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[FunkyMunkey]

Oops, Chucklefish hah

Saw this on reddit(link):

"Hi, I would like to bring awareness to this because I know I'm not the only one in this situation. Starbound opened preorders on April 2013 stating the game was going to be released that year (beta and full release, see http://community.playstarbound.com/...sort-of-evaporating.24843/page-12#post-976402 , and their preorder FAQ page which changed several times http://imgur.com/YGIhmHy). They released the "beta", a far from finished game (and far from beta stage too) in December the 3th 2013. After reaching 4.000.000$ in sales, saying it would help "Starbound get here even faster", it only helped the beta, not the full product, come 28 days before the promised date. Well, after a long history of proofs of inability of the devs to develop the game and shady shenanigans like losing coders and hiding it I decided to ask for a refund since I wasn't happy with the development of the game and I had the right since I bought the preorder in April 2013 and I hadn't receive my full game.
As you can see in here: http://imgur.com/qMaslYb at first I emailed support asking for a refund and they denied it to me saying they warned it was an early acces title, but I told them I bought preorder, not Early Access. The answer I received was just "Unfortunately, we weren't able to offer a refund" and for what I can see, I'm not the only one (http://imgur.com/8LydeD3). I even made a post on their forums asking for a reason they could give me to deny me the refund, but my threads were locked twice. I emailed them back a couple of times and they didn't answer. Weeks after that I tweeted the community manager about the issue and as you can see, she couldn't give me any reason to deny the refund and just stopped answering.
I'm only posting here because I don't know what to do, I've tried talking to them in any way I could but as you can see, they just slam a door in my face. I feel powerless against this. I can't bring this up anywhere chucklefish has any form of moderation. They try to look like a friendly indie game developer but they behave like big greedy publishers .
Thank you for reading. Also excuse the grammar, english isn't my first language.
EDIT: I feel the need to make this clear, since a lot of people don't get it; I didn't bougth this game on Early Access, I bought it from their page on April 2013, several months before beta release. Read the whole post for more info."

With a followup in the comments from the developer:

"Hi guys,
I'm the lead developer of Starbound.
So I wanted to clear some things up. Before we released anything on steam we were offering people that had bought the game before any kind of release no questions asked refunds. That's because there was nothing to play yet and we had more control over actually refunding people. The screenshotted post Molly made was in that context.
Since the game has been released and contains hours and hours of content (our average buyer has an estimated 26 hours, many people have over 500. This average is actually much much higher than 90% of the games on steam) and given that it's down to the store (steam/humble) to OK refunds at this point, we've been telling people refunds aren't something we're personally able to do. The game is unfinished, but it's only really unfinished in the sense that we want to do more with it and we have more planned and it's going to become a better game. It contains as much if not more content than many finished games already.
As for the final release date, it has been pushed back a number of times, but that's purely to allow us to improve the game beyond what we wanted it to be from the outset. We run a nightly build update system and every day updates go live. We also update our homepage with our work on a daily basis. I'm sorry that we didn't meet our initial estimates, we could have done but the game would have been worse off for it and we decided delays on the basis of delivering a much better game to everyone was the best thing to do.
I think the context that's missing here is that unlike many early access games, the game is already fully playable, and although it doesn't have everything we want to put in it yet (which is what's holding it back from a 1.0 release) I feel we could have released what we currently have AS 1.0, outside of early access, we just wouldn't have been happy with it.
We're all still trying to figure out just what early access is, at what stage games should go in and out of early access and what the expectations are. I think as Starbound stands, our sharing of our future plans aside, it could leave early access and be an entirely reasonable stand alone game. I think the huge number of hours people have poured into it is a testament to that.
And whilst I'm sorry that we haven't yet put everything in the game that we've mentioned wanting to put into the game, I feel as a developer we've chosen to be really open and communicative and that means just talking without overly vetting what we say. Sometimes that means getting excited about a feature we want to put in but it takes a lot longer than we'd planned.
We're often criticised for not updating the game enough, especially as we said that we'd be putting out updates thick and fast. Along side that, we also warned that these updates would be buggy and broken because of the speed at which we were pushing them. We started updating the main game in this way but people quickly lost patience with small updates / constantly updating / buggy updates and we took the time to move those updates to a new opt-in branch in steam. So the nightly updates are the thick and fast, buggy and broken updates we promised. They appear every single day. And the game on the main branch exists as a perfectly playable stand alone whilst we continue to work.
I feel 1.0 is an arbitrary release number and it's down to us to decide what 1.0 means in the context of our game. If anything, the estimates for 1.0 exist for the people that want to wait and play the game when it's in a state that we are entirely happy with it.
We've chosen to keep upping the ante for 1.0, but that absolutely doesn't mean that what's available and playable right now is any less a game, any less enjoyable or any less worth £9."

