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4 hours ago, ElvisHunter said:

Now I've been banned from the steam forums for posting the very same thing I've posted here. The counter was an awful thing to do to the community, do not compound it with suppression of our freedom to express criticism. @Patrick Carlson

Mature criticism, thoughtfully delivered with civility, is always welcome. This has always been the case, even around very controversial issues. And there have been a few over the last two years!

But the reason for any forum ban, here or on Steam, should be clear from the note we send you. If it still isn't, please feel free to message me directly on here and I can go over it with you. 

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16 minutes ago, Patrick Carlson said:

Mature criticism, thoughtfully delivered with civility, is always welcome. This has always been the case, even around very controversial issues. And there have been a few over the last two years!

But the reason for any forum ban, here or on Steam, should be clear from the note we send you. If it still isn't, please feel free to message me directly on here and I can go over it with you. 

This is how I know hinterland! Open and without problem to talk to the people even if they are (what I read between the lines here) too upset to be civilized ATM.

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The important thing is not to draw battle lines between angry folks who want to air grievances and fans who're angry about what they perceive as abuse.  Here's how these things work, the guy who's pissing you off about one issue today might be the one who's backing you up on another issue tomorrow.  No lines of no return.  Angry folks will be welcomed back into the fold.

However, if you start getting technically abusive in terms of language, spamming, or advocating actual hostility, then it's not a matter of government censorship.  Keep in mind that the Hinterlands and Steam boards are commercial.  Hell, even innocuous words like 'bastard' are filtered on Steam, so you know that they're keeping a tight reign on things over there.  You can stand on the street corner and carry an anti-Hinterlands sign because that's your God given right, but there's no God given obligation for them to allow you to do so on their bandwith and their coin.  That said, if you get banned, come back in a few days or even a few weeks and appeal the decision.  In my experience, people are pretty forgiving.

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9 hours ago, TWM said:

What befuddles me is that you guys - the community engagement officers I mean - could've seen this frustration coming for weeks on end and did little to nothing to prevent it.

Which begs the question: what stopped you guys from relaying clearly to the community boards that the countdown merely pertained to the launch of a new site, and nothing more? It would've probably spared Hinterland 90% or more of today's backlash.

I'm really curious as to the office politics on this one...

EpicAtfirstFacepalm-1.jpg~c200

Yes. Excellent point. As another poster has speculated, maybe this wasn't the plan a few weeks back.

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I just made an account on these forums yesterday. I've been following the Long Dark one way or another since 2014 and have been playing it myself for well over a year now.

I don't easily come out in the open, but this community made me want to give it a try. I made this account because I felt right at home, reading about the countdown speculation and the jokes being made.

But right now I'm just ashamed about the hate that's being directed at Raph and his team. Suddenly this community seems no fun at all. There's so little respect. 

Raph had his reasons. And honestly to me everything he writes about always seems so full of passion and integrity. He wants to give everyone the best he can offer, and every part of the community as well. We've been waiting for three years, what's three more months?

The countdown was for something, and it was kind of what I expected to be it. It was for the website. It was about going out into the open. It was about the PS4 announcement. And it was about a date. The countdown gave us more than nothing: it gave us information, and tangible facts.

You say there was a lot of hype over something that appears small (to you), and I say Hinterland wasn't the one doing the hyping. We were. All they did was announce the website with the countdown, the rest was us. I was hoping for a sandbox update at least as well. But I didn't get it, and I'm not bothered. I was a bit disappointed at first, but then I started reading the Dev diary and FAQ. I'm excited. And I'm happy. And maybe I was just letting my expectations run out of control.

As a fellow artist I can tell you it's not easy to put your work out there, for everyone to scrutinize, make demands, and shower hate all over it. And I'm glad Raph is finally feeling good enough about his passion project to really, really put it out in this wide, harsh and cold world for all to judge.

And judging it you are. I can't imagine how Raph is feeling right now, but nobody is built to be showered in hate like this. And it makes me wonder if there was another reason for putting it out there on Star Wars Day. Patience is a virtue, my young padawan.

 

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Well said, Cizsel. +1

I don't understand the hate. Countdowns on pre-release game sites are there for one thing; as a countdown to official content launch (website, not game), release dates and major announcements. This is exactly what Hinterland did. It was predictable and in-line with the rest of the games industry. This is the way it works. Getting angry about this is akin to getting angry about having to wait 12 months between E3 expos. It is the way of things - be patient.

August ain't that far away; a little under three months now. Remember the beginning of February? That wasn't long ago. That's how long you have to wait. We'll be there before you know it. For the younger folk (whose perceptions of time will make this few months feel like years), take heart in the fact that story mode will release in the middle of the school holidays, so you can binge-play for a month, after all exams are finished and before your studies start getting in the way again. How awesome is that? As for us older folk, with a slightly more loose perception of time, well, it'll be August next week! Yay! Someone might need to remind me about the launch though, 'cos I can barely remember anything from one week to the next. O.o

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Welcome to the forums @Cizsel

I can't agree with the way people vent their frustration but I do think a large part of the blame lies with Hinterland. You say we did the hyping ourselves. That's true but it's not like Hinterland didn't expect that to happen. The only thing that really annoys me is they didn't manage peoples expectations once those expectations were getting so far removed from the truth.

It's not cool if you take a day of to play a new update you're expecting only to find nothing new to play. True, nobody promised us an update at the end of the timer. But the wording of the announcement of the timer at the start of this thread does lead people to believe an update was to be expected.

