The State of Identity (From a concerned citizen)

[MrScoletti 5]

Hello my fellow citizens and possibly developers.

I am someone who is currently concerned with the state of the community and also the state of the game itself.

I am going to be honest, I think what the main problem is:

This idea for a MMORP game is not really a first game idea, it's a Triple-A Game idea, usually a large production team and a helluva lot of funding, a major company usually is behind it.
 

The Developers, well, we have to understand that they came from modding and scripting a pre-existing game.

The first product isn't gonna be perfect, they are mostly used to releasing mods, so of course it's hard to understand the seriousness of a first impression game release "failure" - delay in a mod releasing isn't a big deal, nobody *really* cares.. it's mostly "Oh, well, these mods are delayed? it happens, it's a mod" not "We waited years for a game, they botched it, let's pull funding and give bad reviews".
 

To expect what started as a group of friends that had an idea that began by making mods on ARMA - to then have a great business practice straight away with most likely little corporate business experience, possibly with little to no retail experience.. to expect them to perform what you'd see at a company like Rockstar or E.A. or.. Ubisoft.. obviously there was gonna be a huge problem with that.. to go from being a mod developer group to creating a whole company dedicated to creating a Triple-A style game is a pretty high goal to reach.. it took Rockstar Games 10 years to make GTA 5.. and that was WITH the use of assets from GTA 4... which was a difficult thing to do in it's own right.
 

I do believe they set the bar a bit high for themselves and didn't anticipate the backlash from the community, struggling dealing with said backlash and missed deadlines/release dates.
 

Honestly - in time they might have some great potential.. but they really gotta open the lines of communication, be honest with the community and don't be so vague.. if someone from developing messed up.. then admit there was a mess up and move on, the community would respect them MORE for being open and honest instead of being kept in the dark and being vague and misleading... even if they messed up - we'd rather the truth and being kept up to date, instead of losing faith just because they are worried that admitting they messed up would ruin their reputation.. that sorta thing is corporate suicide.. you gotta come up with a solution and a plan and inform the investing parties as to what you'll do to fix the issues.
 

We as a community should still support them in their idea.. but they HAVE to be open and start TALKING to people, not banning them for even asking what the hell is going on or being negative or potentially worse.. people have A RIGHT TO be mad, a RIGHT to KNOW what exactly is happening.. we're investors in our own rights, we're paying them money for a product.. so yes, we, as a people, will get angry for something that we paid for not being what we expected...

I'm sure the investing parties would appreciate not being banned for asking questions or being frustrated or mad about this, this isn't a MOD where you can just ban people you don't like, this is a GAME, this is a BUSINESS now.. you can't just kick out and ban every nay sayer.. it's up to the business to prove the nay sayer wrong.
 

I love this idea, I love the team's idea of creating a completely revolutionized MMORPG, every MMORPG is either medieval fantasy or futuristic.. but it's bad business conduct to ban people for asking questions or being mad at you for failing to deliver what was expected, you gotta be better, apologise for the mistakes and then announce what you will do to fix it... it's good business to keep the buyers in the loop of what's happening, even if it's not sunshine and rainbows.. we prefer honesty, we would trust them more and trust they know what they're doing if they're open and honest instead of misguiding and vagueness.
 

So, with that being said, my associates and I will still wait for Identity's production to continue.. but both the community and the developers NEED to understand BOTH sides.. and to work together to make Identity happen.
 

Come on people.. stand fast, stand strong, stand together.. it's what Commander Shepard would've wanted.

Thank you all for reading this.. and I hope that I have helped either the community or the people involved in Identity's creation.

Kind regards,
-A. Scoletti.

[4thdesign 18]

Nope.

It is a good idea, but its being dealt with by amateurs. A little communication or business sense would have seen them being prepared for a release with a "this is what we can do"

Its been a COMPLETE failure for release of a module. We know it was going to be small and a fraction of the game, but when you release something to the WORLD, you HAVE to be prepared. FIRST IMPRESSIONS upon the world is the first opportunity for people that haven't seen Identity before. This community has been given videos, screenshots and some information of whats to come, but for those that are purely on Steam, and see this game called Identity and the tantalising videos posted on the Steam page, with a price....... you expect to at least download it, and try it out knowing full well its just an Alpha release.

NO-ONE would expect a shockingly poor character creation tool on Day 1. NO-ONE would expect menus to not work correctly, if at all, and NO-ONE would expect the server to be done over 24 hours, waiting for an update that has been indicated on Twitter. How about communicating through this website, how about communicating through Steam?