He seems to think that access to the beta from a preorder should be good enough instead of a finished product. People who preordered the game(not early access) and aren't satisfied with it (considering it is very unfinished in the beta current state) should be entitled to a refund. Conflating early access and preorders together into one category is nonsense and a worrisome precedent. Just because you offer beta access doesn't change a preorder into "early access" and apply early access stipulations.

Some comments:

"My launcher being open has accounted for HUNDREDS of hours of play time for me. Trying to claim that the launcher is not broken and adds no time to the total play time is a bold faced lie. I have played SB for around 20 hours, but thanks to running a server with the launcher bug, I have nearly 500.
This looks really great when I try to warn people against purchasing SB on Steam, only to advertise the fact that my launcher had been open for eons. How rational does a review read when it starts with NOT RECOMMENDED; 500 HOURS ON RECORD?
This game is only "fully playable" if you are not bothered by a massive list of missing features. The devs have been retooling their engine and redesigning core features of that engine since the beta was released. Very little real progress in the form of content has happened in months (yes, I have played the nightly builds as well) The engine needs to be retooled because there was no strong gameplan for development from the get go. SB devs didn't know if the wanted armor pen, or if they wanted 10 tiers or 100 tiers of progression. After some of the changes to their engine, I really feel that a solid design doc doesn't actually exist for the game. From a users perspective, they are making it all up as they go and are doing more harm than good.
Recently, they put out a performance patch that they claimed would increase performance 30%. Nope. Most players (myself included) noticed a fairly significant DROP in performance.
Tiy's post here is simply damage control. And it is laughably transparent. They can't control the arguing on their own turf, and now it has spilled out into areas that they aren't the boss of. The devs police their official forums, deleting and locking dissent and silencing the angry customer. This is the same sort of behavior that also happens on not just their subreddit, but their Steam forums as well. If I said any of this in a place that CF mods are in charge of. My comment would be deleted instantly.
Chucklefish as a company has also decided that it is okay to become a publishing company with all the "extra" money that they were given for preorders. No finsihed Starbound yet. But, apparently its fine to take the money that early funders paid for Starbound, and spend it publishing other games. All the while telling everyone that preordering Starbound would get the game in our hands faster. Meanwhile they get their little office situated to play video games in, claiming that they're going to be soooooooooooo productive now.
As someone that has followed the development for two years, I feel lied to, swindled and unhopeful about the future of development for the game. Daily player base has dwindled down to nearly two thousand. I fully expect that the game will either be abandoned within the next year, or rushed to a finished state in an attempt to silence the drama surrounding the game.
People of Reddit. Don't listen to this man.
Oh look, some related pictures. http://imgur.com/a/fbcWr/all"

"I agree with you: When he says things like
"I feel 1.0 is an arbitrary release number and it's down to us to decide what 1.0 means in the context of our game."
It is incredibly frustrating. No, 1.0 isn't arbitrary. In fact, 1.0 has generally accepted definitions. IT'S NOT ARBITRARY."

"I think what OP is mostly worried about is the fact that he or she pre-ordered the actual game and did not order the early access version. They later changed their terms entirely from what I can see, barring a refund for the OP simply because they found some loopholes and by changing the "contract" of the original pre-order purchase.
I don't think anyone is trying to "pitchfork chuckle fish" or anything like that. In fact, it seems like the person responding to OP has been the exact same employee the entire time. This could be entirely that one employee's fault--they don't seem very skilled or experienced in dealing with customers or handling public relations, which makes sense since this is a very small, independent company.
I honestly think this singular employee is handling the situation completely wrong. She (going off of her username and avatar on the forums and her e-mails) seems to just see "I want a refund... game STILL isn't out yet... blah blah." She probably thinks, oh great, here is ANOTHER impatient customer. NO REFUNDS DUDE. In reality, she probably isn't even reading the OP's full e-mails or posts. I'm sure she is very busy, but she is making a huge mistake by ignoring the rest of what the OP is trying to tell her.
Personally, I would be upset with ANY company for ANY product that did something like this to me. It's great to support independent and local business of any product--I'd prefer to support these guys rather than the big companies for sure. However, when any company or business pulls things like this and then refuses to make it right for their customers... well, it's definitely not a good thing.
While I'm sure most people here would agree with what you've said, you have missed what OP is upset about in a way. Sure, they are probably still upset that the game isn't out and has a lot of bugs, etc.... but those aren't the reasons he/she wants a refund. They want a refund because they reserved a "pre-order" and the terms of the sale were retroactively changed into an "early access.""

