So I usually hate these kinds of posts, they are so melodramatic and attention seeking. Yeah, I know, irony.
I have played this game for a long time. I know steam only says I am shy 500 hours, but I say a long time meaning I have been around since 2015, in fact in 18 days I will meet my 8 year anniversary owning this game. 8 years of following support, providing A LOT of feedback (on multiple media not just in the forums), and a lot of money. In fact since the gleam club was announced. I was in the first 10 people who owned the game to subscribe, and I have been buying the gleam club 180 day package (highest package offered) since it was announced. In fact when I went to basic training for the US military, I remember one day that we got our phones to contact family that I used part of my phone time to ensure that my gleam club membership was up to date (thank god for google remote desktop). And I did it once again when I went to officer candidate school. That is how important keeping gleam club up to date and helping fund the game was to me.
I could make the excuse that I did it for that permanent beacon fuel (hella nice perk really), but I honestly wouldn’t be mad if I lost all my stuff (this is a lie, I worked hella hard to get all my stuff) and I didn’t really put a lot of work into my build (Some would call it a hobbit hole, I would call it a rabbit hole). I bought it to show support to the game.
When Turbulent announced they were selling to Monumental, I was initially glad. Not because I didn’t like Turbulent, contrary to popular belief I think they did an amazing job and James was phenomenal. But I was excited because I believed the game development would restart. Man, was I wrong. But that honestly didn’t bother me. I have been wrong before, and still showed support. Until I hear that the game is being shuttered I would show support. At least that is my usual mentality.
Today that has changed. Because today I woke up to a very interesting email. An email that was then followed up with another of its kind. A comment I made was hidden for violating the community guidelines. To specify “Your post was flagged inappropriate: the community feels it is offensive, abusive, to be hateful conduct or a violation of our community guidelines.” When I got the first one I was a smart “guy” and simply made an edit pointing out that my comment was hidden for violating the rules, and I expressed that it was ridiculous. My comment did not use any vulgar language, it in fact simply followed up a comment made by one of the developers and pointing out that a certain amount of time had passed since they made a comment and nothing can really be said was done in that time. I then mentioned that while I am not an expert, with my limited knowledge I could have done the work by now. And to be honest, I know I could because, as some of you might know, I played a heavy role in populating the most used wiki and community driven databasses for this game. After all, short of throwing money at the developers another way of showing support is to help other players. So I know that in the time since the developer comment and mine, the “promise” could have been fulfilled. Primarily because 99% of the work was already done. I will also add, nowhere in the guidelines does it say “don’t criticize the developers.”
This to me is worse than a development freeze. It is worse than the developers making a post bringing to question the future of the game. Heck, it’s worse than finding out the game is being shuttered. Because this situation says something to me far worse than, “hey, we are shutting the game down.” It says to me that the developers DO NOT care about our opinion. They do not care about what we have to say, and they will silence anyone who wants to hold them accountable.
So this all leads to this moment. I think the time has finally come for me to stop supporting Boundless. I will let my gleam club expire. I will stop my financial support, and honestly given that this has happened I urge other players to do so as well. I honestly would rather go back to reading the toxic posts than see the developers hide honest, and factual criticism. Specially when said criticism isn’t vulgar in any way. I have seen posts saying MUCH worse than what I said, even in the threat where I made my comment, but I guess because it was targeted at James (someone who no longer works on this project) it is ok.
Yes, I know the developers have the right to do whatever they want and this is as much a “public” space as they deem it to be. I am not here to cry about civil rights, because this is not a civil rights issue. But in my experience in over 25 years of playing games, and following game development, the moment a developer starts silencing reasonable criticism, that is when you know the game is in A LOT of trouble.
So I bid you all farewell. I wish you all great success in the game, and in life. And I honestly hope Monumental makes something great from the building blocks they were given by Turbulent.
Lastly; I completely and fully expect this post to be hidden or just flat out removed, because when I asked for an explanation to why my other comment was hidden, the response was hiding it again.
Love you all <3.
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