Its a FAILURE of mammoth proportions by amateurs who have no idea on how to release a game to the WORLD. A lot of people are shocked and rightly so. 

These guys have no business sense at all. A lot of people are wondering whats going on, and unintentionally perhaps, people are seeing this as a money grab and run.

Amateurs....... seriously.... Amateurs who know nothing of running a business. ITS GOING TO FAIL BEFORE IT CAN EVEN START.

[Taichi 0]

This is so true, Businesses need to communicate with their community, I think that people are so used to getting the finished product and not used to investing and then waiting however, it has been a bit shady from the devs part and that got most people are scrambling to get their investment back because they are in the dark but it is understandable.

 

to be real the whole community was screaming for the release of the first module and as the OP said that this is a huge task as a whole and of course they cant complete this even within 10 years unless they get help from another source its probably going to take a lot longer and when the second module comes out do you not think that they will update this? and lets all be honest we all knew the servers were not going to hold or work at all, look at GTA5 online could everyone get in immediately? as I said before everyone is so used to spending money and getting a return back straight away..

[MrScoletti 5]

@4thdesignI hear ya, man, I'm not disagreeing with you.. hey I'm part of the consumer base, but I think there's more to this than the community would like to suggest on their negative reviews...
I doubt it's a cash grab, I mean they *did* release SOMETHING which clearly has been worked on a bit, there is attention to detail.. I doubt they would cut and run after releasing the testing server, it's not like the whole game just came out and that's all we're getting.

Look at Star Citizen, I first saw that game when I was like 19 - 20 ish? look at how massive it is now.. it started out as NO character customization, NO ships, just a premade character running around a box.. no multiplayer whatsoever.. now there's fully mapped planets, trains, you can fly most of your ships and meet other players, shoot things.. it's advanced and it's still not fully released and that game had hundreds of millions of dollars of support and hiring lots of new staff.. they had so many resources granted over time.

Yes, they may have had a better business practice to start off with by being led by Chris Roberts.. but I think with a little more time and patience, this could actually become something.

I agree with something @Taichi said.. "everyone is so used to spending money and getting a return back straight away" that part is so true, in this day and age, I deal with retail and I see it all the time, a lot of people do not have any patience.. especially regarding staff and waiting times.

We just need to give the developers the benefit of the doubt and TRY to be a bit more patient, I don't think this is even alpha or beta yet.. so we gotta wait for them to fix it.. wait until the first patch to see how it's gonna be, give it a week or two to see if there's any improvements or announcements.

We gotta try to be patient.

[MrScoletti 5]

"You gotta have faith, Arthur!"

[Order 27]

They made many mistakes, and we made many mistakes. There were rumors, misconceptions, and just miscommunication on varying levels. This game means far too much to all parties involved for it to stay like this. Asylum's entire livelihood depends on this game at least satisfying those who've already supported it. They can't fail this. If they do, it's all over for them. They know this. They've delayed and patched and delayed and patched over and over because this needed to go well. Meanwhile, the fanbase is clamoring for a release, getting angry, and really not being in the background.

I'm not trying to say Asylum is an innocent victim, and we are their bullies, kicking their body on the curb over and over. Neither party here, us or them, are blameless. People got angry. They have a right to. Asylum panicked, and handled things wonkily. People do that. We were all just being humans, but we forgot that. Asylum had to get this right, so they were already pressured. Combined with repeated errors and constant criticism from their backers, I'm not surprised it seems they've become a bit fearful of our reactions. A lot of people would be.

On the other hand, the supporters have a very good reason, actually, many good reasons, to have behaved as such. Do I think it's right? No. Do I want us to keep doing it? Absolutely not, not to this degree. However, do I think we were unjustified? No. Asylum lied, misdirected, and upset a lot of people. They tried to do damage control later on, but with such a large group of people, when someone starts crying out, a lot of people tend to follow. It was easy to berate the Devs. While, of course, there were always a smattering of people trying to quell the masses, we were treated as fools, and that probably drove away that positivity.

It was almost like the Devs and the fandom were circling each other, trying to see who was going to strike first, only to trip and impale themselves instead. We waited for the Devs to give us content, then tore it to shreds to see what we liked and didn't like. If we were displeased, they'd learn very quickly. People were getting angry and impatient. Time will do that, but it never justifies attacking people. Meanwhile, the Devs were always watching to see how we reacted. Most of the time, it was just grumbling, and when content came, it became fresh, hot anger at whatever people thought was wrong. That would scare anyone, so they started silencing those they believed they could. Then we got scared. What do you do when you're scared? Run away or fight. This is the internet. Not a lot of people run away, here. There's no real threat. It's so easy to just lash out and fire back when you feel wronged here. Both sides started feeling wronged.

