Why the fans are upset about Starbound

Full disclosure: I am in the group of 'fans that are upset with Chucklefish'. My gripe is, unlike many, not how long development is taking. I will have more on this later, but that is my opinion, for however much it will or will not cloud the following post. If you cannot get past the fact that I am upset with chucklefish to consider the following, I ask that you refrain from commenting.

Now then. Starbound was first 'announced' a long, long time ago. Well, long in internet years. Back in 2011, I believe. I'm not sure when, I didnt follow it back then-- I started following it (loosely) in 2012. I understand that the game had delays back then, and promises were made which I cannot and will not quote. That's all fine and good, almost everyone realizes that, at that point, the game was just not ready. While the fans were upset about it being delayed to 2013, it was more the upset of a child finding out they won't get their toy until next month; harmless and almost endearing, if a little irritating.

Fast forward to 2013. It was around-- April, I think? The month of fools, kings, and those who follow them? Yeah, about the 13th of that month. Preorders open! Beta and release will be coming this year for realsies certain! Preorder and give us the dosh, and we can develop the game FASTER! These are all promises that were made on the FAQ pages for preordering, and the announcements about preordering. Don't believe me? You don't have to! Go check out the FAQ page. In the meanwhile, here's some hot quotes to prove a point.

Okay, that tells us that the beta's this year. We knew that. What about the for-realsies release? Turns out that's covered too!

Sweet, so the game ("the Starbound") will be out in 2013. No matter what! That's a great promise. People love sure-sounding promises like that, that is the kind of communication that's good. BUT WAIT! What else is in this rogue question?

Lo and behold, here is where the first of many problems pop up. In fact, that same sentiment is echoed on the preorder page itself.

But this here contains YET ANOTHER promise, despite seeming like the same promises: The promise that your pre-order money, however large or small, goes toward developing Starbound. Nothing else. There is no other way to interpret "your purchase will go directly towards the development of the game." And this is where Chucklefish's lack of business experience starts to rear its' ugly head.

But we'll get back to that. At the time, none of those things were problems. They're starting to become problems NOW, but at the time, everything was fine. So what has been irritating the fans between then and now? The answer is so stunningly simple, it's moronic: Communication.

Throughout the entire year, we have-- whether out of paranoia or an internal mandate-- received nothing concrete. We have received small glimpses into individual systems, each disjointed from the rest and only viewable exactly as it is, not as the part of the whole it is going into. We have received individual, random sprites for monsters. We've been shown a cool item here, or a nice function there. We've been shown poo-creatures. But even then, these daily updates only started after Chucklefish failed in communicating on another front.

The Roadmap. Remember that? It was a pretty big deal when they launched it. They promised, among other things, that the roadmap would be updated "frequently", or more recently, "once a month", and they have failed to meet both of these deadlines. More stunningly from the perspective of the fans, they used to avoid answering questions about the roadmap. If you wanted to ask when the next roadmap update was, it was always "Soon ", smiley face irritatingly non-optional.

The problem with this was not the lack of roadmap updates, the problem was the lack of communication. If they had taken the time-- a few minutes-- to make a post that 'hey, the roadmap update this month's taking a little longer than expected, but we'll have it up on Thursday', it would've never become a problem. As long as they had kept communication open, blunt, and up-to-date, it would have never become a problem.

Instead with every dodged question, they burnt a little more goodwill. A 'soon' here. A 'not sure' there. a '2013' here. A 'spoiler' there. Again and again and again-- and not just with the roadmap-- Chucklefish has refused to pin anything down, possibly out of fear of missing another deadline. And that was okay back in 2012. The moment they started accepting preorder money, however, and made promises like 'all your funds will go toward Starbound' and 'Your pre-orders will help us develop it even faster', however, they became accountable.

Now I don't mean that in the banking sense, I mean that in the sense of 'I gave you money and you gave me promises, where is the culmination of those?' People are entitled-- there's that word, pay attention to how I use it-- to know what their money is being spent on. When you promise that people's preorder money will all go directly toward funding Starbound, people want to know the ways that money is being used. They want to know how deadlines are shifting, what the progress overall is like, they want you to do things like pin down beta and release dates, to prove that their money is doing something.

Instead, time and time again, Chucklefish has refused to give the fans any real communication. Refused to put anything of note into the fans' hands, whether it be a small demo, a large demo, a date for beta or a date for release. Look at Terraria's 1.2 update trailer. Look at the amount of 'spoilers' that are in that. Look at how many people are hyped and excited for it as a result of seeing those spoilers. People need a solid, working demonstration of the work that has been put into the game, working as a whole rather than individual parts. Having Yogscast bumble around, not read quest text, and drudge through exploring a cave and making a base out of it-- that is not a demonstration of the work you say you have put into Starbound.

