For the most part, I like you post, its constructive. But have you though about the fact that hindsight is always 20/20?
I mean once CCP decided to change direction I don't think there was ever any possibility of doing it without a considerable uproar no matter what they did, precisely because this community is so toxic..

And the idea of reimbursing for the fanfest trip? I mean if you are going to travel all the way to Iceland you better have more then a keynote or two as your main attraction. One usually goes for such gatherings for social interaction and preferably with a bunch of good friends.

@ Garrett. All valid points. And I agree especially with this:



That is why I am trying to present an approach based on acceptance rather then hostility, aimed at moving forward. CCP needs to hear our constructive input so they don't blow it this time... The very last keynote, CCP presents, was very indicative of their new direction and what they meant by staying focused but I think there is definitely some space for a compromise that includes the existing console community.

What I am suggesting is this: Even if they did anticipated the community reaction with some clever PR tactic aimed at softening the unpleasant truth it wouldn't prevent the backlash of the obviously disappointed console community. No matter what CCP did to communicate this change of direction, the burned out ( toxic) community would accuse them of all kinds of atrocities and could say: you should have done it better. Because, that is the truth, they should have done better from the start - still it is only hindsight at this point.

In my business experience ( Pharmaceuticals vs Botanicals ), professional PR is more often then not designed to obscure the truth rather then serve it straight. PR is about the appearance of truth.
So how many of you have met a CCP DEV? As DEVs go most of them are very genuine and ernest, sometimes almost to the point of naivet+¬ or idealism. They have a healthy dose of self-reflection and self-criticism. So yes, I would rather have a company that fumbles with their PR while being genuinely passionate about their product then some sort of professional corporation where form has overtaken substance. In fact the decease of the modern gaming world, is all about form and delivery dates. Players have become incredibly spoiled and entitled while they consume content like greedy locust.

Remaining loyal to CCP is hard work no doubts there. It requires a more mature approach to what represents true value in the long run. Its a bumpy road but ultimately more rewarding because with time it fosters true partnership instead of entitled dependency.

When it comes to DUST development I can tell you that we are currently looking at changes to Planetary Conquest, further iterating on item balance after Uprising 1.8 and some matchmaking improvements

Hi everyone. Me again.

Why PC first? For a few different reasons... It's a scalable platform. We can go high spec for the most demanding players in terms of Gfx, but we can also scale down to low/mid spec to get critical mass. It's also a good platform for the early stage of a project like ours. You can test and balance the game and the economy quite easily with fast turn-arounds. We can set people up in testing environments easily (eg. ISD in EVE). If you've seen the "CCP Presents" presentation on Saturday at Fanfest, there was a talk about CCP refocusing on its core tech competency, which is PC. It allows in the future the creation of a "universe" of products on the same platform. Again, this doesn't mean that we're not going back to console at one point but we need to focus on one thing at a time and deliver an awesome game, then things get easier.

Now I'd like to address (or repeat) something important for me. I know that a lot of you have been really disappointed and wanted to see much more on the future of DUST 514 in its current form and I absolutely understand that feeling. But the reality is that, while it's a great shooter, I repeat that it's not the base that can give us another EVE Online with 10+ years of epic battles where players can have a great experience whether solo, as the head of the deadliest squad or largest corp in the game. Give people the right tools to manage/achieve all that. A much clearer user experience that opens up that huge universe, always discover new stuff to shoot, to loot, to sell... A social experience where corps can advertise/recruit easily, where you see the main chat going crazy with people asking for groups, selling stuff, talking ****. Some of the stuff that makes me feel like I am in an MMO. All of these aren't tweaks, they are features forming a new eco-system for the game, a foundation you can then build on. No doubt that DUST 514 is a large piece of that foundation. We've accomplished so much and I've had a ton of fun every day since beta but it is not there yet. It requires a lot of work of course but also a different approach in how we design and execute on that vision. I can go on and on about how I see this evolve but we'll cover in more depth as we start sharing ideas and designs through dev blogs and such.

....I recommend you look at how Star Citizen is handling things. They have two to three videos per week, a massive monthly update blog, a monthly magazine and full transparency of development. We're still at least a year out for the single player game and two for the MMO yet the players are well informed and flexible as the design evolves. Players can be happy even without a working product if they can see progress. CCP Shanghai doesn't need quite that level of communication but you can certainly take inspiration from it. Hiding from social media for the first months of your leadership? Yeah, that wasn't a good move.

Commit. Communicate. Be completely transparent.....

You're trying to be funny right? Tell me this comment was a joke.

Hi everyone,



Please post your feedback and questions in this thread - and let's keep this conversation going. The team and I will be reading this thread, and I will respond as soon as I can.

CCP Rouge