Lusitani 5th Empire
This is a bad argument to justify that decision, either this is not the main reason or you (the team) are not considering the real facts here.The same applies to this version of "feedback before release". There is a significant risk that substantial parts of the feature will change until the releasable prototype is done, at which point there's very little time before it's actually given to the players. We don't want to build false expectations or otherwise mislead players about it.
This should be enough evidence to change any fears devs might have in discussing with the community. It's only a positive relation.Every such discussion thread with @mexxico has had only a positive tempering effect on people's expectations.
"We don't want to build false expectations or otherwise mislead players about it" - not providing accurate expectations of what might come next is significantly worse that providing controlled releases of information to the public. Not saying anything at all will only produce more false expectations than if you inform people about your plans.
What's the worse that can happen? Some people making threads saying you lied when you really didn't
What positive can happen? Having players giving better informed suggestions; having truly interested people having accurate expectations; having players providing data to solve bugs and problems; raising players interest and productive interactions; providing the features players want; acceleration the game development; reducing your work...
You would still have full control of what parts you want to release to the public as well as the time it gets released.
Please reconsider your (the team's) position on this subject.
Exactly! ?
This is problematic too, threads usually grow because of controversy and not popularity. You can have a very good suggestion, 10 people reply and agree with it and you are done. There is no discussion because everyone agrees with the proposal. You can also have a very controversial topic, 10 people reply with mixed feelings but 2-3 get into circular arguments for several pages. That's how you end up with +100 reply threads most of the time...