What happened to the dev videos and updates from the team?

darshie76

D
I believe the last time that I saw a dev video was in 2013?

Seems that now that the game is up, there is no need to make videos and such anymore...there is no word about the next big milestones from what I can tell.

It would be nice if you bring back that; after all even if this is not in kickstarter campaign anymore; I don't see why there shouldn't be a video update every month or so.

You don't have to go full weekly like SC; please...that's too much, especially because hearing people talk for months about something and never see it implemented for years is a bit of a waste of time; but here we travel on a more reasonable scale....6 months turnaround for big features?

Or did someone lost the drive in doing updates (beside the ones on the forum), because the cash flow now is steady? True that we all work for the food and the money; but wasn't this your lifetime dream project? Did you achieved this lifetime dream already? Man, it means that I am pretty demanding from myself and my lifetime dreams :)
 

bossbrigand

B
They've been working in overdrive. I've seen a few short videos and AMAs, which is more than I'd expect most companies to do at this stage. Remember that FD is relatively small compared to any other studio taking on a project of this scale.
 

Zeeman

Zeeman
There are still weekly dev updates, and the weekly newsletter - perhaps spend more time playing the game, now that we can?

Z...
 

DCello

DCello
darshie76 said:
Seems that now that the game is up, there is no need to make videos and such anymore...there is no word about the next big milestones from what I can tell.
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Michael speaks every damn week about the bloody Powerplay update :D The newsletters and forum posts talk a lot about the milestones once they are set in stone, solid, on course, and not bound to change direction unless a moon crashes into Earth.
 

edd

edd
I prefer the written newsletters and dev updates. Easier to get through at my own pace than a video, and I can read them without needing sound. I rarely watched the videos when they were around, but I read every newsletter.
 

Hellhawk666

Hellhawk666
There was a lot of PR in the early stages, then it dropped off sharply once testing started in 2014 - they were just too busy working, so that was fine. The communications improved a lot since the commercial release, what with weekly updates. Plus the newsletter is more regular now (although it basically reiterates the update). FD have always played their cards very close to the chest as regards promises, however. We never hear about any new features until they have been designed and passed in-house testing. The company's approach is simply not to make promises that they don't know for sure they can keep.

What would be a nice touch would be, say, a quarterly video from David and/or Michael giving us a general roundup of how things are progressing and the overall plan for development in the coming few months. Nothing hugely detailed, we wouldn't expect that, but some information regarding definite intent to implement given features etc. It's not needed, as such, but wouldn't hurt for general PR.

It's interesting to note the huge difference towards PR of Frontier Developments and Cloud Imperum. One says as little as possible, the other expends huge effort in communications. Not criticizing or praising either, but in the end I wonder if it really makes any difference?
 

jpaulwilson1982

jpaulwilson1982
Frontier's been working hard and are probably still understaffed to some degree. But as stated they do provide development updates each week. Has OP signed up for the newsletter?
 

darshie76

D
Nothing against weekly newsletter, since they had them before too; but there are no more videos.

They are working, yes; but weren't they working too before the launch? I believe there was more to do at that time, to release the game, than now, that is mostly adjustments, considered to the full work done before.

Feels like there is no reason anymore to mount hype, there is no reason anymore to make nice talk with ideals and dreams and such. I would like to see the same attitude as before.
 

znôrt

znôrt
i'm a developer myself (disclaimer: not at fd) and that's one of the things that can really me off: having to spend time preparing stupid presentations or videos just to keep some stakeholders happy. i'd rather keep working and let PR people handle that. we will be better off if you enjoy the newsletters and dev updates and let the devs do their thing.
 

Zplintz

Zplintz
Why do they need to do dev diaries - the game has been launched?

There are Dev updates in the forum and we get to see their work first hand.

Not only are not all employees developers but FD has other products.
 
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streki

streki
Yeah its been suspiciously quiet on the Dev front....very little on the forums...not had a client patch for a while.

I guess they've all got their heads in 1.3 - good for them :)
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
We receive the trailers. And I am impatient to the video of Powerplay and later the video of XBox. The video dev ? Perhaps for the major updates like the planetary landings ?
 

darshie76

D
znôrt said:
i'm a developer myself (disclaimer: not at fd) and that's one of the things that can really me off: having to spend time preparing stupid presentations or videos just to keep some stakeholders happy. i'd rather keep working and let PR people handle that. we will be better off if you enjoy the newsletters and dev updates and let the devs do their thing.
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Well, I am a developer too, not at Frontier either; I did both games work and professional application work in the past 18 years; and I can tell you that one thing is to work for a company, to get the nice check at the end of the 2 week period, where you don't give a damn about what you do; and there is another thing, which is to work on something that you love; that you dreamed to work on....Imagine an Apple fanboy that goes to work with Steve Jobs on the iPhone.

If you think that doing stupid videos for the stakeholder is wasted time, it means that you love your check at the end of the pay period, and could care less about the product that you work on.

Then there are other people, that love what they do, and wish that every single person on this planet would acknowledge what they do, would love what they do, and would admire them for making what they do.

Where I work, is not uncommon to go to schools and various gatherings, to spread awareness about what we make; and I can tell you that the feeling of a teen that ask you technical questions and look at you thinking "I wish I was doing what you do", can't be paid with any amount of money.

