come one fatshark
8 Likes
What they fixed are the things that make people request refunds. Thatâs their priority. Who cares if they enjoy the game if they buy some cosmetics beforehand?
3 Likes
Swedish take on âprioritiesâ.
Tbf, people responsible for fixing cosmetics are unlikely to be the same people who are able to fix audio issues, or redesign crafting.
I get that - but in the absence of literally any communication, all we have to go on is the content they put out.
Which is just cosmetics and cosmetic fixes since December.
8 Likes
Never ceases to amaze me when game developers are just totally unable to maintain any sense of frequent communication on their half-finished-but-already-released games. I canât fathom how they donât just put out a short message saying something to the effect of: âWe know youâre waiting on an update. We have some stuff that weâre working on that we will discuss further around X timeâ.
That buys you another month or two of goodwill and itâs so incredibly easy and simple, so why not just do everyone (including Fatshark themselves) a favour and do it? Makes literally no sense to me.
6 Likes
Fatshark in particular justâŚdoesnât want to talk anymore. Because theyâre almost completely incapable of doing the simple task of not lying to the players.
Being called out repeatedly for their lies has made them unwilling to authorize any communication whatsoever by the CMs.
3 Likes
Iâve not been around these forums (or any forums) very long or frequently. What have they lied about thatâs not debateable?
Are we talking âwe have receiptsâ or âthis is transparently obvious that itâs a lieâ? Because itâs usually the latter - aquila pack amounts, the âwe have technical difficulties, we totally didnât forget to have something for the Skulls eventâ stuff, Krieg, Chem Dog, and Rogue Trader cosmetics taking âextra effortâ, the origins of the Vanguard PackâŚ
EDIT: Heck, letâs go back further:
âWe wanted to reduce randomization so we made the item acquisition totally randomâ
âOur choice of one of three talents every 5 levels is completely original and totally different from V2âsâ
âThe lasgun will have a wide variety of options like scopes and barrelsâ
Etc etc etc
3 Likes
Letâs not forget the biggest lie of all - that they were launching a finished game which had a whole laundry list of features and improvements over VT2. None of which existed for 8-10 months after release.
2 Likes
Yeah I guess none of this surprises me. Like I mentioned in the crafting memorial, these days the value of truth is only ever lesser than or equal to the value of material/monetary gain. I still really donât understand this short term mode of thinking. Itâs not as if people wonât eventually grow tired of your shadiness. Just look at what Creative Assembly has been going through for the past few months, just to name one of a countless list of potential examples. Honesty and integrity does more to earn you a loyal customer base than whatever you want to call this type of behavior and it will always come back to bite you in the end, itâs only a matter of time.
Whilst theyâre not perfect, the only major/large game dev out there that consistently displays levels of genuine transparency leagues beyond their peers that I know of is Cloud Imperium Games (Star Citizen/Squadron 42). I know people love to meme the incredibly long development time amongst other things, but theyâve developed a model for communicating their development and goals that I think other game studios could and should learn from. For the past 9 years that Iâve been following it, theyâve released at least 1, usually 2, weekly video(s), 2 monthly reports (1 for each game) and have developers that are free to speak openly about their work all over their forums and actually do so. If theyâd have something to hide, this wouldnât be the case.
Now, with all that in mind, itâs hard to justify the approach Fatshark is taking here. If being transparent were to make you look bad, itâs time to reevaluate yourself, not to double down on your shortcomings.
1 Like
Even worse, since the hotfix for premium cosmetics I canât play anymore. Constantly getting booted to character selection with Error 2014 or others.
1 Like
Itâs just capitalism in action. Every executive is under pressure to post higher stock prices quarter by quarter, and expenditure of money to earn more money is utterly alien to such an environment. Investing is no longer really a thing.
And clear and open communication is justâŚnot profitable. Or rather, it doesnât show an immediate causative increase in profit. So it, like QA departments, like better management, like playtestingâŚit all gets eroded by the dictates from on high that profit get increased quarter by quarter.
CA is in fact an excellent example of this: they bled themselves dry of talent slowly due to not wanting to invest enough to overcome their deficiencies or improve their product, and got complacent with the Warhammer titles propping them up, until suddenly the bubble popped and people got sick of their nonsense.
Honesty and integrity do earn you a better following and potentially more reliable profits in the long runâŚbut capitalism never concerns itself with the long run, only next quarter. Everything erodes under that pressure, no matter how long it takes.
The only ways to avoid that are to be entirely funded by donations/crowdfunding, or to be developing a game as a hobby/side project.
But re-evaluating yourself and thinking you might be wrong is difficult.
4 Likes
Or for that matter, that Darktide was supposed to be designed in a way to allow for quicker content drops 
A hint Fatshark: no one wants you to work for a souless company which works you to the bone, but so far style of your development suggests that ârumoursâ, about your flat company structure, lack of managerial supervision and direction, are true.
2 Likes
Truly these are our darkest hours.
Where is the God-Emperor when you need him? Iâll take a global totalitarian regime under one superhuman man over this nonsensical indulgence centered world at this point.
But yes, all that I am aware of to varying degrees. I do wonder why game studios open the door to these types though. Many who start out independent sign on with publishers for a bunch of conventionally âwiseâ reasons then ultimately end up in that same hopeless position. Isnât it time for conventional wisdom to be that you stay independent and relevant on the merits of your product and appreciation of your fans?
I donât know, it all just baffles me. Weâre all going to die at some point. What we remember moments before that happens are the choices weâve made. If weâre lucky, some of our choices get to echo through time in a positive way. Why spend your life being like this? Itâs completely hollow.
Ugh my brain
No choice. You need investment money, game development is a slow process with high running costs, youâre going to need a lot of cash so itâs either get independent wealth or have someone who can absorb the running costs in exchange for a big payout cash in.
Game design and development, especially with modern technology, is hardly cheap. While some games do exist purely independently, theyâre usually not exactly high-graphics AAA experiences, and they tend to have incredibly long development cycles.
The platonic ideal of this is probably Starsector, which has been in development for over a decade, is technically a fully functional game, and is just 2d graphics, dialog boxes, and an economic sim. Cyberpunk it ainât.
Fans can appreciate all they like. They donât make the big bucks, though. Or even the medium bucks.
1 Like
Makes sense I suppose.
I donât know, I guess this whole thing is above both my knowledge and interest levels. But it makes me feel the same way I feel when I have a period of delving into world politics. I just feel grossed out and appalled with both the choices people make and the systems people are forced to operate within.
For human beings, we sure are good at being anti-human.
The system is not humanity - it was constructed by humans, and it can be unmade by humans.
Things often seem inescapable, all-encompassing, all-powerful. But so did the divine right of kings, once, and where is that theory now?
Consigned to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.
1 Like
Amen, brother.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.