Trust issues and Devs

Well, reading the forums is clear to me that many of you have different ideas on the dev team.


It goes by itself (but it's a good idea to clarify) that this poll only refers to updates - since there isn't much more that can be adressed at the moment in terms of Devs-Community relationship.


I don't want to start a flame here, I'm moving no criticism to the dev team in this topic. I'd like to know what you think, in form of poll, to provide everyone (the Devs, ourselves) with some data about how the community is growing, what's it thinking.

After all, this is all Beta is about.

So grasp tightly your mice and click, and let the poll begin.

 

I dont think they have been "unattended" as you say. Just not done yet.

 

I clearly wrote that as an example - and i didn't state my point of view on the topic. Thank you anyway for your reply.

 

Quick questions:

If you trust the devs, how does your life or gameplay preference change?

If you don't trust the devs, how does your life change?

*Edit*
Also, your poll has two options that say "Their schedule announcements are wrong." And one option that says "They're working hard".

Option 1 says they're putting in hard work.
Option 2 says they're delivering results but their announcements are not precise.
Option 3 says they lied to us so we don't trust them.

Option 1 doesn't say "They deliver good work", so it's not exclusive to Options 2 or 3, yet there's minor overlap with Option 2. Option 2 has minor overlap with Option 3 (their schedules are imprecise) yet is more positive.

How do you expect to get "a good feel for the community" when your options are...uh... not going to be adopted into any professional survey anytime soon?

Also, this poll does not in any way address "how the community is growing." What does that even mean, anyway? CF knows how many subscribers/preorders they have, so I assume you aren't talking about population size.

 

I think that the developers are working hard on the game and that their scheduling might be a bit off, but it's not something that is a very big deal.

 

Eh, I've been around enough betas and early access games to know that, more often than not, unexpected things pop up in the code and end up making the update take longer (sometimes significantly) than expected. Things happen, it's a game, I've learned to just roll with it.

 

Assuming that question was referred to me (which means that my point about not criticizing the devs went at least partially unheard), let me explain:

If i trust the devs, nothing change in my life.
If i don't trust the devs, nothing change in my life.

But that applies also to many things: if i uninstall starbound nothing actually changes, i can play something else. And so on.

I don't understand the theory you want to point out with your questions - please explain in further detail.

This poll is more useful, imho, for the devs themselves: that way they can "scan" the fan-base and see if their line of behaviour is, or isn't, largely accepted.
If it is, well done and keep going
If it isn't, maybe they should change something if they don't want to risk watching their project slowly fade away, abandoned by a huge chunk of (paying) supporters


tl;dr: if i don't trust the devs, nothing changes in my life. If people don't trust the devs, a lot changes in their lives.

 

The devs don't owe me anything. If the game was a retail release, they'd owe me a stable product, but Early Access exists merely to support an artistic vision. The reality is development houses like Chucklefish might not be able to stay solvent throughout a lengthy development cycle without seeing these early returns on investment. Even if they could, the vision would certainly be curtailed, and development would suffer due to talent lost to more lucrative, or at least less risky, ventures.

Purchasing Starbound, for me, is little more than putting money in the hat of a busker I found amusing while in commute. Nothing is owed -- I've tipped a vision.

Then again, I'm an adult with other interests and element of focus in life. If Chucklefish is taking long on getting a patch out, I'll assume it's due to issue which needed to be addressed, and not the result of a personal vendetta against me, my server or my friends. I'll just go play some Philip Glass on a piano till it eventually drops.

 

I'm sad that my options aren't clear and understandable: the top one is "all ok, i'm happy", the second one is "so and so", the third one is "not so happy".

Since we're talking about schedules, it's normal that "so and so" overlaps a bit with 1 (on terms of good work) and 3 (on terms of unexpected delays).

If you're making this a case of grammar and lexicon, you're missing the point of this little poll. I think that anybody can clearly understand what each option means - and i hope I've been able to explain it to you aswell


This poll adresses the "trust level" of a community: subscriptions come from advertising, but there's no game that sees an increase in subscription without its consumers being happy about it. Since i felt after long lurking that we were running down some slippery slope (trust-wise), i want to point that out and give numbers to my feelings.


Feel free, anyway, to rewrite the 3 options in a form that suits your taste - provided that i can, i'll change them with the ones that i selected.
I'll change the OP to avoid the missleading examples, anyway.


EDIT: About the options, it goes by itself that there has been some delay in the past months, and this is why all the 3 options take that as granted and focus on the trust variations that this delay might cause. I hope this clarified my point even further.

 

A) Pie
B ) Not pie
C) Soup

 

Zero faith left in the studio. Will not purchase any of their future products, irrespective of how Starbound ends up in its final form (two or three years from now, at the current rate). As pointed out though, your options are probably a little too specific. If you just have three poll options they should probably be broader, like a simple "I'm happy with how things are going," "I have some reservations," and "I don't take CF's word seriously anymore."

