Larian would constantly need to walk back their statements as features get reimagined, retooled, and pushed back.
See? You have already provided interesting topics to keep us in the loop on how and why the game is shaping up the way it is going to be or not going to be. How much they want to go into detail is up to them. I don't need to know every secret hidden room that eventually didn't make it into the game. I also don't need to know about experimental features that aren't even playable at the moment. But I would like to know what their reasons where to change something that was already implemented in Early Access, for example, or what they are still being unsure about. They could also talk about the currently hottest topics on the forums, to maybe cool the flames here and there or provide another topic people could talk about and get an idea of how people feel about certain things. They could also just put a stop to certain discussions that are running in circles infinitely because there is nothing in sight on how Larian is going to move on with the game. It feels like everyone and their mother have discussed back and forth about things like combat, how much DnD 5e should be in the game, how much homebrew should be and so on. They already have a wonderful tool in their hands, a direct line of communication between them and their customers and fans. The only thing they would need to do is use it. If they actually care about feedback, that is, and don't just have a forum for the sake of having a forum and ignore it. Just being a bit more transparent about their design and production process doesn't mean they would have to play with all cards open.
I think you misunderstood my point. We don’t need to be in the loop, and Larian doesn’t need to keep us constantly engaged in this forum. If people are at each others’ throats and talking around each other in circles that is their problem, not Larian’s. I just find the very fundamental premise that Larian is responsible for managing people’s expectations and level of engagement in this way a bit ridiculous.
I only ever see studios provide this level of community engagement if they:
A) are making some sort of multiplayer game that needs a certain volume of constant players to maintain viability B) it is a really small studio that needs to assure its backers that it is still actually making the game and not dicking around.
That isn’t to say there aren’t exceptions to this generalization, but I’ve visited a bunch of different game forums pre-launch over the years and the level of engagement I see here doesn’t strike at all as atypical.
Anyway, typical or not, this it how it is. I simply don’t understand being frustrated by it. We know they read the forum (as they have already made adjustments to the game based on feedback). We will eventually know what is in the new patch and what they have been implementing very soon. Why it is in any way incumbent upon them to tell us what they are doing in the interim is beyond me. I know they are working on the game. Why isn’t that enough for you?
If they did tell people what they were doing some would still melodramatically protest and bicker anyway, regardless of whatever they do, simply because it’s the internet.
