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blundertwink

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Everything posted by blundertwink

  1. @Sethioz Best of luck to you, and I'm very sorry for the idea that DU has caused you more stress. The devs have the money and resources to fix DU, but they have been recently hiring for other (UE5) game projects, including a "car combat arena" IP. To be harsh, they took the promise, funding, and any shred of revenue gained from DU and decided to work on other games that are less ambitious and more profit-focused. They seemingly stopped working on DU almost a year ago (after their last update in Summer 2023) and don't have the integrity to just be honest and transparent about this fact. Games fail all the time but at least most studios are honest enough to admit it, especially charging people AAA sub prices as they invest that money in other games.
  2. Is there a way to set up mail forwarding? At least in the US that will cover you for a year. Otherwise it really is lame that after all these delays they can't be bothered with an address update. If you're feeling vengeful, also consider complaining to Kickstarter. They won't help you get your stuff, but they might at least flag NQ and maybe that hinders them from trying to throw their three other game projects into crowdfunding to take advantage of yet more people.
  3. I did see it was on sale on Steam and rolled my eyes....it crosses the line into being straight-up deceptive when they put the thing on sale saying it's a "great time to join" all-the-while knowing they have zero plans to update (finish) it. As a subscription game, it's just dishonest and shows a lack of integrity. I think I trust Activision-Blizzard more than NQ at this point, because at least they update their scammy products. At least they make something playable, if only to sell absurdly overpriced micro-transactions. They don't pretend that it's a great time to join their subscription game while funneling every last cent into other projects. It's not good when Activision-Blizzard seems like it has more integrity than your company, but that's how I view NQ at this point. This is the same company that whined about how feedback needs to be "balanced" with positive notes to be considered, complaining how "unfair" they are treated in "toxic" reviews even as they present obviously false or exaggerated trailers and pretend the game is still under development to sell subs. It isn't just incompetence that led to where we are, there's at least a sliver of malice in how they want people to keep paying while having no plans to use that money to support the subscription game!
  4. It's really unfortunate -- I can't speak much to physical rewards except to say you aren't the only one that's not received them...and it really is absurd to ask people to wait almost a decade considering they've decided to fund 3 other game projects in the meantime. They had money to hire people for these projects (I've seen the job postings), but not to fulfill the rewards, hmm? Always some "complication" after so many years...really? The other thing that speaks to trustworthiness is the state of DU itself. They've no issues charing people monthly for a sub but refuse to articulate anything about the state of the game and the seemingly obvious reality that there will be no more major updates. That's is definitely "stringing people along" (at best) -- there hasn't been a "major" update since June 2023 and they should at least have the integrity to let people know it isn't being developed anymore. Unfortunately, Kickstarter makes it pretty clear: you have no recourse except to sue them, yourself, and the cost of that lawsuit would likely exceed any damages if you won, which you likely wouldn't because (afaik) NQ isn't obligated to ship anything in any specific timeframe. This is why it's (IMO) a mistake to back anything on Kickstarter, because if they really want to sell me something in exchange for revenue, they can do it under terms that obligate them to actually provide that thing! Too bad that dishonest people ruin it for everyone, but that's capitalism for you.
  5. I guess it's a matter of perspective. To me, an online game that's ostensibly is an MMO is dead when the developer stops updating it. It's like a dead language -- people still speak Latin, but it's classified as a dead language because it is no longer evolving and changing. People might still play DU, but it's a dead game because the developers are focusing on other projects. It's great if people can still play it and have fun, but it is dead in the sense that it isn't going to change, isn't going to improve, and isn't going to grow. The delineation isn't really important if you're still playing and enjoying the game, but it does matter to people that are thinking about buying it. I think the reviews are more than fair in that context. At the very least, people should be aware that their monthly sub isn't going to improve or grow DU...but is likely being spent to further the studio's three other game projects. TLDR: It's not hyperbole to suggest that an "MMO" with no future updates planned and less than a hundred players online during peak times is dead.
  6. It's all about image IMO. NQ's CEO is still posting about how brilliant DU is. They're just using player creations as a marketing tool to make their company look "cutting-edge". From their last LinkedIn post: Sounds impressive to investors that don't bother looking into the product...as they'd realize that Dual Universe has never been an "MMO"...the scam game The Day Before has something like 47 times more players at peak than DU. Web3 sort of people are all the same...they all think they're pushing boundaries when really they're making shit that doesn't even work.
