Hello!
I’ve created a post on the steam forums to combat some of the negativity and trolls on the Steam forums. I ask now you guys to help me keep it active by posting something of your own experience of the game. why you like the game and dislikes the game may be what you are planning on doing a release. Be honest but do it in a civil manner, please.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/324510/discussions/0/1762482479181679234/
Good to see the effort here. It would be great if everyone who owns the game can chime in there.
@MinerDiggerMan is a dev in disguise trying to rally the community with reverse psychology for the perfect launch!
It all makes sense now! 
…
ehm
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yeah, I mean … Good effort here! 
I just really want this game to do well. My hobby is following game launches, and I’ve seen what can go wrong and how easily a single mistake in a launch, especially for a game as big as an MMO, can do to the game’s longevity. Most people give a game one chance, if the initial impressions aren’t stellar, they pass on it and don’t return.
I’m tempted to get the game to at least try the Tutorial, to give feedback on that. But I’m not sure 2 hours for Steam Refund is going to be long enough to really test it, but I have very low patience, so if I can survive the tutorial process I imagine others could also.
Yeh c’mon @Kirinvar don’t stoop to my level 
there is no need for it! 
@MinerDiggerMan as said the other day… sorry if i offended… i was only giving an example of thoughts
Don’t worry about it. It’s irritating to get called a troll just because I gave criticism towards a game. I’m not concerned. We’re cool. 
It’s childish to say someone with a different opinion is “trolling”. There has been far worse behavior on the forums from dedicated members than you have expressed and shared.
The thing is, this game isn’t marketed. Very few people know about it and I think that’s an actual good thing right now. It’s better to be unknown with a few negative things being said by random no names that none of us even want in this community to begin with.
The amount of meaningful activity in the Steam forums isn’t the dev team’s responsibility. One of the best ways we can improve the Steam forums is by engaging with those on those forums with questions and posting discussions on there as well. Even content, such as walkthroughs and guides, could be made to be put on there and then threads made to discuss it.
We as the community are already a bunch of content creators and should continue to making content in and out of the game. It just collectively makes the community, Wonderstruck, and the game look extremely awesome.
The fact the game has Mostly Positive on Stream is a good start. We just need to keep working at it and when the game launches then there’s going to be a lot more activity on those forums and these ones.
But then why is it on steam at all? (just wondering… i can get confused easy)
I mean my natural thoughts say… if something is released in a certain place, why is no one active there? Oh ok there is a discussion board on steam? why do people keep saying to go check the forum instead? Oh ok… XYZ
Can you not see this would cause some people issue?
It’s Early Access. Maybe that’s why? I am not the one that made the business decision to put it on Steam.
I can, but there needs to be a little bit of responsibility on the consumer for making a purchase on a product that they know full well might not meet whatever arbitrary standard of the product in whatever its current state is at the time of that purchase.
The problem with this is you can literately apply this to even Closed Alphas and Betas. They’re still released in some place and form but just require an invite or purchasing of a game key in certain circumstances. Doesn’t necessarily mean the game is marketed, because it isn’t.
That is why it makes zero sense to call a game marketed that’s on Steam when there probably isn’t even a marketing budget or strategy put behind the game in the first place. I am confident that the majority of this game’s player base is going to come from giving game copies to content creators with large enough audiences to actually showcase the game to their viewers. This is pretty much a near zero cost marketing strategy and allows them to do targeted paid marketing in more effective ways, like possibly YouTube Ads or Twitch Ads (not really sure how they’re going to do it).
I bet you could go on your Steam Library and look through some of the games you’ve bought, I certainly can, and pick out a handful of games that probably had next to no marketing behind them.
An issue people have that often fail to understand or grasp is that Early Access doesn’t mean a complete product. They view it as such even though it could mean a range of different things, such as 5th Beta stage or pre-alpha or beta or alpha or whatever other game development phase you want to call it. It’s, in essence, not a product launch or considered by the devs to be “complete enough” for a launch.
So I think the real issue is people having some sort of strange expectation rooted firmly in their minds as to what Early Access means or they simply just ignore it now days and expect either the absolute worst or best possible situation. It also helps that they know what kind of product they’re looking at to begin with.
well you do make a very good point, but i’m not talking about the marketing itself… i am talking about some peoples attitued of (as i say we have a forum! Why even bother commenting here on steam) Well… as you say… Marketing Well when some people read replies like … we have a forum for that! what does it make that person think?
I mean i am not picking it apart for you honest… all i am doing is explaining how i myself have felt when reading those replies and when you look at some others on Boundless steam discussions they feel the same way (confused no one is commenting on steam/offended of the replies as stated above/etc)
Now we all know this is working via word of mouth/reviews/etconly at the moment… now, how many people would read those replies (^) and say you know what… what an **** community! Why should i even bother?) and that is a BIG issue come release…
That’s all i am trying to get people to understand.
I guess I just don’t really take much stock in what people on Steam forums have to say and is mostly the reason why I don’t bother going there unless I have a question and not enough invested interest to find the official forums of the game to register an account and then post my single question that I could have answered on the Steam forums anyways.
So I get it.
If we, as a community in general, want a more active Steam forum for this game then we need to do that ourselves. Things don’t change ever unless there are people who work to make that change a reality.
