Quoting Kantok, reply 247
You have no idea what they are going to release in these expansion packs just as most people had no idea how bad the game was going to be at release. If you want to throw your blind loyalty around, go ahead. I think you should thank them for the expansion packs they are giving people AFTER you actually see what you wind up getting. You also don't get to choose what is relevant to other people by the way. Your blind loyalty is perfectly relevant to me since it was blind loyalty and head petting that got us to the point where gamesl like EWOM 1.0 are even being released today.
Blind loyalty? They've already committed enough resources to fund development through 2011. They're launching a new game. I'm getting it for free because they screwed up the launch of the last game. That's not blind loyalty. That's fact.
Do I expect the game to be good? Yes. Because they've talked at length on the forums about what they think went wrong with the EWOM launch and what they're doing to correct those problems. And also because I've been in PM roles where projects have gone wrong for reasons like Brad says the EWOM team went through. The issues Brad described during his many AARs and what resulted are entirely believable.
I think that their openness about what has transpired and their commitment to try and provide a better experience to the customers who bought into EWOM early on earns them loyalty.
I don't believe that people should be destroyed for their mistakes as long as they acknowledge them, learn from them, and don't repeat them.
Now, if EFE ends up being a disaster too, I'd change my opinion. But based on what I've seen in the way of openness and what Stardock is attempting to do to earn back my trust, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
As for my "blind loyalty" being relevant to you, I don't particularly give a damn one way or the other. I was critical of things I thought were warranted during beta. I also praise things that deserve to be praised. If they deserve to be criticized for the launch they equally deserve to be praised for how they've handled things since. You couldn't have scripted a much better developer response to a failed game launch that what we've gotten with Elemental. We've been promised (and provided a few) fixes. Given word of free content in the future as repayment. Given ample insider details on how and why the problems occurred and what is being done to fix it. What else could you possibly want? What developer has ever handled a failed launch better?
Short of having a magic "Fix-It" button to push and make all your Elemental dreams come true, there's not much more they could have done since launch.
Seriously.. what else do you want?