HKS posted:

Please read the thread, he not only said it was complete bs when the trailer was first released he explained why technically.

Napoleon Bonaparty posted:

Do you actually read the 1000 posts per day thread? I have poo poo to do. My bad for missing something from two months ago in this 2000+ page thread. Also, I wasn't referring to the trailer. I was referring to the live(?) Cryengine demo some technical guy was running. It looked pretty functional, but this is CIG we're talking about so who loving knows. It probably isn't even the same application

Napoleon Bonaparty posted:

Do you actually read the 1000 posts per day thread? I have poo poo to do. My bad for missing something from two months ago in this 2000+ page thread. Also, I wasn't referring to the trailer. I was referring to the live(?) Cryengine demo some technical guy was running. It looked pretty functional, but this is CIG we're talking about so who loving knows. It probably isn't even the same application

G0RF posted:

Napoleon Bonaparty posted:

Yea, CIG's staff has become really zealous in the last few years. I'm really not sure when the mindset switch happened for staff, but the community was always crazy. After the first year I sold a bunch of LTI poo poo and moved on to college poo poo, so everything I know from up until a few months ago is all hearsay and crazy rear end nerds ripping each other on the internet. All I can say is the people working on this project aren't at all like what I saw when I first backed this live train wreck. I think they realized that once people started getting fed up and their core demo turned into dreaming space facists, they decided to play along, but this is the kind of thing I'd look to EightAce or Bootcha about. Coming back to looking at this community and the people who regulate it was so loving insanely jarring at first. It pissed me off too.

pepito sanchez posted:

that's sad. like really the youtube comments made me a little sad.

but honestly man, this will make no difference. and i don't want to poo poo on your g0rf, but you effort posted too hard for them to pay attention. sandi least of all. if she even were to see it, i imagine her glancing at it and ignoring it, maybe even laughing at it for her own reasons. the devs don't give a gently caress - and they shouldn't, either - they're just doing their jobs. it's the people in management that's hosed in the head.

chalk's posts about his forum ban are mind-numbing, yet the replies to his reddit post just shows how far backers are willing to go with their own imaginations.

"CAN'T PROVE"
"FAKE"
"YOUR POINT IS INVALID [HERE]"
"PRIVATE COMPANY CAN DO WHAT THEY WANT WITH UR PMS"

really sad.

Toops posted:

Thanks for your dedicated service, Prime Commando. o9

Full Burn is literally the worst. I can't imagine a better metaphor for Star Citizen.

Google Butt posted:

just check certain posters history and close

Mr.Tophat posted:

Melkor do u like Mr Smart?

Mr.Tophat posted:

They read this thread. They are reactive in their behaviour. This is not a normal company.

G0RF posted:

When the CIG peon assigned to read this thread for actionable intelligence comes across this little account, I hope you will print this, or otherwise pass the sad little story and helpful set of suggestions up to Ben, Sandi, Lando, or even Chris.

----

TO: Cloud Imperium Games
FROM: Something Awful
SUBJECT: The tale of Jeffrey McArthur
PRIORITY: High

An agreeable older gamer named Jeffrey McArthur tried Star Citizen's Free Flight weekend a couple of weeks ago, having no knowledge whatsoever of of this particular game. He is an avid gamer - online games, tabletop games, D&D games - he has spent decades playing them and loving them. In fact, as a younger man, he actually programmed two titles for the Atari 800; a serviceable Defender clone called Kamikaze. and sillier overhead maze runner called Icky Squishy.

These days, Jeffrey makes gaming videos that average less than 100 viewers each, and keeps doing it sheerly for the joy of it.

So he downloads Star Citizen and starts playing. He is bewildered by the key bindings, the absence of clear objectives, players crawling on their bellies around ARCcorp, ships spawning upside down in his hangar, the manual, the emptiness, and more. These are all reasonable reactions, particularly since the PC Gamer article that prompted him to try the Free Flight game never mentioned it was an Alpha.

After an understandably frustrating 45 minutes, one he took in bemused stride, he posted a video of his gaming experience, wondering humorously, "Am I too stupid to play Star Citizen?"



After posting the video, it immediately became one of his most viewed, and most down voted, videos. Of course, it would all be entirely predictable, this kind of thing happens so regularly these days. Yet this story has a surprisingly bittersweet punchline- one that is very worth your attention.



Surely, with your enormous sums and perpetual broadcasts, YOU THE COMMUNITY AND MARKETING LEADERSHIP can make greater efforts to discourage knee-jerk attacks on anyone who dares express confusion about the State of the Game. They don't have to be Stage 4 Cancer Sufferers to merit better treatment.

Nothing that this random old-school gamer said in his video was libelous, mean-spirited or unfair. In fact, he posited that maybe he was too dumb to play the game, rather than going after the failings (and they are legion) of Star Citizen as it exists today. That's a kid gloves treatment that you don't even deserve at this point, and STILL, some members of your community love little more than shooting messengers rather than listen to their bad news. (And don't pretend 'oh that's just Youtube commenters!', either. This same crap happens on Reddit and elsewhere, all the time.)



