TL;DR - Discussed possible tags, cut content, and whether the game is just plagued with poor development or is just milking.
I like this idea, but I suggest the following tags "Low update volume" and "Long break between updates", maybe something like that. This is fairer and less harsh, and will also reduce the discussion that the game's creators are doing a poor job. I apologize if something is not clear, it's just that English is not my native language.
Something like that moves us closer to a more ideal tag in such a situation instead of calling it an outright scam (which would certainly hurt crowdfunding). My criticism about the suggestions offered, however, is that it doesn't distinguish between
good devs from the
scummy ones. (Note, I'm not downplaying Spawk's suggestions and in fact have given that user an updoot for that post. :] I'm just noting a concern with it is all.)
There are many excellent developers out there (individuals and teams both) that take a different approach instead of the typical monthly update method. They will let you know
up front that updates are less frequent than the aforementioned method; however, they also
provide open and honest progress reports, feedback, or other communications about what's happening behind the scenes, and their updates are usually quite significant. As a general rule of thumb, those "bigger" updates due to the "[longer] break between updates" have about the same amount of content as projects that are updated on a monthly-basis over the same period of time. Those types of developers have
earned the trust and goodwill of their fans due to their interactions with them, their honesty, and their proven track record. In fact, the top games on F95 follow this methodology.
And then there are those that are disingenuous about the whole matter. They too follow this non-monthly based releases as mentioned above. Unlike those developers though, they often
aren't open and honest about what's happening with their progress.
If they communicate at all, they either duck questions and criticisms about their progress when their supporters raise them, drop an excuse in an effort to redirect attention to something else, lie to their supporters, or in the most grievous situations will outright take people's money and run. In short, these are the developers that lead people on with false promises and renewed vigor after milking their supporters for a time -- just like any other con man or thief.
These are the dangerous ones. They not only feed off of unsuspecting victims, but also drags down the reputation of Western developers as a whole. And they need to be
called out on it. Some type of tag or a warning in the opening post would be warranted in such situations to help safeguard potential victims. Of course, it won't convince every one (like a poster that will go unnamed), but if it helps many people from losing out on their hard-earned money from giving it away to some *grifter*, then that'd be grand. After all, those victims just wanted to support something they thought was fun instead of being conned out of their money.
So how would we distinguish between the two groups while applying the information quickly with a tag? "Scam" seems too incendiary while "slow updates" or similar don't convey the danger of the trap
some devs have with their milking operation. I don't know if it's possible so maybe we're just chasing a unicorn. At least F95 have the "On Hold" and "Abandoned" tags for those projects (typically games) that are no longer in active development or are making no forward progress.
From reading the posts from the last few days it sounds like the 'new release' is a slightly reworked hotel mission?
The game keeps getting reworked and reworked and reworked -- even if they lift code
wholesale from somewhere else (i.e., dice). There's
less (story) content in this game than from earlier releases years ago. So when you heard that you could safely skip two to four updates, I'd say you can safely skip two to four
years and still be all caught up storywise.
As Leia said in the above post and along with a great many other users have said numerous times over the years, the game would have been a lot better off with actual story progress. Instead (and if you believe what they're spewing), the game keeps getting bogged down with all this under-the-hood and avatar nonsense. It's been what? Three or four years since the main character was getting on a plane to
go to Thailand in the story only for all of that to be culled right out of the game? Christ, progress is moving backwards if you can believe it! Is it "well-intended incompetence" as one put it recently, or is it a scam to milk people out of their money? When does to go from poor development and setbacks to simply riding the gravy train by milking supporters? Discounting all the bells and whistles, story modules themselves aren't all that difficult.
Alright welp, y'all be safe. Get vaccinated if you haven't already.