  7. @Castanietzsche I'd suggest you look at a recent announcement about this here: Best of luck to you in getting your stuff!
  8. 🤷‍♂️ They've not officially confirmed that the game is no longer under development, but that's the reality. NQ is focused on their three other game projects. The CEO's recent LinkedIn post says: DU hasn't changed much since the wipe because they haven't been developing it and have no plans to do so. Player counts seem closer to around 35-40 peek in recent days -- counts seem to be slowly decreasing still, but I'm surprised they are even this high.
  9. That's 100% fair, and I think some of their ideas are probably a better use of the limited tech than something so ambitious as DU....can't really argue that DU as a product doesn't work and can't work without extreme investment that makes no sense. But it's sketchy that they've (perhaps) decided to prioritize other projects ahead of their obligations to backers. If you can hire new people, you can send people some freakin' t-shirts. Granted KS only represents ~5% or less of their total investment, but it just seems like bad PR, especially if they're trying to release other games. Some people might even think the narrative is "developer used KS money to fund other projects and never sent rewards" (which is not exactly fair but kinda true). If I were them, I'd especially want this cleared up in advance of trying to release any other game to avoid the NQ brand being polluted by DU's many mistakes.
  10. To my knowledge there's no news and this is still the most up-to-date reply: The only news about NQ's development I've heard recently is that they are working on three game projects other than DU, and still have some job postings up relevant to that...one of them is a car combat game. I think it's problematic to keep DU online when they've no intention of making another major update, delay on shipping rewards they're obligated to ship (if that's indeed that's happening, they haven't given an update), all while spending money on other projects? No one seriously believes it takes a year to find a logistics partner. If they have the resources to hire staff to make three other games, they can probably fulfill their physical rewards. It just isn't a priority because they can get away with constantly "delaying" -- delay long enough and they'll have time to launch their other IPs. If those fail, the whole company just goes away and nothing ever ships...not saying that's their plan, it's probably just that no one is working on DU anymore, so no one has taken the time to do this and the next update will be another lukewarm apology and another timeline.
  11. Fair, but my point was that by the time the VC took over, it was too late to implement any ideas other than scaling back. The game's future was crystalized by 8 years of JC's thoughtless dev and the only choice was to scale down features to slash costs. Even putting the horrid tech aside, the game's design was so wildly unfinished they didn't even understand how to fit PvP into the game. I'm not convinced that the VC really had a choice in the direction they took DU. It was either push it out in a lame form or abandon the project. That's reflected in how Andurance hired their current CEO, whose stated purpose was always to focus on other projects (per his own LinkedIn)...since before release. To be honest, I don't think any idea that the VC pursued to fix the game would have worked. We all knew the game was (at best) half-finished even before they started slashing. I'm no fan of their strategy in pretending to develop DU while they clearly weren't, but I also don't believe there's anything anyone could have realistic done to fix this project.
  12. I think it's both easy and fair to criticize them for whittling away what little content there was, but...for someone that claimed that DU would support "millions" of players, JC did not put one iota of thought into things like scalability or cost. So yeah...NQ made the game shallow, but perhaps that's because it was built on a pile of sand by someone with no experience making scalable online software. I still believe it was JC's own ego that ruined DU. He wanted to be the founder. The CEO. The Creative Director. He did not want a skilled CTO that might challenge his "design", so he promoted someone from within whose only other technical role was an internship...? I could easily be very, very wrong....but my impression is he built a team that would do what he said and not challenge his lack of expertise in making software, driving away experienced vets (like Hrafnkell Oskarsson of Eve Online, who exited after less than a year). I think it's weird that some people are now insisting that the company would be better off if they "brought back JC", as if his loss was the reason so many things went awry. In reality, I think the thing that went awry is those investors deciding it was okay for someone with no experience in gaming to lead a gaming company. That wouldn't have been a huge problem if it was a humble, open-minded leader that was able to understand their own lack of experience. Honestly...and I'm sure some people will read this and think otherwise, but his perspectives on monopolies really showcases his slightly naive arrogance and inability to look beyond his own narrow, privileged world view. People like that rarely make good leaders. Funny how the company he works for is now the "solution" to capitalism. Funny how the problem with monopolies has nothing to do with consumer choice, according to him...and blockchain magically fixes it. This guy...is not much better than a con artist. This article is among the most silly, self-serving use cases shilling blockchain that I've seen in a long time. This is exactly the way he approached DU, too...a bunch of baseless, lofty ideas (like this claim they made "cutting edge" tech that would support "millions of players") with no grounding in science whatsoever, ideas that crumbled with even the most basic scrutiny.
