About the Countdown -- From Our Creative Director


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4 hours ago, i8turky2 said:

Steam is looking nasty....

I feel like I lose a couple IQ points every time I read Steam forums.  It's trolled by a spleenful rabble of malcontents fomenting their tiny state of pixelated anarchy.

 

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10 minutes ago, ernestww said:

I feel like I lose a couple IQ points every time I read Steam forums.  It's trolled by a spleenful rabble of malcontents fomenting their tiny state of pixelated anarchy.

 

Which is why I politely turned down Patrick when he asked if I'd be interested in also checking the Steam forums from time to time a year or so ago.

I just poked my head in the door of the Steam forums tonight... it really isn't pretty :( 

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And now back to work... or more appropriately sleep :D

Be critical folks. Feedback on community management and marketing is important. But remember, most of us have a hundred hours plus in sandbox so what's a few more? ;) 

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The sad thing is that Hinterland will not change anything. For Raph. it was just a minor "mistake", a misunderstanding where he already commented on, done. For anything else you can pick out the few hater and troll comments to justify continuing ignoring the community.

So the problem will not be adressed, nothing will change.

 

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9 minutes ago, MueckE said:

So the problem will not be adressed, nothing will change.

After this shit storm? I doubt it.... Raph may be some stubborn guy and clearly isn't that great in managing PR, but I'm pretty sure he won't make this mistake again!

But it wouldn't harm Hinterland engaging a bit more with the community I think...

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47 minutes ago, MueckE said:

The sad thing is that Hinterland will not change anything. For Raph. it was just a minor "mistake", a misunderstanding where he already commented on, done. For anything else you can pick out the few hater and troll comments to justify continuing ignoring the community.

So the problem will not be adressed, nothing will change.

 

You stepping back to cool down. That's the definitive change that will let you understand that an apology in the forums by both Raph and Patrick, at their webpage and by twitter getting all responsibility for the mistake is all they can do, and it's more than enough, really. What do you expect, Raph coming to your door to give you a hug? TIME is what you need at this point, let it go.

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2 minutes ago, Kyopaxa said:

You stepping back to cool down. That's the definitive change that will let you understand that an apology in the forums by both Raph and Patrick, at their webpage and by twitter getting all responsibility for the mistake is all they can do, and it's more than enough, really. What do you expect, Raph coming to your door to give you a hug? TIME is what you need at this point, let it go.

I would not be expecting anything more than what they done, not that what they done changes anything for me.

Still love the game.

Still hate the business practices.

Already bought it, already played it. Not refunding. Not changing my negative review either at least until the games goes 1.0.

We are all just beating a dead horse now though, we have our opinions on what happened and all I hope from this is that other studios were discouraged enough to not do anything like this themselves.

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Sorry, but I really find it hard to stand all the hidden irony about the community not being heard here. Or about how the moderators were too stupid or blind to predict this disaster and didn't do anything to prevent it. Let me assure you that we community mods DID anticipate it and passed on multiple warnings. And that not since yesterday morning, but since three weeks ago or so.

The problem, in my humble opinion, was not HL's unawareness about the community's degree of hype or wishes at all. It was rather a massive underestimation of the degree of disappointment that would be caused by the counter running out without releasing any playable in-game update. The HL team (or maybe Raph himself, not sure how council-based their management works) probably anticipated that people's disappointment about nothing to play would be totally overridden by their happiness about the new trailer, roadmap update and final Story Mode release date on August 1st.

Yes, things turned out very differently and yes, it was an avoidable and severe miscalculation from HL's part. But it has happened now and we can't change the past. Raphael also apologized for it (admin is, to the best of my knowledge, one of his accounts) and I'm pretty sure he does care a lot about what happened and will try everything to avoid similar  disappointments in the future.

Just as a sidenote: Even if he did not care about these events on a personal level - which I'm pretty sure he does - he would be mad not to care about his steam reviews hitting rock bottom since yesterday. Or about all platforms being flooded by angry posts and bad publicity. (Hell, I haven't read more than half of these posts on the HL forums alone yet and it already took me 2.5 hours!)

It's a very painful lesson for the HL team for sure, but these are usually the ones you learn most from.

So let's please put an end to pointless assumptions and/or speculations why or what exactly went wrong, mark May4th as a shitty day in the calendar and start to get over with it.

 

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18 minutes ago, Scyzara said:

The problem, in my humble opinion, was not HL's unawareness about the community's degree of hype or wishes at all. It was rather a massive underestimation of the degree of disappointment that would be caused by the counter running out without releasing any playable in-game update.

You've hit the nail right there, at least for me. I think everyone was expecting at least the new sandbox update to be released once the timer was over. I know I did. And yes, I'm very disappointed that there was no update. I am happy with the release date for WINTERMUTE and all the info we got yesterday, but I can't help but feeling duped.

