I think certain community members overestimate their entitlement and their importance to the developers. People got what they paid for. Some seem to think Bare Mettle needs to do a better job at communication and what not, to attract new customers. But obviously, they don't need or even want them, as they seem to have enough funds to keep development going, and at the same time are able to prevent having an abundance of casual gamers flooding the forums and complaining about everything that concerns the game and the developers behind it. They have enough of those already.
Kickstarter is not a shop. You donate because you want to help the people behind the projects and would like to see their ideas realized. You don't buy a product. You may not get anything at all.
Things like exclusive videos about the game, that were promised on Kickstarter, don't make sense at this point in time, as development is currently focused on a game that is publicly available. So basically, people complain that it's not exlusive to insiders, I guess.
Only a very short-sighted publisher would force their developers to get a certain game out at a specific date no matter what. They would obviously put some pressure on them, but releasing an unfinished game doesn't seem very wise to me. A good publisher would try to understand the circumstances and do everything they can to help the developers finish the game, instead of ranting about everything they do, all the time. It takes as long as it takes. They either release crap now, or the things they promised later. I have no diffulty deciding between these two options (not that my opinion about it would matter in any way).
When you buy an Early Access game, you do get a product, in its current state, but that is it. You're either satisfied with that state or simply want to donate and help the developers.
I completely understand that it's frustrating, having to wait for such a long time, and sparse communication is making matters only worse. But again, that's everyone's own problem, not Bare Mettle's. When they post status updates, they do so out of respect for their supporters, not because they're obliged to it. But they also have way more important things to do, which are beneficial in the long term, instead of alleviating impatience, that is obsolete in a few weeks, when people demand the next status update.
I'm glad they found their own way of approaching development, instead of adopting the industry standard consisting of hyping and kissing everyone's arse. The way they treat their community is actually one of the things I like so much about them. They are making the game for themselves too and want it to see realized more desperately than any of us.
I think some people here should be more grateful that they are making these games and put such an amount of care into everything, instead of constantly demanding all kinds of things, like regular status updates, timelines, quicker game updates, more frequent visits by the developers in the forums, or even apologies. I don't understand why some people are still around here, if they think the game is dead anyway.
Everyone can be toxic and throw insults at eachothers as much as they like, as long as they do it somewhere else, because it's against the forum rules. Simple as that. But I leave that topic to Tony and Murf.
I don't think it's the right discussion for playing devil's advocate either. People state their honest concerns and would like to be treated seriously, and not get drowned in arguments for either side, made just for the heck of it. Wasting time with addressing artificial opinions is just frustrating and makes matters worse.
Anyway, time for me to shut up.