When this game was launched; I saw people of the second category; and I believe that between the crap made of PR and money grabbing slogans, there are people that love what they do, and are more than happy to convey these feelings to us that love this game.

It all depends; not everyone is the same.
 

darshie76

D
Zplintz said:
Why do they need to do dev diaries - the game has been launched?

There are Dev updates in the forum and we get to see their work first hand.

Not only are not all employees developers but FD has other products.
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What was launched is a rushed beta....you may look at other MMO; and see that beyond the various dev notes; they often do previews of upcoming expansion, play trough the new features; keep people interested in what are they doing, and show their progress.
We are not in the 90s anymore; the game has been launched; and this is just the first step of a long (hopefully for us) ride to a better product. Dismiss the dev diaries, when there are 2 major features that were promised "at later time"; when the game is in a limbo state with many features that are just barely fleshed out, feels like nobody care anymore about the game; they got their money; they got their reviews on the magazine; most of us paid the expansions already while in the closed beta....if you think ill of this behavior, there are many things that point at negative thoughts.

I want to look at it as a moment where they are figuring out how to do things; and hopefully they will get back to do what they used to do before, keeping us updated not only with a post on the forum, but sharing what they do.

I agree on your point that they have other products....but let's look behind us, in the past 2 years when the game was still trying to gather as much money as possible; they had other products too; but you could see often videos from various key people...anyone here will remember the famous sweaters that Mr Braben used to wear. Were they less busy at that time than now? As you can see, logically it won't excuse the lack of such updates.

And I don't really need a developer to talk; anyone can talk; it is not like they have to walk us trough the code that they write; there are various things happening: ship design, mechanics, lore; graphic....none of these people has the time to do anytning beside work, nor they have the time to interact with who pay their salary? Life in UK must be hard...harder than in the silicon valley at this point :)
 

darshie76

D
Patrick_68000 said:
We receive the trailers. And I am impatient to the video of Powerplay and later the video of XBox. The video dev ? Perhaps for the major updates like the planetary landings ?
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I hope so....they made those nice training videos; and I was expecting more...but then nothing.

I don't want more of the flashy CG galore that was done for the launch trailer; I am more for someone that sit and explain us something of what they are doing; their problems, their choices; why something can or can't be done.

Am I taking how Star Citizen is doing thing, and trying to port it on ED? Not at all; I don't like their flashy and condiscendent approach, but you must admit that beyond the river of words that they spit out in every episode of their show, there are those 5 minutes of useful info that gives you an idea of what is going on.

- - - Updated - - -

streki said:
Yeah its been suspiciously quiet on the Dev front....very little on the forums...not had a client patch for a while.

I guess they've all got their heads in 1.3 - good for them :)
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I can say that there was a forum in beta, just for the dev design talk; which was entertaining; then it seems that the format changed in "you guys give us ideas, we will think about it"; and then "hey guys, this is what we are doing; here, fill 50 pages with something that we will marginally consider, but good thoughts!" :)

Let's not fall in the rabbit hole of the "interactions"; my point was purely on the fact that once the game got out; nobody care about give that kind of fan service that was given while gathering funds.
 

Zplintz

Zplintz
darshie76 said:
What was launched is a rushed beta....you may look at other MMO; and see that beyond the various dev notes; they often do previews of upcoming expansion, play trough the new features; keep people interested in what are they doing, and show their progress.
We are not in the 90s anymore; the game has been launched; and this is just the first step of a long (hopefully for us) ride to a better product. Dismiss the dev diaries, when there are 2 major features that were promised "at later time"; when the game is in a limbo state with many features that are just barely fleshed out, feels like nobody care anymore about the game; they got their money; they got their reviews on the magazine; most of us paid the expansions already while in the closed beta....if you think ill of this behavior, there are many things that point at negative thoughts.

I want to look at it as a moment where they are figuring out how to do things; and hopefully they will get back to do what they used to do before, keeping us updated not only with a post on the forum, but sharing what they do.

I agree on your point that they have other products....but let's look behind us, in the past 2 years when the game was still trying to gather as much money as possible; they had other products too; but you could see often videos from various key people...anyone here will remember the famous sweaters that Mr Braben used to wear. Were they less busy at that time than now? As you can see, logically it won't excuse the lack of such updates.

And I don't really need a developer to talk; anyone can talk; it is not like they have to walk us trough the code that they write; there are various things happening: ship design, mechanics, lore; graphic....none of these people has the time to do anytning beside work, nor they have the time to interact with who pay their salary? Life in UK must be hard...harder than in the silicon valley at this point :)
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Not really sure the point you are trying to make here.
 
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znôrt

znôrt
darshie76 said:
it means that you love your check at the end of the pay period, and could care less about the product that you work on.
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says who and what could you know about me? turns out i'm a professional and i totally love my work, which i've been doing for the last 30 years. it consists in actually designing and coding stuff, not in showing off or engaging in random ego trips. you do get to meet some funny jerks on your way, but hey! we're a team!

darshie76 said:
Then there are other people, that love what they do, and wish that every single person on this planet would acknowledge what they do, would love what they do, and would admire them for making what they do.
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so anyone not in desperate need of positive reinforcement is just a drone. and that's supposed to be 'love'. fascinating.
 
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