"This is right.
A lot of the law is in the wording. Starbound was not initially sold as Early Access. It was sold as a full price pre-order that comes with early access.
They have repeatedly missed many of their promise dates and after the initial month the development crawled to a near halt. They are nearing a year past the original release date. People have the right to start cancelling their pre order if they are unhappy. Time playing the early access etc is all out of the window. They never sold early access they sold and promised a full game.
The reason they probably aren't giving refunds is most of that money is gone or allocated to be spent. One refund would snowball into many. This isn't a legitimate reason to deny the refund though.
Early access is a dirty business and realistically any early access that promises access to a full game at the end should be open to a refund. I People should not have to pay to test a game for the devs and give them input to make it a better game which will increase sales in the first place. It makes no sense and it is simply taking advantage of the hype that can easily be generated around certain games on the internet.
Early access can create a problem where it takes pressure of devs both Financially and from a customer waiting to play point of view. The devs start getting lazy and dead lines start sliding with ease. Day Z standalone is a great example. Since release development has been extremely slow, at it's current pace that game is going to take 2+ years to finish and there will be better alternatives available by then. The devs actually benefit from the slower pace since they are still making a ton off of early access pretty much every time they release a small patch that generates hype again, and they will make a ton more from the sales push they gain from the "full release"."

"I think you are indeed right. It does however depend on where you bought it.
Right now you bought it from THEM, while they said this is a pre-order for the full game. That means this beta is like a free demo which you could download, but it isn't the full game. For these people it's like the Destiny beta. It's a small version of the entire game. For people who pre-ordered Destiny this is a way to see what they're gonna get, but it's more a demo than a full release.
For the people who bought it on early access: Those people bought it knowing they were gonna get a beta game that gets updates until release. The beta seems to be like a release that just gets updates a lot. So this is not at all a demo like version.
In your case you are definitely entitled to a refund, just like you would be for any other game you pre-ordered and hasn't been released yet. (For example, if you pre-order Destiny today and tomorrow decide you don't want it, you can get your money back)"

What say you, gaf?

 

[Qblivion]

Unless a game is completely broken a dev is under no obligation to give a refund just because someone doesn't like the game. The game is labeled as beta. Anyone expecting a perfectly smooth experience is just plain dumb.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Starbound's developer is Chucklefish, FYI.

 

[Netherscourge]

They're claiming no refund because the game is playable, although they admit it's not even a release candidate yet.


This is why I don't Pre-order until I see a beta in action.


And if I DO Pre-order, it's from a site where I can cancel right up until it ships.

 

[TunaMarshmallow]

I pre-ordered (not Early Access purchased) the game around the time that pre-orders became available. I have zero interest in playing alphas, or betas, or pre-release versions, or anything else like that. I want to play full versions of games. That's what I'm interested in, that's what I pay for, and that's what I play.

I've been incredibly frustrated that the game has missed so many dates. But I gave up on caring about six months ago. If it ever comes out, I'll probably play it. If I thought getting a refund at this point would be possible, I might ask for one. (Not sure. Maybe not.) But I've always just assumed that they'd never fork over the cash. Guess I was right!

 

[FunkyMunkey]

Unless a game is completely broken a dev is under no obligation to give a refund just because someone doesn't like the game. The game is labeled as beta. Anyone expecting a perfectly smooth experience is just plain dumb.

I think the Destiny comparison is apt here, where if you preordered Destiny and didn't like the beta, would it be acceptable for Bungie to refuse to allow you to cancel your preorder? Many Starbound preorders were made in April 2013, where the purchase agreement was for a preorder with beta access, not early access via steam. The game has still not released.

