Honestly, if you're so clouded by the rants and raves that you can't see why the rants and raves exist, I don't know what to say. Garth's hugs aside, the bottom line for all the angst is this:
Beta testers are giving good feedback about the existing game systems and bugs, and yet it isn't being addressed.
Let's break this down to the specifics:
1. Bad netcode. Mentioned since closed beta, been a problem since closed beta (at least 3-4 months before Open Beta). Three patches addressed this. Two had to be reverted as the game got borked badly. This was one of the three main reasons I asked in four emails not to go to open beta, and it was one of the main "we're not ready for OB" complaints amongst players. This would not get better with another thousand or five thousand players. The post addressing the handling path for this pretty major issue was posted what, three or four weeks ago?
2. Testing which allows major (not minor, but major playability concerns) to go live, when the issues were discovered within 30-40 minutes of being released on live. This is not a one-time deal. This was the introduction of every major system in the game (DHS, Artemis, LRM tweaks, Streaks, ECM, the list does go on).
3. Player retention and new player experience just awful. And honestly? There was NO excuse for that. Someone in the development staff thought that trial mechs would do it, as well as video tutorials. Closed beta testers for months brought up solutions, possiblities, ways to deal with it. Not one idea was implemented, no feedback was even commented upon. It didn't even appear in the roadmap posts until after a very thorough series of posts were put up.
These aren't things that inspire confidence. I understand why they happen, working in a development environment, but honestly, after a period of people providing useful and insightful posts, and these getting ignored or not posted in by developers or community people, where the "troll" threads or threads with no real useful feedback get attention (hugs or pithy sayings), if you want to get a developer response, what is your path?
The current response model favors empty content, over reasonable posts where someone actually says "thanks for all the time put into this, but have you considered the XYZ build?" This does happen from time to time, but probably not as frequently as it needs to. There's an awesome balancing post (18 pages and counting) that just hasn't had any feedback in it. I finally brought it up in an "Ask the Devs", but I'm not really certain it was reviewed by the design staff. If they were PMing the author, or asking questions in the thread, I'd be more inclined to think that it was addressed.
I don't have an issue with PGI, or the Devs, or even Garth's responses. I don't hate everything they do, I'm not saying the game is going to fail, I'm not anti-PGI. I actually like the game in a general sense. The only two issues I have with the game as it stands are:
1. Bugs need to be fixed so that it's fully playable (mainly netcode for me)
2. Cash shop needs to be monetized for a micro-transaction model rather than the current path.
Do I like or agree with all the balancing actions they are taking? No. And I will speak out against some of the dumber decisions (balancing DHS around 6xML, for example). That won't stop me from playing or even enjoying the game.
However, the people consistently wondering why all the angst exists, etc. - yes, to boil it down, they are afraid this is all there will be. What makes them afraid of that is the points I noted above.
Edited by Lanessar, 11 December 2012 - 10:41 AM.