  13. Well...the scam game "the day before" has 5 times as many people playing right now over Dual Universe, an "actual" MMO... If that doesn't drive home the idea that DU has no future I'm not sure what will. What bothers me is the lack of transparency and integrity on NQ' side. At this point it's really clear that there will be no 1.5 update, but they're still happy to collect subs and new players if they can. I don't think DU started out as a "scam" as some have accused...but that's where it seems to be, now. It's not that much different from "the day before" in my mind. Neither dev has any intention of using the money they are making to improve the game and neither delivered on anything close to the premise as presented in adverts. The main difference is that "the day before" is massively more popular, even now...hence more scrutiny and fallout. NQ actually thinks they've been poisoned by "online toxicity" (as if every major review outlet didn't give the game a bad review), but when you don't respect your customers, they aren't obligated to respect you back. Either NQ needs to announce 1.5 (hah) and make it clear that the game is still being developed even a little or they need to announce their other projects properly and make it clear where their backer's money is actually going.
  14. NQ is lucky that DU has so relatively few backers that no one has really complained...but even if you complain to KickStarter, afaik the only real recourse you have is to sue NQ directly. KickStarter makes it clear that they wont help you with that. EU law or not, someone still has to complain for anything to happen. It is really puzzling though....because NQ still has ~80+ employees and is very public about the three new games they are working on. They're still hiring, even! They've money enough to pursue more profitable projects while they keep this game online and collect subs and pretend like they will update it (well not even pretend anymore)...but spend the time and money to fulfill their obligations? Yeah, right. I don't believe DU is a "scam"....but some of their backers have supported this silly game for 8+ years! Not fulfilling those obligations because they think they don't have to is the sort of behavior that typifies the worst brand of myopic greed in the gaming industry. Not a shock, though, as NQ is run by a Venture Capital firm and people like that only care about extracting as much value from a product or firm for themselves as they can. If I were an EU backer I would try complaining more loudly, but realistically that money is lost and NQ will keep the money they should be using for backer rewards to invest in their other three gaming projects.
  15. NQ's recent job postings actually do give some insights about the new content coming to...projects other than DU. From their job posts: Further, we know the genre of at least one of these projects: There is no realistic way that a company of their size will continue to support DU in addition to these three projects. It's really interesting to see they are working on a team-based game, implying a commitment to an online multiplayer product that so far they haven't demonstrated an ability to actually make. Will NQ see success making three games when it took 8 years to (not) finish the one...? Will they learn from DU's mistakes, or are they doomed to repeat them...?
