3 ms·

I don't think No Man's Sky was scam so much as it was a game where the hype far outran what was realistically possible. I mean, there's only so much a small in

I don't think No Man's Sky was scam so much as it was a game where the hype far outran what was realistically possible. I mean, there's only so much a small indie studio can get done in a year or two, so people expecting the moon were just being unreasonable. In the case of Star Citizen we're deep into gold-plating territory, wouldn't be surprised if it became a Duke Nukem Forever. But even then, Chris Roberts is genuinely trying to deliver a game, even if his ambitions may have gotten too large to deliver.

canada_dry 9y ago
Exactly. I call this the "Segway effect". It is when the hype far exceeds any possible realistic product.
dkns 9y ago
The owner/lead developer (I don't know what position exactly Sean Murray holds) straight up lied about features in NMS (e.g. multiplayer) that weren't there nor will be ever added so I'd say it was a scam.
- AnOscelot 9y ago
  If it's a scam, he's not scamming very well. A scammer would have taken the big payday and done little else. Whereas Hello Games has released a couple of large updates, and quite a few smaller updates / bugfixes, with more planned. The evidence largely points to a developer who is good at his core job, but inexperienced at managing hype. And who was overly optimistic about what he and his team can accomplish in X amount of time. Based on how Hello Games is acting & communicating now, I think they've learned their lesson. And I sympathise a little with them because I was once the overly optimistic team lead in my younger days, and had to get burnt a few times before I learned my lesson.
  - sjg007 9y ago
    If he's smart he's making a documentary/movie about it.
- GVIrish 9y ago
  I don't know that he really lied, so much as he over-promised and under-delivered. Lying implies that he never intended to include some of those features. In video game development, studios are frequently forced to cut significant content or features from a game for a number of reasons. That's why the smart studios are pretty cagey about promises until they're VERY sure they can deliver them. Sean Murray was reckless with his promises and that's what got him into trouble. It's possible he outright never intended to deliver those features but I don't think that's the case. It's clear they tried very hard to deliver as much as they could.
s_kilk 9y ago
> so people expecting the moon were just being unreasonable To be fair, the devs demo'd some supposedly in-game footage which was much better and more compelling than what shipped in the end. Peoples expectations were set high, because the devs actually promised a lot of cool stuff on record.
- GVIrish 9y ago
  Certainly, and perhaps I'm being a little unfair to the average consumer who got caught in the hype. As a programmer I looked at what they were saying they could deliver and figured that it was a bit too ambitious for the resources they were working with. Average people might reasonably expect that a video game developer would only show major features in demos that would make it to the final game.

canada_dry 9y ago

Exactly. I call this the "Segway effect". It is when the hype far exceeds any possible realistic product.

dkns 9y ago

The owner/lead developer (I don't know what position exactly Sean Murray holds) straight up lied about features in NMS (e.g. multiplayer) that weren't there nor will be ever added so I'd say it was a scam.

AnOscelot 9y ago
If it's a scam, he's not scamming very well. A scammer would have taken the big payday and done little else. Whereas Hello Games has released a couple of large updates, and quite a few smaller updates / bugfixes, with more planned. The evidence largely points to a developer who is good at his core job, but inexperienced at managing hype. And who was overly optimistic about what he and his team can accomplish in X amount of time. Based on how Hello Games is acting & communicating now, I think they've learned their lesson. And I sympathise a little with them because I was once the overly optimistic team lead in my younger days, and had to get burnt a few times before I learned my lesson.
- sjg007 9y ago
  If he's smart he's making a documentary/movie about it.
GVIrish 9y ago
I don't know that he really lied, so much as he over-promised and under-delivered. Lying implies that he never intended to include some of those features. In video game development, studios are frequently forced to cut significant content or features from a game for a number of reasons. That's why the smart studios are pretty cagey about promises until they're VERY sure they can deliver them. Sean Murray was reckless with his promises and that's what got him into trouble. It's possible he outright never intended to deliver those features but I don't think that's the case. It's clear they tried very hard to deliver as much as they could.

s_kilk 9y ago

> so people expecting the moon were just being unreasonable To be fair, the devs demo'd some supposedly in-game footage which was much better and more compelling than what shipped in the end. Peoples expectations were set high, because the devs actually promised a lot of cool stuff on record.

GVIrish 9y ago
Certainly, and perhaps I'm being a little unfair to the average consumer who got caught in the hype. As a programmer I looked at what they were saying they could deliver and figured that it was a bit too ambitious for the resources they were working with. Average people might reasonably expect that a video game developer would only show major features in demos that would make it to the final game.