Salt was real.
I definitely sit between the two majors camps in this argument/these arguments: I think Schine has made mistakes (Sorry, they're only human, just like the rest of us), and I think that I'm going to keep watching this game as it grows. As for the publicity, it was really summed up well above---Schine isn't doing any publicity stuff because it doesn't make sense to do publicity stuff right now. Darn, people, be thankful for what they've done---this game is a *free, open alpha* when Schine could have easily done a pay-to-get-in standard industry closed alpha, or even just a "friends only" closed alpha. Instead, they give you a shot at the game before it's released, give you a say in development at a crucial, formative stage.
And you are going to repay that with a salty explosion of toxic wasteland? Come on, act like adults. Or, you know, mature children, for those under the age of 18.
Anyway. Ah, new post.
So, RedAlert, people leaving:
I played the World of Warships (closed) alpha, Beta Weekends, and Beta. When the game released, I stopped playing. Why? Because I had already done what I wanted to do in that game. Many, MANY other people did the same---it's rare to see an Alpha Tester flag nowadays. There are reasons that people leave and it's usually not because the game is horrible. It's because the game is still limited, and will always be---just like every other human enterprise ever started. You build until you don't really want to keep building, you explore til you don't really want to explore, and sometimes you fight and lag until you don't really want to fight or lag any more. And then? You stop playing. You don't bother searching for the game---you already know where to find it. And occasionally, like myself, you check in. Play a couple battles of WoWs, peruse SMD a bit more.
You come back, un-lurk for a bit, and then go back to waiting, and watching. It's not some sort of vindictive "I hate this game and I'm quitting for good!" --- it's just people playing, getting what they want, and leaving. And when more content is added, we'll get more people back online to test said content.
We're not losing people abnormally fast---we're just seeing the differing lengths of attention spans. ADHD Yogswarm Member #infinity ran out of interest a long time ago. Maybe now we're seeing the tail end of people with medium-length attention spans dropping out, having extracted all the fun they can get at this stage. Maybe later we'll see some of the people with lengthier attention spans dropping out to do other things for a while. But I suspect that (Like Atra) we'll have those who just keep building. They stay, they find the bugs, and Schine's got their Alpha testers, whether various other groups want to stay or not---that's all Schine needs.
It's just a natural burnout phenomena. If the game changes enough, people will come back. I know that I'll be back on when the reactor system is implemented. Heck, I might be back on tomorrow (If this laptop will survive the experience....I have little confidence) to do some stuff I've not done before, play a new server, whatever.
That turned into a much lengthier post than I had intended, so it's a little far down the lists due to clutter. Ah, well.
