Getting concerned

Honestly, if they still have a way to go (and the recent, almost casual, "Hey, we're going to completely change combat..." announcement suggests that they do), they'd be better off continuing with the wipes.

A persistent world says something to the consumer. And whether people in here scream till they're blue in the face about it really doesn't matter. Perception is everything. Not just in this game, but in life.

 

This dates back to when Port originally intended a final wipe before launch. Although they have changed their semantic build style from pre-alpha (where we still are), alpha, beta, launch to an open ended "early access" eternity model, many people are still hung up on the final wipe prior to launch.

And as Canterbury mentions above, it's a perception issue that is reflected not just by people still in the forums, but also a number of people outside of the forums who don't necessarily follow everything the devs say.

 

Yipp. Yours is different to mine which is different to my neighbours which is... I am sure everybody got my point ^^

 

As I mentioned before, they should just add an initial splash screen that says the following:

THIS GAME IS CURRENTLY IN EARLY ACCESS

IT IS EXPECTED TO LAUNCH EITHER AT THE END OF 2016 OR IN 2017
​

Anyone who couldn't perceive that would have to be blind.

 

The only problem with that @Womby is that then people would lawyer them and we've already seen that the ability to stick to expected final launch dates isn't very likely. Even with it being very clearly stated we are in early access (as it shows in steam page and on launchers now) people still review game as if its final or talk about it being final. It is a good idea, but it gives too much faith in the people playing the game to actually pay attention and read disclaimers.

 

I wonder if in 2018 ill still be reading posts about it not being an official release?

 

oh you guys.. so what's the grand solution then?

 

Like I said back in post #64...

Honestly, if they still have a way to go (and the recent, almost casual, "Hey, we're going to completely change combat..." announcement suggests that they do), they'd be better off continuing with the wipes.

 

There really isn't one. They decided to give in to those complaining about the constant wipes which burns those waiting for a final wipe prior to launch and a completed episode 1. If they go back to constant wipes, they burn those who were excited about no more wipes. It is a self made lose/lose situation at this point for them, as no matter which route they wanted to go people will complain. Starr did say that they can implement any major changes without wipes, its just a lot harder and takes longer for the devs (which means they are increasing their own costs to keep the no-wipe crowd happy).

I would say the biggest thing would be to not trivialize the views of either group though as that just leads to more annoyances. 8^p

 

I still think it's the lesser of two evils, though. For mine, I can't see this TERA style combat being ready in 12 weeks time... so do we go live/persistent with combat looking one way... then change it?

I know I'm only speaking for myself/I know some people would freak-out if it happened.... but if they said, "We'd be better off with another 6 months of wipes due to what we're doing..." I wouldn't care at this point.

 

I think we've pretty firmly established, I offer this Forum as Exhibit A, that no matter what Portalarium does or doesn't do, someone's going to ***** about it and likely prophesy that this decision of non-decision will be the ultimate doom of the whole endeavor.

Therefore, I propose that Portalarium should keep doing as they feel is best for their game.

 

A wee bit over the top there, mate. Most of the discussion in this thread, from both sides, has been quite sane and no one's predicting doom and gloom.

What most of us are debating, however, is what we think looks best, particularly for the "not we" -- the people who have yet to come into contact with the game.

 

I 100% agree. I wasn't nearly as annoyed with the constant wipes as other people were, but hearing that it puts more work on the already overworked devs to do things without wipes... I just never agreed with that. I respect the choice and am happy for those who hated the constant wipes... but that was always an understood for a game still this early in the developmental cycle.

 

Yes, some people can be very impatient with game development. People of that disposition would be far happier if the first they heard of a game was when it was released.

I've never understood why people who "just want to play the game" don't just walk away, and do other stuff in the meantime, rather than torture themselves over things like wipes, etc.

 

That is why I said Forum, and not Thread.
I'm sure Portalarium would be interested to see your market research on what would look best to the Not We.

 

And I'm sure the thread would be better off without snippy, passive aggressive comments like that. Give it some thought?

 

I shall give it all due consideration.

 

Much of this seems to miss the point. The terms used is not as important as what the general public and journalism sites consider as the time to pass judgement and make buying decisions.
In a time not too long ago, games a release date which is when people could buy it and reviews would be published (well some would come out ahead). Many people would use those reviews in order to make a determination on if they should buy the game or not. So there was a point in the sand when it was publicly available and reviews were aligned with that.

Now today is a bit more murky, but if one is going to keep selling a product, at some point a tipping point will be reached when the consensus is that it's released and it's time to judge. I'm not 100% sure the development/publisher has complete control over that. So call it whatever you want, it's the practical implications which matter.

Unseen

 

Correct. 100% correct. Like I said earlier, forum people can say it's not a launch until they're blue in the face, but it won't change the perception of, "Oh look, here's a game that's no longer being wiped... it's persistent... sure it's getting more updates, but what MMO isn't getting more updates at any given time?" and that's the reality of things. It doesn't mean folk like myself don't understand when someone says, "It's not a launch!" We understand that perfectly well; it's not a hard concept

But try stopping people from reviewing the game, come July. Shouting, "It's not launched!" at them isn't going to stop them, and others, from perceiving the game to be more finished than unfinished, and ready to be judged.

 

The game has been reviewed several times already.
What's the point of all this? Argument for arguments sake?