No Single Player offline Mode then?

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Legally you're 100% correct, and FD are probably acting to the letter of the law.

However, there's a side issue here (no less important) of backer trust, and company perception. They could certainly do better by their backers & customers than strictly follow the letter of the law. It's their bed though.

Absolutely agree with you and Tiger on this. It's murky territory though. Marshland with quicksand pools. Because where does moral responsibility end? If they refund over this, then the next time they must refund over something else. (And maybe relatively small like having planetary landing but no walking around.)
Blanket refunds at this stage in the process is just a stupid move.
 
Explain how Solo Mode is playing by yourself, unaffected by other player actions.

I look forward to your insightful answer.

I refer to the line in that post "I enjoy playing games by myself."
Solo means no interaction with the other players. You are, in essence, playing alone. It isn't offline that is the issue to that user but rather the need to not have to deal with others. And the game still provides that. The human interaction has been removed... you just have a AI with pilots that fly into bases backwards (I'm not sure which one bothers me more, humans or the AI)
 
Come on Tiger, You can't fault Frontier for the refund-policy. I've said earlier in this thread that I even hesitated over the terms after having been satisfied that the offline was still a given, doubting between the Beta or the pre-order. Hindsight is 20/20; I should've gone with the pre-order.
In the former, I have no leg to stand on, in the latter I could just have cancelled my pre-order and Frontier would've refunded without question.

It's really very simple. Beta is Beta, and they fully delivered on giving us access to all the beta-stages. There's just no ground for a refund towards Betabackers. How it will turn out for rubes, I don't know. But I fear that the rubes have as little chance on a refund as the Beta-backers have.
Just because they can stand behind the legalities doesn't mean they should ignore the morality of the situation.

I paid money and was looking forward to the offline version. They said it was coming. I paid money because they said it was coming. They change their mind and I am stuck with something that is not completely what I wanted.

I will not dump the game. I will not hold my breath until I turn blue. I will not go off on some verbal bashing.

I will play the game. I will frequent the forum. And I will MOST DEFINITELY remember how this was handled by Frontier.

And whoever asks me about the game will get the simple answer: Its a GREAT online game that allows you to do (insert all the things that Frontier delivered on here.) with other players.

And IF they ask about the future of the game, or they ask: "Hey I read about this feature or that ability coming in the future. How do you think that will be?"

The next simple answer from me is: "How much time do you have?" :eek:
 
Minorities, as well as majorities, should always get what they paid for.


We don't want to take anything from you. We want what we were repeatedly reassured we would be getting, or our money back. We have absolutely no interest in you and your gaming experience either way.

But the stink you are making IS affecting us, and may well affect our gaming experience in future.
 
I disagree they have behaved with astonishing corporate cynicism. How is a company dealing with thousands of financial transactions supposed to apply a "Wee local corner shop" mentality to the refunds process? By this I mean the owner knows you personally, knows your family, knows your story etc.... and can trust when you come in for a refund it's for all the right reasons?

Even my comparison above is not fair on Frontier as it describes getting a refund for a bought product, which is not the case here. If you think people are getting a refund for a product they ordered, they are not (in fact people in that situation are getting a refund I believe and quite rightly so). Backers did not order a product. They helped fund an idea to get brought to reality in the best way the maker could do it.

I really do feel for the people whose decision to back ED hinged on playing it offline but, and this is harsh I admit, they should not have backed it if it was that black and white for them or at the very least realised they were taking a risk hinging it all on one feature being present. They made a mistake too, not just Frontier in putting it on the feature list in the first place.

In the world of the "local grocer" market then maybe John could go speak to Jimmy and explain his situation and how he made a mistake and now has something that is useless to him. John knows and trusts Jimmy and feels for him and returns his money. Doesn't transcribe to faceless people asking for an electronic refund for a product let alone a refund for backing a vision. T&Cs absolutely must be followed in this situation or the whole thing descends into an utter mess (yes worse than the one we have here).

Your argument holds up -to a point-. However, when you make a decision that materially alters the game prior to the date of release in the UK, you're effectively invalidating your agreement with the customer, regardless of what status they're involved in, beta or otherwise, so at the very least they've got redress to the tune of their retail copy of the game plus anything that would be rendered inoperable due to the cancellation of the retail copy of the game. Note I'm discussing the UK only, I can't speak for anything outside of the country. It's important to note that Kickstarter backers in the UK may have redress if they backed over £60 because one of the reward tiers is a DRM free copy of the game, if FDEV can no longer provide that, they're in breach of contract (the agreement between backer and FDEV is deemed legally binding by kickstarter in the case of physical rewards).

As for people who bought through the store, it depends on how well you can represent yourself, but a lot of people are getting sledged simply because they don't know their rights or because they can't put into words the right legalese to get redress from FDEV. Their whole "The beta costs £50, and the copy of the game is in effect a free reward" move is an act of sheer evil genius by the way, that's how they've been able to avoid refunding beta backers. It's brilliant.
 
Having worked on several MMO and games I can say it is VERY common that you often try and try to get something to work the way you want to and at some point as you get near release you sit in a meeting and say, "We failed on that section people, we can't figure out how to do what we wanted to. This sucks. They're gonna be mad. Well, let's get on with the rest." I suspect they realized they were beating a dead horse (much like this thread :) )
Ok, fair enough.

