Instructions to shorten the text, reduce the number of renderers, supposedly removing unnecessary ones, etc.
Are people so blind to what L&P creates?
Not at all blind, I don't think you're providing an honest assessment of the general critique. I'd put it this way:
We all pretty much agree that the images are absolutely top-tier quality, L&P has exceptional understanding of the alchemy of creating a digital image that pleases the eye; that the stories are all good (for the most part, though not always necessary to tell Sophia's experience), and the dialogue and especially the inner monologues are clunky and inefficient at delivering content.
And it's this last point that I want to pause on: if a picture is worth a thousand words, and these pictures are all fantastic, then why does L&P require so many words? Or so many pictures? The most plausible answer at this point is cuz L&P lacks the discipline to stick to the story, thinking more is better when that is rarely the case.
The motorcycle pick-up images are a case in point: do we need to see Sophia from Aiden's point of view? We're never meant to be in Aiden's so head I don't see why the image is important. A couple of extra shots from over Sophia's shoulder as she crosses the street, move the pigeons a few feet, move a car a few feet, Aiden's posture straightens or gets even more cock-sure, and re-render. Far faster than composing both sides of the street and the viewer/player would not loose the effect.
Think about it this way: Showing Sophia crossing from Aiden's point of view: are we ever in Aiden's head? No, we only should only know his thinking when he talks out loud or makes an action. Are we providing the player additional information? No, from Sophia's point of view image we already know the bike is across the street in front of the park and (presumably) we've already seen the exterior of the building when the bridal party entered.
And if L&P needs the shot from Aiden's POV because he's going to provide us Aiden's inner dialogue - well that's the first part of the argument about script and discipline: It's should not be about what Aiden thinks, it should be about what Sophia thinks and how she responds to what Aiden says and does.
Let Aiden, Dylan, Sam, Ellie, et. al., be a mystery - if you want realism in your story then at least acknowledge that no person in reality knows exactly what someone else is thinking and no person in reality has a first-hand perspective on events taking place outside their vision or hearing.
In my opinion, the only real opportunity for L&P to speed up the release of updates is to split the content of the game day as much as possible.
I think that's the exact wrong direction given the track record. So called "smaller" updates have ballooned to be bigger than even half-day updates, so no - they should actually put themselves on a 1/2 day per 4-months schedule and stick to it, learn to plan accordingly and stick to the script (after it's been edited down to remove text blocks (whether spoken or internal) where they don't provide new information).