I think I'm digressing far too much, so I'm going to come back to my main point here. A lot of mistakes were made. Bad mistakes, small mistakes, you name it. Both parties messed up. Neither is a victim, but neither is an abuser. We put our money into this. There is no going back. We can't change that. We either keep fighting the people who have no choice now but to deliver at least a satisfactory product, or we try to limit ourselves and see if we can work together like we should.

We all want this game to come out and be good. We're all people. We're going to be goofs. Let's just be goofs together, and try to pick each other up when we fall. Let the Devs hear some support more often. Devs, please don't silence those who are scared and concerned. Reach out to us first, and if that goes badly, then you can do what you feel needs to be done. Don't be afraid of your own supporters. It's hard to trust where there is no trust.

[Whosdaiz 3]

i just want some transparency from the devs tell us all what exactly is going on why so little content. If they came out with the truth no matter how shit it is i would be happy.

[wiebley 111]

16 minutes ago, Whosdaiz said:

i just want some transparency from the devs tell us all what exactly is going on why so little content. If they came out with the truth no matter how shit it is i would be happy.

 

I think many people would agree with that. Stop the bullshit, stop trying to blame anyone but yourselves, be honest when you;ve fucked it, and let people know exactly what is fucked and how you are trying to resolve it. 

I actually think it's immoral that they have it for sale on Steam. They need to stop selling copies of this pile of turd until its at least playable.

[4thdesign 18]

THEY fucked up BIG TIME.

Stop coating it anyway you wish..... I disagree with a lot of your comments, its not a fault on both sides at all.

Anyone with business sense will stay focussed and NOT release a pile of shit to the WORLD on day one...... A professional outfit would have stay focussed, would have indicated to their followers the holdups along the way, along with a reason of some sort, but to stay silent, and then panic when voices were raised and then release something that does NOT WORK.... thats unprofessional, thats a liability, thats your money down the drain.

I don't give a fuck about the money that I have spent, really not interested..... what people NEED to start realising is that NO PROFESSIONAL would put their name to the trash thats been released. NEVER. (put yourself in their place, a game that you have spent years developing and the first time you want to release to the WORLD, you show them this???..... you would hang your head in absolute shame)

These boys are amateurs....... stop hanging onto the idea that its a blip, its not.... its a complete FUCKUP. BIG TIME.

Release a new "game" to the WORLD, and you release something that has clearly not been tested..... clearly looks like a 12year old has coded it..... clearly without information from the "team"..... its going no further.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT...... look at the reviews, first impressions from people are AWFUL. They have put their own nails into their own coffins. Its laughable!

 

[MrScoletti 5]

I do understand how you feel, I feel it's a slight overreaction though, it's not the full game, it's a testing server.. people are acting like this is the final cut and that everything is currently present.. give them time.

[Edikosh 6]

3 minutes ago, MrScoletti said:

I do understand how you feel, I feel it's a slight overreaction though, it's not the full game, it's a testing server.. people are acting like this is the final cut and that everything is currently present.. give them time.

 

What I believe is that today you can only defend the project,  because there's no game so far. Now suppose that  Identity was released without any major bugs. Then we would have the "glorified social game" we were expecting. I believe some people (me included) got disappointed by the fact that they couldn't even get a social game right. As a programmer, I feel they got major bugs that won't be fixed in 2018.

So I agree patience is key and honestly, if the team can still work hard despite not receiving a single dollar from now on, it's alright for me.

The real question is: how much time will they keep on going without cash coming from players? Because most of us will not invest on this game unless they show something real. Personally, I was expecting an economy system, civilians jobs, buy/sell within players, a true real estate system, and so on. Not even asking for the other two modules to come out. Just a serious RP module. No need of gigantic features. Although I would like a decent map. Even gmod darkRP got bigger maps lol. "Limitless world"

[MrScoletti 5]

I believe this game has a lot of potential, so far.. they have made the servers work for the most part.. and messing around on there is kinda fun - even though it's just buying clothes and such right now.. I think we just need to give them a little more time to work out the kinks and continue development until we get some major updates.

[LordBenji 210]

I understand that the release was very rough and a lot of users got upset. But we're all humans working on this project. Imagine me trying to deal for 12 hours with the large amount of new people coming in the Discord server, along with other moderators and community managers. We're working hard to get the crashes and other issues resolved. Right now, the build is more stable than it was at launch. Sure, it was slow to wait for those updates, especially when the servers were closed for the most part of the day after, but at least we're still dedicated and working on this project.