There was a time when being a fan of No Man’s Sky was pretty unpleasant. Harsh, and at many times aggressive, comment would be directed at you if you said you liked the game. And Hello Games disappeared from view, and gave absolutely no support to the fans who stayed with them. And I can understand why they did that. Better to just let the storm blow over, and rebuild from the remains.
But Hello Games hadn’t run away (they could have just taken the money and run - but they didn’t). They’d regrouped, and determined to make the game of their vision, regardless of what the critics said. And a year on, it’s starting to become true. The original vision of the game is emerging, And it’s really good.
But during the hostile period, Hello Games retreated to a position where they didn’t talk to anybody. They adopted a bunker mentality - they hunkered down, and kept silent.
The situation that required that no longer exists - particularly here in CSD. HG, this is your own fanbase. We’re here because we like your game, and we like you.
And we would like you to start talking to us. Not to Reddit, or Steam, or GoG. But to the community you created, here at CSD.
How does that sound? Communicate with the community you created?
Truthfully, I stayed off of social media regarding No Man’s Sky except to watch the occasional YouTube video that gave news or interesting gameplay.
For me, the game gave me the couple of basic expectations I had: near-endless exploration and the ability to do so going from planet to space or vice versa. I enjoyed the game for what it was and I was elated to see that it was being improved with the Foundation update.
As @polyphemus described with the environment: I wouldn’t have contributed on-line about NMS if HG didn’t provided the place for it to be productive with fans of the game. It was the when the ARG hinted that it was related to NMS that I found a good place for the fans of the game without ire.
I would encourage HG to continue to reach out. I can attest that good things happen when you do.
I’m ok with HG just doing their thing. Always have been. I respect that style of development, where they just listen and put out stuff as they can. You still get hater residue from last year lingering around online and I don’t think they want to put their head in the stock again. Sean has said that he likes the idea of fans working stuff out amongst themselves, he obviously likes a mystery and this place appears to be mostly for fans to connect, rather than don our combat gear out on reddit.
On-role cryptic hints delivered by a second party not enough for you? Yeesh… Some people!
Dare you be so entitled as to suggest next, maybe bzzk bztkzz could even come out of hiding!
I think they will, when the time will come. Or they wouldn’t tell this forum is now the official CSD forum. For them it’s probably better to have such forum than Reddit, Steam etc… where they can’t manage as they want. And Steam or Gog is only for PC players, here both platform are represented.
When the game release and many people post negative comments, i didn’t reply, i was playing
I totally get the hunker down, duck & cover attitude so it doesn’t surprise me that they have addopted this as their general public relations policy.
I cannot fathom how it must’ve been to be on the recieving end, when circumstances forced HG to release the basic version of the game. Lessons were learned & evidently deeply imprinted as to what can happen when the hype machine gets out of control.
HG have proven themselves dedicated & it is easy for us to forget just what a marvel proc.gen is. NMS is a historic milestone yet is still evolving.
I’m curious as to how HG are funding the months of work to do the updates & the subsequent weeks of patching & bug squishing.
I think the occassional leak would be nice but I’m fine with whatever they choose to do.
Here’s my non-scientific observation of online communities.
If a community just regurgitates the same stuff about the same things over and over again, it eventually becomes stagnant and shrinks away. Whether it’s community organized activities, new “releases” or the idea that something more is coming in the the future, something to spark the imagination, a community needs stimulation.
The ARG and release of 1.3 both supercharged the NMS community. Of course, you can’t do those types of things that often but you can fill in the gaps in some way.
I’ve been a fan since day1. I truly enjoyed it immensely from August 9th on (and August 12th for the PC). I still remember coming back from playing off and on for 3 days on the PS4 with no internet and thinking wow, what a great game I can’t wait to get home and hear how much everyone else loves it. NOT! I still can’t believe the ridiculous non-stop hate for months.
It’s my favorite game of all-time and I’m good with whatever Sean and HG decide to do with communication. It would be cool though if they had some communication with us from time to time (besides just patches/updates). Maybe even some live chat down the road. But either way, the best thing they can do is to continue improving and expanding on what they have. I know a lot of us are truly grateful for all their hard work!!!
Funny I had the same thing… Was at a “remote” location, fully off-line with that new download, and it was a week of awe. When I came back I realized the world had go fully sentinel on Mercury… felt a bit like an episode of the Twilight Zone.
I was the same, this is kinda what it felt like when I came to the community forums on reddit etc a week after launch to share my excitement with the rest of the fans and I was greeted by what was now a Mr. Robot fan page in place of the official NMS reddit XD
I have been in the Reddit Zone for more than 2 years while I played a game Called H1Z1. One of the things I found scary about Reddit is that they had this upvote and downvote system. Similar to the Bunker Mentality that afflicted HG fans of the game were inundated with hate for opinions they had. Eventually, Recently the game changed so much that I couldn’t even play it and they shut down the forums and Re-branded and Archived.
I like these forums because although you can up-vote a post here you cannot show dislike for it. I am sure there is a way to report posts, but that is hopefully reserved for extreme cases.
Sometimes we as Players and Posters are the ones in the “Bunkers”. Hello Games has taught me to be more patient with developers. No Man’s Sky has shown me that people are out there who suffer along just like me in the Universe
I am going back now and play what I consider the Space Exploration Game of The Decade
I have taken the day off. I have not had an opportunity to play NMS in 3 weeks, I am happily about to resume exploring the galaxy for a few hours and marvel at the infinite possibilities found in space.