The fans-- the angry fans, the frustrated fans, the fans that are asking for refunds-- are not doing it because they need more daily updates, or they need more roadmap updates. They are doing it because they want communication. They want to know what is going on, they want to know why with $1,837,685 the beta is still not out after half of the time you had to get it into a release-worthy state, after promising pre-order money would make it go faster. They want communication. Chucklefish has expended their period of vague promises and unspecific dates. That time has, in the collective mind of the angry fans, long passed. We are five months into the 8 they had from the moment preorders opened to keep their promises. We have passed the hump.

The fans want real answers. Give them those, pin down a month for beta, or better an exact date, and you will stop getting angry posts and a lackluster (or worse) response to everything you do. But stop being quiet, Chucklefish. You're giving us all noise and no signal, and people will only tolerate it for so long before they pull out.

 

I think Starbound has had a great level of communication. If you are waiting for Mount and Blade Bannerlord...then you can argue about the alck of communication.

Game developers these days do need to keep cool on what information they give to the public especially release dates. You can see examples of what happens when dates arent met in Starbound and DayZ as another example. It can be very hard to estimate the release of a playable game months in advance and that is why I think a generic timeframe is suitable.

I know that the pre orders and such stipulated that there was going to be a BETA in 2013 and there is still plenty of time so I believe they will definitely hold up to that promise. Where you quoted:

Q. What if you don't get enough preorders, will the game be unfinished?
A. No, the Starbound is going to make it out in 2013 no matter what.

I still feel that this is descriptive of the BETA and not a final release. So I don't really see too much of a communciation issue here again. Yes pre ordering entitles you to a game...but that is about it. I know I pre ordered Natural Selection 2 before that came out and that took a long time as well.

I think Chucklefish are being anything but quiet IMO.

 

I dunno, I honestly prefer vagueness over repeatedly missing specific deadlines.

 

I agree with what you've said and unfortunately there are people here who will still say you're an entitled pig who doesn't have the privilege of criticizing Chucklefish even after paying for the game.

 

I'll agree that they shouldn't set too many dates, as they are bound to miss them. However, people can only be in the dark for so long before they start to get antsy, as most here are getting.

 

The roadmap lists 'Estimated Release: 2013', and if I searched (I honestly do not care to), I could likely find places where they specified both beta and release. The preorder page suffices though, as it lists the availability of both beta access and release as 'estimated at' 2013. The language in the FAQ just further reinforces the notion that both beta and full-fledged release are slated for this year, and Chucklefish has never said a word to the contrary.

Secondly: They are not being quiet. I never said they are being quiet. Edit: WHOOPS I'M DUMB, I did say they are being quiet. I meant that they are not communicating useful, important information.

Regardless, I am not here to argue semantics: Whether or not they are correct, this is why the angry people are angry.

 

You said its not about how long yet i see lots of dates posted, if you upset that beta isn't out yet still plenty of time in this year for its release. If they wanted too they could release the game at the very end of Dec. and have beta a week before, 5 days, 3 days before and it continue onto launch. Just like FFXIV ARR did. They never said how long you'd be playing beta before release of the full game.

Also if you can't handle negative comments on a negative thread then you shouldn't post it because your going to get them. Just a tip, not telling you to not be mad or whatever its your life

 

One of the points Critwrench is trying to get across is that proper project management is required to stick to a release date and that release date doesn't have to be a heavily polished and fully functional beta for good impressions. The lack of beta and giving a playable version of the game to youtube "celebrities" gives off an impression to many people that Tiy doesn't want bugs in the beta, just a functional sandbox style version of Starbound but with no storyline, instead of a beta for bug reporting and bug fixing. If I'm mistaken here, then some people including myself would have to question the project management and the priorities of whats being worked on.

 

The kicker is communication and the lack of it IS a big problem, it feels like Chucklefish have issues communicating amongst themselves, hence why Bartwe had that "pre-alhpa" blurt during i49 and they were quick to address that; the team simply didn't speak amongst each other enough and prepare for the stress of being up in front of millions.

and as Critwrench pointed out, while they HAVE been posting updates and answering questions, there's also been a great deal of vague answers, dancing around issues, and an eagerness to hide what Starbound has (or possibly doesn't has) to offer.

I think I speak for quite a few people when I say I fear for the outcome of Starbound; and that it may be another Spore.

 

Well, if they stay too vague, they might end up missing another deadline without even telling us that it'll happen.

I think what OP is getting at is that if they can't foresee beta coming out as previously planned, they need to tell us instead of keeping everyone in the dark. We'd rather know that they screwed up their timeline by them telling us before it simply passed by.