I get that people are feeling frustrated, sad, disappointed, misled or angry. I don't get the way people express those feelings. People make mistakes. It happens. Don't hate them for it! I sincerely believe the people at Hinterland did not intend for this to happen, they've just seriously underestimated how people would feel. For them this is a huge milestone, but most of us don't see that. They are working very hard to deliver to us the best game they can make. And from what we've all already seen in the sandbox these past couple of years, it's going to be one of the best games ever! So give them a break already! Focus on the good things and let's enjoy our game to the fullest.

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30 minutes ago, elloco999 said:

Welcome to the forums @Cizsel

I can't agree with the way people vent their frustration but I do think a large part of the blame lies with Hinterland. You say we did the hyping ourselves. That's true but it's not like Hinterland didn't expect that to happen. The only thing that really annoys me is they didn't manage peoples expectations once those expectations were getting so far removed from the truth.

It's not cool if you take a day of to play a new update you're expecting only to find nothing new to play. True, nobody promised us an update at the end of the timer. But the wording of the announcement of the timer at the start of this thread does lead people to believe an update was to be expected.

I get that people are feeling frustrated, sad, disappointed, misled or angry. I don't get the way people express those feelings. People make mistakes. It happens. Don't hate them for it! I sincerely believe the people at Hinterland did not intend for this to happen, they've just seriously underestimated how people would feel. For them this is a huge milestone, but most of us don't see that. They are working very hard to deliver to us the best game they can make. And from what we've all already seen in the sandbox these past couple of years, it's going to be one of the best games ever! So give them a break already! Focus on the good things and let's enjoy our game to the fullest.

I'm with you!

Yes I was disappointed yesterday, but that is really only down to being so keen to play the next iteration of the game I so dearly enjoy playing. I don't feel cheated, that trailer is really very good, and the team still have my full support. Really the only problem I have was with the whole managing expectations thing, but we're also partly to blame for that too. Getting giddy with anticipation is fun, but only really raises the expectation bar too high. And I'm sure we'll all do it again... it's a heck of a rollercoaster :) 

I'm in for the long haul (*ahem) and am really excited to see what happens in the next few months/years

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@Patrick Carlson

I was never personally upset about the counter, I do not think you guys should be too hard on yourselves. I've only been playing since November of last year. I was a little disappointed because of all the hype, but after sleeping on it I feel like the trailer and announce date are worth the wait...after all, I'm a committed player at this point.

But I do think that now you guys should make sure the next update at the end of this month is pretty sweet...maybe include the revolver or something special as a thank you to the fans??? Just an idea...

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I'm a massive fan of this game who has followed it closely since before the very first release. I've put 240 hours in on steam. A fair few more hours watching tubers playing it. I'm also somebody who is more than happy for the developers to take their time with getting updates out. The kind of self-entitled complaining that you typically see on the Steam forums really gets me mad sometimes. Particularly I think it's young people who have never really had to dedicate themselves to making something, and who don't understand what it costs people (family time, health, sleep). Most of all I just detest those who make demands on the basis that they are "paying customers". This game was worth its price from day one. Everything since then has been a bonus for me. I've thrown away a lot of money on early-access games that didn't pan out. The Long Dark sure isn't one of them. Heck, I am going to buy another copy of this game in the future to gift it to a friend just because I feel I should give more.

That said. I felt pretty screwed over by this whole countdown thing. I didn't expect story mode. No way. But I was with the majority who expected something. Not because it was "owed" to me. But simply because there was a timer. And nothing else said besides. Without that, I would have happily waited until something came along. But HL, you went and got my hopes up! Not very nice. I'd appreciate it if some of the people here could understand that. It's different to being demanding, or self-entitled. It is possible to absolutely support the devs and what they are doing, while at the same time feeling let-down.

I follow Ralph on twitter. He is a smart guy, and a stubborn guy. He has his vision, and he follows it. That's a good thing. He also has had to cop a lot of nasty crap from people as his work has become more widely known. God knows how any of us would handle it. At what point do you become resentful? Even secretly contemptible of "gamers"? I just hope he is able to separate out the meaningful feedback from all the bile, and legitimately has rethink on how he looks out for the community here. My worry is that he might end up putting all that extreme negativity in a mental box and storing it away somewhere, or worse yet end up caring even less. 

Finally. I gotta admit, I really do like the video. I watched it a couple more times. Story Mode looks like it is going to be great. Love the aesthetics. Nice choice of music. Really fantastic. The new Hinterland logo is nice too guys. Good work whoever did that.

 

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I thought about the countdown-dummy since yesterday...

I think it was a risky rescue-use with accounted losses. Hinterland can´t tell me, that they wouldn´t have seen this coming if they deliver only this video with some nice extra-words. They are almost broke and that was the only way for a thick financial splash that saved the boat from falling. I am referring to the Steam-Sale "last possibility for early access price" during the countdown phase. Why else would they take such a big risk and anger the community? And whoever still believes that they have not known it before is blind. They do not sit in the tailoring seat on the floor and exchange free thoughts and everyone can express his opinion and so on like some people think. 
 

If it was really necessary to save the game from the end, I could forgive you. But no one will admit that.

So, now I first have to put off my aluminum foil hat. It scratches terribly.

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Hey Hinterland, I can understand there's a massive user force demanding you to deliver, but I think with that timer for a timer you are entering doubtful terrain, please don't do that again. You feel how much love you have with the sandbox already... don't easily damage it :) Looking forward to the sandbox update.

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