At the risk of getting burned here, well, I want to say I actually find Odyssey a quite nice game.
Although after trying EDO my experience is not what I expected (aah, those expectations) and the stealth thing is a bit chaotic for me. I get it, it's more of a new mode than a game itself. And you can't knock anyone out, alright, you can only kill them or try not to get caught. Ok. This mode I'm still figuring out, but hey, it's there but a bit aside of ED. Which means I can skip it if I feel like it. Or not.
Expectations?
Yes, the launch was a disaster. Although that's typical of today's game industry and it doesn't excuse it. But well, apart from the bugs and errors that will be fixed, (because bugs use to, and we don't need a roadmap to know it), maybe many of us believed that EDO was promising something more than just legs for our commanders (and everything around it too: new mission types, environments, interactions with npcs, npcs, the challenge of integrating it into ED...).
BUT... What about everything else we could be living there with our new legs in this huge universe? Where is the extreme quality we expected from the authors of ED... Where's the customisation to the millimetric limit of my cockpit, in which I got so many good times? Well, maybe it hasn't been implemented. Or maybe there is more planned, but we don't have a clue about it. Wow, what a disappointment... We were promised it.... Really?
Disappointment?
It used to be, a long time ago, that games were advertised poorly or not at all, and if you were lucky, when you got to try one and discovered a gem that made you have an unforgettable time, it stuck with you. ED is imho a good example of that. So what's wrong nowadays? Why are my expectations, if any, no longer met? Why do they release unfinished games? Where all those features are? Do we actually have too many expectations? Who invented the damn hype?
Exploration or another game?
When you play exploration, within the rules of the game board, or the open world, and you find that perfect balance between the exposed thing and the unexpected, THAT for me is called entertainment: keeping you there, engaged in resolutions and possibilities, and you realise that's part of the great gaming experience.
Around the board there is also another game of unsolved mysteries (?) surrounding aspects of the game itself, its future, any changes that awaits for it, any possibilities, new ideas and wonderful experiences to come. That's what the playerbase (myself) unconsciously play at too and, of course, developers should (very consciously).
Although there are 2 types of developers, those who promise and end up disappointing and those who, in the end, deliver a quality game, whether they had communicated it beforehand or not. Despite the release of EDO, I consider Frontier to be of the second type.
However, is at this other game: anything about the future of the product, listening to your playerbase, taking care of the expectations, show the bloody crazy possibilities (and facts a bit later, if lucky), when people gets engaged with your product over time. And this is clearly a game that Frontier doesn't want to or doesn't know how to play anymore.
Plans within plans...
A roadmap may not reveal full details because of risks, sure, as it could maybe expose too much of its own crossplatform strategy, launches (or whatever), but a game's roadmap should be able to offer something that your playerbase can't refuse. A certainty that there are plans, albeit undisclosed, to improve the experience. Anything, in the end, to keep the excitement alive.
Frontier, Why don't you play?
Although after trying EDO my experience is not what I expected (aah, those expectations) and the stealth thing is a bit chaotic for me. I get it, it's more of a new mode than a game itself. And you can't knock anyone out, alright, you can only kill them or try not to get caught. Ok. This mode I'm still figuring out, but hey, it's there but a bit aside of ED. Which means I can skip it if I feel like it. Or not.
Expectations?
Yes, the launch was a disaster. Although that's typical of today's game industry and it doesn't excuse it. But well, apart from the bugs and errors that will be fixed, (because bugs use to, and we don't need a roadmap to know it), maybe many of us believed that EDO was promising something more than just legs for our commanders (and everything around it too: new mission types, environments, interactions with npcs, npcs, the challenge of integrating it into ED...).
BUT... What about everything else we could be living there with our new legs in this huge universe? Where is the extreme quality we expected from the authors of ED... Where's the customisation to the millimetric limit of my cockpit, in which I got so many good times? Well, maybe it hasn't been implemented. Or maybe there is more planned, but we don't have a clue about it. Wow, what a disappointment... We were promised it.... Really?
Disappointment?
It used to be, a long time ago, that games were advertised poorly or not at all, and if you were lucky, when you got to try one and discovered a gem that made you have an unforgettable time, it stuck with you. ED is imho a good example of that. So what's wrong nowadays? Why are my expectations, if any, no longer met? Why do they release unfinished games? Where all those features are? Do we actually have too many expectations? Who invented the damn hype?
Exploration or another game?
When you play exploration, within the rules of the game board, or the open world, and you find that perfect balance between the exposed thing and the unexpected, THAT for me is called entertainment: keeping you there, engaged in resolutions and possibilities, and you realise that's part of the great gaming experience.
Around the board there is also another game of unsolved mysteries (?) surrounding aspects of the game itself, its future, any changes that awaits for it, any possibilities, new ideas and wonderful experiences to come. That's what the playerbase (myself) unconsciously play at too and, of course, developers should (very consciously).
Although there are 2 types of developers, those who promise and end up disappointing and those who, in the end, deliver a quality game, whether they had communicated it beforehand or not. Despite the release of EDO, I consider Frontier to be of the second type.
However, is at this other game: anything about the future of the product, listening to your playerbase, taking care of the expectations, show the bloody crazy possibilities (and facts a bit later, if lucky), when people gets engaged with your product over time. And this is clearly a game that Frontier doesn't want to or doesn't know how to play anymore.
Plans within plans...
A roadmap may not reveal full details because of risks, sure, as it could maybe expose too much of its own crossplatform strategy, launches (or whatever), but a game's roadmap should be able to offer something that your playerbase can't refuse. A certainty that there are plans, albeit undisclosed, to improve the experience. Anything, in the end, to keep the excitement alive.
Frontier, Why don't you play?