this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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Did people pay for the game before or after the developer removed any references to it being an MMO?
If they made something that is not an MMO it's only natural that they won't want it to be presented as if it was one, even if they originally intended to create the game as an MMO.
I don't think the game deserves to be cruficied just for failing to reach the goals the devs had in mind, as long as it is not being sold as if it had. Folks can buy the game, realize it's not what they hoped for, refund and move on. Or better yet, hopefully they can realize it's not the game they were expecting based on the store page and not even buy it in the first place.
Now if the dev is misleading people about what the game is, or if people paid for one thing long ago and received another in the end, then nevermind me and carry on.
The email I got from Steam notifying it was available says:
So it still says it's an MMO.
The game is still marketing itself as a post apocalyptic open-world MMO. Took this screenshot a few seconds ago - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1372880/The_Day_Before/
Also, once the trailer narrator starts, she also says "post apocalyptic mmo open world survival"
I mean, maybe technically it is those things? Only the world is super small and you can only access it during a match, which happens with, dunno, at least 50 other players, which is "massive"? It's more players than what most WoW raids or pvp matches have.
Best I can tell, they didn't take preorders or Kickstarter funds. Just did a release. Seems like their old plans didn't pan out and their old marketing doesn't align with what they did release after they scaled back due to almost cancelling the whole thing at some point. From watching Sacriel play a bit yesterday, it's definitely not an amazing game, has typical issues with the genre (e.g. not enough AI, extract camping) in addition to other typical poor game issues (e.g. poor ui, tooltips, latency).
Seems like a lot of the backlash is due to failing to meet its own hype, plus people continuing to buy games without consulting release version reviews and feeling burned, and added to the general cultural frustration of things being released before they're actually ready.
If marketing promises something, you should live up to that, even if plans change. If you haven't gotten to the stage where you know what kind of game it is, you shouldn't be marketing it that way yet.
Sure, things can change but if it's something that might change, don't market it.
It's fine to be aspirational and fail, but transparency and communication are key when that happens, but it's also on the consumer to not trust years old marketing, games change all the time, some fundamentally.
Old marketing for an old product, sure. Products change over time. However forward marketing for a product yet to be released should be accurate at release.
The game is NOTHING like what has been advertised over the years. Even vaulting isn't a thing, and trailers have shown players vaulting over fences etc. why the fuck would you remove vaulting from a game?