Yeah, I know they asked if they could release slower updates. I supported it at the time as well. The way they talked about it then was slightly different though; they said either we do incomplete monthly releases (and the way they formulated this immediately instilled a "you won't want to choose this guys!) or we do complete releases every 1.5 two months. 3.0 released the 7th of October. We're the 16th of December now. That's a long ass time.
Sure, they had their own horse in this race. But I still think they would have done what their patreons wanted them to do, even if it contradicted their "agenda".
I think there's two ways to look at this, either you believe they need time to update their game or they're doing everything to manipulate their audience and get money. I was never a fan of conspiracy theories in the first place, and as a wannabe artist, I know these things take time (on top of eating your sleep, your life, your happiness and your soul).
But more importantly, I've seen people legitimately scamming people via Patreon, and I'm not talking about fucking Dating My Daughter. To me there's a clear difference that kind of people and Hreinn.
I don't agree with your idea on varying content. IF I play all the different routes, I will see the many differences. However, IF I have to play through a game 4 different ways to fully appreciate an update, I'm sorry, that's just bad game design as far as I'm concerned.
And I agree with that. Personally, I'm a big fan of a fully 100% completed game, and if I like said game, I'll be happy to start over to see what I've missed. But obviously, I don't expect everyone to do the same thing.
What's important is a key element you will not find in many, many games, and that is the fact that your choices have an impact. I don't know if you play a lot of VN, but I can assure you, a lot of those advertise choices to engage the player, and those choices are nothing other than "choose between "how silly!" and "you're an idiot sometimes"", and the only effect it has on the game and the story is that the next line of dialog will be different. But that's not an actual choice.
KoD does not do that, and I really can't emphasize enough how good it is to have a game that doesn't feel like a straight line. I'm still pretty impressed that some dude just calls you a whore during the trial, or that he doesn't if you
aren't. It's nothing, just a little thing that is being acknowledged, but it makes the game so much more realistic. Now you have an actual reason to avoid whoring yourself, because you know the characters within the game will consider you differently if you do.
So far we can tell that there is a main story line and that everything sort of revolves around it, but there are already many details you can modify by making choices. Plus, we should not forget that the game is in 0.3, we don't know how things will progress in the next updates. Right now attending a feast just changes where you're located on a specific evening (and your relationships with other characters, and the way Sabia behaves, and the way she's perceived by others, etc), but it will probably be even more meaningful in the future. It's like Neve getting all mad if you torture the catgirl; you don't think that's kind of a big change, being close enough to a girl to sex her or her hating your guts? What about Sabia's behaviour, which is completely different if you do your own feast or if you decide to be Tekrok's bitch?
Now, you don't have to be as hyped as I am (because I am a true slut for decision making in gaming, I know that), but even if you're not, you can't deny that a complex story the player can shape is harder to make than a simple "press skip to win the game" thingy. And, so far, KoD delivers in terms of "shapable" story, and on many levels.
And I'm sorry, but everyone has a right to complain, and might or might not doesn't enter into it. That's like saying "Well, you're European, so you're not allowed to have an opinion on Trump or North Korea!". "Oh, you don't buy EA games, so you don't get to say they're an awful money grabbing company!" "Well, you don't get to state your opinion that games like PUBG ruin modern gaming because you never bought/played it!".
You have "the right" to complain. Nobody's going to play lawyer on a piracy website (I assume). It's just that if you don't pitch in, the decency would dictate that the "delay" is not a thing you would complain about. If you were to critize the game on whatever aspect it is, and someone would say "yeah well you're not paying so shut up", I would laugh. Maybe I wouldn't agree with you on the points you critize, but I wouldn't "shut you down" just because you didn't pay.
I think it's stupid to think that because you got something for free, you're meant to like it unconditionally and not have an opinion on it. That is really not how the world works.
But, the logic in place is, since you're getting it for free anyway, you might aswell wait for it. If you "bought" it, then yeah, you could talk about the delay. I don't know how to explain it better, it seems very basic to me.
I've never believed the "supporting people on Patreon" narrative. It's too easy for a developer to go "yeah lol I'm done now" and back out and never be heard from again. Hreinn makes $6932 a month. Maybe Sierra and Nomo have decided "fuck 'em all". They'll have raked that cash in from October, November, December,...at what point do you think Patreons will start going away?
Sure it is. And there are people on Patreon who do that pretty well. But again, I doubt Hreinn would suddenly disappear. And, let's be real, you can read that kind of comment on every thread concerning every dude on Patreon. It's like as soon as you're on Patron, you're to be considered a scammer who would run to Venezuela as soon as you've thieved enough. I guess it's just a trend going.
But yeah, as I said earlier, there's a point where your money doesn't make a difference. If you're donating to a small player, for instance a guy who makes maybe 200 bucks every month, then you will be helping them. If it's two people with thousands of moneys each month, your gesture, while still appreciated, will not have an impact, because at that point, the money is not the problem, it is the limitation you have as a human being working in a small team. DarkCookie (the guy from SummertimeSaga) had a pretty admirable business plan, considering the market he's in, and had plans to hire more people to work on his game and to get things done faster. But he's kind of an exception, I don't know if there are many people who have plans to get things on that higher level.
Anyways, back to Hreinn, since they're already making
SO MUCH MONEY, your only incentive to donate to them should be that you want to donate. Not that you want to improve the process. Otherwise you'll be disappointed.
And, even if they weren't making
SO MUCH MONEY, donating to people on Patreon because you believe it will make a difference is not a good idea. As you said, you never know what can happen with these people you don't even know. Anything can go wrong. If you're looking to buy things, Patreon is not the place to do it. It's filled with unfinished projects that might be dropped or vanish at any moment. It's like taking a gamble that you're likely to lose, but even if you win it, you'll still have paid too much for it.
Same goes for early access independent in-alpha-stage games on Steam, by the way. Yuck.
