At the moment people are implying that MDT's removal of there posts regarding Areal are proof that they were wrong, That is not the reason for there removal. Personally I think that MDT went looking a bit too hard while trying to find issues with the Kickstarter project but the majority of the concerns are valid ones.
I believe that the main reason behind MDT removing there posts is Tejas Stalker who threatened to block the use of the Official Stalker facebook page to promote there Stalker mods and new in-production game. He is the current Stalker fan who oversee's the official Stalker facebook page.
This was his ultimatum to MDT,
"Please remove all your negative content about West Games or we will no longer give any support to Misery or The Seed. Thank you."
A few years ago the official Stalker facebook page changed hands in so far as the day to day control of it was handed over from GSC to the fan's, At that point I believe it was handed over to a fella named Joe (I'm pretty sure he was the first), The only reason that I can see for GSC to do that is because they simply could not be bothered with running it anymore.
Many days ago Tejas Stalker said he was waiting for GSC to reply to an e-mail he sent them regarding Areal,
Yesterday he implied that his actions are based on that reply with a very poorly worded post for a native English speaker.
"I did receive guidance from GSC.
The content of that was not in substance to do anything different than what I have done already."
When asked for clarification of there position he replied
"Haven't you people got anything better to do?
Is there nothing on TV or Netflix to go watch?"
So, I'd like to know what GSC's position is as I'm pretty sure he would not of been told to block the promotion of one of COP's more popular mods in favour of an unconnected Kickstarter project.
How loosely did he base his bullying tactics on the reply he said he received?
It's a mess, and its dividing the community, and I hate what MDT and West Games are doing.
It's like two 12 year old's trying to brawl, but its actually grown men fighting via their computer screens.
People need to understand Kickstarter, is for people to make blind investments.
If it was blind they wouldn't do updates so the projects can present there pitch, There's been many fraudulent projects, A number that's sadly growing. If it's a trend that's allowed to continue then Kickstarter will ultimately fail. It does need a certain amount of self policing, Getting the balance right is going to be a tough one though.
By blind I mean, anything can happen.. as it seems there isn't much prevention because of past projects failing on the site.
Its a risk.
But the way the negativity has flowed through the community is sickening. What if this is a legit project, all that hate is going to now possibly deter West Games from creating a game at all... there are youtube videos or hate, news blog posts and things like what MDT did.
West Games imo is at fault also, they are not ignoring the crazy amount of hate, and it would be hard 'too' ignore it, but if they focus solely on the project it might turn out good and we might get some in game footage or progress reports.
Again the problem is that we are being diverted from the actual issues with the project, Look at the initial claim of having there own engine and the game being in a runable state and even having some working quest work done. Yet they provide evidence like this
Imgur.com
Yeah it's legit. But I wouldn't want to give them money considering how misleading and incompetent they have been. They make some pretty huge promises and then can't even manage a kickstarter campaign. In the video with them they don't even look interested. I have never seen such a thing from developers. I have seen many examples of other developers of when they posted videos using members instead of PR. Those members would be excited to be on the camera and tell you all the cool things they are working on. These guys can't even make eye contact with the camera.
As a modder, my experience tells me that a large part of GSC employees were unskilled and incompetent. The skilled ones already moved on to do great things, such as Metro and Survarium. West Games leading members are the left overs and in my opinion it's for good reason.
Ultimately GSC do still control the Official facebook page as we saw when they unceremoniously removed Joe from the site for overstepping the boundaries of his position there.
It seems that perceived power corrupt's as surely as real power does,
What did he do?
When I remember the details I'll let you know, It was when they asked him for his access code so they could do something like update the Facebook page and then they simply changed the code locking him out. Those details may have been tweaked by time and my poor memory but it was a similar situation to that. I'll look for the related thread at GSC.
The only updates West Games can seem to supply at the moment are one concept art picture at a time and video from a member of their dev team asking for support to the KS campaign.
They haven't answered any questions about the engine they are using or planning to use, there is no video footage of any of the game, they haven't answered the questions about people associated with them and links to previous possible misuse of KS campaigns. As you know nasha, from the comments section of their KS page, they consider a message of support from Official Stalker Facebook as an important update.
I did back the MDT Seed project on KS because they (MDT), had a proven track record of supplying what they promise, gave real and relevant updates and would answer questions in timely manner. West Games have failed to meet these simple requirements when asking for money from people. I don't think it's a scam, just a complete PR train wreck.
All the good intentions in the world will not create a game of this magnitude. They've told too many half truths and lies regarding the projects current state. I do not believe this game will ever happen.
I agree that this game as it currently stands is highly unlikely to see the light of day.
I have however, like yourself, made a minimal pledge and posted the same questions on the KS comments page. At the time of posting this there has been no updates from the dev team or even a promise of one.
I have however spent a fairly enjoyable day learning from some of the contributors how the whole Kickstart system works and the success's and failures it has produced. The page is now a little less inflammatory then it has been and is all the better for that.
Waiting game begins then.
Oh man, this is a mess. I'm out :D
They have answered nothing regarding the current state of the game. They say they've developed a brand new in-house engine, yet the video shows them working on Unity tools, and that pre-alpha screenshot is also stated to be rendered on Unity.
They already addressed the shutterstock photos and a lot of other issues, but nothing regarding the actual game's development.
One option would be them developing their own engine separately, while idealizing Areal's world and creating the models and stuff on Unity, so then it can be ported over.
The game already had 35k in pledges. Now it has 31k. If they made a nice 15 min gameplay video, I bet they'd have 40k in 5 days or less.
I'm pretty sure this isn't a scam, but I highly doubt this will work out well. I don't think Areal is ever going to be made/finished.
the Misery claims were taken down before Tejas made the public facebook post. Misery had been receiving emails from West Games and potentially others about their accusations before Tejas's post, and that might have been more of a contributative factor than Tejas's post. Especially the threats of legal action for libel against a business. Misery had posted this letter somewhere, probably on their accusation page, before it was deleted. You should reach out to the team for comment.
If that's true why say how other sources contacting MDT 'might' have been more of a factor than Tejas's post.
If they had removed it before Tejas posted that demand there would be no doubt.
I'm sure it wasn't the only factor but it would of been the deciding one considering the resource he threatened to block them from using, especially at this stage in the Seed timetable.
You should ask loner. On Facepunch, GSC and my site I posted a bunch of stuff proving they weren't actors and quoted MDT saying "They are in fact actors" which is libel. Soon after the page was gone.
I would like to know which member it was who made that page. MDT Ltd. and MDT are two separate entities. One most certainly does not speak for the other unless it comes from Nicolai's mouth.
That's what they did wrong, they should of concentrated on the issues relevant to the actual game, As I said the PR girl is an Actress, The rest of them work in the Games/Art industry. So what they said was wrong plain and simple, They've been shutdown by there own zealousness.
When I first read about Tejas's demand the Misery page was still there which makes Celice's claim wrong.
I just hope West game sort this mess they got themselves in out, but I just don't think its going to happen,