When you see people taking days off because they expect at least the sandbox update they have been awaiting eagerly, that would have been a good time to manage expectations...

It's human to make mistakes and the good people at Hinterland are only human after all. I'm not holding any grudges here and hope they have learned from their mistake. I think people are greatly overreacting (but then again, isn't that what the gaming audience is known for?) and should take a deep breath and count to 10. And then take a long walk in TLD and take a good look at what a great game this already is and think about how much fun they've had already in this beautiful world! Seldom have I played a finished game that has captivated me and provided me with as much pleasure as TLD has in early access. So speaking out negatively about the game or even giving negative reviews is completely unfair. Vent your frustration with Hinterland if you must but saying this game is not worth the money is simply not true, even in it's current state!

To finish on a positive note: the trailer looks great! I'm looking forward to the update later this month and the release in august.

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I didn't read much on steam, but the negative reviews i've seen just are saying that SANDBOX is great and worth every Penny, but you have to be careful with Hinterland.

Downvoting the game itself is not right, that's true, but what i've seen so far is legit, honest and clear. Hinterland raised expectations not only here but also on steam, reddit and even the big gaming sites expected a release either of storymode or at least a HUGE sandbox with the final release date for storymode.

Just google "The Long Dark Countdown" and you will see that the whole Internet expected that and not "only a handful internet kids without a life, trolls, haters and idiots" like displayed. Sure, there are these type of people out there and now it's also their time to jump on the drama train - but if you just ignore the main issue about communication between community and devs by referring to the few haters, than nothing is gained.

They pushed the community a little bit to far and now have to live with negative reviews. I don't mean it in an emotional way, just saying that obviously Hinterland decided to act like a major studio and i'm sure they will try to react like one too. So it's not a big deal after all. If it will work or not is not our buisness and we can't have an opinion on that. If the relationship now appears as just the one between a customer and a seller, than you don't have to be sorry at all. You got a very good product for little money already and other than that, HL doesn't owe you anything. And if their decisions regarding their community is leading to negativ reviews, than they will have to handle it and either live with the downvotes or do something about it, just like a big studio.

 

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I just took a peek at the Steam forum. Things appear to be getting back to "normal". There are actually posts about game play. I figure the most vocal are by and large are the least active players. It always amazes me how some folks can become instant experts (not something I've ever been guilty of). Things will settle and the haters will go hate somewhere else. 

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So many negative comments! Hey I bought this game ages ago and still enjoy playing it today in its current state. 

Sure I was also a bit disappointed by the countdown, but in the end I didn't care to much because I now know what is going to happen with future sandbox updates and official story game release, also great site for more info http://www.thelongdark.com/

I guess the kids want everything now, but hey when you grow up you will learn good things do take time.

 

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It´s really sad that the overall ratings on steam took at hit since yesterday. When I buy games on steam I do look at reviews and I instantly get turned off by too many negative ratings. What happened yesterday won´t hurt so much, but it did get TLD from "very positive" to "overall positive" over night. Some people are behaving immature (and beyond) for sure, but in the end their frustration is understandable. In my opinion, the hype train went so fast, because Hinterland always delivered amazing updates and improvements on a regular basis in the past. The expectations were high because you could trust in Hinterland´s quality.

And still you can. Having slept over it and reading the dev diary, i´m truly excited for what´s to come. I just hope my old machine can handle the new graphics ;P

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I'm disappointed as well, not just about the unnecessary countdown but also about lack of information shared with the community over the years. 

The Long Dark was first released on 22th of September, 2014... So it has been nearly 2,5 years... And that "story mode" button is one of the first things you see on the screen when you want to start to play the game. Hinterland, guys, you created this hype years ago and couldn't handle it well through the years. You tried to feed the community with the sandbox uptades. I'm sure that most of the buyers and players did what they did with the hope of being able to play the Story Mode of this game one day. So is must be perfectly normal that they wonder and want to see something more about what's been promised to them since the first release. 

I think everybody deserves to know more about the Story Mode. It is 3 months far now... In my opinion, you should share more about the map, (not just a signboard) about the new guns, new animals, new cooking styles, clothes etc... There is so little that I've never seen before in that trailer. I know the snowy environment, I know the deer, cars, houses. What about different buildings, more interactions with other humans, fights, quests and maybe a little gameplay... I already know how inside of an house looks like, I don't need to see the same over and over again. 

I don't know if I was expecting too much or Hinterland offered so little. I will play the first two episodes and that will probably be it. 

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16 minutes ago, Tommy said:

I'm disappointed as well, not just about the unnecessary countdown but also about lack of information shared with the community over the years. 

