"Is the game dead?" returning players keep posting here and on reddit, due to blank Galnet

On the topic of the thread, that according to the first poster, returning players are asking if the game is dead due to the blank GalNet: since GalNet is dead (see this CM post), it might be better to remove it from the launcher.
Regardless of how many people read it in the past or didn't, it would still be better not to showcase that there aren't any new articles.
 
Well, it´s just a feeling.. I suspect FD is running Elite at the lowest possible resources with regard to staff. The reason for this might be they are busy with new content coming up. Another reason could be the game is in fact dying. And staff that is leaving a probably sinking ship? I agree that it would be helpful to get some information about the plans for the future, though I don´t think FD would happily admit that things are not going well and the game is left to die just by lack of content and further development.

sorry but maybe you aren't aware that the informations you need have already been released by FD itself. They plan to release "a major new paid-for release for the iconic space simulation which will dramatically expand gameplay and mark the beginning of a new era for Elite Dangerous".
I think it is clear enough.
 
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Clearly the game is not dead. It's very much alive, and we're getting fleet carriers and a big update this year.

But over the last couple of weeks, I've read many posts here and on reddit from players who have taken a short break (usually some number of months). They are wondering if the game is dead?

Is this the impression Fdev wants to give people? That the game is dead?

CGs, Galnet - "no plans on returning them" - seriously? This sounds like a bad joke!

I know, you're busy with the updates, and please keep going full speed ahead with those - we are excited for them.

But I can't help but think that Fdev is shooting itself in the foot here. Even just a single, short article on Galnet would stop all this nonsense. I can understand interstellar initiatives being paused. But has FDev even launched the game, and seen their own (mostly blank) launcher? It's a perception thing, really. One article or update is a hundred percent better than literally nothing

If you want, I can spend 15 minutes and write a paragraph or two about something - anything. And I'm sure others here would volunteer as well...it seems like putting one little blurb won't disrupt ongoing dev work, will it? What am I missing here?
Just commenting on the last part of your post here. I don't want to come across like I'm criticising you for offering to help with things (I'm not), but I think it's important to recognise that player submitted Galnet articles were a thing in the past, and FD had to be stop with that waaay before the FD Galnet production was reduced.

So players writing the articles isn't going to be viable in all likelihood, for exactly the same reasons it stopped being viable before, but exacerbated as the available resourcing within FD is currently going to be at a minimum.

So, good idea in principle, but for the reasons above, it's unlikely to be a goer. +1 for the good intentions though. (y)
 
FD addressed the lack of galnet updates by saying those resources are now focused on New Era.

In other words, rather than adding more resources to keep galnet updated and delivering New Era or slowing down their contribution to New Era, they moved them entirely over to it.

This leads to the issue of course of no updates for Galnet.

FD obviously decided it would be worth it in the long run, probably by weighing up the cost of hiring more writing staff that would later on mean they have too many and having to do somehting with them (UK employment laws are tricky and hiring zero hour contract people isn't going to get you suitable people most of the time, while contractors are expensive).

As for dead, well, the long wait for updates will lead some to presume so, but the servers are still on and FD have repeatedly said how they are hard at work on New Era, so FD certainly don't think its dead.

So the only people who think ED is dead is those who have decided for themselves it is dead.

Assuming New Era is half-decent, they might rethink their opinion... or not. There are some people who have been saying the game is dead for the last 5 years. If New Era is a steaming pile of poo and poorly recieved, then maybe FD will reconsider the long term viability of the game and decide its no longer worth investing in, in which case, i presume it would go into maintaince mode... not dead, just no longer getting updates, until its no longer worth keeping the servers on. But that could take years.
 
FD addressed the lack of galnet updates by saying those resources are now focused on New Era.

In other words, rather than adding more resources to keep galnet updated and delivering New Era or slowing down their contribution to New Era, they moved them entirely over to it.

This leads to the issue of course of no updates for Galnet.