Much less problems, if FDEV had acted like you describe and delivered the message better. Just an e-mail to all backers/prebuyers and an announcement on forums, in the official Store and webpage saying "We're terribly sorry, but we cannot include the promised offline mode at launch. See <link> for the technical and financial reasons. If this compromises your ability to play the game, please contact our support <link> for arrangements. We're still looking for possibilities and suggestions on how offline could be made reality in the near future <link>. Thank you for your understanding, and sorry for the inconvenience." would have been okay.
 
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So I can't even sell my physical collectors edition? This keeps getting better...

That should be okay I imagine - it's just physical goods, there won't be a key in it as you'll already have that. Of course, the buyer would have to own, or buy, the game another way in order to play!
 
"Subject to your compliance with these Conditions of Use and applicable Service Terms and your payment of any applicable fees, Frontier Developments or its content providers grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable licence to access and make personal and non-commercial use of the Frontier Developments Services. This licence does not include any resale or commercial use of any Frontier Developments Service or its contents; any collection and use of any product listings, descriptions, or prices; any derivative use of any Frontier Developments Service or its contents; any downloading or copying of account information for the benefit of another merchant; or any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools."

And

" If you use any Frontier Developments Service you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and to the extent permitted by applicable law you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password. You should take all necessary steps to ensure that the password is kept confidential and secure and should inform us immediately if you have any reason to believe that your password has become known to anyone else, or if the password is being, or is likely to be used in an unauthorised manner. You are responsible for ensuring that the details you provide us with are correct and complete, and for informing us of any changes to the information you have provided. You can access and update much of the information you have provided us with, including your account settings, in the My Account area of the website."

Translation - No. No you cannot. Standard MMO boilerplate "Do not hand your account to anyone else or we will ban the account".

Rules can be changed, or new rules can be made. It happens all the time, there's nothing extraordinary about it. If both FD and the interested users agreed to a solution that allowed FD to sell on those users' accounts to other people, what harm would there be in doing that? Take my account for example, it's pristine and squeaky clean: I have never played beta, never downloaded anything, I have no save game, nothing that would offer an unfair advantage to the buyer over other players. I would go home and stop complaining, FD wouldn't have to open its coffers to issue a refund, it's win win.
 
Ok, fair enough.

Much less problems, if FDEV had acted like you describe and delivered the message better. Just an e-mail to all backers/prebuyers and an announcement of forums, in the official Store and webpage saying "We're terribly sorry, but we cannot include the promised offline mode at launch. See <link> for the technical and financial reasons. If this compromises your ability to play the game, please contact our support <link> for arrangements. We're still looking for possibilities and suggestions on how offline could be made reality in the near future <link>. Thank you for your understanding, and sorry for the inconvenience." would have been okay.

I don't think they should have told anyone, they should have had an offline button in the game and when you pressed it, it launched the original wireframe elite. I suspect they might have got away with that.
 
And if it means a few people who live on atolls with no internet can't play the game then so be it..

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... I am now ... officially back to lurking... crikey... this ... all of it... what ... my eyes... they bleed... my brain... it hurts... Back to a world, a world where people actually pretended to care about others and their opinions, and maybe make a passing effort at comprehending them...

Oh and the views are so much better if I leave the web.
 
One is large and doesnt give a crap about the problem of the other?

The offline only crowd in general doesn't give a fig about data security and protecting the online side from crackers. It is nothing for them. They just want the off-line version, no matter the compromises it would mean for the online game.
 
Because where does moral responsibility end? If they refund over this, then the next time they must refund over something else. (And maybe relatively small like having planetary landing but no walking around.)
This actually made me laugh (not your answer, the concept). Companies rarely take a moral side when they have a legal stand.
 
Sorry, my bad - I thought it was a post in this forum, but on checking I realise it's actually in an interview for an article in a gaming website/magazine that has not actually been published yet. I'll post the link as soon as it's made public.

Sorry for the leak; it was an honest mistake!

No worries. I'd be interested in reading that interview, so please post the link if / when you find it. Most of what I've seen thus far has just been quotes from the forum (even found one of mine on a website yesterday - how bizarre!).
 
Nope, you don't get it.



what are you talking about

I get it. What flings one way, flings the other too, is what I am talking about. My suggestion: Stop the flinging, but trying to be funny about it. No sense of humour? Never mind.

People are saying "No one cares about us. Have some empathy." But in the whole ruckas the mud flinging is affecting everyone, not just the group who are feeling it.
 
The offline only crowd in general doesn't give a fig about data security and protecting the online side from crackers. It is nothing for them. They just want the off-line version, no matter the compromises it would mean for the online game.

I just want what they sold me or my money back. You want me to be ripped off.
 
Offline was the only way I played the beta

No offense to all of you but I just have no desire to play the same game with you. It was a major detraction for why I didn't buy the other guys game. And will actually stop me from playing this one if I have to play with other and have a few people ruin my experience. I don't mind online requirement for patching/updates. But I don't want "intrusions" on my experience or the mandatory persistent internet connection.
 
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