The Long Dark was first released on 22th of September, 2014... So it has been nearly 2,5 years... And that "story mode" button is one of the first things you see on the screen when you want to start to play the game. Hinterland, guys, you created this hype years ago and couldn't handle it well through the years. You tried to feed the community with the sandbox uptades. I'm sure that most of the buyers and players did what they did with the hope of being able to play the Story Mode of this game one day. So is must be perfectly normal that they wonder and want to see something more about what's been promised to them since the first release. 

I think everybody deserves to know more about the Story Mode. It is 3 months far now... In my opinion, you should share more about the map, (not just a signboard) about the new guns, new animals, new cooking styles, clothes etc... There is so little that I've never seen before in that trailer. I know the snowy environment, I know the deer, cars, houses. What about different buildings, more interactions with other humans, fights, quests and maybe a little gameplay... I already know how inside of an house looks like, I don't need to see the same over and over again. 

I don't know if I was expecting too much or Hinterland offered so little. I will play the first two episodes and that will probably be it. 

You bought the game in Alpha mode and that is exactly what it is/was yes? if you wanted story mode straight away why did you buy it when it does not exist yet?

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I've read most of the posts on this topic and I wonder why is everyone concerned about the release date? The fact that we are only getting 2 Re-vamped mechanics does not concern you at all?  I expected a lot more from this update not less. I mean Resolute outfitter offers tons more than this. I would rather wait for 3 months more and have a ton of content and new mechanics than this. They might as well call it Butcher pete and be done with it :) 

 

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@nicko

I said " I'm sure that most of the buyers and players did what they did with the hope of being able to play the Story Mode of this game one day."

Read it again. I didn't want it straigth away and I had no right to, yes. But it has been years, promises were made and even the release date has been announced as spring 2016. I think I have the right to be angry and share my feelings. 

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9 minutes ago, Tommy said:

@nicko

I said " I'm sure that most of the buyers and players did what they did with the hope of being able to play the Story Mode of this game one day."

Read it again. I didn't want it straigth away and I had no right to, yes. But it has been years, promises were made and even the release date has been announced as spring 2016. I think I have the right to be angry and share my feelings. 

surely if you waited years whats a month or two more, be happy! and comforted the Hinterland team are working on the best possible release as possible.

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57 minutes ago, Tommy said:

@nicko

I said " I'm sure that most of the buyers and players did what they did with the hope of being able to play the Story Mode of this game one day."

Read it again. I didn't want it straigth away and I had no right to, yes. But it has been years, promises were made and even the release date has been announced as spring 2016. I think I have the right to be angry and share my feelings. 

In the spring of 2016 there were fundamental changes in the scope of the game leading to the need for much more development.  This was explained at the time.  I considered it great news the the game was going to be more and greater in its ambitions.

The development trajectory and content seems to keep getting better.  This is the stuff that actually should matter to players.  The Steam malcontents changing their reviews to negative or, after hundreds of hours of play, deigning to write a pissy first review based on non-game PR issues is baseless and childish.

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28 minutes ago, ernestww said:

In the spring of 2016 there were fundamental changes in the scope of the game leading to the need for much more development.  This was explained at the time.  I considered it great news the the game was going to be more and greater in its ambitions.

The development trajectory and content seems to keep getting better.  This is the stuff that actually should matter to players.  The Steam malcontents changing their reviews to negative or, after hundreds of hours of play, deigning to write a pissy first review based on non-game PR issues is baseless and childish.

I know about the major changes and I respect Hinterland's efforts to try to make this game even better. But that's not the point... The point is it has been nearly 3 years. I don't know much about the gaming industry or how to create a game but 3 years' work for 6-10 hours gameplay? Don't you think it is a bit long? I assume that they have been working on Story Mode since the first release - it was always their priority. Sandbox is a means rather than an end.

Changing Steam reviews is a giant bullshit thing to do - I would never do that. I loved playing the game but it has been months since I played the last time - that's another thing.

I'm just angry fan who has been waiting for a Story Mode for a really long time and running out of patience. Nothing more. Nobody should take offence.

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22 minutes ago, Tommy said:

I know about the major changes and I respect Hinterland's efforts to try to make this game even better. But that's not the point... The point is it has been nearly 3 years. I don't know much about the gaming industry or how to create a game but 3 years' work for 6-10 hours gameplay? Don't you think it is a bit long? I assume that they have been working on Story Mode since the first release - it was always their priority. Sandbox is a means rather than an end.

Changing Steam reviews is a giant bullshit thing to do - I would never do that. I loved playing the game but it has been months since I played the last time - that's another thing.

I'm just angry fan who has been waiting for a Story Mode for a really long time and running out of patience. Nothing more. Nobody should take offence.

sounds like you know nothing other than your own beliefs or interests.

 

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