Mixed reviews on Steam

[Neflite]

Dear Frontier,

you are shooting yourself in the foot.

There are more and more negative reviews on Steam due to the fact that a whole bunch of people who haven't played more than 2 hours are frustrated that they bought a simulator instead of an arcade game.


For the sake of our sanity and your bottom line, please give us Steam keys ASAP so we can correct this travesty.

There are plenty of people here who love this game and want to see it succeed, but currently our hands are tied.


As you well know Steam is the biggest distribution platform on PC, the user review ratio is a big deal.

Please act soon. The first period after the game comes out on Steam is crucial.



Examples of that I am talking about:

User xyz 03. hours played:
"Bought it. Launched it. Got a boner thinking about it. Had to create an account. Kept on failing on the CAPTCHA thing. Boner went down. After 5 minutes I get it working. Try to press "PLAY". For some reason, "PLAY" means report crash. How does a game crash before starting? This really is the future. Worth the $60 IMO."

User xzy 4 hours played:
"Incomphrehesible UI, sloppy controls.

Granted I'm a day one player, but very steep learning curve. Couldn't figure out interstellar nav, for the life of me, and the touchy controls made the dogfighting a chore. Save your money. This isn't a jump in and play game."

Please do not let these noobs define the rating of Elite on Steam.

 

[Kyokushin]

I would like to write my review too, after playing a hundreds of hours, not two.
Game is not fast arcade for casuals, so more experienced players should have a possibility to make their own opinion on Steam.
ED is long-term game, progress is not in minutes, but in days of playing.

 

[Knightshark]

It's going to be difficult. Today easter holidays start. There will be no reaction from FD until Tuesday. But yes, this seems to have been a bad move. On the other hand, the game is at the top of the bestseller list atm.

 

[Cmdr Cmdr. Carter]

I've been replying to them as helpfully as possible, and as you'd expect, all you get back is flaming and defensive posturing from kids who are looking for CoD in space. What may be worse than the mixed reviews is the idea of the influx of these folks into "our" universe. Griefing level is about to rise exponentially.

 

[jgm]

Is this a "please give us steam keys" thread? Why don't we already have one of those?

 

[Knightshark]

I've been replying to them as helpfully as possible, and as you'd expect, all you get back is flaming and defensive posturing from kids who are looking for CoD in space. What may be worse than the mixed reviews is the idea of the influx of these folks into "our" universe. Griefing level is about to rise exponentially.

Let them Sidewinders come, muahaha!

 

[Seonid]

I'm sure the Console release will be completely different to this...

 

[Rubbernuke]

So, in short:

ED is not for everyone.
ED has a steep learning curve.
ED requires hours of play to get anywhere.
ED has no 'end game'
ED does not hold your hand.
ED requires effort

Therefore ED will not appeal to a fair number of people. Its not a game for all people and that's fine.

Blackmailing FD into giving keys is also silly. They will choose what they want to do, and since its their livelihoods and jobs on the line they are thinking pretty hard about it.

 

[Neflite]

I've been replying to them as helpfully as possible, and as you'd expect, all you get back is flaming and defensive posturing from kids who are looking for CoD in space. What may be worse than the mixed reviews is the idea of the influx of these folks into "our" universe. Griefing level is about to rise exponentially.

I have seen the noble efforts you and some other people have been doing.

I have nothing but respect for people who find the time and patience to try and help these people.

While I do believe that the sort of person who buys a space simulator and then complains that he can't fly like an ace one hour in are beyond help, I really do applaud your efforts.

Kudos.

 

[czinger]

I know... I was like "dammit".

 

[Cmdr Cmdr. Carter]

I guess in big numbers they could pose a threat. Once they're done slamming into the walls of stations, and figure out how to follow a wake, and form a wing, and when they get enough time off homework to build up some decent equipment, and discover all the flight axes, and learn to manager power and subsystems, and ... well, on that day, it will be 9/11 times a thousand!

