They left the community hanging and worried about the future of the game. By being honest and upfront about what’s to come regarding the expansion and why it is that way, there will probably still be people who will complain, but other people will give EHG the benefit of the doubt.
By doubling down on the silence and refusing to say anything, people’s uncertainty will only grow and repulse them from the game.
Why is EHG choosing the second route? All it takes is one post on social media to clear this up, and instead we just get nothing.
Yeah but this is a wall of text telling almost nothing. Like the Q&A stuff where the devs answer the questions they want to that adress no pressing matters.
I can understand a lot of people not feeling heared or taken for full with their concerns and the problems they see with the game.
To me it’s to little to late and I simply watch how EHG is sleeping in the bed they made themselfs. From the EA days to now it’s day and night and now a fomrmer awesome company is just an euql mee of the Ubisoft, EA and the likes. I just don’t care anymore and watch the show.
Actually, what I read from Judd’s statement is “It’s a ways away and we don’t know yet what we’ll do” (in regards to the expansion being paid or not).
I’d say part of it will also depend on how the intervening seasons go.
‘Here you go, this is what we plan, but we’ll not provide any information!’
Then you wait how big the outrage is.
Then you answer related to the outrage.
The outrage is big, the answer is not provided yet though (they need to prematurely handle it after throwing that out ‘early’, should’ve been ready for the reaction after all) and hence people are pissed off.
Rightfully so.
Their adaptation to the reaction is simply lacking in speed. They could tell customers ‘yes, this is what we’ll do and we stand by it’… which is a ass-move but alright, at least they stand for screwing people over basically.
Or they could say ‘woah woah woah… sorry, that came over wrong!’ and backpedal.
Instead they told us ‘sometime in the future there might be paid content, so until then better not provide is any money if you don’t find that acceptable!’ and hence scuffing their own income from bad rep to create a self-fulfilling prophecy of being mandated to do the bad thing for monetary reasons when they could’ve turned it around by acting properly without hanging the monetary axe over our necks.
Or, you know, maybe they can’t tell customers either of those things because they themselves don’t know yet. Which is what I read from that statement.
We’re likely still a year away from it, possibly more, and many things can happen until then, including seasons becoming profitable, which would factor into their decision.
Currently the more likely scenario is it’s going to be paid, but we (and they) won’t know until we get closer to it.
Ensure to prioritize the planning to be the foremost thing happening so you can communicate.
It’s half-assed, all that it is. Communication without follow-up plan is crap communication. You’re always prepared for customers to be pissed off, be it rightfully so or because of a misunderstanding. Not preparing beforehand and having a clear-cut plan at hand for it is a failing. Plain and simple.
And that’s exactly the problem. Potentially 3 Cycles screwed because nobody knows ‘if or if not’’ will happen.
Much can happen, you’re right… so better behave properly until it gets close.
Yes, extra ‘smart’ move from EHG to tell us ‘yes, we’ll likely have to break what was indirectly promised all the time without any inkling of it stopping while we gave you all time to buy into it!’ and scuffing themselves even further.
They’re screwing up left, right and center by now. It’s baffling how much they dig their own graves simply.
Such a reveal needed a direct intervention at the ready… not a ‘oh no, this is so far away, we didn’t plan for any direct stuff!’
They didn’t communicate anything in regards to the financial part of it, though. That was the community running with it.
They planned an expansion, they also planned a console release, they communicated that. That was all they communicated. Because that was what was part of their plan: console release + an expansion.
It was the community that started the rumours and the speculation which wasn’t part of their communication in any way.
You don’t announce expansions just as they’re happening. They’re not seasons. GD announced their expansion over 2 years ago and we’re likely still at least a year away from getting it. That’s just standard practice in this field.
You got something exciting coming in the future, you announce it to generate hype, even when you don’t know much about exactly will be in it. That is true for expansions and for sequels.
Which is why sometimes stuff that was announced sometimes get changed into something different halfway through. Be that expansions or sequels. We see this from almost every major studio all the time.
As mentioned… if you change your terminology and people pick up on it then you better have a backup plan at hand rather then being cought with your pants down.
Given the monetary issues EHG has faced - as seen by the sale of the company - it was kinda a obvious connection to make. If they didn’t even think it that far through then they need direly someone competent in the marketing aspect.
If you promised to never have a paid one and people reasonably get worried you do it as late as possible before it happens. Like… a Cycle before it does.
Also usually a company has a finished product before announcing a expansion, rather then being more then a year away from any state which resembles ‘finished’ even remotely.
