Leither Yiltron
Molon Labe.
General Tso's Alliance
1109
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Posted - 2015.03.26 17:27:00 -
[1] - Quote
The level of misdirection in repeatedly hammering the "Dust is profitable!!!111" line after FanFest is absurd, and sounds like it comes directly from the Marketing department. Yes, THAT Marketing department.
Is Dust profitable? On what basis, a month-to-month basis? Week-to-week? I would be incredibly shocked to hear that Dust has recouped its development costs (profitable on a lifetime basis). This statistic is meaningless in any case. From all our communications with Rat and the remaining vestiges of a "team" working on Dust, the original development team has been dramatically downsized compared to its size even a year and a half ago. Profitability here is a matter of having slashed upkeep costs, not improved sales. They even took Logibro off of Dust and stuck him on Eve. That's probably good for his career, but doesn't bode well for the overall status of the Dust team.
Even further, the comments out of Hilmar et. al aren't really that positive. "Dust is profitable" being your pitch for the year implies what, precisely? That if it was not profitable that it would have instantly been shut down? That it made a narrow shave with death but that as long as it's not actively losing money they won't throw it away? At best these types of comments might appease investors, but I can't see how as a player they're entirely happy news.
The question that really needs to be answered by CCP by this point is: What is their new scope for Dust? It's evident to anyone with two brain cells to rub together that they've cut back on their original vision and scope. Will Dust survive to go onto a new platform? Will Dust ever have the resources necessary to fix the core issues with the game, or is this current level of bare-minimum maintenance the intended ongoing status quo for Dust until its eventual demise? Rat has been doing an exceptional job for a man fighting with two hands tied behind his back, but any time outstanding core issues with the game arise in the conversation we get a response of "don't have the resources". What is the scope of Dust?
Answering questions is not CCP's strong suit, and this year's FanFest sends the message loud and clear. Rouge hasn't given a single of iota of communication to the Dust community for nearly a year, but he'll readily given an interview at FanFest about how New Eden "deserves" a PC FPS. If anything, his interviews made it sound like he has been stymied in his attempt to abandon Dust and this isn't appealing to him. Do I really think that's how he feels? No, but I can't really tell the difference if he's unwilling to communicate.
At this point I'm severely disappointed with CPM1 even though all of the current council were on my recommendations list. Some have done better than others, but in general this continuous cheer-leading optimism untempered by any public-facing censure for CCP's silence on the serious long-term issues plaguing Dust (Legion, platform issues, etc.) is absurd. The "back room" strategy of trying to act optimistic in public but "push for communication" in private with CCP has clearly failed, and did so months ago. The CPM has consistently failed to put any serious pressure on CCP over the issue, and even go out of their way to try to pressure-release any build up of curiosity by posting vague, generally upbeat content like your original post here, Dennie.
I'm glad you guys enjoyed your trips to Iceland, but all the news out of FF has been neutral at best, sobering (as per the usual) at worst, and minimal in all cases. If you heard good, substantial, REAL news about Dust and CCP's scope for Dust, that is fantastic. It's about time that the rest of Shanghai and CCP take a tip from Rat's work on the grit of the game and start communicating with the players. Otherwise, seemingly nothing has changed in Dust's status. From all outward appearances CCP is simply running the game on life-support to suck every last drop of cash out of those still willing to pay without having any intent to recommit to digging it out of its long-standing pitfalls.
Long term roadmap by Aeon Amadi
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Leither Yiltron
molon labe.
General Tso's Alliance
1114
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Posted - 2015.03.26 20:09:00 -
[3] - Quote
Vell0cet wrote:
I do think you're being overly critical of the CPM1 though. While they probably should be pushing CCP harder on certain things, cheerlead a little less and criticize a little more, for the most part, they are active in and accessible to the community. Compare this to the CPM0 and it's a radical improvment. DUST has come a hell-of-a-long way since they took office. CCP Rattati deserves most of the credit, but I get the sense that our CPM1 played a significant role in that too. I think to some extent they're trying to stay positive. If they get too negative, players may read into that, and it could really accelerate the downward spiral of concurrent player numbers.
CPM1 have certainly provided a substantial amount of on-the-ground feedback to Rat, and they're all active members of an atrophying community. They deserve props for that.
CPM0 did better than they did, though. They had the muster to elect a Chairman, which is a requirement in the white paper that the current CPM have completely ignored. They had the balls to push for better communication from CCP and the political skill to do so while not burning bridges. They also managed to get CPM elections going at all, which was a gigantic lump of work. What's disappointing, then, is that CPM1 really haven't followed up on that strong legacy with the same level of energy and poise. I always felt like CPM0 were doing their best to advocate for the community, even if I disagreed emphatically with their opinions (hi Kane  ). CPM1 still does some of that, but more so I get the vibe that they just fill the role of active, tactful players who have provided good short-to-medium term feedback without making any progress on practically any of Dust's systemic issues. Things like CCP's lack of communication, worries about Dust's future, and even prioritization decisions (trying to touch up PC right now is noble but incredibly misguided), these things have received lip-service from CPM1, but never a concerted, unified effort. I suppose that's unsurprising and is a symptom of whatever crippling dysfunction has left some of the council members unable to suck up their own pride and elect a Chairman.
Long term roadmap by Aeon Amadi
Have a pony
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