I don’t know how many people read the comments and threads on the Steam forum. I doubt it’s really that many. Even when I first backed this game during the web browser days I had a feeling that my $250 was either going to grow into a strong tree or wither away into a burnt clump of ash. We both know which one happened.
I really do get what you’re saying but it’s our responsibility as people who play this game and value the community to do something about it. Personally I want to publish some guides on there and perhaps get back into making video content to share things about the game with the community that I discover. If more people did that than the handful of people who currently do and do that on the Steam forum, I bet we’d be having a different conversation.
Sharing is caring. Remember that.
well then, as @virresss yourself and I all agree… let’s!
I am a twitcher myself, its just unfortunate that personal life happened… didn’t know what was happenening, became homeless for a few months etc… i have been on twitch for 3 years… (different incarnations due to above reasons) my best incarnation Althazar_Games whad a following of 250+ (that was just before i went homeless) and then i came back as Thesandbox_platformer and 2 followers QQ
But yes, when i get a new mic (hopefully this week) i will start doing some guides/tours as well 
I use to be a content creator on YouTube. Did it off and on for several years but as I got older I had to re-prioritize my time for more productive things.
But I think if I just casually make content again and whenever I have time to, I can actually get something going again. Although I’d have to refresh myself on all of the ins and outs of YouTube again since it’s been about 3 years since I’ve made my last video.
Also, sorry to hear about the homeless part. Life can definitely throw a few tons of bricks at you when you aren’t looking.
I wish there was a way for me to record myself building something and doing a timelapse video. But there really isn’t for Boundless.
But yeah I think I’ll create some sort of notes for Boundless guides to publish on Steam. Just not really sure where I want to start since I’ve got so many different areas of interest in the game. lol
I always figure things are on Steam because it is easy marketing. As for Steam forums, I wouldn’t expect most people to ever look at the forums. I look at people’s comments on games if I am looking for a game to get. Most get eliminated by the comments. As for the forums though? I doubt I have ever looked unless I went there specifically to post. I go in Steam and straight to playing a game unless I look for a game. Usually when I look though it’s for a specific game because I see friends playing it. I wouldn’t know what anyone says about Boundless. I posted something long ago and occasionally edit my review. Beyond that, I have no idea what is there.
My typical process to research a game.
Step 1 Steam review
Step 2 Steam forum
Step 3 Youtubers
I don’t go to the games forum its inconvenient, I go to game forums only after become part of the game community…
In Boundless’s case I stumbled on game play footage via youtube before seeing reviews or going to the steam forum… and the game play footage got me to bypass my normal path… If I took my normal path the Low steam review’s (Mixed) And hate filled steam forum would likely not lead me to the youtube step and I would have passed Boundless bye…
@james @Steggs101 @SamF I think this is the step most Steam users and that’s why it’s important that the devs try to show reach out and maybe have some promotion like the reviews will you receive 300 qubits if that is possible like and part in the objectives.
maybe a category on the forums for streamers and youtube both on steam forums and here, like on the discord. where the content creators can have their own thread so it doesn’t fall off as fast as in general.
then promote some of the youtube videos on the website as I think there is a lot of users going to the website too.
Hi guys,
The Steam forum does indeed need some love. It’s on my to do list to write up a plan for it.
I’m starting to respond to people much more there as well, I think having a dev presence on both forums is really important as a lot of new users won’t actually come to the official forums until they’ve decided they like the game. It would be great to see more of you guys on Steam as well, but it’s down to your preference - the important thing for Steam is to avoid getting yourself into an argument, approach everyone with a friendly manner even if their initial post isn’t positive; you’d be amazed how many people you can turn from being super frustrated to friendly just by being helpful and not getting too defensive 
As for a promotion for people doing reviews, it’s something we could consider for sure. You do need to be a bit careful when asking for reviews, but we have the experience to work with this (although I’m not entirely sure it’s something we can call in game 
- let me know if you know of other games which have done it).
For streamers and youtubers, there is a sub forum on Steam at the moment for people to put their videos and stream links, it’s just not used very much (in fact I think one of the last posts was one of mine!). To get that more visibility we could bump it up in the list of sub forums.
Promoting streamers and YouTubers on our social channels is something we could be better at, and Sam is working to put a plan in motion for this sort of thing.
here is a loose idea @Steggs101 a complete overhaul of the steam forums? (star afresh?)
But then that would feel probably like a BIG FU as well?
I mean certain posters have been very vocal cough no names cough (i feel so ashamed) and i will forever be deleting specific topics/posts.
I am asking how do we (all of us) move forward with things like this (someones opinion from last year/month is not going to be the same today - and first impressions always paint people with tar for the rest of their days etc)
I’d like to overhaul the Steam forum, but starting totally fresh isn’t something we’d be prepared to do - I think it would raise alarm bells if new players came to the forum to find little conversation, knowing the game had been in EA for a long time. I also think it’s important to have a balance on the forums of good and bad, providing we as developers are addressing (most) of the bad.
The way we deal with Steam going forward is a split “responsibility” (I use this term loosely, because it’s our responsibility and you guys have the opportunity to help us if you’d like to) of us and you guys working as a team. For example:
Developers should:
Players can help by:
Realistically a healthy Steam forum is one with a bigger percentage of positive posts than negative posts. We can deal with the negative, and you can contribute to the positives
Copied from Steam Forum Thread (i dont know how to link sorry but here is what i have wrote there)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/324510/discussions/0/1762482479184675006/