No, I totally get your point about the stove. But - using that same metaphor - you don't tell others that the stove is on when you only suspect that its on. None of what I wrote should be considered a defense of the dev; its a defense of all devs, because they are making games without the benefit of a company of coders, writers, writers and proofreaders. They are typically doing all of the work by themselves, and the do get burned out. At least two games I loved collapsed in this way [MC was not one of those listed favorites], so I typically urge people to be a bit less self-involved when considering whether a game had been abandoned.I find it interesting you reference Dumas, yet you don't seem to know what Dev you are talking about in this forum.
Also, you start your post with "Absence of proof is not proof of absence". There is a difference between abandoning a game and being absent as a developer, you are correct. Along the lines of 'absence', realize that Shitstor has not made a single update announcement himself since:
Home website: August, 2020;
SubscribeStar: Never, technically, because the only 'update' was the creation post, since which the page has been locked;
Patreon: November, 2021
Discord: Who knows, because Ashbash has been talking for him, for months.
Lastly, your final statement about needing assurances he will finish the new game is confusing in the context of your argument. The main sentiment on this forum basically boils down to: He has abandoned the game. You ask what proof exists for this sentiment, and the forum has responded that his lack of communication, and history of NOT finishing 'complete' stories in his past several games (Project X, aka Milfy Kingdom, never even saw a release) is such proof. Yet you seek a formal announcement of abandonment from the developer, despite this history.
If you put your hand on a stove that is turned on, you get burned. Forgive the members of this forum for not wanting to put our hands back on the burner, even without someone telling us not to do so.
So yeah, I do expect more proof than some knob running through the threads making spurious claims. You yourself have made the effort to point out that the dev hasn't finished anything that they have started - which I think is the sort of proof I was looking for in the absence of the dev cowboying up and admitting their deeply ingrained commitment issues.
Lastly, serving up gossip for actual fact is like dining in the dark - you don't know if the chicken you are eating is green with moss until later you find out how wrong you were for consuming it. Gossip is for drama queens and abject fucking losers, and I am always going to call ut some self-important clown who does so. Who here has not been the subject of ill-informed gossip?