 

I was hesitant to post because I feel this thread is just a clone of others, especially since the valentine's update announcement. I'd find myself just repeating what I said in those threads, and I'm not really looking to rack up posts or likes to grab points on a forum. So, I think I will *try* to make this my final post on this subject, if only for my own personal goal.
I don't trust anyone I have never met. I am taking a gamble on an early access game and I will see it through. I am putting my confidence in that the development team is doing what they can with the product, and that as feedback from the fans (the testers) unfolds, they might change the way they develop the game. We don't know the intricacies of how they do it, but we just have to assume they have long-term and short-term goals that will, in the long-term, be the best solution, even if there are drawbacks.
I am posting because I feel that attention to this subject is warranted, however I don't subscribe to the overall impatience that some seem to have.
In the event that anyone of any power in regards to Chucklefish and the development team that is working on this game reads this post...

TAKE YOUR TIME. I WILL BE HAPPY TO AWAIT YOUR *FINISHED* PRODUCT WHEN YOU DECIDE THAT IT IS FINISHED.

 

i can only write about what i saw already, and what i saw so far is a team of few ppl that sometimes go overnight to bring us a patch, and yes, they sometimes are more optimistic about schedules of their updates, and most of the time going days past their scheduled date, but man, there r so many other games to play and things to do, that it doesnt bother me.
if they want to delay some content for a day or a month bc they found a critical bug or want to rework completely the content, im 100% fine with it, but when they release the final product i want to see every feature they promised, i dont care if it'll take months or years, i prob wont be playing starbound when the final version comes out, but i'll have a reason to go back and play it
they r improving the game and add more things to do every update and i think ppl should put some more faith in this team and give more constructive feedback instead of "give me patch nao"
my 3 cents xD and sorry for my bad english

 

I'm kind of new to following the development of this game. Have the devs actually lied?

Note: Missed deadlines are not lies, they're gross underestimations of the time required. I don't think I've followed a single game that hasn't missed deadlines to the point where they stop setting them all together.

 

It's pretty silly of you to say "Don't criticize the devs!" when your poll is "Do you still trust Chucklefish", implying there is a reason to distrust them, two of your poll options say that their estimates are wrong... and your thread title itself is "Trust issues and Devs", which implies there is a link there. Here, look at a Dilbert comic for how I interpret your OP.

My point is that your OP and the poll come across as flamebait. They add nothing to the alpha/beta experience. There's no actionable feedback for the dev team, there's no gameplay feedback or suggestions, there's just gossip.

 

I'll be truthful: In the last few weeks, I'm getting bad feelings about development, and most of the talk about publishing on the main page just gives me more uncomfortable feelings. I can understand wanting two or three products going at the same time, but by the same token those additional products will also be both "alpha" and "incomplete". It kind of seems like it's going the slippery slope of a pyramid scheme(Note: I know it's not a pyramid scheme, just hear me out). Here's the end all be all - lets say they get this new game that they've been showcasing to alpha, and it gets released. First, they'll have new income to support the development of their second game, but the problem was that the income used was in turn meant for development of the first product, so any shortfalls it's development team experience are tied in directly to that loss of income. Games have been killed for less in the past.

This is why I don't like alpha funding or early access on a personal level, and why I've never considered it for any of my projects: It's too easy to blur the line between "purchase" and "donation", and legally these are purchases. You are purchasing a licence to the game at a early stage, and lack of transparency on present bug fighting and why delays are happening is making me feel uncomfortable as a consumer. I've seen to many games in my lifetime that have been all but abandoned to the communities that they are surrounded by, to fix any remaining bugs and continue growth.

Anyway, that's my 3 cents worth.

 

[...] it goes by itself that there has been some delay in the past months, and this is why all the 3 options take that as granted and focus on the trust variations that this delay might cause. I hope this clarified my point even further. [...]
Yeah, it's "still" because there have been delays. As stated in the OP, that is what this poll is about. Trust about updates.
I actually thought it was clear enough to avoid this kind of objections, but i'm glad you brought that up so i could clarify that even further.

And anyway:
Yeah, there is a reason to distrust them (which is the delay itself, as you can probably glimpse from the rest of the forum)
Yeah, there are trust issues.

I just would like people to vote and see how the fan base is distributed between these options. If this POTENTIAL cause of distrust is common, or not. I myself voted the first option.

 

You were hurt by someone in your past that was very close to you. Please don't project that tragedy onto Chucklefish.

 

Depends on whether that mistrust manifests in anger, or other disruptive emotions.

Either way, I think "trust" is a bit of a misnomer. I wouldn't say I trust them. If this overly ambitious project were cancelled tomorrow, I wouldn't be particularly surprised. Saddened, but not surprised. What I wouldn't be is angry, however, as I never had anything invested in the project beyond a few quid, and my lost $15 would pale to the sense of loss Ty and the rest would be feeling in that situation.