 

[legacyzero]

I think I'm with Chucklefish on this one. My wife and I have 301 hours on this game, and it was amazing. I just stopped playing it knowing they are adding a ton of shit to it, and I would rather play the full experience.

That, and I really want this on my Vita.

 

[Mrbob]

They don't owe anyone a refund. Game isn't broken. Not liking a game is not reason enough.

 

[harrytang]

a pre-order refund for a game not played is one thing, but of the person in question has put time into the product it sounds more like buyers remorse. do the research and read the boards before trying it out. at least this way key still active and you can sell to another user when chuklefish refuses the refund.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

Hmmm, I dunno. I got the game and I've put 20 hours in according to steam. I haven't had the launcher just idling either afaik.

I mostly like the game. I wish they streamlined a couple things and had more explanation and direction in the game itself.

As far as this refunds thing is concerned, that post by some dev in a forum being used as a basis for warranty just strikes me as a very very thing basis for feeling you have the right for a refund. He didn't say everyone who pre-ordered will be guaranteed a refund from now until the end of time or even now til release. Unless I am missing another spot where they said guaranteed refund, I don't think they are required to give a refund. At most it sounds like they were voluntarily giving a refund before but now it is not feasible so they are not. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[LycanXIII]

Terraria 2 will be out before Starbound hits 1.0

 

[Venfayth]

Seems mostly like a reddit witchhunt by some dude who really wants his money back.

 

[The Faceless Master]

you should be able to get a refund on a preorder.

imagine if all the people who preordered and cancelled Destiny to get a beta code got charged for the game with the exact same logic?

if it was some sort of early access or kickstarter deal, sure, buyer beware... but it's a preorder!

 

[AppleMIX]

you should be able to get a refund on a preorder.

imagine if all the people who preordered and cancelled Destiny to get a beta code got charged for the game with the exact same logic?

Yes but this game is no longer a pre-order game it is early access. This game has been out for over 6 months via early access and thus different rules apply.

 

[Conkerkid11]

you should be able to get a refund on a preorder.

imagine if all the people who preordered and cancelled Destiny to get a beta code got charged for the game with the exact same logic?

Except for the part where the people who funded Starbound knew what they were paying for, and that they were paying for it immediately. People who pre-ordered Destiny from retailers who don't charge immediately knew what they were doing as well.

This is completely different.

The game is entirely playable at the moment, and didn't cost much to pre-order anyways. These people are desperate for some money.

 

[Victrix]

Really misleading title.

There are no preorders for Starbound. It's an early access and actively in development game. You buy into that knowing the risks that come with it (or not, sucker/money etc).

It's nothing like preordering a retail product and then being refused a refund before the game is on shelves (digital or otherwise).

 

[Instro]

I think its fair to say that considering these people have had unrestricted access to the game for months on end, that they have essentially made the purchase and should not be given a refund just because of buyers remorse. A typical beta/demo access is a very limited experience both in time available and scope, I don't think we compare something like that to this. While this is very much a gray area, the developers have had the money for months or a year at this point, so its pretty unrealistic to expect them to refund just like that.

I never quite understood how this got so much money btw. Are there people who worked on Terraria working on this or something?

 

[Apt101]

I can't decide if Chucklefish is stretching the definition of "preorder", or if the lines are becoming blurred given the rise of early access and the way this game is being released. As a business I'd have just given the customers who placed preorders refunds so that it would't turn into "a thing" on social media.

 

[Shiggy]

So they played the beta, which is only available if you paid for the product, and now they want their money back because they don't like it or because the final product has been delayed? Now that's what I'd call entitled gamers.

If they are not content with this, how about avoiding pre-orders? Especially those where you pay months in advance...

 

[scurker]

Starbound, Re: How NOT to engage your customers.

I really feel like that the Starbound developers really don't know how to manage a software development project and live up to their promises. When pre-orders first went up, it was originally stated that you were purchasing a pre-order with beta access with the full game scheduled to be released by the end of 2013. I don't know what the original circumstances were, but it does appear that refunds were promised. Many of the original promised features are still absent from the game over a year later. If you were one of those people that had pre-ordered the game in 2013, I could certainly understand being frustrated by the game not living up the its expectations.

