Derelict Download might be a good new term. Derelictware might be a good alternate term. But then we'd still need a specific term that takes note of the active censorship and the blunt nature of complete disinterest with customers and their satisfaction.
More shitstorm. http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1o6ibo/zero_sum_games_stardrive_is_the_steam_daily_sale/ccp7dxt I'm sad. This is another case where the crowd funded dev is revealed as being simply evil. This definitely hurts the public trust towards indie developers. Who's to say that the next indie dev asking for money won't be like that? At least a lot of people must be thinking like this now. And worse, a lot of people acting in good faith were burnt badly. I can't blame them if they don't want to fund anything for a long long time. There's not even a sense of courtesy of "oh sorry we ran out of dev funds for this title and had to move on" or "I'm sorry for not fulfilling your expectations and my promises". Just a blatant "scroll up and hit log out" and "couldn't care less" + this soviet style censorship. I'm going to be puzzled if Steam admins won't react somehow, since he is basically screwing their customers as well, so Steam Forums themselves are hurt by this as well.
I don't know, I was an early backer on kickstarter. I feel like I got my moneys worth. Yes he did not live up to all kickstarter promises/plans, but that happens it was his first game and is in the nature of kickstarter. Yes he fucked up the pr management, happens when you are an indie dev. Not at all the first example. Read here for the developers answers/side of things: http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comme...mes_stardrive_is_the_steam_daily_sale/ccpdncg http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comme...mes_stardrive_is_the_steam_daily_sale/ccpplne All in all, imho more drama than there is. PS. You do know there is an edit button right?
Eh, I thought stardrive was fun for a while. It isn't really my cup of tea, but its a decent light-weight 4x game. Maybe focuses on combat too much, but that was my only real gripe with it.
Maybe. I don't know his exact reasons, but it sure looks like he was trying to simple silence unhappy customers, which is imho very arrogant towards his customers. After all, these are people upon who's mandate (and cash) he has been acting on. There should be utter respect for whatever the customers feel, even when it doesn't feel comfortable or doesn't leave you with a 'warm and fuzzy' feeling. Imho, a person should own his mistakes and stand boldly behind his actions and take the heat. He appeared to have done exactly the opposite. I just couldn't find myself acting like that. It could be that he has a 'thin skin' and wasn't ready to act as a figurehead for his game in person. Maybe he could have benefited from having someone more suitable to handle the PR and customer interface. I do get that he and got to where he is mainly because of his technical and project management skills, the hard dev skills. Yes, but I'm a barefoot spammer troll.
I kinda like it, it's a nice thing. The thing I didn't like in it is the thing I never seem to be happy with in any 4x game - the space combat. I know it has a very unique space combat system and for many that is what they like about it, it's just not quite up to my preference. I didn't personally have many complaints about the game. Most of the complaints were about design choices really. What this whole scandal is about though is that I don't think it's a good example that has been demonstrated - banning and so for criticizing the game, I think it's not the kind of behavior to encourage. I do understand that it can actually feel like a personal attack when people insist upon complaining, but some of that criticizm can be taken in as constructive, at least part of the time.
The problem with the internet is that it sometimes goes way beyond complaints. I didn't read these, but threats of violence and other assaults against devs are not unheard of. I would at least like to hear the whole story and see what he actually deleted before judging. Deleting simple complaints is one thing, but if the commenters went any further he may have been trying to keep things from getting out of hand. It wad badly handled, but I'd like to know his intent.
Yea, let the saner voices prevail. I know I've got a lot of temper myself. But on the other hand I used to moderate a politics forum for years with the attitude that almost anything goes except spamming. Then again a lot of people left that forum due to a sensation that the atmosphere was so crappy. Dunno. Life is complex and I yearn black and white.
