I couldn't have said it better myself! Radio silence will only drum up feelings of resentment and disappointment, and unless there's No Man's Sky level development/upgrades to the game, radio silence just isn't worth it. Giving some kind of clue wouldn't take the wind out of the devs' sails, if anything there'd be a boost/flurry of discussion about the very things I bolded in the quote! The worst thing about these gaps of radio silence is that most of the time we just sit around twiddling our thumbs and going in circles "speculating" rather than actually doing anything meaningful planning-wise. And what else are we supposed to do?
To be fair, I don't think it's for us to say what will or will not "take the wind" out of the developer's sails. And I feel as though, when those comments were made, they were mostly WRT the leaks that had happened at the time. Which I kinda get. I'm sure it has a feeling to it like you're creating something very special, putting all of this heart into it... And you want that collective "gasp" when people finally see what animals are in the pack, what the architecture looks like, etc.
But the reason leaks are so enticing to people is specifically due to the lack of information we have. We almost never get "authorized" hints. If they were to drop some (and I think you had a really great suggestion as to how it could be done), it would generate conversation and more interest.
Right now, I have no doubt that the devs are working on incredible new features and a DLC. We have zero reliable info about what those new features might be. So as you said, people just kinda spin in circles guessing and speculating. And don't get me wrong... That's fun! But it could be even more inspired and targeted if they started to use those "Discussions" to inform the game! And maybe drop little hints in there. Vague, high-level stuff. That's how you inspire the imagination.
"We're thinking about adding new shops to the game. What sort of things would you like to decorate your restaurants and gift shops with? How would you feel about kiosks and food trucks?" Getting specific in that way would let people know what developers are thinking about and get more involved.
Another, more animal-specific example: "For those of you looking for more temperate woodland critters to add to your zoo, we hear you! We're looking into it. What animals would you want to see? What themes/regions would you like to see represented?"
After a few rounds of this, people would start to pick up on the hints and realize "Hey, there's hope for another DLC coming!" Just imagine the thrill you'd get if you mentioned something in that discussion and it made it in-game!
People are pretty invested in this game and in this community. Stuff like this can only heighten it! Sorry this was so long. I'm getting super hyped about it. Haha.
We absolutely surpassed ZT2 content-wise, and I agree that we basically get the same amount of animals in total every 3-5 months as we got expansion-wise for ZT2. I'm curious though, was there radio silence/thumb-twiddling in that community as well when the expansions were still coming out?
That's a bit of an apples/oranges situation because that was ~15 years ago! Haha. Social media wasn't quite what it was today in terms of a tool to promote and engage with fans... And the drum-up to a relatively major release/expansion pack like that was inevitably going to have press, reviews, etc. surrounding it. People knew those things were coming months in advance but that makes sense given that it was the sole release for the year. But it was relatively limited, as I recall it was mostly just Blue Fang releasing a press release and a bunch of sites saying "They're coming!"
Like I said, it was very much a different game in virtually every way. You
needed to talk about it more in advance so people would get out of their chairs and go to the store to buy the expansion pack. Just a very different thing.