Sorry if this has been clarified already, but has there been any form of communication from stoper recently?
- Thread starter stoper
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- Apr 12, 2020
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Fairly certain Stoper has burnout pretty bad, and therefore updates are slow and he barely communicates on patreon. He is active in the JOHN discord though
- Nov 14, 2017
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- Jul 3, 2021
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I said it before, and I'll say it again. Someone who KEEPS mentioning HOW MUCH FUN he has creating his scenes is NOT burned out. Someone who is telling his patrons in his various devblogs that he's making good progress isn't burned out either. Yes, that's what he's saying during every single development cycle, and yet it's only getting slower. The reasons for that are certainly not burnout.
He's made a blogpost roughly 2 years ago about being burned out and having a hard time finding inspiration for the scene he was working on at the time. He said that, took some time off, came back, apparently revitalized from checking out other smut, told his patrons that he's making "good progress" again, and a month later came up with yet another excuse as to why the update back then got delayed. And that went on for several more months.
He's always coming up with new excuses. That's how I see it.
- May 9, 2020
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I joined Stoper's Patreon recently and got a nice response to a message I posted. I see other patron posts also had responses. There are a few updates from the last several weeks, plus some art showing work on JOHN. He mentioned recuperating from a bad illness that continues to cause him some problems. Nonetheless, there seems to be progress on the game. I mean, I joined his Patreon, I didn't hire him to babysit my kids or something. It's not like he's obliged to tell me all about his real self and hearing some of you here complain that you don't know his real name or where he lives is pretty rich given that we're all using pseudonyms. To me it looks like the guy's had a rough year but is getting back into the swing of things. I hope that's true, but if it ultimately isn't true, I'll find something else to fap to and I'll be out a few bucks. I'm not going to make myself miserable being angry at an anonymous stranger for deciding he no longer wants to pose pixels in a way that makes my dick hard.
- Aug 23, 2020
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I think it's useful to keep the totality of the AVG marketplace in mind. JOHN's issues are bad enough when looked at in a vacuum, but we see the same issues with other devs. The illnesses, moving, hardware difficulties, vacations, etc; none of these are "bad" excuses, and all of them are defensible...but a pattern begins to emerge. It doesn't matter if it's Stoper or L&P or Icstor (or countless other devs), if you pay enough attention you begin to see the same red flags. For each individual case it's impossible to definitively prove that someone is lying or exaggerating, but taken collectively their reasons for delays all become cliches. Overly ambitious games, with slow-burn pacing, have a bad reputation for devs that come down with mysterious illnesses, or move constantly, or travel the world, or have hardware problems. So I kinda view the frustration in this thread as broadly aimed beyond just Stoper. Yes, this thread is for his game, so he catches the brunt of the frustration, but if people didn't feel like they were seeing this same song and dance in other games I don't think the frustration would be so visceral.
And palmtrees89 makes an excellent point. Too many of the dev blogs tell us about how great the progress is, only for it to be undermined later when he delays the product. And then, when the update is released, it doesn't jive with the months of "good progress" that we've heard about. For a time I think we all assumed he just worked in fits and starts, so progress was made in bursts and then there was a prolonged downtime. But for the last 2 years development has been so slow, and enough inconsistencies have emerged, that many of us suspect that months go by without any work being done; only for a fit of work to be accomplished in the last 30 days before release. It's just the sort of inconsistency that really grinds people's gears.
I'm not angry about any of this. To me the game is simply dying and won't make it through 2024. That's ok, there's plenty of other things to do. But I do think the meta discussion surrounding the development is interesting and enlightening. The game itself is good and interesting enough to grab your attention, but you really have to stick around for the meta conversation. I personally just find it really fascinating to watch the development progression of games like this because it all seems so mysterious.
- Jul 21, 2020
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I used to be a patron at Stoper. There were also regular "updates". I don't care if the developer has now taken an artistic break or simply doesn't want to develop the game anymore, then write, the game is over! But to do nothing is wrong!
- Jun 19, 2022
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Excelent!! Agree 100% !!
- Apr 25, 2020
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If he's still recuperating from his illness back in february, I don't see him getting back into the swing of things. And it's been at least a couple of rough years.
Also I don't think there is a lot of "angry" people, but I believe it's nice to be informed about the game's state before becoming a patron. But if people like you don't care, it's ok even though many think it's not deserved at the moment.
- Jul 21, 2020
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I believe(!) that in the beginning the idea is there. Then a game is developed and it finds approval. Now comes the momentum and now again the developer is challenged. But before you start something like that, you should be aware of it, because after all he is paid for it. The best example is "Oopsy daisy". Many requests, no feedback...something like that leaves frustration. The next game is "A Life Worth Living". Apart from individual releases, nothing comes of it either.
I could go on like this...
Deepl Transl.
I could go on like this...
Deepl Transl.
I disagree, from the posts I've read there seems to be a level of hostility. When someone becomes emotionally involved with something and their perceived needs aren't being met they become frustrated and angry. The comments show that. It's like a relationship gone bad, but your not over the other person so you continue to snipe at and make comments about the other person's deficiencies and faults. If people weren't angry about this they would just move on and not continue to comment about it.
- Jul 21, 2020
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Well, if there is an update this year, then I'm happy.
- Jul 17, 2019
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- Sep 11, 2022
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- Nov 14, 2017
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- Nov 25, 2021
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WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?????
- Jul 17, 2019
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- Aug 9, 2017
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Stoper used to make renderings for other companies, like Lesson Of Passion. I guess Stoper has some paid work that is a priority, so when he uses the PC to render for paid commissions he cannot work on JOHN. This is just my theory of course.
- Mar 28, 2017
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One more time at the end of day 14.
And probably again at the beginning of day 15.