In support of 7, criticism of game mechanics, missing features, or terminal events (such a black holes) are ALWAYS met with STFU in some form or other. This is having a critical impact on both feedback that needs to be evaluated for merit at the developer level and retention of people most interested in the game and capable of providing useful feedback. Sure the team is doing this for free and will always be a special hero in our hearts, but the sheer amount of effort they are expending has to result in a successful product and no one could do that in a vaccuum. The community supporting the team in this pre-beta is it's own worst enemy in this case and has already shut down a wealth of valuable information, facts and opinions. The team must forcibly resist this pedestal mentality.
In support of 11, on several occasions during ST3 members of a large organization that were not happy with my current location or tactics threatened to "let the devs know, because they'd been told to watch out for people like me (by the devs)." While I believe I was within the designed game mechanics and within unspoken courtesy protocols, I still left the areas because I hate bullys and have a life's too short mentality. However, this perception that certain individuals and groups are "plugged in" to the devs is real, persistent, and imo widespread. I'm experienced enough to know player/dev relationships exist and there's nothing wrong with that...quite often these players provide most of the feedback the team needs, and in some cases become elevated to the team themselves. But when they use the dev bat on rank and file players to bully their way through the game, then it becomes the problem described by Mneme. This is NOT about "freebies"...this is pre-beta after all and handing out stuff to enhance testing, even if it's to the "chosen" few is part of the deal, again imo. It's about players, including betas, using their real or percieved power as threats to other players to gain advantage. The team needs to actively resist this as well.
Flame on
