Okay... I gave the game one single bad review for the Alpha Access copy I bought, because I was and still am angry about it's state at release. I don't see any problem with that. I could have given it a second bad review for the copy I bought on sale. I didn't because I knew exactly what I was getting and I did buy it specifically for FC interiors.
Understood. There were legit reasons to not recommend the game, I did leave a recommended review, but I had caveats in regards to it. For anyone new to Elite, I still probably would advise to wait to get it, but if they want to go along for the ride, and have semi-decent hardware (I have a 2060 laptop that I put in that category, could it be called mid-spec?) I would say give it a shot and see for oneself. Odyssey is in a pretty decent place and should only get better.
I absolutely don't want to see this game burn.
My feeling is that there are very few who actually do. For all the crap I've given Star Citizen, I don't wish to see that burn either, I only will defend Elite here, I don't go on the offense and troll them or NMS etc.. I think that would be unnecessary and show a lack of confidence in Elite, and conversely I feel the same way about those who would do that here.
And let's be clear, the only people who are responsible for negatively impacting this game is whoever decided to release it in such a shoddy state.
I get that, and ultimately I agree, as it's an inescapable truth. However, my perspective on it takes the extenuating circumstances of covid into account, and it's for that reason almost exclusively that I'm willing to look past it, though wanting to see the full Elite come to fruition is also part of it, I will admit, and that's not happening if the game burns, but still, if it weren't for covid you wouldn't see me doing this, and I think it's reasonable to suggest that Odyssey wouldn't have launched like it did either.
I did totally register that bad review in hopes that it would discourage FDev from doing something like that ever again and to help others not waste their money. That's how capitalism works and that's why we have review systems. I'm also not going to buy anymore cosmetics until I get $90 value from my copies of EDO. I think that is completely reasonable and fair.
I agree that's reasonable, though the sending the message part is a minefield IMO. It's like chiding your kid, you want to let them know they did wrong but you don't want to destroy their dreams either, they're your dreams too. So yeah, my recommendation is/was conditional so I was not attempting to mislead anyone either. As for Capitalism, that's a big subject to bring in and risk is a key element of it, for both sides. When investing stocks in a company, there's no guarantee that they won't lose half their value the next week but there's the long term viewpoint and many have been rewarded for remaining calm and seeing it through, and of course many have also lost everything. Bringing it back to Elite, I backed this as a kickstarter and it hasn't been plain sailing, it never is, but I do believe that Frontier is pushing forwards as best they can, given the niche genre that it sits in.
That reddit link is interesting. I did see that it was tagged as early access when I bought my second copy. At first I thought, "Hey, FDev did the right thing!"
But then, of course they didn't. If they had labeled this as early access, I probably would have bought it. I WOULD NOT have liked it but I also wouldn't be angry about it, like I am now.
It's difficult to say, like I say, I'm pretty sure that if covid never happened we wouldn't be having these conversations, Odyssey may have released on time and on console too. The whole release was weird to me, I'm not going to try and second guess what their decisions were, I can only imagine that there was a lot at stake and it was a forced hand, whether it turns out to be for the good of the game is still up in the air IMO. I've said before (armchair expert time) that Frontier should be more forthcoming about the greater development picture of Elite, it's something marketable IMO, the saga continues sort of thing, and would provide much needed context for those who are newer to the franchise.
FDev abused my trust, and apparently 4062 others, when they sold me a $60 alpha access package to a game that still isn't finished a year after official release. If they experience a bit of economic pain for that, good. I hope they learn their lesson, because I don't want to see this game fail, but if they continue such business practices it will.
Well, I think it's fair to say that the point has been well and truly made, whichever way it was manifested.
So, no I don't want to see EDO burn, but I do want FDev held to account so that this never happens again.
I think they got the message. Maybe it's time to cut them a little slack (not intended to be taken as a free pass) and see what good can come out of all of this? But you can be sure to know that I also do not want to see the Odyssey launch repeated either, and not because Elite ceased development. o7
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