Rattati and Company have taken the tack that simply porting the game as-is would be unacceptable. Lag problems, buggy code, easy to exploit glitches that seem hardwired into the core of the game, poor hit detection, the list goes on. Starting clean with a new interface, and building the core game around an engine that was not their Frankenstein UE3 job was key.

As a result the development priority, so far as I can tell (I do not sit in on the internal development meetings, and I have to extrapolate a lot) is that the primary goal for the early phases of development is a functional shooter where all of the basic mechanics (running, shooting, hacking, not falling through the map) are addressed first, completed first and adjusted to work as intended before scooting forward and adding in things that people may want, or expect.

That's what the tech demo is, effectively, in my opinion. It's a show that CCP Shanghai's current crop of developers can build a game capable of delivering a meaningful in-the-helmet combat game that is fun to run and shoot people with first, before all other considerations. If that doesn't happen, then none of the MMO, touchy-feely social, or vehicle features will matter.

DUST proved you could have an amazing social experience centered around a mediocre first-person shooter. The current team is building a good shooter first, then adding in the things that might make the shooter into a proper game with social aspects and betrayal meta, more in-depth features, etc.

But without that good core gameplay? None of the rest of it matter anyway.

This is a TECH DEMO for a PRE-ALPHA game.

You are putting the cart before the horse.

Just because it's not shown in the video game equivalent of a demo reel doesn't mean it's been slashed out conceptually.

I get the feeling we're going to be repeating ourselves a lot.