Who Watches The Developing?

Group Update - The Plan of Action

Hi all!

No, this group isn't dead!

Well, it was. Wonder if we got tagged on any curators as abandonware...

Anyway, apologies for the long absence. Shortly after I took on the group, those that follow me on Sentinels of the Store will also know, I went on a lengthy break of about a year and a half. Not intended, but that's just how life goes sometimes. I made a return to Sentinels in August last year and this group was always going to be my next stop. However, my main problem was I was struggling with a sense of direction and how to go about tackling this group, as well as Early Access Watcher 2.

My main issue came down to three things:

• The pre-existing curations I was apprehensive on removing as so much work had already been done by Mute chronicling these games, however, when I went about updating these lists, the fact some were on the curator, but had since received updates since Mute's coverage proved difficult to effectively comb through everything to know what was abandoned and what wasn't.
  
• The formatting of the curations has always been a blend of information and also personal opinion. This is a move I found quite tricky to uphold, as it doesn't lend itself well when there's an excessive backlog to keep ontop of.
  
• When I opened the question to the community, many expressed their keen-ness on games being tagged even when they left Early Access to alert buyers of how the development went. However, this would lead to an even more overwhelming backlog, as I then needed to track down games that were at full release, but had previously been in early access.

Because I found these points incredibly difficult to go about working alongside, I've taken a few extra months before returning to this so that I could sit, stew and think about how I could make this work. And I do have a plan. Some may like it, some may hate it, others may be indecisive, however it's the best solution I've settled upon to make the coverage of these games manageable, and to ensure these groups continue their activity of, what I feel, is a very important cause.

Now, changes won't be getting rolled out for at least another couple of weeks, so if you guys do think I'm incredibly missing the mark, now is your time to voice it, however I do feel quite strongly this will be the way forward:


This is to allow me to start the curations afresh and not lose track on the status updates on all the games currently tagged. Going through and editing these curations will take up much more time than writing them afresh.


This means there won't be much more in terms of the opinion curations that are present. Again, this is to allow for more ground to be covered on abandonware games that are still charging for a game that never got completed. If you wish to see what the quality of a game in early access is, I recommend heading to YouTube videos and/or the Steam reviews.

This also helps to further contain the cause of the group, providing consumers with information regarding a game's active development, and entrusting consumers to make their own informed decision on their perceived take on the quality of the game, and our tagged status reports on how development is going.

Games will be tagged as abandonware if there has been no communication nor any depot updates within the last year. A hiatus tag will be shown in instances where while there may have been no updates, the developers have maintained communication and been transparent about any problems that may be facing the game's development.


This is again due to time constraints and to allow for a streamlined process to get through thousands of games. At the end of the day, developers and publishers should be making use of either Steam news feeds or community hub discussions to alert players in addition to social media.


It may be something that's very disappointing for some, but the fact of the matter is that this would take up an exceptional level of time, and I feel it's time that is unnecessary to invest when the Steam reviews are a good source of what the current public opinion is on the game. If a game released from Early Access unfinished and in a bad state, the reviews will reflect this. I hate going back on feedback, but I feel this is necessary to allow the group to get back to basics and get caught up with its backlog.


I am only going to be going through the entire Early Access Roster once, as it will be incredibly demanding to get through and look at comms and depot updates for all of these games, but once this massive hurdle has cleared, it will make things a lot easier.


This includes developers (like what I have seen the last few months) emailing me to alert me that they have started updating and developing again, members of the community alerting me to games they suspect have been abandoned in our discussions, as well as via email. But I'm sure you understand this would be inadvisable to do until after this initial clearance of games is completed so that we can get a handle on the backlog, so I do hope you understand and that patience can be exercised.

Thanks once more for exercising patience while I've gotten a grip back on Sentinels and I hope for the same to happen here.

Please do let me know your thoughts in the comments, and I'm happy to keep this dialogue open.

Oh, also, if any of you are budding artists that feel like having a crack at a new logo for the group, I would certainly appreciate and encourage this! The current one works still in the interim, but I would be keen to get it changed up!

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