I would've believed it...if there was investors and publishers involved. Since these are crowdfunded games, I think it was the designers own choices.

Because seriously,. if online only games are so popular, they would'nt even need crowdfunding. Any publishers would've geenlighted it. And as far as I know, online-only games are taking a dive these days (judging from Star Wars: The Old Republic).

I can only speak for what I think David Braben is about and that's money. He's been obsessed with that since Elite days. Wants it all himself and do not like to share. So in his case I do believe he design for where the big money is.

I think it's down to greed than any sense of artistic bs.

Take a look at The Crew. The game could easily be an offline game for single player but no, you have to be online 100%

This way they can push more DLC down the throats of customers.

All this is very sad.

Back in the 80's, when I was a kid, most game developpers would complain that they lacked the technology to shape the gaming worlds and gameplay that they had in mind.

Nowadays, we clearly have the techology to create richly detailed worlds (Skyrim, as an example). Yet, despite all the technological advances, most released games continue to be as mediocre as most platform and shooting games that I played on the ZX Spectrum.

Sad, indeed.

Gamma corresponds imho to the good old "level c" test phase, also refered to as "release candidate". They're not supposed to add any new feature, and new code should limited to bug correction

So, I guess Delta is release version then, or is that Omega? o.O

Do you remember a couple of games called Midwinter ? Imho, they illustrate perfectly well the technollogical limitation you mention. We have the technoogy to go beyond these limits for years, yet I can't find a recent game that provided me with same degree of involvment....

Let's see what they make out of the old game:

A remake is scheduled to be released in 2015 by Chilli Hugger Software

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwinter_%28video_game%29

Thank you for the explanation. Fun to learn new things.

Man, I loved Midwinter!! Mike Singleton proved his genius when he created that game. Too bad that the game was too far ahead of its time and didn't cause any shockwaves through the industry.

I also loved Midwinter 2 (although the action seemed taken out of a Rambo cartoon - jumping from a car to catch a flying plane, etc). Too bad the game was too difficult because you had a very short time limit before all hell breaks loose.

By mentioning Midwinter you really brought a good example of what I meant.
Weird! I only know of this supposed remake because you've just mentioned it. Unfortunately it seems there are no news about the remake for almost an year. That's not a good sign.
And the same can be said about the new "Ultima Underworld".

Here's something for those who live within the EU and need some help getting refunds from Frontier:

"Hi everyone

Over the last week or so I've been coordinating activities around getting refunds for EU Store Buyers, as some of you know who have been in contact with me.

I've been receiving some legal advice and I now understand the areas where Frontier are exposed.

Frontier have sent some emails to people, but generally are moving painfully slowly and we are preparing to push them into action. If you are interested in joining the collective action against Frontier then please email me on pibbles<at>eliterefund.org or PM me on here, but I don't regularly check back to threads.

Please note this action is currently only for EU Store buyers but I would be happy to add other backer and buyer types to a mailing list I am setting up right now. "

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=60257&amp;page=77
Post 1148

Kudo's to Pibbles for this one :)

I don't know about you gentlemen, but i think I'm gonna join this initiative.

I would be interested to know just how many people are in on the refund thing (didn't back this myself fortunately, but hope those that did get their cash back).

Probably 10-20% if the forum polls are any indication. Braben said "not a huge amount" , so it is not a small amount either :D

Sure it is. It's all about generating buzz. So instead of saying: "we are still in beta" you say "we are now in gamma". The only difference is that you could not work on the game while writing this empty marketing phrase.

in any case, those people were who literally kickstarted the game, and should be respected for it.