life System is really promoted there. Should we wait for the release so we don't run the risk of being misled by "ambitious" promises in the pre-release phase? Maybe it is probably better for any player to wait six months before buying the game after its release. I'd like to know what the Frontier finance department would say if every player really did that.
I hope you understand the problem. It can't be that users are deceived as pre-orderers. I bought JWE at full price the day it was unlocked on Steam. And it's not my job to monitor if the promises are kept. It's Frontier's job to keep their promises. And when promises are not kept, it's obvious that it has to be communicated that way. But neither on Reddit nor Facebook made it clear that the Dino AI would only be a copy and paste nonsense. And it was also not clearly said what would be missing.
And mentioning that in a 2+ hour stream in the middle protects Frontier, because Frontier can always say "we did mention it", but is not fair to the paying customer. Because not all buyers can watch a 2+ hour stream.
To be fair, it is only understandable that a company seeks to present it's product in the better light possible so that explains to an extent all the bad communication there has been regarding this game from the beginning. And this continues until today, this very leak being living proof of it (and all this secrecy will, I think, eventually be the worst for the game and future, potential sequels).
That's why I also read reviews, comments and actively looked for bad ones just to see the other side of the coin (I could find I don't mind the cons). The stunning fact is that I only remember to find one (IGN's if I remember well) that actually told things as they are, and that was posted the very same day the game launched. All previous reviews were mostly positive and many
did mention we should expect improvements to those early builds commented, so I preordered (hey, they even gifted you an extra skin).
Almost a year have passed and, basic herding and tranquilized-mechanic rework (sleeping) aside, the game is still a growing collection of nice looking dinosaurs with little to no brains, cero terrain tools, just one map, etc
And that's the point of interest. Even in the announcement stream it is mentioned several times that there is still something to come. And I don't mean the DLC announcements.
And of course I look at the game from today's point of view. After all, it's been on the market for quite some time.
Was that on Reddit or on FB, where the excuse came that the dinosaurs can't sleep because we players would be too stupid to tell whether a dinosaur is sleeping or dead? What malicious excuse is that?
The implementation of the herd system was a great step in the right direction. And the rank fight system, too. Is there any serious work going on? Because both systems are there but buggy like hell and do not work properly. It's nice that they came in, but the tweaking and the improvements are still missing completely.
Sometimes referring to JWE. What about the trailer and the promises about Planet Zoo? The AI Life System is really promoted there. Should we wait for the release so we don't run the risk of being misled by "ambitious" promises in the pre-release phase? Maybe it is probably better for any player to wait six months before buying the game after its release. I'd like to know what the Frontier finance department would say if every player really did that.
I hope you understand the problem. It can't be that users are deceived as pre-orderers. I bought JWE at full price the day it was unlocked on Steam. And it's not my job to monitor if the promises are kept. It's Frontier's job to keep their promises. And when promises are not kept, it's obvious that it has to be communicated that way. But neither on Reddit nor Facebook made it clear that the Dino AI would only be a copy and paste nonsense. And it was also not clearly said what would be missing.
And mentioning that in a 2+ hour stream in the middle protects Frontier, because Frontier can always say "we did mention it", but is not fair to the paying customer. Because not all buyers can watch a 2+ hour stream.
Agreed. So, I've personally learnt from my mistakes and won't preorder another game, and will wait several months the next time just to be sure about a game's worth.
So, I am a bit in between with this gameplay content thingy. I think upon release it was clear some of the things showed in the run-up to release would not be in the game (yet).
But I most definitely do not agree with what you are saying is a valid explanation: "Marketing".
If I would be making a new action hero movie. And all my trailers show Spiderman in various tense and nerve wrecking moments, and then the movie releases, and there is no Spiderman. Do you think I could still say to all the people that complain about the absent of Spiderman: "O that, that was just marketing".
My advise is: Don't show and promise things if you can't deliver those on launch-date.
If you call this marketing, I would say it's actually really
bad marketing.
I would expect game companies learn from one another.
cough No Man's Sky
cough
Marketing is marketing and it's getting more and more aggressive and inmoral everyday, so I'm not really suprised by that. However I'm not annoyed just because all prerelease info was confusing, if not missleading, but because of the total and complete lack of communication afterwards.
If the things showed were intented to be ingame, as they seemed so because they were featured on the trailer, what's the problem with telling "hey, we apologize for x not being in the base game, it still needs some tweaks but will launch along some update in the coming months: we are still supporting the game for x years too".
I'd happily wait even a year more for a full-fleshed herding mechanic (with no clipping) or for pack-hunting or any other cool feature.
But, instead, we just got general statements like "we're working on jwe and will share some exciting new things when we're ready". Absolutely nothing precise, no general roadmap. You can't really expext nothing but disappointment when, after such long waits of radio silence, they turn out to be another bunch of dinosaurs, can you?
So, I still want to love the game but I can really trust much now; that's why I'm more anxiously still waiting for summer update although I'm a bit scared because I might get frustrated either way: if it turns out to be what the leak claimed then it will be clear that the roadmap leaked will more likely be true and then we'd just the same might save and wait for JW2, which will likely included everything for the same cost; if it isn't what the leak claimed but is something unsubstantial and rushed, I will likely read it as a last minute change of mind because they have been supposedly working on that for over 6 months now so...
