This one especially hits home:
How badly we’ve needed communication over the last 2+ years…
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Okay, so, and I’m asking this seriously this time - what kinds of engagement would you have wanted over this time? Say one dev could spend like 30min-1hr a day on the forums, how would you want them to participate? At what frequency would you want them to post information about the state of the game when there is no news?
I’m asking this because I like to know what other people expect of the world, and because I want to know in case I’m ever in a consumer-facing position where this matters.
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Bi-weekly/monthly updates on the status or progress of the game at a minimum.
They don’t need someone on the forums spending 30min-1hr a day. Granted @majorvex is here pretty consistently, but not a team member.
EDIT: If you read that article it specifically mentions No Man’s Sky it is a prime example of taking a horrible launch and horrible reviews to a successful game simply by listening and responding.
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Simply checking in is enough. Even if there’s nothing of value they can provide at that time directly related to Boundless. Keeping the pulse is important. Letting us know they’re still around. Maybe occasionally throwing in some reassurance that they remain committed to Boundless would be good. They don’t have to do this daily. Weekly to monthly would be fine.
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I can relate to not posting when i have nothing of value to post. I’ve written fantasy novels, and i started a blog to talk about them, and writing in general. But since I’ve not made much progress in the next series, or other side writing projects, I simply quit posting to the blog with any updates for months and years at this point.
I don’t have news to share, everyone knows life is busy, if someone came in and saw silence (no posts for 14+ months) they would think the same thing as if I had posted evey 3 weeks saying “i haven’t made much progress”… Or at least I would think the same thing, that “this isn’t the active focus of this person or team at the moment.”
I get the fact that a post takes very little time to make. I don’t get the value proposed by people here of “hey i got no news for you” with that kind of stretch of time… I don’t post on my customer facing platform unless i have something i see as valuable to say, i don’t expect James, or any developer here or elsewhere to do any different. This isn’t some blind loyalty, it’s just seeing a similar action from someone and feeling like they might come from a similar mindset…
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I feel it’s important to add here that communication on the game’s furture shouldn’t be reactive to situations or demands. I don’t enjoy reading one post after another demanding communication, and I wouldn’t respond to them either. To be fair though, it should never have even gotten to that point.
I’d like to see an update on the situation now and again even if there isn’t much progress at all… just in a proactive manner. It’d be nice, but I don’t expect it. Its a personal preference.
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I thought they just went radio silent until they had stuff to release and basically never broke that silence aside from casual engagement (screenshots), minor teasers (emoji), and actual releases?
Side note: I appreciate everyone’s responses to my questions. Thank you for sharing your opinions and wants. Even you, Paka!
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Boundless is supposed to be an MMO. I’ve played many MMOs over the years and I don’t recall any that were basically abandoned by the devs for 18 months or however long it is now without any communication. MMOs need to be updated regularly and for the devs to keep the players up to date.
There would have been absolute meltdown on forums of other MMOs I’ve played if players had been treated the way Wonderstruck have treated the Boundless player base.
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No Man’s Sky Creator wants to “communicate better” with fans - Appuals.com
Point being that they actually recognized there was an issue on how they were handling communication. They changed direction on their communication policy and on top of that kept developing.
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I didn’t follow the game much in that era. Did that communication keep up longer than the 4 months those community research tasks were around?
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I can’t speak to it honestly as I didn’t play it during that time. I did however keep up with the updates and announcements and it seemed pretty consistent. I know @bucfanpaka may have more insight to it all.
I just know when something isn’t working fix it. The communication here is not working as seen by the many posts and threads here saying it isn’t.
I don’t personally need it all (I would like it though), but the community sure seems like it does.
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My stance is, and has always been, the only thing that will actually solve this problem is actual tangible updates. Everything else is just applying adhesive medical strips to a severe laceration.
The communication there is… unique. 
It is almost a game - patch notes are pretty straightforward and detailed, but the communication essentially consists of the lead dev Tweeting vague comments or just emojis or pics, and the fanbase taking them and interpreting them every which way. 
There are a lot of things with the entirety of the NMS that I won’t get into (it is the game I stumbled across some stuff that threw me for a loop but love the game too much to ever put online and never want to inspire any harassment of devs, which in that case was severe in the past)… but can say on the communication now, for sure they do listen and appear to read everything (I made a snarky request about them needing to add more body types to the models… and though there was no answer, they did soon after, just one example) and people more or less accept it for what it is and have fun with it. Main disgruntlement I’ve heard from some of the more long-term hardcore crowd is there does appear to be some favoritism in whose work/shots gets shared, some get lots of attention and other really good ones ignored, but he’s just human and it isn’t too big a fuss.
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Just to add here. I don’t think those unhappy with the communication want a direct communication every single day or even weekly, but just something to give a little reassurance. Will that little reassurance be scrutinized or questioned? Of course, you are going to get those that do that, but that just comes with the community.
We all have different views and how things should be handled, but when you have a game that we all love and at times love to hate and things aren’t working, players aren’t coming to play it, we have players leave due to a feeling of abandonment or even a feeling the devs don’t care about a game then… well there obviously needs to be a change in the way things are handled.
Unless the devs feel things are fine just as they are. 
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All of this, ironically, on a post by the devs 6 weeks ago - stating some changes and that they will post news soon.
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All of this, after two reactionary posts over the past year…yes.
Reassurance for 2 years is just empty platitudes.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” would be the most likely community response. Just like right now.
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Agreed. I’m pretty much done with the discussion because it’s really pretty cut and dry and in the end it makes me question why I even support the game at times.
If you give people the perception that you don’t care, the people won’t care either.
In my experience of spending over 2 decades focusing on customer satisfaction it’s pretty simple…. If you say your going to do something Do it!
Communication is important to any relationship especially if it’s with your consumer, the reason people are upset, angry and frustrated is that we invested into something to satisfy a need and in doing so are entering to a mutual agreement where we should be treated with respect. We payed to play, We payed to dance, We payed for Sov, and We payed for a Boundless User Experience.
The Devs are people, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons ect and are wonderful people and while I strongly believe in Family First, who every still works for the company in which receives remuneration from their consumers is obligated to provide some form of response, communication, support ect to their paying customers for the service, subscription they continue to payed for.
A simple roadmap that outlines development plans that is followed with a update do follow the process would be sufficient. Taking onboard user experience feedback and responding to their submissions would be the bare min I would expect from any company.
If you sell something, wether it’s a product, software or service you are required to respond accordingly to your consumers requests, unless you specifically state that upon purchasing this … you agree to this … and agree that … are not obligated to offer any support upon purchase of this … after payment. Bla BLA BLA lol
- 2021
- If possible, we will get some work done on 249
- 2022
- If possible, we will get some work done on 249
- 2023
- If possible, we will get some work done on 249
tada
Maybe I should bow out of this thread too 
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