At first I was like, wow, why these stupid fucks are raging about Terraria.
Then I saw post #208
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/terraria-2d-minecraft.58638/page-9#post-1972536
I agree with them wholeheartedly.
Dude does not have the right to finish his game or call quits. Thats why its ok to throw bricks on him and stain his name forever and ever untill the ends of time and make sure to spread the word.
It doesnt take a genius to figure out that the majority of Terraria sales were sold under the expectation of continuous indie development. Now the creator bailed out. Some people bought it and were like wow, this is going to become a MMO, the guy is going to add levels and stats and remake the character progression and add time travel and dimensions and (insert reasonable expectations created by the creator, game content progression and community) this and that... aaaaand
"Its finished". ? WHAT ?
"Its finished. Thanks everyone. Its was a nice ride, check this other game here"
Thanks redigit and releaselog and/or torrent-finds (dont remember now) for this great indie game. Ive spent a hundred hours on it. Was waiting for the game to take shape to buy it. Yeah. Really.
Cant wait to see the next indie game to advert "Buy it now and all future updates will be for free!!!" and then we will all think of Terraria episode "For free, untill you quit in an year".
Funny how its dead. Playing it feels like a waste of time. It subjective value and entertainment provided by it imediatly went down. Its dead.
Before it was ALIVE. A living thing. It was organic. People were playing and caring about it. Giving feedback. Things were changing, evolving. People felt part of it. Dumping their hopes and dreams. Recommending the game to others. Word of mouth. "This guy deserves it. Unlike Notch he trully delivers updates. We are impressed! Go buy it now!" ALL CRUSHED. RICKROLLED is how people feel about it. "Wait, I bought the game last month, what do you mean its finished." HAHAHAHA. I can already foresee the flash parodies that will come out of it. Now its dead. Servers will be deactivated, community will scather, the dust will settle. The driving feeling for this change of heart "Why should I bother? Its dead".
This decision was an afterthought. The guy does not have the deep vision of its repercussions. A shot in the foot. It will cost him. You do not canibalize your community like that. You can skin a sheep many times, but butcher it, only once. If there is anything of value besides the sales money, its your community, how many individual ips are following you.
Redigit's thoughts
"Erhmm... no more updates, I think Ive sold the bulk of what it would sell under that false premise, so the promise of more sells is not good enough for my continuing time and effort. Like hell Im going to keep working for the people who already bought it, since more sells are have dried out. And are you fucking kidding me? NO WAY Im going to release source code or work my ass off to release mod tools. I can still sell the rights for over 6 digits! A BIG FUCK YOU TO YOU ALL. But Im going to be diplomatic about it and post a discrete message on the forum about it."
Indie games were reaching its peak, cool games made by one man or a small team selling millions of copies through viral advertisement and now we see what happens... The decline does not discrimine It comes for AAA companies and indie companies alike.
Being a costumer, lis like being a cattle or a prisoner. But thats life, right? Please continue.
And no, its not about the $5 or $10 some people spent, or the ones who pirated it and how many hours did they get out of the game. The $/hours worth is irrelevant. Once you create something and share with others, it no longer belongs to you. The right to quit the project on thousands of unsatisfied consumers, more than just consumers, followers, fans.
Its just like the fox and the little prince relationship. And the people's reaction to it are easily understandable. Its not about the Redigit. The guy himself is easily replaceable on the context. They just dont want Terraria to die/end, thus the requests for mod support and source code crys... "you motherfucker promised updates and now you finish the project. No way jose, you can die for all we care, but dont fucking let us without a way to update/evolve/develop Terraria by ourselfs" Whats even more funny is that other developers are offering themselfs to administer/maintain it. The feeling is that it belongs to the community now. "You said future updates, if you quit from the project, its not our problem, the game remains with future updates".