  16. The thing is....NQ is effectively owned by Andurance, the VC that installed one of their people as CEO temporarily post-JC and invested almost half the total $20 million raised for the game. With other projects in the works, some of them no doubt based on DU's tech...I don't think they would want to sell it in that context. The cost would probably be in the order of millions of dollars because Andurance invested over $10 million in NQ. Right now, they see product dev as a way to recoup that money -- selling would basically yield nothing, so it's better to just accept the loss of that old investment and swing big with whatever runway NQ has left. I think if they could have sold it for anything near that amount to recoup this investment they would have a long, long time ago. I don't think it's worth even $1 million in its current state. What does "sell to the players" actually translate to practically...? Who governs the data and credit card transactions? Who owns the AWS servers and is liable for paying that bill? Who is liable if vendor or players decide to start a lawsuit? AFAIK there's never been a true crowd-funded MMO (DU raised like <5% with KS), never mind a player-run/player-owned one. I'd love to learn more about a player buyout of a game if it's ever happened before though, because I can only imagine the sort of chaos involved. Finally...what about NQ's other three projects...? There's a very good chance they will utilize some of the same AWS backends. We know for a fact that they are using Unreal as the engine this time, but we know very little else about these products except for Andurance/NQ's obsession with web3 BS. It's very, very likely they will utilize the same voxel-to-mesh algorithms and backends as DU. Other posts from them make me think their non-gaming project/projects are centered around web3 / UGC tooling and content dev -- again likely leveraging the voxel-to-mesh backends. VC's aren't known for being creative, so I think they will hold DU's tech (because no one would pay what they need for this crap) and swing big with the other projects...I doubt the VC gives much of a crap about the community, and by the way.....they do own every single creation that people are making right now. I think its unlikely, but for all we know, NQ will start selling every single thing people make in DU as assets, or provide them to game studios for a fee. There's really no way to know what their plans are absent NQ actually telling us, which they didn't do even when things were going "well". 🤷‍♂️
  17. There's a few things I find strange about this idea. First, the idea that posts on a Steam forum have any meaningful impact on sales...is not backed by evidence. Per a 2019 study, the main decision-driver for games...? Price. About 2/5th use Youtube to make a choice, with about 30% trusting mainstream reviews and 30% trusting user reviews. I'm not saying it has no impact, but in the grand scheme of the community of over 100 million Steam purchasers? Very unlikely that even 10% are reading those forums before buying IMO... Second, the idea that everyone that's complaining is making an effort to "waylay" the game. How do you know? Who decides which feedbacks are from "disenfranchised players" and what is genuine? I don't agree with being caustic or mean and accept that there's definitely people that do like the game for legit reasons...there's no reason to scream at people with a different view, but you're inferring some malevolent intent or conspiracy that doesn't exist. Third, if all this negative feedback is merely "disgruntled" players...how do you explain the poor mainstream reviews, lack of impact on social channels like Twitch and YouTube, and the poor Steam reviews, overall? If all that feedback is really from ex-players, it means that the game hasn't attracted any new players to drown out a few beta players. It also doesn't make much sense in general, because most players from beta did not re-purchase the game on Steam and used the native client, instead. The vast majority of Steam users are fresh, new users. Fourth, the game has never peaked at more than 800 concurrent users...if the game were quality, it would have made more of a splash at launch among unaffiliated mainstream review outlets, streamers, and YouTubers, driving more users, therefore driving more "genuine" reviews. Which is more likely...some conspiracy by disgruntled ex-players to leverage a niche part of Steam no one cares about to somehow derail sales...or that the game is actually just not popular? What you're describing about players not liking changes is called a lack of popularity, which is not a conspiracy and is not itself toxic or unfair (although some people are toxic and unfair about it, granted).
  18. Except that other sci-fi sandbox games are far more popular -- Empyrion has over 1,700 people playing the game as I type this. Dual Universe has 28 people playing, which is also the 24-hour peak. Even if this was a real advert and not a reddit post (with zero upvotes, just sayin'), you aren't going to convince anyone that this statement is true....not when the game needs to get over 60 times as many daily players just to catch up to a game like Empyrion, which first hit EA in 2015 (over a year after NQ was founded, by the way). When even the devs have stopped giving the game major updates, maybe a user-crafted advert that gets no meaningful views isn't "the future"... It's great that you're a fan of the game and that you're enjoying it....but it's at the point where you have to accept that DU is what it is and is not going to change much. It might stay online forever as it is or it might vanish tomorrow, but either way let's not pretend like there's any path forward for making this game more popular.
  19. This idea that DU would do fine if "only it had adverts" is strange. First, they did run adverts and they failed to either convert or retain enough people. Second, Steam guarantees every new game about 1 million unique impressions to give it a real shot and to understand how to rank the game in the store. They failed with that, too, now ranking far below many old single player games. Also...."player made" adverts make no sense unless you're an influencer willing to parley hard-won views into a company's adverts for the sake of a game that even the developer has decided not to pursue...? Finally...it's useless trying to exaggerate some of DU's features (as you have IMO...even the idea that the game has "exploration" is a laugh to me) because getting people in the door is not the real battle for a subscription MMO, it's retention. It'd be very easy to spend more you make when the sub is fairly cheap and the CPA in the gaming space is fairly high.
