I really hate to say it, but we need answers please.

[RayneCloud]

I remain as supportive, positive, and optimistic as I possibly can be. However, the public news of layoffs, the review scores, the absolute denial and "all is well!" "just do another weekly challenge!" attitude is not helping. Not when 50% of the community has an extremely degraded gameplay experience,  and the viewpoint is that there is a straight up refusal to address the communities fears and worries. The fears and worries being that KSP 2 will not see a completed road map. 

We need, and deserve, answers. Not corp speak, answers. We need and deserve communication, not "in the coming days and weeks and months" Now. Talk to us, the community, and answer our questions, honestly. 

Please.

Side Note: This is not an "Oh god even Rayne is scared!" situation. I've been supportive, positive, and over all optimistic and I will remain so, but todays news of layoffs was an incredibly huge blow to my own moral and hopes and dreams of KSP2 as a player and a lover of this franchise. It was a huge blow to the morale, faith, and overall atmosphere of the community.  That, is why I am asking for answers. 

So in short,
Talk to us, please.

Respectfully,
Rayne.

Edited March 8, 2023 by RayneCloud

[Guest]

They've already given us the answers. Naturally no one wants to listen because everything is blown out of proportion on the internet and of course there's more being said behind the actual written words on the screen.

And of course, we don't need answers, despite really, really wanting them. It's a video game. We're in the second week of a rocky release with a patch incoming fairly soon. Have a beer, touch grass, get the love away from your screen, whatever you need to do. If you're this messed up right now, man, I really don't know what to say.

[Guest]

What specific questions did you have in mind?

I would be curious to know how Intercept was affected by the layoffs. We know about the lead engineer, but were there others?

The thing is that it’s really not OK for Intercept to announce this about individuals or individual roles that would let people figure out exactly who was let go (except executives). That’s personal information. You don’t do that to people. 

But I agree that a bit more communication could help, like, how many roles were cut? When did Intercept know about them?

Other than that, what could they say to allay worries? I can’t think of much TBH. They’ve already said development continues apace and according to plan. You can choose to take that at face value, or not, but what more could they say to convince you?

The problem is that fans aren’t reasonable people you can talk to reasonably. You can share your internal roadmap with reasonable people because they understand that it’s subject to change; the milestones can change and things can even be dropped from it altogether. You can’t do that with fans because imagine the reaction if, say, they have wind, rain, and snow on it, and later on it gets cut. It would be just a continuous outrage machine.

I really wish fan culture would change so there could be more direct and “adult” communication between studios and fans but I just don’t see that happening. You’re by far one of the more reasonable fans @RayneCloud but even you are showing a quite a bit of fan entitlement in some of your posts — and it’s precisely that which makes studios hide behind baby-talk and corpo-speak. You don’t want to say anything to provoke another hissy-fit so you end up provoking one but not saying anything.

In sum a big ❤️ to community managers everywhere who have to deal with us. We suck, yet you manage to remain almost invariably positive with us.

 

[James Kerman]

Thread locked at OP's request.