A thing about the Stretch Goal

Conspiracy theories?

 

Would you rather they use all of the money generated on sales and invest it all into the game? If we are lucky they might release the game in a few years time...

The scope of the project needs to stay the same, they cannot completely redesign things from scratch now because it will delay the release. The first two stretch goals fit into the existing game, they just need the resources to add them in. Adding a new feature will take considerably longer, because they would start from scratch and have to fit it into what they already have, plus bug testing and balance issues which were not originally planned for.

The amount of sales has already exceeded their expectations, from the looks of it they had planned two stretch goals and thought that it would be sufficient. Rather than keep on demanding more stretch goals, let them get on with finishing the game so we can all play it.

 

This whole issue shows the true nature of true Democracy, it cannot work. The '51% = I win' thing has never worked in history for long because the losing side consists of 40-49% of unsatisfied and likely angry people. The only form of voting that I approve of is where it takes a 2/3 majority to win. This ensures the subject has the backing of the real majority and most can agree with it.

Honestly this whole thing would have been best if it wasn't put up to vote on that page. So many people can make free accounts, and this happens online everywhere daily with people smurfing to make a poll go their way. Chucklefish needs to learn from this and no more voting, just implement something or put it in or whatever and be done with it. None of this false hope that the opinion of the community really mattered.

 

This really has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. Why post it here? A lot of people get called names and the like, and that's terrible, sure. But there's no reason to go onto a random thread and say "HEY LOOK SOMEONE IS GETTING CALLED NAMES AND IT'S NOT OKAY.". We all know it's not okay, it's like going up during a discussion, posting a piece on bullying in schools, and saying it's not okay. We know.

 

But the vote went 65% in favour of this stretch goal...how is this an indication of opinions not counting?

 

I think he's referring more to the fact that Molly made a post which basically said they didn't have any other ideas and assumed the response would be completely positive and that even if the majority had said no, they would have made starter pets the stretch goal regardless.

 

That's making an awful lot of assumptions though (not to mention, the creation of a parallel universe). I mean they put the poll up, thinking they had a decent idea of the sort of things the community would be in favour of. And sure enough the vote swung the way they expected. Maybe not as massively as they would have liked, but still.

 

Heres the post if you haven't seen it.

 

Yes I have read that post. In the end, nothing in her post says to me "this poll was a ruse; we were going to do our own thing regardless of your preference all along." Add to this the actual results of the poll, and I still stand by my original point you quoted initially.

 

http://community.playstarbound.com/...cles-for-next-stretch-goal.18582/#post-756952

And 65% of people wished there was more focus on vehicles than pets. Obviously that is not an official thread so it did not get as much attention as the official pet thread did, but I think that the official poll did not give much choice. It was yes to pets, or you say no and vote nothing because everyone basically had their own idea. Even if no one voted yes, Chucklefish could not listen to everyone on that thread. There was the problem, though it's magnified because so many straight up disagreed about the pet thing on top of everyone wanting something else.

 

Dude. If this isn't considered feedback, i don't know what is. Plus i dont think that this is argumentative... rather, an opposing opinion.

 

Well I think what he means at the end of that quote when he says he will enjoy the game far away from the community is that this community turned to trash from what it was a year ago. Every forum group does this over time, some fast some slow. Starbound attracted enough people (and filth) that it's a more hostile place in these forums now. So it's not an opposing opinion more than a statement that Nife is psyched for the game and doesn't want anything to do with the community anymore.

Sadly I feel I might be joining him the way things devolved in the past week. Even trying to be neutral people throw jabs at me.

 

I've noticed a bit of that. While the older forums were filled with nothing but overly polite people it seems we've long passed the balance and are now starting to experience some of that good ol' internet hostility.

Its a shame.

(I realize I joined in January but I've been following the forums since the game was announced)

 

Yea i got a feel for that today too. I joined about a month ago it it wasn't this hostile. But your reply is exactly what i want from someone that disagrees with me. It's not hostile, its a friendly disagreement. If people like you leave... we will be even less of a community worth having.

 

I don't see the problem personally...

- Additions like these were planned in advance already, to be created after the game was released.
- As a "thank you" these features will be included in the game, without adding to the development time.
- Pre order tiers aren't about earning or deserving anything. They're actually extra pressure on the development team.
- The content isn't forced on you. You can ignore it if you want to.

The stretch goals were planned game features, so they would have been added someday regardless.

 

Well I've been part of a few gaming clans the past decade and I always notice that once a group starts going south it goes quick like pancreatic cancer. There is no going back. Heck, one clan actually had political circles that attempted ploys to get someone mad or to say something silly out of anger so everyone would vote to boot the mark from the clan. While not as bad as the example I just gave, the point of no return has happened here recently and there is no saving this community, I seen it nearly a few dozen times now.

What usually happens at this point is like-minded people make splinter factions that split from the main group turn into small gaming groups with a ventrilo/teamspeak that keep constant contact with each other. I anticipate this will happen here as well, especially since multiplayer is a major focus of Starbound. There will be a few stragglers that will try keep the main group together, but this community will be hindered from now on by it's size and by how many people Starbound is beginning to attract. Ever walk into a Battlefield 3 forum? You expect a bunch of trolls, and such is the fate for any forum of a popular game.

 

So, I kinda skimmed through the entire topic. But I just wanted to do a generalized response.

This is a pre-order, not a fund new features fundraiser. The donation tiers have extra swag, and are for DONATING to the team. And the pre-order is, pre-purchasing the game. So basically, they could easily have put pre-orders up and donations up, and probably would make roughly the same amount. Would you have pre-ordered had there not been any stretch goals? I know I would have. So at that point, the stretch goals become mere bonuses that the devs nicely decided to do.

In the end, is it actually justified to expect (or get angry at getting) extra stuff just for pre-ordering the game?

EDIT: By extra stuff, I of course mean new game features. Cause nowadays extra stuff for pre-ordering is common. >.>

 

These goals are not meant to slow down the development of the game, so they use the money to hire extra people to do the work. Also pets are optional so you can choose wether you want them or not. I might agree on the fact that they could've made a better stretchgoal, but come on! Are they supposed to use all their time to figure out the next goal, and browse the forums, or develop the game?

 

Actually, they are fairly limited!
It's impossible for them to add big new features without delaying the game. Hiring a new programmer and getting him up to speed is a lengthy process. So chucklefish is kinda limited to stuff that's mostly cosmetic. I suspect this is also the area where the most free time is. Most of the game is designed already, so now the people doing the graphics don't have as much to do as at the start of development.

 

I see stretch goals this way :

• Everything Starbound crew adds as stretch goal should be taken as bonus. Think this way : they could had made pre-order without stretch goals.
• Im not losing nothing, i ordered my piece of the game allready. In fact, im winning more features for the game just waiting !