So that’s another aspect there even.
Yes, and almost any ‘major studio’ fails over a few years of time, with extremely few exceptions… which universally tend not to do those things which make the other ones fail.
Pure hubris of the whole gaming sector. The movie sector nearly collapsed because of it, the Anime sector is nearly collapsing currently because of it, and the gaming sector already has collapsed because of it and is solely in the last death throes for ‘major companies’.
First of all they talked about a console release. Console release are commonly timed with Cycle releases, anything else would be ridiculously idiotic. And EHG isn’t that, hence why mention ‘expansion’ even?
So that means ‘Expansion’ has another meaning. Which also was confirmed after people voiced out their concern about the terminology.
So please… can we stop nitpicking about the specifics of the situation when it’s blatantly clear?
One must be blind after being pointed towards it… and the gesture towards it was quite clear quite quickly.
EHG provided a fairly clear-cut term which was unfitting outside of specific circumstances and people weren’t too idiotic to miss it. Simple as that.
So here we are.
Doesn’t change that the follow-up is absolute nonsense for now. Inept, incompetent communication, absolute trash-tier. There is absolutely no way around it.
If that is what ‘decent communication’ is then damn… mandkind is a lost case.
So let’s step away from nonsense-town and get back to common-sense, can we?
I don’t understand what you mean. This isn’t the first time EHG talked about expansions. It’s not new terminology. They talked about expansions before.
In the context of it being something ‘extra’ to a ‘given situation’ like a release during a console port?
Also why would they pre-name a Cycle a year ahead of time?
I mean… are you really not seeing it? It’s kinda disappointing actually if that’s the case, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It just seems like a absolutely obvious thing in my eyes.
That makes no sense to me. If they said they were going to release to consoles, do an expansion and add new supporter packs, would that also be “extra”?
They had 2 significant releases to announce, they announce them. Should they have to wait x days before announcing either? Can you not announce 2 things at once?
You know, like when GD announced a new major patch and that they would be releasing a new expansion in the future at the same time? Both announced at the same time and no one batting an eye to it?
They didn’t pre-name the season, they pre-named the expansion. They will likely release at the same time a season starts, but the season will likely have a name as well. You know, because not everyone will buy the expansion but they will still play the season.
No, I’m honestly not. Maybe that’s because I don’t have “conspiracy theory” brain and I don’t overanalyze things and take them for their face value. Especially when what they announced is pretty much the same as what hundreds of studios have announced before.
Honestly, I wouldn’t even suspect a paid expansion when they announced it if Judd hadn’t already opened the door to it with a comment on the Krafton aquisition thread.
Yes? They would release more supporter packs related to the console port or the expansion and they would release an expansion along with the Cycle.
I mean… it’s kinda a given unless your PR team is a bunch of nitwits. Why am I saying that so clearly? Because the Cycle is a given… so you don’t provide it as a selling point. It would only cause misunderstandings and problems.
So… 2 things which are not ‘business as usual’ hence? Yep, checks out.
Much like ‘A console port’ and ‘a expansion’ is not ‘business as usual’ for LE.
Or will you now start to argue that they have to remind everyone that Cycle’s actually do exist? I mean… they did a bad job in upholding a timeline for em… but still… would be expected to not forget that new ones are supposed to come out
Exactly!
So what the actual fuck are you arguing about? If ‘Cycle’ and ‘Expansion’ in our situation are obviously different things then why the heck are you arguing about it?
There is a difference between something not being “business as usual” and something being “new terminology”. They could have, just as easily, simply announced a new expansion and nothing else and it still wouldn’t be “new terminology” because they talked about expansions before!!
I’m not arguing that they’re different. I’m arguing that an expansion is a new terminology and somehow something unexpected when they’ve talked about it before and it was expected to happen at some point. Paid or not paid aside, this isn’t new information. An expansion was something players would be expecting from quite some time ago.
First of all: When have they talked about a paid expansion ever before?
Secondly: When have they talked about an overall expansion outside of a ‘big Cycle’ ever before?
Thirdly: What does it have to do with the topic about ‘why is EHG doubling down on the silence?’
Fourthly: Which nonsensical reason could anyone come up with to reason a expansion coming out when the friggin base-game isn’t even finished yet?
I mean… people are in this topic to talk about the potential reasons for EHG’s silence, even if no chance to find out the real one being available is existent. But people at least want to have a half-way decent discussion of what the chance is.
Not a talk about ‘But akshually they mentioned ‘Expansion’ as a word before!’.