The problem isn't that the game is early access (now), but rather if you had originally purchased in 2013 you were buying a pre-order not an early access game. I would question asking for a refund this late in time but I think it might certainly be warranted.

I'm really surprised at how Chucklefish is handling the situation. I'd be willing to bet there's a very very small minority of people asking for refunds at this point and by refusing to address the issue, they're really making it a bigger problem than it should be. Your unhappy customers are going to be your most vocal.

 

[zhorkat]

There are no preorders for Starbound.

Kind of hard to agree with that.

 

[VandalD]

It's been in early access since December. They made it apparent that you were paying in part for beta access. It was a preorder before they gave out beta access.

 

[_machine]

Kind of hard to agree with that.

It's a purchase unlike a reservation and that doesn't automatically mean that it can be refunded. It's a pre-order, but you're also purchasing some content. They should have however stated that no refunds would be offered, which they didn't seem to do at their own site. Chucklefish's customer support and interaction leaves a lot to be desired even though I find the delays completely acceptable and normal given that they want to put out the best possible game they can.

 

[Chie Satonaka]

Terraria 2 will be out before Starbound hits 1.0

Wait, there's a Terraria 2?

At this point, maybe I should be excited about that. My friends and I clocked a lot of fucking time on Starbound, but we wanted to wait until it was finished to jump back in, and at this point, I'm not convinced it will ever be finished.

 

[JustProgress]

This game's development is really disappointing. I think it beta'd in Nov 2013? I remember playing it for hours when it came out then realized it was really broken (obv. it was early beta). Now, like 0 progress has been made on it, at least that I can tell.

 

[HaRyu]

I never quite understood how this got so much money btw. Are there people who worked on Terraria working on this or something?

The only guy from the Terraria team is Tiyuri, and he was the sprite artist. That's it. No one else from the Terraria team is at Chucklefish.

Right about when the updates to Terraria were dying down (but before the resurgence that was caused by the console release), Tiy was hinting that he had another project he was working on, and was asking if anyone wanted to help him.

Some of the stuff that Starbound is doing, is stuff that was promised in Terraria, but never actually happened. The concept of being able ot visit other planets, farming, pets, intricate wiring system for machinery/traps, are a few things that were originally announced as "coming" to Terraria, for example.

To be honest, right when Starbound was first announced, Terraria was on life support. Those of us who had played Terraria needed something else, and this was suppose to fill that void.

Then the console release happened, Terraria became popular again. So much, the original dev decided to get off his ass and "update" Terraria. You have to remember, right before the console release, the original Terraria dev more or less called it quits. The original team had disbanded for reasons that can be discussed in the Terraria thread. Renewed interest in Terraria prompted him to get the gears rolling.

 

[Somnid]

Modern software is a service, it has no clear beginning and no clear end if you're agile. It's viable when people use it and it improves when you update it. He's right, 1.0 is completely arbitrary. Now as to whether or not the complaining dude deserves a refund, that's hard to say, it's part of the whole crowdfunding grey zone. My gut tells me they should give him his money back if nothing more than to shut him up.

 

[saunderez]

As far as I'm concerned if you redeemed the Steam key you accepted the early access. If you didn't you should be entitled to a refund.

 

[Pimpbaa]

How can anybody expect a finished game from a game that was obviously going to be constantly in development? When Minecraft was "finished", it was no different from when it was in beta. The game continued to get features as it did before. Plus the game is like only 15 FUCKING DOLLARS. Jesus christ, how cheap can someone be.

 

[FunkyMunkey]

Yes but this game is no longer a pre-order game it is early access. This game has been out for over 6 months via early access and thus different rules apply.

Really misleading title.

There are no preorders for Starbound. It's an early access and actively in development game. You buy into that knowing the risks that come with it (or not, sucker/money etc).

It's nothing like preordering a retail product and then being refused a refund before the game is on shelves (digital or otherwise).

Is it fair to change a preorder after-the-fact to something entirely different? Personally, I preordered with the idea of getting a full game by the release date, with beta access interim. Now apparently (like the reddit poster) I'm stuck with a beta. Starbound doesn't even have a story yet, has unlabeled items with missing descriptions, etc. I'm just trying to understand how a preorder isn't covered for a refund when in every other instance they are, whether the customer is given beta access or not. And this coming from a developer who made 20 million dollars in revenue from the game.