 

[Kyokushin]

So, in short:

ED is not for everyone.
ED has a steep learning curve.
ED requires hours of play to get anywhere.
ED has no 'end game'
ED does not hold your hand.
ED requires effort

Therefore ED will not appeal to a fair number of people. Its not a game for all people and that's fine.

Blackmailing FD into giving keys is also silly. They will choose what they want to do, and since its their livelihoods and jobs on the line they are thinking pretty hard about it.

I dont care about these keys, i do not need them, and i do not need this steam. This change nothing to me.
I would like only to write an review.

How can do it?

 

[Meritz]

To be honest, "negative" reviews are not necessarily negative. Depends on who reads them.

For example, if I read something like "This isn't a jump in and play game." - SOLD!

Same goes for seeing throngs of whining CoD kids bawling all over their keyboards... when I see stuff like that I just *know* the game must be a gem.

 

[Kris]

I think Elite is not mainstream game. There will always be mixed reviews. Some like the game (i enjoy it very much), some don't.

And while not being mainstream, i think it has done very well. Sales have been good (it will never break AAA titles numbers), and being "Top Seller" in first 2 days of Steam sale is only a positive thing for future development.

 

[Ximrats]

I've been replying to them as helpfully as possible, and as you'd expect, all you get back is flaming and defensive posturing from kids who are looking for CoD in space. What may be worse than the mixed reviews is the idea of the influx of these folks into "our" universe. Griefing level is about to rise exponentially.

They won't stick around long enough to learn how to dock and undock nevermind pose a threat to anyone who actually enjoys the game.


Does anyone take most of the Steam reviews seriously? I certainly don't, but that's just me. If I want to know more about a game I'll put some time in and research it properly, I don't need to know the opinions of the mostly *insert generic insult* masses.
I can recognise a properly thought out review/'review', I used to do them myself.

Due to the total and utter lack of decent space sim games these days, anyone who is 'into' space sims is most likely already well aware of what Elite: Dangerous is. I doubt negative, poorly thought out and occasionally illiterate posts by everyone else is likely to dissuade someone of space-simmy loving inclination to change their mind and reinstall X2 instead.

Perhaps for people that don't know they love this stuff yet (I know, right? Madness...deep down we all love a good sim), it may influence if for some reason they arn't aware that Steam reviews are not the be-all and end-all (and let's not get started on the mess that is Metacritic ratings and what not) but otherwise it's just people whining that this game isn't catered directly towards them.

Shock, horror, how dare they be games aimed at others and not designed to appeal to everyone.

 

[Lodorenos]

I'm just waiting to write a review about my love for the game and the thrill of exploration (Almost Elite).

But nah, let the day-1 players make the reviews.

10/10

 

[Quineloe]

You're aware all these reviews have approval rates below 10%?

 

[Kyokushin]

Yes, but in overall mixed is still mixed. It looks not good :/

 

[Knightshark]

You're aware all these reviews have approval rates below 10%?

Does it matter? They all count equally towards the review score, and that's the first (and often only) thing people are looking at. If a game has really bad score as ED has now, most people will ignore it.

 

[Julio Montega]

Dear Frontier,

you are shooting yourself in the foot.

There are more and more negative reviews on Steam due to the fact that a whole bunch of people who haven't played more than 2 hours are frustrated that they bought a simulator instead of an arcade game.


For the sake of our sanity and your bottom line, please give us Steam keys ASAP so we can correct this travesty.

There are plenty of people here who love this game and want to see it succeed, but currently our hands are tied.


As you well know Steam is the biggest distribution platform on PC, the user review ratio is a big deal.

Please act soon. The first period after the game comes out on Steam is crucial.

Apart from publishing your own reviews, how about spending some time
with those newbies teaching them the ropes in a bigger event?

Reviews won't change the overall acceptance of a product, a community
that is friendly and active will however do something.
You can write whatever you desire about a game you treasure,
but the first days ingame stay hard and cold
for all this new blood.

And don't forget the power of the new media,
twitch and youtube are a reasonable source to inform about a game.