My annoyance is more with the immediate need to frame it as "they're that anti transparency". I'm growing pretty tired of all this "Frontier is the worst game developer since sliced bread" doom and gloom, as much as I'm growing tired of people that go "oh well support will end soon" after each DLC gets released.
It doesn't take much empathy to understand that the CM's weren't comfortable with a group of people watching them almost constantly ( because if a few people do it once or twice a day you easily get to a point where they're watched almost constantly). It's not a big scheme because "Frontier doesn't want us to know anything".
I will not give you this point. It's pretty well established they do not like to communicate their future plans, in almost any way. To me, that is anti-transparency. I don't think they are the worst developer ever, not by a long shot, but if you're referring to the comment I made that was along the lines of "Sometimes I wish Frontier was not the company we had to deal with", then I stand by that. The communication issue has bugged me for years, and I'm not inclined to just shut up and take my licks. It won't ever change unless it's continuously brought up in order to
inspire said change.
As far as the second point goes, that's fine. The "stalking" accusation was way out of line and inappropriate. No one is contacting them during, or outside of work, or harassing them on private social media or other private residencies or accounts. Viewing a CM's profile to see if they're reviewing a feedback page vs one of those earlier examples is vastly different, and using such words haphazardly diminishes their effect. I would encourage everyone to think about that in the future.
The only reason people wanted to see what kinds of topics the CM's might be looking at, as
@markun pointed out, is because we have been slowly stripped of any way of possibly gleaming even a scrap of info as to when or what might be coming to PZ in the future. Steamdb no longer allows us to see if unkownapps have been added, we have no idea what feedback issues (if any) might possibly be being reviewed at any given time, we have no roadmaps for dlcs or update features etc.
I would be willing to give another company the benefit of doubt, but Frontier has a track record for abandoning development without saying a word, leaving their player base totally in the dark (PC, JWE1). While I don't believe that support is ending anytime in the next 6-8 months, I think it's entirely fair to point out the company's short comings.
One thing I have consistently noticed is that whenever someone critiques how Frontier does business, it's interpreted by some as personally attacking the employees, specifically the CMs. While you have the odd troll that comes along (as you do in literally any place on the internet) that might actually do this, most of the time we are only talking about the companies strategy and implementation of said strategy. I have always made it very clear that whenever I critique Frontier, it is never about the CMs nor any other employee in any way.
My issue is not, and has never been, with the way in which the employees conduct themselves or do their job. My issue has always been with the way in which
they are allowed to do their job.
I understand that some people may think Frontier's level of communication is adequate, or that it's not worth trying to change. But I disagree, and so long as I'm allowed to share that opinion on this forum, I will. Either until such critique is banned, or the level of communication is improved.