Hi all,
I've not taken part in the Powerplay beta as yet, I can, but having a small child is limiting my time to play.
Instead I catch up on the progress by reading everyone else's posts here and on Reddit.
What I have noticed in the last few patches, as with any patches to any game, it divides into those for and those against.
The most amazing thing happens with ED though, some really good minds come to the forum table with solid arguments both for and against the beta changes. These are not just gripes but understanding and thought into what is changing, why it could be changing, and also other potential routes that the changes could take. The ED audience (not just alpha/beta backers) continue this discussion well past the patch date, you just need to look around the discussion forum to see this.
And then I remembered the path through inception to alpha and then beta, this very forum allowed backers to help shape the game that we now have, we had a dedicated forum on the items that FD needed to decide and discuss. Discussion was key not to please but to make this game something more than another space sim. It worked well, many many hours were poured into particulars such as what happens when the ship is destroyed, should you be able to toggle flight assist in supercruise?
Now that the game is released that seems to have stopped and I don't recall a notice (other than individual posts closing once a choice was made) to say that game mechanics were now just an FD decision.
I'm not bashing FD here, they are still listening and changing or at the very least posting to give us insight into their choices, what I am saying though is that we've been here before, there was a defined method, collective. It worked very well and most of all it engaged a lot more targeted discussion over time. It made us partners in the game. I still feel like a partner somewhat but only to comment on my side for the way I see a change happening.
The model we had allowed almost 50/50 direction, it felt balanced. This method of "we have a surprise coming in a few weeks" just seems to take some of that power we had away from us.
As I said, I'm not griping, and I understand that at the end of the day it's FD's money on the line here but the more I look at comments for 1.3 and see people asking for more content that is not in Powerplay I can't help thinking what if the community had been able to help decide where the biggest gap was in 1.2 and collectively we helped shape what 1.3 actually was?
As for who gets a say, I think everyone who plays the game should get fair comment like they do now, and beta play not changing, only for alpha/beta backers.
Thoughts?
Cheers.
I've not taken part in the Powerplay beta as yet, I can, but having a small child is limiting my time to play.
Instead I catch up on the progress by reading everyone else's posts here and on Reddit.
What I have noticed in the last few patches, as with any patches to any game, it divides into those for and those against.
The most amazing thing happens with ED though, some really good minds come to the forum table with solid arguments both for and against the beta changes. These are not just gripes but understanding and thought into what is changing, why it could be changing, and also other potential routes that the changes could take. The ED audience (not just alpha/beta backers) continue this discussion well past the patch date, you just need to look around the discussion forum to see this.
And then I remembered the path through inception to alpha and then beta, this very forum allowed backers to help shape the game that we now have, we had a dedicated forum on the items that FD needed to decide and discuss. Discussion was key not to please but to make this game something more than another space sim. It worked well, many many hours were poured into particulars such as what happens when the ship is destroyed, should you be able to toggle flight assist in supercruise?
Now that the game is released that seems to have stopped and I don't recall a notice (other than individual posts closing once a choice was made) to say that game mechanics were now just an FD decision.
I'm not bashing FD here, they are still listening and changing or at the very least posting to give us insight into their choices, what I am saying though is that we've been here before, there was a defined method, collective. It worked very well and most of all it engaged a lot more targeted discussion over time. It made us partners in the game. I still feel like a partner somewhat but only to comment on my side for the way I see a change happening.
The model we had allowed almost 50/50 direction, it felt balanced. This method of "we have a surprise coming in a few weeks" just seems to take some of that power we had away from us.
As I said, I'm not griping, and I understand that at the end of the day it's FD's money on the line here but the more I look at comments for 1.3 and see people asking for more content that is not in Powerplay I can't help thinking what if the community had been able to help decide where the biggest gap was in 1.2 and collectively we helped shape what 1.3 actually was?
As for who gets a say, I think everyone who plays the game should get fair comment like they do now, and beta play not changing, only for alpha/beta backers.
Thoughts?
Cheers.
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