Flannery wrote:I am truly sorry.... I have read this over and over again, trying desperately to find something positive to say back at you - or even sympathize with you... But I truly failed greatly...
And this rant by myself will be addressed to you and the other haters/whiners out there. I will try my best to keep it calm...
What I am left with is that you clearly do not know how game development works, how crowd funding works, or how donating works.
Not even do you know what to expect with a game still as early in development as this game is - even after 3 years of development... And what still being in development really means.
And the reason is that earlier - just a few years ago, you would not even be a part of this process - as no game developer would include its community in such great aspect OPENLY as we experience today.
And this also gives the gamer/donator/community member a false feeling of the game being allot more further in development than it is - and also demands that the gamer/donator/community member knows more about game development than the normal guy in the street, to even be able to grasp what is going on, and what can be expected by a Dev team.
What you do as a donor is to show you believe in a CONCEPT, and wish to help out to see that concept grow into something more.
But a concept is only that... a rather rough frame to work from to develop something more solid. And the concept WILL change over time... even if the funding is solid from the beginning.
But it will have to change even more if the funding fails in some sort. Even if the end result is the original idea - just with other aspects and ways to get there.
The whole indie concept grew out from people wanting to make the games the big companies did not dare to make - as they often were - and often still are - meant for a niche crowd, that are so specific in their interest in a game, it would most likely not be able to create large box office amounts of cash.
And this is also why so many of them fail...
And this still stands today - even though the indie companies now have allot more going for them, and that the communities really have shown their support in such development teams who dare to tread, still somewhat, uncharted territory.
It has now almost become the NORM that the indie companies/teams create what is really the good games - the immerse ones. The big companies more rely on creating great game engines and a game built on it, but rely on community help, dedicated - freeworking - coders, story writers, 3D artists and animators to really take their product to new heights. And it works!
So do not for one second come and think people are committing a fraud or luring you to pay money for something you will not get here... As you are still getting what you wished for - but you are getting more for it. And everything is still safe and sound within the banner of being a CONCEPT!
It is first when the game is ready for release it seizes to be a concept... then it is a done product.
If you - and this is referring to ANY of the ones that still whine about changes at this point of development with ANY game in development... If you do not grasp this simple concept of what the course of a game in development is, and how crowd funding and donating works - you should NEVER ever again commit yourself to ANY game in development, Early Access, or Beta testing... Cause you have absolutely no place, or the ability to comprehend what is going on at all...
You should then wait til the game is finished - and give your verdict on ONE SOLE thing... what you think of the final PRODUCT!
Sorry for being so blunt... but now this whining is actually starting to piss me off - just a little tad...
First of all i do know how development work. As a part of a big mod project for one of the games i pretty well know how hard it is to be a developer. You might say "that aint a real game... you are just modding.. pfft..." Well this mod is a huge project and has a team of a lot of ppl with certain "jobs".
When ppl comment on the mod i skip all the comments saying "wow this is cool" or "MY GOD WHAT AN AMAZING MOD" and similar. As much as i like to see good comments on the mod im developing (again with a team) i like to see "bad" comments more. Also know and critiques. Some of those are obvious because the person that makes the critique explains it in vivid detail. Others make comments that are not so clear and there are 2 types of those. One is "Your mod sucks" and the other one is "This feature of your mod sucks". For the 1st example there is no way to figure out if anything is wrong with that mod or is it just that that person doesnt like it. But, if someone says that some feature sucks (and doesnt say why), that makes me think. And that is the most valuable information. Why? Because i have to look at that feature in multitude of bad ways i didnt even try before, thus potentially changing/fixing/improving that feature.
As u mentioned concept i gotta say something about that. I did believe in concept and i still do, but im not at all happy with the things going on. Concept is something that can change, but slightly. If u change it a lot then that concept doesnt exist.
For this game my view of concept is the following (in no particular order): open world, craftsmenship (terraforming, building, and so on...), large scale battles, small scale battles, duels?, trade, banditry, diplomacy (which is not gonna be bound (much) by some game rules), MMO. Maybe i skipped some and i apologize if i did. Thats how i see this game. If you remove and/or change any of those you are not getting LiF, you are getting somethign else. Remove large scale battles (sieges for example) and its bullshit (in my eyes). Remove banditry and again its not the same game. Remove MMO (LiF:Yo) and its not the same game.
So concept is the thing that can change during the process but it can change slightly. Imaginary example: "Sorry guys, we know we promised sieges will have max of 1000 players involved, but our servers/engine cant handle that much, so we are lowering it to 500." This is the change of concept but not that severe.
Now about the choice indie devs do what they do. Why they do it? I dont care, because its their own choice, no matter if its gonna be a success or a failure. How much money do they make? I dont care. Its their business not mine. I dont even get the point in comparing companies and justifying their success/failure here. What does that have to do with my post?
Simple - Their job, their problem.
Should i start comparing for example McDonadls and some newly opened burger restaurant and try to justify their choice of food and/or service? How can that do any good?
You, my friend, are using the argumentum verbiosum here to derail the discussion. Seems some of the ppl have taken your bait. I am sure you wanted to express your fondness of this project, but so did i. You defended them, while i attacked them. We have the same goal - for this game to succed. (correct me if im wrong)
Since i want to contribute to this game however i can (at this moment only by posting here and spreading the word) i give my point of view on the changes. Like it or not, but im disappointed and i want LiF to become something we can all play and enjoy it as much as possible.