I know, for one thing, I wouldn't ask for a refund, if the beta date passes by with no beta release, but they told us about it before hand (and I don't mean a few days before the beta release date was supposed to be). But if 2014 comes and the beta still isn't here, nor have we heard a single word about it, I'll definitely be demanding a refund.

 

I am in agreement here, especially in regards to the Terraria Trailer. I don't mind spoilers so much about items and encounters. When I saw the trailer. I was like "I can't wait to get my hands on THAT weapon" or "I can't wait to fight THAT!", etc etc. It hyped me seeing something tangible in front of me.

Starbound feels like that lego set your sibling got, and they won't let you help them build it because they are afraid you would break it as it is being built. However, you know you will be able to play with it and your own lego set soon, and when you collect all the sets, you will have so much fun with it.

Its the feeling of being left out and just ignored. Like Chucklefish is that sibling who's taunting us with the lego set, only to let us have at it after all the construction was fudged.

 

I am a fan, and I am not upset.

Don't people have GTA V to play in the 9 years to wait?

 

TBH, that's the impression I've been getting for a long time now. Either that or the implementation of gameplay is going a lot slower than I thought.

 

not to be like a pooper or anything but to be honest patience is the only thing that's going to help the ones eager with this i mean we all are entitled to our own opinions but can't you just wait and yknow maybe try to keep your negative thoughts on a down low i think chucklefish is doing a great job in game development.these things take time

 

Great stuff Critwrench.

I want to reiterate how much of exactly the problem this is. It's not about releasing the beta or entitlement or daily updates or 'being patient' or whatever nonsense. It's about communication and accountability. Why is it so hard to talk with us, and so terrible to expect some basic civility? Why are we 'entitled' for expecting Chucklefish to be responsible for their actions and non-actions? How is taking a moment out of your day to do something you said you would do, or talk with your fans about their concerns, such an incredible strain? Why can't Chucklefish or any of their more devoted fans, admit that they can do wrong?

Also, I would like to point something out. If there was really nothing wrong with what Chucklefish was doing, we wouldn't have these threads, there wouldn't be so many people complaining, and we wouldn't come to the same conclusions that there is a problem by our own volition. Something is wrong and it needs to be addressed. Doing nothing is clearly Chucklefish's strongsuit, but it's not going to work forever.

 

I agree with a lot of this, we've been waiting a long time. However i don't feel there's a lack of communication between Chucklefish and us. You may or may not realise it but the daily updates are a good thing, they are a form of communication, its not like we're hearing nothing from them. I agree with you that i would like the Roadmap updated and i think it SHOULD be updated, however they're starting to, or already have slipped into crunch and thats showing. The daily updates are coming out late in the day/at night for me (Im in Australia) which kinda says to me "I've been putting this off all day but one of us has to do one before tomorrow so i'll just put this out there because i have to." Which we might as well not have then, but they're nice anyway.

But overall, the communication isn't bad, its some of the best i've seen from the games industry ever!

 

Have to say I feel there is still a communication issue going on. Not to write up a huge post or anything but a lot of recent updates boil down to.. here is something silly, okay now remember we are working hard.

I'm not saying communication is easy, if it was we wouldn't have a lot of problems in the world today. What Chucklefish has given has been lacking in the past and still is now though.

That said I agree with a lot of what you said Crit, not everything but a good deal.

 

I like your post TC. Didn't read all of it, obviously, but it is well written and not emotional. I can appreciate that.

I'm sure there are more than a few things I'd agree with, and even if it's been said a bunch of times, I like the way you are saying it. It sounds good and written well.

WHO KNOWS, MAYBE I'LL READ THE WHOLE THING SOMETIME. But ya, I'm with you on some of this stuff.

 

This is a very well-written post and I feel that it covers quite a few of the complaints many of us have with the way the game is being handled. I really hope the team - and when I say team, I mean all of them, not just Molly - take a look at your post and try to understand where all of the bad vibes are stemming from. I have a feeling that it would really help their PR, if they'd just listen.

I honestly don't think they realize that this is starting to effect the other games they're publishing, not just Starbound. That's the last thing that a publisher should ever want.

 

Then you're not one of the angry fans I'm talking about.

My point is not 'hurry up, Chucklefish, you are taking too long!'. They can take as long as is necessary. What is angering people-- what has personally upset me, as well-- is the lack of useful communication. If they kept people more in the loop, people would not be as angry. A good (fictitious) example would be just telling us on December 31st that they had to push back the release date, versus constantly keeping us updated and telling us months beforehand when it started to become an issue. The former would get them waves of refunds and lots of angry fans. The latter... not so much.