It’s the internet, I’m sure it will be ignored and people will rant about another broken promise if it doesn’t come this week. Was about to highlight that and point out it doesn’t mean this week for sure, but decided to watch it unfold instead 
Weasel words existed long before the internet and have been a staple of corporations, politicians, and their mouthpieces for generations.
People SHOULD be mad about it. It’s deception without technically being deception.
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Yes. This is why I can’t take these developers seriously when they employ such underhanded tactics. No one likes corpo speak for a reason, and there’s no discernible reason to employ it here - unless the intention is to mislead.
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How freaking hard is it to even just say, via an official communication something like this:
"Hey, we know the community isn’t happy with the state of the game right now. As you can imagine, there is a lot to sort through since release and we want to be sure we respond genuinely to your concerns. The team needed downtime over the holiday to get restored and reoriented, and we are taking a serious look at concerns with fresh eyes.
We are currently planning to release a comprehensive response to community concerns on Thursday, January 19th, but this may be subject to change (we will let you know in advance if the date changes!).
Thank you kindly for your patience while we sort through all of this feedback. We want Darktide to be the best it can be for our players and community, so please bear with us!
Thank you - Your CMs"
This took me 2 minutes to write.
Why are communications and important CM responses buried in forum threads? It’s rediculous.
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Because, as previously mentioned, Fatshark hopes this will all blow over and they can get back to fleecing you.
If they make a commitment to anything they’ll have to follow through or break their promises. This way, they just get to say, “Well, technically we didnt say we would definitely have updates for you this week, just that we might. That’s on you, not us.”
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This.
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Eh, calling saying “earliest this week” as deception is a bit much…
To me that’s clear what it says. I see reason to be mad about the state of the game and communication… but if someone says “earliest” this week and someone takes it as “This week” the fault lies with the one who won’t take what’s being said, but rather use “what they think they said”.
Also…what? How did you take that from my post? Nothing I mentioned had anything to do with this.
I can be critical against Fatshark (Which I have multiple times) and ALSO make fun of posters on the internet not being able to read. They aren’t exclusive.
For example I agree with Mezmorki. They should make a announcement post now that they are back stating what the plans are going forward instead of having it buried in this thread.
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Sorry, maybe I misunderstood what you were saying.
If you’re defending Fatshark, uh… carry on, I guess?
Also, it’s absolutely deceptive in nature. It’s not the same as flat out lying, but creating the impression you’re going to do something and then giving yourself an out through semantics is deceptive.
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Deception means intentionally misleading…
Earliest this week, means…Earliest this week. There is no “OUT”… the statement is clear. The only way for it to be deception is if you take it as “It coming out this week”, which as I mentioned, is a fault on your end when the post is clear.
Have you never used “Earliest this week, afternoon, in x days?” in any work you’ve ever been in?
It’s standard in my line of business because we can never know how long something takes until we actually have the material in front of us. And then anything can pop up.
I use “I try look at it this week, otherwise I get to it next week” and nowhere is anyone taking this as me deceiving people.
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I think you mis-assigned that quote? I don’t remember Kumori saying this, but this guy did:
Unless he said it in a different thread?
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Part of the problem is that anything FS does is a PR marketing stunt. They won’t post anything that can’t also be simultanously published to various news outlets as a puff piece. Like they’ve said, the community updates coincides with interviews or being pushed out to gamer blogs for maximum visibility and PR.
That’s also why their community updates are so incredibly tone-deaf and refuses to honestly talk about all the problems with the game. They’re not actually community updates, they’re PR puff pieces fed to gamer media, that they also happen to post on their own forums. They don’t actually give us any communication that is meant purely for current customers with anything honest in them. It’s all PR talk meant for wider distribution.
This means they not only need to write the corpo-speak “community update”, but also coordinate with choice news outlets about when to release it.
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Incorrect. Deception comes in many varieties, including neat varieties like self deception!
This is absolutely intentional deception through “semantic sleight of hand” or weasel words.
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That’s great and all but your game and community is on fire at the moment. Not to mention the several controversies, missed deadlines as well as the mishandled Pre-“Beta”, post release support, and so on. Thus, if you can’t give your community a simple update that isn’t some banal,“maybe we’ll give you an update next week, and maybe we’ll talk about it privately without your input”; then it’s called being intentionally obtuse.
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You’re absolutely correct. Apologies to Kumori.
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Oh absolutely… I have never claimed or insinuated anything else.
Of course PR people will talk PR.
That still doesn’t mean that I can’t have a little fun with people intentionally change what’s being said.
Doesn’t matter how much you think someone lies, if they say earliest, the best bet would be to assume it means “EARLIEST” and not “THIS WEEK FOR SURE”.
In fact, I usually go the other way…
They say earliest? Ok, so probably next week then.
But there is a difference in me making assumptions and me claiming someone lied or said something they didn’t.
That’s all there is to it.
Oh sure, I was just musing about why it might take them a long time to actually post something. Not just that they need to discuss what to do and what to post internally, but they’re also timing it with external publishing. Because god forbid they gave an update to their customers that wasn’t a PR piece.
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You can absolutely be angry at the lack of communication…
I am as well. I even mentioned that in my posts.
I also think they should communicate more and hell, even be more clear.
That still doesn’t make me buy into this argument that if they use “earliest this week” someone can go and be mad at them thinking that means “this week”.
Don’t get me wrong, you can be mad that they DON’T do one this week, that’s fair.
I don’t think you can be mad “because they said it would be this week”. That’s all it was. And it’s not like it’s a hot take. Internet taking since out of context and changing quotes is well known. Hell, people in general and it often happens without people intending to do so as well.
People are making a mountain out of a molehill with what I said.
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First off, I’m not at all angry. I’m simply pointing out just how dishonest this developer is and critiquing their output thus far - it’s not my fault if their output has been unsatisfactory while fueling additional criticism. Besides, these things are worth discussing as a community, as it impacts both us and the game. None of us want to be here, we want to be playing the game; but alas, we can’t because it’s an unenjoyable mess at the moment. We’re here giving feedback in the hopes of improvement on Fatshark’s end.
So to put it mildly, if Fatshark can’t even give us straight answers to our questions without running us around in circles then that’s a problem, a big one. I need to remind you that it takes exactly five minutes to write something that acknowledges the community. For example: “Hey guys, Asuska’s biggest fan here. I hear you about the game. You don’t like some things. We’re working on it. Can’t give you any ETAs cause these things take time to address and fix. K thnx bai.”
I disagree, people are not responsible for that. Fatshark is responsible for putting themselves in this position by obfuscating their design intent via communications and intentionally misleading us about their intent.
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Yeah, if Dave punches Jim in the face, that’s 100% on Dave. No amount of “well, Dave said he was gonna punch Jim” or “maybe Jim should have ducked” changes the fact that Dave did the bad thing.
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Your first paragraph is why I broke, uninstalled and removed from my favorites.
The fact that they clearly used VT2 for the base of the game but stripped all the core components they spent years developing screamed cash grab.
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