I preordered back in April 2013, and the objectives for 1.0 still haven't been met, which is why it hasn't released yet. If this was an Early Access purchase via steam, of course all consumer rights would be tossed out the window with everyone knowing where they stand. But this seems rather shady considering the circumstances, at least in my opinion. Just my 2 cents.

Starbound, Re: How NOT to engage your customers.

I really feel like that the Starbound developers really don't know how to manage a software development project and live up to their promises. When pre-orders first went up, it was originally stated that you were purchasing a pre-order with beta access with the full game scheduled to be released by the end of 2013. I don't know what the original circumstances were, but it does appear that refunds were promised. Many of the original promised features are still absent from the game over a year later. If you were one of those people that had pre-ordered the game in 2013, I could certainly understand being frustrated by the game not living up the its expectations.

The problem isn't that the game is early access (now), but rather if you had originally purchased in 2013 you were buying a pre-order not an early access game. I would question asking for a refund this late in time but I think it might certainly be warranted.

I'm really surprised at how Chucklefish is handling the situation. I'd be willing to bet there's a very very small minority of people asking for refunds at this point and by refusing to address the issue, they're really making it a bigger problem than it should be. Your unhappy customers are going to be your most vocal.

This is what I feel. I know the people unhappy are probably a minority, so I don't understand the lack of customer support.

 

[LycanXIII]

Wait, there's a Terraria 2?

At this point, maybe I should be excited about that. My friends and I clocked a lot of fucking time on Starbound, but we wanted to wait until it was finished to jump back in, and at this point, I'm not convinced it will ever be finished.

Yep, it's only been talked about, but there are plans for it.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/10/03/terraria-2-announced/

 

[HaRyu]

I preordered back in April 2013, and the objectives for 1.0 still haven't been met, which is why it hasn't released yet. If this was an Early Access purchase via steam, of course all consumer rights would be tossed out the window with everyone knowing where they stand. But this seems rather shady considering the circumstances, at least in my opinion. Just my 2 cents.

OH FOR CRIPES SAKES, THE GAME ISN'T EVEN v1.0 YET! OF COURSE OBJECTIVES HAVEN'T BEEN MET YET!

If your argument is based on the fact that promised features aren't in version 1.0, it completely falls apart because WE'RE NOT EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE TO v1.0

 

[Aselith]

They don't owe anyone a refund. Game isn't broken. Not liking a game is not reason enough.

People are wanting to cancel because they claimed the game would be released in 2013 and it has now been pushed to 2015 not because they don't like the game. Things happen but people are allowed to cancel if you can't deliver in a reasonable time frame. 2 years late is not a reasonable time frame.

 

[rybrad]

If they released a half-baked game to meet a set date and called it done people would be up in arms about that then. It seems like they are making continual progress on the game (via nightly builds?) and communicate fairly regularly. I haven't played since I bought the game last year but I am fine with them taking the time to make a great and memorable game rather than pushing a game out and patching in core features later.

 

[soxinthebox]

OH FOR CRIPES SAKES, THE GAME ISN'T EVEN v1.0 YET! OF COURSE OBJECTIVES HAVEN'T BEEN MET YET!

If your argument is based on the fact that promised features aren't in version 1.0, it completely falls apart because WE'RE NOT EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE TO v1.0

Isn't that the point?

 

[Aselith]

OH FOR CRIPES SAKES, THE GAME ISN'T EVEN v1.0 YET! OF COURSE OBJECTIVES HAVEN'T BEEN MET YET!

If your argument is based on the fact that promised features aren't in version 1.0, it completely falls apart because WE'RE NOT EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE TO v1.0

Yeah, that's the problem...

 

[LycanXIII]

OH FOR CRIPES SAKES, THE GAME ISN'T EVEN v1.0 YET! OF COURSE OBJECTIVES HAVEN'T BEEN MET YET!

If your argument is based on the fact that promised features aren't in version 1.0, it completely falls apart because WE'RE NOT EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE TO v1.0

Considering 1.0 was promised in 2013 when Pre-Orders were opened...

 

[HaRyu]

Isn't that the point?

The point being made is that he wanted features that were promised for v1.0?

By that logic, if the game was currently at v1.0, it would be a valid complaint, wouldn't it? But it's not v1.0, so I don't see why anyone would use that as part of their argument.