FD obviously decided it would be worth it in the long run, probably by weighing up the cost of hiring more writing staff that would later on mean they have too many and having to do somehting with them (UK employment laws are tricky and hiring zero hour contract people isn't going to get you suitable people most of the time, while contractors are expensive).

As for dead, well, the long wait for updates will lead some to presume so, but the servers are still on and FD have repeatedly said how they are hard at work on New Era, so FD certainly don't think its dead.

So the only people who think ED is dead is those who have decided for themselves it is dead.

Assuming New Era is half-decent, they might rethink their opinion... or not. There are some people who have been saying the game is dead for the last 5 years. If New Era is a steaming pile of poo and poorly recieved, then maybe FD will reconsider the long term viability of the game and decide its no longer worth investing in, in which case, i presume it would go into maintaince mode... not dead, just no longer getting updates, until its no longer worth keeping the servers on. But that could take years.
I think some people on these forums won't be happy until the game is dead, just so they can gloat. Like those folks who keep predicting the end of the world, one day they'll get it right!
 
For a dead game I certainly play it a lot (for a given value of "a lot" when I only get an hour or two a week to play any game on my PC...).
 
Clearly the game is not dead. It's very much alive, and we're getting fleet carriers and a big update this year.

It is obviously not dead because I am playing it right now.

There are always anonymous arm-chair experts on forums claiming doom and gloom for games.

And it only takes a couple forum posters to make a lot of noise. How serious can you possibly take anonymous posts on an open forum regarding the future of an established company/game?

Obviously some games die soon, others later. It is really easy to spout doom and gloom based on game criticisms. I highly doubt Galnet is a measurable indicator of Frontier's future. And people come-and-go all the time, that's hardly an indicator. Honestly I don't know anything about Frontier, but more direct indicators would be is if the company is doing large layoffs, inability to pay off huge debt loads, major law suits on the horizon, active player base drops by 50% in 12 months, etc.
 
Hopefully FD will spin Elite Dangerous off to some other developer who knows how to deal with this type of game.
FD are good at sim type games so should have stuck with those.
They literally made the game, a space sim.

It's always interesting to watch somebody trip over basic logic so tragically on their way to throw shade.
 
1. Bruce Garrido, a new community manager joined the Elite Dangerous team this week.
2. There is an update coming soon (Q2) that will include Fleet Carriers.
3. The majority of the ED developers have been working on a huge update for Elite Dangerous, planned to be delivered at the end of this year.

No, the game isn't dead or doomed.

For those that want it dead... sorry!
 
When it comes to the story and lore of Elite Dangerous our Michael Brooks is the most important man at fdev so I for one hope he never leaves and is in fact heading up the new era

Michael Brooks left ED to do Frontier's dino game.
 
1) Michael Brooks and Paige Harvey have left Elite.
2) Patches instead of promised content.
3) Content delayed until the end of this year.
4) Galnet dead, no replacement announced.
5) Game studders, game launcher problems, network connect issues continue.
6) Game no longer works through VPN connections.

Not quite dead, but certainly dying.....
To be fair, Galnet is "dead" because the player base collectively agreed it was useless. It had few practical, pertinent news like the Thargoids attacking bases which can be verified by doing SAR missions. Or Thargoids returning to the bubble in specific systems etc. But other than that, the news stories weren't relevant to actual game play. I personally couldn't care less that Princess Aisling was spotted in public holding hands on a movie date with Denton Patreus.

Nope. Don't miss it at all. That tabloidy news bit wasn't going to impact which major faction I planned on stabbing in the back that week as a double agent. Or which faction NPC trader's cargo hold would fall victim to my Sidey pirate's lock picking skills :D

But the other stuff and especially #1 is somewhat disheartening.
 
Is this the impression Fdev wants to give people? That the game is dead?

The issue isn't with FDev, it's with people making daft assumptions. FD, I suspect, have given up trying to change that, hence are keeping quiet until they have things to announce. If people want to take that to assume the "game is dead", that's their problem, not FD's.

Even just a single, short article on Galnet would stop all this nonsense.

But it wouldn't. As we all know.
 
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