hasn't spoken in this thread even once? How hard can it possibly be to dedicate one hour to skim through this thread? Fizzer could ask some questions in this thread and we'd respond to it.
There's novel-length posts (my bad) here to skim and he's probably got a bunch of other things to do, so he has to triage his time. We don't see all the player mails or bug reports or infrastructure/platform/code improvements he spends his time on. Also, historically, engaging in conversations like this one has come with risks for him: it's a lose-lose-lose. He could either commit to something he's not convinced about, explain his objections (for which he's already been crucified for in this thread, and which takes time and could set off a debate he probably doesn't have the time to respond to), or just respond curtly without justification that it's not a priority (which would also get him derided).
I'd wager his approach is to read a lot but only write when he's decided to do something, because in other cases he's taking a risk. It's quite possible he's given up on transparency & communication not because he doesn't care but because the community has conditioned him to avoid those.
Has Fizzer ever apologized over misleading community over his Activision countersuit?
No, and I don't think he even believes he has misled the community. He did delete my non-rule-breaking "Activision Fan Club" clan (but kept the coins, which I'd bought with dollars, in effect stealing $9.99 from me...) either over the name or description [which was essentially an abbreviated version of my last post]. So I'd wager he also does not appreciate it when I talk about the issues with how he's fundraised but generally holds off on deleting the posts for some unknown reasons (low likelihood of impact? high likelihood of backlash from me? it wouldn't look good? who knows). Maybe it says something good about him that he's willing to generally not delete some fairly strong accusations against him that he probably thinks are absolute BS by a troll with a persecution complex acting in bad faith (that's just my assumption of how he's come to view me, based on the rant Anonymous Moderator sent me in our DM thread). At least shows thick skin, among other positive traits.
What are we supposed to do?
Try to do the petition thing really well. If it doesn't work, consider escalating our efforts (per your suggestions) and weigh that against the benefit (do we already enjoy this game? how much of a difference would CW improvements make in our QoL?). If we feel that this game is harming or abusing its users, then we should also consider whether that outweighs or taints the value we get from the game and whether we should continue playing.
For me, I really enjoy this game with or without CW improvements. If I got permabanned, I wouldn't even hesitate to evade the ban so I could keep playing, no matter how many times or how sophisticated/retaliatory I had to get to be able to keep playing the game. InDEAD, SEAD is all i NEAD. [message for Anon Mod if he ever reads this:] This isn't to say that I condone or encourage ban-evasion. Just... Warlight's a really high-value game to me with or without CW. [Don't take this too literally- I think I've signalled a MAD posture here and would follow through if this account gets banned again for a BS reason, so actually evading the ban won't be an option. MAD and its ability to break security dilemmas and force cooperation or at least tolerance are truly OP.]
I suspect that's roughly true for most of the vocal critics. We'll keep playing the game- and probably CW too- whether or not he improves it based on our suggestions. This presents a challenge: why prioritize low-impact improvements? This is where I think the petition approach shines: we could cut through the confusion and provide a compelling but grounded case for why improving CW is a high-impact change rather than just catering to players who'd enjoy CW either way.
If we find ourselves seriously entertaining extreme actions, it's also worth noting that it may take less effort to simply create another game like this [clarification: without any IP infringement; I am not suggesting we steal the copyrighted code] and move there. It's a total Hail-Mary, almost certainly a bad idea, and would take lots of effort, but so are the extreme suggestions for a strike- if you think creating our own Warlight and moving there is a dumb idea (as I do), then consider that a well-executed strike would take even more work and have lower odds of success. I suspect the strike would mostly be a poorly planned frustration outlet more than anything else, because to do a strike well would require tough decisions (harsh actions to pursue good ends often entail the use of means inconsistent with those ends, like how during the American Revolution the Patriots ran a sort-of police state to get the population to support the war & handle Loyalists; whatever we do, we will have to do things we don't really want to) and time investments so significant that it could be much easier to just create our own CW2 at that point.
There's also the zero-effort approach of making peace with what we will (probably) get and finding another outlet within the game to enjoy ourselves. Y'know, it's like a TV station cancelling your favorite show. Probably feel a little bit wounded and unheard and frustrated- and it's worth trying to get them to change their minds (if you really care for the show) but after a certain point you just gotta accept Fox will never bring
Firefly back.
Edited 9/24/2022 01:17:58