Your Game Tutorial is broken, the Alpha is bug-ridden, dull and confusing for those not willing to commit considerable efforts to the learning curve. Don't take my word for it. Take Jeffrey McArthur's. Or look at your post break-up sales collapse.



If you think your biggest enemies are trolls or goons, or your biggest problems are making sure you delete any incriminating evidence you left behind on some old video archive your backers paid for, you really aren't paying close enough attention.

Your biggest enemies-- particularly right now-- are the toxic zealots who have already backed your game and, in absence of a game to play, have decided to role play as Riot Cops beating down anybody who looks askew at their beloved (fictive) super-game. This pattern repeats daily in more places than any of us can count. On Twitter, Youtube comments, Facebook pages, Gaming Media article comments, Reddit, and elsewhere.

Where did they learn and perfect this odious art, you wonder? Why, the RSI forums, of course!

---

THE PROBLEM, IN SUMMARY:

You have stated your intention to "take the pressure off backers to keep funding the game" by focusing your efforts on winning newer backers to the cause. This is a sensible strategy, at least on its surface, yet the proposition is going to be bloody difficult if:

1) The game is buggy, confusing, and unfun to play.
2) The tutorial is broken.
3) The community is hostile to new players who state that either or both of the above is true.


THE SOLUTION, IN SUMMARY:

You, the Community and Marketing Team, do not have the power to fix what is wrong with the game, or accelerate the development of its improvement. You do, however, have useful tools to combat this problem. There are good-hearted, patient members in your community, trying their level best to help win new converts to the fold. And not all of them are motivated by your cynical referral program carrot.

You are fortunate in that respect. They still love you, for reasons beyond my understanding.

Because of that, you need to:

1) EMPOWER AND ELEVATE THE GOOD GUYS --- they are the best tools in your arsenal in what will be a difficult new season of your life. Elevate their stature, and start taking a harder line approach with that part of your backer base that truly is the enemy within. If the game was not the mess that it is, then this particular issue would not be of such urgent priority. You, the Community and Marketing leadership, may have no power over the pace and quality of development, but you have a lot of tools at your disposal for changing the discourse in your own community.

2) PRIORITIZE NEW PLAYER EDUCATION VIDEOS -- Instead of doing yet another weekly show (the newest of which is apparently about Space Plants), you should focus on weekly programming aimed at educating non-players about the game and educating current players about the importance of welcoming any and all questions that non-players may have. Right now, some members of your own community are doing this for you, because they recognize the need is great, but it's YOUR GAME, and you need to do this for yourself.

3) FIX THE drat TUTORIAL - Tell Chris that fixing the Tutorial is a five-alarm fire and needs developer attention immediately. Pull five guys off their 4th revamp of a spinning space chair remodel and have them make a tutorial that doesn't suck.

4) DON'T JUST DISCOURAGE TOXIC BACKERS, PUNISH THEM -- Lando and Ben showed some encouraging signs in a recent Reverse the Verse, asking the community not to insult or argue with people. But an offhand comment in a show seen by maybe 1000 viewers is not enough. You need to make examples of the toxic losers who stand amongst the Welcome Committess with their guns out, ready to fire endless lobs of "You're an idiot", "You don't understand Game development", "This is an ALPHA, rear end in a top hat!" at your next potential wave of customers. You have seen it play out countless times, as surely as we have. You need to start doing something about it.

5) REFRESH YOUR PUBLIC PERSONA BY ELEVATING NEW FACES - Ben and Sandi, I'm sorry to break the news to you, but each of you have lost credibility with the fanbase over the last year, for very different reasons. The rapturous reception of Sean Tracy by "Reverse the Verse" viewers is telling you something-- that a straight-talking and informed developer actually talking about the true state of the game is like manna from heaven to a starving people wandering the desert looking for the Promised Land. You could regain some goodwill with an increasingly restive population by replacing yourselves with Sean Tracy and Cherie Heiberg. Ben, you come across as Uninformed and Sandi, you come across as Disinterested. Sean and Cherie are very informed, very interested and, in contrast to you both, they seem trustworthy, too. If you want to change the tone (and you bloody well should), it starts with replacing them mouthpieces.

-----

I recognize that this is constructive criticism, and will likely be seen as presumptuous and disingenuous, considering that it came from Something Awful. You seem far more likely to take action to our posts when you find us delighting in some smoking gun you've left buried somewhere that you need to track down and throw into the ocean.

Yet it is offered sincerely, and the advice is sound. Do not let 'director of spaceships' titles earned through sycophancy deafen you, Ben. Do not let your excessive self-regard as a Marketing Genius blind you, Sandi. Let neither your cash reserves nor past successes delude you about the present realities. There's a chill in the air now, guys, and it's not just the weather changing, it is the season.