ON THE OTHER HAND. As someone posted earlier, if you think the game is taking too damn long to come out, THAT'S a valid complaint. I'm not going to argue about that point.

 

[Dr.Acula]

As someone who's played this game I'm pretty satisfied with it.

I would like more "game" to it, the progression and quest aspects of it kind of just stop after a few hours (and you can make it quicker if you know the path beforehand), but it's clear they're working on making the game feature complete before building the story.

It's a sandbox game like Minecraft or Terreria, and from that perspective the game's all there. You can go online, play with friends (GAF has a server), build towns, communities, download and install mods, etc. etc.

http://playstarbound.com/

Looking at the July 15th post, they just rebuilt the tile engine and reduced CPU load by 30%.

I don't think they've just fucked off with the money, they're working on it all the time.

I get the frustration with people not getting the thing they thought they were getting, but there is a lot of content here, and the game is eminently playable. If they called it 1.0 and said they were adding to it it would be fine.

 

[Aselith]

ON THE OTHER HAND. As someone posted earlier, if you think the game is taking too damn long to come out, THAT'S a valid complaint. I'm not going to argue about that point.

That's his complaint. Can he have his money back now?

http://playstarbound.com/

Looking at the July 15th post, they just rebuilt the tile engine and reduced CPU load by 30%.

I don't think they've just fucked off with the money, they're working on it all the time.

I get the frustration with people not getting the thing they thought they were getting, but there is a lot of content here, and the game is eminently playable. If they called it 1.0 and said they were adding to it it would be fine.

He actually mentioned this and said that he and many other users saw a noticable decrease in performance.

 

[Corine]

This game's development is really disappointing. I think it beta'd in Nov 2013? I remember playing it for hours when it came out then realized it was really broken (obv. it was early beta). Now, like 0 progress has been made on it, at least that I can tell.

I've had it since December and I can't remember any bugs with it. Also the game is updated every single day so not sure how you can say zero progress has been made on it. I've never seen a game in my 30+ years of gaming that has been updated faster than Starbound. They also release 1-3 blogs every single day about what's going on in the nightly patches and what they're working on. I recommend the "Starbound Codex" smartphone app to keep up with all the work that's being done.

 

[The Llama]

Am I the only one who agrees with him about 1.0 being pretty arbitrary these days?

 

[LurkerPrime]

With what Chucklefish says about the arbitrary nature of v1.0, as well as the amount of content in Starbound vs. other games on Steam, it really makes it seem like they (I apologise in advance) want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the shield from criticism and flexible development schedule that Early Access provides, while also having the development prestige of being a finished game (i.e. no complaints about being unfinished).

I'm sure a lot of people (including myself) expected them to have a Terraria development cycle - you know, small release, periodic (chunky) updates that added to the game, up until it hit the expansive ambition that Chucklefish envisioned. Instead, they released a polished alpha and seem to have dropped public development until they hit the mythical/arbitrary "v1.0."

Chucklefish, you make a good game... but you missed your goals, and your game is still incomplete - by a long shot. For that reason alone, you should give the person a refund.

 

[Dr.Acula]

People are wanting to cancel because they claimed the game would be released in 2013 and it has now been pushed to 2015 not because they don't like the game. Things happen but people are allowed to cancel if you can't deliver in a reasonable time frame. 2 years late is not a reasonable time frame.

 

[HaRyu]

That's his complaint. Can he have his money back now?

*sigh* I'm getting too upset over this again, this is why I rarely visit the OT thread.
Yes, he can have his money back.

Did he even ask for his money back? While we're on the subject, did anyone here ask for their money back?

 

[Aselith]

Ironic gif considering the result

*sigh* I'm getting too upset over this again, this is why I rarely visit the OT thread.
Yes, he can have his money back.

Did he even ask for his money back? While we're on the subject, did anyone here ask for their money back?

Yepper, the thread is about you guys refusing a refund.

I don't want my money back by the way but if he asks he should get it for sure.

 

[InvaderZimmer]

Early access makes me feel like the old shareware days. I get to play the first couple levels of this new thing! Then I remember I paid for this and I just sigh and look at finished games on sale on steam and regret.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Ironic gif considering the result

There's a good two (maybe three) layers of irony, at the very least!

 

[Scar Mortico]

That gif is pure irony lol.

 

[whiteninja]

87 hours according to steam and I think I got my money's worth.