  20. I think there will definitely be a reckoning on the horizon, especially for the many firms focusing on AI-driven UGC or AI-driven assets in general. And when you think about games like Minecraft (often cited as an example of the power of UGC), the actual engagement point (at least IMO) isn't really the things people create, it's the act of creation itself... When studio CEOs and leaders talk about how generative AI or UGC will change gaming, it's almost always from the widget-driven perspective where these people view making games like a factory, since that's the process they can understand. Producing more "widgets" with less people will of course lead to better things from their perspective. Not better, though, because they don't talk in language like that....they talk about how it will "vastly increase retention". It's kind of like claiming that AI will make writing novels much better, since AI can provide "more words with less time". Only idiots would believe that the quality of a novel relates to the "amount of content" it provides. When you're making something as complex and artistic as a game, CEOs and leadership often get in the way. This push for trying to make their own users develop the game so that they can capitalize on it "forever" is going to backfire because those same CEOs can only view games as cash registers. I hope that games like BG3 send a clear message about what the market actually craves -- quality, not just quantity. I highly doubt NQ's leadership has learned this even after investing 9+ years in DU.
  21. Dual Universe obviously didn't work out the way NQ intended, but everything they've posted indicates their leadership is still very huge into the idea of UGC (user generated content) as a vehicle to create gaming experiences. In my opinion, games like BG3 and Starfield show how "content" is misunderstand by executives that look at day-to-day development as a cost center. Content is not the visuals, models, music, or "things" in a game. As an executive that pays for those "widgets" day to day, they might think that's the case...but really, it isn't. Content is about interactivity and immersion, not just having a big world for its own sake (as Starfield seems to prove). It's a holistic thing, not just about assets. The idea of UGC is that everyone can contribute to assets...but it still depends on a strong layer of content crafted by actual professionals. Trying to empower players to create every facet of engagement and immersion is like turning the Steam or Google Play store into a game, where most the content isn't that good. That's why services like Steam exist to begin with...publishing as a concept still makes sense for all parties, especially consumers. I think people like NQ want to capitalize on this idea of user-built-everything, but they don't really understand what content actually is and will spend a lot of time and money just to realize that they've created a product that has no real market fit.
  22. Thirty players is not a viable sample size in the context of NQ making choices about the product...but that's kind of beside the point. The point is that even NQ doesn't want to continue developing the game...regardless of how many people "actually" are playing right now, the only entity with full transparency on its performance and cost is NQ....and they have decided not to pursue it. They've been open about the fact that their ~80 employees are spending their time on three projects other than DU and that DU isn't the main focus right now (they were at GamesCon Europe just last week and the picture of their booth doesn't even mention DU at all). So...it really doesn't matter if you think that DU has 50-100 active players or 5000 active players, NQ obviously isn't committed to continuing development at scale. Personally, I do really respect those NQ devs that are likely donating their personal time to run events or do small fixes. That's huge commitment for a community that has been rather pessimistic for a long time. I don't really respect the effort to keep collecting subs when they know there's no plans for major updates...but I also see how NQ is veering into the web3/blockchain world and people in that world tend not to care too much about pesky things like integrity... 🤷‍♂️
  23. Unfortunately, NQ's CEO has been clear about where NQ's team is spending their time these last few months. They have three projects other than DU in the works, including at least one in the gaming space. Still no details about these actual projects, but NQ was at GamesCon Europe just last week...based on the screenshots shared, their booth doesn't even mention DU anymore. I don't think there's much chance that they're still devoting major resources to DU, unfortunately.
  24. So...on one hand its an arbitrary guess, on the other its powered by a small sample size of your friends...but somehow that generalization is unlikely to be wrong...? It doesn't really matter in the end...the subs are clearly very small, to the point where NQ is no longer planning for any major update. Regardless of how many players that actually is, every fact we have says that it isn't nearly enough, such that any changes are not worth the effort and completely unrealistic and implausible. It's not me you have to convince, it's NQ, and they've made it clear for many, many months that DU isn't their priority. Here's some additional evidence from the CEO's linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nouredine-abboud-89b3ab1/recent-activity/all/ Even in their recent trade shows, their booth has...nothing about DU at all. People that are proud of their products tend to show them off, advertise them, and talk about them at trade shows, haha! DU is very much a done deal, it's just that NQ doesn't want to stop collecting what few subs they have if they don't have to.
  25. Yes it's long, long gone, hahah. No one is seriously developing anything related to DU anymore, including the developers, themselves.
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