And to be fair to them, I would absolutely love for @Saltypatra and the team to respond to this and prove me wrong, prove all of us wrong. But I’ve learned from the thread I created and the many ones like it in the past. I very highly doubt Salty or a dev will reply to this. If they do, it will be defending their actions and nothing more.
Here’s the kicker. Whether or not your actions are justified in your eyes, if they are making the community miserable, you need to take another look. So many of us here would love nothing more than to work hand in hand with the team, offering suggestions and helpful advice for how to work together better. Yes, there are people who are just plain negative and toxic. But many of us, and I daresay most of us, are good-willing players who have tried to be positive and supportive for so long but have been ignored. Look at my earlier posts on this forum and you’ll see the gradual shift from positivity to negativity. I wouldn’t call myself toxic, and I hope I don’t come off that way, but man, it’s frustrating when you’ve got an entire community gritting their teeth at every patch that comes out, constantly afraid of the next move, constantly making remarks across almost every thread about the negative direction of this game, and all you’re willing to do is defend your actions.
Again, we understand the dev team feels justified. But you’ve got a miserable community here who feels completely ignored. Justified or not, it is on you, @Saltypatra, to be an advocate and actually allow for proper communication. We understand not everything we suggest will be implemented. We understand we don’t control the direction of this game. But we help this game happen; we give our time, money, and effort into this game too. Without the players, this game is nothing. We feel unheard. We have wanted for so long to be heard and talk with you about our fears and concerns regarding the direction of this game. Yet even in a thread about the game’s direction, all of your replies hit upon smaller points rather than the underlying issues: this community is really hurting, and we don’t feel like you care. Let the 43 likes on the original post speak for themselves.
I am not attempting to bash you or any dev, and I apologize if it feels that way. The amount of time this community has been groaning and trying to get your attention weighs on us heavily in terms of attitude and hope. I admit I have very little hope that you’ll reply to this at all, let alone defend yourself or, miracle of miracles, express interest in continuing communication and working with the community to reach a solution.
In the end, the joke is on us. We moan about the direction of this game and yet continue to put time and money into it. We’re hypocrites, I guess.
I just hope you realize it’s because we love this game, and it hurts to see something you love sinking.