If you want me to actually answer in the most technically boring way imaginable;
- They were transparent all the time during Early Access and even now. Panels From Hell which were showing exactly what they're working on, what to expect, when to expect it etc... on top of Early Access itself fully representing what the player is getting into. Plenty of stuff was also known to be arriving way before it arrived; such as Orcs, Paladins, Monks, Dragonborn etc. And they still pretty much are announcing stuff such as that they're calling back all voice actors, working on implementing requested features and addressing certain issues vocally.
- They were also responsive, because a lot of feedback was and is being implemented into the game. Reactions for example was a hot topic during Early Access and so was reworked to what it is today. Stealth attacks, stealth actions etc... Many other things also massively got reworked, improved or added. I could list a whole page of stuff that was added based on feedback from these forums.
- I have no idea what inclusive of social media means because I do not use social media, but I guess they're active and maybe refers to those cringey TikTok shorts they used to make on Youtube that everyone begged them to stop ^^
- They're also insanely patching, fixing and adding new content to the game which is also based on player feedback.
Basically half the stuff you see in the game today is because of feedback the community was giving during Early Access and after release.
- Wither's respec
- the Mirror
- Auto-sorting bags for food, materials and keys
- Unlocked customization (Yes, customization used to be locked for each race to maintain the lore)
- Removing multiplayer avatars
- Sponges finally cleaning dirt
- Inventory management
- Quality of life features
- Torch slot
- Not stopping when hovering over destructible items
- Dialogue prioritizing the main character
- Halsin as a companion
- Us as a familiar (freaking love that fella)
- More fleshed out endings
- Better scenes
- More scenes
- Reverting changes the players don't like
- So so so much stuff, as I said can go pages long with this.
To say that they're not supporting their community... hah! Other companies would not do 1% of the stuff that Larian does so quickly and FOR FREE, on top of fixing a thousand bugs every month. So are ya satisfied now or gonna question every person that votes for Larian in this thread? ^^
Early Access lasted for
years and there were, what, 3 Panels from Hell in total? I personally am aware of the last one where both 'explore the Upper City' and 'More people should play evil! Durge is great!' statements came from. Having roadmaps and announcements are standard practice for beta/early access. If Larian didn't say anything for an EA that they charged near full price for access to, that would be abysmal by industry standards.
Agree to Disagree on EA representing what the player was getting to as there is a reason why people are easily able to call out Act 2 and Act 3 not being as polished or open as Act 1. The OP specifically said that EA is what soured them on giving Larian this reward, so I am confident in saying if asked, there are people that can list a page of stuff that was NOT added in. For example, I saw on the forums that the ability to roll dice for your stats like in DnD were promised and never showed up or how many of the broken combos like Tavern Brawler or Haste being a bonus full action was problematic for balance, was reported repeatedly and it launched as is.
And we also come back to...the game launched unfinished/rushed. Inventory management was legit the worst system I've seen in any game, ever. So making it less terrible is what deserves 'outstanding community support' from you? The endings are SHIT. So fixing that deserves accolades? Why? And no 'They can be even worse' is not an argument for giving
rewards. And also, 1%, really? Hyperbole much? Either that, or you need to buy from/support better developers. Trust me, there are plenty out there that keep working on their game's issues without asking for money. CDPR literally dropped a 2.0 fiving CP2077 that was free. I don't see the benefit of pretending every game company not named Larian is literally Activision Blizzard. It just means that you watered down your own argument and make it hard to take seriously.
